Obi-Wan Kenobi Finally Explains This Major Darth Vader Mystery

The Disney+ "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series that sees the return of Ewan McGregor's titular character and Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader recently came to a close with the thrilling "Part VI" finale. In the "Star Wars" timeline, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" takes place 10 years after the events of "Revenge of the Sith" and about nine years before "A New Hope." Throughout the series, fans witness Obi-Wan struggle with his beliefs surrounding the Jedi Order and his commitment to watching over Luke (Grant Feely) and Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) after their mother's death in "Revenge of the Sith." Obi-Wan is ultimately pulled off of Tatooine to search for young Leia after she is kidnapped by Third Sister, aka Reva (Moses Ingram), an Inquisitor obsessed with capturing Vader's former master. 

After narrowly avoiding capture with Leia and discovering that Anakin Skywalker is still alive at the end of "Part II," Obi-Wan and Leia struggle to make it out during the events of "Part III." Ultimately, Obi-Wan is forced to face Darth Vader for the first time since "Revenge of the Sith" and nearly dies in the process, with Leia getting discovered by Reva and taken to Fortress Inquisitorius.

At the beginning of "Part IV," Reva attempts to torture and probe the mind of Leia using the Force, with the result finally explaining a major Darth Vader mystery for "Star Wars" fans.

Very notably during the opening scenes of "Star Wars: A New Hope," Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) is captured and led to be interrogated by the Empire, specifically Darth Vader. However, it is implied that Vader was unable to probe Leia using the Force and all other methods of torture failed, leading Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) to famously destroy the entire planet of Alderaan using the Death Star. For some time before the reveal of Leia's force sensitivity in "The Last Jedi" and now the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series, many "Star Wars" fans were left to speculate as to how Leia was truly able to resist Vader.

When Reva's probing of young Leia's mind in "Obi-Wan Kenobi" proved unsuccessful in "Part IV," it explained exactly why Vader was also unsuccessful in the future during "A New Hope" — Leia must have incredible Force sensitivity against mind probing by using the Force herself. It is particularly impressive given that her brother Luke (Mark Hamill) was not able to resist the same thing during "Return of the Jedi."

Although Leia never officially became a Jedi, according to "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson (via ComicBook.com), he did note that Leia's Force abilities, like the one she exhibits in "The Last Jedi" to keep her from perishing in space, come naturally (via Empire Magazine). It is likely that Leia then has an incredibly powerful, instinctual resistance to Force mind probing.