I just watched The Empire Strikes Back again for the umpteenth time today. While I was watching it, I tried to procure the full experience out of the movie. By trying to unlearn that Vader was Luke's father. While it was extremely hard, it made the film a lot more interesting, especially the lightsaber duel, so I wasn't questioning myself how far Vader would take the fight. Unfortunately, due to popular culture, I learned centuries before I watched Empire that Vader was Luke's father. So, this was a good experience. Others should try it. I tried the same thing when Yoda first came to Luke on Dagobah.

But I had a hard time wondering about, did people really believe what Vader was saying? If I lived in 1980, I would have left the theater, with a suspicion of Vader was merely lying to convince Luke to join him, merely on the Emperor's orders, and that would have been clarified in the next movie. I have been trying to find something on this on the Internet, but I guess everyone believed Vader. However, if you did live in 1980 and saw Empire, if you could shed some light on this that would be great.

Another thing that had me thinking, was how big a spoiler this fact would be. I just can't put my finger on when it became a well-known fact and ceased to become a spoiler.