Star Wars: Does Obi-Wan have amnesia?

Question

From the end of The Empire Strikes Back:
BEN: That boy is our last hope.
YODA: No. There is another.

Why does Obi-wan say that when he knows Leia exists, having been there at the twins birth?

Answer 1

Of course he knew that leia existed but he knew she would never fully devote her life over to the force. She was already to raped up in the events of the galaxy. "to old, to old to start the training" in statments like this "old" does not always refer to actual age. Ever here the saing "its not the years its the milage" because of where he grew up luke could become a full jedi, leia could not. If you read the books because of what I just said leia never becomes a ful jedi and does not even come close till about 20 years after the trilogy.

Answer 2

Well, a Jedi needed to defeat Vader and destroy the Emperor (taking down the Sith). Most of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, Ben Kenobi and Yoda were training Luke. Suddenly, when they realized Luke was going to go up against Vader before his training was complete, Ben and Yoda thought hope was lost. Yoda, the optimist, just brought up the point.. if Luke did die... there was a slight chance Leia might be able to stop them. Though at the time, all of their energy was focused on Luke. So, it wasn't that Ben forgot about Leia, it was just it was much more convenient if Luke would do it. It was so hard to train older people as it was... they didn't really want to find Leia and try to train her as well. So that is pretty much why Ben was mainly relying on Luke.

Answer 3

Lucas made changes to the saga while writing Return of the Jedi. Until then, he hadn't planned to making Luke and Leia twins.

So, Ben didn't forget, he just didn't know yet.

Storywise... well, how was he even to know that Leia had inherited the Force ability? That Luke had doesn't guarantee Leia had. Beside, they'd invested so much in training Luke, they didn't want to go through it all again with Leia, one far less likely to volunteer for that training, especially with Kenobi already dead and Yoda not far from dying from old age.

Answer 4

Leia grew up as Princess of Alderaan with Bail Organa, King and Senator, as a father... so she was a politician!
Yoda hardly found time for training Luke! so just imagine!.. how could Ben Kenobi expect a not so trained girl to overthrow Darth Sidous?
... however that happened! Yoda was right!

P.S. Obi and Vader should have recognized C3PO but you have to remember C3PO's memory was formatted at the end of Revenge of the Sith! Vader must have desired to delete any evidence of his pre sith days!

Answer 5

I would think it's because he was on Tatooine, watching Luke grow up (from a distance) and knew how strong he was in the force. He hadn't seen Leia since she was born, and would have no idea that she also had the ability to be a Jedi. Either that, or he was senile. :)

Answer 6

Long live Chuck Norris
thanx for the 2 points

Answer 7

Maybe he was just pre-occupied, and had so much already invested in Luke...

Hey, if I was Obi-wan, I probably would've said the same thing... lots going on.

Answer 8

Perhaps he knew that Yoda's time was at an end, and that the twin would not have had the training that Luke had.

Answer 9

Did women have equal rights in the 70's?

Answer 10

you know ... i've always thought George Lucas didn't exactly have the whole story perfectly written. I bet he had the grand scheme of things all worked out, but all those little details he might have overlooked.