Channel72 said:
Eh… I think the dialogue in A New Hope is just barely vague enough that we could weasel our way out of making this dialogue require Anakin to be from Tatooine. The relevant line in the script is “That’s what your uncle told you. He didn’t hold with your father’s ideals. Thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved.”
So that’s it… that’s the only line that implies Anakin is from Tatooine. It’s implied indirectly, because Obi Wan says “stayed here”, and the current “here” in that scene is the planet Tatooine. But this is inexact enough that we could interpret it as a slight grammatical blunder on Obi Wan’s part. He could have used “here” somewhat incorrectly to mean whatever location Kenobi/Anakin departed from before fighting in the Clone Wars. (Or you could always just do a fan edit that removes the words “stayed here and” so the sentence reads “Thought he should have not gotten involved.” Mostly kidding.)
Anyway, I know that’s really clumsy, but the thing is, as things stand now with the Prequels, Obi Wan’s line here is already like 95% a lie. Anakin and Owen barely had any relationship - they met for a few hours in Episode 2 - and certainly Owen never expressed any opinions about Anakin’s “ideals” or thought he should have stayed “here” at any point. Owen didn’t even know Anakin until after Anakin already left Tatooine and became a Jedi. So the line is already hopelessly broken.
Regardless, I do agree that the original line of dialogue does, as you say, imply that Anakin is from Tatooine. But due to various later retcons, Anakin being from Tatooine was no longer tenable, in my opinion, and keeping Tatooine as his home planet resulted in a worse outcome than simply ignoring the implications of that one word “here” in Obi Wan’s line in A New Hope.
Well, I don’t think that the Prequels necessarily broke Obi-Wan’s dialogue from A New Hope. It is true that Anakin and Owen didn’t have any meaningful relationship in the Prequels, but that does not mean that Owen could not have his own opinions about Anakin and the fact that he decided to join the Jedi. You don’t have to forget that Owen lived with Shmi for a considerable amount of time, and since he was her stepson, she likely told him everything about Anakin and the events of The Phantom Menace. So, it is entirely possible that Owen formed his opinions about Anakin’s decision to join the Jedi exclusively on the basis of what Shmi told him. Not to mention, the fact that we don’t see Owen openly expressing his thoughts in Attack of the Clones does not mean that he didn’t express them at all. It is entirely possible to conceive that Owen and Obi-Wan might have had an off-screen conversation between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, in which Owen openly expressed to Obi-Wan his thoughts about Anakin’s decision to join the Jedi Order, which is why Obi-Wan is aware of his opinions despite the fact that the two didn’t meet in Attack of the Clones. So again, I don’t think that the Prequels break the dialogue. Yes, you have to concede that some things happened off-screen, but it’s not like the Prequels outright contradict Obi-Wan’s dialogue. And if I have to be completely honest, I find my explanation much more consistent, sensible and less far-fetched than the one you hypothesized for Anakin’s alternative background, so I guess we have to agree to disagree here.
Now, hiding Luke on Tatooine might seem risky at first — after all, it’s the same planet where Anakin was born — but that’s what makes it so clever. Anakin had such a rough time on Tatooine — being a slave, leaving his mother behind, and eventually losing her — that he’d have no desire to go back. The trauma he experienced there creates a psychological barrier, which makes Tatooine the last place he’d want to revisit. In that sense, it’s actually the perfect place to hide Luke because it plays on Anakin’s deepest pain and memories, keeping him away. So, even though the decision of hiding Luke on Tatooine might seem nonsensical at first, it works perfectly if you introduce a trauma that caused Anakin to not want to return to the planet, which is exactly what Attack of the Clones does. Also, you don’t have to forget that, sometimes, the best place to hide something is in plain sight.
I mean, I’ve heard this before. Vader wouldn’t want to go back to Tatooine because childhood trauma or whatever. I mean… that’s really just pure speculation. You don’t know that. You could guess this would be the case, but it’s also possible Vader doesn’t give a shit. He didn’t seem to care when the Tantive IV showed up on Tatooine at any rate.
Regardless, even if this is true, why would anyone risk it? There’s probably at least a million other remote locations similar to Tatooine. Granted, Kenobi knew some people on Tatooine, so that factored in I guess. But relying on Vader’s continuing trauma to keep him away from Tatooine is a huge risk. I sure hope Vader doesn’t have a therapist.
I get what you’re saying about Vader’s trauma and how it’s speculative to assume he would avoid Tatooine because of it. But let’s consider the context here. Anakin’s experience on Tatooine wasn’t just some minor inconvenience, it was a defining part of his fall to the Dark Side. The death of his mother and his subsequent massacre of the Tusken Raiders were pivotal moments that deeply scarred him. These events weren’t just painful; they were shameful. Anakin’s whole transformation into Darth Vader involved burying the parts of himself that were weak, that felt pain, or that were tied to his past as Anakin Skywalker. Tatooine is loaded with all those memories — it’s where he was a slave, where he lost his mother, and where he tasted the Dark Side for the first time. Now, you’re right that we can’t know for certain how Vader feels about Tatooine, but the story strongly suggests that he’s driven by his desire to suppress and forget his past. His entire existence as Vader is about rejecting the man he once was, and Tatooine represents everything he wants to forget. Sure, it’s possible that he might not care or that he could rationally decide to go back if needed, but the point is, it’s extremely unlikely he would ever have a reason to. Tatooine is a backwater planet with no strategic importance, and from Vader’s perspective, there’s nothing there worth his attention. And when it comes to the Tantive IV showing up on Tatooine in A New Hope, Vader was pursuing Leia and the Death Star plans — his focus was on the mission, not on the planet itself. Tatooine was incidental, not a destination of personal interest to him.
As for why they would risk hiding Luke there, I think it’s less about relying solely on Vader’s trauma and more about Tatooine being a perfect combination of factors. It’s remote, insignificant, and happens to be where Obi-Wan can keep an eye on Luke while blending in. Plus, hiding in plain sight is often the best strategy, as I have already said. You’re right that there are probably a million other remote locations, but Tatooine is unique because it’s the one place that has this psychological barrier for Vader, along with the practical benefit of Obi-Wan’s familiarity with the planet, and a great distance from the center of the galaxy. Sure, there’s a risk, but every decision in war involves some level of risk. The key is that this risk is mitigated by the fact that Tatooine is the last place anyone would expect Luke to be hidden, including Vader. And let’s be honest, even if Vader did have a therapist, it’s not like he’s going to be working through his trauma in a way that would lead him back to his childhood home — his whole character arc is about running from that pain, not confronting it. If Vader did have a therapist, he would have not been a Sith Lord in the first place. So while we can’t say for sure that Vader would never go back to Tatooine, the odds were clearly in favor of him avoiding it, making it a clever and effective choice for hiding Luke.
