CT Why is Luke so hung up on picking up power converters in ANH?

We all know the line. In ANH, Uncle Owen tells Luke to take their new droids to their garage and clean them up before dinner. In response, Luke protests in a very whiny voice, saying: "But I was going over to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!"

So, why is Luke so upset that he can't go out and immediately get some power converters? And what did he want to use those power converters for anyway? And why does Uncle Owen associate buying power converters with hanging out with his friends? The two don't seem to have anything in common.

I know this is really getting into Star Wars minutiae, but I'm sure a lot people have wondered about these lines when they've seen ANH. Is there a clear cut answer to these questions? Does anyone know?


(In a slightly different line of thought, I think Episode 9 should end with an 90-year-old Luke returning to Tatooine and finally have the chance to buy those power converters he so coveted as a 19-year-old...)

 

Wow that really is minutiae! Erm, I guess power converters are just used as a generic sci-fi sort of term and maybe his friends like to hang out at the Toshi station.

As for the 90 yr old Luke in Ep9, I do wonder what the time frame for the new trilogy will be. I imagine more like the 4-5 years of the OT as opposed to the 13 or so for the PT.

I really have to take a long look at myself for spending my Friday night talking about this!

 

Luke didn't want to do his chores. That is the reaction most teenagers have to being told no. Luke would go get the converters, but then wind up spending time screwing around with his friends.

 

It is what teenagers did a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

 

Remember Owen's response: "You can waste time with your friends later." Luke didn't really want power converters, his friends were all at the Tosche Station and he wanted to go hang out with them.

 

Yes, "you want to go home and rethink your life."

...and I guess that also means I need to rethink mine as well

 

Haha I am at home, that's the problem! Death Sticks would be most welcome right now

 

Okay, it seems like we're getting closer to the truth. There seems be a consensus here that Luke is simply talking of buying the power converters as an excuse to hang out with his friends.

However, we're still overlooking something. Unless Luke isn't a very good deceiver, he must think that buying power converters is a pretty good excuse for getting away from the moisture farm. Since we can safely assume that this is the case, the power converters must serve some pretty important purpose. So, again, we are left with the lingering question: What important purpose do the power converters serve -- presumably for the moisture farm -- that makes Luke believe that Uncle Owen will respond by letting him go to Toschi Station when Luke says that he's planning to buy some power converters?

I know it may prove difficult, and in the end, we may have to consult the novelization of ANH or some other more arcane EU source, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret of what makes power converters important to the operations of Uncle Owen's moisture farm.

 

He just wants to skive off with Camie and Fixer and all those other crazy, mixed up Tatooine kids.

 

Not a scrap of evidence for this, but I like to think of the power converters as sexy aftermarket landspeeder parts that will make Luke's ride faster and much less safe.

 

Yeah, he just wants to go hang out with the other kids.

Actually, this is one of my favorite lines in the whole OT. The whine Mark Hamill uses in delivering the line is perfect. It shows the audience that Luke, while living in the GFFA, is really just a typical kid.

 

I can't believe this. They've actually made action figures for Luke's dorky friends that only appear in deleted scenes! This leads me to another question -- have they made an action figure for Han's bar skank (who appears below)?



(As you can guess, I'm very bored tonight...)

 

darth ladnar, no, they never did.

 

Maybe you had to at least make the radio drama in order to be an action figure. I don't recall the bar ... patron ... being in that.

 

I'm sure somebody will write a spin-off story or even novel about her. Unless someone has already done so.

 

She has a name, you know - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jenny, Han Solo's bit on the side

 

Hmmm....chores or going to Tosche Station? Cleaning up droids or hanging out with -


Yeah......later, Owen.

 

To answer the OP, I think Robot Chicken has already definitively explained the mystery of the "power converters":

 

I'm not so sure. Whenever Luke is with her, Camie just mocks him and calls him the insulting nickname "Wormy."

...Well, maybe Luke is into that type of thing. It may run in the family. Vader is constantly being humiliated in his 20-year relationship with Palpatine.

 

Luke would have still bought the power converters, he just would've been home after dusk. I used to live in a small town and I would go to the grocery store for one thing, on a Sunday afternoon and wind up hanging with my friend, who worked there, for twenty to thirty minutes. So I can relate to that. I never had any chores that were pressing, but then I didn't live on a farm.

 

He needs power converters in order to play his brand new XBox -432897 (minus, because this is a long time ago in a GFFA after all).

 

I always thought it was because it was the bit that would explain the group Luke was on the fringes of being member of and his connection to Biggs. I am still upset they butchered Biggs' contributions to ANH. I don't buy the pacing argument, it's moot given the TPM pod race exists and is overlong.

 

Wormy may not be an insult.

 

This. I always thought he was talking about hot rod parts: 4-barrel carburetors, high compression pistons, turbochargers, intercoolers, gapped spark plugs, octane boosters, and power converters.

Don't forget that GL was really into hot rods when he made American Graffiti.

 

Ah, but there's some differences.

1. Most of the Podrace was cut down to begin with. Shorter introductions and a short second lap. The Tatooine scenes were intercut with a faster pace version of events aboard the Tantive IV and the droids trip to the farm.

2. In 1977, Lucas was not satisfied with a lot of things on ANH and the first cut really put him off. Hence letting Hirsch and Chew edit like they did. In 1998-99, Lucas was in a much different place emotionally and mentally, which is why the editing is different.

Depends on the context.