Star Wars ANH Luke Question

[JediKnightButler]

Luke wanted to go to "The Academy" at the start of the movie but if he had, wouldn't he have been joining the Empire- as they were the only entity with an actual starfleet at the time? Who did he figure would be training him? Though that wouldn't really make a lot of sense since he knows of the Empire and says he hates it and appears to be excited when he hears about the Rebellion but who did he think would be training him as a star fighter pilot?

 

[Corran Horn]

it's pretty much been retcon'd to mean the Imperial Academy even though he says he hates the Empire--and this is before he knows Owen and Beru were killed.

Biggs, Hobbie, and Tycho definitely went to the Imperial Academy in the EU - so if Luke was going to follow Biggs...

 

[Shazam!]

People still join the armed forces even if they hate the current government. He may have hated the 'Empire' but there are probably still loads of professions which have carried over from the Republic and remained largely untouched by the Empire.

 

[Christopher]

Lots of people aren't crazy about their government, but most of them don't hate it enough to opt out of its institutions altogether, especially if it's the only game in town. I always got the sense that the Empire wasn't quite as bad before ANH as it was afterward, because the Senate continued to exist up until the Emperor dissolved it at the time of ANH. So they would've provided a check on his power, limited his excesses, until he was finally ready to kick them out altogether and rule with the iron fist of the Death Star. So maybe Luke wasn't happy with having to train in an Imperial institution, but didn't hate Imperial rule enough for that hatred to cancel out his desire to fly spaceships.

 

[J.T.B.]

Luke wanted to go to "The Academy" at the start of the movie but if he had, wouldn't he have been joining the Empire- as they were the only entity with an actual starfleet at the time? Who did he figure would be training him? Though that wouldn't really make a lot of sense since he knows of the Empire and says he hates it and appears to be excited when he hears about the Rebellion but who did he think would be training him as a star fighter pilot?

The "Academy" in the original material was pretty clearly for "merchant marine" or general space service, not an Imperial military academy. That concept was lost at some point, apparently.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The Academy was also a good place for defections, iirc. There's a deleted scene between Luke and Biggs that goes into a little more detail.

ETA: There's a version with film as opposed to photographs, but the dialog's important:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5aIQlJ0v-w[/yt]

 

[J.T.B.]

^ In the next line after the audio ends Biggs says "Luke, I’m not going to wait for the Empire to draft me into service."

BTW in case you missed that Biggs was living a life of adventure away from Tatooine, he's wearing a cape! That and Luke's hat are good enough reasons to delete those scenes as far as I am concerned.

 

[Mr Light]

I believe it's stated somewhere that it's common practice for people to join the Imperial Academy, learn the trade, then once they graduate defect to the Rebellion.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Deleting that scene makes his death at the end meaningless.

 

[JarodRussell]

Well, some people might hate the government and still join the armed forces. You might hear them say "I hate the President!" or "I hate Congress!". But I doubt you would hear them say "I hate the United States!" before they join the US Army.

Because that is what Luke said. He said he hates the Empire. Not the Imperial Senate. Not the Government. Not the Emperor. The Empire itself.

 

[Shawnster]

Luke wanted to go to "The Academy" at the start of the movie but if he had, wouldn't he have been joining the Empire- as they were the only entity with an actual starfleet at the time? Who did he figure would be training him? Though that wouldn't really make a lot of sense since he knows of the Empire and says he hates it and appears to be excited when he hears about the Rebellion but who did he think would be training him as a star fighter pilot?

The "Academy" in the original material was pretty clearly for "merchant marine" or general space service, not an Imperial military academy. That concept was lost at some point, apparently.

It wasn't clear to me. Apparently it wasn't clear to Brian Daley, who scripted the Star Wars Radio Drama. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esvn5gT9vIQ
Skip to 1:30. Keep in mind this was originally written in 1981. Now, it does seem from this dialog that the Imperial Space Academy also trains graduates for the merchant marine service, but it clearly says "Imperial Space Academy."

Why do you say the original material meant merchant marine?

Luke may have hated the Empire, but he felt the Academy was his only chance to get off of Tattooine.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Meh. Lucas was just throwing around "spacey" ideas and concepts. Hence the abuse of "parsecs". And do you really think Vader was Luke's father when this one was made?

 

[J.T.B.]

Why do you say the original material meant merchant marine?

