STAR WARS

Kenobi's Lair

Been keepin' an eye on Luke, eh Ben? We also get a little hint there of the animosity between Owen and Ben. Watch Kenobi's hands during this conversation. Don't Jedi often employ hand movements with their mind tricks? What's he doing with his beard? He's workin' that old voo-doo on the kid!

This is the first mention of piloting skills being associated with the Force. Seems you still have to be the right 'sort' of person for that to apply, though. For instance, if you're the best pilot in the galaxy BUT you're a freighter pilot (one of the working class) then apparently you aren't using the Force. Similarly, if you're the best pod racer BUT you're not human, well then that's just your natural ability at play, not the Force being weilded. Hmmm...

And then Ben 'remembers' the lightsaber, as if he hasn't been preparing for this moment for the last twenty years. A powerful moment - he's about to hand this idiot farmboy a disturbingly powerful weapon:

Yeah, I wonder why Owen would feel that way. What happened to his dad again, you rotten, bloody-handed thug-of-the-royals? C-3P0 simply can't take the pressure and asks to shut down, he doesn't want anything to do with this exchange. He never again does this, so why now? Plausible deniability?. Or maybe he fears some sort of Jedi death battle?

Luke about ends both his and Kenobi's life by immediately lighting the shockingly dangerous laser sword almost in both their faces. Note how effortlessly he flashes this thing. It has been suggested that lightsabers are so heavy and unwieldy that it takes two hands to hold them. Really?

Kenobi sits down (from shock of nearly having his face cut off, perhaps) and while Luke is mesmerized by the glowing blue light waving back and forth, intones a little suggestive exposition. "Guardians of peace and justice", but for who? Keep in mind that as a Jedi, Kenobi is biased about what the Jedi are. They are, in fact, the samurai henchmen of the royalty. They seem to answer to no one save themselves and the royalty, and deal out death and dismemberment at the slightest provocation (the Cantina in Star Wars, the trade negotiations in Phantom Menace, and the nightclub scene in Attack of the Clones are all good examples). Lightsabers, which they carry on their persons (do they not need permits for these things?!), are weapons so unthinkably powerful that they can cut through almost anything, save another lightsaber.

Luke makes no comment on any of this. Instead, he asks a very simple and direct question. In return, he gets a convoluted lie.