[QUOTE=Grumman]
In a civilisation as large as the Galactic Empire, simply knowing someone is of the dominant species and knowing their father’s name shouldn’t be enough to go on. In the US alone, there are 50,000 people named “John Smith”. Obviously “Anakin Skywalker” is probably a comparatively less common name, but this is a galaxy of thousands of inhabited systems, some of which have multiple inhabited planets, some of which have high population densities. And Tatooine isn’t the sort of planet where everyone is on the census.
[/QUOTE]
No, this is not a case of Luke having the same last name and Luke’s father happening to have the same first name. Luke is placed with Anikan’s step-brother, Owen Lars. This is Anikan’s family - what passes for a family, anyway. So Darth Vader needs an incredibly compelling reason to not know that he has a son living with his step-brother where he himself grew up, or thereabouts.
Now, if the story was as originally presented, there would be no problem with Obi-wan hiding out with the son of some random Jedi that Vader killed, keeping that boy with that Jedi’s family on some obscure planet. There’s no reason Vader should be hunting down the children of all Jedi, and as long as Obi-wan keeps a low profile, there’s no reason the Empire will notice. But ROTJ ruined that premise by introducing us to Luke being Vader’s son, and Vader being Anikan Skywalker.
Version 2: Vader didn’t really care he had a son, he was more concerned with being Evil and hunting down Jedi and having power than having a family and all. Until said son shows up with lots of Force, and he has the option of killing him off as a Jedi, or trying to bend him to the dark side like himself. And of course the Emporer sees the benefit of an Evil Luke at his side, a second Darth for more Sith badness. And we know where that ends up.
Okay, but now along comes the plot that has Anikan deeply in love with Amidala and thinking about his children. So their existence has to be kept a secret from him. And so what does Obi-wan do? Takes Luke back to Tatooine, where Anikan himself grew up, and hands him over to Anikan’s step-brother to raise. And let him go by his own real name, Luke Skywalker, because that will never be a flag to Darth Vader. Right. Hello, Witness Protection Program! What’s the number one rule? You can NEVER have contact with your old life again.
So the only way this works AT ALL is that Vader has such an aversion to the planet Tatooine that he has threatened everyone with slow evisceration if they even mention the planet’s name in his presence. Which makes it very challenging when Leia’s diplomatic vessel is running and happens to be going close to that planet. Everyone has to talk in circumlocutions in the bridge.
officer: “Sir, the transport is running from us, headed toward a planet.”
Grand Moff Tarkin: “Which planet?”
officer: “That desert planet over there, sir.”
Grand Moff Tarkin: “You mean Tatooine?”
Darth Vader: “Who dares mention that foul word in my presence?”
GMT: “I do, you pompous jerk, and you know I have more authority with the Emporer than you.”
Vader: “Crap, okay, but only you, the rest of these buffoons in funny pants better keep their mouths shut.”
So some mindless bureaucrat running through tax records turns up one “Skywalker, Luke, nephew of Lars, Owen and Lars, Beru, son of Anikan”.
Bureaucrat 1: "Hey, isn’t Anikan Skywalker the name Darth Vader used to go by?
B2: “Sure, but don’t let him hear you say that. What’s up?”
B1: “I think he has a son.”
B2: “Really? Where?”
B1: “On Tatooine.”
B2: [looks both ways] “Shhhh, don’t let anyone hear you say that.”
B1: “Oh, yeah, sorry. You think he’ll be interested in knowing he has a son?”
B2: “And how do you propose to respond when he asks where the boy is?”
B1: “Well, we could tell GM Tarkin, let him pass along the news.”
B2: “Oh come on, you know Vader, he will want to rain on someone’s parade, and you know that flows downhill. Who do you think it’s going to land on?”
B1: “Uhhh. Never mind.”
B2: “Didn’t hear a thing.”
[QUOTE=Chase Ransom]
If you read the backstories, books and other novels based on this universe created by Lucas and pushed along by many, you would see the significance in most (not all) the characters and situations.
[/QUOTE]
All of that is post-hoc reasoning to justify the things Lucas did in the movies. The movies came first. Lucas had primary authority and ability to nix any idea from any other author. Timothy Zahn had to fuzzy up some stuff about the cloning chambers because of that (in his books set after Jedi). Fan wanks by approved Lucasfilm authors are still fanwanks. Lucas created the stupidity that had to be explained, so people stuck their creative talents to create interesting explanations. But the stupidity was not erased.
Example: Why must Obi-wan be a Padawan? What about the story in Star Wars (i.e. “A New Hope”) required Obi-wan to be a Padawan when Anikan was first met? Where was that conveyed in any of the first three movies (IV - VI)? It wasn’t. What we know is that Obi-wan was a close friend of Anikan and his mentor, that Obi-wan trained Anikan, mostly on his own rather than taking him to Yoda. It is entirely conceivable, in fact largely expected, that Obi-wan was a young adult Jedi Knight who thought he could train Anikan on his own rather than get the Jedi Master’s involved. But Lucas threw all that away and restructured the story, with Yoda and the Council telling Obi-wan to train him against their better judgement. Well, guess what, that still makes the Council responsible. In fact, Lucas introduced an unnecessary character, Qui-gon, and made Anikan Qui-gon’s mistake, not Obi-wan’s.
I suppose it is acceptable that Obi-wan felt more guilt than was actually his. After all, people do that. But that doesn’t make it feel contrived and contradictory to the originally presented story.
[QUOTE=Jilaad]
I actually thought that the overall plot of the prequels was excellent. The emperor grabs power during a war, but the surprise is that he is actually in control of both sides. As soon as the Clone Wars began, there was absolutely nothing the Jedi could do. Whichever side wins, they lose. I thought that was great.
[/QUOTE]
That’s a fine premise. It’s the details of execution where the timeline doesn’t fit, the events don’t mesh with what is later presented, and the things that are shown have too many coincidences.
Like how many Clone Wars are there? I see one. So why are they called “the Clone Wars” and not “the Clone War”?
[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
Am I the only one who also thinks that perhaps the prequels were bound to be at the very least, a disappointment-considering all that they had to live up to, with the hype and such?
[/QUOTE]
Sure, there was bound to be some level of dissatisfaction - that is inherent in any followup movie, especially one with a strong fan following with strong opinions. But it could have been so much better.
I will come on record as saying I really liked RotJ, despite the Ewoks and fart jokes and reuse of the Death Star. My complaints against that movie are a lot more minor. A lot of people think that one sucks, but I didn’t. But TPM butchered the expected history, tied in too many unnecessary coincidences, and then did it with stiff acting and poor dialogue. It’s almost as if Lucas said, “There’s no way I can make all my fans happy, so let’s see how few I can.”
[QUOTE=carlb]
In A New Hope, when Obi-Wan is telling Luke about his father and he says, “He was a cunning warrior…and a good friend.” there’s a real sense of loss there. Watching the prequels, I never got the sense that Annakin and Obi-Wan were all that close.
[/QUOTE]
That’s mostly because Lucas didn’t let anyone feel anything in those movies.