Why is everybody looking for Luke?(*spoilers*)

[Drathnoxis]

Luke's been moping on some mountain for 20 years and hasn't shown any intention of returning, why is everybody expending thousands of troops in a mad pursuit for him? I can't think of a reason for anybody to want to find him. It's not like Rey wanted to find him so he could train her because she didn't even know she had the force for half the film. The other good guys don't have a reason to look for him either, especially since nobody else bothers to go with Rey to see him at the end. The bad guys maybe want to find him and kill him because he's a Jedi and they're Sith and killing Jedi is what Sith do. That's a really weak excuse though, also Luke's already been disgraced and taken himself out of the game, there isn't really much point in pursuing the matter further.

This is the main plot for the film and I don't think we were ever given an explanation for it. How can I get invested in the heroes plight if it's not made clear why I should care if they ever accomplish their goal? It's like the writer just thought, "oh well everybody in the audience wants to see Luke, since he was the protagonist in the OT, that's enough motivation."

Also Luke is kind of a jerk! He makes everybody run through hoops to find him by splitting his map coordinates into multiple pieces and hiding them in various locations, like he's so great and troubled that anybody who wants to see him should have to go through a treasure hunt to find him. Why didn't he just tell Leia what mountains he was hiking in and not to bother him unless it was really important.

Did I just miss something and they actually said why they want to find him?
EDIT: I mean, were any motivations actually given in the film by anyone?

 

[Elfgore]

Luke is the last trained Jedi. The last person who holds their knowledge and training methods. The First Order wants him dead so they can be the only force users left in the galaxy. The Resistance wants him to train a new generation of Jedi. Ray pretty much just gets all wrapped up in with the conflict.

That's my best guess from why their looking for him. Now for the whole map thing, you'll have to find someone else.

 

[Fappy]

He didn't make the map, nor does it lead to him specifically. It's not explained well at all in the film, but it's implied the map leads to the first Jedi temple where Leia and Han believe he exiled himself to. R2-D2's map came from the archives he hacked in Episode IV while on the Death Star. Remember, Kylo Ren also mentions they have part of the map from the Imperial archives. Why would anyone have pieces of a map to Luke that predate Luke going AWOL? Because it is a map to the temple, not him.

As for why they are looking for him... all we have to go on is what Han told us. To be honest, in that moment he was projecting his own weakness onto Luke: describing Luke's actions from his percpective. The point of the scene is that he feels guilty for abandoning hope when his son fell to the dark side and imagines Luke feels the same way. It's safe to assume that Luke is in self imposed exile, but it's not outright proven in the movie. As far as we know he is still actively involved in the plot during the events of VII and what he's been up to will be a secret until VIII comes out. Snoke may have just wanted to get rid of the Jedi by killing him, the last Jedi Knight, or perhaps he knows Luke is up to something and wants to stop him.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Because he's the macGuffin [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin],
his only purpose is to give the heroes and the villains something in common to pursue.

 

[DefunctTheory]

The First Order wants to find him because their not stupid - Luke is the anvil hanging over their head, and potentially the only person who can actually threaten Snoke. He destroyed a Death Star, disrupted the Empire's plans more then once, and not only physically defeated the second most deadly individual in recent memory (In universe), but was able to redeem the most irredeemable person of all time, a true victory over the Dark Side. Luke could potentially slam into The First Order like a wrecking ball, spear heading a military campaign against their assets and scrambling any sort of force shenanigans Snoke or Kylo try. Worst still, Luke could try to start another Jedi Order again, and if he's successful (Which seems more then likely, without Snoke's interference), that spells doom for them. And remember, no one knew what Luke was doing - For all Snoke knew, that's exactly what Luke has been doing.

The Resistance (Which sounds so much lamer then Rebels), want to find Luke for pretty much the same reason - He's hands down the most dangerous living being in the galaxy. Their fighting a losing battle against the First Order, time has degraded their military assets to a hilariously pathetic level, and it appears the New Republic has cut off a lot of their recruiting avenues, since every planet living under the Republic is, or was, living under a peaceful regime less likely to produce freedom fighters. Luke is essentially their Starkiller or Death Star - One single hope their throwing all their resources at because it's their best chance.

And, of course, Leia is in charge of the Resistance, and she has her own reasons for looking for him. They're siblings and they love each other. She may also hold out some hope that Luke could help to get her son back.

Also, Luke didn't leave pieces of a puzzle laying around for people to find. The map fragment they found simply had the planet he went to (No explanation for where that information came from is given. Perhaps he did leave just this one piece behind). The Empire was the only institution in the galaxy with a full galactic map, so the fragment is useless to the Resistance. R2-D2 doesn't hold a piece of a puzzle, it simply has a full galactic map because it has never had it's memory fully wiped. As the personal droid of a Jedi general, R2 is stacked with pre-Empire data. Presumably, Luke did end up wiping the part of the map he went to.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think the First Order, and especially Lord Snoke, want to find him because they aren't Sith. No one in the movie is called a Sith, or even 'Darth' something. Granted, in the original trilogy, we didn't know what those terms were so no one was ever called that either, but now we do, so you'd think someone would drop one of those two terms. But no, nothing.
As such, The First Order knows that if Luke ever comes back, or the Resistance ever finds him and gets him to train actual Jedi, the First Order is in serious trouble. As such, they want to find him and stop him. It would be hilarious if they tried though, because we know they'd only send Kylo and his Knights, and Luke would probably stomp them into paste.

