23

Obviously besides being a major plot component, why couldn't Vader when in front of Leia sense that Leia was his biological daughter?

bitmask
  • 30,712
  • 20
  • 141
  • 233
Donmax
  • 7,096
  • 9
  • 42
  • 76
  • 7
    because of plot holes :-) – Josiah Hester Mar 05 '13 at 02:07
  • 6
    Possibly because she didn't know? He found out by reading Luke's feelings, and Luke knew. – Kevin Mar 05 '13 at 02:37
  • 2
    Related but not a duplicate: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6935/did-darth-vader-know-leia-is-his-daughter-from-the-start – NominSim Mar 05 '13 at 03:38
  • 4
    Vader simply had no idea that he had children. That's why Lucas put in that scene in the remastered Empire Strikes Back where the emperor tells Vader that Luke is Anakin's son. – Mr Lister Mar 05 '13 at 08:03
  • 1
    @Kevin That's not how force sensitivity works.. – user931 Mar 05 '13 at 12:47
  • @SachinShekhar What do you mean? If you think Jedi can feel force sensitivity alone, that's incorrect. – Kevin Mar 05 '13 at 15:07
  • @Kevin Unless someone is doing force concealment, you can feel his/her force presence.. – user931 Mar 05 '13 at 15:09
  • @SachinShekhar Only if they're trained in the force. When Qui-gon and Obi-wan found Anakin, they suspected his force sensitivity from his actions, and confirmed with the midichlorian test. In the post-RotJ EU, it took Luke many years to figure out how to detect force sensitivity, he couldn't just feel it. – Kevin Mar 05 '13 at 15:15

3 Answers3

14

Vader was able to detect Luke only after he received training in the use of the Force. Luke grew up a typical angsty and restless young man, zooming around on his landspeeder bullseyeing womp rats with preternatural ability, while attracting no attention from Vader or the Emperor. Since, as far as we saw in the movies, Leia received no Force-training, she too would have gone unnoticed by Force sensitive persons.

Kyle Jones
  • 53,799
  • 14
  • 174
  • 259
1

It's a continuity trap. Orginally not only were Vader and Anakin Skywalker different men, Luke and Leia were not siblings and in fact were to become a couple. It was in part how Han Solo became the breakout character that influenced mid-course continuity change.

Douglas
  • 11
  • 1
  • 1
    If you want to post an out of universe answer that is basically "this is a plot hole", it would be better to at least make it comprehensive, showing proof that this was the plan from earlier drafts etc.... – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 29 '15 at 14:34
-1

Anakin's "force" was felt despite being a child with no training, so Luke and Leia's should also have been felt.

Möoz
  • 45,398
  • 37
  • 256
  • 451
karl
  • 1
  • There's a difference between detecting a generic Force presence and detecting the Force presence of a particular person. – Null Aug 25 '15 at 02:58