New Star Wars Film Theory: Luke Was SUPPOSED To Be A Terrible Jedi
What if he was meant to be no good at it?
It might seem like giving him a hard time for no reason, but Luke Skywalker is not a very good Jedi. That's not a comment on his agenda to destroy the Jedi in The Last Jedi or the fact that he basically created the galaxy far, far away's biggest new threat by working against his own role as a Master, it's genuinely just an assessment of his skills as a Jedi.
He might be strong with the Force, but he struggles with his powers, he's horribly naive and he's quick to passion, which makes him a poor Jedi by the very definition of Master Yoda's teachings. He might be the great Hope, but he's not a very good Chosen One if his agenda is to defeat the Emperor as he proves himself wholly unsuited to that when they come face to face.
Essentially, Luke is given no more than the Cliff's Notes on being a Jedi and crashes into battle without lightsaber training or any of the basic skills taught to the Jedi younglings traditionally. His training mostly amounts to being told how not to be evil, and he doesn't even complete that.
Thanks to Redditor sjogerst, there's an interesting take on his struggles as a Jedi: he was always INTENDED to be terrible.
Firstly, the theory points out that either Obi-Wan or Yoda could have continued his Jedi training as Force Ghosts - the fact that they didn't speaks of their real intent: they didn't want him to be powerful enough to fight the Emperor. After all, there's plenty of opportunities for Yoda and Kenobi to train Luke as a child if they know he's destined to fight the darkest force in the galaxy. There has to be a reason why they chose not to.
He was no more than emotional bait. He was intended to be the trigger for the REAL Chosen One to live out his destiny to destroy the Emperor. He was there to inspire Vader's turn, and Yoda and Kenobi relied on the same passionate impulses that allowed Palpatine to manipulate Vader in the first place. They pushed his buttons:
"There are only a few Jedi left in the galaxy and someone has to defeat the emperor... They get together and realize that Vader is literally the only Jedi capable of defeating the emperor.
So then the conversation turns to "how do you take a guy that is so easy to emotionally manipulate that he is willing to slaughter younglings and get him to turn around again and use his considerable abilities on his new boss?" The answer is that you twist those emotions even more. You use his kids. You send in his son to battle the emperor with no skills like a lemming in the hopes that Vader will snap to his senses and kill the emperor. Its a bit of a gamble but, hey, if you have prophecy on your side, why not? That's why Luke wasn't told about the lightning rod lightsaber technique. That's why Luke was setup for failure. Ben and Yoda wanted to use him as emotional bait for Vader."
It's a really clever theory and it absolutely fits. And not only that, it suggests what might have happened if Luke had failed to turn his father:
"I have no doubts that if Luke failed to motivate Vader to switch, Yoda and Ben would have sent Leia to fall on a lightsaber too. They really are manipulative sadistic bastards."
Pretty dark, but also pretty damn convincing.