'Scuse me a moment…
Bless you, Heapie, that’s one of my favorite movies! But the correct slur is “eunuch jelly.” So much more evocative, don’t you think?
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Star Wars chat.
right on. What’s up with that anyway? If Obi Wan whisked the kid away from Amidala and stashed him with Owen to hide him from Vader, why did the kid keep the same last name? What use is it if Vader can find Luke by looking in the freakin’ phone book?
Another thing that always confused me: when did Leia find out she was Luke’s brother? There wasn’t a scene in which she learned the truth. The audience learns when she tells Han, but who told her? The only person who knew was Obi Wan, and he was dead (albeit “more powerful than you can imagine”.)
Wouldn’t Vader have known he had two kids? Or was she born after he went away and Got Evil, and thus he never knew? What are the ages of Luke and Leia anyway?
2 more stupid Star Wars question: Why are the Jedi bodies burned? Didn’t Vader know how to do the fade-out? Didn’t Qui-Gon?
And, a tiny minor insignificant nitpick: when did the Emperor’s cool red guards leave? I don’t remember him ordering them out. Were they there during the big fight?
OK, I forgot about this when I asked when the brother/sister relationship was established. However, I always thought that Vader somehow read Luke’s mind in this scene and that’s when he (Vader) realized that he had a daughter. Even if I’m wrong about the mind reading, Luke already knew. Vader only said “sister”, and not “your sister Leia”. If Luke didn’t already know, Vader’s threatening his “sister” would have prompted a “who?” rather than a “NOOO!” So when did Luke find out he was Leia’s brother?
The whole thing just seemed tacked on to resolve the Leia and Han love plot.
Beeblebrox, you may want to rewatch Jedi again. After rescuing Han from Jaba, he goes back to see Yoda, who then kicks the bucket. Obi Wan then visits him and explains that he has a twin sister (the talk on the log). Luke intuitively says that it’s Leia, and Obi Wan confirms it for him.
Meanwhile, back in the Hall of Jus… I mean, later on Endor, Luke pulls Leia out of C3PO’s “engaging” retelling of the Battle of Yavin and tells her that she’s his sister, that Vader is their father, and he’s going to go try to turn him away from the Dark Side. He then goes and turns himself in.
Here’s the theory that a friend of mine posited, and I like to agree with it.
Consider that Anakin redeems himself at the end - he is not wholly evil. Consider that we know Anakin as a child and impetuous teen also shows strong loyalty and honour.
Consider also that Anakin is aware of Padme’s pregnancy before he abandons her (I dunno if this is so, we’ll see in 3 years).
So he never visits Tatooine again. He never investigates this ‘Ben Kenobi’ fellow hiding there. He never twigs to the boy called Skywalker living with his step-brother Owen.
I say nay! I say Anakin is fully aware of Obi Wan and Luke and all that is going on, and chooses not to interfere - this is his compassion, to not involve his son in his affairs if he can help it. But unfortunately, he worms his own way in and causes trouble.
The Force is strong with this one, yes. But he didn’t know then who that was in the X-Wing ahead of him in the trench. Later he discovers the truth, and inevitability - Destiny - takes over.
Luke was never hidden from Vader so much as kept apart from him. And Anakin knew this.
As Anakin was born on Tatooine, it is possible that “Skywalker” was a reasonably common name amongst the slave population there. Luke wouldn’t have been any more worthy of being investigated than Tito, Sluggo, or Wakeem Skywalker.
Hiding Vader’s son on his own home planet was a stroke of genius on Obi-Wan’s part. Presumably Darth would have as little to do with the old neighbourhood as possible, being a little sensitive about his lowly roots.
And I cannot believe I am giving this even this much consideration…
I think it was just after “the operation”. 
Clearly, your mind wisely rejected the memory of what was, without question, the cheesiest and most poorly acted scene in the entire series.
Oh, the pain… the pain…
This is something I noticed too, and though I have seen all the movies I’m not a Star Wars geek, always found the series a bit overrated. This explanation for Luke’s hiding place almost seemed too elegant to come from the mind of Lucas, but if he didn’t come up with it he apparently has become aware of it and from what I’ve read they are going to play up Vader’s reasons for never returning to Tatooine. This may just be a rumor, but I read that one of his first evil acts that starts pushing him to the dark side is when he slaughters a village of sand people after some of them are responsible for the death of his mother, who he returned to free from slavery.
