The enigmatic Lor San Tekka

He kicked things off with a bang in the ST by saying the controversial line "This will begin to make things right."

He faced Kylo Ren and certain death with admirable courage and a "No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignityyyyy" attitude that immediately won the hearts of many TFA viewers, including yours truly. By the same token, his unusual circumstances and mysterious role as village elder and follower of the Church of the Force made many suspect that this scholar and explorer may not be as wholesome as he seems.



Lor San Tekka is one of my favorite of the new characters introduced in TFA. He had brief but powerful moments on screen that made a strong impression and which impacted the narrative in subtle ways. He was the first character to introduce in us the idea that Kylo Ren does not belong to the dark side, and he reminded Ren that he needs to get back to the light, where he belongs.

By the way, LST bears the distinction of being one of the few characters that Kylo Ren is overtly (and rather shockingly) rude to -- in response to which he delivers one of my favorite zingers in the entire film:

Kylo Ren: Look how old you've become.
Lor San Tekka: Something far worse has happened to you. (Oh snap... burn, baby burn.)

One of the best theories that I've encountered regarding the possible background of Lor San Tekka comes from http://spoiledbluemilk.com/, where it was proposed that Lor San Tekka's origins may be explored in Rogue One, and may find him playing a pivotal offscreen role in the OT. Here are the main points of the theory:

-Lor San Tekka was the architect of the Death Star.
-After being converted to the Church of the Force and realizing that the Jedi are needed, he underwent a profound personal conversion that led him to renounce his allegiance to the Empire.
-He gave Leia the plans to the Death Star, leading to events in the OT.
-Following his disavowal of the Empire, at some point he changed his name to Lor (knowledge) San (without) Tekka (technology). This is super cool if true, and fitting because as I understand it the village he settles in in Jakku does not use technology?

If this theory proves to be true we will get to explore this awesome character in Rogue One, and we'd have yet another common thread running through the PT/Rogue One/OT/ST outside of the Skywalkers/Solos/hopefully Kenobis.

And most significantly to me as a fan of Kylo Ren and a proponent of the Kylo Ren Redemption theory: if it's true that Lor San Tekka was the architect of the Death Star or otherwise had a dark origin, then his belief in the importance of protecting the Light and his willingness to die for the cause he believes in would signify that he in fact also experienced a redemption arc of his own earlier in the story. It would make the moment where he calls out to Kylo Ren and in a sense urges him to turn to the light all the more poignant.

What are your thoughts and theories about Lor San Tekka?
Reply below to sound off!

I hadn't given much thought to Lor San Tekka. But it appears from what we have seen that LST has had close ties to Luke, and clearly he knew Ben well before he turned.

I think that LST had ties to the Jedi Academy, and he knew Ben there, perhaps as a scholar or a teacher of light side philosophy. If there was a whole academy, clearly there was more than one kid, and surely Luke couldn't have taught them all on his own. If LST taught meditation or emotional regulation, I can see young Ben struggling and hating his teacher.

It would be interesting to me if LST somehow escaped the massacre, and if he did escape (by mercy or by accident) it would make Kylo's execution of him more than a mere fit of pique. It would be, then, not just a fit of pique, but completing the job that was supposed to have been done years ago.

And I doubt Kylo wants someone who knows so much about his weaknesses anywhere near Hux, Phasma, and holographic Snoke.

Huh, I'd never thought of LST being part of Luke's academy, but that is a good thought. Definitely he has a connection to Kylo Ren's family, especially to Leia given how he speaks of her to Poe. That's why I like the idea of his having been the one to give the Death Star plans to her back in the day, but there are of course many other possibilities.

Here is Lor San Tekka's entry in the Visual Dictionary.
Interesting that it is made clear that he is not FS.

That entry actually is supportive of the idea that LST could have taught at the Academy. I like my theory.

I like it too.
He wears a "chain of Wisdom". Lor San Tekka... so fly...

Mmmmm. The costume is interesting.

I have been wanting to examine the contents of the trunk in which the light saber is found by Rey to see if there are any "clues" there. It contains a book, a woven ocre-and-green-striped garment like the one LST is wearing above, a red velvet pouch with gold trim, and a chain/necklace with beads similar to the one LST wears above.

