Why couldn't Vader sense Leia?

[Turd Ferguson]

Throughout the Star Wars saga, we hear mentions of the Force being strong with people. Qui-Gon tells Shmi Skywalker that the Force is unusually strong with Anakin. In Star Wars, Vader senses the Force is strong with the X-Wing pilot he is tailing (Luke). Palpatine senses how strong the Force is in Anakin.

My question is, why couldn't Vader, or Sidious, for that matter, sense the Force in Princess Leia? As a member of the Imperial Senate, she should have dealings with Emperor Palpatine, at least if the Senate is run anything like it was in the Old Republic (until it was dissolved). She recognized Darth Vader on sight when he boarded the Tantive IV, so she is obviously familiar with him, as well. Why couldn't Vader sense the Force in her?

And don't tell me it's because Luke had advanced Jedi training. At the end of A New Hope, he had no more than an intro course into basic lightsaber wielding from Obi-Wan, so there was no way he was using the Force when Vader sensed him in the trench run (although he did use the Force moments later to guide the proton torpedoes). Leia was just as powerful of a potential Force user as Luke was, because when Ben mentions he is their last hope, Yoda says "no, there is another," meaning she could easily be trained to use the Force.

So, why couldn't Vader or Palpatine tell she was Force sensitive?

 

[Reverend]

There's no inconsistency here because Vader didn't sense Luke either, despite being within sight of him on the Death Star and actively trying to shoot him down later on. He didn't realise who he was until after he saw the very familiar sabre Luke carried and learned his name. Even then he had to go retrace some steps and investigate to confirm.

The force doesn't automatically grant omnipotence; it's way more subtle than that. Had Leia every actively used the force in either Vader or Palpatine's presence, it might have raised a red flag, but clearly she never did so the point is moot.

 

[The Wormhole]

Probably because they didn't have much direct interaction with her. According to the new Leia novel, Palpatine keeps himself so secluded that most of the Empire are only familiar with him from propaganda posters which still feature his younger likeness. And Vader isn't a very public figure, ANH could easily have been her first encounter with him, and as pointed out, he didn't sense Luke later on in the movie anyway.

 

[USS Triumphant]

And Vader isn't a very public figure

"I can't tell you the meaning of life. I don't give interviews, and I am no longer a public figure. I just want to be left alone."

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[Tosk]

Throughout the Star Wars saga, we hear mentions of the Force being strong with people. Qui-Gon tells Shmi Skywalker that the Force is unusually strong with Anakin. In Star Wars, Vader senses the Force is strong with the X-Wing pilot he is tailing (Luke). Palpatine senses how strong the Force is in Anakin.

My question is, why couldn't Vader, or Sidious, for that matter, sense the Force in Princess Leia?

I guess the answer is clear. She wasn't strong in the Force.

 

[marillion]

I think you're right, Tosk.. She has it, because Luke tells her she has it.. But not at the same levels as him or Vader. It's a heredity thing..

I think the problem is equating it to the same kind of sense that allows immortals to sense other immortals in Highlander...

Vader's comment that "the force is strong with this one," to me is just a comment that the pilot (Luke) is flying with such talent that it's making it hard for him to lock him on target. Luke latent ability with the Force is what helped make him a great pilot, just like it did with Anakin and his pod racing abilities.

Everyone in the SW universe has a little bit of the Force in them.. How well it's realized is dependent on how much Force the person channels and how well they are trained to use the ability.

 

[JD]

I had assumed it was just because she wasn't actually using the Force. By the end Luke was starting to tap into the Force, so that probably allows him to be felt by other Force users. Anakin was unconsciously using the Force while he was podracing, so that did the same thing for him.

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Good point. Vader didn't actually start sensing Luke until during the trench run when he was using the Force.

 

[Reverend]

^^Good point. Vader didn't actually start sensing Luke until during the trench run when he was using the Force.

And even then, he didn't know that was his son. Just that the pilot was unusually strong in the force as he kept evading Vader's attempts to target him.

