Given the number of rebels they captured at the end of Rogue One who came straight from Yavin, why did Vader and Tarkin need to go to such lengths to extract that information from Leia? Just what happened to the rebel fleet after the end of Rogue One?
asked Jan 22, 2017 at 18:21
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Maybe they all kept schtum.– ValorumJan 22, 2017 at 18:26
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Weren't they all blown up, the ones that didn't get away?– Mr ListerJan 22, 2017 at 18:54
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1The flagship was clearly intact, as Tantive IV ejected from it.– Stephen CollingsJan 22, 2017 at 18:56
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1Maybe Vader killed them all? Didn't look like he let many survive.– ThomasJan 22, 2017 at 19:23
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1True. He killed the captain of Tantive IV with no consideration for extracting information. But then, many other soldiers were captured...– Stephen CollingsJan 22, 2017 at 19:33
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3 Answers
Keep in mind that the Empire doesn't know all these rebels came from the base on Yavin. For all the Empire knows, they could have come from all over the galaxy, meeting at a pre-arranged point for a large pre-planned mission, without ever knowing the location of the primary rebel base.
They go after Leia because time is a factor. Leia is a known public figure, which means a couple of things:
- as a high-ranking official in galactic society, and presumably in the rebellion, there's a better chance that she actually knows where the base is.
- they have leverage over her automatically - to wit, they know which planet she calls home.
If standard "interrogation" techniques don't yield fruit they can (and do) threaten her family. Indeed, the whole planet. This is a heavy-handed approach, but it's their best bet at finding the location they need quickly. And Leia is the highest profile captive they have, upon whom to use these tactics.
Sure, they could've done the same thing with each and every faceless rebel grunt they caught, but they would've had to spend time figuring out who these people are, where their homes and families are, etc, etc. They were probably smart enough not to carry (legitimate) identification tags on the mission, so this process is going to be more than just typing one name per captive into the Star Wars equivalent of Google Maps. Plus, they only have one Death Star, so they'd have to travel to each and every planet they found to pull the old "tell us or we'll blow up your home planet" stunt.
Even after all that, the rebels could lie. (Indeed, Leia does lie even though they have her dead to rights.) They could break under torture and just tell the Imperials whatever planet they seem to want to hear. Given how big a galaxy is, it could take years to run down all those leads and figure out which, if any, were legitimate. During that time, the rebels surely would have relocated their base of operations anyway.
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Not sure a agree that threatening your home planet should be just enough to break the camel's back if threatening a different world with ten billion people isn't. These are the good guys. They aren't supposed to be selfish that way. Jan 22, 2017 at 23:34
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1Mmm. But why not simply have Vader mind probe or mind trick some captive Rebel soldier for information?– AdamantJan 22, 2017 at 23:50
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Well, we know the mind trick only works on the weak-minded. I would assume the same limitation applies to "mind probes" (not so familiar with material beyond the movies)... Deciding to stand up and fight for freedom against a powerful regime, in the face of overwhelming odds, takes a certain amount of willpower. Not to mention going through whatever trials the Rebellion employs to test applicants - if they accepted everyone who walked through the door it would be easy-peasy for the Empire to infiltrate their ranks. So, maybe the average rebel isn't as easy to influence as the average ST.– Steve-OJan 23, 2017 at 21:27
That the Empire needs to question people at all and aren't trying to dig the information out of the ship's log or navicomputer says to me they've at least taken some basic precautions to protect it's location. In all likelihood, none of those soldiers actually knew the location. Sure, they may have been there, be able to describe a jungle moon orbiting a gas giant and the ancient ruins, but that could be one of thousands of obscure corners of the galaxy or some entirely uncharted world. If the rebellion had any sense the name "Yavin 4" would be kept classified and the co-ordinates kept only by high ranking members.
Captain Antillies may have known, but Vader killed him trying to get him to talk about the location of the plans (his immediate priority at the time), hence later: "now she is my only link."
This will probably get downvoted, but honest answer is they didn't need Leia to learn location of Rebel (base)s . Any decent military here on Earth is capable to process dozens of POWs at the same time. Ruthless galactic war machine like Empire would have lots of professional interrogators coupled with torture droids to extract information. Not every Rebel is strong-minded like Leia, some of them would certainly break more easily. In real life, any guerrilla movement must not stay in one place for too long. Rebels of course knew that, so they would relocate periodically (Dantooine->Yavin->Hoth) . Why they didn't leave Yavin earlier after Battle of Scariff is not entirely clear.
One thing to note, Imperials still needed Leia to get plans for Death Star, but whole plot of letting her escape to learn location of main Rebel base is now completely illogical, after Rouge One retcon.
