His plan was to sell lots and lots of toys.
He succeeded.
The whole thing was short-sighted.
The amount of screen time dedicated to Leah in the slave costume was woefully inadequate.
Do you think of people in caper flicks (such as Ocean’s 11) as heroes?
Anaamika, I think the question that needs to be asked is what kind of situation the hero is in.
Typically, the hero is in a reactionary position, trying to stop a nefarious plot/rescue a hot babe/save the world[sup]TM[/sup]. In those situations, the hero doesn’t have the time to make a plan, his job is to react to what is happening to him - like Bond, Bruce Willis in the Die Hards, etc.
The flipside situation is like the Ocean’s 11 series, where the “good guys” are trying to achieve a goal. In those, they do the master plots. Of course, caper movies tend to have antiheros - bad guys who are the protagonist, lovable thieves, etc.
So what kind of situation puts a true hero (not anti-hero) in a position to plot and scheme a [del]nefarious[/del] noble plan?
[QUOTE=Philster]
The amount of screen time dedicated to Leah in the slave costume was woefully inadequate.
[/QUOTE]
Fuckin’ A right! There was a general lack of female personages.
From which we can conclude that Dirk Gently is a Jedi Master.
Had a moment of fridge brilliance here: Luke’s plan was only up to the moment where he fell into the hole in the floor. From that point on, it was just made up as they went along. Before that, everybody was in position to take Han by force.
I always took this as an indication that Luke has grown, but he hasn’t had nearly enough guidance. There’s a very real possibility he could go very dark, and this is just one sign of his potential. He’s powerful, but he’s a bit of a loose cannon. He’s the last hope of the Jedi, but he has had only the most rudimentary and urgent training. There’s a lot that can go wrong.
Hell, my first thought was that he should have done a big ol’ Force leap back up out of the pit before the lid closed.
Again, I think it’s a sign of Luke’s immaturity as a Jedi. When he’s got time to think, he’s good. When the poodoo hits the recirculator, he just doesn’t have the…centeredness?..presence?..to trust in the Force, so he just lashes out, or panics, or whatever. Again, he’s powerful but he’s got very little finesse. He’s got an awful lot of growing to do, and very little time to do it.
That’s why I really like Yoda’s little chuckle as he’s dying and Luke says, wonderingly, “So I am a Jedi.” I love the fact that Yoda essentially laughs right in his face. “Not yet.” I always imagined that if he had more strength he’d have laughed longer and given Luke a little lecture about not getting too big for his flight suit.
From a story perspective, it makes perfect sense, if you consider that the central conflict Luke needs to resolve in this movie is the temptation to turn to the Dark Side. Having him acting in a borderline Dark Side manner through out the film would have made his eventual refusal to the Emperor much more significant. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t do a very good job of selling that idea, if it ever even intended that interpretation.
Sorry to ruin your fridge logic but that doesn’t explain why he gave R2 his lightsaber. So he was planning to take Han by force unarmed?
George wanted R2 to shoot his saber to him but couldn’t be bothered to think out a way that it made sense. It’s not like it would have been hard to do: They could have had R2 up in the audience chamber with everyone else, had Luke pull out his saber but lose it in the fight, and at the end show R2 nonchalantly rolling over the lightsaber and picking it up before wheeling away with a whistle. Jabba tells his goons to bring the weapon to him and they’re all “can’t find it, boss” and ta da, it now makes sense for R2 to have the saber.
All of Luke’s allies were in the main chamber when he talked to Jabba, including R2D2. Chewbacca was maybe the only one who wasn’t there, and/or unarmed.
This doesn’t answer the question of mine that you quoted.
Et voila! Younglings Julienne.
The thing with Qui Gon is, he may not know who you are, or know what you want. If you’re looking for ransom, he can tell you that he doesn’t have money.
But what he does have are avery particular set of skills; skills he has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make him a nightmare for people like Nute Gunray.