As for the Resistance, Luke is more than just Luke. He is a symbol of hope, the hero who--to a lot of people probably--saved the galaxy from the Dark Side by himself last time. They need him back to do it again, or at least give people hope that they can stand up and fight.
On the more practical side of things, the First Order has Kylo, Snoke, and probably a few of the Knights in terms of Force Users. The Resistance and the Republic have...no one. They need their own special force of Force Users, and Luke is the best bet to train them. Not everyone in the Republic is going to agree with that, considering what happened, but Leia knows it's true and so do a lot of other people.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Obviously the whole map split up is so that he does not want to be found!! Well ok if he really doesn't want to be found then he should of went to another planet (or is there a tracker) or hid undergound and not out in the open.

As for the groups motives-

New Order- Want him dead (seeing how he's the last Jedi and he did blow up the Deathstar and help destory the Empire aswell).

Resistance- Want his help against the New Order (yes the OP mention how none of them went with Chewie and Rey but who is to say is Rey is on their behalf?)

Rey- Answers obivously (what and how she got the force which I unde the impression he is her father due to her childhood thing) and maybe some training too.

 

[default]

His power converters finally arrived in the mail, they just want to drop them off for him.

 

[DoPo]

Rey- Answers obivously (what and how she got the force which I unde the impression he is her father due to her childhood thing) and maybe some training too.

Also worth noting that she initially didn't really want to go and find him - she didn't just jump in and immediately go and try and fetch Luke - Rey very specifically said she didn't want to - people continually tried to get her to to not return to Jakku. It was only after she was revealed to be a Force user that she was the convincing started to take effect.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Guys?
He's the protagonist of the original movies?

 

[kris40k]

His power converters finally arrived in the mail, they just want to drop them off for him.

I now need to see the ending scene re-edited to show Rey holding out a box labeled from Toshi Station.

 

[ThatOtherGirl]

Luke is going to be an extremely potent symbol. While we know the rebellion was a massive collective effort but most of the credit for its success was probably heaped on the big 3, and Luke most of all.

I mean, consider the events of Jedi and the rumors that probably started. Luke is probably seen as the greatest assassin of all time at the very least. He gets himself deliberately captured by Jabba, and Jabba and his entire army end up dead, luke walks away without a scratch. He gets himself deliberately caputred by the Emperor of the galaxy and Darth Vader, men who can kill you by thinking aggressively in your direction, and both of them end up dead, Luke walks away with no apparent injuries.

Even discounting all of his force ability he is a living legend. News he has joined the resistance could turn the tide of the war alone just because people would be far more willing to join Lukes army than some random resistance.

And then there are his force abilities.

That is a guy you either want on your side or you want bombed from orbit.

 

[Something Amyss]

Because he's the macGuffin [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MacGuffin],
his only purpose is to give the heroes and the villains something in common to pursue.

And the fans would be pissed if he wasn't in it. It's a twofer.

 

[EHKOS]

Because he's the protagonist of the original movies?

This, and the other reason is I don't care because it spawned my most enjoyed Twitter account: @VeryLonelyLuke.
I've never laughed so hard at Twitter. I mean, I never laughed at anything on Twitter before, but...um.

 

[mrdude2010]

He's the last trained Jedi. He gets taken out, there's no way for any Jedi to start up a new order without building everything from scratch.

The more ridiculous part is that Luke is treated as a myth, despite being a huge rebellion figure like 30 or 40 years ago. Did no one write anything down?

 

[GundamSentinel]

He's the last trained Jedi. He gets taken out, there's no way for any Jedi to start up a new order without building everything from scratch.

The more ridiculous part is that Luke is treated as a myth, despite being a huge rebellion figure like 30 or 40 years ago. Did no one write anything down?

Well, have you ever seen a book in Star Wars? It's hard to even find paper. I wouldn't be surprised if almost all the people in the Star Wars universe were illiterate.

Also, speaking of the rebellion, I still don't get how the factions in episode VII relate to each other. There's the First Order, the Republic and 'the Resistance'. The Resistance seems to be resisting the First Order, but the First Order is at war with the Republic. Isn't the Resistance part of the Republic then, and if so, why aren't they just 'the Republican Army'?

 

[Supernova1138]

He's the last trained Jedi. He gets taken out, there's no way for any Jedi to start up a new order without building everything from scratch.

The more ridiculous part is that Luke is treated as a myth, despite being a huge rebellion figure like 30 or 40 years ago. Did no one write anything down?

Well, have you ever seen a book in Star Wars? It's hard to even find paper. I wouldn't be surprised if almost all the people in the Star Wars universe were illiterate.

