What was Luke about to do?

Any hints on the novel on how much time could have he been there?

I ask because one the reasons Luke might have gone to Ahch-to, his principle motivation to get there, was to a) burn all trace of the Jedi religion (book, first temple, etc); b) disconnect himself from the force; and c) to kill himself, or just die there of old age, assuming no one would find him. Apparently, he only accomplished b), so I wonder what was stopping him to proceed with the plan, namely a) and c) ?

 

Think of it like jumping in a pool for the first time after winter.
You know it's gonna suck.
You know that water is gonna be cold.
You know that you're gonna regret it.
So you psych yourself up. Get yourself pumped up.

Yet deep down Luke is still Luke and never went through with it. You see this when Yoda torches it and he cries out for the texts.

He was damaged, but he was still Luke.

 

Good point, even at this point Luke was still worried about the texts, to the point of wanting to save them even after Yoda torched the place.

So, he was torn, basically. One thing is to think in doing something, other completely different is to actually do it when you're there. Your pool analogy worked for me. In a slightly different version, you could think of the time when you decided to jump to a pool from the highest mark (e.g. 10m) and then, when you were up there, suddenly it was a completely new perspective on things


The reason why I asked how much time Luke was in Ahch-to, considering on if and when to "jump", is that if it were not that much time (e.g. 1 year or so) it would work really well, in my opinion. However, if he was there like for 8 years or something, or more, it's a bit harder to believe that he was there all this time, so convinced that the Jedi needed to end, and didn't end all of it before.

But, I nitpick perhaps. Luke was torn and couldn't make his mind to end it all. After all, he was on "the most unfindable place in the galaxy", so it's not that someone would show up anytime soon. Hi guess he can blame Lor San Tekka for all of this

Thanks for replying.

 

For the time is irrelevant because we don't know when he first decided that this is what he must do, destroy the texts.
Maybe he was there for 5 years and only in the last 6 months decided to burn it all down.

 

But you see, that's my problem. It he was there not to destroy the books, temple, etc (option a), then why was he there in the first place? To disconnect with the force (option b)? Ok, but if that's the primary reason then, why? Why not consider suicide in the first place? Why had he have to disconnect in the source, "softly"? Why wouldn't death be enough to do the job?

I feel suicide should have been the easy answer, to the disconnection and ending the Jedi once and for all. Of course, there would be no TLJ if that was the case. So, the only explanation I can come up with is that he couldn't do it, he couldn't end his own life.

So, my best guess is that Luke wanted to destroy all Jedi artifacts (books, temple, others), disconnect from the force and then kill himself, or die of old age there. That could have been the plan. However, for some reason, he only did the disconnection part, which he could have accomplished by just ending is own life. I feel a better explanation would be better, but I can live with the fact he just couldn't do it.

 

1. Because he wants to be alone. He feels like he's a burden. Maybe when he first leaves he thinks there is a way but comes to the conclusion there isn't. The reason for being there is isolation. It's just that simple.

2. IIRC, he's not actually suicidal that's just fan speculation and conjecture.

3. Luke was not about destroying. That's why he never could go through with it. Destroying the Jedi like he wanted to do was against his very core. So no matter how much he wanted to, deep inside he couldn't. That's not who he is.

 

Thanks for replying. So, we're probably looking between 2-6 years, considering that could have been some travelling time involved. His door was still an improvised one. The X-Wing seemed in rather good condition by the looks of it. If it's only 2 years, I feel it's acceptable for him to still be ruminating over the subject of destroying the tree and the books or not, even his own life. Judging from the time he took to re-connect with the force just before he connected with Leia, I guess he could have disconnected just as fast.

 

Right, Ach-To is basically about as far in the outer reaches as anything. Luke wanted to be alone, and it clearly worked for a while. There was a whole movie completely about two factions trying to find him, remember?

I think there's some poetry in it all. The Last Jedi going to the First Jedi Temple to die. I'm sure that even though we like our fiction to be cut and dry, there was probably layers to it. Luke may have intended suicide the whole time, maybe it never crossed his mind, or maybe it was something he eventually turned to in a growing depression.

In a way, I do like the interpretation that he was going to jump, though. It sort of makes sense with RJ's film, too. Luke's horrified expression fits better with what he's about to do than his overall outlook on the Jedi. Basically, I think that people who had issues with the "saber toss" scene might find that this interpretation resonates better with them: it was never about the "lasersword", so of course he'd be so flippant about it.