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As Yoda lay dying in The Return of the Jedi, he said,

"The Force is strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned."

The way he phrased it seems indirect, but an obvious interpretation is that he was telling Luke to have children. This would imply he gave up on the Jedi code that Jedi should not have attachments, which is out of character for him since he once told a padawan, Anakin Skywalker, that he should not form attachments because it leads to the dark side.

Is there anything in the novelization or the Disney Canon to suggest that Yoda encouraged Luke to have children?

I prefer answers from Disney Canon over all other canons, but would also accept EU-canon. Please provide quotes from actual sources rather than speculation.

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  • 19
    Maybe just pass it to his sister??
    – Skooba
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 4:07
  • You say 'give up on the Jedi code' as if he knew it already. I always got the impression that Yoda only gave him the broad outline of the Jedi ways.
    – The Dark Lord
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 14:39
  • I actually have a feeling that the arc of the new trilogy will center around the idea that the dark side and the light side are both too dogmatic and the trick is to balance the force within yourself.
    – Matt Burland
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 20:52
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    Maybe Yoda is being prescient given the events before The Force Awakens. He knows it's going to go badly and he should abandon the Force now. He's telling him, not Pass on what you have learned but Pass on what you have learned.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Feb 25, 2017 at 4:22
  • (Yes, I am kidding. )
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Feb 25, 2017 at 4:23

2 Answers 2

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Even though the full passage is:

Luke, the Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned.

Luke, there is another Skywalker...

I never would have interpreted it that way. I took it as separate sentences. As separate trains of thoughts of a dying man, who wanted to say way more than he could.

In essence I saw it thus: You are strong in the force, you and your whole family. Pass on to others what you have learned. I never saw the two connected. Instead I saw it as a "recognition" of lukes power and that he should train others (regardless of blood) to become jedi knights.

And the last part I always saw as Yoda wanting Luke to know the truth, that he has a sister as Yoda wouldn't be able to tell him that any longer else (although it was already too late to tell him).

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  • "I never would have interpreted it that way. I took it as separate sentences. As separate trains of thoughts of a dying man, who wanted to say way more than he could." My interpretation as well. Separate statements by a dying Jedi Master who needed to say so much and had so little time.
    – RichS
    Commented Feb 26, 2017 at 22:28
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You didn't include the end of the quote:

Luke, the Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned.

Luke, there is another Skywalker...

In the scene Yoda was telling Luke to train his existing family, not to go make more Skywalkers.

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    Yeah, that's another interpretation of his words. Good point.
    – RichS
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 4:18
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    Making more Skywalkers seems to be bad for galaxy.
    – PTwr
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 13:58
  • @zzzzBov Did you check out the answer by Thomas. Another good interpretation of Yoda's nearly final words.
    – RichS
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 21:05
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    @PTwr At least in 50% of the cases^^' (the other 50% seem to try to rectify the problem)
    – Thomas
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 5:03
  • @Thomas: Rectify is a big word. I think it would be more accurate to say that the other 50% seem to ameliorate it, if anything. On the other hand, I guess Skywalkers were not directly responsible for neither the Death Star nor the Starkiller, which were probably objectively the two worst things that happened in the films, and you could argue that without Skywalkers' interference Palpatine and Snoke would do just as much evil, anyway. I would say that the jury is out on this one.
    – tomasz
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 16:02

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