I think it comes down to how the montage is handled, and that Lorne and HappyDaze both have a point.

Yes, the ESB training sequence did reveal a few things about Luke's character as well as tease his connection to Vader, and that Luke still had some maturing to do (he got rather petulant about failing to move the X-Wing, showing he still had a lot of maturing to do), but there were some snippets that could have been trimmed. And apparently there were extra bits in the script that got trimmed anyway, such as one sequence showing Luke practice his Force-enhanced leaps, first with Yoda dangling Luke's lightsaber from a high tree branch, and another with Luke having improved his leaping ability to make a rather prodigious jump but fall a bit short of the mark, landing in a pool of swamp water and getting Yoda soaked in the process, which then cuts over to the handstand/levitation sequence.

I think an in-game training montage can be useful, but should be used sparingly. Of course, YMMV as to how sparing is sparing enough.

In games, I despise on-screen training. It just doesn't entertain me at all.

That's fine, to each their own. I personally enjoy them. I've played enough online games of World of Darkness in the Mage or Werewolf gamelines to not enjoy training. I was the guy that "newb" mages would come to, to learn how to do their magic. Most GM's on the sites would require the players to justify XP purchases with in-game training, and I got a reputation for making the training scenes fun. So I enjoy them a lot. But it can be boring, if you don't do them well. They're not for everyone, but it is possible to play them up for fun, and have it work.

In games, I despise on-screen training. It just doesn't entertain me at all.

All you need is... a montage!

I prefer this montage scene

Though South Park had some pretty awesome training montages over the years. Pity they're not on youtube.

There's nothing specifically saying you can't, but where's the fun in learning lightsaber skills off camera?! I want to play that stuff up for awesomesauce if it's my character, or in my campaign for one of my players. Learning it off camera is....meh. And who wants a meh campaign?

Exactly. The most memorable scenes in ESB are Luke's training sessions with Yoda -- they reveal a lot about the protagonist. I think I've had "on camera" training sessions with every Jedi PC I've ever ran -- I want to see the character's character!

Asteroid chase through the hoth belt, cloud city opening scene, Han kissing Leia, force chokes, Han in carbonite, Luke duelling with Vader, "No, I am your father." And from all those scene you choose "Wars do not make anyone great", "There is no try". WTF is wrong with you?

I see training montages as cool, but only if theres actual meaningful character development to go with it.

One training montage was described between my experienced force emergent, Tobin, training with a storm trooper commando turned force emergent/Jedi in training on blindfolded deflections. All under the supervision of a clone commando recently released from Carbonite. The scene was him reflecting on the clone wars and telling stories of a particlar group of Jedi that saved his life over Rectus Prime, and how a mere padawan fought Grevious and lived (funnily enough, all tales from a one shot campaign we had at the start of this year! XD). The descriptions of tales of how the Jedi from his point of view stood for a grand order of justice, and how a couple of them dropping into battle turned the tide and that "watching you train really reminds me of those days. Perhaps you can bring that magic back."

Ironically the Jedi he referred to have, by my character's hypothesis/repeated encounters were either recruited young or became inquisitors. Two of the five Jedi described strongly matched the descriptions of two inquisitors that this squad had survived multiple times against. So the information was doubly interesting.

Of course, the training montage largely consisted of the occational "ow!" but otherwise it improve what was otherwise just a self improvement exercise.

There's nothing specifically saying you can't, but where's the fun in learning lightsaber skills off camera?! I want to play that stuff up for awesomesauce if it's my character, or in my campaign for one of my players. Learning it off camera is....meh. And who wants a meh campaign?

Exactly. The most memorable scenes in ESB are Luke's training sessions with Yoda -- they reveal a lot about the protagonist. I think I've had "on camera" training sessions with every Jedi PC I've ever ran -- I want to see the character's character!

You and I have some very different opinions on training scenes. I found almost every other scene in ESB more entertaining than Luke's training (I didn't even really care for Yoda).

In games, I despise on-screen training. It just doesn't entertain me at all.

Probably because they're not being properly framed as a dramatic scene, as every scene should be. If the training scene is "here, do this" and there's no conflict, no drama, then yes, it's going to be boring just like any scene where "nothing happens."

But I've used them to introduce a mentor, introduce an interloping NPC, reveal something about the trainer, etc. And, of course, there's always foreshadowing.

There's nothing specifically saying you can't, but where's the fun in learning lightsaber skills off camera?! I want to play that stuff up for awesomesauce if it's my character, or in my campaign for one of my players. Learning it off camera is....meh. And who wants a meh campaign?

Exactly. The most memorable scenes in ESB are Luke's training sessions with Yoda -- they reveal a lot about the protagonist. I think I've had "on camera" training sessions with every Jedi PC I've ever ran -- I want to see the character's character!

You and I have some very different opinions on training scenes. I found almost every other scene in ESB more entertaining than Luke's training (I didn't even really care for Yoda).

In games, I despise on-screen training. It just doesn't entertain me at all.

Probably because they're not being properly framed as a dramatic scene, as every scene should be. If the training scene is "here, do this" and there's no conflict, no drama, then yes, it's going to be boring just like any scene where "nothing happens."

But I've used them to introduce a mentor, introduce an interloping NPC, reveal something about the trainer, etc. And, of course, there's always foreshadowing.

It's not necessarily a framing issue. You can put a gold frame on a fecal smearing and it's still not art...it's just crap on a canvass.

Actually some people have done stuff exactly like that, and it was/is considered art. "Eye of the Beholder" and all that jazz.

He can self-train it.

Just like you can learn to do things in life yourself without someone tutoring you all the time. Very simple.