• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

When did Vader find out Luke was his son?

Are we certain all 3P0s memories were wiped? He's turned off when Kenobi explains the story so far (from a certian point of view) in a New Hope. And 3PO knows he saw action in the Clone Wars.
 
^ Well, obviously we can't be certain. But the 'wipe the protocol droid's mind' line at the end of Ep III is clearly intended to leave us with the impression that all his memories have been erased. Lucas inserted it as an answer to all the complaints that it didn't make sense for 3PO to know all the events of the prequel trilogy and to have been created by Anakin, etc.

I don't think he needed to include a scene showing the mindwipe being carried out and 3PO saying 'Goodness, I don't remember a single thing!' to prove that the wipe was actually conducted.

Incidentally, as regards the debate whether or not Obi-Wan knew Vader was alive before meeting him on the Death Star, it's worth pointing out that OW shows absolutely no surprise at seeing Vader on the station. No 'WTF, how can you be alive?'-type reaction. He seems to have been expecting to see him.
 
Threepio did not know what planet he was on in Episode IV. Surely he would have remembered Tatooine since he was created there, lived there for a number of years and even visited the Lars homestead. He also had no recollection of an Obi-Wan Kenobi.

To me, these facts indicated that he'd had a memory wipe.

There is a fan script on http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/fan/republic_falls.htm that has a totally different way of handling the whole mindwipe. In this fan script, written before Revenge of the Sith was released, Threepio is used as a pawn by Palpatine to mess with Anakin and further his distrust of the Jedi Council. Palpatine's men capture Threepio, wipe portions of his memory, implant false data to mislead Anakin. Once this is accomplished they take and wipe Threepio's memory AGAIN to remove the evidence of their tampering.

This concept made much more sense to me than the bit tacked on to the end of Episode III.
 
Incidentally, as regards the debate whether or not Obi-Wan knew Vader was alive before meeting him on the Death Star, it's worth pointing out that OW shows absolutely no surprise at seeing Vader on the station. No 'WTF, how can you be alive?'-type reaction. He seems to have been expecting to see him.

I'm sure Vader was in the news all throughout the 20 (or so) years between Ep. III and IV. Leia knew exactly who he was.
 
What 'official' book or novel takes place and continues on right after the Battle of Endor (like an unofficial SWVII)?
 
Are we certain all 3P0s memories were wiped? He's turned off when Kenobi explains the story so far (from a certian point of view) in a New Hope. And 3PO knows he saw action in the Clone Wars.

Did he say "Clone Wars"? I remember he mentioned they had lots of adventures, but they could have been after the war as well.
 

Is all that in the Expanded Universe? If so, that's retarded and a half. I liked some of the stuff about spies and torturing to find out Luke's identity, but, after that, not so much. All those contrived situations of Luke fighting or almost fighting Vader. TESB doesn't have the same impact if Luke had fought him before.

A fair bit of it is from really early comics. At least one part is from Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which was written *before* ESB came out.
 
^Disagree. I don't think Obi-Wan would have wanted Luke to become a killer.

Plenty of Jedi have killed in the line of duty, and Obi-Wan himself is not that different.

I think Obi-Wan assumed Vader was dead until he met him again on The Death Star. So if anything, he was preparing Luke to take on The Emperor. It wasn't until TESB that he was gung ho about Luke taking down Vader. Because being dead, and Yoda being close to death, he was the only one who could. I don't blame Obi-Wan for lying in that regard. I would have too. Because the truth would have been too ridiculous for anyone to believe. Better for this kid to believe is dead father was a martyr and give him better motivation to take down Palpatine then for him to find out that his dad was an evil scumbag who was responsible for putting the galaxy in the sad state it was in. And if the Emperor told him the truth, he'd just assume Luke would think he was a liar with him being a Sith and all. So Obi-Wan must have assumed his lie was airtight with Vader being dead. Or so he thought.

If you accept the EU, then Obi-Wan KNOWS that Anakin/Vader is still alive according to the end of Dark Lord:The Rise of Darth Vader as he sees Anakin/Vader on the holonews at a local cantina. Obi-Wan briefly thinks about telling the Lars and/or taking Luke elsewhere but *Qui-Gon* counsels him that Anakin/Vader will never return to Tatooine, so ultimately, of course, Obi-Wan lets things stand as they are and the rest, as they say, is history. As we know from ANH, Anakin/Vader does NOT make a personal effort to retrieve the droids but I always assumed that he had more pressing matters to attend to. I also thought that maybe that his suit probably would've made a trip on the surface extremely uncomfortable for him if not outright hazardous. The prequels put his not going down to Tatooine in pursuit of the droids in a different perspective.
 
Last edited:
Well it couldn't have been from hearing about a Skywalker applying for the academy, Owen was at least smart enough not to mail that one. It was most likely shortly after Luke blew up the Death Star and simultaneously became the galaxy's greatest hero and public enemy numero uno.
 
What 'official' book or novel takes place and continues on right after the Battle of Endor (like an unofficial SWVII)?
"The Truce at Bakura" takes place immediately after ROTJ and deals somewhat with its aftermath though it's mainly its own story.
 
So Uncle Lars wasn't going to let Luke go to the Academy because he knew the Empire would go after anyone named "Skywalker"? Did Obi-Wan tell him that, or did he just figure it from knowing Anakin was a Jedi Knight?
 
