To Anchorhead:

Well, I was there too, back in 1977. I get it. I only like the original three movies. And Splinter, and SOME of the EU. I also used to follow zombie’s thesis from 10 years ago. I no longer do so. It’s occurred to me that, while the characters from the original film not being related to each may or may not hold an appealing asthetic, it’s very possible that this ‘non-relatedness’ was only put there by Lucas as an ‘insurance policy’ to make Star Wars work as a stand-alone film, should it bomb and no sequels get made. And let’s be clear: it’s been revealed from research (that wasn’t available when zombie did his book) that Lucas was planning sequels as early as December of 1975, one of in which we would learn “who Darth Vader is”. And as I’ve said before, in this original version, Vader as Luke’s father didn’t necessarily entail him being the same person as the father character (Annikin/Anakin or “Tan” Skywalker) that Ben talked about in the first film.

Regards,
Steve “Tosche_Station”