Star Wars Paternity Plot Hole

[Mick Donalds]

Had a good laugh at this. In all these years, I never thought about how Vader basically just "ignored" the existence of his own two kids, which he knew were coming because of a very pregnant Padme in Revenge of the Sith.

Taken from cracked.

The Plot Twist

It's maybe the most famous plot twist of all time: In what was the series' biggest Maury moment, Darth Vader is revealed to be Luke Skywalker's father, Anakin, after Luke had spent the entire first film thinking that Vader was his father's murderer. The touching reunion includes Vader cutting his son's hand off and Luke jumping into a void rather than spending more time with his dad.

In the end, Luke gets a killer hand stump and some light incest out of the deal; it turns out that love interest Princess Leia is Vader's kid as well.

Hold On, Now ...

The "I am your father" twist is one of the greatest movie moments ever, so it's easy to forget that it makes no fucking sense.

For starters, when exactly did Vader find out that Luke even existed? This is an incredibly important moment the movies never show us. Remember, the idea was that Luke was stashed on Tatooine as an infant specifically to keep the Empire from finding out about him. Luke is still living in peaceful anonymity in A New Hope, so clearly Vader doesn't realize that Luke is there.

But why? You'd think he would have noticed at some point in the first movie that this kid with a passing resemblance to his own younger self happened to share his last name. The first mention of him as the "son of Skywalker" is in the second movie, when Vader suggests to the Emperor that Luke could be turned. So did they just now put this all together? For real?

Vader and the Emperor were about as smart as their Spaceballs counterparts if they somehow missed the fact that for 20 years, there was a kid living on Vader's own home planet, with Vader's own family, openly telling everyone that he was "the son of Anakin Skywalker." And it's not like Vader is too far away to visit home, after all -- he has no problem visiting in the first film, right?

Which went about as well as any family reunion has ever gone.

Let's say that Vader's secret good side just didn't want to get his son involved; what about the Emperor? Or how about the fact that if Luke is down there, surely that pesky Obi-Wan (aka the dude who put Vader in that breathing suit) can't be far?

Vader must be the least-attentive father ever ... which isn't exactly a stretch, considering that his keen sense of the Force didn't pick up on his own daughter being tortured right in front of him. Jesus, Vader, you could have warned her.

Lol.

I know some of you are Star Wars fanboys. Is this a plot hole or do the events of Ep I-III debunk this plot hole. Let's discuss this.

 

[We Are Legion]

I really don't see this supposed "plothole". Vader never laid eyes on Luke in the first movie besides catching a quick glimpse of him when the Millennium Falcon's bay door was closing when they were about to escape the Death Star. It's obvious Vader first picks up on the fact his son could be alive when he's chasing Luke's X-Wing through the Death Star cavern and remarks "The force is strong with this one." after he can't get a clear shot on him. This is obviously why Episode I draws a parallel when Anakin also blows up a rather large ship seemingly by himself. I think it's safe to say Vader had a pretty good idea who that pilot he was chasing COULD have been afterwards, and obviously it didn't take much digging because he clearly knew who he was in Episode V.

Episode IV also makes no mention of the alleged fact Luke was "running around telling everyone he was the son of Anakin Skywalker" because aside from Obi Wan, it didn't seem like he told anyone and it didn't seem like he ever had many friends either. And even if he did, no one on Tatooine knew Anakin was Darth Vader because the Jedi order were the only ones who knew and they were practically all dead. Vader knew he had relatives on Tatooine but clealry showed little interest in getting to know them in Episode II since he didn't even meet them until after his mother was murdered. This was also after discovering his mother was "bought" by a man who impregnated her and their child was Uncle Owen. I doubt I would have cared to check up on Owen either if I was Vader. Severely awkward on many levels.

And Leia used the surname of her adopted parents, not her real ones so there's no way either of them could have known.

None of these are plot holes, just a lack of attention to detail.

 

[BDC]

I really don't see this supposed "plothole". Vader never laid eyes on Luke in the first movie besides catching a quick glimpse of him when the Millennium Falcon's bay door was closing when they were about to escape the Death Star. It's obvious Vader first picks up on the fact his son could be alive when he's chasing Luke's X-Wing through the Death Star cavern and remarks "The force is strong with this one." after he can't get a clear shot on him. This is obviously why Episode I draws a parallel when Anakin also blows up a rather large ship seemingly by himself. I think it's safe to say Vader had a pretty good idea who that pilot he was chasing COULD have been afterwards, and obviously it didn't take much digging because he clearly knew who he was in Episode V.

Episode IV also makes no mention of the alleged fact Luke was "running around telling everyone he was the son of Anakin Skywalker" because aside from Obi Wan, it didn't seem like he told anyone and it didn't seem like he ever had many friends either. And even if he did, no one on Tatooine knew Anakin was Darth Vader because the Jedi order were the only ones who knew and they were practically all dead. Vader knew he had relatives on Tatooine but clealry showed little interest in getting to know them in Episode II since he didn't even meet them until after his mother was murdered. This was also after discovering his mother was "bought" by a man who impregnated her and their child was Uncle Owen. I doubt I would have cared to check up on Owen either if I was Vader. Severely awkward on many levels.

And Leia used the surname of her adopted parents, not her real ones so there's no way either of them could have known.

None of these are plot holes, just a lack of attention to detail.

Word! lol...

 

[Ozymandias]

I'm pretty sure that the book of Episode III states that the story was Padme lost her baby (singular) when she died. So until the Battle of Yavin Vader is unaware that his offspring survived. Obviously they heard on the wires who the pilot was that blew up the Death Star, the pilot who Vader himself acknowledged was strong with the Force.

That's why Vader is SO crazy in ESB, I love his performance in that film. Has there ever been another film where the villain is the main protagonist? Cant be many. I love the line "asteroids do not concern me'. He's completely singularly focussed on finding his son and he doesn't give a fuck about anything else, including his Empire.