General Star Wars Random Thoughts Thread — Page 208

When universes collide!

SilverWook said:

Unless you knew someone with a bootleg videotape, it was the only way to “bring the movie home” before 1982. 😃

I still have a treasurer my copy of “The Story of Star Wars”.

This is a neat idea…

http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/become-an-action-figure-at-target-with-super-awesome-me/

But I’m disappointed I can’t put my face on a Ric Olie figure. 😉

But does it smell like old bubble gum? 😉

To me, yes, but mostly to avoid retconning Leia’s character. Instead, her becoming queen in ROTJ (as suggested by Kurtz) and proving worthy of the title protecting her people against the Empire, would’ve made for a better character development and a better end to her narrative arc.

John Doom said:

To me, yes, but mostly to avoid retconning Leia’s character. Instead, her becoming queen in ROTJ (as suggested by Kurtz) and proving worthy of the title protecting her people against the Empire, would’ve made for a better character development and a better end to her narrative arc.

I think the whole queen crap is ridiculous. It would make the rebellion stupid. They were fighting to get rid of dictatorship, not to go from empire to monarchy. And btw, “her people” were all blown up in ANH.

The way it is now makes for a far better character development. We first meet her as a spoiled royalty in ANH. By the time of ESB she seemed to have become respected by the rebels because of her skill rather than the fact that she was once a princess. In ESB she even hates it when Han calls her princess, which implicates she put that stuff behind her and that she is not proud of it. The old EU actually made the final transformation, i.e. into a politician in republic/democracy which is a direct opposite of her status at the beginning of ANH.

imperialscum said:

We first meet her as a spoiled royalty in ANH.

Leia never seemed to be a spoilt royalty, what do you mean? She shoots stormtroopers, doesn’t break even under torture (who knows for how long), leads her rescuers into a garbage chute and is more on the point of what’s happening than her rescuers, while always thinking the best for the rebellion.

Tobar said:

imperialscum said:

The old EU actually made the final transformation, i.e. into a politician in republic/democracy which is a direct opposite of her status at the beginning of ANH.

Senator Leia Organa said:

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I am a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan…

That is like saying “I am a member of the Nazi Germany Senate”.

imperialscum said:

John Doom said:

To me, yes, but mostly to avoid retconning Leia’s character. Instead, her becoming queen in ROTJ (as suggested by Kurtz) and proving worthy of the title protecting her people against the Empire, would’ve made for a better character development and a better end to her narrative arc.

I think the whole queen crap is ridiculous. It would make the rebellion stupid. They were fighting to get rid of dictatorship, not to go from empire to monarchy. And btw, “her people” were all blown up in ANH.

The way it is now makes for a far better character development. We first meet her as a spoiled royalty in ANH. By the time of ESB she seemed to have become respected by the rebels because of her skill rather than the fact that she was once a princess. In ESB she even hates it when Han calls her princess, which implicates she put that stuff behind her and that she is not proud of it. The old EU actually made the final transformation, i.e. into a politician in republic/democracy which is a direct opposite of her status at the beginning of ANH.

I think the Amidalas being monarchs doesn’t necessarily mean the people of Alderaan are/were under dictatorship: maybe it’s like a modern democratic monarchy like the UK (which is member of the EU, a democratic union of states kind of like the Republic), so there’s no contradiction here.
About the “her people” issue, I don’t think it was confirmed in the movies that there weren’t survivors, away from their home planet.
But in any case, my point is that to me Leia becoming a queen or leading the Rebellion would’ve fitted her character more, being Leia a princess taking more and more responsabilities in the war (stealing/keeping safe the plans, helping on Yavin IV, co-directing the battle of Hoth). I don’t think she was spoiled in ANH, quite the contrary. Very cold and young, sure, yet a loyal leader.

LexX said:

imperialscum said:

We first meet her as a spoiled royalty in ANH.

Leia never seemed to be a spoilt royalty, what do you mean? She shoots stormtroopers, doesn’t break even under torture (who knows for how long), leads her rescuers into a garbage chute and is more on the point of what’s happening than her rescuers, while always thinking the best for the rebellion.

She has ungrateful attitude when she is rescued, she insults Chewie, she tries to boss around Han, she complains about the Falcon, etc.

