STAR WARS

Uncle Soon-Dead and Aunt Gonna-Bite-It

Luke finally gets Kenobi's drift and realizes his foster parents may be in trouble. He takes off and Kenobi looses his composure, yelling "Wait, Luke! It's too dangerous!" Well, Ben would know. He doesn't want Luke going home NOW, not with his assisination squad out slaughtering Luke's family. I imagine Kenobi frantically calling his henchmen; "Bravo team: Evac! I repeat, EVAC! The kid's comin' your way fast and he is ARMED and DANGEROUS!"

We don't get to see who killed Owen and Baru, but we are treated to their grisly remains smoldering away. Thanks George. I don't remember seeing this as a child of five. No doubt I blocked it out, it's a pretty gruesome image.

Sara Linn points out that we also have no complete confirmation that these bodies are Owen's and Baru's. They could be any old corpses sizzling away under Tatooine's suns. I imagine they are in fact Luke's aunt and uncle's bodies, but it's possible the Lars' aren't dead. Yet. Perhaps they're sitting in a holding cell, being questioned by Kenobi's brutes.

When Luke returns from seeing the charred bodies of his aunt and uncle, we see Kenobi hanging back, wary because he doesn't know what Luke may have seen. One has to wonder how much danger Luke would have been in if he had figured out the Rebels killed his loved ones. Kenobi has already given Luke the lightsaber. As important as Luke is, would Kenobi have killed him to prevent him from joining the Empire at this point? So, a tense little moment.

As Luke approaches Ben, Threepio steps between them and looks a little nervous. Is he getting ready to act as a physical shield for Kenobi (he's carrying a Jawa corpse to a bonfire - does this seem odd to anyone else? Is Kenobi destroying evidence?)?

Watch closely. Luke says nothing as he gets closer. Kenobi has no idea what Luke knows and the old man's nerve falters. Big thanks to Ben Gitchel for catching this one: just before Luke stops, Kenobi's left arm drops down to his side and a little back, getting ready to draw his saber in case Luke tries anything! Wow, he's scared. And he should be.

Kenobi and Vader are supposed to have had a titanic clash at some point in the distant past. We're told (not in any of the original trilogy, of course - this info didn't make it into the historical documents, even by reference. ah, I see.) that Vader gets the worst of this battle. Well, Vader went on to help conquer the galaxy. Kenobi's been hiding for the last couple of decades. Hmmm... who won that fight again? And Kenobi's so traumatized by his confrontation with Vader that Vader's farmboy kid scares him!

I will give Kenobi credit for judgement. This 'farmboy' goes on to destroy a battlestation, single handedly takes out an AT-AT, survives two encounters with giant carnivores, and destroys a mobster's empire. He'd better be frightened.

Once he is confident that Luke believes his lies, Kenobi, smugly confident now, intones "There was nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too". Indeed. Were those Kenobi's orders, to shoot the kid on sight if he showed up before they pulled out?

Luke buckles, his mind weakened by the sudden tragedy, and agrees to go with Kenobi and learn the ways of the Force. Ever see the movies Manchurian Canidate and Conspiracy Theory? This kid is being programmed. The Rebels hope to use him as a weapon against the Empire. Vader hopes to use him as weapon against the Emperor. When the dust settles, Luke is left standing with Leia convinced that he's her brother. Watch out galaxy, another Skywalker just showed up on the scene.

Yikes