#meta: leia

[gffa]

Brb gonna go punt myself into the sun real quick, Obi-Wan seeing Anakin in Leia in both the gentleness and fire of her speeches has me inconsolable. (Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi: "From a Certain Point of View")

[lovegrowsart]

it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.

the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.

[bibxrbie]

Every time I see the Star Wars fandom characterise Luke as apolitical or unpolitical, or in some ways unaware of politics, I get so incredibly frustrated.

"Luke joined the Rebel Alliance to fly. He just loves to fly!"

Shut up! Luke Skywalker isn't some idiot, gallivanting around the galaxy for shits and giggles.

ANH shows that even before he found Artoo he had intentions of joining the Rebel Alliance as a pilot, not because he loved to fly, but because he knew that he was a good pilot and that was how he could contribute to the liberation of the people from the Empire. But he also knew that he lacked the training needed to fly in space and that his family could not afford to send him into space, so he intended to join the Imperial Fleet, knowingly taking advantage of the system, to get him both of these things, to abandon the Fleet and joining the Rebellion.

Luke Skywalker grew up under the influence of two oppressive regimes: Hutt Space and the Empire. Slavery was literally happening in his backyard, and he was not unaware of it. Even though he was never a slave, you can't tell me that didn't have an effect on him? Seeing people owned and sold and destroyed like they're nothing; hell, he comes from a family of slaves! ROTJ shows that he has opinions about the Hutt empire too: wearing black in a desert world, refusing to speak Huttese even when he may understand the language? Political rebellion, baby. Maybe he even joined the Rebellion in hopes of using their power after destroying the Empire to one day get rid of the Hutts, which would make sense for him to think considering the Empire has only existed for 20 years and the Hutt empire lived for a lot longer

Also, he denies Vader's offer to rule the galaxy. Yes, it is a moment of trauma and anguish, but also he denies it because he fundamentally disagrees with the system of imperial fascism. He would literally die than willingly join the Empire.

He is political! He is aware of politics and oppression, and he is pro-revolution!

The other Star Wars content makes a point to show this. He frees slaves from the Empire, reads history and philosophy and gets angry at people who trade Jedi artefacts on the black market and at those who willingly work with the Empire.

He might not have the education, power, or language that Leia had, but he has political opinions. And to eradicate that part of his character is an injustice to him.

[organatwins]

Hmmm okay but leia keeping the fact that shes still alive after ANH a secret for as long as possible to use as an advantage for the rebellion but not considering the consequences of being an alive Dead Girl... the idea that she becomes saint like in nature to alderaan survivors who pray to her for saftey from the empire. the idea of imperials who she kills dying while thinking they're being killed by the ghost of alderaan itself manifested as it's angry young princess, back from the dead to execute them for their sins. Leia Organa, Patron Saint of Righteous Vengence .

[inafieldofstarflowers]

Leia following Padmé’s path in life and becoming a politician at a young age, and then eventually a Senator, a leader the people can trust, who pushes for what is in their best interest

Luke becoming a jedi, like Anakin before him, but learning their ways later in life than was typical, growing from that rocky start into the stuff of legend

Leia as the best parts of Anakin, fiery and ready to fight, a leader of an army fighting against injustice in the galaxy, confident in her own abilities

Luke as the best parts of Padmé, dedicated to making the galaxy somewhere where people can have hope, refusing to believe that the good in someone can just be gone, steadfastness in his beliefs

Leia having a big heart and steel in her spine and a commitment to the rebellion she got from Bail and Breha Organa, who she watches be annihilated along with the rest of her people (the way Padmé saw her planet get invaded when she was just a child, only Leia is unable to stop it from happening)

Luke valuing all people and entering the rebellion with hope and more than a little naïveté, developed from living with Owen and Beru Lars, who he returns home to find the bodies of (the way Anakin found Shmi, only Luke cannot get revenge in the moment, and so it simmers in him until it is transformed, slightly, from vengeance to a need for justice)

Luke and Leia as amalgamations of their parents—the ones who raised them and the ones who didn’t—fated to live in the echoes of their family history but not bound to repeat it.