I think someone's belongings were packed up at the academy. The question will be--is that Ben's trunk? Or LST's? Or someone else's?

I like that they cast max von sydow... i feel that old lor is so dignified. He probably knows he won't last. I'm still struggling with the academy and all the things that are supposed to have happened. I'm really reluctant to speculate.

*sigh*

I don't know whether i like the idea of luke planning for a teacher of emotional regulation. I mean it would be great in one way but why did everyone fail so spectacularly?

It's just a theory, i know

All of these things that you are saying about LST are really intriguing, particularly the owner of the contents of that box. I gasped at the thought of it being Ben's because that might be really likely, considering Ben seems to be the rightful owner of the lightsaber. (I really need to get that Blu Ray already).

I do think that LST definitely had something to do with Luke's academy, such as it was. This is hinted by the fact that he has possession of this link to Luke's location, his force-worshipping status and all the information in the books that he was a leader of this force-acolyte group. Luke could have had a community located somewhere else. Perhaps, Tattooine, like in that VR game. Tattooine may have been where it all "went down," and then survivors escaped to Jakku, because Jakku has some weird force properties. (I am still open to the thought that Rey's force powers may somehow be suppressed or masked by the Jakku atmosphere.) (Also, if this turns out to be true, you have to wonder if Kylo knew they were there or not or if he found out recently.)

I also think that based on the book and the exchange between Kylo and LST in the movie that there is definitely history between them, and negative history at that ... not just that LST knew Kylo's mother. In the book Kylo accuses LST of endangering the people, and LST replies with something like "this village and I made our peace a long time ago", which makes me think that not only does Kylo have some personal bad blood with LST, but that LST and the village may have been in some kind of confrontation in the past with Kylo and that that confrontation may have been what happened at Luke's "academy". Remember that Pablo said that he wouldn't necessarily call it an "academy". A few force sensitives and a bunch of acolytes does not an academy make, but a kind of spiritual community it does.

There was another thing that I noticed on the next page of the Visual Dictionary. There is a picture of one of the acolytes and she is described as wearing something called the belt or band of "the balanced." This goes back to the dogma discussion that @guardienne and I were having in the other forum, but I'll get there in a minute. At the same time they are supposedly so spiritual, the village seems to be pretty militant. Is this because Kylo and his Knights attacked them before? Maybe? But why put all that stuff in the books about how the village was so treacherous and so well-armed and had skulls hanging from their windows? I know that they made them look like victims in the movie, but why add all that contradictory detail? Was this a change -or- will their darker qualities come to light in the next two movies?

Mr. "St. Paul Conversion" LST is an image that does not mesh well with skulls in the windows and the warrior readiness seen in the movie. So now back to the dogma ... and the theme of grey. What if LST and his group believe that they are a light-side group, but what if they are really extreme about it ... thus explaining the militancy? Also, back to the band of "the balanced", what if Ben Solo didn't meet their test of being balanced and he was somewhat persecuted for this. And what if there was actually a kind of holy war between the LST and an opposing faction led by Ben (... which eventually went with the already existing KOR) over what the force was really about and it came to blows. *And* it came to blows when Luke was not there to mediate, because supposedly Luke has been gone for a while. This would spin Kylo's Jedi "massacre" in a whole new light. Not necessarily a perfect one, but not the "Anakin kills toddlers" image some have been considering. Also, what if LST was actually quite a hard dude the last time Kylo met him? What if he has mellowed after a few years? What if his calls for Ben to come back to the light are hollow because in the past LST was quite unforgiving with Ben? What if Kylo Ren is thinking right before he kills LST: "This saint act might work with them, but f*** you! I know the real you! I know what you did before! I know what you are!"

Something like that would be awesomely grey ... and to make it even crazier ... What is Leia didn't believe Ben's POV because she already believed that Ben was tainted by the dark side and went with LST's view instead. Maybe she is right to believe LST over Ben, but I just don't think LST is all clean.

Also, the team said that they were playing with ideas about the meaning of the force. One way to deal with that is to have people argue about what the force is about ... to argue what "balance" is about. We have heard about this elusive "balance" before from Qui-Gon.

Just thoughts :-)

Great post @SoloSideCousin!

I'm wondering since the first time I saw the movie, is it a coincidence that LST is on the same planet as Rey?

