# "No, Luke. \*I\* am your father." Why did we buy it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983 "2013-02-01T00:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/21 "2013-02-01T03:13:22Z")
I remember thinking, “No, this can’t be true” when I first saw this in the theater. It caused a bit of a debate among my true-geek friends. When the issue of Luke’s parentage (and his relationship with Leia) was finally made clear to the fans in RotJ, the earlier interaction between Luke and Leia became rather odd to contemplate. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/22 "2013-02-01T03:16:08Z")
Yeah, I thought it was a lie too. I was 11 FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/23 "2013-02-01T03:27:39Z")
I was 11 when I saw it in the theater and didn’t buy it either. And I was also the only one of my friends who even thought twice about it. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/24 "2013-02-01T03:59:26Z")
Beru and Owen actually talk, in private away from Luke, about Anakin. “He has a lot of his father in him you know” “That’s what I am afraid of” It makes sense in retrospect, what exactly would they have been afraid of? ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/25 "2013-02-01T04:02:42Z")
Afraid that he would go off and get himself killed on some damned fool idealistic crusade ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/26 "2013-02-01T04:11:09Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > That would have made for a MUCH better movie and more sense to how Luke brings balance to the force. > > Even more conducive to the balance theory would have Vader live at the end of Jedi. Why? ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/27 "2013-02-01T04:32:56Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > because Luke searched his feelings and knew it to be true Yeah, this. I thought Luke’s reaction with the excessive denial (“THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!”) made it clear that he sensed that it was, in fact, the truth. Plus, “Ben, why didn’t you tell me…” At least it was clear that Luke believed it, and Vader’s dialogue suggested that Luke’s feelings were more than just feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/28 "2013-02-01T04:55:09Z")
I figured it was true, because why on earth would anyone pretend to be related to Luke if he wasn’t? Whiny little snot. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/29 "2013-02-01T05:28:29Z")
There’s also the scene in the cave on Dagoba where the face behind Vader’s mask looks like Luke (or a relation). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/30 "2013-02-01T12:22:06Z")
No. I remember doing some contemporary fan-wankery where Vader had possibly stolen Anakin’s body at the time of the volcano-duel. We also argued that R2-D2 was the “Other Hope.” (You think it was just a coincidence that R5-D4’s motivator blew just as Luke purchased it?) ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/31 "2013-02-01T14:29:21Z")
A friend of mine correctly guessed that Darth Vader was Luke’s father about six months before The Empire Strikes Back came out. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/32 "2013-02-01T14:43:38Z")
DV was an asshole but he wasn’t a liar. That just wasn’t his style. At least that’s the way I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/33 "2013-02-01T14:54:35Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > (You think it was just a coincidence that R5-D4’s motivator blew just as Luke purchased it?) In Bill Slavicsek’s “Guide To The Star Wars Universe”, the entry for R5-D4 notes that the R5 droid allowed R2-D2 to program its motivator to blow up. Slavicsek sources things fairly well, and he cites the _Galaxy Guide_ from the Star Wars RPG and the NPR radio dramatization of ANH, so I’d guess it’s official EU canon, at least. It’s not very good writing, though…how would R2 even know they’d need the R5 unit to malfunction? And you can’t really call it fanwankery if it’s from the radio dramatization, which was written in 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/34 "2013-02-01T14:55:41Z")
Also, right after that, Leia begins to use the Force too, to fond One-Hand-Luke clinging to bottom of Cloud City. So, we have to really buy the concept of Force powers. Before that, even at the end of the first one, we could have believed (I certainly did) that “using the Force” to take the final shot at the Death Star’s reactor wasn’t mystical, but just a believe in yourself, you have the skill, just trust in yourself and let it go and it’ll turn out right" ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/35 "2013-02-01T15:36:04Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > In Bill Slavicsek’s “Guide To The Star Wars Universe”, the entry for R5-D4 notes that the R5 droid allowed R2-D2 to program its motivator to blow up. Slavicsek sources things fairly well, and he cites the _Galaxy Guide_ from the Star Wars RPG and the NPR radio dramatization of ANH, so I’d guess it’s official EU canon, at least. It’s not very good writing, though…how would R2 even know they’d need the R5 unit to malfunction? And you can’t really call it fanwankery if it’s from the radio dramatization, which was written in 1981. There was also a Tales of Star Wars comic where R5-D4 turns out to be Force sensitive and saw the future if R2 didn’t go with 3PO and hook up with Luke, so it blew it’s own motivator. I found it moderately amusing but it seemed pretty out there for a droid to be Force sensitive. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/36 "2013-02-01T15:48:29Z")
> [@Billy-o](#): > > I was 9 years old when _The Empire Strikes Back_ came out, and absolutely loved it. But during the climactic scene where DV tells Luke to call him Pa, I immediately thought, “No way. He’s just messing with Luke’s head to get him to join the dark side (and score some free cookies).” When James Earl Jones read the script that’s what he thought too. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/37 "2013-02-01T15:59:36Z")
I just watched ESB with my 6 year-old son about a month ago who was seeing it for the first time. He immediately thought Darth Vader was lying. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/38 "2013-02-01T16:08:27Z")
I was 9 and thought it was the most awesome plot twist ever, even though I kinda saw it coming. Planned in advance or not, it sure SEEMED like it was coming. The idea Vader was lying never crossed my mind, because Luke more or less immediately accepts that it’s true. Later, in the Falcon, he thinks “Father…” as Vader reaches out to him with the Force. The movie makes it pretty clear it’s the truth. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/39 "2013-02-01T16:10:10Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > …I found it moderately amusing but it seemed pretty out there for a droid to be Force sensitive. Here, [let me fanwank that](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9079255&postcount=9) for you. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983/40 "2013-02-01T16:12:14Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Play it again, Sam. We don’t need no stinking badges. What are you [talking about](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lj056ao6GE)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-luke-i-am-your-father-why-did-we-buy-it/648983.md?page=3)