Luke Skywalker's Jedi

"He was training a new generation of Jedi. One boy, an apprentice turned against him, destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible... He walked away from everything."

- Han Solo

A new generation of Jedi was trained by the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker sometime after the Battle of Endor and the end of the Galactic Civil War, which saw the Rebel Alliance defeat the Galactic Empire. Skywalker, who had become the last of the Jedi when his old master, Yoda, died, began to fulfill his promise of passing on what he had learned from his teachings of the old Jedi Order.

Among Skywalker's students was his nephew Ben, who was the son of his sister Leia Organa and the Alliance General Han Solo. Ben, however, was seduced by the dark side of the Force at the coaxing of Snoke, an enigmatic figure who spearheaded the Imperial-inspired First Order, and took on the name Kylo Ren.

The new generation of Jedi students were betrayed and destroyed by Ren at their Jedi Temple, and Skywalker, feeling responsible, went into exile following the massacre. Skywalker disappeared from the galaxy and left only traces of his location on a star map, which eventually led the Resistance and the Force-sensitive Rey to the planet Ahch-To, where Luke had taken refuge in the first Jedi Temple.

Precursor
"Luke, when gone am I... the last of the Jedi will you be. Luke, the Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned, Luke."

- Yoda's last words to Luke Skywalker

For over a thousand generations before the Age of the Empire, the Jedi Order acted as the guardians and peacekeepers of Galactic Republic and the galaxy. However, after a galactic conflict that split the Republic in two, known as the Clone War, the Republic was dissolved and the Galactic Empire arose in its place. With the rise of the Empire, the Jedi Knights were hunted down and destroyed by the Galactic Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice, the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Vader had fallen to the dark side of the Force and abandoned his identity of Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight. 19 years after the formation of the Empire, however, the Emperor and Vader discovered that Anakin Skywalker had fathered a son named Luke Skywalker, an individual strong with the Force and the protégé of Vader's former Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Skywalker had begun learning the ways of the Jedi and had become a key ally to the Rebel Alliance's war effort against the Empire. After numerous engagements with the Empire, Skywalker became the apprentice of the Jedi Master-in-exile Yoda, who believed that his new Padawan was the last hope for the galaxy. Yoda, when he eventually lay dying, told Skywalker that in order to become a Jedi Knight, he needed to defeat Vader and pass on what he had learned as the last of the Jedi.

In Skywalker's final engagement over Endor against Vader and the Emperor, he rejected the dark side and refused to kill his father as the Emperor demanded. As Palpatine attempted to kill Skywalker with Force lightning, Vader returned to the light and redeemed himself by killing the Emperor and saving his son, albeit at the cost of his own life. With the Empire defeated, Skywalker eventually began training a new generation of Jedi, and sought to bring about the return of the Jedi Order. He also sought out long-forgotten Jedi lore as he pondered how to resurrect the Jedi Order.

Following the end of the Galactic Civil War, the remnants of the Empire were forced into peace with the newly-formed New Republic by way of the Galactic Concordance, which put strict provisions on the remnant. In the Unknown Regions, this eventually fueled the formation of the Imperial-offshoot known as the First Order. In the meantime, Skywalker gained a new ally in an individual named Lor San Tekka, a member of Church of the Force during the dark times, who believed the return of the Jedi was necessary to have balance in the Force and aided Skywalker in retrieving lost Jedi lore.

A new generation
"It was Snoke. He seduced our son to the dark side. But we can still save him. Me. You."'' "If Luke couldn't reach him, how could I?" ''"Luke is a Jedi... you're his father. There's still light in him. I know it."

- Leia Organa and Han Solo, speaking of Kylo Ren

Soon after the end of the war, the Alliance General Han Solo and the former Princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa, were married and had a son named Ben. Ben was Luke Skywalker's nephew, as Organa was his twin sister, a fact Skywalker only learned from the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi following Yoda's death. Along with numerous other students, Skywalker took on Ben as one of his new generation of Jedi learners at the behest of his sister.

