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.
Yeah, I thought it was a lie too. I was 11 FWIW.
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.
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?
Afraid that he would go off and get himself killed on some damned fool idealistic crusade
Why?
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.
I figured it was true, because why on earth would anyone pretend to be related to Luke if he wasn’t? Whiny little snot.
There’s also the scene in the cave on Dagoba where the face behind Vader’s mask looks like Luke (or a relation).
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?)
A friend of mine correctly guessed that Darth Vader was Luke’s father about six months before The Empire Strikes Back came out.
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.
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.
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"
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.
When James Earl Jones read the script that’s what he thought too.
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.
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.
Here, let me fanwank that for you.
What are you talking about?