CT How could Leia Remember her Mother ?

I hope this is not a rehash of an old thread but I have not seen it so here goes -
How could Leia have any memory of her mother ?
This has always bugged me since ROTS came out and all I can come up with is the somewhat lame "she had a Force Vision or dream"
Has anyone come across a good in universe explanation for this ?

 

As anakinfansince1983 said, it is basically a ret-con.

When RotJ was made Luke and Leia were to be separated at birth and Luke would go to Tatooine, Owen had been changed to Obi-Wan's brother and Leia would go with her mother to Alderaan.
Leia would live with her mother for a few years until the mother died.
Some of the dialogue establishing this were in the script/filmed but were later cut. Some of them did wind up in the novelization.

The Force-memory/vision is a fan-theory to try and explain the contradiction.
If it means that Leia could "remember" the short time she spent with Padme after her birth or if it means that Leia gets "visions" of bits of Padme's whole life or if the Force simply "Gives" Leia these "memories". Unclear, I have seen all three theories.
Why this does not apply to Luke is not explained, nor why the Force would do this or how it could fit with Leia being adopted by Bail when she was newborn, which would likely be on public record. Other question is what Bail might have told her about her real parents.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

I’m pretty sure Bail had old recordings of Padmé Amidala that he showed to Leia. Know how surrogate parents might have photos of their adoptee’s birth parents so he/she can know where he/she came from? And this is from our 2019 non-sci-fi world.

So yes, Occam’s Razor suggests that Bail had records of Padmé that he showed her. The question is, why wouldn’t he show her records of her father, Anakin?

 

I've always felt okay with the "force visions" answer. Leia's dialogue in Return of the Jedi is, "Just images, really. Feelings.". It isn't like she's saying, "I remember going to the park and getting ice cream with her."

This has always left me with the impression that her force sensitivity just gave her stronger feelings toward her mother.

 

This. Its something else that the PT couldn't tie in with already established material. No idea why, its an easy thing to sync up.

 

I suggested the last time this question was asked, and the time before and the time before that...(only joking)...that it might be possible that Bail told Leia that Breha wasn't her biological mother and showed Leia pictures of Padme. It opens up a load of other questions but I think that answer can't be ignored.

 

"The man Leia called Father was obviously not her father. He is part of the group that ends up having to fight Darth Vader in the film that will be out in 2003 [laughs]. The part that I never really developed is the death of Luke and Leia's mother. I had a backstory for her in earlier drafts but it basically didn't survive. When I got to Jedi, I wanted one of the kids to have some kind of memory of her because she will be a key figure in the new episodes I'm writing. But I really debated on whether or not Leia should remember her." - George Lucas: The Annotated Screenplays

Then again, Yoda tells us this in ESB

YODA
Concentrate... feel the Force
flow. Yes. Good. Calm, yes.
Through the Force, things you
will see. Other places. The
future... the past. Old friends
long gone.

 

Who knows what Bail and Leia talked about, that's why I only said it might be possible.

 

In my head, Leia assumes her real mother is her adoptive mother, who, as we see very briefly in RotS, is kind of sad. Last time I mentioned that on this site it made people angry. People are strange.

 

Ahhh….ok. Is there much covering Alderaan and Leia between 10 and 16 in the EU, I've not read anything in any novel.

If Bail showed Leia these images of her "real" mother would she think her mother was sad?



Padme is mostly sad throughout the PT, she's sad about the invasion of Naboo, she's sad about the threat on her life and Anakin's loss of his mother and she's sad at the way Anakin is spiralling downwards.

 

So?

 

In universe:

depends how interpreted the words "images and feelings"

are they memories? or something else.

I'm more bothered about why nobody thought of changing the last name of the Skywalkers than I am about a throwaway line that can be interpreted however you want it to.

 

I've also always think it was quite careless not changing Luke's surname. Anyway, once I read a fan theory telling that basically Obi-Wan hoped that Vader could maybe heard about "Skywalker" and come to Tatooine to retrieve his son. In the case Obi-Wan would be ready to kill him (of course, Obi-Wan is easily defeated in ANH, but that would be a much younger Obi-Wan's plan, when he can still think to win). In this theory, it would be just a sort of trap that simply didn't work.
Anyway, I guess that the-surname-Skywalker-for-Luke and Leia-remembers-his mother things are just continuity errors and fans must just free their imagination for having some explanations

 

Skywalker is the GFFA's equivalent of Smith, obviously.

 

No, because it is specific that it was Padme and no Breha. Lucas intended for it to be Padme. See the quote from MeBeJedi.

LUKE: "Do you remember your mother? Your real mother."

Luke states that Leia knows that she's adopted. In the old EU, the two of them learn that Padme Amidala was their mother in "The Swarm War Trilogy", thanks to Artoo recording their conversations from ROTS and inadvertently playing them back due to a malfunction in his systems. This was a bit of a retcon of the comic adaptation of "The Last Command", which had a portrait of Padme in Han and Leia's apartment.



I think it has been addressed in current continuity, though someone with a greater knowledge can clarify that.

 

Interesting. According to Wookieepedia, that comic came out in 1998, by which time Episode I had begun filming, but a year before it entered theaters.

 

Isn't it obvious?

Leia used the force to travel through time.

 

In Return of the Jedi, Luke asks Leia if she has any memories of her real mother.

 

Meanwhile on Birren, Lady Carise discovers a wooden music box among Lord Mellowyn's possessions. This music box is engraved with the message "FOR PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA OF ALDERAAN." Inside the box, she finds a recorded audio message from Senator Bail Organa telling his adopted daughter of her true parentage. Lady Carise learns that Leia and her brother Luke Skywalker are the offspring of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, the man who became Darth Vader. Lady Carise toys between honoring her sacred vow to Leia and using it as weapon to damage her political rival's credibility.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bloodline_(novel)

So we know Bail told Leia who her birth parents were, but I don't remember if any pictures were involved.

 

The idea that Bail told Leia of Padme and showed her pictures.
That is the simplest explanation and makes some sense.

A question that arises is that if Leia knows her mothers name and given that her mother was quite well know so the date of her death is also documented.
So if Leia knows when Padme died and that it was basically around the same time she were born.
Why does she not say "She died when I was born."?
And if she knows that her mother died in childbirth, wouldn't she be confused by having memories of a mother she never really met?
My great grandfather died two years before I was born but I have seen his picture and knows some things about him.
But if I were to have "memories" of being with my great grandfather that would be rather puzzling since I know that I never met him.

Bye.
Blackboard Monitor

 

Luke knows Breha wasn't Leia's real mother, it's something casually overlooked, so they must've talked about sometime. I wonder if Leia ever asked Luke about his family? She had opportunity during the time on Hoth or whilst they were setting up Han's rescue on Tatooine.