Supposing that the first pilot to fly the trench run (was that Wedge Antilles?) had by pure dumb random luck gotten his proton torpedo into the reactor vent. What then?[ul][]I presume Vader would have pulled away when he saw the Rebel fighters leaving, and survived, no big changes there.[]Luke would not have been the big hero of the Battle of Yavin. Perhaps his rescuing Leia and delivering the Death Star plans would have been enough, but possibly he would have then gone on to be just another Rebel pilot, at least until he became a Jedi.[]Han Solo had lifted off Yavin by then and was struggling with his conscience when the early Rebel victory made it moot. He flies off with the money he got from the rebels, and after that I don’t know.[]Darth Vader would not have made an obsession of finding that Rebel pilot who was strong in the Force. Maybe eventually some Imperial intelligence about a Rebel named “Skywalker” might have come to his attention, but who knows how common a name that was on Tattooine, and whether Vader would have made the connnection?Presumaby Luke would have eventually made his way to Dagoba to be trained by Yoda. If Solo was out of the picture Leia would have departed Hoth on a rebel transport and not gone to Cloud City. Without Solo, Lando Calrissian never gets involved in the struggle against the Empire.[/ul]
Interesting question. Luke would have been lower-profile, but I still think that he’d have had a chance to move up quickly in the rebel ranks if he performed well. After all, he wasn’t just some kid from Tatooine who had ended up on the Death star and helped save Princess Leia - he was the son of a famous Jedi Knight, and had received brief training from another Jedi in hiding, who’d said that he was strong in the Force.
Even the rebel leaders who didn’t believe much in the force would probably have seen that as a good morale thing to play up… the Jedi Knights were associated with the old republic that they were trying to bring back.
On the other hand, I’m not sure how outstanding Luke’s progress would have been without Han to back him up. 
You just gave me a moment. A moment that 30+ years of Star Wars fannery have never made me even think of.
Does EVERYONE in the Star Wars galaxy think that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker? The prequels seem to say no…the purge of the Jedi wasn’t exactly a huge secret. I can’t imagine that the person who actually led that purge was a huge secret, either. So, if the fact that Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader was common knowledge, and Luke’s relationship to Anakin was well-known among the Rebels, how is it that nobody, absolutely nobody, told Luke that his dad was actually Darth Vader?
The only answer that made much sense to me is that it was indeed a well-kept secret - that Darth Vader’s origins were hidden from anyone but - well, let’s see. Vader, Palpatine, Kenobi, and Yoda all knew, obviously. Possibly Baal Organa was told as well.
Remember, the Emperor was taking all kinds of credit for the purge himself, and the clones were involved. I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch that anyone who saw Anakin’s involvement before he got turned into the man in black didn’t live to tell the tale.
The interesting part of this is why. Palpatine could have announced that the Jedi’s golden boy had joined him if he’d wanted to… it might have had advantages in the huge PR challenges of forging his mighty Empire. On the other hand, he’d demonized the Jedi so much that perhaps he was worried about being thought of as weak or foolish if he let it be known that one surviving Jedi was close in his councils.
I was thinking for a brief moment about the possibility of Darth going ‘undercover’ as Anakin, but presumably after the fight with Kenobi, that would be impossible, that nobody would recognize him as Anakin anyway and would be all too likely to recognize him as Vader even without his black suit.
I don’t think Anakin was on anybody’s radar except the jedis, and apart from Obi Wan and Yoda they were all killed. People that knew Anakin probably thought he died with the rest of them and that Vader was somebody else.
The stormtroopers were all clones, right? And they all wore the same armor, right? What if, when they measured the original clone for his armor, they got the measurements wrong, and the armor was uncomfortably constricting to the point where it interfered with the clones ability to aim their weapons?
I wrote a short story a while back called Diary of a Mad Stormtrooper that used this premise. Some of the other “missing” stuff from the original trilogy was also covered.
I think Han would still have joined up with the alliance. If he really had no intention to join he either would have left soon after getting the medal or he just wouldn’t have turned around to help Luke at the Death Star.
Luke would still have become a prominent member of the alliance the same way he did anyways: by becoming a powerful jedi. Remember that he was still just a pilot at the beginning of ESTB.
And Vader would still have become interested in the resurgence of the jedi. When he saw Obi Wan again he had to have known there were more.
So all in all, things would have ended as they did but perhaps through somewhat different means.
Actually no, he was Commander Skywalker by that point.
I don’t think Han was ever really interested in the Alliance itself - I’ve always thought his conscience nagged at him for abandonning his friends (and proto-love interest) in danger, not out of love for the Cause.
My guess, should he have returned to an empty space field filled with debris, is that he’d have disappeared quietly and regretted his decision for the rest of his life. And had he joined them again later on, I doubt Leia and Luke would have welcomed his “I swear I came back, but by then it was already over !” apology and explanation anyway. Too little too late.
