Obi Wan Kenobi solo film

[Carabas]

There was no problem until the prequels.

Question: how old were you when Star Wars came out?

Because you are literally telling us that discussions we had in the 80's didn't happen and are made up.

[Cel]

It does not even matter that Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are the same person.
Skywalker is still a very uncommon name, Anakin Skywaler was still a famous Jedi general from Tatooine.

You're assuming that Anakin was famous. Outside of the immediate circles he traveled in, it could easily be a case of "Annie who?" to most of the galaxy. Hmph, unless one was really into pod racing, he may not even have been known that well on Tatooine for that matter.

Which makes Luke at the least a person of interest.

Not at all. Having a unique last name doesn't make a person of interest. There were perhaps really only two people in the Imperial government who knew the significance of the Skywalker name, and both had believed the line had died out twenty years ago.

[thwhtGuardian]

There was no problem until the prequels. You've no reason, none at all, to think people in hiding, who we're told are in a remote part of the galaxy, are actually from Tatooine. If you came to that weird conclusion that Luke's unknown father was from Tatooine as a teenager because relatives also lived on Tatooine...well, I'm not really sure what to say. I guess congratulations, you formed an idea as bad as '90s George Lucas, and as only a teen no less. Were you aware of the concept of moving in your teens? Do you happen to live in close vicinity to all your family that's never moved of something? This is just such a weird idea, and I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. So, as a TEENAGER, you formulated the idea that because Luke lives with relatives (while in hiding) on Tatooine, (a place that is sold to you the viewer more than once as being on the outskirts of civilization) ergo this is were Vader is from? I guess because clearly people in hiding would continue on living were they had been before?

The problem only comes along onces the prequels do, and we're told Tatooine is where Vader is from, and that the Aunt and Uncle are from there too. Before the prequels you have no reason to think they're all from Tatooine, and every reason to think they've only moved there so they can't be found. Luke Skywalker still having the last name Skywalker isn't even kind of a problem. Open a phone book and look at how many totally unrelated people all share the same last name within a tiny area, or the same exact name. Skywalker might be a weird last name in the real world, but you've no reason to think it's anything but common in Star Wars. What if there's like a trillion people running around the whole galaxy the same age with the same last name?

Right, so I'll put you down for "Politely disagrees."
I'll skip the parts where you seem to be being disagreeable for no real reason and address the remaining points. Moving is certainly not an alien concept for most, but for farmers? The families of farmers, especially farmers in fantasy stories, tend to be tied pretty tightly to the land so they tend to live fairly close together so it's not an unreasonable assumption that the Lars family and by extension Luke's own Skywalker family were the same. And again, just going off what we actually saw in Star Wars, the Lars family and Luke don't really appear to be in hiding; their names aren't changed, they don't seem to shun society more than you'd expect a rural farmer to do and they didn't bar Luke from joining the Imperial Academy. You'd think that if they were a family on the lamb they'd use assumed identities, especially for Luke, and that they definitely wouldn't consider letting him join the Academy. I mean Beru smiles when she argues in Luke's favor, that wouldn't seem like a natural reaction if they were desperately trying to avoid Imperial detection. And since none of the other characters we encounter have the name Skywalker, both in the films and in all the other material we all consumed in the years before the prequels came out I definitely assume that yes, Skywalker is a pretty rare name.

And as others have said, this was a discussion that happened in the fandom long before the prequels were out so I'm hardly alone.

[Carabas]

You're assuming that Anakin was famous. Outside of the immediate circles he traveled in, it could easily be a case of "Annie who?" to most of the galaxy.

Annie? Totally unknown.

General Skywalker? Famous war hero who saved the Emperor and as in most of the great battles of the Clone wars. Or war criminal, depending on your politics.

[Cel]

Annie? Totally unknown.

General Skywalker? Famous war hero who saved the Emperor and as in most of the great battles of the Clone wars. Or war criminal, depending on your politics.

It's really debatable on how famous Anakin Skywalker was. Unless they personally met him, most of the public probably never heard of him outside of Coruscant. In the real world, there are lots of generals we've never heard of, including those that have distinguished service records.

[Carabas]

It's really debatable on how famous Anakin Skywalker was. Unless they personally met him, most of the public probably never heard of him outside of Coruscant. In the real world, there are lots of generals we've never heard of, including those that have distinguished service records.

It's not the public he's hiding from.

And a general that personally rescued a kidnapped Palpatine AND killed the leader of the Seperatists in personal combat? Yeah, he's rock star.

[Enterprise E]

I think I read in one of the Dark Vader comics that Skywalker was not an uncommon name, so maybe Luke was able to keep his name because Anakin would never make the connection between the two since he believed his child to have died with Padme. He'd have to dig deeper in order to realize that this particular Skywalker was the same age that his "supposed" child would be, and given his work in the Empire, he wouldn't have time or reason to do something like that until a guy named Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star with a million-to-one shot.

[WebLurker]

I think I read in one of the Dark Vader comics that Skywalker was not an uncommon name, so maybe Luke was able to keep his name because Anakin would never make the connection between the two since he believed his child to have died with Padme. He'd have to dig deeper in order to realize that this particular Skywalker was the same age that his "supposed" child would be, and given his work in the Empire, he wouldn't have time or reason to do something like that until a guy named Skywalker destroyed the first Death Star with a million-to-one shot.