Queen Rey wrote:I'm wondering since the first time I saw the movie, is it a coincidence that LST is on the same planet as Rey?

I'm not sure, it's certainly suspicious. I don't think he was her Ben Kenobi as he didn't help her in any way and she was in a much worse situation than Luke, but it does seem odd. Maybe there's something about Jakku itself.

Apparently Jakku is your first address if you want to go incognito. Damn it LST, you should have gone to the Outer Rim!

I'm really interested in his back story; I mean we know a bit about him, but not his direct involvement. Who knows when we'll find the whole thing, perhaps in a novel? I hope it won't just be a throwaway line.

What is bugging me to no end is the presence of the MF in Jakku. I mean, there's a whole galaxy at disposal and the MF, LST and "the girl" are in the same planet? Mmmm

^ I fear that some of these may be for storytelling convenience.

I love this discussion because LST is so very Star Wars in that he's this kind of simple character that could conceivably be written off by the audience, but really is a huge clue and key if you dig a bit deeper.

What bugged me about him in particular (and the scenes itself) is - why does he have the crucial part of the Luke Skywalker map? I can't remember where I read it, but it has been made known that Luke did NOT give it to LST to hold, but instead that he found it on his travels and curation of old Jedi/Force artifacts (that it is indeed this reason why he settled on Jakku with his Church village, something to do with history and artifacts - after he settled down, after the Battle of Jakku of course).

ALSO in question is why now? He seems to have gone into complete exile and wanted to be left alone, but he held this incredibly important piece of information - "This will begin to make things right." Is this in reference to something he's doing penance for (his self imposed exile), or the Kylo Ren/Galaxy struggle? Is finding Luke the key to this - or is the temple the key to this? Why would Luke go in search of this ancient temple after the destruction of his academy? Obviously he wanted to be alone, but why on earth would he go on another mission to find something like that? So many questions that stem/spark from this one simple line.

AND how did Poe (and KYLO for that matter) know to visit LST? I'm assuming that he sent a transmission to Leia, etc. or something and it was intercepted, but I doubt he would have mentioned exactly what he had. It seems like Kylo might have been searching for LST and they had been scouting Jakku transmissions for it.

Darth Rowan wrote:One of the best theories that I've encountered regarding the possible background of Lor San Tekka comes from http://spoiledbluemilk.com/, where it was proposed that Lor San Tekka's origins may be explored in Rogue One, and may find him playing a pivotal offscreen role in the OT. Here are the main points of the theory:

-Lor San Tekka was the architect of the Death Star.
-After being converted to the Church of the Force and realizing that the Jedi are needed, he underwent a profound personal conversion that led him to renounce his allegiance to the Empire.
-He gave Leia the plans to the Death Star, leading to events in the OT.
-Following his disavowal of the Empire, at some point he changed his name to Lor (knowledge) San (without) Tekka (technology). This is super cool if true, and fitting because as I understand it the village he settles in in Jakku does not use technology?

If this theory proves to be true we will get to explore this awesome character in Rogue One, and we'd have yet another common thread running through the PT/Rogue One/OT/ST outside of the Skywalkers/Solos/hopefully Kenobis.

I think this also adds credence to the line "To me, she is royalty." so clearly LST knew Leia from before the events in the OT, although I think it more shows that he has history with Alderaan than anything Empire-related (as far as his knowledge of Leia goes) - he could have just been a spy for the Rebellion and that's how she got the plans - still from him, but not because he was the architect.

Although I really like the idea of him being another arrow in the quiver of redemption. Wookiepedia also makes a point to say he became a Church of the Force follower during the Clone Wars, so unfortunately that part is null.

AnneNeville wrote:It appears from what we have seen that LST has had close ties to Luke, and clearly he knew Ben well before he turned.

I think that LST had ties to the Jedi Academy, and he knew Ben there, perhaps as a scholar or a teacher of light side philosophy.

If LST knew Leia from Alderaan and the OT, it makes sense that he would have known her son - I favor the idea that he worked with Luke, but not in an Academy capacity. His main purpose was to search out Jedi history/artifacts (it's why he had the map piece) and I think that was Luke's focus outside of the Academy because so much had been lost during the Empire's reign.

I think it's more likely that he just was on a fact finding mission when Ben turned.

