Why were Luke and Leia the only hope?

So, why exactly were Luke and Leia the only hope for defeating the Sith?

If the force is not passed on genetically (and the PT suggests this by having the Jedi go around the galaxy selecting the various children with high midichlorians, and they clearly aren't all from the same families), why did Yoda and Ben think that only Luke and Leia (and only Yoda thought Leia) were the only hope? Particularly if Yoda thought Luke (and ergo Leia) were too old for training? Why didn't they try to find a talented child somewhere and train them, even abduct them if necessary, after all the future of the galaxy was in the balance? Nowhere is it said or suggested that Luke or Leia was "the chosen one"--that was supposed to be their father and that and a quarter pretty much got Ben and Yoda a phone call. You might even think that after their experience with Anakin, they might have preferred trying the offspring of another family. So what gives?

And, I don't think that they thought a child had a better chance of turning Vader back, as it seems that both of them had given up on Anakin.

 

First of all the "too old for training" speech by Yoda is just for
Luke's benefit, like someone lecturing a teenager as to the importance of
something he wants, but has to work very hard for.
Secondly, Luke is the ace in the hole b/c not only is he showing force ability
but he is Vader's son, there is a personal connection.
Some child with force ability would not be able to appeal to Vader on a
personal level. Vader would not be conflicted over a stranger as he is over Luke.
A stranger is not going to remind Vader of what he once was and the life he lost
with Padme and his children.
Remember the speech from O-W to Luke.. the Emperor knew any children of Skywalker
would be a threat etc...
The threat became a reality as we see in ROTJ.

 

Because there was this jedi purge, in which, Darth Vader and the Empire went all across the galaxy hunting down and destroying all of the Jedi, their families, and , presumably, those of high midi chlorian counts.

Anyway, the only two Jedi left in the galaxy(Yoda and Obi Wan) were in hiding and made sure that two of the potential Jedi (Luke and Leia) would never be found by Vader and The Emperor. So, by the time Luke and Leia were 20ish they were the only two potential Jedi left. they were the last hope. Obi Wan and Yoda had tried once and failed, but Skywalker's children would not. Beautiful, right?

 

As soon as Luke started using the force the Sith sensed him. If Obi-Wan and Yoda trained young ones they would be detected and killed before they had a chance to reach their zenith. Luke's training was better and faster than most because he was the son of Anakin, and he learned the 'best bits' of Yoda and Obi-wan's wisdom.

 

Obviously they felt the only beings in the galaxy with the force potential to defeat Vader and/or the Emperor were the offspring of the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker. Movies only "Darth Vader helped the Emperor hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights." EU - See the one shot comic "Purge"....where 8 Jedi Knights/Masters got beaten up on by Vader with some help from troopers near the end. Training another dozen average Jedi would not work...they would simply be investing time in beings that would be sent to their deaths.

Another point of view - At this point, they were also following the living force a bit more. Yoda and Obi-Wan both felt that Vader was no longer redeemable....a very valid suspicion...but the Will of the Force was telling them to wait and send Vader's son......Yoda could not determine the end result - he just felt that sending the Son (Or Daughter) of Vader was the best choice.

Carnage

 

Ben and Yoda simply weren't thinking out of the box.


They could have trained more children to use the Force but maybe it would take time. The two remaining Jedi apparently didn't have that amount of patience left in them.

 

Several reasons...

#1 Time - when they are mentioned as being the last hope(s) Obi-Wan is already dead and Yoda is not far away from his natural death in RotJ. It would be near impossible to find a force sensitive, bring them back to somewhere like Dagobah where sensing them would be difficult and teach them to the point where they could defeat Vader and Sidious. This would require them finding someone with huge force potential and also someone old enough they would be ready before Yoda died as well. This further complicates matters that someone that old is bound to be a potential dark side risk.

Simply put with the given time remaining there was no way another force user with the necessary potential and such could be found and trained to the point where they could have defeated Vader/Sidious.



#2 Force potential - Luke and presumably to a similar extent Leia have huge force potential, I'm sure GL has said on ocassions that it was as great as Anakin's before the Mustafar incident. Finding another option with such potential for power would have been very difficult, if not entirely impossible.



#3 A vision perhaps? - Sidious senses that Luke can destroy him, maybe at some point Obi-Wan or Yoda sensed something similar, though I admit this is pure speculation.



#4 (And the most important by far IMO) The family connection - at the end of the day it is not Luke's Jedi skills, his force potential or his training that save the day. Certainly they help him reach the point where he is able to redeem his father, but it is his connection to Darth Vader as his son which causes the eventual turn. Would Vader have thrown Sidious down the shaft if it had been a random Jedi that he'd never met before being killed by Sidious? I don't think so, Luke reminds him of what he was, what he could have become and this is made all the more poignant by the fact that he is his son.

Throughout his life, Anakin's most important actions are largely dictated by his love of his family, the slaughter of the Tuskens (his first big dark side step) is caused by his love for his mother, his final fall to the dark side is caused by his feelings for Padmé (simplified version I know, but you see my point I'm sure) and his redemption is eventually brought about because of feelings evoked by his son. No-one could have brought about these feelings in Vader to a large enough extent other than his children IMO. Which is why they were the only hope.

EDIT #1: Missing word

EDIT #2: Damn typos

EDIT #3: Gotta love typos