Mon Mothma knew Padme was Leia's mother?

However he came to call himself that, you'd think Obi-Wan would advise against it heartily. In fact, I'm not sure how much Owen and Beru had to know about Luke theoretically, but if they knew that Luke was Anakin's son then I'd think they knew he was Padme's, the AOTC novelization kind of sets it up that they know that Anakin and Padme are in love.

 

The Hero With No Fear? The whole galaxy had heard of The Hero With No Fear.

Exactly. All I'm asking is for canon to give us a satisfactory explanation for what would otherwise seem a massive hindrance to the plan.

 

Except Kittster and a whole bunch of people who Leia and Han meet in Tattoine Ghost.

 

Fixed

 

Yeah, the "everyone knowing Anakin Skywalker == Darth Vader" thing drove me absolutely bonkers.

That was something that seemed completely out of the blue...

 

I think it's a stretch to assume Owen and Beru even knew Padme was Luke's mom. There is nothing that I know of that would indicate this. They may have assumed it to be true, but it's not stated anywhere that Obi-wan told them. Similarly, no reason to assume any knowledge of Leia.
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And I have long had a theory on why Luke was a "Skywalker".

Owen wasn't about to trick anyone coming to look for this kid. This plays into the animosity between Obi-wan and Owen. Owen has had this child thrust on him...a child that could bring a galaxy of trouble down on his head. He's not about to risk himself, his wife, or their wellbeing on a Jedi who may or may not be trustworthy.

Now Owen perhaps thawed in his feelings towards Luke as the boy grew up. But by then, his name was his name...no changing that.

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The more recent theory I've heard has to do with Shmi's grave...though this assumes "skywalker" appears somewhere on it.

 

I never read Tattooine Ghost, but did Anakin's old buddies know about his Clone Wars heroism? News doesn't travel all that fast to Tattooine does it? Especially not during the Clone Wars on a planet held by the Hutts I'd imagine.

He was already a celebrity on that planet though, being the only human capable of pod-racing AND winning the Boonta Eve. If anything Luke would have that part of Anakin's life in his memory. Is it possibly that Kenobi went around and did a more permanent Jedi mind trick on everyone that knew Anakin to make them think he'd gone off to become a freighter pilot at some point? He was 9 when he left to become a Jedi, and no doubt he would have said something to that effect to Kittster. Obviously Owen and Beru knew he was a Jedi.

Let's face it... Luke's cover story wasn't nearly as well thought out as Leia's.

As for Owen not knowing Padme was the mom... c'mon, she only came with Anakin on his little Tattooine vacation in the middle of an assignment to be protecting Padme with her hanging off his arm and fawning over him. Pretty obvious I'd say.

 

Relocating Owen and Beru would have been a nice idea, too. Owen wasn't even born on Tatooine: I'm sure anything was better than that little moisture farm.

 

Why couldn't they have relocated TO Tatooine? Why did Anakin have to be from Tatooine?

This is square on George for being uncreative and we are forced to toss it around in EU like it's the characters fault later in the story...bunk! This is question GEORGE LUCAS should be answering...this is a flaw in the logic of the FILMS...passing it on to EU is a cop out by him.

 

I agree. Been saying it since TPM.

 

Maybe the Lars gave Luke his last name within the period, when Ben believed Anakin died on Mustafar?
So he wouldn't interfere with them, since the only person in the galaxy who could feel, that Padme's children are alive.

Maybe later after he discovered, that Darth Vader survived, Owen forbid that Luke be renamed. What could Ben do? He couldn't raise Luke alone, he couldn't force the Lars to rename Luke.
So he told them to be carefull and kept an eye on little Wormie.

I also like the idea that the other people on Tatooine believed that Owen named his nephew (nobody knows from which brother or sister) after his dead step-mother. Perfect explanation for any suspicious "neighbour".

 

Because ANH said he was.

If that's the case, then it's ESB that has the flaw. ANH establishes that Anakin is from Tatooine and Luke is named Skywalker; it's only when Vader and Anakin became the same person that that becomes an issue.

 

Is it also possible that Skywalker isn't unique to just one family? Who knows, there could be several unrelated families of Skywalkers on Tatooine alone. That way, one more wouldn't be too strange.

 

When was this?

 

"He thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved."

 

Everyone is assuming that Anakin was as much a celebrity on Tattooine for being a Jedi as he was in the Republic. I think he was more well known for podracing on Tattooine than he was as a Jedi hero in the Clone Wars. You also have to remember that Anchorhead was a small town and everybody was in everybody's business. Owen and Beru couldn't just pass off Luke as their own. It made sense to tell the truth and tell everyone that he was Shmi's grandson.

 

I remember reading somewhere back in the day that Lucas intended for "Skywalker" to be like "Jones" in the Star Wars Universe. However, considering that there have only been six Skywalkers (even Leia carried that name for less than five minutes) who were all directly related to each other, and there have been oodles (and by "oodles", I mean "more than one") of unrelated Antilles, I'm thinking Antilles is the Jones of Star Wars. "Skywalker" is more like "Disney".