Luke and Leia bringing hope to the galaxy which is so much like the hope Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala brought, and yet simultaneously so different from it.

[merlyn-bane]

good morning, i am now choosing to believe that while leia got her feral streak and stubbornness from both parents (by which i mean, the fucking organas, if i have to hear padmé and anakin referred to as her 'real' parents one more time im going to lose it), her hater game is all her mother. breha's just had more time to learn how to get away with it.

[officialfoxsquadron]

one thing the EU got so right is Leia Organa doing some Force and Jedi training basically just to appease her weird brother and then deciding "yeah, no. i'm good." she doesn't need it. she's never needed it. her life's work is not the Jedi but the agonizing work of peace and rebuilding the galaxy. the Force is Anakin's legacy, not hers. Luke is attracted to the Force because it represents something bigger, the missing part of his life that he's always longed for. Leia had everything she needed in Alderaan and it was taken away from her, by her Force-sensitive father who clutched her shoulder and tortured her and made her watch and did not for a second recognize her.

[maidenvault]

RotJ makes a point of letting us know that Leia is Luke's sister, they've known this on some level for a long time, and he probably cares more about her than anyone in the world because this gives so much more weight to his conflict at the end of the movie, and I think this is a huge thing people overlook when they argue that him redeeming his father represents a rejection of the old Jedi ways of non-attachment. Because in the moment he has to let go of Leia and his friends to be able to actually save Anakin.

When Obi-Wan tries to convince Luke that he has to kill Vader and there's no other way, he doesn’t really discuss it as an issue of Luke having an attachment to him. I think he knows this isn't really the Jedi way but just like in the previous war, they don't seem to be faced with any good choices. Obi-Wan believes what Luke wants is truly impossible and, having failed to stop Vader when he could have before, of course he's trying to stop Luke from making the same mistake.

But it's significant that in the same conversation, Obi-Wan does warn him that his love for his sister could be made a liability if he's not careful. When Luke learns he has a twin and reveals how strong a connection he feels with Leia because he doesn't even have to be told who it is, Obi-Wan's response sets up how this will play into the climax of the film:

"Your insight serves you well. Bury your feelings deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor."

Then when Luke is brought to Sidious, he reveals to Luke that the Rebellion is walking right into a trap as a way to torment and provoke him. Luke gets angrier and angrier while helplessly watching the fleet get ambushed and finally does just what Sidious wants and tries to attack him. But it's Vader specifically threatening Leia that makes Luke totally lose control of his feelings and fight him in a rage.

Luke is basically facing the same kind of test he failed so badly in ESB by running off to help his friends. When Yoda is trying to make him see he's not ready to face Vader and keep him from going to Bespin, he says something that I think is such an underrated quote in its importance to Luke's whole journey:

"Decide you must how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could, but you would destroy all for which they have fought and suffered."

Luke is really lucky he doesn't get killed in Cloud City (or captured, which I think at this point could have resulted in him being turned). Yoda knows Luke is the one person with a chance of defeating the Emperor and Luke just about throws that away.

But at the end of RotJ when Luke cuts off Vader's hand, he surely is reminded of his failure at Bespin and sees the path he's starting down by succumbing to his fears like that again. He stops because he sees he's betraying his loved ones and everything he is. He can only throw away his weapon and confidently tell the Emperor to eat shit then because he's no longer afraid of dying or of those he loves dying. He's done what his father couldn't do and kept his soul intact, which is what Leia would want. Because real love isn't selfishly trying to save someone by betraying what they believe in like Anakin did with Padme. And it obviously has to be an incredibly powerful thing for Vader to see his own son able to do this, even comparing himself to the man he once was ("I am a Jedi, like my father before me").

