Leia Organa often gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop where the casual Star Wars fandom is concerned. Most attention focuses on the cinnamon-roll hairdo and/or the bronze bikini. (I myself have been known to highlight the Slave Leia Tendency, even pledging money for every Slave Leia spotted at Dragon Con, but that was more about the lack of creativity than anything else — y’all, you’re in a photo with forty other Slave Leias.) In honor of last night’s release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Nicki Salcedo gives Leia her due, celebrating her uncelebrated badassitude. (And providing me with my new rough-day mantra: Was your home planet just destroyed? Then pull it together, young Jedi.)
The first time you see Leia, she is being a spy. The second time you see Leia, she is toe-to-toe with Darth Vader. She is the only person in the movie who gets away with sassing him and rolling her eyes. Everyone else suffered the Dark Side choke hold, but not Leia.
Of course, her sass resulted in the Death Star doing something dramatic to her home planet Alderaan. I turned to my kids during the movie to explain, “Only then do you see her panic. She never cries.”
When my kids start having a meltdown, I try to put their hysterics into perspective. “Was your home planet just destroyed? Then pull it together, young Jedi.”
[…]
It looks like Leia is playing second fiddle to these men, but she’s playing first chair violin. She isn’t afraid of heights or diving into a trash compactor. She will kiss a mercenary and dress as a bounty hunter. She gets to rock a sweet metal bikini at precisely the moment when her boyfriend is blind.
“She is a sexual being without having to rely on her sexuality to save her,” I say as she is choking Jabba the Hut with her chains. My kids groan. They do not like me using the words sex, sexuality, or sexy. Did anyone notice that she is saving herself? The men in “Star Wars” don’t even worry about her.
Luke is thinking, “She’s got this.”
Han is thinking, “Ditto.”
[…]
Go see “Star Wars.” Go see it for Leia. You’re her only hope. No other character gets to be spy, diplomat, rebel, and Jedi. Not bad for a princess.