SoloSideCousin wrote:All of these things that you are saying about LST are really intriguing, particularly the owner of the contents of that box. I gasped at the thought of it being Ben's because that might be really likely, considering Ben seems to be the rightful owner of the lightsaber.

I definitely think it's Ben's, Han's 'where did you get that?' to Maz meant he knew it was his son's lightsaber, however the question really is how did Ben lose it? Had he already made his red lightsaber when he destroyed everything? If he knew he was going to do that, why wouldn't he take it with him? Etc. So many questions over something like that.

Also taking into account that the original opening scene was going to be that lightsaber floating through space (I can't remember at what point that was cut out of the script, if they shot it, or whatever). If it was cut later into production or filming, then the idea of Ben owning the lightsaber came much later...but I have a feeling the lightsaber floating part was a very early draft before Kasdan came on board to rewrite it (and with Abrams).

SoloSideCousin wrote:In the book Kylo accuses LST of endangering the people, and LST replies with something like "this village and I made our peace a long time ago", which makes me think that not only does Kylo have some personal bad blood with LST, but that LST and the village may have been in some kind of confrontation in the past with Kylo and that that confrontation may have been what happened at Luke's "academy".  Remember that Pablo said that he wouldn't necessarily call it an "academy".  A few force sensitives and a bunch of acolytes does not an academy make, but a kind of spiritual community it does.

I know this is totally wild, but it's never been actually confirmed that Kylo/Ben was behind the destruction of Luke's work - betrayed and 'destroyed it all' yes, but what if LST and the CotF was a major contributor to its downfall - even if what they were doing was the catalyst for Ben's actions?

I'm a proponent of the Ben-has-been-haunted-by-force-visions-forever idea, and perhaps LST and the village had been experimenting with the Force artifacts - which endangers them, etc.

Or it's just totally possible it's another sign of Kylo's fanaticism against the Jedi teachings - he believes following the Jedi teachings endanger people.

SoloSideCousin wrote:At the same time they are supposedly so spiritual, the village seems to be pretty militant. Is this because Kylo and his Knights attacked them before? Maybe? But why put all that stuff in the books about how the village was so treacherous and so well-armed and had skulls hanging from their windows?

This was a really curious diversion and I think it was deliberate - personally I think they were just militant because they knew the FO existed and sought out the extermination of the Jedi - and its history and assuming the Church of the Force. There are plenty of religions and philosophies out there in history and present that have militaristic capabilities in order to protect their faith and places of worship. The fact that the village had that was not surprising to me in context, but the skulls? Who knows...

SoloSideCousin wrote:One way to deal with that is to have people argue about what the force is about ... to argue what "balance" is about.  We have heard about this elusive "balance" before from Qui-Gon.

The discussion of balance has always confounded and infuriated me, especially since that's what the whole damned prophecy was about in the PT - what would the Force find so necessary to fix that it basically creates Anakin? I think it has to do with his line - remember, Kylo was coveted and sought by Snoke because of his unique natural balance of Light/Dark of the Force - a TRUE balanced Force sensitive.

Apparently, that is really unique - FS people usually are more prone to one side or the other, but with Kylo he has both - it adds to his unhinged state, the conflict, and his power. If they dive deeper into the idea of Force balance then it makes a lot of sense why they emphasized Kylo's nature. Sure he's pretty dark, but that's more because of his allegiance and belief in the FO/Snoke - he is encouraged to use BOTH sides of the Force by Snoke.

What gives, Snoke? But I digress, this is supposed to be about LST =p

Airemyn wrote:

Queen Rey wrote:I'm wondering since the first time I saw the movie, is it a coincidence that LST is on the same planet as Rey?

I'm not sure, it's certainly suspicious. I don't think he was her Ben Kenobi as he didn't help her in any way and she was in a much worse situation than Luke, but it does seem odd. Maybe there's something about Jakku itself.

He was definitely not her Ben Kenobi, and LST's presence is apparently completely independent of Rey's on the planet - however I have to think that there was just some significance to Jakku in general. There was a wonderful theory and discussion on tumblr about how Jakku was apparently some sort of research facility for the Empire that dealt in experiments (similar to Nazi experimentation I would assume) and that's why there is a lot of connection to the planet itself in TFA. LST might have just settled there because that was where the village was already, who knows.

