Musings on Luke Skywalker

When we left Luke at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, he was a half-trained padawan who'd just gotten his hand lopped off and his ass handed to him by Darth Vader, along with the emotional trauma of learning that the Sith lord might just be his father. When we see him again in Return of the Jedi, he is - but for a formality - a fully fledged Jedi knight, and "no more training does he require". How did this happen? Are we to believe he just worked all this stuff out for himself? I don't think so.

In that interim period, Luke must have encountered someone to help him fulfill his potential. Someone who could show him how to build a new lightsaber to replace the one he lost. Someone who could teach him to go toe to toe with Vader in saber combat (when Vader is actually trying). Someone who, despite no longer being a Jedi (and thus, "the last of the Jedi will [Luke] be"), has managed to resist the call of the dark side for over twenty years, has known ties to the Rebellion, trained under one of the greatest sword masters in the history of the Jedi order, has experience fighting Sith-trained warriors, and has a vested interest in redeeming Vader rather than killing him.