As far as Luke having R2D2 hold onto his piece for him, it simply comes down to Luke not being in a position to just waltz into Jabba’s palace packing heat. That would be a seriously more provocative thing to do than he was inclined towards. He shows up unarmed, to show he means well. He whips out a force choke on a couple of thugs to show that he’s not to be messed with, establishing enough cred on the spot to be taken seriously. And then, acting with total confidence, he attempts to negotiate in good faith.
If that plan goes south, he resorts to the Jedi Mind Trick, something which maybe he just considers too “Dark Side” to whip out without reason. If that plan somehow didn’t work, or if things went south too soon for him to try, R2 is standby by to slip him his light saber for him to get Old Republic on some peoples asses.
Lando and Chewbacca slipped in. Maybe Chewbacca was disguised but it didn’t work out. Lando realized he couldn’t pull the job off on his own, so he just laid low until Leia came in some time later. She saw an opening, took it, but it didn’t work out. Lando hasn’t blown his cover yet, maybe he was going to come out to back Leia up when she made her escape, or just stay behind and try to get Chewie out somehow once everybody was distracted. Either way, he didn’t get the hand he wanted to play yet.
Luke shows up, things go downhill fast, and they all end up on the sail barges in the middle of the… well, Tatooine. Everyone, most of them now being held prisoner, and approximately a third of the rest being C3PO, is waiting for another opening, a chance for something to happen that they can work with (well, except for C3PO).
Luke sees his opening, sends R2 a signal, and R2 tosses him his piece, and the situation basically unravels from there, much to Luke’s advantage as he’s the one yanking the string.
EDIT: Now I kinda wish Burn Notice would just devote an entire episode to plugging that show’s characters into Return of the Jedi’s first act.
For what it’s worth, in the novelization of Return of the Jedi, Luke toys with the idea of using both sides of the Force as he deems necessary, wondering if the refusal to use any of the Dark Side facets of the Force at all was just the Jedi creating a false dichotomy that limited them and aided in their fall. The Light Side gives him peace, focus, and intuition, the Dark Side gives him power, strength, and the initiative.
IIRC, the later EU books go into this more with some characters choosing to treat the Force as a greater thing that doesn’t strictly have a good and bad side. Anakin was redeemed because he was good, despite falling to the Dark Side (or more accurately, falling to Palpatine’s influence while experimenting with the Dark Side). Palpatine could have used nothing but the Light Side of the force, and he’d still probably be a right bastard. Just a very calm one.
ISTR he’s more of a Jedi Roulette Master. (See the trope Xanatos Roulette.)
Except the lightsaber was supposed to be a surprise. It’s intended for dramatic effect. Remember, at the end of Empire, Luke lost his lightsaber with his hand. He got a handy hand replacement from the medical droid, but lightsabers are a might more difficult to come by. The fact that he has one in Jedi at all is due to him learning how to craft one, which apparently is a skill Jedi need, but nobody else seems to care for. Probably because lightsabers are tricky if you can’t use the force to help guide you. Too easy to lop off your own legs in a training accident.
As far as we know at the opening of Jedi, Luke has no lightsaber, and no way to get a new one. The point of keeping it a surprise is that it is Luke’s little table turner at the opportune moment, when he’s in the deepest hole. He wanted an ace in the hole, and that was R2’s role: serruptitiously put the weapon where he needed it when he needed it.
Sure, it might have helped with the Rancor - hell, it might have changed the dynamic of the first confrontation. But the first confrontation wasn’t Luke’s plan to have turn into a battle. That’s why Lando didn’t react then and give himself away. That wasn’t the opening the plan called for. And if he had had the lightsaber then, he would have needed to lose it somehow in order to allow himself to be captured. But we know he can Force it back, so losing it would have been tricky to be convincing, and ruined the dramatic effect of the storytelling.
Both Chewy and Han were in the prison cell, unable to help or escape on their own. Leia was chained, and the room was too controlled. Luke needed Chewy and Han free from cells so they could turn on their captors, he needed room to move to sew the confusion and generate crossfire, and he needed enough distractions so Leia didn’t have someone else standing next to her to rescue Jabba.
