50

For almost 4 years after his training in the ways of the Force with Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker had kept with him the lightsaber that once belonged to his father; then, Luke first meets Yoda in the swamps of Dagobah. While Luke was setting up a temporary camp, the sudden, unexpected appearance of a small creature caused him to draw his blaster.

I ask: why was Luke, after having directly experienced/felt the power of the Force, more likely to reach for his blaster than his lightsaber to deal with an apparent threat?

Still picture from Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back

Bingo
  • 6,611
  • 7
  • 31
  • 85
  • 64
    He's been using a blaster a lot longer than a lightsaber; don't underestimate the power of familiarity with a weapon. – TheLethalCarrot Jun 02 '21 at 14:54
  • 47
    Also the lightsaber is a melee weapon, a blaster has a longer range. – Paulie_D Jun 02 '21 at 14:57
  • 8
    STRANGE VOICE: Feel like what? [Luke jumps out of his skin. Artoo screeches in terror. The young warrior grabs for his lightsaber as he spins around, looking for the speaker. Mysteriously standing right in front of Luke is a strange, bluish creature, not more than two feet tall. The wizened little thing is dressed in rags. It motions toward Luke's sword.] LUKE: (looking at the creature) Like we're being watched! CREATURE: Away with your weapon! I mean you no harm. [After some hesitation, Luke puts away his weapon, although he really doesn't understand why.] – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:29
  • 22
    In the original script, ↑↑↑ Luke goes for his blaster earlier in the scene and then reholsters it. When Yoda turns up, he pulls his lightsaber but I'm guessing the aim was to save the reveal of the Jedi weapon for later in the film. – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:30
  • Nothing helpful in the junior novel "“Feel like what?” a strange, croaking voice interrupted. Luke’s blaster flashed from its holster and he was suddenly aiming at a short, squat alien who sat on a nearby stump. “Like we’re being watched!” Luke finished." or the trilogy novel "That wasn’t Artoo’s voice! Luke leaped up, grabbed his pistol, then spun around, peering into the gloom to try to find the source of those words." – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:35
  • 5
    The new canon novelisation is even less use. It retcons the events of the film; "You leap to your feet and spin at the same time, hands raised in self-defense. Half a meter from you sits one of the strangest creatures you have ever seen. He’s bluish-green, with long ears and bulging eyes. Your hand creeps slowly toward your lightsaber. “Who are you?” you demand. – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:38
  • 2
    In the radio play, they explain it by having Yoda out of range of the lightsaber YODA: Feel like what, stranger? LUKE: Like we're being watched! Don't you move, shorty, or I'll blow you right out of that tree! – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:40
  • Lots of lightsaber stuff was removed from these scenes "YODA: That would matter not were the Force flowing through you. Higher you’d jump! Faster you’d move! Open yourself to the Force you must. Luke: [grabs his laser sword from the mud, ignites it and jumps up.] LUKE: I’m open to it now! I feel it. Come on, you little flying bastards! [As he moves toward the hovering balls with a poised saber and ferocious look, they draw away, retreating to the area around Yoda’s head.] YODA: No, no. This will not do. Anger is what you feel. LUKE: But I can feel the Force flowing! – Valorum Jun 02 '21 at 16:47

4 Answers4

71

As originally scripted, Luke did pull out his lightsaber.

Nervously, he looks around at the foreboding jungle.

Luke: Still... there's something familiar about this place. I feel like... I don't know...

Strange Voice: Feel like what?

Luke jumps out of his skin. Artoo screeches in terror. The young warrior grabs for his lightsaber as he spins around, looking for the speaker. Mysteriously standing right in front of Luke is a strange, bluish creature, not more than two feet tall. The wizened little thing is dressed in rags. It motions toward Luke's sword.

Luke: (looking at the creature) Like we're being watched!

Creature: Away with your weapon! I mean you no harm.

So, my guess is this got changed as they were filming it for out-of-universe reasons rather than in-universe ones. One reason might be framing around the Yoda puppet: in order to get Luke, R2, and Yoda in that image you posted, Luke has to be squatting. If he pulled out a sword from that position, it'd look ridiculous.

Another possible answer is they were concerned that the blue lightsaber effect would disappear into the blue background of Dagobah. This is famously why Luke's lightsaber color was changed to green in Return of the Jedi, so it could be visible in the outdoor shots aboard Jabba's skiff.

