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I read on IMDB that Lucas consulted with a child psychologist who told him that unless it was explicitly spelled out for younger viewers that Darth Vader was Luke's father they would assume that Darth Vader was lying.  This is why there is the scene in Jedi where Luke consults Yoda about his parentage.  Knowing the majority of the forum was probably quite young when they saw Empire Strikes Back I'm curious how many people thought Darth was lying.

I was seven when I first saw ESB in the theaters when it was first released and I remember I thought Darth was lying.

I felt the same way.  Actually, the first time I saw the movie, I thought it existed in an alternative universe, because there was no way the good guys would lose  :lol:

I think I was 9 (ESB was released in 1980 right?) and was sure he was lying.  I mean he had to be, there is no way that Vader is Luke's father.

Quote from: sbr on December 24, 2009, 11:50:23 AM
I think I was 9 (ESB was released in 1980 right?) and was sure he was lying.  I mean he had to be, there is no way that Vader is Luke's father.

According to IMDB, Empire Strikes Back was released May 21, 1980.

How can Mark Hamill be the son of James Earl Jones, of course I thought he was lying!

Quote from: sbr on December 24, 2009, 11:50:23 AM
I think I was 9 (ESB was released in 1980 right?) and was sure he was lying.  I mean he had to be, there is no way that Vader is Luke's father.

1977 SW
1980 ESB
1983 RotJ

Quote from: Savonarola on December 24, 2009, 11:52:00 AM

Quote from: sbr on December 24, 2009, 11:50:23 AM
I think I was 9 (ESB was released in 1980 right?) and was sure he was lying.  I mean he had to be, there is no way that Vader is Luke's father.

According to IMDB, Empire Strikes Back was released May 21, 1980.

Yep saw it for my 7th birthday party.

Quote from: Savonarola on December 24, 2009, 11:52:00 AM

Quote from: sbr on December 24, 2009, 11:50:23 AM
I think I was 9 (ESB was released in 1980 right?) and was sure he was lying.  I mean he had to be, there is no way that Vader is Luke's father.

According to IMDB, Empire Strikes Back was released May 21, 1980.

Thanks, that's what I thought, I turned 10 in September.

Quote from: katmai on December 24, 2009, 11:52:27 AM
How can Mark Hamill be the son of James Earl Jones, of course I thought he was lying!

yankees and their race mixing. Mew.

Quote from: Ed Anger on December 24, 2009, 12:08:13 PM

Quote from: katmai on December 24, 2009, 11:52:27 AM
How can Mark Hamill be the son of James Earl Jones, of course I thought he was lying!

yankees and their race mixing. Mew.

Forgot to log out and back in with your sock, dude... ;)

I didn't doubt Vader. I was 4 when it came out, but I'm sure I didn't see it until later.

Quote from: Lucidor on December 24, 2009, 12:29:03 PM

Quote from: Ed Anger on December 24, 2009, 12:08:13 PM
yankees and their race mixing. Mew.

Forgot to log out and back in with your sock, dude... ;)

:lol:

Quote from: katmai on December 24, 2009, 11:52:27 AM
How can Mark Hamill be the son of James Earl Jones, of course I thought he was lying!

David Prowse did all the physical stuff. :contract:  JEJ just provided "The Voice".

But yeah I figured at the time (I was 13) that it would turn out to be true somehow. And as we found out years later Luke's whinyness was genetic. as Young Vader made Luke seem stoic by comparison.

I'm gonna smack you next time in Van if you think I didn't know that Buddha.

I guess I was 14 or so.

I can't remember what I thought. I was 14. I think, though, I saw it a week after it opened, so the secret was out already.

I don't remember what I thought the first time I saw it.  I was a little baby.  :P  Apparently, I was passed out pretty much the whole time, but yeah, my parents were those parents with a tiny little kid in the movie theater.

The first time I saw it that I actually remember, it wasn't a big secret anymore, so yeah I believed him.

