When did Vader find out Luke was his son?

[John Picard]

A more interesting question for Vader would be, "What's this space princess doing with my 2 old droids..?"

He never really sees the droids. R2 gets locked out in Empire, 3P0 is incomplete on Chewie's back, but apart from that they never meet.

Nope. C3PO enters the one room where Vader is and he blurts out something along the lines of, "Oh my, it's you..." and then the door slams shut.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Really? I thought he just stumbled over a few random storm troopers who happily blast him to pieces. Not really Vader's style. I think if it had been Vader in that room, he might simply might have forced him back into his services. He IS his 3PO's creator after all, should not matter who is the droids current master, 3PO would have no choice but to obey.

 

[John Picard]

Really? I thought he just stumbled over a few random storm troopers who happily blast him to pieces. Not really Vader's style. I think if it had been Vader in that room, he might simply might have forced him back into his services. He IS his 3PO's creator after all, should not matter who is the droids current master, 3PO would have no choice but to obey.

I am positive Vader was in the room, but I'm not saying Vader blasted him. Also, we don't know if 3PO ever had his memory wiped before Ep 4(as Uncle Owen ordered Luke to do in Ep 4). Besides, why would Vader want 3PO when he has an entire armada at his disposal?

 

[Anwar]

They ordered 3P0 wiped at the end of Episode III, but spared R2-D2. Seeing how there were other models identical to 3P0 around anyways, Vader may have just dismissed him as some other droid instead of his creation without learning his name.

 

[Gaith]

How much of a time gap was there between Episodes IV and V?

I think most sources have it as roughly the same amount of time between the movies being released: three years.

And the characters are in perfect stasis during that interim? Don't buy it. A few weeks, or a month or two, tops. Or do we believe that, starting in Tattooine, Han was fretting about repaying Jabba for several years?

 

[John Picard]

How much of a time gap was there between Episodes IV and V?

I think most sources have it as roughly the same amount of time between the movies being released: three years.

And the characters are in perfect stasis during that interim? Don't buy it. A few weeks, or a month or two, tops. Or do we believe that, starting in Tattooine, Han was fretting about repaying Jabba for several years?

Han was in a different star system, IIRC. Why do you think Jabba was so pissed at him?

 

[Mr Light]

I always assuming Threepio walked in on a bunch of stormtroopers, not Vader. Interesting assumption.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

A more interesting question for Vader would be, "What's this space princess doing with my 2 old droids..?"

He never really sees the droids. R2 gets locked out in Empire, 3P0 is incomplete on Chewie's back, but apart from that they never meet.

There was a comic a few years ago that touched on this. It was quiet interesting.

 

[Ceridwen]

And the characters are in perfect stasis during that interim? Don't buy it. A few weeks, or a month or two, tops. Or do we believe that, starting in Tattooine, Han was fretting about repaying Jabba for several years?

Not perfect stasis, really. Just from the movies we know that Han and Leia have started to feel something for each other, we know that (probably because of this) Han had decided to stay with the Rebel Alliance, but changes his mind when one of Jabba's bounty hunters nearly kills him. We know that Luke has been promoted to Commander (one could argue that this happened de facto when everyone in Red Squadron died and he was the highest ranking guy left despite only having joined the Rebels the day before, but that's not necessarily the case), and that he's been leading the search for a new base planet.

You know what? I started this post trying to defend the "three years later" bit, but thinking about it, it does make more sense if it's within six months. Yeah, there are a lot of adventures in the comics that take place in that three year span, but just looking at what's on screen, there's not a lot of evidence of such a long span of time. (The argument that they have to dig out Echo Base is even a faulty one; just shoot a turbolaser at the ice from orbit and you'll have a nice clean hole to set up shop in.)

 

[Rarewolf]

I always assuming Threepio walked in on a bunch of stormtroopers, not Vader. Interesting assumption.

When he's reactived he doesn't mention Vader

'THREEPIO
Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others.
Oh, no! I've been shot!

and before

INT. CLOUD CITY - ANTEROOM

Curious, Threepio enters the room.

THREEPIO
That sounds like an R2 unit in there. I wonder if...

Threepio walks through the doorway to the main room. He looks in.

THREEPIO
Hello? How interesting. Oh, my.

MAN'S VOICE (from within) Who are you?

