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If Luke was put into some sort of hiding by Yoda and Obi-Wan, why did he go by the name of Skywalker. we must presume Anakin meets up with Owen Lars and as Vader why shouldnt he keep track of them. Be kind of weird getting reports back of the Lars homestead with a nephew called Skywalker.

There are only 3 cities on Tatooine, only in Anchorhead there are friends of Luke. By that there aren't a lot of guys who know: "It's Luke, you know, Vaders son!"
They all call hem Luke AND he had a nickname so others will always know that it's Luke (enter nickname)

Nickname was Little Wormie still his full name is Luke Skywalker and he wanted to apply for the acadamy. Dont you think the empire would have a little name register in their databanks and when the name Skywalker came up an alarm bell would sound. Anakin probably got himself some reputation as a jedi before the turn over, and after he hunted dowwn the jedi`s. This would also mean hunt down any relatives that could pocess of the force. The Skywalker name belonged to a jedi, belived to be dead. Couldnt be to sure if he had offsprings could they.

ALL EU, therfore all irrelevant I'm afraid.

Nope, not EU material (I think) I thought OB1 in EPI said that there were only 3 cities (could be the novel) and when Maul was on Tatooine he only saw 3 cities when he had to find Qui-Gonn and the rest, it's obvious that there are 3 cities. If you are looking for someone, why pick out 3 of the 528438 cities?
Second: Why would there be an academy on Tatooine? that would be not good: it will have a negative economic balance! AND Owen is trying every way to keep Luke away from the academy
PS: Little Wormie? thankx never knew that

He didn't say there were only 3 cities in the film, but Qui-Gons' description of Tatooine means that I am suprrised if there were many more. Isn't Anchorhead a small settlement rather than a city? It clearly doesn't have a space port.

However, no matter wehich way you cut it, Maul got pretty darn close to the others before he started searching, and it can't be because he spotted their ship otherwise he would not have had to search at all. So we can say that either good detective work or Sith sense got him close first of all. I would be surprised if that area was the ONLY populated area of Tatooine for him to search.

Yep (again I agree, this is scarey) he never said how many cities are on Tat. Maul said it's sparcely populated, but nothing else. Obi, never said but one city in ANH. And I dont think Qui Gon said anything except land next to the city. (But I havent seen TPM in a couple months)

And Maul landing close either has to do with his Sith sence or an easy way to fill a hole in the plot .

Also Skywalker may be a common name like GL said Antillies was. If not a Smith or Jones, than maybe a Brown or White.

even if it was common name dont you think they check it out though.
Nobody said the acadamy was on Tatooine, Biggs went away for the acadamy. This was what Luke wanted to do as well. Get away from Tatooine.
There are mentioned 3 cities/settlements during the SW saga so far, doesnt mean that there are no more places or cities on the planet.

yeah, but ...
the only cities spoken of are:
Anchorhead: "I can take take you to Anchorhead, or whatever you are going"
Mos Eisley: "Mos Eisley spaceport, you will never find the more reched hive of scum and villainy"
But I don't think that Mos Espa is spoken of.
( I could be wrong)
But still Maul just stepped out of his ship, and ordered 3 searchdroids to search in 3 different cities. I think that it is difficult to say anything about it because there are not enough facts

My mistake!
There is a place called Mos Espa (the whole time on Tatooine in TPM was in Mos Espa)
I just checked the official website and ...
you have Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, Anchorhead and Bestine township. All are settlements so, let's say Maul was lucky that day.
I think that the official website is good enough to be taken seriously

Anchorhead is merely a farming community, not considered a "city". The power station and a few homes, probably where Deak, Windy and Camie live. Mos Espa could have started out in much the same way, then grew into a larger settlement. I doubt much of Anchorhead may have existed yet in ep1 anyway.

ok how did darth maul know they were on tatooine in the first place.

we know that obi wan didnt respond to the radio message sent from naboo

and wasnt it a coincedence that maul had happened to land on tatooine when he could have been searching on any planet.....

NO-ONE knows how Maul tracked them to Tatooine. You can make up any reason you wish, but it really should have been made clear on film.

My guess is that even listening to the message was enough to give a signe on were they were, like a mobile phone, who gives every 30 min a signal to a network to show were he is. And the message was twice played

Well, the film indicates that it could have only been tracked if they replied. Like I say, you can make up a reason like that if you want, but you shouldn't HAVE to, it should have been explained in film.

Also, seeing as that message wasn't actually sent at anything in particular (it can't have been, because of course they did not know where the Queen's Ship WAS), it probably was recieved by lots and lots of people, so a listening trace would have been not much good.

BTW, the second time the message was played was a. a recording, b. when the ship was in flight and c. was AFTER Maul had already found them!

I'm probbaly wrong (Ush?) but didnt the Queen respond to the message, even though Obi knew she shouldnt?

may be when tpm comes out on dvd there may be a scene where you see someone respond to the message

Jameous- no, she didn;t She couldn't have done; she was with Qui-Gon.

I still stick to the point that just opening it was to much.

The fact that the message was sent after Maul got on the case suggests to me that it was a requirement of the trace, can't see any other reason for it (unless the governor just decided to send it himself...unlikely)

It must have been a big risk to send that message out on an open frequency; The Trade Federation were trying to keep it all secret, after all.

I meant Sabe posing as the Queen. She was onboard and gave a look like she should do something.

I'll have to go put that tape in.

Well, it was not shown. Like I said, that they left it open was an error.

Well, someone did something wrong

i think ushgarak is right at the difinitive point of the discussion. obi-wan wants there not to be a reply, probably, because it can be traced. but to call maul's arrival lucky, may not be so accurate. the reason they go to tatooine, is bred out of mechanical necessity, which from a combat perspective, may easily have been understood by their enemies. then qui-gon suggests that particular location based on logical thinking, which their enemies are certainly not without. now take into account jedi and sith's abilities to sense one another (a-la vader and obi-wan in ANH), and i think everyone here doesn't find the situation all that unbelievable. unless of course you're all about to destroy my thoughts piece by piece. looking forward to either.

That is fair enough except for two things:

1. It's believable, but again we shouldn't HAVE to come up with a believable explanation ourselves; it should have been made clear in the script.

2. In the Coruscant scene with Maul and Sidious, Maul clearly refers to a 'trace', so it wasn't just good guesswork.

So if there was a trace, someone replyed; I come back on that 'just opening it was wrong' thing. It's totaly NOT true, only a reply can give a trace. (or the FBI held back on this one )

But as presented no-one replied, did they?

'Trace' could refer to many things, of course. But in the end, this confusion is a big cock-up from TPM.

'Trace' could refer to many things, of course. But in the end, this confusion is a big cock-up from TPM.

explain please

Well, when he says 'trace', he could be referring to any number of techno (or even Sith-like) means via which he tracked the Queen's ship.

But it was still a cock-up because how Maul found the ship was NOT MADE CLEAR and it should have been. If someone answered the distress call, it should have been shown.

Just call it an error and get over it! Nobody knows the answer except GL

Whats your problem, yerssot? I HAVE been calling it an error. For a very long time. I'm only repeating ymself because you asked what I was talking about again.

It is a perfectly valid criticism, in any case, that I have a right to make

I want to call it an error because NOBODY really knows the answer and nobody will know it

Well, I wasn't denying that. Unless someone CAN find an explanation that fits what is presented in the film.

There is just not enough in the movie itself to know it