From the shadows, an enigmatic individual name Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order, plotted to make Ben his personal apprentice and, over time, seduced him to the dark side of the Force. When Organa noticed this, she sent Ben to Skywalker in an effort to have her son trained in the ways of the Jedi and remain on the light side of the Force. During this time, Ben was trained in lightsaber combat and became skilled with the Jedi weapon. Skywalker and his Jedi trained together in at least one Jedi Temple during this time. At some point, Ben fully gave into the dark side of the Force and became the apprentice of Snoke, joining the First Order and the Knights of Ren in the process, also taking on the new identity of Kylo Ren. Ren betrayed his fellow Jedi students, and, due to Ren's skills with his lightsaber, he massacred them all, essentially destroying Skywalker's new Jedi and his hopes of bringing back the Jedi Order. Among the ranks of the First Order, Ren quietly became known as the "Jedi Killer." Ren had become obsessed with the fulfilling the legacy of his grandfather, but as the dark lord Darth Vader instead of the redeemed Anakin Skywalker.

Skywalker was unable to stop the massacre, witnessing only the burning of his Jedi Temple alongside his astromech droid, R2-D2, following the destruction left behind by Ren. Skywalker felt responsible for the ordeal and decided to exile himself, although those closest to him learned that he was also searching for the first Jedi Temple. Skywalker only left traces of his location in a single star map, with the remaining data being present in old Galactic Empire records. Skywalker eventually found the first Jedi Temple on an aquatic planet Ahch-To, where he took up refuge and lived in exile as a hermit.

The awakening
"The map! It is complete!"'' ''"Luke."

- C-3PO and Leia Organa, at last, discover Luke Skywalker's location

As Luke Skywalker's efforts to rebuild the Jedi Order had seemingly failed, the Jedi Master's fabled return became a symbol of hope for those who believed in him and the Jedi. For others he remained a myth, but he also posed a threat for those who feared his reappearance, such as Snoke and the First Order, who believed Skywalker's return would also mean the rise of the Jedi.

While Skywalker's location was unknown to the galaxy at large, his old ally, Lor San Tekka, came into possession of the map some 30 years after the Battle of Endor. When the Resistance, an effort against the First Order led by Leia Organa, learned of this, they attempted to retrieve the map from San Tekka's residence on Jakku. The First Order, however, also seeking Skywalker in an effort to destroy the last of the Jedi, likewise learned of San Tekka's findings and attacked Jakku in an effort to retrieve it. An astromech droid named BB-8, with the map in tow, successfully escaped from Jakku with the aid of a Force-sensitive scavenger named Rey and a former First Order stormtrooper named Finn. They met and traveled alongside Han Solo and his Wookiee partner, Chewbacca, in a journey to return BB-8 to the Resistance. After a devastating attack against the New Republic by the First Order's Starkiller Base, the Resistance sought to destroy the First Order superweapon. Once there, Han Solo attempted to turn his son back to the light, but he was killed by Ren instead, who was attempting to fully commit to Snoke and the dark side. Rey subsequently defeated Ren in a lightsaber duel and Starkiller Base was destroyed, after which the Resistance finally pieced together the map to Skywalker with help from R2-D2. Organa, relieved to finally find her brother, sought to bring him home. She sent Rey, along with Chewbacca and R2-D2, to Ahch-To, where the young girl found Skywalker among the refuge of the first Jedi Temple.

There, Rey presented the Jedi Master with his father's lightsaber&mdash;which he had lost on Cloud City decades prior&mdash; as a symbol of the only hope the galaxy had left in defeating Ren, Snoke, and the First Order by bringing about the return of the Jedi.

Behind the scenes
Luke Skywalker's new generation of Jedi was first mentioned in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, along with the film's novelization and junior novelization. Further background details about the Jedi and their massacre, which saw the end of Luke's students, could be found in the reference book Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens junior novelization