Two things:

A) With Obi-Wan's name, maybe it's a nickname that a friend of his gave him that Anakin, Palpatine, Tarkin, or the people who knew him didn't know about. Or maybe it's his real name and he didn't like it and decided to change it to Obi-Wan. Like how Padme's real last name is Naberrie instead of Amidala.

B) Maybe Skywalker's the Smith of the galaxy. Maybe there are five other people named Skywalker. Since Vader thought his child (long before finding out it was twins) had died with Padme, he probably didn't think that Luke was his son until the Emperor said, "I have no doubt this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."

Vader is "obsessed" with finding Skywalker (as mentioned in the ESB crawl). There is *no way* Vader doesn't know that he's his son by the time ESB begins.

Just because he's obsessed with finding Luke doesn't mean he knows EVERYTHING about him.

So, it's your claim that Vader is obsessing over finding a Force-sensitive rebel named Skywalker... yet he does not think that he's his son? I find that a bit hard to grasp.

bboisvert...........you seem to be the Jedi expert.........is there an EU story that explains this..........b4 i thought he found out about Luke being his son in the DVD version of Empire...........now it seems that he find out about him between 2/3. Is there a logical reason for this.....or is it one of those mistakes that happen when making movies 25 years apart?

Is it just me or is it funny to refer to Vader as "Annie"?

It's a foreshadowing. As with Annie, the musical, the sun will come out tomorrow, and with Annie, the Dark Lord of the Sith, a new hope will arise as a sun and he will have redemption.

Yeah, I know. I pulled it out of my ass.

If Vader were a good commander, he would've reviewed the report from Tattooine about the search for the droids. "Hmmm, they seem to have been tracked to a moisture farmer named Lars on the outskirts of Mos Eisley".

Ring any bells, dude?

there is a book that i believe is from the 80s or late 70s called Splinter of the Mind's Eye or something like that. I think its supposed to take place between the original Star Wars and Empire, and has among other things the first lightsaber fight between Luke and Vader.

But after that corny Thrawn trilogy ill never read anymore star wars books. the movies have enough silliness for me... Darth Plagius? wtf

he really justed wanted to be known as "BK" to all his homeboys!

He does it out of protection. If Luke goes and talks to Obi-Wan, he will discover his history and could get slain by Anakin or worse, join him in ruling.

Sure, he was happy at first -- he had a cute little baby. Twenty years later that baby is a whining brat. Makes sense he'd be mad at Kenobi.

BUT I WAS GOING TO GO TO THE TOSHI STATION TO PICK UP SOME POWER CONVERTERS!

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Actually ther are three books in which happen between "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back" in which Darth Vader has in fact figured out that Luke is his son because he says it when he was on the his ship's bridge when he's alone, Not to mention the fact that in those three books they never actually meet each other no matter how many traps Vader has set for luke and thus isn't able to tell Luke the truth then and there like he does in "ESB"

Leia knew about the past only what Bail Organa told her. He told her to go seek Obi Wan then she programmed R2D2 to find him.

Owen probably referrs to Obi Wan as "a crazy old wizard" cause he's protective over Luke. He doesn't want Luke to know about his past.

Also, Darth Vader does know Luke is his son. Or at least suspects it. It stated on the title scroll that he was looking for Luke and in the EU he tried to hide the name from Palpatine. He then plays dumb in front of Palpatine "but how can this be?".

Here's a good reason why Obi Wan would change his name. Cause the whole galaxy knew of an Obi Wan since he was such an important Jedi. So he changed hin name to "Ben" since he's hiding from the Empire and wants to keep a low profile. Since Vader thought his child was dead, I guess they didn't think to change Luke's name (or simply forgot to). Skywalker is probably a common name in the galaxy. But after Vader found out a "Skywalker" destroyed the death star he instantly knew.

Could you tell me what those books are? The only novels I am aware of that take place between ANH and ESB are Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Ruins of Dantooine, and the Bounty Hunter Wars. I've read Splinter, and don't recall any such revelations in that book, but I'm not sure about the others.

Here's something:





Vader then proceeds to murder everyone present so it doesn't get to the Emperor.

As I've never read it, could you please elaborate as to what's so bad about it?

Not even considering the EU, I can see Vader obsessing over finding Luke and not knowing he is his son. If Vader had recently encountered his former master and then encounters a force-powerful individual, he could assume this was someone Kenobi was training. In Vader's maddened state, he could assume any number of reasons this rebel has the name Vader, including Kenobi wanting to mock or anger him.

So by what your suggesting, you could also assume that maybe Vader thought Obi-Wan figured out how to manipulate the midiclorians (sp?) and created another being from the Force, much as what was done to create Anakin.

How about Obi-Wan fathering a child?

Vader obsessed over finding him. But don't you think he suspects (via intuition and/or the force) that "young SKYWALKER" is his son? That's without even considering the EU.

Old Ben sounds like Obi-wan. I always assumed it was just a mistake made by the farmers that stuck as a nickname.

To RoboDad and anybody else who wants to know
The books I voguely mention in my last Quote were the first three in the classic star wars series, First being called "In Deadly Pursuit," second "The Rebel Storm," and third is "Escape to Hoth"
so there's the books that are directly relented to movie and connecting the gap between Ep 4 to Ep 5.
anybody got any more question?