Luke Skywalker is one of the most important Star Wars characters of them all. As the hero of the Original Trilogy and the first in a new line of Jedi, Luke Skywalker defined heroism for a generation of viewers. His belief in the goodness of his father enabled the end of the Empire and the dawn of a new day for the galaxy, his heroism saving the lives of many.
However, just because he's a hero doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes. As big a hero as he is, though, his mistakes lead to some pretty heavy failures, ones that changed the face of the galaxy.
10 He Couldn't Fight The Lure Of The Dark Side
At the battle of Endor, Luke found himself in a room with two of the most important people in the galaxy. The Emperor and Vader wanted him to turn to the dark side for different reasons and both of them goaded him on. While he never actually turned, he got frightfully close as Vader threatening Leia was enough to send him into a rage.
Luke proved that he didn't have the serenity of the Jedi at this moment and that he was susceptible to the dark side. His fear of falling to the darkness would lead to a lot of bad things in the future.
9 His Failure To Convince Jabba To Peacefully Release Han Almost Spelled Disaster For Everyone Involved
Luke Skywalker made a plan to get Han Solo back, with the first aspect of it relying on him and his Jedi skills. He enlisted his friends to help him save the day in case he failed, and that's exactly what happened. He tried to convince Jabba to help him and when that failed, tried to shoot the Hutt crimelord.
While he had done everything he could to stack the odds in his favor, he failed on his own and had to depend on everything working out just how he needed it to, which the odds were against, especially since just about everyone was captured by Jabba. While it all worked out, it was balancing on a knife's edge.
8 His Insistence On Bringing Weapons Into The Cave On Dagobah Proved He Wasn't Ready To Be On His Own As A Jedi Yet
Luke's training on Dagobah was very important to his development as a Jedi but he failed in several ways while he was there. For example, his ordeal in the dark side cave was a failure that proved that he wasn't in the right mindset to be a Jedi. He didn't listen to Yoda's warnings and brought weapons with him, bringing his own anger and hate in.
While it wasn't galaxy shaking, it would have repercussions that would affect things in the future. Luke's failure to let go of his own warlike tendencies could have spelled disaster for the galaxy and ended up being detrimental to him.
7 Leaving His Training Early Made Things Worse For His Friends
Luke had a Force vision of his friends suffering during his training and this spurred him to action. Yoda counseled him against leaving—Force visions didn't show what will be but what could be. By acting on his vision, Luke actually made it come true, as he pretty much was unable to stop any of the bad things that happened to them.
Had he stayed, things would have turned out very different for everyone—a fully trained Jedi Luke would have been a greater asset to the Rebellion and the galaxy, possibly able to stop a lot of the terrible things that happened in the future.
6 Failing To Defeat Darth Vader On Bespin Cost Him His Hand
One of the biggest consequences of leaving Dagobah too early was that his battle with Darth Vader went terribly. Vader completely outclassed him. Luke wasn't even half-trained and it was a terrible idea to even try to battle Vader. While he did his best—and the fact he even tried was pretty impressive—he also lost his hand in the battle and could have just as easily lost his life.
Luke's battle against Vader was potentially disastrous, a fight he never should have gotten into at the time. Luke's hotheaded attempt to save his friends almost doomed everything.
5 He Failed To Fully Train Even One Jedi In All Of His Years Of Trying
Luke's early failures wouldn't come close compared to the ones that would come later. The first of those failures was one of the simplest: he never fully trained another Jedi Knight in all of his decades of trying. This one is especially weird since he apparently had a whole academy of students.
While he couldn't exactly go with the 'one Padawan, one Master' method of the Old Republic Jedi the fact that none of his students ever progressed very far is both kind of nonsensical—par for the course when it comes to the Sequel Trilogy—and a massive failure, since even one other fully trained Jedi could have helped save his academy from Snoke's attack.
4 He Failed To Save His Academy
This is another failure that stems from the last one. Snoke's forces attacked, coincidentally on the same night Luke was going to confront his nephew, and destroyed the academy while Luke was trapped in the rubble of Ben's cabin. For some reason, Luke's vision failed to warn him of this and he wasn't able to break free, even though he had survived much worse, like Palpatine's Force lightning.
His failure to save any of his students gave the First Order an edge and caused him to go into exile on Ach-To, his bitter failure robbing the galaxy of one of the only persons who could have made a difference.
3 He Failed To Train Rey
Luke and Rey had a difficult relationship, with Luke basically trolling her, allowing Kylo Ren to get his hooks into her. Unlike Luke, Ren actually showed interest in her beyond just messing with her, and the Jedi Master and the young woman had a battle that Luke lost. While Rey would go on to defeat the First Order and Palpatine, Luke's failure to train her could have had massive repercussions.
Rey is pretty much the opposite of a Jedi; her entire style is using her anger and hate in battle and drawing on the Force. She's pretty much a dark sider who does the right thing and Luke could have worked with her and break her out of that. Instead, he allowed her to go off half-trained, something that could spell doom for the galaxy when she inevitably falls to the dark side completely.
2 He Couldn't Stop Ben Solo's Fall To The Dark Side
Luke worked closely with Ben Solo, trying to train the boy in the ways of the Force and fulfill his potential. However, this wouldn't be the case, as Ben would fall to the dark side, sending his life into a spiral of violence and darkness. As close as they were, there's absolutely no way Luke couldn't have noticed his nephew getting closer and closer to the dark side, which brings up the question of why couldn't he stop it?
Luke Skywalker was able to bring Darth Vader back from the dark side, so the fact that he couldn't do the same with his nephew is a massive failure and one that had vast repercussions.
1 He Wasn't Able To Kill Ben Solo
While many would argue that Luke acting upon his vision caused it to come true, the fact remains that the vision was correct and for all intents and purposes, Luke should have killed his nephew. Kylo Ren became a person who was responsible for the deaths of trillions, rivaling even his grandfather. Luke's failure to kill Ren doomed the people of countless worlds to death and pain.
While a Jedi's role isn't to be an executioner, Luke should have killed Ben Solo. It would have saved countless lives and made the galaxy a better place. If he had the courage of his convictions, many beings would still be alive.
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