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star wars - Why didn't Vader detect the Force in Leia?


In the original trilogy of Star Wars, one of the first scenes is Leia meeting Darth Vader, as Vader is asking her where the plans for the Death Star were hidden. Leia claims ignorance and says that she is on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan. Leia was right in front of Vader. And yet, Vader didn't sense that the Force was strong with her.


Disclaimer 1: This question is not asking how he didn't realise through the Force that Leia was his daughter. Daughter or not, the Force was strong with Leia. Why didn't Vader sense that?


Some writings I've seen say that Leia never had any Force-training. And Luke was only sensed by the emperor after training with Obi-Wan and starting to use the Force. But in many instances in the Star Wars legends, and even in the first movie Phantom Menace, many other children, including Anakin were detected to be Force-sensitive without having training. That's how they single out prospective Jedi and begin training them from a young age. With Leia, it must have been even easier to sense that she was Force-sensitive, because the Force was so strong with her and Luke.


So why didn't Vader sense that she was Force-sensitive?




Answer



Just because he didn't say that magic phrase "the Force is strong within her" does not mean he didn't sense it. Also, it's entirely possible he uttered those words in some interaction not in a scene we saw. They didn't claim to follow his every utterance, 24/7.


I'd say evidence points to the fact that he did sense it. She didn't give up what she knew just being in the room and under the influence of his Sith powers/Jedi mind-tricks. She withstood the torture-bot without giving it up. I'd think that threatening and then destroying her home planet (by Tarkin) would be an indication that Vader found her to be quite formidable and was stymied.



Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable. It will be some time before we an extract any information from her.



That seems to be a pretty close equivalent, and, really, would a Sith openly admit to his supervisor about being matched in the Force by some untrained person?


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