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In the “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” hologram, when Obi-Wan first saw it, did he know that it was Luke’s sister?

a screenshot showing Luke and Ben looking at the hologram of Leia, projected by R2-D2 (who is off screen)

SQB
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Matthijs Wessels
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2 Answers2

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Yes

Consider the following:

  1. Obi-Wan knew that Luke’s sister Leia had been left with Bail Organa, since he was there when Bail took her. From the transcript of Revenge of the Sith:

    OBI-WAN: We must take them somewhere the Sith will not sense their presence.

    YODA: Split up, they should be.

    BAIL ORGANA: My wife and I will take the girl. We’ve always talked of adopting a baby girl. She will be loved with us.

  2. Obi-Wan knew that the message came from the daughter of someone whom he had fought with during the Clone Wars, and who lived on Alderaan. From A New Hope:

    LEIA: General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father’s request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I’m afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan.

  3. Finally, whoever the person was knew both his real name and had a general idea of where to find him.

With these pieces of information in mind, it would have rather odd had he assumed it to be anyone but Leia Organa.

Adamant
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  • The fact that it was R2-D2 and not some random R2 unit was probably also a clue since R2-D2 was Anakin's and Padme's droid. – psubsee2003 Sep 12 '16 at 00:05
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    @psubsee2003 - Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to recognize R2-D2. Or maybe he was lying, as usual. – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:07
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    the answer on the post does nothing to support that point... Obi-Wan never explicitly stated in the 3 Star Wars movies that he didn't remember R2D2 and C3PO. He merely told Luke he never remembered "owning" a droid, which was indeed the case with these two – psubsee2003 Sep 12 '16 at 00:12
  • @psubsee2003 - And you don’t call that lying? ;) “Hmmm. I don’t recall owning a droid. In fact, I doubt I’ve seen anything like this droid in the last twenty years. What could it possibly be?” – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:13
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    From a certain point of view. – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:14
  • Maybe he didn't recognize the droid. They seem to be as abundant as the George Foreman Grills of the 20th century. – Major Stackings Sep 12 '16 at 00:14
  • @MajorStackings - That would be my preferred explanation, but I’m sure that he recognizes them a million times in the Clone Wars series. – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:15
  • @Adamant since George Lucas couldn't predict exactly how the prequels would work out 22 years before they were released you are going to cling to the idea that Obi-Wan did nothing but lie to Luke (amending since the original comment apparently took offense) – psubsee2003 Sep 12 '16 at 00:23
  • @psubsee2003 - http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/112540/51379 – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:28
  • @Adamant seriously? Fine. You believe that Lucas should have written all 6 movies in advance and known exactly what the storylines were and who all of the key players were. Your answer is lacking in nothing and is completely perfect (note the sarcasm). – psubsee2003 Sep 12 '16 at 00:32
  • @psubsee2003 - I didn’t write an answer to the question of how many times Obi-Wan lied to Luke. Those are all other people’s answers. That said, @Martha’s is best, and still lists a decent number of lies. – Adamant Sep 12 '16 at 00:36
  • @psubsee2003 In-universe, canon evidence overwhelmingly supports the notion that Obi-Wan Kenobi was less than honest with Luke. Out-of-universe explanations for why this is (such as "George Lucas did not write all 6 movies in advance") have little bearing on the actual canon material. Out-of-Universe, the fact that George Lucas did not have the details of the whole story hashed out from the start is of course, quite significant. Ryan makes a good point in his answer for an out-of-universe explanation. – DBPriGuy Sep 12 '16 at 18:53
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In ANH, he did not. Lucas did not have ESB, or ROTJ written yet. Luke and Leia were not related in any way until ROTJ was written, hence the brother and sister kissing thing. The original intent was that Leia was a princess and rebellion leader only. Luke was to have a twin, and the original concept was to have him searching for, and finding them in the next 3 episodes after ROTJ. Not sure why that was all scrapped. Lucas did some retconning in esp. 1, 2, and 3. Unfortunately it created other continuity errors with the originals. This particular time, Obi-Wan was not lying or telling things from a "certain point of view". The script had Luke and Leia not related at all.

Here is one link I read some of that at.

Here is another on Twitter from Carrie Fisher herself. Pretty much confirmed that the twins thing with her was not planned.

Null
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Ryan
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  • I'm sure your information is correct, but if you could include a direct source that would improve your answer. – DBPriGuy Sep 12 '16 at 18:54