Force powers are vague psychic/mystic stuff. We see Vader sense Kenobi, and he can tell that Luke is strong with the force when he is focusing on him. And there’s other stuff like sensing Alderaan blowing up or things happening in other places and times (aka literally anything the plot wants the character to see). But the rules just really aren’t clear, especially in the original trilogy. There’s no indication given that Vader should be able to sense that someone is related to him, nor would he be able to pull it from Leia’s mind since she doesn’t know either. If anything, he should have sensed the millennium falcon coming in to cover Luke during the trench run, that seems like the more obvious thing to be able to detect.
Troi has empathy, which is a much more clearly defined concept. And while they stray from that sometimes by letting her sense danger or other nebulous generalities, we do know that she should be able to sense emotions, intentions and honesty vs deception. That makes it stand out when the script seemingly forgets that she should be able to sense lies, deception, and malicious intent. Conman pretending to be a researcher from the future lies in order to steal from them and she can’t tell that he’s a fraud. The staff at a party are getting ready to grab weapons and take them all hostage, and she doesn’t notice. These are situations that call for things that are well within her established skillset.
Who says he didn’t? We only know he sensed that Luke was strong in the force during the death star trench run because he said it out loud. Presumably he has encountered many people with relatively strong force potential, but that’s probably something he’s going to keep to himself unless he has a reason to act on it. She’s a prisoner that he’s unlikely to recruit, and it’s not like she’s had any training. Hell, he probably dismisses people like her as being too old to start training anyway. (And if we bring in stuff from outside the movies where they explain that force sensitive people often become leaders, or larger than life figures that shape the course of events, then one would expect a lot of those people to run into Vader eventually.)
It may also be that force ability is more apparent once someone actually starts using the force. That would be logical and consistent with the fact that Luke is only really noticed by Vader once Obi Wan started telling him to use the force, and the fact that Vader and Luke could sense each other in space over Endor, but apparently that didn’t apply to Leia.
And again, he wasn’t trying to reach Luke on the radio to make him an offer once he noticed the force was strong with him, he was trying to kill him. The empire wasn’t determined to capture Luke until the emperor was able to sense him making waves in the force, when he was at the point where he was already using a lightsaber and capable of telekinesis, and when he had been identified as Vader’s son. At that point he had demonstrated actual ability, not just wasted potential, and the familial connection offered a plausible way to work around his opposition to the empire.
Star Wars is basically a more accessible version of Dune. In Dune people had precognitive abilities that would allow them to predict the future. Problem is if someone else can foresee the future one person is reacting to what they predict the other will do, but then the other changes what they’ll do based on what they predict the first person would do. So it results in kind of a stalemate. Two people with precognitive abilities can’t predict each other’s actions. Or the actions of those under the other’s influence.
So the Sith’s abilities are weakened by the presence of a Jedi and vice-versa. Leia’s ability with the force (whether she knew she had them or not) prevents Darth Vader from sensing much about her other. Also the Sith’s abilities wouldn’t be effective in predicting the actions of any rebel following Leia’s leadership.
More to the point, every answer to this question is talking about something completely different. Vader was distracted. Vader was only clued into Leia’s existence after Luke thought about her. Vader had too much on his plate…!
But this answer, even among all the above, is reaching at things that just make no sense. By your logic, every force user would be crippled at the battle of Geonosis, with hundreds of jedi and sith present.
Qui-Gon and a young Obi-Wan took on Darth Maul, where the latter was able to use his ability without seemingly any hindrance at all. Similarly with Obi-Wan and Anakin against Count Dooku. When Yoda steps in, it’s 3 jedi against Dooku. There’s no evidence of Dooku bring weakened, as he matches Yoda in force abilities without much effort. By your logic, the sith in both encounters should have been weakened. That is clearly not the case.
The simple and obvious truth is this: at the time of writing, Lucas never intended for Leia to be Luke’s sister (hence their kiss) and so, there simply wasn’t anything for Darth Vader to sense. Retconning that and then adding in some wishy-washy explanation just trashes the credibility of the franchise.
By my logic the Jedi wouldn’t be able to sense that Palpatine was a Sith even while sitting in a room with him where there was no dangers or distractions. I’m no prequel fan, but I recall that it’s mentioned the Jedi’s ability with the force was being weakened.
And it wouldn’t affect the ability to swing a lightsaber around. Though it would affect the ability to use precognition to predict where the opponent was going to swing their lightsaber. I mean they can deflect blaster shots all day but can’t deflect a lightsaber that’s moving much slower? Why is this? Makes sense if you consider the guys shooting the blasters don’t have much force abilities so they can use the force to predict where the shot will be and deflect it. But another force user’s actions can’t as easily be predicted so it comes down to good old fashioned martial arts abilities.
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