Shared by u/PopsicleIncorporated:
A while ago, I learned that a friend of mine had never seen Star Wars. I gave him my DVD of A New Hope and had him watch it, I wanted to know what he thought.
After he finished it, I decided I wanted to watch Empire Strikes Back with him. For one reason, it’s easily the best Star Wars film and I’ll always watch it given the opportunity, and two, I wanted to see his response to the twist.
We get to the twist and he seems unsurprised. He confesses he’s heard the line before but didn’t know the context. So while it was a bit of a shock to him, he says he knew it had to be coming at some point.
I’m a bit disappointed, but glad he likes the films. I decided to make him my Machete Order test subject (yes…I know, probably should’ve given them to him in release order), but in the end it was worth it.
(Side note: I incorporate Episode I into Machete Order, right between V and II.)
So he finishes Phantom Menace, then Attack of the Clones. He watched these on his own, then as he’s handing Attack of the Clones back to me, he says: “I would have thought they’d introduced Vader by now.”
I almost blew it. But I wisely bit back my initial response and asked him what he meant.
Turns out my friend never put together that Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader. He knew from Empire Strikes Back that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, but he had merged this revelation with Obi-Wan’s lie in A New Hope.
So I asked him about what he’s expecting in Revenge of the Sith. He responded that he’s expecting Obi-Wan to get a new apprentice, named Vader. Vader becomes evil, breaks the Jedi Code, seduces Padme (lol), and gets her pregnant with Anakin’s illegitimate son, Luke. Vader and Anakin then have a confrontation, in which Vader murders Anakin, only for Obi-Wan to defeat him in combat afterwards.
This idea of what’s about to happen fits both Vader’s revelation to Luke that he is his father, and fits Obi-Wan’s claim that Vader betrayed and murdered Anakin.
So I decide I have to watch Revenge of the Sith with him.
From the beginning, he was completely into the story. After Dooku was killed, he expected Vader, Sidious’s new apprentice, to go undercover as a Jedi apprentice to Obi-Wan. But as the film progressed and no entirely new character showed up, he began to get concerned.
By the time Obi-Wan goes to Utapau to fight Grevious, he looked confused. I asked him what was up and he said he didn’t understand how the film could fit that much more information into the remaining hour and twenty minutes.
Palpatine reveals himself as Sidious. My friend is actually surprised by this, and by this time he has no idea what to expect.
As Anakin rushes to save Palpatine from Mace Windu, he’s incredibly confused. Then, Anakin disarms Mace and pledges himself to Palpatine. And then comes the line… “I name you Darth…Vader.”
Holy shit. My friend’s jaw literally dropped open, and he just stared at me. I actually had to keep myself from laughing.
The remaining hour of the film was a joyride to watch. Seeing everything line up into place and his reaction was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And then at the end when he finally saw Anakin being placed into Vader’s iconic armor, I think it finally hit him what was really going on.
And that is the story of how the I am Your Father Twist was played out in one of the most unique and ridiculous ways I’ve ever seen.