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Warsie wrote:
IIRC, there are 2 stories.

1. Vader drugs Leia with the droid to weaken her mind/get her high and he pretends to be her father (well, he is, I meant Bail Organa her adopted father) to tell her where the plans are. (ANH Radio Drsamatization)

2. After drugging her, he uses the interrogation droids to prick her, torture her, jab pressure spots, etc and gives up just before she loses will) ROTJ novelization, referenced)

However in any case it is not a cakewalk to read someone else's mind. I don't know if it is entirely impossible to penetrate the defense of a strong-willed peson. Highly unlikely. However it is quite possible that she can fight till her death (or insanity) without giving out the info.

bz249 wrote:However in any case it is not a cakewalk to read someone else's mind. I don't know if it is entirely impossible to penetrate the defense of a strong-willed peson. Highly unlikely. However it is quite possible that she can fight till her death (or insanity) without giving out the info.

Not impossible. However, it still is a bitch, particularly if said strong willed person has had training in resisting mental probing. Someone of Vader's power level could probably break just about anyone given time. In many cases, however, it would probably be more efficient and be better time management to use conventional interrogation.

Civil War Man wrote:Not impossible. However, it still is a bitch, particularly if said strong willed person has had training in resisting mental probing. Someone of Vader's power level could probably break just about anyone given time. In many cases, however, it would probably be more efficient and be better time management to use conventional interrogation.

As it happens, Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama includes a brief exchange in which Grand Moff Governor Tarkin suggests using torture on the Princess Leia to extract information, prompting Darth Vader's reply:

I think not. She is a member of the Royal House of Alderaan and of the Imperial Senate. She has had access to many family and government secrets; she has been specifically trained and prepared to withstand conventional questioning. I would have to apply levels of pain so high as to risk killing her.

The Princess Leia remembers having undergone physical torture in Return of the Jedi ("efficient pain-droids ... needles, pressure points, fire-knives, electrojabbers"), but she also remembers having been injected with "mind-weakening chemicals." In "Gambler's World," an interrogator machine similar to the IT-O used on the Death Star is called a "mind-probe." It becomes clear, then, given the evidence of the three sources, that Vader did not use actual physical torture for fear of killing her, and instead used hypnotic suggestion and various chemicals to conduct his interrogation. Very likely he could not use his mentalic powers on her without fear of destroying her mind before he could retrieve the information he desired (more than likely he could accomplish this without triggering a catastrophic mental breakdown were he given more time).

bz249 wrote: Is it possible that there is a limit to 'sense the lies'. I mean in ANH Vader used rather conventional methods to get the information from Leia (supposedy a normal human). And he could not sense she lied about the Rebel base either (it seems to be a good idea to seach for lies at that moment)

Not exactly. Vader did inform Tarkin that the Princess was too strong-willed to so easily give up the Rebel base location.

The question will be whether the pyschic probe he mentions in the novel is technological, racial or Force based.

bz249 wrote:However in any case it is not a cakewalk to read someone else's mind. I don't know if it is entirely impossible to penetrate the defense of a strong-willed peson. Highly unlikely. However it is quite possible that she can fight till her death (or insanity) without giving out the info.

Okay, but Dodonna was strong-willed right and if Galactic Battlegrounds is right, he gave up the into quickly when confronted by Vader (but they did already use a mind probe on him when they found him barely alive)

Did not Vader read Luke Skywalker's mind in ROTJ when he found out Leia's identiy ? Reading the mind of a Jedi who can resist force powers is quite impressive. Maybe Leia has an unusualy strong mind like Atton Rand in KOTOR 2. Atton even before Jedi training could not be accurately read by Jedi. Either that or Luke's weakness is his weak mental defenses like Corran Horn's weakness is his very weak telekinesis.

Well, throw in there that Luke and Vader have a (known) familial telepathic connection that's already worked across hundreds of kilometers, and that Luke was under a great deal of distress at the time. Having the Emperor and the huge Dark Side nexus he represents sitting a few meters away also probably helped.