Summary

• Training with Yoda on Dagobah may have taken longer than shown in the movie due to time distortion on the planet.
• Luke’s skills improve drastically on Dagobah, showing that he received significant training despite the short screen time.
• Time works differently on planets rich in the Force like Dagobah and Mortis, allowing for extended training periods.

Luke Skywalker’s time spent training with Yoda was a pivotal point in the Star Wars saga, and it seems like there might have been more to it than just what was shown on the screen. Luke finds Yoda on the swampy planet of Dagobah, where the Jedi Master has been exiled since the fall of the Jedi. Yoda’s training gives Luke the skills he needs to face Darth Vader- and survive the experience. Before their training is complete, Luke insists that he needs to leave the planet to rescue his friends.

Viewers have long noted that Luke doesn’t seem to spend much time on Dagobah, given events transpiring elsewhere in the movie. For all that’s the case, though, Luke learns a great deal and soon demonstrates a remarkable degree of skill. Some have complained Luke simply didn’t spent enough time with Yoda on Dagobah to transform into the seasoned Jedi he would eventually become, but Star Wars has provided an answer to this complaint.

Luke’s skills improve drastically on Dagobah, but Yoda still insists that Luke needs more time before he’s ready to fight Vader. According to Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, Luke’s skills might have taken more time to hone than the movie implies. While describing Luke’s exile on Ahch-To, the book compares the planet’s connection with the Force to other planets like Dagobah and Mortis, citing a “mysterious quality” that can make it difficult to keep track of time. It’s this quality that seems to have allowed Luke to train for longer than the movie implied.

Time Works Differently On Dagobah

The Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary subtly addresses this in a section on Ahch-To, one of many planets rich in the Force. According to the book, such worlds possess “a mysterious qualiity” that distorts the passage of time. Dagobah is a remote and almost entirely untouched planet with a special connection to the Force, making it the perfect setting for Yoda’s exile. With all its mystical qualities, it’s not surprising that time works in unusual ways on that planet.

This isn’t the first time that a planet has existed outside of the same timeline as the rest of the galaxy. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka have a similar experience on the planet Mortis, where they interact with physical embodiments of the Force. By the time they leave, time outside the planet continues at the same point they left it and each character has forgotten the entire experience. Much is unknown about Yoda’s species, but he certainly seems to have aged significantly on Dagobah between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and The Empire Strikes Back.

Luke Could’ve Trained With Yoda For Months (While Less Time Happened In The Galaxy)

Before the fall of the Jedi and the Republic, Jedi trained as Padawans for well over 20 years before graduating to the rank of Knight. It’s no great shock that Luke retreats from his fight with Darth Vader having sustained a terrible injury, but it’s still incredible that he’s able to hold his own against the powerful Sith Lord. This new revelation about the passage of time on Dagobah, however, puts that into a much more practical context.

Scenes depicting Leia and Han’s story progression imply that Luke hasn’t been gone for long at all before he leaves to rescue them. But if time on Dagobah works as the time did on Mortis, then Luke’s training could have lasted months while his friends were experiencing days. This would easily allow for Luke to be a much better-trained Jedi than should otherwise be the case, without causing any problems with the timeline at all.