Quote from: katmai on December 24, 2009, 12:38:34 PM
I'm gonna smack you next time in Van if you think I didn't know that Buddha.

Long as you don't kick me in the nuts.

IIRC I thought he was telling the truth.

I think I actually saw Return of the Jedi first, so yeah, I knew.  I wasn't born yet when it came out, but damn did I love ewoks when I was a kid!  Yub nub, bitches!

Quote from: Judas Iscariot on December 24, 2009, 03:34:19 PM
damn did I love ewoks when I was a kid!  Yub nub, bitches!

They are the Jar Jar of the original movies. I remember rooting for the AT-STs to squash the little teddy bears when I was 9.

They must have been at least a little cooler, as I didn't see independent Gungan movies, cartoons, books, or stuffed animals after Episode 1.  Ewoks are much more awesome.  Dammit. :lol:

Quote from: Judas Iscariot on December 24, 2009, 03:46:03 PM
They must have been at least a little cooler, as I didn't see independent Gungan movies, cartoons, books, or stuffed animals after Episode 1

Given what I know of the nature of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, I bet they exist.  And while I'm not 100% sure about stuffed animals, I know that there were action figures.

EDIT:  oh, yeah, about the thread question.  I believed him because he told Luke to use the Force to search his feelings, and when Luke did so, he believed.  I didn't want to believe it, because frankly it screws up the timeline that seemed to exist in the 1st movie.  Incidentally, I heard recently that in an early draft of the script for the 1st movie, Luke was like 65 years old.  For the franchise as a whole, t would have made more sense if he was, because then the timeline would make sense.

BTW, I was 18 when it came out.

Quote from: Savonarola on December 24, 2009, 11:45:05 AM
Knowing the majority of the forum was probably quite young when they saw Empire Strikes Back I'm curious how many people thought Darth was lying.

I was around 10 or 11 or so when TESB was released, and I had assumed that Vader was lying;  we had plenty of debates over all that. 
After all, he was going to do whatever it took to deliver young Skywalker to the Emperor or he would be destroyed in the process.

C'mon, and with that light saber duel? Did you see those hacks that Vader tried?  That wasn't a father.  That was someone trying to kill his opponent.  BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.


So yeah, a lot of kids thought Vader was lying.  Then again, after Reagan's victory, we had all lost our innocence.

The thought never hit me. I believed him totally. Why would he lie about that?
Also I probally saw it for the first time before I learned of lying.

But then my watching Star Wars was strange. I was born after all three of them were released and I have some elder cousins who when they were kids were crazy on the stuff and my mam quite likes her sci fi too so....I saw all of them before I was old enough to really get them all and they're just part of my upbringing.

Never even considered the possibility he was lying.  Seems to be a break line between 12 and 16 somewhere.

IIRC I didn't think he was lying.

I didn't see TESB when it came out(was -6 years old at the time) but when I saw it I believed Vader. I think I was about 8 or so.
----

On a side note, I've been watching a good amount of Star Wars over the past two days- SPIKE has been running some sort of marathon. Yesterday, I watched a good portion of Episode III. I remember thinking at the time that it wasn't half bad. Re-watching it, the first thing that struck me was how little of the movie I remember. I only saw it once in full, but I've seen bits and pieces of it here and there, and the movie is simply not very memorable. And it wasn't very good either; the only reason I thought it was half decent at the time was in comparison to Episode 1.

All I remember from the second trilogy is JarJar and the light saber fights.

Quote from: Judas Iscariot on December 24, 2009, 03:34:19 PM
I think I actually saw Return of the Jedi first, so yeah, I knew.  I wasn't born yet when it came out, but damn did I love ewoks when I was a kid!  Yub nub, bitches!

Apparently I was brought to ESB, but I don't remember it in the theatre.

I do remember going to see Jedi, and I absolutely loved it.  All you Ewok haters can go to hell.

BTW (and slightly off-topic) I thought Ewoks showed a more realistic portrayal of stone-age warriors fighting space age enemies than did Avatar.

