Map to Luke

Yeah. The person(s) who charted that section of the galaxy can name all of the individual systems they wish, but if that information is never incorporated into existing galactic maps, and you're unable to orient the fragment into a full map with the information it contains, then the names don't really do you much good.

 

It's kind of like meeting people who grew up in the rural country in the States.
You turn left at the Miller's old oak tree past the barn that was struck by lightning back in 85 and then a right where your brother hit a deer in your dad's car on a joyride.
This is uncharted to you. Without a greater idea, you are just lost.

 

It's how I took it from the start.
I've traveled a bit and I'm horrible with directions, so I got it right away lol.

 

I was a little confused when I was first watching it. “How can you have a map to a person.” When Han said Luke was looking for the first Jedi temple, it started to make more sense. It’s a map to a place. A place that, according to 3PO, isn’t on any other maps. So it was plausible enough a snip-it, itself, wasn’t sufficient.

It could have been made more obvious in the narrative, but I also appreciate Abrams and Kasdan trusting the audience to work it out for themselves.

Still though, I couldn’t help but think, “hell, if I were making a galactic map, I’d probably include X, Y, Z coordinates.” Then it wouldn’t matter if you had the starting position or not. Meh, Star Wars.

 

The map does not make sense. The big map with the small chunk missing came from the Imperial archives as stated by Kylo Ren, this is how the First Order got it. R2 also has a copy of the main part of the map but no one knows it. An old ally has a section of a map and somehow he knows it leads to Luke. A resistance pilot is sent to get this piece even though it is useless to The Resistance without the larger section that The First Order have. But it is made clear by Poe that The Resistance want this little section of map because "it leads directly to Luke Skywalker" even though they cannot use it.

(Oh, and luckily R2 has it in his archives that he keeps secret from everyone but brings it out with perfect timing at just the right moment.) The entire map subplot is terrible writing. Kasdan should be ashamed.

Also, when The Resistance move head quarters do they always bring R2 with them even though he is powered down, and leave him in the main area covered up with a blanket? For what purpose?

 

And where did the Empire get it from?

R2 is Luke’s droid. If Luke clearly has the incomplete map, then it’s reasonable to assume his droid might too.

Like Maz with the lightsaber, Lor somehow has something of Luke’s. We don’t know what Lor knows. Could be he simply believed what he had was all they needed since it was all Luke needed.

It’s pretty unlikely he knew it was useless.

I’d have to agree there. That’s some pretty convenient timing. Why was he even in this low power mode to begin with? We know it coincided with Luke leaving so I think we’re meant to conclude the two are related. But how or why?

I guess you’ve never met an older person that refuses to part with some antique on account of sentimental value.

“Geez, grandma, you still have this old record player?”
“I’ve had that record player for 40 years!”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t work.”
“Neither does your father, but we keep him around.”

If General Organa wants to cart her brother’s broken toaster around, who’s gonna tell her “no”? The problem I have is why they couldn’t just plug R2 in like they did in Ep4. Is he encrypted? Did Luke set a password? Try “skywalker69” - worth a shot.

 

Yeah but you don't have a Force sensitive Princess who can locate the guy with the Force. All they needed was to know where he was and Leia could call out to him. She felt Han's death from who knows har far away and she's not going to be able to call out to Luke being on the very planet he's in?

 

Sensing somebody just died and pinpointing somebody (who doesn’t want to be found) on the other side of the galaxy, aren’t exactly analogous situations. Leia could have “called out to Luke” at any point after his departure, and probably did (probably went straight to voicemail ). Why would having a map to a place you’ve never heard of make it any easier?

Poe: Alright, we know where Luke is. A planet called . . . wait, is this right . . . Ah . . . Ahch-To?
Leia: Bless you.
Poe: No no no - that’s the name of the planet.
Leia: What is?
Poe: Ahch-To!
Leia: Bless you.
Poe: Are we really doing this right now?
Leia: Yeah, sorry sorry. OK, so where is this sneezy planet?
Poe: No idea.
Leia: So, how the hell am I supposed to find this place then?
Poe: The Force?
Leia: Yeah, that’s not how the Force works.
Han: Hmm, good to know.

