STAR WARS

THE BIG LIE

When Luke asks the Big Question, Kenobi's face contorts drastically, telegraphing the enormous line of bullshit he's about to lay down.
His story is so twisted it's difficult to tell if there's ANY truth in it:

So. What's your story again, old man?

A "young Jedi" named Darth Vader?
Young?
Jedi?
And doesn't Anakin receive the title Darth Vader when he becomes a Sith (Sith lord?)?
Oh wait, we never hear the term Sith in the original trilogy.
Ever.
Is Vader indeed a Sith Lord at all? We're only given this info after he dies and cannot refute such a claim.
I've come to view the Jedi as a biased source for info about their most ardent opponents.
The few myths about the Sith we are given are only through the prequel trilogy.

How old was Anakin when he was 'killed' by (assumed the mantle of) Darth Vader?
The only real clue comes at the end of Return of the Jedi.
We are presented with the ghostly visage (that Luke, but no one else, can see) of Anakin Skywalker, a middle-aged man with full head of hair, wearing Jedi robes.
I always assumed that this was essentially a portrait of Anakin in his good-guy phase, and that this 'seduction' of the dark side took place over a long period of time.
As well, I had been under the impression that Anakin gained his wounds over a similarly long period of time, say in his hunting down of the Jedi.

With the first release of the original trilogy on DVD, we find a very jarring change at the end of ROTJ.
Instead of a middle-aged Anakin, we find a very young and long-haired Anakin - the one from the falsified records of Episode II and III!
What does it mean?
I have no idea, but if the lie goes so deep that the image we get of Anakin as good has to lose twenty or more years then ask yourself what happened in those now-missing two decades.

"You fought in the Clone Wars?" Talk of war catches this kid's interest.
I like to hope I'd be quick enough to wonder if I was talking to war criminal in hiding. I think Kenobi is just that.
If Kenobi is on Luke's side, then he does something the coniving droids don't: lies to a known ally
(Lando lied, yes - only under duress. Even knowing he was forced at gunpoint, Han was still angry about it).
Does Kenobi consider Luke, the son of his mortal enemy, to be a trusted ally? - if so why is he lying to Luke?
Nobody is forcing Kenobi to make up strange and awful stories about Luke's father, so why does he do it?
Ouch, puppy - that's a really dirty trick.
It's looking more like Luke is just what he appears to be.
A pawn in a very big game.

This may be why the royals love droids so much - The droids are seemingly the only ones who can be trusted to any degree.
No wonder Leia partners up with criminals who are immune to Jedi influence.
Royal family intrique, AND they're hypnotists? That's a Weekly World News headline

If Kenobi is the good guy, why DOES he lie to Luke?
It's a lie so big it hurt us all
The thing is, somebody HAS to be lying. Makes sense that the villain would lie... so, is Vader lying?
Vader does turn out to be Anakin Skywalker. If Anakin isn't dead but actually IS Darth Vader...
I mean, WHY would Kenobi lie...?
Well, if Kenobi didn't know that Anakin was Vader, then maybe... oh, that's not exactly his story (as proclaimed in ROTJ), is it?
It's a big lie, so I'll repeat my question:

If Kenobi is the good guy, why does he lie to Luke?

The answer: he has to lie to Luke in order to get Luke to want to kill his own father.
This is a protracted and elaborate revenge plot by Kenobi
Kenobi is Vader's personal villain.
Kenobi grabbing Luke doesn't seem to be in Leia's or Vader's plan. Leia uses Luke later, but is genuinely confused that he arrives on the Death Star with Kenobi

Here we also have the first mention of the Force, something Luke has never heard of it seems.
Weird, right? Why would Luke be kept from Jedi training?
Perhaps an agreement with the Emperor? A personal rebellion of Vader's from the Jedi ways?
One can imagine Vader, embittered by Jedi indoctrination, keeping his kid sheltered from their influence - like escaping a cult
(not that I...)

More hand gestures accompany the explanation ... hmmm.
Luke's eyes are almost glassed over while Kenobi speaks.
This being 'sensative to the Force' bit may entail susceptibility to its influence, especially if untrained.
Cluck like a chicken for the nice folks, kid...

"An energy field created by all living things." This's the only time the Force is referred to that way.
In Empire Strikes Back we're given a broader definition that includes all matter
(is the Force supposed to be Gravity?... I think I could understand a mysticism around Gravity...)
Most of what we can gather about the Force comes from Kenobi or Vader or the Emperor, as they are the last verifiably living Force-practitioners (Yoda is far from verifiable).

Please note that from the time we first meet Kenobi until the time of his death, and during his supposed 'visitations', he never mentions telekinisis or midiclorians.

Luke, for his part, can only nod vacantly at Ben's ascertions.

Your dad's a navigator, he cant come home; he's folding space and time aboard a spice freighter, kid.
Kenobi insinuates that Owen and Baru lied to Luke - an incredible accusation considering the story he just told Luke about Anakin.
It's even more astounding if he's supposed to've been working with them to hide Luke from his bad ol' dad.
He is obviously not working with them. He does not like Owen, pointedly
There is no explanation ever given for the animosity between Owen and Kenobi

As convoluted as the prequels are, they do show the Jedi purchasing a clone army and then attempting to seize galactic power.
At the begining of A New Hope, Vader is already a hero who saved the galaxy from the war-mongering Jedi
and Kenobi is an old war criminal, hiding in the desert