I like this character quite a bit, and wish we had gotten to know him a bit more in the context of 'The Force Awakens'.

Perhaps in the upcoming chapters we will learn a bit more about him, and what ties he has to Ben Solo in his pre-Kylo days.

I think LST go to Jakku by his own intention to find map of first jedi temple . Jakku is the place where the last remnant of imperial and galatic empire hiding and defeated in battle so there might be an imperial/galatic empire archive information about the jedi stored in Jakku so he is going there to find Luke location

here what Han said where Luke location might be to Rey and Finn

   Finn: Do you know what happened to him?
   Han: There were a lot of rumors. Stories. People who knew him best, think he went looking for the first Jedi temple.

I think LST might be one of the people in the bold part of han dialogue

We have an update on Lor San Tekka from the Poe Dameron comic.....

1. Lor San Tekka is an explorer who has visited every sacred site and jedi ruin in the galaxy.
2. He spends time with different force user groups, learning their ways.
3. He was presumed dead until Poe intercepted a holovid of him.

I wonder if his being presumed dead has something to do with the incident at Luke's new jedi order and/or Ben Solo's disappearance.

The feeling that I got out of LST was when he said " This will make things right" is that he was or recently did somethings really bad/wrong and giving the Resistance the map is somewhat him trying to fixed the mistake and the "without the Jedi, there can be no balance to the Force" made me think that he may used to be a pro-DarkSide or involved with the KOR like he could used to think as the Jedi and Sith once did, that their side is the right one and the others is not and must be destroyed to bring balance to the Force and telling that to the KOR but now he finally come to realize that both Dark and Light Side need to coexist to bring balance.

If he and Kylo known each other before, LST could unknowingly a factor for Kylo to falls into the DarkSide and now he's trying to guid Kylo back and the village part make me think it was a threat from Kylo that LST could be the Death to these people and the way LST replied show that he and the villagers are at peace and they're aware of the risk from the very beginning when LST settle here with them.

AnneNeville wrote:^ I fear that some of these may be for storytelling convenience.

The Force works in mysterious ways...

panki wrote:We have an update on Lor San Tekka from the Poe Dameron comic.....

1. Lor San Tekka is an explorer who has visited every sacred site and jedi ruin in the galaxy.
2. He spends time with different force user groups, learning their ways.
3. He was presumed dead until Poe intercepted a holovid of him.

I wonder if his being presumed dead has something to do with the incident at Luke's new jedi order and/or Ben Solo's disappearance.

@panki

Man, I knew I should have gotten that comic last week. I'll go to my comic book store tomorrow and see if they have it already and preferably in English.

I got hold of the comic.....really nicely illustrated and worth a read....I have a feeling we'll get more clues regarding Lor San Tekka's connection to Luke's jedi order as the story progresses...

Lor San Tekka is a mistery

the more i watch his scene with ol' kylo, the more i think, oh god, he is the most annoying person to speak to ever!

does he answer a single question? is he some kind of walking conscience?

I think I've found a character who might be Lor San Tekka before he changed his name. In one of the canon short stories titled 'The End Of History', there is an antique dealer named Antron Bach who had a lot of jedi friends and clients. He would hang out in cantinas on Coruscant and drink tea with jedis, smugglers, academics and archaeologists and he learnt a lot from them.

When the order 66 killings began, a jedi master named Uvell loaded a ship with data cartridges, lightsabers, scrolls, journals, temple archives and other historical artifacts....and asked Antron to hide the ship in an absndoned Geonosian colony on a nameless moon. Antron hid the ship and managed to dodge imperial patrols for a long time. He gives up his ship to help a young Corellian rebel escape to warn her fellow rebels and we don't know his fate....I also noticed a line where he hums a tune during the story of a jedi knight who returns to save his people from across the stars.

"When the Empire falls- a hundred or thousand years from now- the galaxy will have a lot to relearn. The jedi were the best of us, and I want their stories preserved."

"There is no more selfless act than to perish for another's cause."

"Jedi might sacrifice themselves but they never give up hope."



I think Luke might have found him during his travels and he must have given Luke all the jedi material and artifacts to set up the new order, and he must have also told him all he knew based on his old cantina interactions.