What 'official' book or novel takes place and continues on right after the Battle of Endor (like an unofficial SWVII)?
"The Truce at Bakura" takes place immediately after ROTJ and deals somewhat with its aftermath though it's mainly its own story.

Thanks Mr. Light. Found some other books as well
in the timeframe of the movies. I've never read any of the books and
want to start.
 
What 'official' book or novel takes place and continues on right after the Battle of Endor (like an unofficial SWVII)?
"The Truce at Bakura" takes place immediately after ROTJ and deals somewhat with its aftermath though it's mainly its own story.

Thanks Mr. Light. Found some other books as well
in the timeframe of the movies. I've never read any of the books and
want to start.

There is no unofficial SWVII, though some will say the Thrawn Trilogy serves in that capacity.

Here is a novel timeline, includes novels, ebooks and junior adult novels and their placement in the Star Wars universe timeline.

You'll also find that most novels also have a timeline at the front of them (it excludes the junior novels). Obviously depending on when the book was published depends on how up to date their timeline is.
 
IMO: Start with Heir to the Empire... it was the first post-ROTJ story written (meaning you won't gain anything, continuity-wise by starting with Truce), and, along with its two sequels, the best.
 
I disagree with your first point. Vader only Obi Wan's presence on the Death Star in terms of sensing his proximity. He seemed to already be aware that the older man was alive. Besides, even if one accepts that Vader only sensed his presence for the first time on the Death Star, bear in mind that Obi-Wan had developed his force skills so as to be able to sense the destruction of Alderaan, then to be able to communicate to the living even after his death. Remember the 'lessons' Yoda set him at the end of EpIII? I don't think Vader honed his skills in quite the same way in the interim.

Here's the problem I have with this. If Obi-Wan knew Ani was alive, I think it would be out of character for him to just stand around in the desert and do nothing about it. He took out Vader in his prime. A crippled Vader should be no problem for him. Especially if he was developing his force powers. Which was probably not the case as per ANH's line "Your powers are weak old man." And he wasn't even that old, as we later found out. So really, Obi-Wan should have easily been able to take out Vader in ANH.

Of course trying to tie ANH and ROTS is silly though. There are so may lazy discrepencies there is bound to be endless contradictions and things that just make no sense or make the characters out to be more stupid then they are meant to be. That's what happens when you make it up as you go along.
 
^ My take on that is that Obi-Wan wasn't one for suicide missions. He was one man, alone. Vader had the entire resources of the Empire to back him up. How was he going to get at Vader in a fair fight? He was trying to avoid him on the Death Star, though I think he had an inkling that they were fated to meet there.

I think also Obi-Wan knew that the events at the end of ROTS were the last chance he and Yoda would have to take down Vader/ Palpatine, at least until the rebellion (and the Skywalker twins) were ready to join the struggle. So guarding Luke on Tattoine was his priority for those 20 years or so, not taking down Vader.
 
I disagree with your first point. Vader only Obi Wan's presence on the Death Star in terms of sensing his proximity. He seemed to already be aware that the older man was alive. Besides, even if one accepts that Vader only sensed his presence for the first time on the Death Star, bear in mind that Obi-Wan had developed his force skills so as to be able to sense the destruction of Alderaan, then to be able to communicate to the living even after his death. Remember the 'lessons' Yoda set him at the end of EpIII? I don't think Vader honed his skills in quite the same way in the interim.
Here's the problem I have with this. If Obi-Wan knew Ani was alive, I think it would be out of character for him to just stand around in the desert and do nothing about it. He took out Vader in his prime. A crippled Vader should be no problem for him. Especially if he was developing his force powers. Which was probably not the case as per ANH's line "Your powers are weak old man." And he wasn't even that old, as we later found out. So really, Obi-Wan should have easily been able to take out Vader in ANH.

Of course trying to tie ANH and ROTS is silly though. There are so may lazy discrepencies there is bound to be endless contradictions and things that just make no sense or make the characters out to be more stupid then they are meant to be. That's what happens when you make it up as you go along.

Kenobi might of realised that Anakin was still alive living in the suit (if we taken the rise of Vader novel as canon) but ANH takes place 20 years later. So unless Obi Wan kept up with the news casts he might not of known that Vader was still alive.
 
The point of the ending of ROTS (going by the novelization, anyway) was that Yoda realized that there was no way they could beat Sidious and/or Vader. So they had to sit around for twenty years to wait for Vader's kids to grow up and make him feel guilty about himself enough to turn on Sidious. Because only Vader could defeat Sidious, after twenty years of serving him and thus getting the drop on him.
 
Here is a novel timeline, includes novels, ebooks and junior adult novels and their placement in the Star Wars universe timeline.

You know what never made sense to me?

Why is the Junior Jedi Knights series placed chronologically before the Young Jedi Knights series? Are we really expected to believe that Anakin Solo started at the Jedi Academy earlier than his siblings?
 
I think also Obi-Wan knew that the events at the end of ROTS were the last chance he and Yoda would have to take down Vader/ Palpatine, at least until the rebellion (and the Skywalker twins) were ready to join the struggle. So guarding Luke on Tattoine was his priority for those 20 years or so, not taking down Vader.
Yeah, but how many Order 66 survivors will the EU throw at us?

Obi-Wan should've at least thought that Yoda was dead until he himself died. :shifty:
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top