We remember everything working out okay so it's easy sometimes to forget that Luke gives this triumphant speech when the rebel fleet is getting pulverized outside and things overall still look pretty hopeless. He probably expects he could die at this point. But like Obi-Wan in his own death scene, he knows nothing can destroy him now. And it's the love he feels for his family that gives him the strength to let go.

[mearchy]

a mundane and probably well-established observation to make atp, but i really do like that they didn't cast some chiselled young superhero type actor as din, because that would've been very easy, conventional and satisfying for mainstream audiences. there was no awestruck face reveal where he takes the helmet off and he's a captain america esque action figure with an artistically badass scar or something. he's literally just a dude. like, i can't express the extent to which din djarin is just a guy. he's got scruff and helmet hair and absolutely terrified, uncomfortable eyes as he violates every boundary he has in this act of desperation to save his child. it's not a hotshot-revealed movie moment and that gives it so much more weight. that moment was not a victory, it was a sacrifice.

also we just straight up need more aging protagonists in our action and fantasy media and anytime we get fed well i'm glad. no more mcu under-forty club more scifi senior citizen center.

[snipsnipsnippy]

Can I just talk about Leia’s lightsaber? For probably a long time..

First, I want to say aesthetically she��s gorgeous. She’s so unique. She’s so sleek. She looks like a Jedi masterpiece.

But goddamn does she suck to use.

So to start from the top, we see this beautiful legacy through Leia’s saber. We have the thin neck and rings calling back to Obi-Wan/Luke’s second saber and the vertical grips calling back to Anakin/Luke/the “Skywalker saber”. And we’re told it’s made of silver and copper with mother of pearl?! which just screams Padmé and Breha to me. I love how certain details of a character’s lineage pass through their sabers. Just beautiful.

And obviously because I love Leia and her lightsaber is beautiful I bought one of these but specifically to use, not to display. And oh boy. The amount of blood I have spilled on this saber is terrible, and no I don’t mean hurting someone else. This is my own literal actual blood from getting sliced and diced by this hilt.

Because those vertical grips are the worst ever idea to put on a handheld weapon. The reason they worked on Anakin’s is because they’re straight and thick and chunky and, most importantly, blunt. The whole feminizing sleek-ifying thing they did with Leia’s - while stunning - renders it useless because the grip is curved and those edges and corners are all hard and sharp. One slip, and it will slice your hand. Not to mention just all over make it uncomfortable to use.

And this is one of those beautifully deep things Star Wars has just stumbled into creating because I don’t think it was ever intended or thought about much more than making a pretty prop.

But it is absolutely poetic that Leia’s lightsaber, representing her journey into the Force, is genuinely something that causes her pain despite bringing her closer to her family. Her entire history with the Force is written into this one tool, which she built with her own hands, and yet wielding this tool is only going to harm her and lead her down a painful and treacherous path that no amount of skill or care can save her from. And for her then to walk away from this because it is too difficult to bear or because her family was telling her that her role is elsewhere in a field that she loves that loves her back is just the most perfectly illustrated piece of Leia’s story.

In short, I absolutely hate this lightsaber, but because of that, I absolutely love the story it tells.

[gffa]

Sometimes I really love Star Wars, but also sometimes it drives me up the wall!!! We criticized Mando season 3 to hell and back for all the overreliance on cameos, to the point that it actively took away from the story, so what does Ahsoka do instead? Has a scene with the New Republic where it would make sense for Leia to be there, but instead they send Threepio to deliver a message instead of just either recasting or even monster CGIing her into existence. Oh now you're gunshy about overreliance on cameos!?!? When it would make more sense to have here there, than to not!?!? When you could tie it into her warning the New Republic that they're ignoring the threats lurking out there in the galaxy, that that's why she finally quit in the sequels, because she couldn't go through that again!?!? Now you want to play it safe and coy!?!? Sometimes I love Star Wars very much, but also sometimes I want to shake it until it stops being afraid of just recasting the OT trio already, it's fine, just do it already!!!!