Because Biggs was "first mate," not a military title, on a ship identified as a freighter in the novel. He wanted to join the rebellion before the Empire could "draft" (screenplay) or "conscript" (novel) him into service. And when he's saying farewell to Biggs Luke says "Well, I’ll be at the Academy next season… after that who knows, I won’t be drafted into the Imperial Starfleet that’s for sure."

 

[Corran Horn]

Why do you say the original material meant merchant marine?

Because Biggs was "first mate," not a military title, on a ship identified as a freighter in the novel. He wanted to join the rebellion before the Empire could "draft" (screenplay) or "conscript" (novel) him into service. And when he's saying farewell to Biggs Luke says "Well, I’ll be at the Academy next season… after that who knows, I won’t be drafted into the Imperial Starfleet that’s for sure."

yeah, I always figured pre-retcon it was a merchant marine type deal. I thought Biggs was wearing a uniform from it in those scenes and that was plainly not an Imperial Navy uniform.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

As has been mentioned, a common practice for space teens searching for adventure and excitement and other things a Jedi does not crave was to join the Imperial Academy, acquire the necessary training in space piloting and navigation (learning maneuvers like drifting slowly to the left), firearms use (how to miss Care Bears at close range), discipline and alertness (bitching about drills while a geriatric desert hermit deactivates your space station's tractor beam 30 feet away), intimidation (practicing saying "you Rebel scum!" repeatedly until you get just the right tone and obvious contempt), and how to handle death by crushed windpipe gracefully (in case you're assigned to Lord Vader), and then, afterwards defect to the Rebellion.

The Rebels apparently already had a network established for recruiting disaffected Imperial officers and recruits, since many of them came to the Alliance from Imperial service. Even Han Solo was an Imperial officer at one point, but left to become a smuggler because he rescued Chewie from slavery.

 

[Shawnster]

Why do you say the original material meant merchant marine?

Because Biggs was "first mate," not a military title, on a ship identified as a freighter in the novel. He wanted to join the rebellion before the Empire could "draft" (screenplay) or "conscript" (novel) him into service. And when he's saying farewell to Biggs Luke says "Well, I’ll be at the Academy next season… after that who knows, I won’t be drafted into the Imperial Starfleet that’s for sure."

I wonder if Imperial Space Academy has nothing to do with the Imperial Star fleet, then. The Imperial Bank or the Imperial Senate would not have to be directly connected with the Star Fleet. Imperial could just be part of a descriptive title.

 

[theenglish]

But also, in the movie it is mentioned that the Emperor has just wiped away the last of the Old Republic. As far as Luke knows, he might not like the "empire" but the empire is still not considered to be an evil dictatorship.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Imperial Senate was closed down, which was just the republic senate rebranded. A Government Shutdown.

Luke wanted to be a TIE Fighter pilot and kill rebel scum. Life plan derailed by the old pedo in the shack out back of the farm.

 

[theenglish]

The Imperial Senate was closed down, which was just the republic senate rebranded. A Government Shutdown.

Luke wanted to be a TIE Fighter pilot and kill rebel scum. Life plan derailed by the old pedo in the shack out back of the farm.

No, he just wanted to be a fighter pilot. I don't think he knew very much else. Even when I was I kid I thought this--his comment about going to the academy was because he wanted to leave Tattoinne. It wasn't more than that. He was a kid and had not really thought about what he was saying.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I was jumping ahead a couple steps.

He might have wanted to go fly, but if he wanted to fly, he had to kill who they told him to kill, and maybe he didn't quite connect those dots yet that soldiers kill the enemy and the Emperor decides who the enemy is.

You seen Full metal jacket?

Bootcamp.

And really, no matter how pure his intentions were, there are programs in place to take sweet 17 year old kids and turn them into grizzled warhorses wearing necklaces made from fingers.

In truth however, what I got from the larger Star Wars Universal Imperial Agenda was humanocentricity that was working it's way towards ethnic cleansing.

Luke's Job probably wouldn't have have been to fight the rebellion, which barely existed, but to take part in focussed crusades deleting entire unappealing species from the face of the Empire.

Of course the first time Luke took a blood test, provisions would put him into a body bag because he's a (potential) force user... So leaving Tatooine was a death sentence for that boy.

Hmmmm?

Leia would have needed a continuous supply of clean blood and clean urine to continue working at such high levels in the Imperial Senate and not have her throat slit by the Crimson Guard since she was genetically a threat to Imperial Security.

It's possible that her (rich, powerful and privileged) parents kept a mechanism in place and Leia had no idea that her piss was being replaced at every turn.