I was 7 and trusted Darth Vader.

Didn't think he was lying, and thought it a brilliant plot twist.  I was really looking forward to RotJ based on the great stuff that occurred in TESB.  Alas, that moment was the peak of SW goodness.  After that, it was all silly shit designed to make little kids buy toys.  :(

In a lot of ways, TESB does not belong in the SW series.  It was written and directed by outsiders who wanted to make serious, adult SF.  That was the first and last time that happened!  :lol:

Why would Vader lie?

He's the icon of order and stability in the universe, and he has graciously given his opponent a chance to surrender instead of brutally murdering him like the rebel trash are wont to.

No, I didn't even consider then that he would lie, and I find the notion preposterous now.

Quote from: grumbler on December 24, 2009, 07:05:29 PM
It was written and directed by outsiders who wanted to make serious, adult SF.  That was the first and last time that happened!  :lol:

Sex Trek: The Next Penetration never happened?

I believed him.

People who whine about Ewoks are faggots.

Vader did lie to Lando. :(

Quote from: grumbler on December 24, 2009, 07:05:29 PM
In a lot of ways, TESB does not belong in the SW series.  It was written and directed by outsiders who wanted to make serious, adult SF.  That was the first and last time that happened!  :lol:

Just think how many more movies Lawrence Kasdan could've saved if he wanted to.

My first conscious exposure to SW was ROTJ when I was 7 (I was mightily pissed that my parents and adult sisters got to see the movie at the theater and I didn't, but I had the sticker book for it that told the story and toys and such, plus the Marvel comics). So yes, I knew when I finally watched ESB.

For my birthday in 1985 I got the novelizations of the movies. We didn't have a VCR at the time, so I had no means of watching the movies. :(

Quote from: Jaron on December 24, 2009, 07:53:37 PM
Vader did lie to Lando. :(

Exactly, Lando was lucky he didn't alter the deal further.

I watched the end of TESB on Spike after having seen this thread earlier.  I was almost 7 when I saw Star Wars and was obsessed with it from then on.  I had very piece of Star Wars paraphernalia I could get my hands on: sticker books, action figures, comics, everything.  I saw TESB in a theater with my dad, and that moment, when Vader told Luke he was his father, is to this day, one of the most memorable moments of my life.  :nerd:  I almost crapped myself at the time and I literally could not sleep that night.  I could not be convinced that it was true until I had finally seen ROTJ.

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Froflrazzi.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F1290532424279721181.jpg&hash=7cc6b02dd81dfe7f07599213a3f56c7ea46b2a13)

I was seven & thought that Vader was lying.

Shit, given how gay that I thought Hayden Christensen was as Anakin I'm still hesitant to believe that Vader was telling the truth absent a paternity test...

I knew before seeing the movie.  Everything was spoiled by the time I got old enough to watch.

I was 14. I remember debating this with friends. I was kinda pretty sure that maybe Vader was perhaps telling the truth. A bit.

The only thing that makes I-III worth watching are the lightsaber-duels and the mass-combat scenes. In those two areas, the new episodes sweep the floor with the old ones.

I keep a Grand Moff Tarkin heroclix action figure on my desk, as an inspiration of proper corporate leadership.

The thread has inspired me to try to get some friends who like classic SW and have professed interest in trying p&p RPGs interested in the old D6 SW RPG from WEG. :nerd:

I think I still have Star Warriors buried somewhere. :blush:

Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 26, 2009, 08:51:26 AM
I keep a Grand Moff Tarkin heroclix action figure on my desk, as an inspiration of proper corporate leadership.

:lol:

Quote from: CountDeMoney on December 26, 2009, 08:51:26 AM
I keep a Grand Moff Tarkin heroclix action figure on my desk, as an inspiration of proper corporate leadership.

:lol:

The more you tighten your grip, Money, the more Dazzling Urbanites that will slip through your fingers...