Of course, the whole Vader/Skywalker relationship is something that came about later, though I’m not sure exactly when. If you read some of the very early drafts of Star Wars you can see what parts of the story have been there from the beginning and which he changed later. One thing that’s interesting is that in a '73 draft the story is set in the 33rd Century AD instead of ‘A Long Time Ago’, C-3PO and R2D2 are replaced by a couple of captive Empire bureaucrats who are used for comic relief, and Luke Skywalker is a general acting as Princess Leia’s bodyguard. It’s been through a LOT of revisions but it’s interesting to see how some of the ideas that didn’t make it into the final version of Star Wars got recycled in sequels and prequels.
By the way, I have a site that has a bunch of movie scripts on it, including six drafts of Star Wars. If anyone’s interested I did a google search for ‘Starkiller early draft’ (no quotes) and it was the first page listed.
I recall hearing somewhere that Vader didn’t know he had two children. As such, he’d have no reason to search them out, or to suspect that Leia was his daughter.
We’ll just have to wait for Episode 3 for confirmation.
I’m pretty sure that Vader won’t realize that he had two kids, and will assume that Luke (who is “hidden” in plain view, perhaps as a shield for Leia, who is placed instead in an important political family) is his only child. I think Vader had been keeping tabs on Luke all along, and was planning to find him, once the Rebellion was out of the way. Remember, in Empire, Vader was plotting to destroy the Emperor (there can only be two Sith), and bring Luke in to rule by his side. I believe this was his plan all along.
What happens with Padme, I dunno. We know she goes to Alderaan with Leia, because Leia has memories of her as a child.
Kirk
How do we know that? Do you mean Leia had memories of her biological mother (ie, Padme) or her adoptive mother (ie, Mumsy Organa). Did Leia actually know Padme the person or am I just confused by your sentence?
In Jedi, Luke asks Leia what she remembers of her mother. She says something to the effect of rememebering her vaguely. And Luke says he has no memory of his mother.
Is it another site as the Jedi Bendu one? I read the scripts there, highly interesting.
Badtz Maru, thanks for the scripts site! Very good reading for even the casual Star Wars fan.
You’re 100% spot on about these early Star Wars scripts presaging the other movies. To wit:
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Luke Skywalker was originally a very similar character to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke was a fully-fledged Jedi knight, “apparently in his early sixties, but actually much older”.
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The Ewoks’ worship of C-3PO is foretold in the initial synopsis draft of Star Wars, except it’s that one of the “giant furry Aliens” that worships Luke.
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The cloud city of Bespin in Empire Strikes Back seems to have followed to a “T” the descriptions of Alderaan in Star Wars’ second draft.
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Biggs was Leia’s brother, not Luke.
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Grande Mouff Tarkin (sic) was orginally a member of Leia’s father’s Senate.
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The cantina scene seems to have undergone several renditions. In the earliest draft, the Kenobi-like Luke, along with an unnamed teenaged rebel, get into a short scuffle with a couple of nasty patrons. In the next draft, the cantina scene takes place in a night club on Alderaan, but no light-saber fight takes place. Neither Luke nor any other Jedi is not present – rather a vaguely Solo-like character named Clieg Whitsun and a trader named Bail Antilles (Wedge’s father?) are present for some kind of Imperial trader-raid in which Bail is captured.
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Also, Bail Antilles shares a name with Bail Organa, who is Leia’s adopted father (right?) in the actual Star Wars canon.
…
And all that has been gleaned from only the first, very brief synopsis draft and the first one-fifth of the second draft. I’m looking forward to reading more.
For Vader I got the answer while looking around the star wars site last night; he did fade and Luke burned his armor.
I think Lucas is going to explain the disappearing bodies in the next episode-or possibly the third. Supposedly, there’s a very interesting reason for Obi Wan and Yoda “fading away”.
And yet you kissed him twice-- the second time with tongue in front of Han? Uh huh-- I take it Alderan is much like West Virginia then? 
-me