[fantastic-nonsense]

honestly I think if you complain about Star Wars focusing too much on the Skywalkers because "the galaxy is bigger than one family" and "not everything has to be connected" you have fundamentally missed the point George Lucas was trying to make with the original movies.

Star Wars is VERY deliberately an optimistic, cyclical, and myth-based family drama structured around a single family's story, and that purposefully generational story is the story George Lucas saw as the core point and purpose of Star Wars:

“It’s the missing link,” Lucas says. “Once it’s there, it’s a complete work, and I’m proud of that. I do see it, tonality-wise, as two trilogies. But they do, together, form one epic of fathers and sons.” [x] The first three movies had all kinds of issues. [Disney] looked at the stories and they said we want to make something for the fans. So I said all I want to do is tell the story of what happened. You know, it started here and it went there. It's all about generations and it's about, you know, the issues of fathers and sons and grandfathers; it's a family soap opera. I mean, ultimately. We call it a space opera, but people don't realize it's actually a soap opera. And it's all about family problems — it's not about spaceships. [x]

He also wrote Star Wars for the express purpose of attempting to teach people that everything is interconnected and everything we do has an impact that resonates beyond our own lives:

Paul Duncan: "It takes a lot of people to build the ark." George Lucas: "Yeah. And it needs to be done through reason, love, and compassion, not through force. The films are trying to stress the idea that everything is interconnected. I like to make movies that are complex, but it's not obvious to people unless they start digging into it. Most people don't realize it and can't grasp the whole entity because they're focusing on four or five pieces out of 200, and often they don't want to hear about the other pieces because it requires additional thought and ideas outsides of the films. There are cycles and cycles in the story and the characters throughout all six episodes. There are cycles of the same thing being repeated over and over with different groups of people, and the outcomes change because the characters have grown or changed over the story. The repitition shows the characters' development. [x]

GEORGE LUCAS: At some point you do have to become an independent person. And it’s about learning to let go of your — your needs, so to speak, and — and think of the needs of others. BILL MOYERS: So “Star Wars” is — yes, it’s about cosmic, galactic, epic struggles, but it’s at heart about a family. The large myth set in a local family. GEORGE LUCAS: Well, in most — most myths center around characters and — and a hero, and it’s — it’s about how you — how you conduct yourself as you go through the hero’s journey, which everyone goes through. It’s especially relevant when you go through this transition phase. Most societies it’s when you’re 13 or 14. In our society it’s sort of 18 to 22, somewhere in there, that you must let go of your past and must, you know, embrace your future and — and in your own self, by yourself, figure out what it is — what — what path you’re going to go down........... .......BILL MOYERS: And what do stories do for us in that sense? What do myths... GEORGE LUCAS: They try to show us our place. Myths help you to have your own hero’s journey, find your individuality, find your place in the world, but hopefully remind you that you’re part of a whole, and that you must also be part of the community, and — and think of the welfare of the community above the welfare of yourself. [x]

Lucas structured this tale in two ways: through Anakin's deconstructed hero's journey (in the form of a Greek tragedy) and Luke's straightforward hero's journey (culminating with Anakin's redemption) and showing us how this one family's multi-generational story had a huge impact that went beyond their own lives and echoed throughout the galaxy. That was the point!

While there are plenty of other stories not centered on the Skywalkers that can and should be told within the universe, ultimately people need to keep in mind that Lucas was not shy about his intentions in making the movies: he WANTED to write a straightforward retelling of "old stories," and he wanted to do it through the lens of a personal family narrative.

All of the Star Wars material that focuses on non-Skywalkers (which has ALWAYS been around, Rogue One and TLJ and The Mandalorian and Andor and etc etc etc were NOT the first ones to do that) is great, but it's a bonus! An add-on to the core story and point of the franchise! It's not that they're unimportant, because they're not, but at some point it should stop surprising people when the Skywalkers and/or the events of the original six movies get referenced or utilized.

