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Yoda obviously knew about Leia, so is there a reason why he and Kenobi never tried to train her instead of Luke?

I assume it's because she wasn't at a point in life where she was ready to be trained, but was anything ever said about this?

In canon, Leia would have actually been Yoda's first choice. He believed that she was more balanced than Luke at the time(both emotionally and spiritually), and thus would have made a better trainee.

He agreed to train Luke instead as a personal favor to Kenobi's spirit.

hm. Not sure if I like that.

Originally posted by Galan007
In canon, Leia would have actually been Yoda's first choice. He believed that she was more balanced than Luke at the time(both emotionally and spiritually), and thus would have made a better trainee.

He agreed to train Luke instead as a personal favor to Kenobi's spirit.

What?...Yeah not sure I like that either.

sLlu_RpElBs

Yes, yes, we get that. Though it's more...

....Wait...Galan, feh, I thought you were going with an actual reasoning there, not opinion...that's what bothered me. A personal favor? Yeah, no...I would like something more than that, the reasoning is just dumb.

That's the actual canon reason.

That being said, Kenobi saw the future of things(as all spirits do), so I imagine that also had a hand to play in why he was pushing for Luke... He knew Leia would never take to being a full-fledged Jedi, as Luke did.

Originally posted by Galan007
That's the actual canon reason.

That being said, Kenobi saw the future of things(as all spirits do), so I imagine that also had a hand to play in why he was pushing for Luke... He knew Leia would never take to being a full-fledged Jedi, as Luke did.

So Kenobi gambled for a personal favor?...I kinda would want something a little more than just a favor, but here we are.

Alright fine, but I suppose that's true on the Jedi bit seeing as we see future Leia not being all Jedi like in the movies...so that part makes sense.

The actual passage is pretty long, so I won't post the entire thing.

To paraphrase: Kenobi's spirit came to Yoda to ask him to train a new Jedi. Yoda adamantly wanted to train Leia, because he felt she was far more balanced at that point, and would have fully committed to the training(unlike Luke, who he felt was too much like Anakin.) Kenobi, however, obviously wanted him to train Luke. After some back and forth dialogue, Yoda begrudgingly agreed to train Luke instead... But he definitely wanted it to be Leia at first.

But in the same novel, it is also explained that spirits can perceive all of time(past/present/future) simultaneously... So from that perspective, Luke was definitely the best option, as Kenobi undoubtedly realized. Yoda was just being judgey.

Makes sense to me.

As a master if you have 2 students whose power and potential are equal, why not pick the one who you feel is actually ready to be trained?

I don't know how far the expanded universes have delved into this, but to me, it always seemed like Yoda wanted to train Leia, but Luke was just more convenient at the time.

First off, Yoda says he'd been "watching" Luke his whole life and wasn't convinced that he had the patience and altruism to be a jedi. It could mean that he was watching Leia as well, and figured that she could be a better jedi. She was leading an underground resistance to fight off the greatest threat in the history of the galaxy, after all. And at 19, no less. Luke was sitting around playing with his action figures.
Leia did already have her hands full, though, and wasn't exactly monk/nun material. Then Yoda deciding to go with Luke at Obi-Wan's insistence seems like the obvious way for the story to unfold.
If they'd stumbled upon Leia first, then she would have become the jedi, and probably a more traditional one. I guess they got lucky that Luke's willingness to diverge from the beaten path allowed him to turn Vader back.