Jedi are rare after The Purge. So rare, in fact, that Han didn't even believe they existed before meeting Luke, and Rey didn't believe they were real before meeting Han. It's actually kind of impressive how quickly The Empire managed to effectively wipe out all belief that the Jedi Order ever even existed.

So someone with a lightsaber would be able to go about freely because the Empire thought the Jedi were discredited ideologically? I'm not convinced.

@TheDarkLord , the Empire does need an excuse to arrest someone behaving suspiciously. But it looks like they had no specific instructions on lightsabers and possible had no idea how that particular device could be used as a weapon.

@AndresF. Except that the chronology of the OT already set this time difference in stone, it was only reinforced by the prequels. Luke was (if I remember right) only a young man, perhaps a teenager still, at the beginning of ANH. It is also explained by Ben in ANH that Luke's father was a Jedi Knight. Therefore, we know that the Jedi still existed within the last twenty years.

@DBPriGuy Agreed, I think it's continuity error made worse by the (pre)sequels, but not entirely caused by them. Or rather, more than a continuity error, it's an error in tone. The Jedi are supposed to be long forgotten, so for it to have happened in the past few years, it's an error in tone. All subjective, of course -- I bet George Lucas and Disney beg to differ with me.

[Speculation] Remember, there were maybe 1000 (I'm probably wrong about this, but seem to recall that number) Jedi for the whole galaxy. Odds are, even while they were around in full force your average citizen hadn't met anyone even second or third hand who had seen a Jedi. If you were (un)lucky one of them would have visited your planet in the last 3 generations. Once the empire declares them traitors and executes them, anyone who had any knowledge of Jedi would know enough to stay silent. Thus, anyone under 40-50 wouldn't have heard of them.

@AndresF. Totally agree. In the original trilogy, all Jedi were Obi-Wan, Yoda and Luke. In ALL the galaxy. Whenever I start to read some book of Legends continuity, it appears that there were a bunch of Jedi escaping the purge and working undercover. The same impression I had from Rebels. I disagree that the tone was based on prequels, in Revenge of The Sith all the Jedi were slaughtered, including padawans and younglings. It was hinted there could be survivors of the purge, but very unlikely

@Ethan They were still the generals of a massive galaxy spanning war that everyone knows about. It would be like Eisenhower and Churchill being myths in 1960. Sure everyone is about 12 degrees of separation from them. But turning them into myths is impressive.

@Shane, and would you believe that Eisenhower had psychic abilities, or that Churchill was telekinetic?

@Wildcard: If that was widely regarded as fact as recently as 1945, then probably yes.

It was stated that these generals committed treason against the republic and were executed for it. Nobody save a few people knew that someone survived.

@Shane It might be closer to the SAS being rendered a myth by 1960. Despite their enormous contribution most soldiers in the war would never have met them, or even met someone who had met someone who had met them.

@PeterCordes, interesting. There are a wide variety of "facts" that were widely regarded as such that recently. I wonder if you would believe them as readily. There are other "facts" given credence now which would have been laughed to scorn then, such as the groundless notion that brain chemicals cause mental disorders.

As a rule, people are not very discerning about their data acceptance; they usually use either the rule of Authority or preponderance of agreement amongst other people, neither of which is a valid test for truth. The Empire having destroyed the population with personal knowledge of the Force and established a new Authority invalidating its truth, it's not so hard to believe it would be widely regarded as a myth. Also relevant: Why Politicized Science is Dangerous by Michael Crichton.

@Andres F.: I experienced both, the collapse of East Germany and the reunited Germany from then to today and I can assert you, two decades are enough to make things being forgotten or appearing like a myth…

@TheDarkLord: It might look strange to let someone with a lightsaber pass, but on the other hand, a Jedi might wave his hand and pass anyway. If that guy with a lightsaber is not a Jedi, he will likely slice himself when trying to use that weapon. Ordering ordinary patrols to try to deal with trained Jedi is not a good idea.

@Holger Fair enough! You have a point. Though to me this is more like Japan forgetting the samurai ever existed... And the feeling I got from the first movie was that there were really only a handful of Jedi left (possibly just Obi Wan and Yoda), and they had been long forgotten, enough that many people thought they had never existed in the first place!

@Andres F.: in the first movie, no one denied that Jedi existed, only their capabilities were disputed, which might be fair, considering that they obviously have been beaten. That might be indeed like Samurai, which are a source of myths today. There are people who think, Samurai were ordinary guys, having just a better than ordinary training of ordinary human capabilities…

@AndresF. unlike the Jedi, Samurai were neither destroyed nor convicted of treason. They simply gradially phased out. The Jedi were slaughtered along with their reputation.

@TimSparrow That's not the vibe I got from the first movies, before it was all reworked or made explicit by George Lucas. In my view, he handled it clumsily, like many other aspects of his movies. (BTW, for a lot of purposes, the Samurai were indeed destroyed and lost their "warrior class" privileges. In any case, it was meant as an analogy, not an exact match! But it's relevant because George Lucas was inspired in many ways by feudal Japan).

@Holger Yes, but that is precisely what makes it so silly. The Jedi were few but pretty conspicuous in the movies -- I would have believed if they were branded traitors or heretics (plenty of examples in real-life history), but not that people doubted their existence or abilities. To be fair, even the first movie is silly about this: we have a high-ranking Imperial officer doubting that "sad devotion to an ancient religion" in front of Darth Vader... presumably high-ranking Imperials are aware of what Jedi and force users can do? All of this is an error in tone (though that scene is cool!)

@AndresF. The high-ranking imperials had no business with the Force matters. They were doing their soldier work. so the Sith could do their secret agenda. "Steel against steel, magic against magic" concept.

@TimSparrow The rank and file, sure. The higher ranking officers at the Death Star, in a meeting with Grand Moff Tarkin? Doubtful! They knew how the Jedi had been dealt with, they knew of Vader's involvement. It's just a case of bad writing, of which there are many examples in Star Wars. Of course, as a fan I applaud every attempt of explaining away its more obvious plot holes, but still... :)

@AndresF.yes, I think guys like Tarkin are aware of it. However, it is not something they can understand, or feel. It is easier for such people to be ignorant of it or even outright slam it as something 'for weirdos only'. Imagine some guy approaching you with a stick claiming it can protect him from gunfire. Will you give him any credibility? Of course there were Jedi, and they used those <s>sticks</s>lightsabers, but there are no more Jedi. They failed and their magic did not help them.