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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Luke and Leia's parentage: the galaxy's knowledge

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Arrian, Mar 16, 2013.

  1. Arrian

    Arrian Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 15, 2011
    This thread is spawned by a nagging question I've always had about the way in which the EU explored Luke and Leia's parentage, and prompted by someone's reignition of the idea in another thread.

    Just how much does the wider galaxy know? Do they know Luke and Leia are the children of Darth Vader? I swear in some novels they do, and in some they don't really. Is there inconsistency here, and in which book is it publicly revealed to the galaxy? Is there an explicit time when Luke and Leia released this information? It doesn't seem too clear to me; in some books it's secret, the next it's a plot, and so on continually.

    I think this confusion/inconsistency is one of the EU's biggest trip ups in the post-RotJ era, and could've made for really great material. (Tatooine Ghost doesn't count because Leia's only coming to accept it herself, definitely not releasing it to the public)
     
  2. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    I never understood this myself. The moment the PT came out it seemed everyone and their brother brother brother knew.

    It's been a while since I read Tatooine Ghost, but I could have sworn Wald or one of Anakin's old friends knew that Anakin = Vader.

    Ahhh but wait -- that's something different, isn't it? Whether the galaxy knew Anakin = Vader, and whether everyone knew Luke and Leia were his children. Huh. We don't have an Anakin = Vader public-revelation story either, IIRC.....
     
  3. Cad Bane

    Cad Bane Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Mar 10, 2013
    As I recall, the first story that had it public knowledge was The Black Fleet Crisis. Always felt that was one hell of great unexplored story in there: how exactly did the galaxy at large find out. Luke certainly wasn't shy about revealing it in I, Jedi to his students. Of course he didn't go around screaming it from the rooftops, too. Always had a pet theory that it was one of Leia's political enemies that somehow found out (Fey'lya for example) and leaked it to damage her career. Or it could have been one of Luke's fallen Jedi brats. Brakiss comes to mind.
     
  4. Darth_Kevin

    Darth_Kevin Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 30, 2001
    I think it is consistent from publication timeline but not chronologically. Bantam treated it as though it was not well known. Starting with Tatooine Ghost it is as though the whole galaxy knew.
     
  5. MillionthVoice

    MillionthVoice Jedi Master star 3

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    Jan 28, 2013
    Considering how Palpatine and Vader talk about Anakin Skywalker in third person in ESB (hologram scene), not even they acknowledge Vader=Anakin, so it seems unlikely it could be common knowledge at that time anyway
     
  6. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

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    Nov 11, 2012
    People who mattered knew.
     
  7. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    In Luke Skywalker & the Shadows of Mindor, the villain is able to make propaganda holos about the Battle of Endor- that describe events from the end of the clone wars as well- and portray Vader and Anakin as two separate people.

    Which would suggest that it's not common knowledge that they're one and the same.
     
  8. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

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    Nov 11, 2012
    Yeah - like I said, people who mattered knew. The common people didn't need to.
     
  9. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    The Thrawn trilogy plotline (with the Noghri being sent after Leia) becomes a bit problematic if Thrawn knows Leia is Vader's daughter.
     
  10. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Yeah, it comes out somewhere between 11 and 16 ABY (I, Jedi and The Black Fleet Crisis). The fact that Leia and Luke are brother and sister, though, appears to come out shortly after Endor. It's disappointing that we haven't gotten to see the reaction to either of those revelations.
     
    Summer Dreamer likes this.
  11. Mechalich

    Mechalich Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Feb 2, 2010
    The evidence indicates strongly that the Empire made significant effort to conceal the Vader=Anakin information. That's logical, since considering Palpatine's virulently anti-Jedi stance associating with a major Jedi hero would be a bad idea. I fully suspect he even had Anakin Skywalker officially declared dead at some point.

    However, we know the New Repubic gradually obtained access to significant portions of Palpatine's private files starting with their conquest of Coruscant - but that they never obtained all of those files - as the Caamas Document Crisis indicates.

    Given the canon dates, it seems likely to me that the specific information regarding the connection was probably recovered after the fall of the Dark Empire, or possibly even published by the Ruling Council post-Byss in an attempt to destabilize the New Republic after Leia was appointed Chief of State. The latter may make more sense - having the disclosure come from an Imperial source would allow for the rather muddled response and slow disemination of the information, since neither Luke nor Leia would be in any real hurry to confirm it publically and it might have takena considerable amount of time for anyone in the New Republic to find documentary evidence.
     