 

Because you said it yourself. This all had to do with Luke not wanting to be found. Things hadn't gotten as bad as they did so I'm pretty sure Luke could have heard Leia's call but was to hurt and depressed to want to answer but what reason did he have then to remain hidden when things got REALLY bad? Ben Kenobi felt the millions of voices from Alderaan cry out when they were destroyed, shouldn't Luke have felt a monstrous disturbance in the Force when hundreds of millions were killed and wanted to go back?

 

Sure. Absolutely. But Leia was otherwise occupied directly after SK blew out the Hosnians like birthday candles. When that situation was over, R2 magically showed up with the rest of the map making that dicey effort fairly unnecessary. Know what I mean?

 

Yeah that's true. And dude that whole ''SK blew out the Hosnians like birthday candles'' cracked me up.

 

I agree. Decided to have a look for a thread on this topic as I never made any sense of the map plot either. I can't help but wonder if it got messed up between script re-writes:-

Kylo Ren claims they recovered the rest of the map from the Imperial archives and need only the missing BB-8 part. This means the part they've already recovered matches the R2-D2 section! How can that be possible? R2-D2’s (and in fact BB-8's) piece isn't just a map, it has the directions / course to Luke plotted. Surely that couldn't have been in the Imperial archive, unless Luke very generously placed that info there before going into exile.

Maybe it was a map containing the location of a known Jedi Temple Luke would seek, in an earlier draft, and was somehow warped to a map "to Luke" later down the line.

 

Han outright says that Luke was looking for the ‘first Jedi temple’. That’s where he most likely is. That’s where the map leads. Find the temple and you find Luke. Simple as that.

The Empire had control of Coruscant, including the Jedi temple and its comically massive archives, for 20 years. Stands to reason the Empire got a Jedi map from a Jedi archive. It’s also possible Luke got it there too after the Empire left and stored the data on R2* - which is a thing you do with droids. So it’s the same map, from the same place, missing the same piece.

Why the Jedi would want to keep the location of a Jedi temple a secret from themselves, I have no idea.

*JJ Abrams made a comment explaining that R2 got the map, along with other random garbage, from the Imperial network back in Ep4 while interfacing with the Death Star. I don’t know if this is official canon though.

 

Just seems to me if they didn’t want anyone finding it, then they’d delete the whole thing and not just a section. But then we’d have no story, so . . . STAR WARS!!

Yeah, I hope this gets contradicted at some point. It makes sense that R2 would be checking the Imperial network for details on Leia. He had the DS plans but didn’t necessarily know where the hidden Rebel base was. Why would he come across old, otherwise useless, maps?

 

Data mining. Just looking through all the possible variants of information and keeping anything kind of important or relevant.

As for why they would hide it...if it's a source of great power for the Jedi and we follow accepted theories of Star Wars...more power = more corruption.
So it makes sense that the Jedi would decide that it's best if no one had access to something so powerful.

Look at what happened in the PT, Jedi were so powerful and became so arrogant they failed to see the issues right in front of them...power corrupts all kinds of thing.

 

Yeah, I’m just not a big fan of that take. Mostly because it disagrees with my own head canon R2’s mission was to deliver the plans to the Rebels. With Alderaan’s, oh let’s say, ‘departure’, he had no way to fulfill his objective. He’d assume Leia would know and she was detained by the Empire - so, search for her. As luck would have it, she’s aboard that very station. To think he was just randomly sifting around the Imperial archives in that situation seems so silly to me. But, whatever - destiny and such.

You know what’s a better way to achieve that goal though? Not having a map at all. I sure hope the ‘first Jedi Temple’ ends up being pretty spectacular it would require such intrigue. Otherwise, what’s the point?

 

Its conversations like these in the forum that help me sleep at night.
Whether it be informative or expressive in opinion, thank you all for the posts!