CT Why is Vader not able to "feel" that Leia is his daughter?

This is very well thought out and well put.

 

Beyond Luke's name and the force abilities Vader senses in ANH I think you could argue the way Luke is introduced is a bit of a giveaway. Even if Vader himself didn't come from Tatooine until the prequels he still knows that Luke has turned up in the company of Obi Wan and that he's come from a desolate backwater, exactly the kind of place you'd look to hide someone.

Leia doesn't show obvious force abilities and her connection to Obi Wan isn't nearly as clear beyond him being a natural ally plus she's been hidden much more in plane sight and its inferred has had a career of confrontations with Vader and Tarkin.

 

Admittedly, there was some kind of premise change by the time of ROJ when Obi-Wan told Luke how strong the Force was in his father, something he didn't remotely mention in ANH.

Now, Bail Antilles probably knew about that Force potential of his daughter, yet saw to it that she would become a public figure (and it's somewhat inconclusive at the beginning of ANH whether Leia and Vader had met before...).

We also know that the Empire was hunting down the surviving Jedi, so was Bail Antilles out of his mind to allow his foster daughter to make a political career that would sooner or later make her meet the people, that hunted down Force sensitives?

Just like Paul Atreides in Dune got a lot of training in martial arts and beyond, I'm rather confident that Bail Antilles saw his foster daughter to receive training (with Leia unaware of the actual purpose of some particular training) helping her to suppress her Force sensitivity and/or becoming somewhat immune to being identified as a Force sensitive.

One thing that's clear from ROJ is obviously that no one ever taught her about the Force (and with good reason):

LEIA Luke, don't talk that way. You have a power I--I don't understand and
could never have.

 

That part of Anakin's life was over his wife gone along with his future children. Now he was an apprentice to the most powerful man in the Galaxy the only reason he felt unusual about Luke was that this guy possessed skills as a pilot he recognized in himself when he was young. Vader was totally subsumed by the Dark Side of the force so naturally Princess Leia had nothing in common with him. While he was preoccupied annihilating the rebels she was gathering forces like Han Solo, Baron Calrissian, Mon Mothma & Admiral Ackbar as a team. Lord Vader should have infiltrated the rebel camp and get close enough to Leia in her vulnerable state, he would be able to sense and learn how to blend in within her camp and get her to divulge her secret that she was adopted. Vader would then be able to contact the Emperor and say I have found my daughter and a potential future Empress of the Galaxy.

 

i think force sensitive's feel mostly through the thoughts and feelings others are feeling. In this case neither party knew they were related so there would be nothing to sense.

 

Vader could recognize Obi-wan's presence because they spent so many years together, that it was not impossible to sense each other unless they're trying to hide. Leia has not trained in the Jedi Arts and as such, Vader does not sense her in the Force the way that he does Obi-wan and the way that he does with Luke.

 

I'm still not convinced that's Luke he senses during the Death Star battle, he doesn't say "This one is strong with the Force" but "The Force is strong with this one", ultimately suggesting that Obi-Wan was right about this "I'll become more powerful than you could possibly imagine".

While all this erratic maneuvering of Luke's X-Wing takes place, Luke looks rather petrified listening to Obi-Wan, so for me there is little doubt that it's Obi-Wan who's responsible for these evasive maneuvers.

 

Not during the Battle of Yavin 4. Luke hasn't trained much and Vader hasn't felt him the same way that he does Obi-wan. By the time they face each other on Cloud City and have had their intense dual, the Skywalker men can sense each other. This is why they can sense each other at Endor.

 

Perhaps he couldn't feel it for the same reason that

Spoiler

Kylo Ren couldn't feel that Rey is his daughter. Leia was considerably resistant to a mind probe too.

 

END THREAD/

 

Exactly. Plus, the only way Vader would have absolute proof that Luke is his son is by reading his thoughts and learning that Obi-wan lied to Luke about Anakin being killed by Vader. Since Leia never received any Jedi training, there was no way for either Vader or the Emperor to sense her presence. Plus, she was never told who her real parents are or that Luke is her brother which meant that Vader won't know she's his daughter until he read Luke's thoughts again in Return of the Jedi.

 

I tend to think this is most plausible.... Leia hadn't opened herself to the Force, meaning that there really wasn't anything to sense by either Vader or by the Emperor. That being said, Luke finally puts it together once the thought is IMPLANTED in his head by Yoda that he indeed does have a sister... If anything, someone powerful with the Force may have discovered that she might be Force-sensitive, but that's a far cry from deducing that she was Vader's daughter....

 

I think it is some combination of all three choices for this thread. Vader believed he did not have children due to his belief that one child died with Padme in childbirth, and Leia hadn't opened herself up to the Force. She doesn't understand how she's able to learn Luke's location at the end of TESB. She only begins to grasp an understanding of the Force at the end of ROTJ when she can feel that Luke escaped the Death Star's destruction. I like how the old EU portrayed her as being as powerful as Luke even if she chose to limit her role as a Jedi due to her fear of following in her father's footsteps. Despite how I believe that Leia could better handle her emotions in the Classic Trilogy than Luke could, I can see where she's coming from, given that she has a violent temper sometimes. Leia is more grounded in the political world, while Luke is more of the spiritual Jedi Master. Dark Empire does a good job of portraying Leia's power. The idea of two powerful siblings is intriguing.

