Faith Responds to Doubt
In A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader are the two characters who represent continuing faith in the ancient religion of the Jedi. Both characters are challenged by skeptics, but their responses are markedly different.
In the Death Star conference room, Admiral Motti expresses his contempt for the Force: "Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fortress..." Vader reacts to Motti's skepticism by aggressively demonstrating the power of the Force. "I find your lack of faith disturbing," Vader says as he chokes the Admiral with the Force, violently compelling his belief.
A parallel conversation takes place between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo onboard the Millennium Falcon. Han Solo, like Admiral Motti, is skeptical of the Force: "I've flown from one side of this galaxy to another, I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense." Unlike Vader, Obi-Wan does not react by attempting to coerce Han's belief with demonstrations of power, or even with arguments. While Han makes his speech, Obi-Wan smiles serenely, as if he has heard this sort of bluster before and does not think he needs to respond to it. He then simply continues to train Luke, whose efforts with the training remote may or may not be a persuasive argument for the Force.
While Vader is "disturbed" by Motti's lack of faith, Obi-Wan is unperturbed by Han's. Obi-Wan trusts the Force in a way that Vader does not.
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Characters: Admiral Motti / Darth Vader / Han Solo / Obi-Wan Kenobi
Films: Episode IV: A New Hope
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Concepts: faith
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And Han comes around. He explicitly articulates his change in belief in EP VII: “Crazy thing is…it’s true all of it, the Force, the Jedi, it’s all true.”