Luke was the best pilot in the Outer Rim.
I think this hits it on the head as far as Luke’s training. He only learned the fighting parts of the Force…and even then he didn’t learn the deeper mysteries (like shooting out lightning bolts and such). Jedi were sort of like Knights…or like Gunslingers from the Dark Tower. Trained in not only fighting but in all sorts of other things. Its hinted at in the books some of the other duties they had…which Luke was completely unfamiliar with.
Since the Force is inborn in a person, and since Luke had already started probing into the Force BEFORE Yoda and his formal training, and since Luke also was exceptionally talented…and finally since a number of corners were totally cut out…I can mostly buy the compressed time table for his training. Especially in light of the fact he went off half trained, and only completed his training (such as it was completed) later on.
I always thought the Empire had been around a lot longer also. I assumed that in their future people lived a LOT longer…centuries if not more. Also, there was the cloning aspects, so I figured replacement parts were readily available. I think for myself I still like to think of the Empire lasting for centuries at least…makes better sense to me.
-XT
In regard to Luke’s abilities pre-Ben and Yoda, I hereby sacrifice myself to the alter of ubergeekdom …
I don’t have the book with me here, of course, but in the original novel version of A New Hope (or at least, the one that’s sitting on my shelf at home, original or no), there’s a passage about the “odd” things Luke could do as a child. The part I remember best is Luke recalling an incident where Uncle Owen was looking for a lost tool of some sort (I want to say screwdriver, but I don’t think the nature of the tool is that important). Luke closed his eyes, thought about it for a minute, and promptly announced “It’s under the couch.”
Uncle Owen found the tool right where Luke said it was. And then promptly punished him for hiding it in the first place.
And Luke learning to fly an X-Wing in 20 minutes is the same as Anakin hopping into a Naboo fighter and nixing the Droid Control Ship–natural talent, previous experience flying similar vehicles, and a little bit o’ Force.
Oh how I’d love to believe that about Anakin. But the number of “whoooops!” and “what’s this button do?” moments made me see him as just full of stupid luck. Of sure you can say the force was guiding his motions, but I’d have liked to see him actually display piloting skill since he would one day be called the greatest pilot in the galaxy.
Eh. I’d say that many of the other SW stuff has made clear that Yoda’s comments about being too old didn’t have much justification. Age has very little to do with it; its just that the Jedi like training children, who aren’t likely to put up as much of a fuss. And it makes them easy to indoctrinate…
I dunno. More than a few great classical empires lasted about the same time. Often, the very brutality and might that enables the creation of big, powerful regimes ends up destroying them, and a new government (usually a much nicer one) takes over. So, being a historian, its amusing to think of the Empire, Palpatine’s grand creation, lasting only 20 years or so.
Another thought about Luke’s being a quick study.
Didn’t they say that one of the important ways that Jedis, and I suppose anyone in whom the Force is strong, can do what they do is the ability to see immediately into the future? Which would explain how a Jedi can deflect a laser with his light sabre. Even a Jedi can’t react faster than light, he just has to know where the light is going to be.
So, if the Force is stronger in you than your opponent, you don’t necessarily have to be a better swordsman, since you can see where your opponent is going to strike just a bit before they even know where they’re going to strike.
Lucas addressed this in a documentary about the lightsabre… Obi Wan and Vader are older in Star Wars (I refuse to give in to the name change) and Vader is part machine, that is why the fight is kind of boring. Later on you have Luke who wasn’t privy to the full training that most Jedis had, but he was young and strong with the force, that is why those fights he had with Vader are a wee bit better than Vader v ObiWan. In the prequels, everyone is more trained and better equipped, and as Lucas put it, the fighting becomes more personal. It stands to reason from what he said that the upcomming fight between Obi Wan and Anakin will be the best lightsabre fight of the series.
I’m hoping for a Dooku / Yoda / Obi Wan / Anakin / Windu / Fett tag team deathmatch. With Padme and Jar Jar suffering a little Collateral Damage.
I realize it’s not quite the same thing, but Luke mentions being able to fly a T-16, which I imagine is an powered aircraft of sorts. Not quite the same as an X-wing, but he probably already knows the basic flight principles.
And it it might have been a couple days before the Death star made it to the Yavin system.
Actually, in most other formats (the book, the radio drama version, etc.), it’s stated that the T-16 is very similar to the X-Wing, so I think 20 minutes of prep time might be good enough. 
Fly it? Hell, he could bullseye womprats in it!
Well, remember, he also had that time between the end of Empire and the Beginning of Jedi to train some more, and he seemed to be a better Jedi in the 3rd movie then in the 2nd.
My brother explained to me a couple of years ago that the jedis can live a lot of time (i.e. a human jedi usually lives more than 100 years). Fine. He then told me that Mace Windu was some 90 years old in the movies. Fine, again, if they live longer, etc. But then I asked him how much time is supossed to pass between Ep. II and IV and from that we get that Obi Wan was only 50-60 years old when he died… So we get Mace Windu looking young and agile etc. and being 90 years old and Obi Wan an old man with only 50-60 years on his back.
What about Vader’s rise in power between IV and V? In IV Tarkin is holding his lease, in V he has carte blanche to kill whomever he wants.
It’s that desert heat.
That was Lucas being “cute”. Remember that Jar-Jar managed to take out a bunch of combat droids basically by accident, tripping over blasters and such. Just pretend they were displaying actual skill, because that’s what a director with some meager amount of sense would have done.
Vader was a Sith, and like the Jedi, they tend to be more of a “consultant” than actually subject to anyone’s authority. I don’t think Vader was ever under anyone’s thumb but the Emperor himself.
I’ve heard it said that Ben completely turned his back on the Force during his exile on Tatoine. Amoung other reasons, he did this to remain hidden from Vader.
Well, Tarkin “holding his leash” is a comment by Leia, and she was saying it to get under Tarkin’s and Vader’s skins. The way I saw it, Tarkin was a high powered Imperial administrator, while Vader was more of a special aide to the emperor. So, the Emperor would say to Vader, “Go and recover the death star plans”, or “Go oversee the rest of the construction of the second death star.”, and Vader would have whatever authority he needed to do so. So, under the normal course of things, Tarkin has more formal authority than Vader, but, when Vader is on a mission for the Emperor, he has the authority and resources he needs to get the job done, even if it means pulling rank on Tarkin.
What Captain Amazing said. Vader answers only to the Emperor, but the Emperor values Tarkin’s skills and experiences enough that Tarkin can get away with baiting Vader, because he knows the Emperor won’t let Vader kill him. On the other hand, if the Emperor ever decided he didn’t need Tarkin any more, Vader would have most likely been the one given the task of taking him out.