CT What did Senator Bail Organa secretly know?

Princess Leia was sent by her step father Sen Bail Organa aboard Tantive IV to retrieve the stolen plans of the Death Star and present them to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now this is the opening premise of A New Hope.What puzzles me is the secret and the ramifications of the secret. I suspect that Sen Organa of Alderaan knew of the Death Star or the Empires killing machines and so sent his daughter away out of harms way. He knew Obi Wan was guarding the other child and Organa could no longer protect Leia.

The aspect that I am weary about is did he anticipate Vader tracking her down or was he at a loss to who Vader was. The Jedi's were all purged and Moffs like Tarkin ruled the Galaxy so was he completely unaware of the danger Leia was being placed in by sending her deep into space. At this stage the Rebellion was hardly a fighting force so much so that the Princess operated under a diplomatic id which was promptly revoked by the Emperor the moment he learnt of the true intentions of many of his Senators.

What i'd like to know if anyone has ideas is did Bail Organa truly understand Leia was a potential Jedi Knight?

 

Seemed to me from ROTS, that he knew both Leia and Luke were potential keys to the defeat of the Sith.

 

I think this is a nice opportunity to feature the extended dialogue from ROJ:

BEN Your insight serves you well. Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They
do you credit.
But they could be made to serve the Emperor.

Luke looks into the distance, trying to comprehend all this.

(extended dialogue as follows)

BEN (continuing his narrative)
When your father left, he didn't know your mother was pregnant. Your
mother and I knew he would find out eventually, but we wanted to keep
you both as safe as possible, for as long as possible. So I took you
to live with my brother Owen on Tatooine... and your mother took Leia
to live as the daughter of Senator Organa, on Alderaan.

Luke turns, and settles near Ben to hear the tale.

BEN (attempting to give solace with his words)
The Organa household was high-born and politically quite powerful in
that system. Leia became a princess by virtue of lineage... no one knew
she'd been adopted, of course. But it was a title without real power,
since Alderaan had long been a democracy. Even so, the family
continued to be politically powerful, and Leia, following in her foster
father's path, became a senator as well. That's not all she became, of
course... she became the leader of her cell in the Alliance against the
corrupt Empire. And because she had diplomatic immunity, she was a
vital link for getting information to the Rebel cause. That's what she
was doing when her path crossed yours... for her foster parents had
always told her to contact me on Tatooine, if her troubles became
desperate.

So here we have a strategy of Bail to protect Leia:

• Tatooine as a safe house if things got out of hand
• General Kenobi to help her develop her Force skills

 

Well if your daughter is in imminent peril from Darth Vader there's probably worse people to send her to than the man who left Vader a dismembered husk last time around...

 

Just wanted to point out that Bail was her adoptive father, not her "step father".

 

Of course Vader didn't know that Obi-Wan had taken residence on Tatooine. Yet it makes me wonder whether choosing Tatooine as Vader's birth place for TPM was really that intelligent. In ANH he never seemed to wonder what she was about to do there.

 

Yes but was Organa not aware that Princess Leia was really a secret force users. If he did wouldn't he have tried to train her in the safety of Alderaan as opposed to Tatooine. To put it bluntly she was too important to risk exposure to the Empire and that is precisely what he did. Send a minor functionary to get General Obi-Wan meanwhile send Leia packing to Yavin 4 it would have avoider her torture at the hands of Vader.

 

Bail Organa knows that she is the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and thus his offspring can use the Force. He put her out there because it was the right thing to do and he needed help in organizing and running the Alliance. That's why five years before ANH, Leia helped deliver three Republic cruisers to help the Alliance on Lothal.



Leia was safe so long as she made sure that any aide given to members of the Alliance was untraceable back to Alderaan. When she was sent out to retrieve Obi-wan, she also had to receive the transmission from the team who had the Death Star plans. Bail had hoped that she wouldn't be found out, but this time, Darth Vader was on the case.

 

So the destruction of Alderaan was the price to pay for being caught.

 

Bob the X-Winger

Difficult to answer, I'd say. Either

• Leia was originally on a mission to re-activate General Kenobi but then was diverted into restricted space to receive the Death Star plans
• Leia was on a mercy mission but coincidentally happened to be the ship closest to the restricted space and then got a mission update on her way home (bring Kenobi along)
• Leia was dispatched because no other Alliance supporter could reach the restricted space in time

Anyway, the Imperial Senator of Alderaan apparently being involved in the heist put Alderaan on the Death Star's target list.

 

Was getting Leia to meet up with Kenobi merely an excuse to keep her away from the Galactic Core where she would have been captured by one of the Moffs. Alderaan was very important planet and she was out in the Outer Rim well aware from the Empire and only Vader dared to capture her.

 

Basically. On Lothal, she had to make herself look like she as being held hostage by members of the Alliance and was subsequently let go before they fled. But this time was different because Vader's not as dumb as a low level Imperial commander and he trusts his instincts with the Force that she was part of the Alliance and not there as a bystander from the Senate. Tarkin chose to destroy Alderaan because it was his way of making it clear that if you side with the Alliance, you will pay the price for your lack of vision. Destroying Dantooine, which was quite a ways from the Core Worlds, wouldn't have the same impact as a Core World. So Alderaan was chosen as a demonstration and Tarkin had felt that Leia would tell the truth if she believed that she could save her home world.