credit: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Star Wars characters could be remarkable by their physical appearances. For example, Darth Vader could be known for his dark appearance and his uniquely-shaped helmet. His red face could remember Darth Maul with some black patterns on it. The same is true for the Light side. Chewbacca could be remembered because he looked like a dog and was full of brown fur on his body. Master Yoda is known for his green, small stature and wrinkled face (indicating his old age).
If I were to think of another character in the Jedi ranks with a defining physical feature whose feature is definite to only them, then I would name Princess Leia Organa. Why? There are two things. Her side buns and her bikini in Return of the Jedi. However, Princess Leia was more than what she was known by sight as she had a lot of roles in the Star Wars franchise. I just recalled her most remarkable features to ring a bell.
Below, we will explore the life of Princess Leia and her contributions to the stories she was a part of. We will try to see the major points of her life from birth to death.
credit: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Early Life and Family
Leia was born to Queen Padmé Amidala before dying. She was the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and their father was the estranged Anakin Skywalker, who became Darth Vader after he defected to the Dark Side. The two children were separated after they were born to prevent them from conjointly knowing about their father’s history and (possibly) joining the Sith order together. This would have been a bad outcome for the Jedi order, as they were the last hope of their kind.
She was adopted by a Resistance member, Senator Bail Organa. Being now in the house of Organa, she was given that as a surname, hiding her identity as a Skywalker from her.
Later, she marries Han Solo and has a son, Ben Solo, who turns to the Dark Side and takes the name of Kylo Ren. This is why Ren would refer to Darth Vader as his grandfather, as he was Leia’s son, who was Vader’s daughter.
credit: Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
Role in the movies
Leia first appeared in Episode IV (A New Hope), where, after having stolen the planets of the Death Star, she hid them in the robot R2-D2. The robot fell into the household of Luke Skywalker, where he accidentally played her call for help to a certain “Obi-Wan” Kenobi.
In Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), there was a scene where Leia and Luke kissed, which was pretty awkward considering: one, they were siblings, and, two, Leia and Han already had a growing romantic connection. Viewers could just dismiss the kiss to Luke because they did not know back then that they were siblings.
But apart from that incest-y stuff, Leia did not do something of significance in The Empire Strikes Back, though there were some manifestations of love between Leia and Han. For example, in the end, as Han is becoming frozen in carbonite, she expresses her love for him.
During the next episode, The Return of the Jedi, Leia leads the rescue to retrieve Han from the possession of Jabba the Hutt. Since then, the frozen Han has become Jabba’s favorite decoration. She was captured and enslaved by Jabba and was marked with the infamous golden bikini as a distinguishing outfit. The rest of the team rescued her.
As the events unrolled in Episode VI, the Force spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi revealed to Luke that Leia is his sister, thus, eliminating any hints of a love triangle between Leia, Han, and Luke. When Luke was inside the second Death Star, Vader sensed through Luke that he had a sister and that he would indoctrinate the sister to the Dark Side instead in place of Luke if he wouldn’t turn. This caused Luke to battle with Vader as he neither wanted to be a Sith nor her sister to be one.
In Episode VIII (The Last Jedi), Kylo Ren was told to attack a Resistance ship, but he refused because he sensed his mother’s (Leia’s) presence there. The ship was attacked anyway by his wingmen, which killed Leia.
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