Yes, I remember that part. But let me ask you this; why can’t Han pay off Jabba? At the beginning of “The Empire Strikes Back” Han is planning on leaving the Alliance, at least temporarily, to go pay Jabba so there won’t be a price on his head anymore. What, they don’t have email money transfers in the SW universe? Even granting that the Alliance is trying to keep their location a secret, don’t ya think they could find a way to zip some credits Jabba’s way?
Stuff like this is all over the place. How can Luke Skywalker live under the name Skywalker when, logically, EVERYONE should know Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker? Darth Vader should be one of the most famous people in the galaxy; hiding who he was prior to the name change - remember, he was Darth Vader before he got sliced up - would be equivalent to, say, Vice President Biden somehow managing to hide that he used to be a U.S. Senator prior to 2009. There should be pictures of Anakin Skywalker everywhere. The fact that he grew up on Tatooine would be common knowledge. And, um, here’s a kid named Skywalker… living in the same house his mother used to live in… hmmmm. Even if Vader denied it for some reason wouldn’t the press come around asking questions?
You can’t make sense of this stuff because it makes no sense - and again, it’s rife throughout the entire SW universe so I’m not just bitching about the prequels (I loved Knights of the Old Republic, but how can NOBODY know Revan’s face? He didn’t always wear a mask. Again, he’s one of the most important and famous people in the galaxy; his face would be as recognizable as Barack Obama’s.) The answer is that you just have to suspend disbelief and accept that, for whatever reason, people in the SW universe aren’t well informed and aren’t inquisitive about anything off-planet.
Han didn’t have the money. He had previously nearly been offed by a bounty hunter and really didn’t like it. He may have been plannign to kill Jabba before Jabba’s minions could get him, or perhaps just didn’t like sitting around. It was never made clear, and it’s not important.
Remember that nobody saw his face after he became Darth Vader. Only a few clones who never talk, and briefly at that. There is no more news or free press in Star Wars: the Emperor controlled it all. Nobody knows who Darth Vader is in the entire universe except the leaders of the Rebellion, and it’s not important to them to blab. Obi-Wan is trying to prepare Luke, which may include killing Vader. Yoda may be dead set against training another Skywalker and any case did not want Luke to have anything to do with Vader (Obi-Wan was somewhat neutral of the “save or kill” dispute, Yoda was negative). That leaves the King of Alderaan, who had no reason to tell it, given that it could easily bring some shit down upon his head.
captain typho would have known where padme was headed in her craft. when he was informed of her death he would have told the emperor or one of his representatives.
palpy knew the 2 of them were together on the planet, and padme was dead… so, a bit of a leap could have them arguing and anakin killing her. as far as palpy knew she died while she was still pregnant. telling vader he killed her was severing the last tether to anakin the jedi, vader would be totally dependant on the emperor.
the only ones that knew the kids were alive were kenobi, yoda, and bail. the droids that helped birth the babies could easily have their memories modified.
the only ones who knew that anakin was the father before the kids were born were: anakin, palpy, kenobi, and padme. yoda and bail learned just before or after they were born. beru, owen, and perhaps bail’s wife later when the kids were brought to them.
with all that was going on 2 orphans being adopted would not have appeared that odd. many people were being killed during the clone wars, so bail and his wife adopting a baby girl could easily be explained.
tatooine was very far out on the edge of the empire and run by hutts. not many people would go out there to dig up a story. also the lars farm was very remote like an outback station. put in earth terms, anakin grew up in a city kinda like say… chicago, and the lars farm way in the outback of australia. not much to link the two.
also anakin skywalker was presumed dead like the rest of the jedi. the people he saw at the temple or at mustafar were dead and not able to tell everyone that anakin was now darth vader. the emperor was able to have this really scary, mysterious, masked unknown at his side. even better than having a rather well known former jedi at his side.
I think some where in the expanded universe it was explained that the name Skywalker was very common. Tatooine…depsite its rather large role in the movies, remains a backwater planet in a Republic of thousands upon thousands of member systems.
Also, I don’t think it is ever clarified as to actually how many folks-of-importance knew that Anakin Skywalker was Vader. Obi-wan, Palpatine, Yoda, Bail Organa (the slaughtered Jedi at the Temple)…it would have been very easy to spin the story that Anakin had died and Vader was just the next of a line of seemingly inexhaustible Sith apprentices. The Empire doesn’t seem like an organization that would take to lightly to investigative questions.
I’d have to watch the prequels again, but I remember the Emperor jerking Anakin around pretty much from the beginning (and Anakin falling for it hook, line, sinker, rod, and copy of “Angling Times”). When they’re “rescuing” him from Count Dooku, the Emp tells Ani to kill Dooku (which he does) and that they can’t save Obi-Wan (one of the few times Ani stands up to him). Then there was the whole “this is the only way to save Padme” thing, which led to the exact behavior that drove her away and killed her.
He definitely jerks him around…plays him like a fish, but he doesn’t lie to him. He jerks him around by telling him the version of the truth that convinces Anakin to do what he wants.