Anyway, as to the original queston, Vader may not have been able to sense her because she was potentially as powerful as Vader and Luke. Take how Palpatine could not sense Anakin when Anakin was in tow with Qui-Gon and Padme Amidala in TPM. Anakin was probably so powerful that his presence in the Force blocked Palpatine from noticing it initially, or Palpatine was just not focused on him at the moment. I suspect Palpatine was lying and that he did sense Anakin's overwhelming potential. He may have just been manipulating Plagueis as he could not fathom Plagueis' fixation on this boy, this prophesied "Chosen One." Just a theory.

 

Yeah, I have to agree that this question was answered in posts 2 and 3. There was no grand plan. These things were thrown in as they went along to up the dramatic tension. That's it. Lucas Kurtz and Kasdan, sat around, probably smoking something

Lucas - "Like, what can we do in Empire, man, you know, to raise the stakes?"

Kurtz - "Cough, cough" (Shakes head and shrugs)

Kasdan -(looking into middle distance, raises hands) "Woah, what if Vader is Luke's father?"

Lucas - (nodding) "Far out"

Kurtz passes out.

 

I've always wondered why he didn't sense it. Maybe Force users have to open themselves up to a possibility before they can readily sense it?

 

We don't know what Palpatine knew when Anakin first appeared. He just only took an interest in him after finding out what he did.

 

I was talking about Plagueis and Sidious discussed after the Queen's arrival. Plagueis was the one fixated on Anakin.

As for Vader not sensing Leia, the out-of-universe explanation is that Lucas had not yet decided to make Leia the sister of Luke. He didn't decided to make Vader Luke's father until he wrote TESB. My understanding is that he kept changing his mind about the sibling connection.

 

Because she wasn't his daughter in ANH.

 

That book doesn't, doesn't count.

Yes, but the films have never been consistent with the Jedi and Sith sensing each other.

 

The films have never been consistent about the Jedi and Sith sensing one another.

However, that book still counts in many people's head-canon. It all depends on what you accept as Star Wars. For me, it's the old EU and the films. For others, it's the films and the Disney EU. Take your pick. It's all a matter of perspective. Besides, James Luceno is clearly a fan of Star Wars and he knows his s---t. Lucas is an idea man, and part of the reason TESB is a great film is because other people put their own ideas into it. Therefore, I don't believe in "one canon," as other people do. I like Star Wars for the same reason Tolkien fans like The Silmarillion and TLOR: world-building. If it was just the films, I wouldn't be that interested. If Darth Plagueis is not in your headcanon, then so be it. Thanks for sharing your opinion.

At any rate, I think the best answer would probably be that Leia hadn't opened herself up to the Force. She doesn't know how she sensed Luke after TESB. Later, in the Disney EU, Leia senses Darth Maul's past presence in the Theed hanger, much like how, in the original EU, a member of the Jedi Council sensed Maul's dark side legacy on his spaceship. Maul couldn't conceal his dark nature as easily as his master could. I don't think a Force-sensitive like Leia, regardless of how powerful she is, could know that she was hiding her signature. Let's bear in mind that she was strong enough to resist under torture in the Death Star. And Leia also choked Jabba the Hutt with her Force power (and not merely the chain), or so it is implied by the radio version of ROTJ. Like many Force-sensitives, it's possible that she didn't know what the Force was or that she was using it before she became a Jedi.

 

My point is that one of the upcoming films might contradict "Darth Plaguies".

 

Fetal Ultrasounds is a technology years away in Star Wars


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No, they have it. Padme didn't want to know any details other than if everything was fine. That included having more than one baby gestating.

 

I may have mentioned this in another thread but:

He thought his kid (well, kids, but he thought he only had one child) died. Why would he try to search for a child he knows is dead (and by his own hands, no less?)

 

I don't recall whether it was brought up in this thread, but here is something from George Lucas' third draft for ANH that perhaps answers one particular question:

HAN (CONT’D)

You’ve got a ship! But where do we go from here? They probably took her to find the hidden bases… I don’t see how we can find the rebels before she breaks. The Empire has already beat us out.

BEN
She’s part of the royal family. They won’t get any information from her… She knows the art of mind control… She’s a swan sensana.

Although somewhat off-topic I found the original first encounter with Leia worth sharing:

Suspended inside the cell by invisible rays, a bloody and mutilated Leia Organa hangs upside down. A strange yellow glow radiates from her eyes. Chewbacca rushes into the cell past the dazed Han. The Wookiee yells something and Han comes to, firing his pistol at a small control box in the wall. The unconscious princess drops like a rock into the giant Wookiee’s arms. Chewbacca slings her over his shoulder and joins Han in the hallway.