TheLethalCarrot
  • 143,332
  • 64
  • 808
  • 878
TenthJustice
  • 39,713
  • 10
  • 145
  • 158
  • 21
    Nice! I can think of another out-of-universe reason to make this switch. As I understand it, they were still using physical props for the lightsaber blades in Empire (just not reflective-coated like they were in the first movie), partly to make sure the "blade" was rotoscoped into the correct place. It would be hard for Hamill to swing a 1m dowel from his waist to in front of him without hitting something, and switching from the hilt prop to the dowel prop mid-scene would likely result in a disconcerting jump like was seen in the previous movie when Obi-wan turned his off. – DavidW Jun 02 '21 at 16:58
  • 3
    Yoda's speech also got more yodatastic between scripting and shooting: the scripted "away with your weapon" is merely a little archaic, whereas the film film has "away put your weapon" – Tom Goodfellow Jun 03 '21 at 10:46
  • 12
    "Bluish"? Now don't tell me Yoda was supposed to be blue. – MaxD Jun 03 '21 at 10:58
  • I thought the blue-to-green change was because they wanted to explicitly acknowledge that he lost his original lightsaber at the end of ESB, and a simple change of the handle prop wasn't obvious enough. I find it hard to believe that a blue lightsaber would be hard to see in a blue swamp - it's pretty bright. And Jabba's skiff was mostly outdoor desert shots, I'd think either blue or green would show equally well against orange sand. – Darrel Hoffman Jun 03 '21 at 14:43
  • 5
    A superb answer. Building on the key second-last paragraph here. Don't forget, when you film a movie, shoot a scene, you "do what you want". They may have tried a few different things and "just liked" that. One aesthetic point: when someone pulls out a lightsaber, it is A BIG MOMENT, it takes over the whole scene and is really dramatic. This scene is all about the surprise of the audience seeing the amazing Yoda for the first time. (Remember that!) continuing... – Fattie Jun 03 '21 at 14:56
  • 5
    ... it would be absolutely impossible to "know the answer" to this question unless one literally had Mr Lucas to talk to (and, indeed, he remembered every detail of his own thinking and others during the shooting of that scene) but for me, it really makes sense to low-key the weapon since that moment is about something else. one more point, don't forget that later, Yoda 'discovers' the lightsaber and it becomes a talking point, that would be blown if the lightsaber was revealed at this point. – Fattie Jun 03 '21 at 14:58
  • If blue was hard to see in Dagobah, why make the Force Ghosts blue? – Azor Ahai -him- Jun 03 '21 at 16:37
  • @MaxD the puppeteer who performed Yoda, Frank Oz, was famous for performing two blue puppets on Sesame Street, Grover and Cookie Monster. – Robert Columbia Jun 04 '21 at 02:33
  • 2
    Apart from the visual, the light saber usually comes with sound, both which will destroy the mood of the scene. – lalala Jun 04 '21 at 11:06
  • 2
    @MaxD Funny, he doesn't look Bluish. – Shawn V. Wilson Jun 04 '21 at 15:57
  • Thank you TenthJustice for your answer. Definitively Luke did pull out his lightsaber. I strongly believe that he had good skills with the lightsaber before meeting Yoda, to the extent that Vader (the former wielder) was impressed by that in Bespin. Luke could still practice the ways of the Force -even without Obi-Wan- by remembering an applying Kenobi's brief teachings. – Bingo Jun 09 '21 at 02:27
  • "in order to get Luke, R2, and Yoda in that image you posted, Luke has to be squatting" - actually, it looks more like he's kneeling rather than squatting. With that said, though, there seems to be ample space above Luke's head in that image; quite possibly still enough even if he were standing. – O. R. Mapper Mar 06 '22 at 22:02
38

During Empire, Luke simply seems to be more comfortable with a blaster than with his lightsaber. He also draws it earlier on Dagobah when R2 has been pulled underwater and later when sneaking around Cloud City.

He was already able to use a blaster by the time of A New Hope (see this comprehensive answer on another question) and he's received no formal lightsaber training since Obi-Wan's death.

With that in mind, it makes sense that he would instinctively reach for his preferred weapon when already tense and surprised by Yoda, regardless of any tactical considerations.

Withad
  • 4,823
  • 1
  • 26
  • 23
  • 13
    Not only has he "received no formal lightsaber training since Obi-Wan's death", but that training only lasted a few hours. – DrSheldon Jun 03 '21 at 03:38
  • I agree that at that point, Luke has had very little lightsaber training, so using a blaster seems perfectly reasonable, if not expected. However, by the time Luke leaves Dagobah, he's still had very little lightsaber training (at least what was shown to film audiences)... – jamesdlin Jun 03 '21 at 07:48
  • 3
    I know that if I had some attunement to this 'force' and was given a saber... that thing would be out and on pretty much every waking moment. Yoda's training would have to start with 'fixing' all of the bad habits I'd taught myself at that point.... argh, take this you pirate, arrrrrrrr "cuts off tree limb" – CGCampbell Jun 03 '21 at 12:52
  • 6
    @jamesdlin: Also consider what Luke knows about the outcomes of lightsaber battles at that point. (1) Here is the weapon your dad had when he was killed. (2) The Jedi used them, and now most of them are dead. (3) He watches Obi-Wan die while using one. Not exactly inspiring. – DrSheldon Jun 03 '21 at 13:07
16

Blasters are more recognizable

Possibly debatable, since he has no idea what the residents of Dagobah might be familiar with, but with the Jedi being largely unknown, a combatant doesn't immediately know the threat of a lightsaber, particularly if it's not ignited, but they know the threat of a gun, so they're more likely to back off.

TheLethalCarrot
  • 143,332
  • 64
  • 808
  • 878
FuzzyBoots
  • 223,803
  • 23
  • 680
  • 1,039
2

The obvious answer is because a lightsaber though very powerful, does not have nearly as much range as a blaster and if the intruder was far away the lightsaber wouldn't really be able to take it out if far enough.

MonkeyBuisness
  • 224
  • 1
  • 6
  • 1
    But as a Jedi he's not supposed to attack people and the lightsaber is a better defensive weapon, so tactical considerations aren't likely to be the reason. This seems quite speculative; can you provide any evidence that he intentionally chose the blaster? – DavidW Jun 03 '21 at 20:37
  • So even if the Jedi is about to die, then he can still not pull out and attack? – MonkeyBuisness Jun 03 '21 at 20:42
  • 5
    @DavidW At this point in the movies he's had relatively limited jedi training and likely doesn't know or understand the jedi philosophy against aggression – Kevin Jun 03 '21 at 20:45
  • that is tru tho – MonkeyBuisness Jun 03 '21 at 20:46
  • 1
    @DavidW He learned that part later in his training with Yoda. Sorry, but his precognition is nowhere near that level at the time. – Christopher Aug 16 '21 at 10:36