So I was watching a bit of Star Wars this weekend and my girlfriend is like “how did Darth Vader know Luke was his son.” And unfortunately I did not have a good answer to that question.
In Episode IV, Vader felt “the Force is strong with this one” when he was chasing his X-wing through the Death Star trench. But he didn’t seem to see a family resemblance.
Or was it simply a matter of during the time between Episodes IV and V, Vadar getting wind of this hot shot pilot named “Skywalker” (which for all we know might be as common as Smith on Tatooine) who is strong in the Force, from Vadar’s home planet and he just sort of put two and two together?
I was just about to say I think seeing Luke with Obi-Wan would’ve been all he needed, but then realized that that was in Ep IV. Hmmm…I guess that’s never made clear, at least that I can remember.
In STAR WARS, Darth never meets Luke, nor learns his name: Luke is just one of rebel fighters, and “The force is strong in this one.” Darth doesn’t even seem to know that “this one” was part of the group that rescued Leia from the Death Star.
So, presumably he did some research (and some thinking) between the time he got spun off into space at end of STAR WARS and the time he got to Bespin in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. The into to EMPIRE implies that Luke was making a name for himself in the Rebel Alliance. It wouldn’t take too much detective work, once he heard that there’s a “Luke Skywalker” running about with the rebels, strong in the force. In the scene where Darth communicates with the Emperor, the Emperor doesn’t seem aware (at that point) of the relationship? I guess it’s arguable.
It’s interesting that he never says “the force is strong in this one” when he’s interrogating Leia on the Death Star… even though she is able to resist his interrogation.
Doesn’t the Emperor refer to “the son of Skywalker”, or is that in RotJ?
FWIW, the Star Wars comic book had Vader interrogating a captured Rebel prisoner, demanding to know who destroyed the Death Star, and being told “Luke Skywalker”.
The exact (orginal, not that bullshit they changed it to later) phrase in Empire Strikes Back was “The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi”. So either
A) The emperor knows Luke is Anakins son, but doesn’t know that Vader is Anakin (wouldn’t that have been a nifty plot…)
-or-
B) They both know and it’s just scripted so it doesn’t get in the way of the big reveal later.
Fanwank: In EU, Leia is described as weak in the Force, and that’s after serious training by Luke brings out her potential.
Not-so-fanwanky: Vader only notices Luke’s strong when Luke is communing with Obi-wan and, presumably, reaching out to the Force in doing so. Leia wouldn’t have been touching the Force at all during interrogation or even known she could have.
As for the scene in ESB between Vader and the Emperor, I always figured they talked about Luke and Skywalker in the third person because neither of them wanted Vader reminded that he was Skywalker and he should have paternal feelings for Luke. The last thing Palpatine wanted was for Vader to go off and play Daddy, which of course he tried to do anyway, just in an evil and twisted way. Plus they needed to hide the big reveal, of course.
There could also have been reports available regarding a rerettable incident when Owen and Beru Lars burst into flames while assisting Imperial stormtroopers in their inquiries involving the search for some allegedly stolen droids. Those reports might have listed one Skywalker, Luke, as living at that address, but not accounted for.
Lord Vader did have knowledge of Owen Lars, and his then-girlfriend, Beru.
That’s always been my assumption, too. And, in RotJ, when Luke turns himself in to Vader on Endor, and refers to him as “Anakin Skywalker”, Vader says something along the lines of “that name no longer has any meaning to me.”
I’d imagine that, after the anguish of learning that he was responsible for Padme’s death, Vader largely stuffed all those memories and emotions into a closet in his mind.
But she wasn’t able to resist Vader’s interrogation - if she was, then the Battle of Yavin wouldn’t have taken place.
Incidentally, the details of the drug-droid assisted interrogation are fleshed out in the 1980 NPR radio series (which apart from being canon, is actually really well-written.) Vader squeezes the location of the rebel base out of her by running a real head-trip on her: He mind-tricks her into believing that he’s her father.
She probably was, actually. When you read all of the progressive versions of the script, Leia was developed from the same character that Luke was.
Of course she was able to resist it. That’s why Tarkin had to go through the whole business of testing the Death Star out on Alderaan; to get her to give up the location of the rebel base.
They finally did get the location by putting a tracking beacon on the Millenium Falcon, and letting our intrepid heroes “escape”.
ETA:
Wait, what?
Then why did they bother with the “You prefer a different target, then? A military target?”
I would imagine that even if the Rebel Alliance was able to keep the name of the pilot of the X-Wing that blew up the Death Star closely held (e.g., his picture wasn’t splashed all over that galaxy’s version of the Internet within seconds), the Empire would surely know the identity of the pilot within a few weeks of HUMINT work. I think it is fair to say that Vader knows who Luke is at the beginning of Empire and everything Vader does in the movie is meant to make a personal confrontation with Luke inevitable.
I have nothing intelligent to add (which is usually the case with me) but I do want to commend the OP for a fabulous question, and the rest of you for the subsequent discussion. I’d never thought of this before, but it’s a fascinating “lost moment” to speculate on.
“She lied. She lied to us!”
“I told you she would never consciously betray the Rebellion.”
“Terminate her! Immediately!”
That little byplay between Tarkin and Vader has always stuck in my head. The Star Wars novel version of that exchange was where I learned the word “apoplectic”.
