Woman of the Week #4 - Princess Leia!
- Thread starter { Emilia }
- Start date
That's about the time that i usually threaten to take the offending device outside and introduce it to Mr. Chevrolet.
Leia was perhaps a good female character for the 1970's (look ma, no bra!), but she was a princess from the old school, her status and titles based on her parentage, and her primary role smuggling messages between important men who would do the real fighting. In action, mostly she got captured and rescued by men (episode 1, 2, and 3), and often she was rescued because she was being used as bait by the other side.
This isn't anything against Leia, it's just that George Lucas is not a good writer. At least he didn't go Jar Jar binks and have Leia always standing on a stool crying about space mice.
Carrie Fisher might be a better pick, having battled bipolar disorder and mutliple drug addictions, eventually having electro-shock therapy, and pulling through. Her autobiography was a great read.
This isn't anything against Leia, it's just that George Lucas is not a good writer. At least he didn't go Jar Jar binks and have Leia always standing on a stool crying about space mice.
Carrie Fisher might be a better pick, having battled bipolar disorder and mutliple drug addictions, eventually having electro-shock therapy, and pulling through. Her autobiography was a great read.
And I prefer ordinary people. Princesses don't return my calls.
You rang?
Star Wars came out when I was sixteen and should have been my cup of tea, but I couldn't stand the sight of it from the first commercial. For one thing, the ugly, boring gray ships turned me off, but equally off-putting were Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Ultimately, I didn't see Star Wars until I rented the video tape (after I had seen Empire Strikes Back and liked it).
When I did finally see SW, I found Princess Leia to be a little on the disturbing side. She was kind of nasty at first, but then lightened up in the end-- after being tortured and watching her entire home planet reduced to atoms. But then, in the prequel trilogy, we learned that her mother found genocide romantic, so I guess the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.
In short, I never cared much for Princess Leia (or Star Wars in general).
When I did finally see SW, I found Princess Leia to be a little on the disturbing side. She was kind of nasty at first, but then lightened up in the end-- after being tortured and watching her entire home planet reduced to atoms. But then, in the prequel trilogy, we learned that her mother found genocide romantic, so I guess the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.
In short, I never cared much for Princess Leia (or Star Wars in general).
Yeah, M'Sharak's article is excellent and makes great points.
Blasphemy. The vintage late '70s through '80s ILM aesthetic is awesome.
The Star Wars galaxy always looked very "used" which was something that made it come alive for me in a way that no other fictional setting has.
Damn, do I ever love this thread. 
Loving all the posts. Well. Except for JarodRussell's. He's being a total nerf herder.
Loving all the posts. Well. Except for JarodRussell's. He's being a total nerf herder.
We must agree to disagree. I don't know why anyone would design ships with all those meganooks and hypercrannies. They must be a bitch to clean (which is probably why they always look filthy).
She's a fighting warrior princess. And she spends more time shooting, discussing and risking her life than she spends sitting around in a chain-mail bikini.
This is a very hot photo.
That bikini wasn't her choice and it's always irked me that it's used as a Leia-is-hot thing. It's slavery, why people find the literal trappings of slavery hot I don't know.
Her adoptive father may have been Alderaan royalty but he was also a senator. It's clear she was never raised as an entitled princess. She certainly knew her way around a blaster.
Er...
In Star Wars she's 'rescued' by two idiots who break into a detention block with no plan for getting out...and who gets them out? Oh yeah, Leia.
In Empire once Lando changes sides, again, who takes charge of the escape from Cloud City? Not Lando, and not chewie, and not Luke who basically falls apart after his confrontation with Daddy. Leia has seen the man she loved frozen and carted off to Jabba yet she holds her shit together till they all escape.
In Jedi she kills Jabba with her bare hands, helps lead an assault on Endor which sees her survive a speeder bike chase and being shot at the back door (giving her a nifty reversal of Han's "I know line.")
As for her and Han, by Jedi you could argue she has the upper hand in their relationship. She helps rescue him from Jabba, turns his own smugness against him and in the end he's left seriously beliving she's gonna leave him for Luke!
would it have been nice to see her kick arse with a lightsabre? Of course, but all things considered I think she comes out of the OT pretty well.
Leia is one of the few fictional characters who deserves to be highlighted in Woman of the Week.
Beneath her high-class and regal exterior is one tough cookie. Bra-less and with her hair in honey-buns, she shoots to kill, stands up to torture, bluffs under the threat of genocide, rescues her rescue, and still delivers the plans. A quick shower, into her wardrobe, and then she's awarding medals. Beautiful, sassy, willing to stay at her post until overrun by stormtroopers, she's an inspiration. Star Wars IV-VI would have been lesser without Leia as we know her.
Beneath her high-class and regal exterior is one tough cookie. Bra-less and with her hair in honey-buns, she shoots to kill, stands up to torture, bluffs under the threat of genocide, rescues her rescue, and still delivers the plans. A quick shower, into her wardrobe, and then she's awarding medals. Beautiful, sassy, willing to stay at her post until overrun by stormtroopers, she's an inspiration. Star Wars IV-VI would have been lesser without Leia as we know her.
I've never even noticed she was bra-less.
Dangnabbit why didn't you go with Simone de Beauvoir? I have a six-year old essay about The Second Sex on my hard drive that I've just been dying to share so I can prove how smart I am.
I think you just answered your own question.
Give it time!
As for Leia, I've never been a big Star Wars fan, but obviously her character's had a huge impact on pop culture. Science fiction is notorious for lacking strong female characters, and was especially guilty of this back when SW first came out. People can say whatever they want about Lucas, but he went against the grain here. Her development in the films wasn't perfect (and I still think the slave Leia thing was nothing but blatant fan service) but she still stands out among female sci-fi characters.
Don't you mean a scruffy nerf herder?