It’s a defense mechanism. She saw her entire home planet blown up. She’s been drugged and interrogated by the scariest of the Emperor’s henchmen. Then, a couple of guys in stormtrooper outfits show up out of nowhere claiming to be with Obi Wan, with a half assed rescue plan she has to take charge of.

I’d be a little cranky too.

DuracellEnergizer said:

imperialscum said:

And btw, “her people” were all blown up in ANH.

I doubt Leia was the only Alderaanian offworld when the planet went kablooie.

Oh I am sure those were extremely eager to get back together to be ruled by someone.

It’s very weird to me how many people don’t understand Leia’s character.
She may be the princess of Alderaan, but she’s mostly using that as a ruse to hide the fact that she’s a leader of the Rebellion. That’s why she uses the false accent when speaking to Vader and Tarkin.
She isn’t “spoiled royalty” in ANH, she’s a military leader and the only one of our heroes who knows how to take charge and “save (their) skins”. She’s the only one who even knows where she is, much less what’s going on in the bigger picture. And her rescuers have arrived (by accident) in and old beat-up rat rod.
It’s not like she’s complaining about getting her dress dirty or breaking a nail.

And as for her becoming queen at the end of ROTJ… Queen of what??
I’ve always hated that idea.

I think in ANH there is actually no evidence she is any kind of military leader. She seems like a high-ranking rebel with non-military role. Actually, she seems exactly what Vader labelled her: a rebel spy.

This from an interview with James Kahn (author of the ROTJ novelization) in the latest SW Insider magazine:

You also wrote a backstory for Leia, which didn’t make the novel. Can you describe what you had in mind?

The box containing the background I wrote for Leia must have gotten lost in one of my many moves over the years. It was mostly about growing up in a politically active and artistic family, with lots of heated conversations around the dinner table about politics and art, watching the Empire growing increasingly destructive, getting radicalized when one of her friends disappeared at the hands of the Empire, then going to secret rebel cell meetings. I do have a copy of a three-page joke chapter titled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Jedi, done to explore the kinds of writing she might have done in high school, written satirically in the mode of James Joyce. I got no comment on that one either.

The same issue of SW Insider reprints Kahn’s typewritten pages of this chapter (actually only two). Kahn describes it elsehwere in the interview as “a satiric Leia ‘found journal’ a la James Joyce.”

Here’s a transcript. (All typoes are in the original.)

PROLOGUE

From the Journal of Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan

I saw him wander from the mouth of the falcon like one of the priests who used to give me sacrament on alderaan as if wasn’t there an angel following or a devil or some other god knows what who would give meaning to my every step but not haughty like only simple if something simple ever there was to meaning if you take my meaning or take whatever you may my darkling solo mio one and only lonely wanderer from well the deepest well to hell to far corell where banthas jawas flowers and the devil knows who else from all the ends of the galaxy know the soloist soloest soloist who ever came to me if come you can but then you looked at me and then you winked and all the force was in the wink as if your pulsing solo like the muscular blind eye of some anemone from endor winkd and squirted with the force of all your being even would being scented as you were with sweat and hair and jessamine and spice like the girls of what vague species near the moorish wall of sandy dry mon eisley where i saw you first in vision squinting through the force of which i was such part though little well I knew it saw you there so first emerging from the falcons mouth with trailing wookiee as if the tired bird had traveled from far from priestly errands in a dry and windless temple only to cough out this meager message just to me this blond and solo coded secret over lightspeed wavelength for only me to see and hear i saw you there and asked you with my spirit well as well i asked you as another and my inner eyes beseeched this one and solo asking him and with my force i asked and knew would force and then he asked me would i force and in that hyper space i put my arms around him and drew him down to me so he could feel my comlink all perfume force and his heart was going like mad and force i said force i will force.

On the surface this seems like a short story about Leia being in lust with Han. But the phrase “blond and solo coded secret” suggests there may be something rather less innocuous (and more Wagnerian?) at work here.

In the same vein (ha!) the Insider article provides examples of the reference photos which Lucasfilm gave Kahn as he was writing the novelization: one of Lando in his skiff guard disguise from Jabba’s palce, and anoter of Luke in black Jedi attire.