What made Luke think he could teach Jedi?

[Gandalf]

In the ST, we see that Luke took some Force sensitive people, and decided to teach them Force magic, and people seemed cool with it. But to my knowledge, he has no educational expertise, and all of his Force knowledge is based on time spent with Yoda and some time with Obi Wan.

So why was it expected that Luke could train the new Jedi, when his time as one is so limited? My assumption was that everyone was desperate and hubristic, thinking they could and should resurrect the space wizard police instantly and restore a thousand generations of institutional knowledge. But maybe I missed something?

[Batman]

Luke was the only Jedi left (far as they knew) so he was the least unqualified person they had?

[Adam Reynolds]

Jedi showing hubris in who they choose to teach is something of a running theme in the franchise. Obi-Wan made the same mistake in training Anakin in the way that he did.

[FaxModem1]

So, evidence we have:
Obi Wan's training in A New Hope
Yoda's training in Empire Strikes Back
Luke passing his test against Vader
Luke gathering artifacts while doing missions for the Rebellion/New Republic, until he feels that he should be a Jedi full time. Luke grows in maturity as a person.

Years later, he begins training others, once he feels ready. He then starts training students. We hear of no failures there. Of course, we also don't hear of any successes either.
Ben proves him wrong, and is the equivalent of a Jedi school shooter, wiping out everyone else.
Luke feels bad, and takes the killing of all his students really badly, taking a very anti-force stance, and retires in misery.

So, I'm guessing, from what little evidence we have, that his going around the galaxy learning mysteries about the force and the Jedi, which trained him a bit and gave him perspective. He then taught his sister, which worked out to a degree. However, Leia didn't stay in the order, she instead focused on being a politician(which did all of squat in making the New Republic worth anything). So his success there was a minor one, and his other students were supposedly doing okay. Unless they too abandoned the order to pursue their own goals in life.

His nephew was the one who ruined everything for him. Turns out nepotism, even with Jedi, can be a problem. Might be why they stressed the 'no attachments' rule.

[Solauren]

Yoda said "Pass on what you have learned"

To Luke, that must have sounded like "Kick vader's ass, and you're ready to teach"

[Vendetta]

So, I'm guessing, from what little evidence we have, that his going around the galaxy learning mysteries about the force and the Jedi, which trained him a bit and gave him perspective. He then taught his sister, which worked out to a degree. However, Leia didn't stay in the order, she instead focused on being a politician(which did all of squat in making the New Republic worth anything). So his success there was a minor one, and his other students were supposedly doing okay. Unless they too abandoned the order to pursue their own goals in life.

On the other hand, none of the sequels gave us any hint of a surviving student other than Leia.

So it obviously all went wrong basically immediately, given that his whole school got wiped out and nobody except him walked away. It was basically his first class, and it all went to shit.

[Lord Revan]

So, I'm guessing, from what little evidence we have, that his going around the galaxy learning mysteries about the force and the Jedi, which trained him a bit and gave him perspective. He then taught his sister, which worked out to a degree. However, Leia didn't stay in the order, she instead focused on being a politician(which did all of squat in making the New Republic worth anything). So his success there was a minor one, and his other students were supposedly doing okay. Unless they too abandoned the order to pursue their own goals in life.

On the other hand, none of the sequels gave us any hint of a surviving student other than Leia.

So it obviously all went wrong basically immediately, given that his whole school got wiped out and nobody except him walked away. It was basically his first class, and it all went to shit.

From what I've gathered the destruction of Luke's school had less to do with the quality of his teaching and more to do the fact it existed. Since the mere existance of the Jedi would pose a threat to the First Order and the * ROS spoiler faction* while still being few enough in number that wiping them out with a single attack was an option (the comics explain it was Snoke not Kylo Ren who destroyed Luke's Jedi Temple.)

[Lord Revan]

Spoiler

Well technically I suppose it could have been Palpatine as well who destroyed it but either way it was a single Force based strike not a conventional brawl that took the temple down.

Also at least in Legendaries the Sith were a splinter faction of the Jedi Order and thus never existed during a time there would have been so few Jedi that it would have been possible to kill all of them with a single attack, until Luke's Order that is

So I'd say some people are being too harsh to Luke due to factors beyond his control. After all Luke didn't seem to know about the *spoiler event* in Rise of Skywalker.

[Knife]

Well, since there was 30 years between ROTJ and TFA, a lot of things could have happened to make Luke want to or not want to teach new Jedi. I would think that he was the only Jedi left that he knew of, that Yoda specifically told him and I think trained him to train others or to start anew, would probably be the base of it.

Yes, Luke got the base training, not the 'classical' training. But that might be the point. Yoda figured out at the end of ROTS, after fighting with Palpatine, that he'd been wrong. That he'd maintained a Jedi Order to fight the last war and the Sith evolved, changed, while the Jedi became stagnant. Sure, Luke ran off to save Han and Leia and Yoda died before he returned, but also I think a lot of what happened was Yoda giving the basics to correct the errors of the past. To not bake in the problems of the old Order into Luke.

