The galactic empire (and the republic before it) spanned billions of inhabited star systems. If each world was billions or trillions of inhabitants that means the galactic population is 1018 or more people. There were only ~10,000 Jedi at their peak. The chances of any galactic citizen seeing a Jedi, unless they lived on Coruscant near the temple, are vanishingly small. They were mythical beings to almost everyone.
That’s what the scene implies. The whole scene makes no sense after the backstory that the prequels added.
The idea of the scene is that we, the viewer, have no idea what the force is yet. Just like character who learns the hard way. Because this is the first Star Wars movie and they haven’t even started calling it Episode 4 yet.
You could also say that his lackey-force-choking binge hadn’t started yet, because in A New Hope he wasn’t searching for Luke, and in the intro crawl for Empire it describes him as obsessed. Maybe he hadn’t choked anybody till this one guy needled him and he realised he had to get the word out that he was a serious guy.
I consider Star Wars to be a movie that I have never seen for the “first time”. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t intimately familiar with every scene. I wish I could watch it now and not know what was going on.
It makes much more sense when you view Jedi/Sith as the trope of the warrior monk who has achieved enlightenment. They have gained mystical powers beyond mortal ken etc, but mostly they used it to hit people with laser swords and public knowledge could dismiss a lot of that as physical training and conditioning.
Iirc one of the canon comic book series focuses on what vader was doing between III and IV and he was mostly in sith training and special jedi hunting missions for most of the time until IV and had minimal contact with the military. I still need to read it and am going off remembering the tvtropes page and a youtube video so don’t quote me on anything ever from now until the end of time.
It’s been a few years but I think Tarkin introduces Vader a few moments before the choke to the admiral (Motti is the name, BTW)
Even if he knew of Vader, knew of the force, he still didn’t really believe in it. If not shown to someone it is incredibly unbelievable. He definitely didn’t believe in the force being stronger than the death star, which was voiced and angered Darth Vader resulting in the choke.
Also, Motti was a pretty cool character. From the linked fandom page:
Whatever conclusions you ultimately draw about the incident taking place between myself and Lord Vader during yesterday morning’s briefing, he was wrong, and trying to crush someone else’s windpipe doesn’t make you any less wrong, if you’re wrong to begin with. Which he was. I do not concede the argument.
I’m going off what was in the movies and other than Coruscant there’s nothing to suggest there’s that many individuals. There are a lot of representatives in the senate but that doesn’t say much about how populated the planets are.
And, the Jedi had an actual HQ on the home planet of the republic, didn’t they?
EDIT: And as another counter-example, there’s not that many Secret Service agents but most people in Earth probably know they exist.
I am not familiar with star wars canon lore, but I am very familiar with astronomical data and I have a well-enough grasp of logistics. So I strongly doubt that any civilization would be able to administrate more than a few tens of thousands of star systems, no matter how efficient they are.
Suddenly that massive Galactic Senate Chamber seems cartoonishly tiny. Was the galactic Republic just a dictatorial empire to the high hundreds of millions of worlds/systems that didn’t have a senate pod from which to be heard/represented?
“Tons”
The galactic empire (and the republic before it) spanned billions of inhabited star systems. If each world was billions or trillions of inhabitants that means the galactic population is 1018 or more people. There were only ~10,000 Jedi at their peak. The chances of any galactic citizen seeing a Jedi, unless they lived on Coruscant near the temple, are vanishingly small. They were mythical beings to almost everyone.
TBF a 9 yr old slaveboy on an outer rim planet knew what a Jedi was.
Yes, and with childlike naivety he believed those mystical heroes really exist.
An admiral of the imperial navy is above such childish myths.
Are you saying that scene was the first time that admiral ever met or heard of Darth Vader?
That’s what the scene implies. The whole scene makes no sense after the backstory that the prequels added.
The idea of the scene is that we, the viewer, have no idea what the force is yet. Just like character who learns the hard way. Because this is the first Star Wars movie and they haven’t even started calling it Episode 4 yet.
You could also say that his lackey-force-choking binge hadn’t started yet, because in A New Hope he wasn’t searching for Luke, and in the intro crawl for Empire it describes him as obsessed. Maybe he hadn’t choked anybody till this one guy needled him and he realised he had to get the word out that he was a serious guy.
I consider Star Wars to be a movie that I have never seen for the “first time”. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t intimately familiar with every scene. I wish I could watch it now and not know what was going on.
It makes much more sense when you view Jedi/Sith as the trope of the warrior monk who has achieved enlightenment. They have gained mystical powers beyond mortal ken etc, but mostly they used it to hit people with laser swords and public knowledge could dismiss a lot of that as physical training and conditioning.
Iirc one of the canon comic book series focuses on what vader was doing between III and IV and he was mostly in sith training and special jedi hunting missions for most of the time until IV and had minimal contact with the military. I still need to read it and am going off remembering the tvtropes page and a youtube video so don’t quote me on anything ever from now until the end of time.
It’s been a few years but I think Tarkin introduces Vader a few moments before the choke to the admiral (Motti is the name, BTW)
Even if he knew of Vader, knew of the force, he still didn’t really believe in it. If not shown to someone it is incredibly unbelievable. He definitely didn’t believe in the force being stronger than the death star, which was voiced and angered Darth Vader resulting in the choke.
Also, Motti was a pretty cool character. From the linked fandom page:
If you want to play that way, technically using a 2000lb ton, you’d only need 20-30 Jedi for there to be “Tons”
More than that if the Jedi are Yoda-sized. Less if they’re Jabba-sized.
Hm, have Hutt-Jedi ever been explored in the canon or expanded universe? That sounds kinda interesting…
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Beldorion
I was looking for this kind of comment ready to make one if there was none. Thanks of absolving me of the duty.
I’m going off what was in the movies and other than Coruscant there’s nothing to suggest there’s that many individuals. There are a lot of representatives in the senate but that doesn’t say much about how populated the planets are.
And, the Jedi had an actual HQ on the home planet of the republic, didn’t they?
EDIT: And as another counter-example, there’s not that many Secret Service agents but most people in Earth probably know they exist.
I am not familiar with star wars canon lore, but I am very familiar with astronomical data and I have a well-enough grasp of logistics. So I strongly doubt that any civilization would be able to administrate more than a few tens of thousands of star systems, no matter how efficient they are.
The Senate chamber only holds like 2000 senators. So probably that many planets.
Suddenly that massive Galactic Senate Chamber seems cartoonishly tiny. Was the galactic Republic just a dictatorial empire to the high hundreds of millions of worlds/systems that didn’t have a senate pod from which to be heard/represented?
Maybe it’s like the UN councils and the senate members are elected by the general assembly?
I wonder if you could improve that system by creating localised star sector governments, and divesting the currently centralized power to them?