Warning! Spoilers for Star Wars #19
A new Star Wars comic has revealed Luke Skywalker’s training from Master Yoda after The Empire Strikes Back. However, the Jedi Master communicates to Luke through a hologram in a an important artifact called “a holocron.”
As Luke continues his quest to become a Jedi Knight, he is running into walls. When he encounters a facility being guarded by stormtroopers, he uses the Jedi mind trick to force them into delivering the most valuable item in their possession. Bestowing Luke with a holocron, Luke is immediately aware of the object’s importance in Star Wars #19, written by Charles Soule with art by Marco Castiello.
When Luke activates the holocron, he encounters his familiar Jedi Master, Yoda, in a recording meant for other young learners. Before revealing the contents of the device, Luke tells R2-D2 that he didn’t know what to do with a holocron the first time he saw one from Grakkus the Hutt on Nar Shaddaa. However, he now knows to use the Force to enable its message, revealing Yoda’s hologram. Similar to Kal-El’s father Jor-El communicating with him as a hologram through the Fortress of Solitude, Yoda is able to continue Luke’s Jedi training while removed from the confines of Dagobah.
The holocron provides a younger Yoda than the one who Luke has known, although the Jedi Master was also an elder member of the Jedi Council in the prequels. Evidently, Yoda is such a skilled teacher in the Force that he is able to progress Luke’s training through the Star Wars version of online learning. Judging by the next time that Luke displays his Jedi abilities in the saga, the holocron edition of Yoda is able to successfully teach another padawan.
Previously, it had been assumed by fans that Luke’s training with Yoda ended after he left Dagobah to rescue his friends and face Darth Vader in Cloud City. After the rebels’ loss to the Empire, Luke seemed to be without a clear path to learn the Jedi way, even though Yoda was technically an available resource. As the unseen chapter of the saga is filling in the void of Luke’s training, the holocron’s message is doing the work that the current Yoda might not be able to do in his old age. Approaching his death at 900 years old in Return of the Jedi, the comics have found a convenient way for Luke’s time under Yoda’s teaching to continue.