    Dr. Steve Brule likes this.
  12. General Immodet

    General Immodet Jedi Master star 5

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    Dec 5, 2012
    They first mentioned it in one of the later issues of the Marvel comic series. In it, Luke and Leia wonder whether they will tell the Galaxy about their parenthood.
     
  13. Dr. Steve Brule

    Dr. Steve Brule Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Sep 7, 2012
    I always thought a good way to approach this would have been to have had Anakin officially killed by Mace & Co while "protecting the Chancellor from the Jedi assassination plot." Anakin always seems to have been popular with the common person and so having the stereotypical "good Jedi" giving his life to save Palpatine from the "evil Jedi" would probably help shore up Palpatine's rhetoric.
     
    RC-1991 likes this.
  14. Skaddix

    Skaddix Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Feb 3, 2012
    When was Anakin popular with the common folk? Half the time he was practicing good old fashion police brutality.
     
  15. Jedi Comedian

    Jedi Comedian Jedi Master star 3

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    Oct 27, 2012
    The RotS novelisation makes it clear that Anakin is the most famous and popular Jedi in the galaxy during the Clone Wars, even above Obi-Wan.
     
    minnishe likes this.
  16. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

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    Nov 8, 2012
    Well in the original ANH novel Red Leader tells Luke that he flew with his father during the Clone Wars. This comment is now non-canon now. Officially Anakin was killed during Operation: Knightfall. And Obi-Wan had thought that he had killed Vader until Dark Lord when he heard about him on the HoloNet
     
  17. Jedi Comedian

    Jedi Comedian Jedi Master star 3

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    Oct 27, 2012
    Nope, still canon.
     
  18. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

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    Nov 8, 2012
    I don't mean the battle itself but the comment in the novel.
     
  19. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I re-read it in the summer of 2011. From what I remember, when Leia runs into Anakin's old friends on Tatooine, not only did they not know that Anakin was Vader, they thought it was impossible that he had become Vader. Kitster did come to the realization that Leia was telling the truth by the end of the book, and Wald may have done the same.

    In Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Obi-Wan found out via seeing him on the Holonet in a Tatooine bar, and Bail found out in that same book but I can't remember how he found out.

    Otherwise I think the official word was that Anakin died during the Purge. There was really no benefit to the galaxy having the knowledge that a popular Jedi had become such an agent of evil.
     
    minnishe and Barriss_Coffee like this.
  20. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

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    Nov 8, 2012
    In the Temple when the clones attacked
     
  21. Chewbacca89

    Chewbacca89 Jedi Master star 5

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    Oct 25, 2012
    How many people in the galaxy (during the OT) would have known Anakin was Vader? If they knew would they have questioned Luke's involvement in the Rebellion?
     
  22. Darth_Kiryan

    Darth_Kiryan Jedi Master star 4

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    Mar 13, 2009
    depends on what you define canon as. The comment is mentioned again in the essnetial guide to warfare.
     
  23. Skaddix

    Skaddix Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Feb 3, 2012
    I am not sure any of the rebels would have known obviously a several guys in the Empire would have known. Also its two different lists how many people know Anakin = Vader and how many know Luke is Anakins kid.
     
  24. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

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    Nov 8, 2012
    No here's what I mean: How could Garven Dreis, a local militiaman from some unknown planet on the Inner Rim know that some pilot from another backwater planet on the Outer Rim is the son of the "Hero with No Fear" Jedi Knight who officially was killed during the attack on the Jedi Temple. Does it actually say in the Essential Guide that he knew who Luke's dad was. I agree Skywalker is not a common name in Star Wars and he might've put two and two together but the only people (characters) who have been confirmed to know who Luke and Leia's parents are are Obi-Wan, Yoda, Bail, (maybe Breha), R2-D2, Palpatine & Vader himself (eventually) and then the rest of the galaxy.
     
    Chewbacca89 likes this.
  25. Chewbacca89

    Chewbacca89 Jedi Master star 5

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    Oct 25, 2012
    ^this. It's a big leap to make...