Would Luke even be alive? If the Deathstar had blown up early in the battle, Han would have thought “well, they were able to handle that without my help” and flown off to wherever. When Luke came back late from a patrol on Hoth three years later, there wouldn’t have been anyone back at the base who went out looking for him in time.
“Luke Skywalker went to war! He saved every rebel on that moon!”
“No, Han, Luke fell to the ice and froze. Luke wasn’t around to save Endor because you weren’t around to save Luke!”
On the other hand, if Luke isn’t the one that blows up the Death Star, then he doesn’t get the promotion to Commander, and he’s just another pilot on Hoth. He probably wouldn’t be out doing solo recon. He’d be back at base, helping to adapt the speeders to the cold weather. The battle for Hoth goes largely the same way, except that without Han to get her out on the Falcon when she’s cut off from her transport, Leia is captured by the Imperial forces. Unaware of this, Luke leaves Hoth in his X-Wing. The question here is, does he know to go to Dagoba or not? It’s implied in the film that Ben was only able to contact the largely untrained Luke because Luke was near death, so Luke may never get the message to go find Yoda. He’s maybe a Lieutenant in the Alliance, with very little Jedi training. And he’s still not on Vader’s radar screen, so Vader has no reason to set a trap for him using Leia as bait. Luke’s in no position to mount a rescue operation against whatever heavily fortified base Leia is prisoner in, and she likely dies in captivity. When the Emperor lays his trap for the Alliance at Endor, Leia, Han, and Lando are absent. Luke is likely a pilot in the assault, instead of part of the ground team. The same almost certainly goes for C3PO. Without Luke’s force powers and 3PO’s shiny metal butt to inspire the natives, the Ewoks never pitch in to help with the battle of Endor, and the shield generator is not destroyed. The Rebel Fleet is annihilated, and the Empire stands victorious.
It’s possible that Commodore Antilles (whose talents were first recognized after his successful destruction of the Deathstar three years earlier) would have been the victor of the Battle of Alphanor, where his surprise flanking attack broke the main Imperial fleet and won the Rebellion. Among the guests at his inauguration as Senator a year later was his old friend, Lt Lou Skywalter I think, who had spent the last four years serving on garrison duty on Hoth. I heard this Skywarper fellow was there at the Deathstar attack - he was part of the reserve back-up. But still the important thing is he did his part and we owe this victory to the anonymous people like him just as much as we owe it to great heroes like Senator Antilles.
Nicely!
Thanks. It seemed timely.
I think all anyone knows is Anakin flipped out and went to Mustafar, never to be seen again. Then sometime later this Darth Vadar fellow showed up as the Emperors right hand. Who else knew? All the Jedi were dead, Kenobi probably just assumed he killed Anakin (although it seems odd to just leave his former protige as a burn, limbless bob on the edge of a lava flow), Padme was dead (lost the will to live…WTF, don’t use the billion dollars of medical equipment around you!). Who would know this guy Vadar was Anakin?
But…Obi-Wan did hear the name Darth Vader referencing Anakin, like when he and Yoda saw “Vader” killing in the temple.
That’s genius! 
After watching that fight between Anakin and Obiwan I thought they should have filmed it like this (bear with me, I’m not a screenwriter)
The fight between Anakin and Obiwan takes place on the lava-planet as shown, however instead of the combatants being basically equal in ability it gradually becomes clear that while Obiwan fights bravely and well he is outmatched by Anakin and is slowly forced backwards and on to the defensive. Eventually Anakin launches a frenzied sequence of attacks and knocks Obiwan onto his back with his lightsabre spinning out of reach, Anakin raises his lightsabre ready to deliver the final blow when Obiwan reaches his hand out to protect himself, “Anakin, don’t!”
Anakin hesitates just for a moment, Obiwan seizes his chance and with his
other hand strikes out and force-pushes Anakin off-balance and sends him tumbling backwards with his lower half and arm in the lava just holding on with one hand. Obiwan jumps to his feet and drags Anakin clear, he looks down with horror and pity, “Anakin…oh Anakin…”
Anakin looks up, rage in his eyes, “I hate you”
Obiwan looks surprised and steps back, a shadow passes across his face as he remembers the slaughter Anakin has committed and his eyes grow cold, he turns on his heel and walks away leaving his apprentice lying crippled on the ash. Anakin calls out, “Obiwan, don’t leave me!” Obiwan walks on and doesn’t look back saying, “Crawl away and die Vader”
He gets into his ship and leaves, leaving Anakin there for the Emperor to find and to spend the next twenty years thinking about and regretting his actions back on the lava-planet and keeping an eye on Anakin’s son. Perhaps he will yet have a chance to redeem himself.
Well it all depends on how well known Vader is to the public. As a Sith lord isn’t he supposed to play it mysterious? No one really knew that Dooku was a Sith, so it stands to reason that Vader mostly did Palp’s dirty work behind the scenes and didn’t give interviews. I’m sure Kenobi and Yoda figured it out eventually, and probably Bail Organa too. I wonder if Owen Lars knew that Vader=Anakin?