5 Questions “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Needs to Answer About “A New Hope”

In “A New Hope,” we learn that Luke and his aunt and uncle run a moisture farm. They never come out and say what exactly a moisture farm is, though. Presumably, since they live in the desert on a planet that’s mostly desert, the farm equipment pulls moisture from the air to slowly create water. I always assumed that water was the crop – they harvested and then sold the water. But Luke also argues with his uncle about his obligations during the harvest season. Why would water have a harvest time? Wouldn’t they just be pulling it out of the air continuously? So then I wondered if they use the water to grow crops, but we also don’t see any crops at their homestead, besides some vegetables Aunt Beru cooks with. I just want some clarity about what goes on at the moisture farm.

When Luke hears R2-D2’s prerecorded message from Princess Leia, he clocks that she’s looking for Obi-Wan Kenobi. He doesn’t know an Obi-Wan, but he does know a Ben Kenobi, who he calls a “strange, old hermit,” and he brings R2-D2 and C-3PO to meet him. Turns out, Ben is Obi-Wan’s secret identity.

But why does Luke know Ben? Other movies have established that Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru know that Obi-Wan is a Jedi Master, he was friends with Luke’s father, and that they need to keep Luke hidden from Darth Vader. But Uncle Owen and Obi-Wan don’t seem to get along, and Uncle Owen calls him a “crazy old man” when Luke brings him up. Under what circumstances has Luke met Ben before?

Personally, if I was in hiding from an evil empire, I would change my first and last name. That’s just me though! “Ben Kenobi” doesn’t seem like the best alias to hide the fact that you’re really Obi-Wan Kenobi, but maybe there’s a good reason I’m missing. Are there a ton of them running around a galaxy far, far away? Can’t wait to find out.

Aunt Beru has a small handful of lines before Stormtroopers kill her and Uncle Owen off camera, and most of them consist of her calling Luke’s name. Despite this lack of screen time, I have always been obsessed with her. What was Aunt Beru’s life as a young girl? How did she meet Uncle Owen? How did they fall in love? Are they in love?

In a “A New Hope,” Uncle Owen tries to keep Luke away from Obi-Wan, and thus the path that would lead him to the Jedi. Aunt Beru gives her husband loaded looks, but she doesn’t intervene. But when Owen and Luke get into a fight about Luke staying on at the farm for another season, she defends Luke and his goals.

“Luke’s just not a farmer, Owen,” she says. “He has too much of his father in him.” And she does not mean that as a bad thing.

Was Beru always the one to defend Luke? Does she want him to find his destiny as a Jedi? Was she loving and kind to Luke as he grew up in what seems like a pretty lonely environment? I hope we’ll finally find out.

Like I said, Uncle Owen was very against Luke meeting Obi-Wan, learning about the Jedi, learning about his father, and becoming a Jedi. It’s pretty understandable – the Jedi have brought the Skywalker family a lot of grief. But how, exactly, did Owen think he was going to be able to do that forever? Did he really think he could keep Luke away from his family’s past? Or was he always waiting for the day Obi-Wan came down from the mountains and declared it was time to go?