History Headscratchers / ANewHope

* If Owen and Beru really didn't want Luke getting involved in anything relating to the Jedi, Rebellion, or anything else, why didn't they raise Luke as their son rather than their nephew? Why did they let him keep the name Luke Skywalker instead of calling him Luke Lars?

** Farmers, pilots, etc. knowing several languages isn't all that strange anyway (See immigrants, multilingual countries, and probably other examples on Earth.)

** Everyone in the galaxy clearly does not know the language of everyone else. Luke speaking a language of droids that he works with and Han speaking languages of the people he works with don't mean everyone is fluent in everything. If they were, droids like C-3PO (whose main function is translation) wouldn't be needed.

** I know [[WatsonianVersusDoylist the real reason]] is because the script hadn't been written for RotJ yet (or even really conceived) but what's the in-universe explanation? Vader apparently figured out who Luke was pretty quickly, knowing without a doubt that it was his survived biological child; why wouldn't he have done the same for Leia? Or at least noticed while she was resisting the mind probe torture that she was using the Force, if only instinctively to protect her memories. He would have wanted her guarded even more and possibly it would have made him doubt the Emperor's lies about his dead family at an earlier date.

* Why is it that everyone in the galaxy appears to know the language of everybody else? Think about it -- Luke speaks droid (whatever that is), Han speaks fluent Wookish, Huttese, and whatever language Greedo speaks. Where did all these hardworking moisture farmers, starship pilots, and mercenaries find the time to learn three or four languages? And how come everyone they speak to in their own language understands them without having to use a translator?

* So what, exactly, happened to the moisture farm? Luke sells off his landspeeder, but there's no indication he sold the farm too. Did all of the droids and vaporators and other equipment just get abandoned for the next sandcrawler full of Jawas to swipe?

** Their confrontation on the Blockade Runner obviously isn't the first time they've met. It's likely that Vader's encountered Leia before in her role as an envoy for Alderaan, detected a ''very slight'' affinity for the Force in her, and dismissed it as just another case where a petty sensitive's unconscious knack for reading emotions got them a leg up in the diplomatic corp. If there were still a Jedi Temple, her talent might've been worth testing, but the Sith don't recruit anyone at the weak end of the spectrum, so why bother?

* So what, exactly, happened to the moisture farm? Luke sells off his landspeeder, but there's no indication he sold the farm too. Did all of the droids and equipment just get abandoned for the next sandcrawler full of Jawas to swipe?

** Their confrontation on the Blockade Runner obviously isn't the first time they've met. It's likely that Vader's encountered Leia before in her role as an envoy for Alderaan, detected a ''very slight'' affinity for the Force in her, and dismissed it as just another case where a petty sensitive's unconscious knack for reading emotions got them a leg up in the diplomatic corp. If there were still a Jedi Temple, her talent might've been worth testing, but the Sith don't recruit anyone at the weak end of the spectrum, so why bother?

** It's instructive to note that Vader only recognizes Luke as his son after Luke Skywalker's name has been made public in-between ANH and TESB as The Hero of Yavin. Vader shows no recognition of Luke on the Death Star anymore than he does Leia, and he ''did'' see Luke face-to-face in the hangar bay, and could only pick up 'This one is strong in the Force' as opposed to 'Wait a damn minute, that's my kid!' when sensing Luke's Force presence during the Battle of Yavin. Since Leia is not going around using Anakin's own last name, and is far more "latent" in the Force than Luke is (Luke was already actively using his powers even before he was trained, while flying around on Tatooine -- Leia wasn't doing anything similar), the clues that let Vader eventually pick up on Luke aren't going to tip him off about Leia.

** It also is probably a case of Greedo having an already existing fued with Han. It makes complete sense for Jabba to threaten to kill Han if he doesn't pay his debt. That's how mob bosses keep people in line and paying their debts. But unless he has defaulted many, many times and seriously pissed him off, Jabba is much more likely to want Han brought in alive so that he can take the Falcon as compensation and possibly endenture Han further. We can assume that by the time of Empire Jabba has had to go through with his threats.

** I know [[WatsonianVersusDoylist the real reason]] is because the script hadn't been written for RotJ yet (or even really conceived) but what's the in-universe explanation? Vader apparently figured out who Luke was pretty quickly, knowing without a doubt that it was his survived biological child; why wouldn't he have done the same for Leia? Or at least noticed while she was resisting the mind probe torture that she was using the Force, if only instinctively to protect her memories. He would have wanted her guarded even more and possibly it would have made him doubt the Emperor's lies about his dead family at an earlier date.

