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  • Force powers are vague psychic/mystic stuff. We see Vader sense Kenobi, and he can tell that Luke is strong with the force when he is focusing on him. And there's other stuff like sensing Alderaan blowing up or things happening in other places and times (aka literally anything the plot wants the character to see). But the rules just really aren't clear, especially in the original trilogy. There's no indication given that Vader should be able to sense that someone is related to him, nor would he be able to pull it from Leia's mind since she doesn't know either. If anything, he should have sensed the millennium falcon coming in to cover Luke during the trench run, that seems like the more obvious thing to be able to detect.

    Troi has empathy, which is a much more clearly defined concept. And while they stray from that sometimes by letting her sense danger or other nebulous generalities, we do know that she should be able to sense emotions, intentions and honesty vs deception. That makes it stand out when the script seemingly forgets that she should be able to sense lies, deception, and malicious intent. Conman pretending to be a researcher from the future lies in order to steal from them and she can't tell that he's a fraud. The staff at a party are getting ready to grab weapons and take them all hostage, and she doesn't notice. These are situations that call for things that are well within her established skillset.

  • Let's talk Vader.

    Vader didn't even know about Leia until Luke leaks it in RotJ. During the Vader/Luke duel is the first and only time Vader acknowledged Leia. Luke's thoughts turned to her during that fight. Vader saw that "weakness", the attachment, and he leapt on it. And it worked (for a moment).

    Now it's possible Vader had a rough idea of her existence near the finale of Empire. Luke calls out to Leia. Leia is with Luke when Vader calls out to Luke. I expect Vader was too distracted to notice Leia.

    Back to A New Hope. Vader doesn't suspect anything until Obi-wan shows up on the Death Star. Why is Obi-wan here? What is he doing? Then he just disappears? Something about the crew he arrived with is suspicious. Then during the Death Star trench run. He is focused. Vader can sense something. Vader can sense something that can not be. Obi-wan has a Padawan? Why now? Who? Then Han Solo fires at him. Vader should have seen it coming, but he was distracted.

    Sooo! Vader seeing Leia opening? He just had no idea.

  • Fan theory: Vader recovered just fine in a few days thanks to space aged technology, but used the event as a facade to wear his kink gear full time.

  • That's not a defense. It's a distraction. They're both bad empaths. Vader being worse doesn't make her better.

  • Leia also has powers with the Force.

    Star Wars is basically a more accessible version of Dune. In Dune people had precognitive abilities that would allow them to predict the future. Problem is if someone else can foresee the future one person is reacting to what they predict the other will do, but then the other changes what they'll do based on what they predict the first person would do. So it results in kind of a stalemate. Two people with precognitive abilities can't predict each other's actions. Or the actions of those under the other's influence.

    So the Sith's abilities are weakened by the presence of a Jedi and vice-versa. Leia's ability with the force (whether she knew she had them or not) prevents Darth Vader from sensing much about her other. Also the Sith's abilities wouldn't be effective in predicting the actions of any rebel following Leia's leadership.

    • This... Isn't the answer.

      More to the point, every answer to this question is talking about something completely different. Vader was distracted. Vader was only clued into Leia's existence after Luke thought about her. Vader had too much on his plate...!

      But this answer, even among all the above, is reaching at things that just make no sense. By your logic, every force user would be crippled at the battle of Geonosis, with hundreds of jedi and sith present.

      Qui-Gon and a young Obi-Wan took on Darth Maul, where the latter was able to use his ability without seemingly any hindrance at all. Similarly with Obi-Wan and Anakin against Count Dooku. When Yoda steps in, it's 3 jedi against Dooku. There's no evidence of Dooku bring weakened, as he matches Yoda in force abilities without much effort. By your logic, the sith in both encounters should have been weakened. That is clearly not the case.

      The simple and obvious truth is this: at the time of writing, Lucas never intended for Leia to be Luke's sister (hence their kiss) and so, there simply wasn't anything for Darth Vader to sense. Retconning that and then adding in some wishy-washy explanation just trashes the credibility of the franchise.

      • By my logic the Jedi wouldn't be able to sense that Palpatine was a Sith even while sitting in a room with him where there was no dangers or distractions. I'm no prequel fan, but I recall that it's mentioned the Jedi's ability with the force was being weakened.

        And it wouldn't affect the ability to swing a lightsaber around. Though it would affect the ability to use precognition to predict where the opponent was going to swing their lightsaber. I mean they can deflect blaster shots all day but can't deflect a lightsaber that's moving much slower? Why is this? Makes sense if you consider the guys shooting the blasters don't have much force abilities so they can use the force to predict where the shot will be and deflect it. But another force user's actions can't as easily be predicted so it comes down to good old fashioned martial arts abilities.

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