THREEPIO
Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I... I didn't mean to intrude. No, no, please don't get up. No!


If Vader was in there it's the quietest he's ever been!

 

[John Picard]

I always assuming Threepio walked in on a bunch of stormtroopers, not Vader. Interesting assumption.

When he's reactived he doesn't mention Vader

'THREEPIO
Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others.
Oh, no! I've been shot!

and before

INT. CLOUD CITY - ANTEROOM

Curious, Threepio enters the room.

THREEPIO
That sounds like an R2 unit in there. I wonder if...

Threepio walks through the doorway to the main room. He looks in.

THREEPIO
Hello? How interesting. Oh, my.

MAN'S VOICE (from within) Who are you?

THREEPIO
Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I... I didn't mean to intrude. No, no, please don't get up. No!


If Vader was in there it's the quietest he's ever been!

When you're Lord Vader, you don't have to speak to be menacing.

 

[Lindley]

All of the timelines I've seen specify ROTJ as taking place "4 years ABY (after Battle of Yavin)." Presumably ESB takes place closer to Jedi than Hope.

 

[Gaith]

Six months, IMO, would be an absolute maximum.

 

[Rarewolf]

When you're Lord Vader, you don't have to speak to be menacing.

I didn't mean speaking. His breathing apparatus wasn't exactly made for stealth operations.

 

[John Picard]

When you're Lord Vader, you don't have to speak to be menacing.

I didn't mean speaking. His breathing apparatus wasn't exactly made for stealth operations.

 

[Stevil2001]

The traditional canonical belief that Empire occurs three years after Star Wars, and then Jedi a year after that.

 

[JediKnightButler]

I don't know exactly when he is said to have realized it but I suspect that when the Emperor tells him, it's not exactly news to him given that the opening crawl explicitly tells us that Vader is obsessed with finding LUKE SKYWALKER and when the probe droid reveals the Hoth base, Vader deduces that SKYWALKER is there.
Now, it's entirely possible that Vader knows that LUKE SKYWALKER was the rebel (Red 5) who blew up the first Death Star but just doesn't realize the actual significance of his name because he has had 19+ long years of being "Darth Vader" to nearly completely divorce himself from the reality of his previous identity (Anakin Skywalker). In ROTJ, Vader angrily denounces Luke's suggestion that his "real self"- Anakin Skywalker- is still a part of him (even though it really is).
However, it's still HIGHLY unlikely that he doesn't realize that Luke is his son at the time of ESB because, of course, he confronts Luke with that particular revelation at the end of ESB.
My only question is why he dismembered and nearly killed Luke before he finally decided to reveal their relationship to him.

 

[JediKnightButler]

The traditional canonical belief that Empire occurs three years after Star Wars, and then Jedi a year after that.

I thought that ROTJ was, according to most chronologies I've read, supposed to be set approximately 6 months after ROTJ and that the events of SOTE took place in between that time. I used to think that ROTJ took place almost right after ESB because Luke was already talking about meeting Lando on Tatooine (presumably to rescue Han) as Lando and Chewbacca were leaving in the Falcon. Of course, by the start of ROTJ, Luke has constructed a new lightsaber, become a more refined Jedi Knight, and his appearance and demeanor seems to have changed somewhat, so ROTJ looks like it has been set out at least a little bit. It never seemed like a year had passed between the two episodes, however.

 

[John Picard]

The traditional canonical belief that Empire occurs three years after Star Wars, and then Jedi a year after that.

I thought that ROTJ was, according to most chronologies I've read, supposed to be set approximately 6 months after ROTJ and that the events of SOTE took place in between that time. I used to think that ROTJ took place almost right after ESB because Luke was already talking about meeting Lando on Tatooine (presumably to rescue Han) as Lando and Chewbacca were leaving in the Falcon. Of course, by the start of ROTJ, Luke has constructed a new lightsaber, become a more refined Jedi Knight, and his appearance and demeanor seems to have changed somewhat, so ROTJ looks like it has been set out at least a little bit. It never seemed like a year had passed between the two episodes, however.

Six months between ESB and ROtJ is not enough time for Luke to have become a Jedi Knight.

 

[DarthPipes]

I could buy Vader not being completely sure or in denial until the Emperor told him but I can't buy that Vader didn't at least strongly suspect that Luke was his son.