It just bothers me when I hear these complaints because like...if you don't like the Skywalkers, why do you even watch Star Wars? None of those other stories would exist without them! Please just go enjoy another sci-fi franchise and stop complaining that the main characters of Star Wars are being focused on or are popping up in places it makes total sense for them to be!

[sad-stucky-shipper-107]

I apologize in advance for spamming the tags but I just had a cursed thought and I need you all to also think about this:

Ik some of us don't really like to acknowledge the sequels but Palpatine rlly said trans rights lmfao when he was tryna transfer his consciousness into Rey's body, like man simply did not give a fuck the body he was trying possess was female.

[to-proudly-go]

Star Wars is making me delusional for happy endings more than ever and unfortunately I still don't have regrets. The absolute ache my heart goes through every time I stop and think about it in its entirety is phenomenal because how dare these characters from a galaxy far, far away give me pain

Sure we've got the Force and lightsabers and shiny armor and beautiful planets and I'm tickled pink by it all but no one warned me about the tragedy that threw me off the fucking rails with the speed of light

Because can you imagine cutting off the limbs of someone closer to you than a brother and a lover, the other half of your soul, and turning your back as he burns because you can't bring your lightsaber down and end his misery, you can't kill him, you spent years protecting him, fighting for him, keeping him close and not-close so he can find his happiness that the Code you are both bound to cannot give him as you willingly turn a blind eye, only to turn around and find that he has drifted too far and already completely out of your reach, and all you want to do is go back to the time when it's just the two of you, growing and learning together, watching each other's backs against blaster fire, when it was you and him against the world, not you and him against each other. You spend the next 19 years watching over the two stars that are the only parts left of the man you loved from different ends of the galaxy and learning to love them as themselves even as you see him and her in them and it makes you ache, makes you wish for simpler times as you stare down the red blade into red lenses hiding yellow eyes and you are tired, so tired with longing and pain and guilt for the monster you unknowingly helped create

And on the other hand can you imagine finding the child you thought you had lost along with the love of your life, the very people you burned the world for and you thought burned with it? The decades of anguish and anger all culminating to this moment, and instead of the joyous reunion you have always imagined in your weakest moments, it’s her familiar, beloved eyes doused in the color of the desert skies glaring at you with hate and fear as he hides his arm you ruined with your own Force-damned hands. You have loved this child from when he was just a dream whispered underneath the stars, feeling the warmth of twin suns burning in you as you imagine the weight of him (them, you are a father of two) in your arms, incandescent with the promise that you will protect the family you made, all the while forgetting the family you already had. Then you are on your back, electricity still crackling underneath your skin and robbing you of strength as you look at him with your own eyes for the first and last time, and there is forgiveness you didn't know you were looking for, and when you wake up again on the other side of the veil you hope you can find forgiveness there too

[myfandomrambles]

The fact that the disaster lineage produces multiple sith lords multiple hermits and multiple people who left the faith is kind of terrible and funny.

I think maybe we should blame Yoda. Like it was just generational fuckery so like it's Yoda's doing for reals. I mean thinking down the line there were a lot of mistakes made.

Like I love these stupid little space wizards but I think we should blame Yoda tbh

[walkawaytall]

I made a TikTok about this awhile back, but since finding out that Tarkin has suspected Leia was involved with the rebellion since she was sixteen years old and considering the absolute vitriol with which they speak to each other on the Death Star, I like to think that by the time we see them in A New Hope, they've had a three-year rivalry à la Kaylee Hooper and Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock. Tarkin is constantly going on to his colleagues about that girl ruining everything and having weirdly aggressive, accusatory conversations with Leia whenever he runs into her, and everyone around him is like, "Ah, yes, your nemesis...a teenage girl. Wilhuff, are you actually okay?"