"Star Wars"...why didn't they change Luke's last name?
 

I mean the whole point of separating the Jedi twins was so the Emperor and Vader didn't even know they existed. So, they cart 'em off to different parts of the galaxy. Leia becomes 'Princess Leia Organa'. Luke was on what I think is considered the remote planet of Tatooine, but you got bounty hunters, Jabba the Hut!, word is bound to get out that there is a Skywalker around and that Vader would pick up on this.

So why wouldn't they change Luke's last name, at least keep it 'Starkiller' like originally planned or give him Owen and Beru's (Aunt and Uncle) name, 'Lars'?

Because when Star Wars was created, Darth Vader was not Luke's father. Anakin Skywalker was a jedi who was murdered by a young pupil of Ben's named Darth Vader. The father-son plotline was created for Empire to add tension and excitement.

Too much trouble to backtrack & try to fix holes like that.

Luke Lars? Like that guy could blow up the death star.

Good answer. Everyone knows Lucas made all this crap up as he went along. ROTS was basically 2+ hours of story-spackle.

Yeah, but people seldomly accept the realistic answer in all this. It's best to assume that no one knows that Anakin Skywalker is now darth vader besides the select few. He had his new name as darth vader to everyone else.


Vader conducted his own search for Luke but I'm sure that the last place he would ever want to go back to is where he laid his mother to rest and where he grew up. So that was written rather well.

Besides that, Skywalker may as well be the galaxies "smith" for all we know.

They think he's dead. Vader believes his children died, because the Emperor told him he killed Padme. Simple as that. Plus when you consider that hiding Luke on Tatooine is the perfect plan. They're hiding him in the last place anyone would expect. Right under their noses. But since they think the children died, it makes perfect sense. Remember:

"It seems in your anger, you killer her!"

Yeah, and did Luke every leave Tatooine for vacation or anything? Doubtful. He was only known by his few friends and aunt/uncle.

But the people responsible for separating and hiding the twins --- including Obi-wan --- did know who Vader was and logic would dictate they'd change the kid's name to Lars.

I agree with the story-spackle comment --- perhaps the best term I've ever read to describe everything following Episode IV.

Surely Vader would occassionally Google "Skywalker" to see what came up.

They probably did, but then Luke got into a fight with Owen over some power converters and was like "Oh yeah, you can't tell me what to do! You're not my real dad!!" and changed his name back to Skywalker just to be a rebel. Then when that wasn't enough, he actually joined the rebellion. Kids these days. -ohbfrank-

Those who do know his name aren't the ones the OP was worried about finding him...

No one knows the kids exist that should be concerned about. Hell, even the connection between Lars and Vader are long since gone. Like stated. There's no reason for Vader to ever want to go back to that sand planet ever again. It is part of his past he just doesn't want to even remember because it reminds him of his human side.

Bring back the sub-forum! :D

I will never let the man who invented "midichlorians" surprise me ever again.

Maybe the name Skywalker's as common as Smith or Johnson?

Or, they think they were never born, since Vader believes he killed Padme, and only found out after the first Death Star was destroyed by a Skywalker. :)

People say the same about Obi Wan versus Ben. Maybe Kenobi is the Nguyen of Tatooine.

rotfl

Shit.. I'm still trying to figure out how the Death Star's propulsion systems work and how fast that thing goes. I mean, here on Earth, astronomers are able to view asteroids beyond say Saturn and Jupiter with possibilities of impacting us. Did no one on Alderaan look up and say, "Now where the hell did that moon come from? That's rather peculiar, don't ya think?"

:lol:

Without a doubt, this is the most accurate answer of all.

The most bitter pill STAR WARS fans like myself have had to swallow is that Lucas didn't have all 12...I mean 9...no, I really mean 6 movies all figured out back in the '70s. Obviously he had certain concepts, characters and locations in mind for further adventures but the notion that he had The Big Book with everything precisely figured out from the beginning is false.

Pwned!

Nice pic!

Now where is that guy that argued with me night and day about the Luke/Leia/Han love triangle in an older thread. :duel:

I am a huge SW's fan, but I don't sit around all day wondering about the who's and why's of the SW's Universe. Lucas made a series of movies that didn't always make sense (insert midichlorians), but they were fun, exciting, groundbreaking and a major part in anyones life.

Move on...nothing to see here.

Under the level of scrutiny Star Wars is often put under, no movie would make sense. I could rip most movies to shred if I dissect them to that degree.

By the way, midichlorians made complete sense. The problem was a lot of people didn't like it nor did they want the force explained, even though midichlorians didn't explain the force. But that's another can of worms entirely.

I don't remember Lucas ever saying he had a giant book where every little plot detail and story idea was laid out in advance. He said he had stories. But stories can be very detailed or vague. They can be added to or taken away from. The original trilogy was pretty well laid out, except for the Luke and Leia thing. That was made up between ESB and ROTJ. But the prequels were made up on the fly, for the most part.

Can someone explain what a "midichlorian" is and why it's controversial to the Star Wars fans?

I'm not well versed in the whole Star Wars universe.