Saga Was the Force forgotten?

Luke's reply to OB1 when he tells him about the Force in ANH, made me curious. Luke reacted as though he never heard of it. So, with the Jedi practically exterminated nearly 20 years ago & surviving Jedi in hiding, did the galaxy at large just forget about the Force? Or is Luke's lack of knowledge due to growing up on a backwater planet?

 

It might be a little bit of both. The only significant Force users left were either in hiding or two guys running the galaxy. During the time of the PT, people had known at least of the Jedi if they had never encountered the Jedi themselves. Without the Jedi, there's no one to witness the Force.

--MissPadme

 

The PT didn't really show a particularly widespread public knowledge of the Force itself. Han's skeptical attitude in ANH - "a lot of simple tricks & nonsense" - was probably representative of the galaxy's own attitude towards it, even at the time of the PT.

It's not like it was something the Jedi ever preached, either, except within the Order itself.

 

The Empire pretty much banned anything having to do with the Jedi, and used its propaganda to make it so the general public viewed them as a threat and a menace to society. In fact, one of the reasons for the Clone Wars' existence was so that Palpatine could discredit the Jedi, making it seem like they were the ones prolonging the war in the interest of gaining power. By the time of Order 66, much of the galaxy distrusted the Jedi and were relieved when Palpatine announced the Jedi Order's destruction.

 

Luke had heard of the clone wars, as he asked Ben if he fought in it. I'm sure there's plenty of legend and lore about that war and those involved. It's strange that Luke wouldn't know about the Force if he indeed knew about the clone wars, etc. I'm sure both were items of legend.

 

With the Imperial propaganda twist, the general public knew very little about the Jedi. They were depicted as traitors who were only interested in gaining power for themselves, and they deliberately prolonged the Clone Wars in order to weaken the galaxy for their eventual takeover.

 

Also Tattoin is an outskirt planet with little to no connection with the outside world. That a boy who has spent his whole life there does not know about the force does not surprise me at all.

 

In TPM, Nute and Rune discuss if either one had ever encountered a Jedi and neither had. They weren't sure of how powerful they were. Anakin had heard of the Jedi, but he didn't seem to know about the Force and had a mistaken belief that the Jedi were invincible. Luke doesn't know anything about the Force because Owen and Beru kept Obi-wan at an arm's length and didn't tell Luke about it. Most of Luke's friends either knew or didn't know and didn't care. Han had never seen a Jedi in action. He heard of them, but he never really witnessed it. He only starts to believe after Luke has rescued him.

 

The time period between the trilogies was not even thirty years. Thus, anyone who knew about the Jedi before would still be alive then, propaganda or no propaganda. Owen certainly did not want Luke to become a Jedi. He saw what Anakin did to the Tuskens. Perhaps Obi-Wan even told him that Anakin became Vader. Whatever the case, Owen did not want Luke to follow in Anakin's footsteps.

Interestingly, no one (outside of the Empire's military) ever accused the Jedi of trying to murder their beloved emperor even though Palptine had led the Senate to believe that. Perhaps that is a separate topic though.

 

Anyone else think Luke was homeschooled? I bet most people had at least a clue what a Jedi was, but not Luke.

 

"May The Force Be With You".

Clearly it is still known of by non-Jedi by the time of New Hope and it's hardly that many years since the Jedi were around as part of a technologically advanced society. Plus the Sith were active so there can be no question that force users were still present and active. So I'm going with Luke simply not having been exposed much to the outside world being "a simple farmboy" in much the same way as, say, a Tunisian Bedouin living in a remote village is going to be up to speed on, to pick a random example, Japanese politics even though he's likely heard of Japan. The lack of exposure to the outside world would be consistent with him wanting to join "the academy", which I always took to be the Imperial academy.

Plus, I don't think Luke ever indicates he hasn't heard of the Jedi.

 

NUTE : What in blazes is going on down there?
RUNE : Have you ever encountered a Jedi Knight before, sir?
NUTE : Well, not exactly, but I don't...(panicked) Seal off the bridge.
RUNE : That won't be enough, sir.
*The doors to the bridge SLAM shut.*
NUTE : I want destroyer droids up here at once!!!
RUNE : We will not survive this.

Rune seems to know what is up with Jedi.
When they send them after you it's serious shtuff.

 

Well, Luke never says that he didn't hear of the Jedi in ANH. He just doesn't know what the Force is when he hears Obi-wan talk about it.

Well, everyone that talks about is in the Alliance which was founded by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, who were allies to the Jedi. It was their way of keeping the spirit of the Jedi alive. As to other Jedi, well, there were other Jedi. Those few who survived were either living like Obi-wan and Yoda did, or they were more active like Kanan and Ezra.

 

According to the novelization of ANH (and I'd argue this is implied by the movie), Han has heard of the Force, know what it's supposed to be, and doesn't even totally discount its existence. He just doesn't think it controls destinies, or that it's anywhere near as powerful as people like Ben say it is. He just thinks it's some sort of exotic quirk of the universe which some religious kooks learned to take minor advantage of.

So the Force definitely hasn't been forgotten, and even skeptics don't necessarily deny that the Jedi could do something with it. But a simple farmboy like Luke might not ever have heard of it simply because it isn't a major topic of discussion for most people. It's just some arcane trivia fact about the Jedi which most people don't care about--like how their apprentices used to wear a braid in their hair, or how they refer to laser swords as "lightsabers." The only thing that seems to be common knowledge even to Luke is that they fought in the Clone Wars.