10

From the movies:

  • Qui-Gon fails (multiple times) at manipulating Watto on Tatooine in EpI
  • Luke tried using it on Jabba in EpVI, to no avail

From elsewhere:

  • Mace Windu failed to manipulate a Dagoyan to allow him access to the Queen's chambers on Bardotta
  • Ahsoka Tano tries to get info on a potential hostage from a Mandalorian Security Officer, but fails

That makes at least four species that are resistant or immune to the Force Mind Trick, and there's probably many more. So my question is: Why don't the Jedi know who's receptive and who's not? Is this never a subject during their training? Why can't they sense when a creature isn't weak-minded enough to use this ability on?

Why isn't it as easy as:

if(target->IsWeakMinded())
{
    jediAbility.UseForceMindTrick(target) 
}
else
{
    jediAbility.CheatSomeOtherWay(target)
}

A follow up question would be whether or not Dark Jedi or Sith have this problem, as I've only found Light Side examples.

Legends answers are acceptable.

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6
  • 2
    On the flip side, why should they be able to tell? In general it isn't easy to tell someones ability in some field without actually putting it to the test, why would fictional abilities be any different?
    – Jack
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 0:02
  • 1
    Keep in mind that Force users are not necessarily able to know everything in other scenarios as well. Remember the scene from ESB, where Luke inquires about the fate of Han and Leia and Yoda is unable to answer?
    – Bob
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 1:34
  • Because they are very powerful fictional characters. They can sense lots of other things, including things that only give them "bad feelings" or "disturbances", from several miles away or lightyears away. Old Ben could tell when Alderaan got destroyed, so why could they not sense who even might be a possible victim of the mind trick?
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 15:00
  • And if they are totally unable to sense it, why is it not taught in the Academy? Surely that giant library has some notes on the subject.
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 15:16
  • 1
    Jedi can't do that, because PHP is of the Dark Side.
    – Paul
    Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 10:28

1 Answer 1

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14

Well, because method isWeakMinded is actually implemented like this :P 

public boolean isWeakMinded(Target target, JediAbility jediAbility) {
    try {
        jediAbility.useForceMindTrick(target);
    } catch (NotWeakMindedException e) {
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}

It goes without saying that all Jedi abilities are actually encoded in Java, and that is how the order actually got its name ;)

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10
  • 1
    Excellent point. This brings to mind the famous "these are not the droids you're looking for" scene in A New Hope. Even if it were possible for Obi-Wan to determine ahead of time whether his mind trick would work, there wasn't time to "research" it—if he didn't take immediate action, it was likely that the whole party would have been arrested.
    – Bob
    Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 2:02
  • 3
    You code like the Dark Side. No legitimate Jedi would ever leave their brackets like that.
    – DCOPTimDowd
    Commented Jan 23, 2017 at 16:45
  • 8
    But didn't Yoda say 'There is no "try, only 'do'"'....?
    – user71418
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 13:11
  • 2
    @Pᴇᴛᴇ, yes, but clearly Yoda wasn't a competent coder because do{jediAbility.useForceMindTrick(target);} while (!target.isTricked()); hangs your movie.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 13:35
  • 2
    @Pᴇᴛᴇ Yoda was early proponent of Exception driven development. Once he got this shady Kamino library. He immediately took CloneArmy object from it, and used goToWar method. He got this huge Order66Exception, which almost crashed his JediOrder app in production .
    – rs.29
    Commented Jan 25, 2017 at 0:48

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