Also, speaking of the rebellion, I still don't get how the factions in episode VII relate to each other. There's the First Order, the Republic and 'the Resistance'. The Resistance seems to be resisting the First Order, but the First Order is at war with the Republic. Isn't the Resistance part of the Republic then, and if so, why aren't they just 'the Republican Army'?

It's not made clear in the movie, but supplementary materials indicate that the Republic and the First Order weren't formally at war. The Galaxy is in some sort of Cold War state where there may be at least several Imperial factions around, with the Republic being larger than any one of them, but could potentially be threatened if all the Imperials chose to work together. The Republic Senate did not view the First Order to be any real threat, namely because they didn't know that the First Order had their own planet busting super weapon. The Resistance is Leia Organa's private army that has some limited backing from the Republic to fight the First Order. Leia believed the First Order was a much greater threat than they appeared to be, but the Republic Senate did not want to disrupt the balance of power or start a lengthy war by directly confronting the First Order.

Supposedly there was a scene cut from the movie where Leia did go to the Republic Senate to ask for aid in fighting the First Order that would have clarified the political situation in the Galaxy, but it was cut, possibly because it was too reminiscent of the Prequel's Senate scenes.

 

[DefunctTheory]

He's the last trained Jedi. He gets taken out, there's no way for any Jedi to start up a new order without building everything from scratch.

The more ridiculous part is that Luke is treated as a myth, despite being a huge rebellion figure like 30 or 40 years ago. Did no one write anything down?

Well, have you ever seen a book in Star Wars? It's hard to even find paper. I wouldn't be surprised if almost all the people in the Star Wars universe were illiterate.

Also, speaking of the rebellion, I still don't get how the factions in episode VII relate to each other. There's the First Order, the Republic and 'the Resistance'. The Resistance seems to be resisting the First Order, but the First Order is at war with the Republic. Isn't the Resistance part of the Republic then, and if so, why aren't they just 'the Republican Army'?

The First Order is what is left of the Empire. They want the typical Empire stuff - Galactic Domination. They are functionally at war with everyone.

The New Republic is the collection of planets that successfully re-instated the Senate upon Sidious's death. They are not at war with anyone, and considering the existence of of The Last Order, seem to have fallen back on the old habit of being entirely useless. Certain factions within the Republic support the Resistance, but not really on an official basis.

The Resistance is the core or the old Rebellion. It's been gutted by 30 years of fighting and people leaving and joining the New Republic (Which is what the Rebels wanted to do originally). The only people left are the ones who will not rest until the last of the Empires filth is wiped clean, or they die. At war with The First Order.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Okay, so reading the thread so far people seem to be bringing up 4 main points, but I'm not convinced that the narrative of the movie fully supports them.

1) Luke can train more Jedi
The reason Luke went into exile in the first place is that his initial attempt at starting his own Jedi academy was such a wash that he threw his hands up and went to live on a mountain. Expecting him to just start another Jedi school after that seems fanciful. Also, Jedi don't need teachers anymore according to the movie, since Rey doesn't have any problems teaching herself advanced Jedi abilities on the fly.

2) Luke is a threat to the first order
Again, Luke is on a mountain. If he cared at all about the damage his fallen pupil is wreaking he probably wouldn't have waited 20-30 years before getting off his butt to do something about it. Even if Luke did oppose them, he's still just one man. The common argument against Rey being completely OP in the final confrontation with Ren was that he was shot with a bowcaster bolt, so obviously Jedi aren't immune to conventional weaponry. The Empire First Order could just give a hundred of their men bowcasters and tell them to go wild. Although, these are stormtroopers... Better make it a thousand, chances are somebody will land a hit.

3) Luke is a symbol to the resistance
We never really saw that the resistance was really hurting for recruits or anything, it was never shown that there was any lack of morale amongst the forces. Even without Luke the resistance didn't have any problem pulling together to blow up the Death Planet in a sub-plot. So I don't see why there is any need for Luke as a symbol. In fact, I would say that the resistance already has a symbol: Poe. He's a charismatic, and ludicrously skilled pilot, who has now lead the assault that blew up the planet that blew up 5 planets. He's as big a hero as Luke ever was and he didn't even need magic powers to do it.

4) Gotta kill the last Jedi
Someone pointed out that the bad guys haven't been called Sith, so if it's true that they aren't Sith I don't see why they should be interested in exterminating Jedi just for the heck of it. I mean, if there's a Jedi just sitting on a rock, the last thing you want to do is try and kill him, getting him angry so he'll come and thwart your ambiguous plans. Also, Jedi (and Sith) just seem to just pop up out of the woodwork --like Rey-- so hunting them down for the sake of it seems like playing a game of wack-a-mole.

 

[DoPo]

Also, Jedi don't need teachers anymore according to the movie, since Rey doesn't have any problems teaching herself advanced Jedi abilities on the fly.

You may have had a point if being a Jedi was about casting space spells. It's not. You don't have a point.