 

Yeah, I don't think Skywalker was ever supposed to be a common name, especially with the whole plot of ESB being driven by Vader knowing that Luke's last name can mean only one thing.

 

She kind of has a galaxy to piece together. Other things on her mind...

 

ah...good catch.

Though it would be easy to make this refer simply to stay here "with the family", not specifically Tatooine. But it certainly can be used as grounds for Anakin's presence on Tatooine for some period...it doesn't require that he lived here as a boy...that is the result of this extensive Jedi training at age 10 George wanted included, and thus since he ran off from Tatooine to be a Jedi, that's where we are.

I'm liking this idea of Owen being too blunt and honest to hide "skywalker"...however, I do think it could be something Owen came to regret later in his life. Given how he and Beru are killed, I think it's likely he thought the troops had come for Luke even though they were questioning about the droids...Somehow I don't imagine Owen being too uncooperative over a couple of droids he just bought that had never done a days work for him.

 

Obi-Wan was more concerned, particularly during this time period, that the Emperor would find out. That was the whole point of hiding the kids.

I can't think of a single instance when anyone's hometown hero would be less famous at home for the great things he did in the world than for the relatively minor things he did back home. For example, President Buchanan was not a particularly good president, but here by my college, everything is named after him because he came from the area. Why would he be less well known on his homeworld? Particularly when that homeworld is supposed to be a good-for-nothing backwater?

 

Agreed on that. I think that once the Stormtroopers showed up (putting aside the account in "Troops", which is hilarious, btw ), Owen probably thought along those lines. You can see his wheels turning in the dinner scene when Luke mentions the droids and "Obi-Wan". Owen starts to see all these things coming together when the droids mention Obi-Wan -- the name "Ben" hasn't used since his active-Jedi days. Owen may have believed (rightly) that the droids were to deliver a message to Obi from his anti-Empire friends, which could bring the Empire to Tatooine, which could get the Lars family mixed up in the "damn fool idealistic crusade" via the droids, which could lead to Luke being discovered, etc etc. Of course, this idea would imply that Obi originally told Owen that Luke needed to stay hidden from the Empire (which i think is a fair implication). Hmmm, could this be more of the real reason why Owen kept pushing Luke to stay on the farm, rather than head off to the Academy?

I don't know why, but i've always liked Owen's character. Though my favorite Owen moment unfortunately isn't canon -- the Visionaries story where cybernetic-Maul comes for Obi-Wan, that ends with Owen basically threatening to kill Obi-Wan if Obi ever comes near Luke again. It's a moment that really cements how much Owen, by that point, considers Luke to be his son and will do anything to protect him, even threaten a Jedi.

 

I think it wasn't just Luke's last name that made Vader interested in him... it was his last name combined with the facts that "the Force is strong with this one" and that he blew up the Death Star.

If there was just some no-name kid with the Skywalker name, I don't know if Vader would have been as interested.

 

Anakin was from Mos Espa, not Anchorhead, and he was regarded as a Jedi so its not likely his home planet came up much. And no matter how uncommon a surname Skywalker is, most folks don't know its origin or exactly how many children Shmi had. All Owen had to do is emphasize the Shmi connection. Given that Luke is presented as an orphan, most people would not inquire further.

I can see the conversation now:
"Skywalker? Like that Jedi?"
"Jedi don't have kids, no Luke is my stepbrother's kid. And he worked on a spice freighter."

In some societies like Japan where adoption is frowned upon, adoptive parents present their child as a relative's offspring. Since Owen and Beru are childless farmers it would be even more understandable they would open their home to a distant relation who could help out on the farm.

The Lars probably benefitted from the Jedi Purge since people were careful to forget about Jedi. Luke would have been kept at the farm until he was school age (if he wasn't home schooled!) and by that time many people would have forgotten about Anakin. If they knew of him, and recalled he was from Tatooine, they probably assumed he was a distant relation and said nothing so they would not attract attention from the Empire.

 

Yeah, that is more or less what I was trying to say, except that, since the Clone Wars was in the Republic and Tattooine was not, people on Tattooine would be more likely to say, "Skywalker? Like that little kid who won the Boonta Eve Classic?" For people on Tattooine to know about Anakin Skywalker the Jedi Hero of the Republic would be like the average American knowing about Russian heroes of the past.

I think Tattooine would frown upon adoption too but for different reasons than in Japan. I think on Tattooine, most people are living hand to mouth and no average farmer would go out of their way to have another mouth to feed unless he really needed more help on the farm.

Also, Luke took classes online IIRC. Luke lived too far out to go to a real school. Could you imagine how fraught with danger riding a "school speeder" through the waistes of Tattooine would be? Tuskens would be taking shots at it every day to "adopt" the children into their tribe.