As I recall, in that series, he guesses that he had a son when he learns that the Rebel who destroyed the Death Star was named Skywalker (he already knew that the Rebel in question knew Ben and had been given his old blue lightsaber, from the main Star Wars comic series). After that, he does investigate himself to confirm that (meaning that by the time of ESB, when he asks the Emperor how it was possible that he could've had a son, he was playing very dumb).

[Za Waldo]

Right, so I'll put you down for "Politely disagrees."
I'll skip the parts where you seem to be being disagreeable for no real reason and address the remaining points. Moving is certainly not an alien concept for most, but for farmers? The families of farmers, especially farmers in fantasy stories, tend to be tied pretty tightly to the land so they tend to live fairly close together so it's not an unreasonable assumption that the Lars family and by extension Luke's own Skywalker family were the same. And again, just going off what we actually saw in Star Wars, the Lars family and Luke don't really appear to be in hiding; their names aren't changed, they don't seem to shun society more than you'd expect a rural farmer to do and they didn't bar Luke from joining the Imperial Academy. You'd think that if they were a family on the lamb they'd use assumed identities, especially for Luke, and that they definitely wouldn't consider letting him join the Academy. I mean Beru smiles when she argues in Luke's favor, that wouldn't seem like a natural reaction if they were desperately trying to avoid Imperial detection. And since none of the other characters we encounter have the name Skywalker, both in the films and in all the other material we all consumed in the years before the prequels came out I definitely assume that yes, Skywalker is a pretty rare name.

And as others have said, this was a discussion that happened in the fandom long before the prequels were out so I'm hardly alone.

They are in hiding. HIDING. They were laying low in the middle of nowhere, and some space wizard off in the distance was watching over them. Now the prequels did come along and **** things up, but this wasn't ever a problem before 1999. I'm not even sure how someone can say they don't appear to be hiding, look at where they lived. It seems you didn't pick up on this while watching the movie, but Star Wars kind of really sells you on the fact that Tatooine is far away from civilization, that it's the kind of place people go when they're looking to get away.

What in the original movies made you think they're some long line of farmers? These people lived in the middle of nowhere with no one around them, but you're acting like it's the Lord of the Rings or something with family all around them. There's nothing at all in the actual movie to give any indication of such a thing.

Why would anyone assume Skywalker is a pretty rare name in Star Wars? Have you watched these movies, have you heard their last names? It's not like he's running around with the last name Skywalker on Earth. I mean, I see your "reasoning", but it's a hilarious reach. Unless a movie is about a mixup because of someone's name, they aren't just going to throw in a bunch of totally superfluous characters that just happen to have the same last name. That would be very weird, and distracting, and I'm sure you already know that's not how storytelling works.

If what I'm seeing now are the talking points of that discussion I can only guess it wasn't really much of discussion. It seems to be a discussion based around stuff that isn't in the movie, something another thing did in relation to farmers, and an extreme misunderstanding about how hard it would be to find someone across an entire galaxy with nothing other than a last name.

[Za Waldo]

It's not the public he's hiding from.

And a general that personally rescued a kidnapped Palpatine AND killed the leader of the Seperatists in personal combat? Yeah, he's rock star.

Are you assuming this based on how people react to meeting Obi-Wan and Yoda? This'll tie into this weird idea that Skywalker is an uncommon name in Star Wars. If Anakin Skywalker is so famous, why doesn't Luke Skywalker already know all about him? If Skywalker is meant to be some uncommon name, why wouldn't Luke just assume he's related to this great war hero named Anakin Skywalker you're saying everyone knows? I mean, if you've got a really uncommon rare last name, might you assume you're related to someone that also has that rare uncommon last name too. Luke is aware of the Jedi, he knows about the Clone Wars, but he doesn't know who Obi-Wan is or anything he did in the war. Obi-Wan fought alongside the rock star, yet he's totally unknown to Luke, as is the rock star with the exact same last name has the hero. Why assume Anakin Skywalker is some hugely famous person when another character with the same last name isn't even aware of him?

[Carabas]

You want to die on this hill? Fine. I'm moving on. You lost me when you said the discussions I had 30 years ago didn't happen.

[Hawkgirl_70]

Very excited if this is true!

But, they JUST HAVE TO cast Ewan as Obi-Wan!!!! I don't want anyone else.

[Cel]

I'd definitely would like to see Ewan back. But I'm almost afraid it could wind up being a young Obi-Wan film, maybe set ten years before Episode I...

[Carabas]

I'd definitely would like to see Ewan back. But I'm almost afraid it could wind up being a young Obi-Wan film, maybe set ten years before Episode I...

Well, that does seem to be the second most eventful period of his life, after the Clone Wars. And the most unexplored one. Bonus: Qui-Gon is almost certainly going to be in it as well.

[Za Waldo]

You want to die on this hill? Fine. I'm moving on. You lost me when you said the discussions I had 30 years ago didn't happen.

I'm not the one dying on the hill.