I don’t think your scenario fits the facts. I think there was one integrated plan, not each party acting individually. Remember, our perspective is C3PO - we don’t know what to expect, or what has occurred. We only know what we recognize as it happens. Luke sent the droids with a message - a message to give the droids as gifts. Now did he really intend to leave the droids behind? Unlikely. Well, maybe 3PO. 
No that was just a ruse to get R2 in with the lightsaber and deliver his message to build his reputation prior to arrival. “I am a Jedi. I am sending you a polite message and a gift. I will arrive to negotiate a fair offer for the return of my friends. I am honorable, so any issues of trusting Solo are moot - you will be dealing with me – and I am someone you do not wish to trifle with. But I recognize Solo’s debt to you, and will make amends.”
But Lando is in place. He might have been reconoitering and sending secret messages back. Likely. But also, he was earning trust so he could be more effective when the time came.
Chewy did not try to disguise his way in. That would have been too complicated - Wookiees do not disguise easily - too tempermental. But they needed Han out of carbonite, and they knew he would be woosy and awkward after so long frozen, so putting Chewy into captivity would put them together, and allow Chewy to look out for him when the time came.
Leia made a move on her own, without Lando, precisely because they didn’t expect it to rescue Han, only get him out of carbonite. Luke wasn’t there yet, this was laying the groundwork for the eventual action, getting the pieces in the right place. Sure, Jabba and the gang watching from secret was a bit of a surprise (they were on to me all along?), but didn’t change the outcome because she accomplished her primary task. Actually smuggling Han out would have been a bonus, and would have given Luke a slightly better bargaining position to offer money to Jabba in exchange for Chewy and calling off further bounties on Han, but it wasn’t necessary.
The stage was set, but the expectation was that it might take a confrontation. Luke had that up his sleeve, but didn’t want it to go down at the first meeting. See he expected that if things went sour, Jabba was one for dramatic gestures, and would do something like a public execution. I don’t know if he knew about the sailbarges and Sarlaac (Lando might have found out that was a Jabba favorite, he might have a reputation for it, or it might have been totally new), but it is very likely Jabba had a reputation for dramatic gestures and such. He probably had done similar showy executions before, and was known for making his enemies suffer humiliation with their death. So he probably knew the time for the real confrontation was not until the dramatic execution was set. That would put all the pieces in the right places - Han and Chewy and himself together, Lando where he could be most effective with his turncoat, Leia was perhaps unexpectedly with Jabba rather than with them, but still present. The droids were there, R2 was sure to find a way to be in the vicinity and able to provide the lightsaber. That “accident” with the customer that knocked the tray off was staged by R2 - like I said, he was competent.
I think his plan from the beginning was to expect things wouldn’t go well, and stage things for that dramatic show to make his stand. That’s why he precordinated such a showy sign for the lightsaber - that little flippant salute. He couldn’t yell “R2, now!”, but figured something like that would be subtle enough and yet easily seen from a distance.
And that’s why he was able to be so confident in the face of his stunning capture and harrowing confrontation with the Rancor. He lived. That’s all he needed. His plan would come to fruition, because the pieces were still in play.
Given the previous input about Jedi acting on intuition and the Sith relying on intriciate plans, I prefer to think that everybody had a common plan they were working on, but it was light on details that might weigh it down given the potential fluidity of the situation. Mostly everybody was making their moves and keeping their antenna up in order to make sure they were supporting each other. Given that this IS a universe with common wireless communications, akin at least to handheld radios if not mobile phones, it would be relatively trivial for them to pass message back and forth with a bit of discretion.
So given that, by the time Luke was imprisoned, maybe they DID have a solid plan, but before then, things were either a bit more loosely defined, or even a different plan with some contingency cutouts “If Leia isn’t able to get Han out, then Luke will send the droids ahead to prep the room for his entrance and try to talk the situation down. If that doesn’t play out, we’ll wait for Jabba to run his favorite Sarlaac show, R2 will throw Luke his light saber, and we’ll rip the place apart on the count of three.”
The Empire has plans, the Sith have plans, Vader’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.