Destruction of Luke Skywalker's Jedi temple

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

- Han Solo

The destruction of a new generation of Jedi, trained by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, occurred during the cold war. It was carried out by Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, Skywalker's nephew and one of his apprentices, whose actions left Skywalker's attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order in tatters. Skywalker, the last Jedi, dismayed and distraught by the harsh event, went into exile for years on the planet Ahch-To before he was found again by a young Force-sensitive named Rey who wanted to be trained by him.

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

- Jedi Master Yoda, to Luke Skywalker

At the end of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Sith Lord Darth Sidious&mdash;secretly the Republic's Supreme Chancellor Palpatine&mdash;took fallen Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice. On his master's command, Skywalker, who was given the name Darth Vader, marched on the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and began the eradication of the Jedi Order, while Sidious executed a command to the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic to kill the Jedi. The Jedi were branded as traitors of the Republic, and, with the Jedi Purge leaving the Jedi unable to stop him, Sidious transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with himself as its sovereign ruler.

Over two decades later, Vader's son, Luke Skywalker, trained as a Jedi. The end of the Galactic Civil War saw the redemption of Anakin Skywalker and the end of the Sith, as Anakin killed the Emperor aboard the Death Star II during the Battle of Endor. Luke was the last known Jedi and, as per the wishes of his late Jedi Master Yoda, he began training a new generation of Jedi, numbering a dozen. One such Jedi was his nephew, Ben Solo, the son of Skywalker's sister Leia Organa and the smuggler Han Solo. Organa and Solo chose to send their son to Skywalker for training because he struggled with the dark side of the Force, much as his grandfather, Darth Vader, had once done.

The destruction of the Jedi
"I saw darkness. I'd sensed it building in him. I'd seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would destruction, and pain, and death, and the end of everything I love because of what he would become. And for that briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame... and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him."

- Luke Skywalker to Rey

Ben Solo fell under the influence of Snoke, the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Skywalker sensed the dark side building in him, and it occasionally manifested during his training, although Kylo still wasn't sure which side he needed to choose.

One night, Skywalker entered into Ben's room to confront him. While Ben was sleeping, Skywalker looked into his heart and saw far more darkness than he had expected. Frightened of what the young Solo could become, Skywalker activated his lightsaber preparing to kill Ben and prevent the suffering that he would bring. Skywalker immediately felt ashamed of his instinctual reaction and realized he could never kill his own student and nephew. The young Solo woke up at that moment and saw his Master ready to kill him. Without a second to lose, Solo used the Force to grab his lightsaber and defend himself. At the same time that Skywalker was asking him to not do what he was going to do, Kylo used the Force to tear down the walls of his room and bury Skywalker with the debris, apparently causing the death of his uncle. Kylo managed to somehow get out of his destroyed room and proceed with his task.

Ben turned to the dark side and became Kylo Ren of the Knights of Ren. After getting out of his destroyed room, Kylo burned down Skywalker's temple. Most of Skywalker's Jedi apprentices were slaughtered, but a handful of them left the temple with him. This pivotal event earned Kylo the nickname of "Jedi Killer".

Aftermath
"He must have thought I was dead. When I came to, the Temple was burning. He had vanished with a handful of my students and slaughtered the rest. Leia blamed Snoke, but it was me: I failed... because I was Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master."

- Luke Skywalker to Rey

Unknown to Ren, Luke survived the destruction. Shortly after the massacre, Skywalker emerged from the remains of his nephew's former room, only to find that his Jedi Temple was destroyed and most of his students had been killed by Ren. The galaxy, however, didn't learn about the destruction of Skywalker's Jedi until some years afterward. The destruction of the Jedi left Skywalker's dream of rebuilding the Jedi Order in ruins.

Skywalker believed that it was not Snoke, as Leia thought, but himself who was to blame for the events. He was aware that ultimately, his committing assault on Ben Solo had forced him to make the choice to turn against the Jedi.

Legacy
"Do you know what happened to him?''" "''There're a lot of rumors. Stories. The people who knew him the best think he went looking for the first Jedi temple."

- Finn and Han Solo, about Luke Skywalker's disappearance

The Jedi Master went into exile and vanished from the galaxy, though those closest to him believed that he went off in search of the first Jedi Temple, where he planned to live until his death. A partial map to his location was contained in the memory systems of his astromech droid, R2-D2, who had remained in low power mode ever since his master had disappeared. During the conflict between the First Order and General Organa's Resistance, Poe Dameron traveled to the desert planet Jakku and found the remainder of the map to Skywalker's location. The information was given to him by Lor San Tekka, a member of the Church of the Force who believed that balance could not be brought to the Force unless the Jedi Order returned. That information was placed into Dameron's astromech droid, BB-8, and was eventually brought to the Resistance.

After R2-D2 regained power and the two sections of the map were combined, Skywalker's location was discovered. Rey, a young Force-sensitive&mdash;one who had seen glimpses of the Jedi massacre's aftermath in a vision&mdash;found Skywalker on the planet Ahch-To. Remembering the destruction of his Jedi in the past, Skywalker initially rejected Rey's offer to train her. He later accepted, but later ordered her to abandon Ahch-To after Ren told her of Skywalker's attempt on his life.

Skywalker subsequently attempted to burn the ancient Jedi texts. It was at this point that Master Yoda appeared as a Force ghost in front of Skywalker, convincing him that he would not be the last of the Jedi thanks to Rey's training, allowing Skywalker to finally became one with the Force.

Behind the scenes
The destruction of Luke Skywalker's Jedi was referenced in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Although the event took place in the film's backstory, its aftermath was briefly seen in Rey's vision. The event's development was featured in the 2017 film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, although mostly during Luke Skywalker's and Kylo Ren's flashback sequences.

Though included in the finished version of the film, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was the one who decided to add the three flashbacks which showed the destruction of Luke's Jedi as a late addition, given the fact that these sequences weren't present in the film's script before shooting began. Taking inspiration of the 1950 film Rashōmon, Johnson decided to divide the sequence in three parts instead of just doing a long flashback, wanting something harder to kick Rey's turn in the story.

During a convention, novelist Michael A. Stackpole has expressed interest in write a novel about how Luke Skywalker went into exile following the destruction of his Jedi, even expressing interest to recanonize the Legends character Corran Horn for its story.

Appearances

 * A Leader Named Leia
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A Junior Novel
 * The Force Awakens: Finn's Story
 * Star Wars: The Force Awakens Graphic Novel Adaptation
 * The Force Awakens, Part III
 * Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi