CT Why did Leia bother lying to Vader?

Aboard the Tantive IV after Vader and his Stormtroopers get in, Leia tries to lie to Vader by implying he attacked an innocent imperial senate ship on a diplomatic mission.

The actions of herself, her ship and her men shooting at the Empire have already completely voided her story. So why bother?

Unless all imperial senate ships have the right to take pot shots at imperial war ships

 

Don't recall the Tantive IV firing any shots at the Star Destroyer (granted, some of the VFX do make it look like that, but they're exhaust ports on the back, not cannons). As far as the soldiers on board retaliating against the stormtroopers boarding their ship - it's self-defense. Try to imagine a small British ship being intercepted by Soviet battleships en route to Finland in the mid-1980s.

The political situation at the time of the very beginning of SW/ANH wasn't the same as it was in the rest of the OT. The Senate still existed, however weakly, and Leia's diplomatic immunity still held some weight - that's why she spoke up. It's also why Vader bothered ordering an officer to "send a distress signal and inform the Senate that all aboard were killed" - the cover story was that the Tantive IV was destroyed by an asteroid collision or the like.

A few weeks later, of course, all the gloves were off. Full-blown galactic war - but that wasn't the case when the Tantive IV was above Tatooine.

 

Tantive definitely fires back at the SD, but I think it is safe to assume the Imps fired first. Corvettes don't go around picking fights with star destroyers. So shooting back can be justified as self defense, if you have a good lawyer and the Imps let you take the case to court.

 

Don't all kids lie to their parents when they get caught?

 

Because anything is better than "I'm part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take me away!"

 

Imagine Carrie Fischer doing her best imitation of a Scottish sith lord. I don't think she could do it with a straight face. Bring in Jody Foster.

 

This thread can be nothing more than decreasingly amusing ways of saying, 'what should she do, tell the truth?'

 

She lied because she's a politician.

 

But the starting point was so amusing, it's been well worth it. @CT-867-5309's comment was worth the price of admission alone.

Maybe she didn't lie. Maybe she was very confused. Or maybe it was true... from a certain point of view.

It was an imperial senate ship, as far as I can tell. And she was on a diplomatic mission, that of enlisting the aid of Ben to restore peace to the galaxy.

or maybe I'm very confused...

 

I'd like to question "Who shot first"

I assume that the imperial ship closed in on them, and then the tantive IV started shooting. Otherwise wouldn't the Empire have simply boarded the ship if it wasn't running or shooting at them?

She could, but not a lie that she just voided. She was afterall caught shooting at the empire.

But it obviously wasn't if it was shooting at a war ship. If the warship wanted to investigate and you were truly innocent you would pull over, let them board do their thing then they'd leave.

But it was a stupid lie. If she wanted to save herself she could've said her ship went rogue, didn't listen to her and wanted to hold her hostage to the rebellion and show thanks to vader for rescuing her from these rebels.

But this isn't a soviet ship attacking a british ship. It would be more like an English ship attacking a claimed ambassador ship.

Imagine if you were shooting at cops who were trying to catch you. They finally get you and you say that you're an innocent politician and that they had no right. How can you say that if you were shooting at them? I can understand her saying she's an imperial diplomat to try get some sympathy out of it, but if you shoot at the authorities, no matter who you are, you're already a criminal

 

Well it wasn't THAT stupid a lie. In fact it was more of a half-truth: She WAS indeed a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan, all things considered; of course, the "diplomatic" part may be called into question. Nevertheless, in any justly ruled sovereign state, attacking a consular ship as Vader did would be a big fat no-no, and Leia was well within her natural rights to defend herself. I certainly don't think she would throw her crew under the bus and pretend to be buddy-buddy with Vader. That would in fact be an ever stupider lie in light of the fact she just shot and killed a stormtrooper!

And what does it matter anyway? The point of the first 10 minutes of Star Wars is Leia gets kidnapped. The film carries this plot point out as un-confusingly as possible as far as I'm concerned.

 

This ^^^

 

I figure Tantive was intercepted by Vader, told to stop engines and prepare to be boarded. She made a run for it and the Stardestroyer started firing. Their purpose was not to destroy the Tantive, but to disable her so they could board and retreive the plans. Claiming political immunity was the only card Leia had left to play.

 

But she could've done better!

After she originally SHOT at them via her ship, her ship's personnel AND shooting at them herself. If an actual politician was asked to pull over by the police, and he made a run for it and started shooting at the cops, do you really think the half truth of saying "I'm an actual politician! I'm completely innocent. I don't know what you're talking about!" would even make sense?

I understand she was using the political immunity card to save her skin. But the fact she was acting innocent as if she didn't do anything after blasting at the imperials.

 

Maybe she figured Lucas would just edit her 'shooting first' in a future SE release?

 

Who says a senate ship has to be weaponless? What happens if they're attacked? [and to echo what someone else said above, we don't see how the altercation begins... maybe the SD fires first]

innocent is a pliable word here... what was she to be guilty of? She didn't say, "I'm not part of the Rebel Alliance, nor a spy!" she just said senate... diplomatic...

I gotta watch it again, but I'm telling you, Ben Kenobi woulda been cool with this, I think.

 

I don't doubt it's defense capabilities and what it does when attacked. However, it was obviously pulled over, then chased by an Imperial ship. Something someone who would be innocent wouldn't do. Yes?

Imagine a diplomat in a Limo is going about his business, then a cop comes along to pull him over. The limo speeds up trying to get away and then private security of that diplomat poke their guns out of the windows and start shooting at the cop car. More cops come and return fire or manage to neutralize the vehicle. the private security get out and have a shoot out and are finally either killed or wounded. The diplomat is arrested and then says "I don't know what you police are doing. The Government won't stand still for this, when they hear YOU attacked a diplomat-" and so on.

No one's going to buy that story after that.

 

More like a limo and an M-1 battle tank. I don't believe for a moment that the corvette opened fire first on the star destroyer. That's not my idea of courage, more like suicide.

 

So who shot first!? The Corvette or the star destroyer???

I'm pretty sure the Corvette shot first. They were buying time for either Leia or the plans to get off the ship.

 

I disagree. I think the star destroyer signaled the Tantive to stop and be searched, but they ran, and then the Imps opened fire. Only a great fool picks a fight with a tank when he is armed with a BB gun. Running away is clearly the only smart option.

 

I think they were running and shooting. Weren't "Blockade runners" supposed to be fast? If they took the time to shoot, then they likely shot first.

Assume that the Imps shot first.
As you said: " Running away is clearly the only smart option."

That there already betrays her story. If she was an innocent diplomat told to pull over, you don't run away. It just means you have something to hide! Lol

 

She had to try, right? It was better than nothing.

 

It imparted information to the audience that she was a member of the Imperial senate and this was a bad guy.