CT How old were you when you heard Vader's Revelation?

I think we were all shocked, regardless of whatever age. In 1995, I was nine, and Vader's act of severing Luke's hand horrified me. When he revealed that he was Luke's father, I was scared out of my mind. "Me, too!" My Mom was in her forties at the time. Additionally, I knew that Vader was telling the truth, since the beginning of the VHS tape of TESB featured Leonard Maltin asking Lucas how people reacted to the moment when they learned who Vader "really is."

 

I can't remember I was shocked. I guess there had been too many rumors/info in my school and other sources such as the novelization so I already knew. I didn't see the movie in a theater until around summer of 1981, late enough for me to already know the story. They even played the movie in classrooms on campus video, though I only got to watch a few minutes till the teacher turned off the TV. I must have been around 14. When I finally saw the whole thing on the big screen there wasn't much surprise, I already knew.

 

I was seven in 1980. I was right there in the theater when I heard it. We all had to wait three years to find out if it was true or not.

 

I was three years old and watching from a theater seat. I thought Vader was really frightening. When I heard the revelation, I didn't want to believe it.

 

I got into Starwars when I was 5 and I kid you not I found out through the Lego Star Wars game.

 

Honestly that's a terrible way to find out....

 

I don't remember because literally I think it was ingrained to me somehow as a 5-8 year old... and so when I watched the prequels when they came out on tv in 2008. They did not spoil it for me. I watched 1, 4, 5, and 6 a lot as a young kid on library vhs's and guess just learned it there...

 

I'm not sure that the twist wasn't spoiled for me before I watched ESB. Vader being Luke's father is so easy to absorb through cultural osmosis that some fetuses already know.

 

I had a copy of A New Hope on that was taped off of TV, and was missing the first 20 minutes(I still have it in some box somewhere), and watched it many times so that the quality became terrible. I think when I was 8 or 9, the same year I got a sega genesis, we rented ESB on vhs from the local video store.

I don't have any notable memories about the twist. I don't think 8 year olds really care. It's probably more impressionable on an 11 or 12 year old.

 

TESB was the first SW movie I saw. I was about 9 and I saw it on VHS. I had to do my best not to weep: it was the first movie I saw where the hero doesn't win at the end and it was also a shock watching a father being so cruel to his own son to the point of maiming him. I had also a nightmare that night!

(When I made my daughter to watch TESB for the first time, I tried to soften a bit the impact, while not spoiling: in the scene where Vader and Palpatine talk, I commented casually that Vader is sparing Luke's life in suggesting Palpatine to turn Luke, but I didn't offer any guess on why. It seemed this worked, because anyway she looked really amazed by revelation but she didn't referred nightmares in next days).

 

I was 14. Opening night of ESB in a crowded (not a single empty seat) and noisy theater with a boisterous audience. Boy, did it go very quiet when that happened. I never disbelieved it. I thought it made sense in retrospect, even though it apparently had not been planned from the start. But I didn't find out until years later that it wasn't planned.

 

Yeah, it really is. Personally, if there’s a viewing order I recommend, it’s ANH, TESB, the prequels, R1, ROTJ, and then the sequels. I have a heavy bias for the originals and R1. I really don’t know where to put Solo in the mix, since I do not plan to buy it, but I’ve had a honeymoon with R1. I look forward to seeing Felicity in theaters again during December. Anyway, it’s amazing how Jones put emotion behind Vader’s voice, given how it’s supposed to be a vocabulator. When he says, “No, I am your father,” it sounds like a confession. Vader’s choice to reveal himself to his son affected him more than he thought it would, which, of course, influenced his conflicted state and redemption in ROTJ (more of a psychological performance from Jones).

 

Oh I know, but it was how I found out.

 

I knew beforehand that he was Luke's father, but it still was so crazy.

 

It’s part of what makes Vader so memorable.

 

I don't remember, but definitely 4-13.
I don't think it shocked me either, because at the time, I wasn't emotionally invested in the story in that way. I really loved it, but maybe I was too young to get it or something.
Basically, it's like I've always known

 

For most of us, I'd wager, it's difficult for us to remember a time when we believed that Vader was someone other than Luke's father.

 

I know I was younger than five. Maybe as young as three.*

It didn't really land with me. I didn't think it was a big deal. Maybe it's because of my personal background. Or maybe it's because it was spoiled for me before I watched it.

*I know I wasn't in kindergarten yet. I also know it was watched in my house while I was around, before I watched it, so I might have picked up the reveal peripherally.

 

I was 12, not yet 13. It was the year 1997.

 

I was 10 I think.

 

Young enough such that I can't remember not knowing it. My earliest vivid SW related memories were ROTS hype - I suspect that story is true of many here

 

It was 1980, and I was 14.

 

I saw the scene in ESB several times before understanding the implications. Since Luke loses a hand, my parents would not let me watch the scene. I learned Vader was Luke's dad by watching ROTJ

 

I was 7 in 1980 when my dad took me to see it at the cinema. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even seen the original at that point but knew the story through the storybook and comics though.