does obi wan just assume luke has force abilities
before they meet up or do you think he has witnessed luke throughout the last 19 years at least once use the force accidentally?
shareHe put midi-chlorians in their water supply.
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MovieChat Forums > Star Wars (1977) Discussion > does obi wan just assume luke has force ...
Throughout each film it is made abundantly clear that both Jedi and Sith alike can sense the presence of the force, even when it’s not being overtly displayed.
Imagine baby Luke having the radioactive footprint of a nuclear power plant, there was no need for Obi to witness anything.
I don't think the Force was intended to be genetic at the time. The way the Force is used, it's a mystical technique, and it's like any other skill - some have a knack, but practice makes perfect. The way they speak of it, it is religious - a mystical art. There's nothing stopping Han from learning it, he just doesn't because he thinks it's all hooey. Even when Vader says, "The Force is strong with this one," that could be, "The Lord is on his side," or, "This one is lucky!" without betraying the intent of the line. My impression is that Luke's skill that he had developed caused Vader to notice his Force powers.
The first time it's referenced as genetic is (if I recall correctly) Return of the Jedi when Luke says, "My father had it, I have it, and my sister has it."
For myself, I still think that the Force has more to do with the user's willpower, practice, training, and perhaps "faith" in the Force, and is not just a genetics thing. Boy, do I hate the midi-chlorian thing. That has to be one of the worst lore additions in the whole saga.
"My father had it, I have it, and my sister has it."
Or maybe he meant they all had the clap? They were a VERY close family.
The Emperor speaking in TESB references it as well:- "The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi."
So maybe not necessarily genetic but if you've got the good genes, you're sort of predestined to hit the top tier.
I sort of think of it like talent/skill in real life. Some people are natural musicians, linguists, or mathematicians. They have a head start thanks to genetics. But environment and study play a factor, too. Somebody with tremendous drive can become great at playing an instrument or understanding physics even if they don't have a "music brain" or "math brain" and even if they weren't brought up in a music/science-heavy environment.
Same thing with Jedi.
As to the Empire Strikes Back line, I love that line because of the subtle depth it has. "Son of Skywalker," not "Your son." (Uh, SPOILERS?) Because the Emperor is distancing Vader from his old, good self. He's keeping him from thinking of himself as Skywalker the Jedi. The other thing is that he doesn't want Luke to become a Jedi because that might call Vader back to the Light side. We can see whether that fear is well-founded or not in Return of the Jedi.
Obi-Wan knew Luke was Force sensitive. Two hints he got were the fact of who his father was, and he could sense the strength of the Force within Luke and Leia the moment they were born. All Force Sensitives, good and bad, can sense each other, whether consciously or unconsciously. Jedi (as well as Sith) are even trained on what to feel for with their minds, and how to recognize it.
According to the lore my brother told me, Force Sensitivity appears the moment the child of a sentient race is conceived (albeit randomly in most cases), and the connection strength is fixed, you can't change it. It varies from one Force sensitive individual to the next. Not everyone born with an affinity with the Force has it strong like the Skywalker family. In the EU, you could actually find characters that either were average Force-users, like Obi-Wan, or people who only had a little bit of Force sensitivity, but not enough to qualify as a Jedi or a Sith. The two orders had different approaches for people like that. While both orders recruited every Force-User they could, the Jedi Order would often take those who weren't strong in the Force and give them simple, safe jobs within the temple, such as clerical work, taking care of the temple's infrastructure, stuff like that; the Sith would merely set it up so that candidates that were weak in the Force were killed during training.
He already knew well before the events of the film that he was the son of a force user so, yeah.
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