And I had all the trading cards. 
He was Yoda’s manservant.
In RotJ, he was the guy who yelled out, “Me see it’s a twap!” But, it was later edited out in favor of Admiral Fish Head saying it. Oh boy, that first weekend viewing of the movies really paid off.
I was also about ten when Empire came out, and hell yeah, I was surprised.
The flodmother didn’t come to the movies with us. When we got home, she asked me, "So, is it true? Is Darth Vader really Luke’s father?" She had known for weeks but had been biting her tongue so my sister and I would be surprised. You know, for a mom, she could be pretty cool 
I read the novelization first. I was on a big family vacation in Florida with my mother, uncle and aunt, cousins, and another family who was good friends with us. The night I got the book at a beachside gift shop, everyone was in one room playing cards or something, and bookish geek that I am, I was alone in the adjoining hotel room devouring it. I got to The Scene, was totally shocked. I ran into the next room and breathlessly informed all of my relatives.
Nobody cared.
Story of my freakin’ life…
Actually it goes back to episode 4. Obviously epside 4 was released without the episode 4 monicker originally. But during its initial release, the episode 4 was added. So for other than a couple of months, it’s always been episode 4, 5, etc.
But it wasn’t until Fandom Menace was released that the big push to rename the movies began. Before then it was always Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Now it’s a bunch of confusing “Episode 4, which was actually the first movie released, originally called Star Wars but has now been illogically (and cumbersomely) renamed to Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope, even though an entire generation or three always referred to it as just Star Wars” crapola.
It’s just another example of Lucas’ inability to leave well-enough alone.
That’s not quite right. “Episode IV” didn’t get added to the crawl until 1978, when Star Wars was re-released, after the sequels were negotiated. “A New Hope” didn’t get added to the crawl until Star Wars was first made available on videotape. (1981, 82, somewhere around there? Between ESB and ROTJ, anyway.)
The crawl to The Empire Strikes Back has always started with “EPISODE V,” JohnT.
That is almost exactly my story (novel, Florida, cousins/aunt, etc.).
My main question at the time is still unanswered: exactly when did Vader realize that he was Luke’s father? Did he sense it while fighting him, or was it between Episodes 4 & 5, or did he come across the name someplace, or… lucky guess?
Of course the look that Obi Wan gives Vader just before he allows himself to be killed may have tipped Vader off. I must admit Obi Wan’s affection for Luke (whom he’s known for a matter of days) becomes more understandable after the first trilogy.
Well, it was.
No, you’re right. That was in 1981.
A little from column 1, a little from column 2. He sensed it during the Death Star raid, and afterwards the Rebellion was trumpeting its newest hero, a guy named Luke Skywalker, and he and Palpatine put two and two together.
I echo pinkfreud.
You’da thunk, if Obi-Wan was trying to keep Luke hidden, he might have, ah, lesse, changed the last name?
Of course we were surprised. At the time nobody thought that Lucas could be that stupid. We’ve since learned.
I was kinda surprised, not totally shocked, and might have guessed it was coming but didn’t really know. What really shocked me was that
Leia was Luke’s sister. I mean, c’mon, they’d been almost romantic at one point. Shouldn’t the force have told him something about that?
And more than a little surprised that
Fozzy the Bear was the ultimate Jedi master. That one really threw me.
FTR, I was 14 going on 15 when the original Star Wars movie came out.
Shortly after the original SW came out (Whatever it’s called now), a friend of mine & I read a column by priest/author Andrew Greeley wherein he predicted the whole damn thing - not only that Darth Vader = Dark Father, but that Luke would somehow save/redeem him in the end.
I was in graduate school. SW did not make much of an impression on me, but I do remember reading and discussing this.
This one shocked me too, but for a different reason. I saw the first movie after the third had been released (I’m the same age as the first movie, so it was kinda difficult for me to see them at the cinema), and I already knew everything about the Big Twist this thread is about, but I had no clue about this one. It came out of nowhere. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned it before? This meant that Darth Vader was Leia’s father toobut no-one ever talked about that.
To Priceguy - excellent point - How come Luke has such issues with Vader being his father, but Leia could watch him destroy her whole planet, find out he’s her father, and then just go dancing around with EWOKS?!!! Well, I guess her mind was blown.
I was in line with my dad and brothers (it was a looooooong line), when some teenagers that had just got out of the previous showing drove by, and shouted out the car window: "Darth Vader is Luke’s faaatherrrrr!! Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Haaaaaa . . . "
My brother and I looked at each other, and then at our dad, and said “Wow.”
Others have already pointed out that the episode numbering predates the prequels. The only reason that people referred to the prequels as Episode 1 or whatever is that there was a long gap between knowing it was coming out and learning the title, in which time we had to call it something.
But you’re wrong on the first point, too. There is no possible interpretation by which you could say that the twist was in the first movie, since it was in The Empire Strikes Back.
I, too, figured Vader was lying. Besides I was still reeling from the fact that Vader cut off Luke’s hand! (which is much more intense for a 2nd grader).
I honestly can’t remember how I felt the very first time I saw Star Wars or ESB. ESB came out when I was 4, and I vaguely remember seeing it with my parents at the theater. Later when HBO played them both several times a day I watched the crap out of them. I do remember being scared of Vader when I saw RotJ on the big screen, because he was so big and loud.
Anyway, I thought it was kinda dumb that Luke was Vader’s son, but I liked that Luke didn’t turn to the Dark Side. Especially because Vader had just cut off his hand.