Is there a plan after all?

I think the simple answer is that is the clothes that he has. He isnt some fashionista with a huge wardrobe.

 

I Just don't see what this would have added to the actual story other than self-gratification of some having "been right" about him. It's a bit like wondering where Buzz Lightyear was manufactured in Toy Story to me. Was he made in China? The US? Taiwan? Eh. Doesn't change anything about the story.

I'm gonna try to explain this as best I can.

Luke went looking for the first Jedi Temple.
The big part of the map (inside R2) was found in Empire Archives. They didn't have the missing pieces.
Lor San Tekka discovered the last piece of the map. In Poe Dameron's comic book, Leia and Poe rescue LST from execution and in payment he offers to find where Luke is because he has "suspicions" about where to look.
So Luke didn't leave anything behind.

It was LST and old Empire archival records that lead them to Luke.

 

I wonder if Star Wars Resistance thought about showing the Leia and Poe rescure of LST? Would have been a good idea.

 

The Visual Dictionary states he puts on the robes to conduct a final Jedi rite. Initially people interpreted that as Luke was going to kill himself. It appears from the info your presenting the final rite was to end the Jedi by destroying the tree with the Jedi texts and then live out his remaining days alone on the island.

 

Perhaps. But it would have been lifted right from the comics so IDK if they were gonna go for that...would have liked to see it though

 

That would be cool but I wouldn't hold your breath because the first season is going to catch up to the first half of Episode 7 and I don't see how they can tell that story without having Kaz and his crew involved somewhere. If anything, we may be told that BB-8 has to leave with Poe for a secret mission and that could be it or something. We know BB-8 is going to leave Kaz's crew at some point in the season in order for him to be lined up with the events of Episode 7.

 

Oh I am not holding my breath, but since LST was rescued by Leia and Poe Resistance could show it and why not involve Kaz. Now I havent read the Poe comic so I dont know how far in advance to TFA did the rescue occur.

 

I.E. the map the Luke. Everybody refers to it as a "map to Luke Skywalker," but how do we know it's actually not just a map to the first Jedi temple? Maybe Luke built the map for himself while searching, then split it into pieces to cover his tracks.

 

I assumed the whole plot point to TFA (Luke Skywalker has vanished in the Opening Crawl) was they had to find Luke in that he had some elaborate plan to save the Resistance. I also thought Rey was not apart of that plan, so when saw her at the end of TFA (and probably felt that she was STRONG with the Force), he was taken aback that there was another hope other then himself. I assumed Episode 8 would be how his plan unfolded (maybe luring Kylo Ren and Snoke to the Island to fight them on his turf, or something like that).

I still don't know what the point of the 'finding the map to Skywalker' was in TFA if Luke didn't want to be found, and just tells me that it was a mystery box that was never developed, never planned, and changed when Episode 8 was written.

 

Han dialogue was pretty clear:

HAN
He was training a new generation of
Jedi. One boy, an apprentice turned
against him, destroyed it all. Luke
felt responsible... He just walked away
from everything.

FINN
Do you know what happened to him?

HAN
There're a lot of rumors. Stories.
The people who knew him the best
think he went looking for the first
Jedi temple.

 

I don't think it was ever assumed that Luke had a plan to save the day. All we knew was, he vanshed. And as @KeithF1138 pointed out above, it was suggested Luke left because he felt responsible for Kylo's fall (which was confirmed in TLJ). The Resistance--not Luke himself--thought that if they found him, he would save the day. They didn't know why he left. They didn't know he wouldn't want to come back.

I'm not making excuses for the story here. This is how I read the film on first watch, and I think it holds up fine.

As for why Luke left a map if he didn't want to be found, I think I gave a pretty solid possibility in the post you quoted.

 

I would think that Han and Leia would both know why he left. If Leia knew why he left then the Resistance knew why he left. Believe Leia just thought he would come back if they found him and told him what happened. It has been my thought as well since TFA that the map was a map that lead to the 1st Jedi Temple. Remember R2D2 held the full map that was taken from the Imperial Archive before the archive was destroyed. Luke then removed the portion and hid it so could not be found.

 

I agree. The map was a map to the first Jedi temple. Luke was believed to be there. No one else knew where the first temple was so by searching for the map to the first Jedi temple, they were essentially looking for the map to Luke Skywalker as it was referenced in the movie.

 

I'm not saying you guys are wrong (we're all theorizing so nobody is really wrong), but if you make a movie the McGuffin is essentially 'finding that missing piece to find Luke Skywalker' and it was essentially there to mislead the viewer, then it's pretty lame on JJ's part. Just think if ROTJ was all about finding Han (lets just say for the sake of argument that he was at an unknown place held by Boba Fett, and not at Jabba's Palace). The whole movie is Luke and the gang looking for him, gather clues and then you get to the end of the movie and Han was dead the whole time. That's what the TFA 'find the missing piece to Luke plotline' feels like now in that it was just a big headfake to keep you wondering until Luke appeared in the 2nd movie. I know you guys will disagree, but it honestly feels like a cheat to me, and I say this as someone who loved TFA before TLJ.

 

We're probably never gonna agree on this but I don't know, had that been the plan I would've been tremendously let down. I think things are set up very clearly in TFA and I'm not just misremembering or revising because of TLJ's release.

- Luke is missing.
- Luke left under his own power and doesn't want to be found.
- Just because Luke didn't want to be found doesn't mean they aren't going to look for him. The Resistance needs him and his loved ones want him back.

Despite having less than a minute of screen time and no actual dialogue, I think TFA does a very good job of establishing where Luke is at mentally, they do it in bits and pieces throughout the whole film. Because of that, what follows in TLJ to me feels very logical.

 

I think you are nearly 100% correct. I think what people get wrong is many believe that Luke hid a map for others to find so they then can find him. What I believe what TFA setup was that Luke put himself in exile at a location he must have talked about with family in friends. Those people didnt know how to get to the location and went to find the way to get to the place they believed Luke was at.

My son is at Michigan State University. I look up on Google Maps how to get to Michigan State University. Not how do I get to where my son is at.

 

With all Luke part and other stuff, I think the biggest mistake was giving to Rian the writing part of the film, to follow the previous events (yep, he did a good job directing it).
Imagine a trilogy of books written by different authors. If the second one doesn't follow the preestablished, some arc stories could fall apart. I think it's understandable to think this way. Of course you can use a diferent writer to follow a story but he has to be very competent and be strict following a plan, if there was a plan.

 

Only thing is many of us believe that RJ followed the TFA with writing that basically follows the story in a natural and logic path.