[LadyTevar]

Well, since there was 30 years between ROTJ and TFA, a lot of things could have happened to make Luke want to or not want to teach new Jedi. I would think that he was the only Jedi left that he knew of, that Yoda specifically told him and I think trained him to train others or to start anew, would probably be the base of it.

Yes, Luke got the base training, not the 'classical' training. But that might be the point. Yoda figured out at the end of ROTS, after fighting with Palpatine, that he'd been wrong. That he'd maintained a Jedi Order to fight the last war and the Sith evolved, changed, while the Jedi became stagnant. Sure, Luke ran off to save Han and Leia and Yoda died before he returned, but also I think a lot of what happened was Yoda giving the basics to correct the errors of the past. To not bake in the problems of the old Order into Luke.

Unfortunately, Luke found the old books and started reading them, so he seems to have fallen into the trap. So Yoda fire-bombed them.

[Galvatron]

I was under the impression that Luke found the books after he'd already decided to give up on the Jedi.

[Ralin]

Unfortunately, Luke found the old books and started reading them, so he seems to have fallen into the trap. So Yoda fire-bombed pretended to fire-bomb them.

Fixed it for you. Remember that Rey had taken them with her?

Seems like preventing the new Jedi from knowing what the old Jedi taught and believed would be counterproductive in keeping them from repeating the same mistakes.

[Galvatron]

If those books were as ancient as the temple supposedly was, it's possible that their contents bore little resemblance to the teachings that the Jedi espoused during the latter years of the Old Republic.

[Knife]

If those books were as ancient as the temple supposedly was, it's possible that their contents bore little resemblance to the teachings that the Jedi espoused during the latter years of the Old Republic.

Indeed. Since the Jedi Order was 25000 years old by the purge... the 5-6 books, if they were the basics, represented the...basics... Even if they were relatively new and were Jedi 101 (and if were not, why would Luke have them?), or were really fucking old before Yoda's orthodoxy and were of a different age.

I like to think they were of Jedi Bendu, but that's my head cannon.

[Galvatron]

Except Bendu is an actual character now.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bendu

[NecronLord]

In answer to the core question, in the original Legends he receives a vision telling him as much and anointing him a Master from Obi Wan.

That said it was clearly Yoda's intention that Luke should teach, and I really can't see why he shouldn't. The Ben Solo failure is notable but it is also not solely his fault or failing as a teacher.

[Lord Revan]

The thing to remember is that due to certain spoilery info from the comics it can be said for certainty that the destruction of the Jedi temple wasn't a sign of Luke's capabilties as a teacher since Spoiler

the destruction of the Jedi temple at hands of Snoke or Palpatine can't really be blamed on Luke's capabilities as teacher as he didn't teach either of those and was at best vaguely aware of Snoke but certainly not aware of the full extent of the power he held

.

[Lord Revan]

Except Bendu is an actual character now.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bendu

Well it's possible the early Jedi named themselves after the creature/character, it wouldn't be the first time that has happened in Star Wars.

[Straha]

You've been in academia. What makes Grad students think they can teach shit besides expertise and the need of academia to sustain itself?

Same shit, different galaxy.

[Galvatron]

I think I've said it before, but I always thought it'd be an interesting story if Snoke initially presented himself as a kindly old man (maybe even a lost Jedi Master) who helped Luke train his students for a time before showing his true colors. The new Kylo Ren comic suggests that he treated Ben with the same kid gloves that Palpatine did with Anakin.

In fact, that may be why Palpatine manufactured him in the first place: to masquerade as a frail old mentor figure that he knew Luke would eagerly welcome into the fold. Kinda like how he reacted to Joruus C'Baoth in the old EU.

[Vendetta]

I think I've said it before, but I always thought it'd be an interesting story if Snoke initially presented himself as a kindly old man (maybe even a lost Jedi Master) who helped Luke train his students for a time before showing his true colors. The new Kylo Ren comic suggests that he treated Ben with the same kid gloves that Palpatine did with Anakin.

In fact, that may be why Palpatine manufactured him in the first place: to masquerade as a frail old mentor figure that he knew Luke would eagerly welcome into the fold. Kinda like how he reacted to Joruus C'Baoth in the old EU.

Sort of like this?
Spoiler

[Galvatron]

The new issue of the Kylo Ren comic is interesting. It establishes that Snoke was communicating telepathically with Ben long before he fell to the dark side, basically telling him the same bullshit that Palpatine said to Anakin.

Anyway, the story is a flashback of the time Luke, Ben and Lor San Tekka journeyed to a backwater outer rim world to find a Jedi vault of priceless relics and had a run-in with the Knights of Ren, who apparently got there first and claimed it for themselves.

Spoiler

[Galvatron]

It's also worth mentioning that Luke somehow discovered the cache of Jedi archives that Jocasta Nu saved from the temple on Coruscant, so I'd imagine that he made extensive use of it.

Spoiler

Shortly after Order 66...




Several decades later...

I assume it was all lost in the destruction of his academy though.