Something people often seem to forget that force use isn't a binary "you either got it or you ain't" state of affairs, it's a gradient. *Everyone* has the force because the force flows through all living things and as such sensing a pilot with a slightly stronger than usual connection than most isn't a huge deal that should have tipped Vader off. It certainly didn't stop Vader trying to vaporise him like he did everyone else.

 

[JD]

But with the canon comics we do know that it made him suspicious enough to send Boba Fett to investigate.

 

[LJones41]

Luke or Leia would have to utilize the Force in order for another Force user like Vader to sense their connection. When he first set eyes on both of them aboard the Death Star, neither were using the Force.

Qui-Gon suspected that Anakin was Force sensitive when he learned that the latter was a pod racer. Human pilots normally lacked the reflexes to be a pod racer.

 

[Reverend]

But with the canon comics we do know that it made him suspicious enough to send Boba Fett to investigate.

IIRC it wasn't until much later after he had met Luke face to face, saw his old sabre in his hand and heard his surname that he started actively looking into things. Whatever he sensed in the Death Star trench would only seem significant on reflection, not in the moment.

 

[JD]

Oh, I forgot about that stuff.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The Ways of the Force are very mysterious. Sometimes it can give you insight on things happening on the other side of the galaxy, while telling you nothing of something standing right in front of you.

 

[David cgc]

Even when Vader sense's Luke's secret at the end of RotJ, I take it that he only felt "sister" and died completely ignorant that his secret daughter was actually Leia. He's powerful with the Force, but he's not all-knowing.

 

[USS Triumphant]

IIRC it wasn't until much later after he had met Luke face to face, saw his old sabre in his hand and heard his surname that he started actively looking into things. Whatever he sensed in the Death Star trench would only seem significant on reflection, not in the moment.

In the comics/novels, he heard that the pilot that blew up the Death Star had his surname (and was running around with a lightsaber? can't remember, but probably) shortly afterward - which makes sense, because Luke would have been famous/infamous after that. And that's what prompted him to send Fett to investigate.

 

[Tuskin38]

In the new Comics, he hires Boba Fett to capture Luke, Boba fails but does find out Luke's name and tells Vader.

He also fights Luke before all that and sees his old Lightsaber.

 

[Voth commando1]

I do recall in legends Leia did encounter Vader and the emperor once at some gathering for imperial senators on Coruscant, she in the narrative wonders about the same thing.

One thing Legends did especially was show that Leia often kicked developing her force potential down the road and her force potential was raw and untapped and also something she did not know existed and did not understand even as an idea. So in the era in which she would have interacted with Vader he would have not known of her force potential or relation to him unless he was directly looking for it which at the time he wasn't.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I think you're right, Tosk.. She has it, because Luke tells her she has it.. But not at the same levels as him or Vader. It's a heredity thing..

I think the problem is equating it to the same kind of sense that allows immortals to sense other immortals in Highlander...

Vader's comment that "the force is strong with this one," to me is just a comment that the pilot (Luke) is flying with such talent that it's making it hard for him to lock him on target. Luke latent ability with the Force is what helped make him a great pilot, just like it did with Anakin and his pod racing abilities.

Everyone in the SW universe has a little bit of the Force in them.. How well it's realized is dependent on how much Force the person channels and how well they are trained to use the ability.

^ Best answer. That, and Luke training under Obi-Wan forever brought out Luke's natural potential. His every act--from lightsaber training (including seeing the seeker with his mind), his bold swing across the chasm aboard the Death Star, to his piloting skills made his natural connection to the Force shine as bright as the sun to any other Force user. That Leia's mind and/or actions did not send off signals to Vader or Palpatine means despite being a twin, she's not as strong in the Force as Luke. Yoda saying she is "another" just means as a Skywalker, she would be a last-ditch trainee if Luke failed, but she was never the first option in terms of being powerful enough to take on the Sith.

 

[Reverend]

Yoda saying she is "another" just means as a Skywalker, she would be a last-ditch trainee if Luke failed, but she was never the first option in terms of being powerful enough to take on the Sith.

On the contrary, so far as Yoda was concerned Leia was the preferred candidate. She's not inherently weaker or stronger than he, he's just the one that put the training in and force "powers" are like any skill: the more you practice, the more able you become.