The Skywalker map dilemma

That's assuming Han's comment about Luke looking for the first Jedi Temple is true. The planet he is on could potentially be something else completely.

 

2 theories:

- It's not that they didn't have a complete archive of the galaxy, they simply didn't know which planet Luke was on. The galaxy is huge, & searching thousands/hundreds of thousands of planets in that quadrant would be time intensive.

- That planet was never before recorded & was off record, by both the Jedi & Empire.

 

That makes sense. There's precedent for it, since someone (Sifo Dyas or Tyranus, I guess) had deleted Kamino from the records so we know it can be done. And we also know Obi-Wan did get into the computer system right before he left Coruscant for good so he definitely had the opportunity. Maybe he thought it could be a refuge for any remaining Jedi who might have survived order 66, or maybe he just didn't want the Empire to find it and destroy this important part of Jedi history.

The question then would be, how did others come to know this memory stick was out there? Has Lor San Tekka had it all along or did he, as a believer in the Jedi ways, manage to track it down himself? Someone in this forum mentioned that LST was going to be in movie VIII, so maybe we will find out more about the missing map piece and how he came to acquire it. Might not have to wait for an anthology movie to explain it.

 

I'd like to think that Kenobi maybe went & found it at some point during his years in exile, to gather his thoughts after the Fall & figure out what to do next. Him or Yoda, at least. & then maybe realize the importance of the place, & pull a short mission to delete it from their archives, possibly even while he was on the Death Star.

That could all be part of an anthology.

 

I love all of these theories and speculations. Why? It makes me smile at the possibility that the PT (specifically Ep III) would have more depth. i.e Obi-Wan deleting the location of the Jedi temple post order 66 while reviewing the hologram records of Vader killing paddies.

 

For those that don't know, it's been confirmed that R2 possesses the Empire's map data from when he plugged into the Death Star in ANH.

Who's to say he wasn't also directed by Obi-Wan Kenobi to delete a specific section of the map from the archives as well?

 

I personally think this whole map business was badly handled in the film. And it's pretty difficult to actually understand what happened on screen as they left the exposition to the novel and other books. But this is what I think happened - this is why Luke is searching for the Jedi Temple.

Firstly, in the Visual Dictionary it talks about how Lor San Tekka is a follower of the Church of the Force and very much believes in the Jedi way. It is said that when the Empire took over he took possession of valuable Jedi information to keep it hidden and safe. The Empire were of course destroying the Jedi and erasing them from the history books - literally.

In the film R2 inexplicably comes back to life and reveals that he may well have the missing map that when connected to BB8's piece, will reveal where Luke is. R2, as explained in the novel (!), got this information when he tapped into the control system on the Death Star. He got it from the Empire.

So it would appear that one of two things happened:

- The Empire, quite understandably, erased the part of the map that showed where the Jedi Temple was. What they didn't know however, was that Lor San Tekka had kept the deleted part.

- A Jedi erased the temples from the maps to keep them hidden from the Empire so they could remain as a sanctuary. I think this is more likely - I will explain why later.

Later on, the First Order somehow discover that Luke has gone off to find this missing temple (if Han knew then Ben Solo probably did too). Snoke is fearful of Luke (his power, his potentially destiny within the bloodline of the chosen one??) and so is desperate to find the him before the Resistance does. The First Order have had access to the same information Artoo did - the map with the deleted segment. It is important to remember that when the Empire deleted the Jedi Archive information, they deleted it for everyone. That information is lost forever - apart from the bits that folk like Lor San Tekka kept.

Anyway, why is Luke seeking out the last Jedi Temple? It is said in the novel that the Empire sought out these places so they wouldn't be a sanctuary to Jedi. This indicates that some Jedi might have sought to find the old temples to exile themselves in or maybe - and this is the important bit - find other Jedi.

Maybe what has happened with Luke is that after the destruction of his Jedi Order he goes off in search of other Jedi. From Lor San Tekka or someone connected he discovered a plot back in the PT era to maintain the Jedi Order by sending Jedi to remote ancient temples. But when Luke goes searching he finds none - until Rey finds him.

Look at it this way - there has to be a pretty good reason (I hope) that Luke didn't help out the Resistance, his sister, Han etc during the events of TFA. Maybe Luke realised that in order to defeat Snoke and the KOR (of whom there are numerous members apparently - almost a proper rival to the Jedi Order, not just like the 2 Sith) he needs more Jedi? Luke must've sensed the attack on the Jedi Temple coming or at least probably did - but was powerless to prevent it. Luke also had the might of the Republic/Resistance on his side yet didn't go after the KOR. Was he absent when the academy was attacked or were the KOR simply too much for him? Considering what we have seen in Rebels as well, with former Jedi playing a role and their fate not yet being decided, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that maybe Luke is desperately seeking out former Jedi as he hasn't the time to train up a new academy of Jedi?

Anyway, considering what we know now that for me, although still quite weak, is the only reason I can see why Luke went missing whilst his friends suffered and billions of lives perished.

What's more this might be a way to tie in Kenobi to the ST as well as opening up the possibility of a spin off. It was Kenobi who investigated the mystery of Kamino and its erasure from the Jedi Archives. He also in ROTS stopped the signal telling Jedi to return to the Temple. If Disney are planning a Kenobi spin off (which I think would be a shame as it would diminish ANH, but there you go) then maybe this (Kenobi erasing the Temples from the star maps and entrusting the information with the Church of the Jedi) will be the story? Unless he will end up in Rogue One?

 

@Ryan , i don't think either side had a complete copy of the map. somewhere along the line the data was either deleted or the project of finding the first temple was left incomplete. at any rate, Luke obviously succeeds in finding this temple and completes the map, but only trusts the information to the Church of the Force i.e. Tekka. Ben, being Luke's pupil, probably knows this and tries to get the map, but Tekka flees and Luke goes back to the legendary hidden temple (he was on blue barracuda, if memory serves).

also, i'm right there with you on Ben leaving Rey on Jakku in a moment of light-side "weakness." your idea with Obi-Wan's daughter and Luke getting together is almost plausible, too!

 

I hope there was no spy when they put the maps together at the base?