** Because flying directly would've exposed them to fire from every turret on that side of the base. The trench provided cover.

** They do show that they have droid detectors in the Cantina, but aside from that, when your commanding officer tells you not to fire, you obey them. As for why he told them not to fire, who knows. Maybe he has to right a report on each firing incident and didn't want to do the paperwork. Not even being sarcastic, considering that the series seems to have a great deal of bureaucracy involved in every decision made (or not made).

* Why didn't the rebel ships fly directly to Death Star's power plant instead of flying through that long trench to reach it?

** They do show that they have droid detectors in the Cantina, but aside from that, when your commanding officer tells you not to fire, you obey them. As for why he told them not to fire, who knows. Maybe he has to right a report on each firing incident and didn't want to do the paperwork. Not even being sarcastic, considering that the series seems to have a great deal of bureaucracy involved in every decision made (or not made).

** This is explained in The Han Solo Trilogy. Han had come to Tatooine specifically to see Jabba, to ask for more time to pay off his debt. He thought he'd have better luck talking to Jabba in person.

** Plus, sometimes, during a crisis, it's not always the person with the most seniority or authority-by-position who takes charge, but sometimes someone farther down the chain who seizes the initiative. At this point, most of both squadrons have been blown to pieces, so there's little organization left of any kind. Luke stepped up, so he got to be in charge.

** As already said, the pilots with lower numbers don't outrank Luke. When Red Squadron was originally formed this would have been true, but casualties leave gaps and mess up everything, Red Leader/Red 1 being the only exception. Rebel squadrons in the EU fly in pairs. Judging by dialogue Biggs (Red 3) was Luke's (Red 5) wing-man. By the time Luke made his run on the exhaust port, most of Red Squadron was wiped out. Wedge's wing-man was presumably shot down already, and Biggs was already watching Luke's back while Luke looked for more TIE fighters to blast apart. Hence, Wedge would take up position on Luke's other wing, allowing the trio to share shields. This particular formation is not really used in real life in combat due to being awkward, but here would be a case of reorganization. The Y-Wings of Gold Squadron would presumably be organized in the three-ship formation from the start since they were supposed to be the ones to blow up the Death Star in the original plan. A good chunk of this is fan speculation, but the rest comes from the EU. I hope this helps.

** They don't outrank him - they are all regular pilots. And Biggs, at least, knows about Luke's piloting skills. He took charge because he was the best pilot (and because he was ordered to by Red Leader).

* Why did Luke take charge during the final Trench Run? Biggs and Wedge both have more experience than Luke, and they outrank him as well (its unlikely that Luke was given a high rank for his second mission in the Rebellion).

* The [[AirstrikeImpossible Trench Run]] suffers from a bad case of HollywoodTactics: The [[WingMan wingmen]] in each run don't ''do'' anything other than draw fire. They are using a strategy (flying in tight formations without any real attempt at evasive maneuver) that only makes sense if they are in bombers with defensive gunners (during WorldWarII, the American 8th, 12th, and 15th Air Forces incurred [[WeHaveReserves horrific casualities]] applying this strategy against targets in Occupied Europe and Germany). Why didn't the wingman stay back far enough to actively protect the lead against attacking fighters? Why didn't the fighters not in the trench provide them with any top cover? Only Biggs is shown even trying to weave back and forth to be a harder target when he's delaying Darth Vader from engaging Luke, and that only does him any good for a little while.
** Indeed, it doesn't feel like they even made much effort to avoid the TIE fighters at all.

* The [[AirstrikeImpossible Trench Run]] suffers from a bad case of HollywoodTactics: The [[WingMan wingmen]] in each run don't ''do'' anything other than draw fire. They are using a strategy (flying in tight formations without any real attempt at evasive maneuver) that only makes sense if they are in bombers with defensive gunners (during WorldWarII, the American 8th, 12th, and 15th Air Forces incurred [[WeHaveReserves horrific casualities]] applying this strategy against targets in Occupied Europe and Germany). Why didn't the wingman stay back far enough to actively protect the lead against attacking fighters? Why didn't the fighters not in the trench provide them with any top cover? Only Biggs is shown even trying to weave back and forth to be a harder target when he's delaying Darth Vader from engaging Luke, and that only does him any good for a little while.