Do <PERSON> and <PERSON> know these characters are alive during the time of the Original Trilogy?
In the series finale of Star Wars Rebels,
! we see that <PERSON> is alive after the events of the Original Trilogy, and it is conveyed to the audience via <PERSON>'s epilogue voiceover that <PERSON> is still alive.
However, the entire driving force of the Original Trilogy is that <PERSON>, <PERSON>, and <PERSON> are the only Jedi left, and it is up to <PERSON> to overthrow the Empire and rebuild the Jedi (to pass on what he has learned, as it were).
This exchange in Empire:
<PERSON>: That boy is our last hope.
<PERSON>: No, there is another.
Obviously, the "other" refers to <PERSON>, <PERSON>'s sister who is revealed to be Force-sensitive at the end of Empire. So <PERSON> is the last Jedi, with <PERSON> a possible replacement if <PERSON> fails.
This is also communicated to the audience when <PERSON> dies in Return of the Jedi:
<PERSON>: <PERSON>, when gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be. <PERSON>, the Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned, <PERSON>... 663
There is another <PERSON>.
We also know that
! <PERSON> knows who <PERSON> and <PERSON> are—and that they are alive shortly before the events of the Original Trilogy—as he communicates with them in the Rebels series.
Does this mean that <PERSON> and <PERSON>
! presumed <PERSON> and <PERSON> to be dead during the events of the Original Trilogy?
If <PERSON> knew they were alive, he wouldn't have told <PERSON> that he was the last <PERSON>. And I presume that he is (a) not lying to <PERSON> and (b) is Force-sensitive enough to know if these characters were still alive.
! I assume that <PERSON> would not write an ending to a series that took a large amount of the emotional weight out of the Original Trilogy—but I felt like this ending did just that. If <PERSON> and <PERSON> are alive, then <PERSON>'s importance in the Original Trilogy feels diminished. I am well-aware that an out-of-universe explanation is that this ending is a device to simultaneously explain why these characters were not present in the Original Trilogy while keeping them alive for a future project; however, I am wondering if there is a more satisfying, less-cynical, and in-universe answer. 663