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Star Wars Fun Fact
Did you know? About 35 years after the Battle of Yavin (ABY), Leia decided to join the Jedi Order to be formally trained? She even attained the rank of Jedi Knight!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
Check out an exclusive new clip from Star Wars Rebels, highlighting the conflict in space http://t.co/mAU3OszoOB pic.twitter.com/z4t6E5Rfcn
— IGN (@IGN) August 8, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
The Empire Needs You Recruiting Poster – click the pic!
Trivia Time!
Yesterday’s answer: Turning Leia to the dark side
Today’s question: What massive object did Darth Vader’s flagship collide with?
Force Feature: Princess Leia, the Exception to the Rule
It’s funny, Han and Luke don’t come with nearly the same kind of baggage that Leia does. And I mean that in a good way.
The appearance of Han and Luke didn’t signal any kind of turning point in cinema or pop culture in terms of how men were perceived onscreen. Leia, however, was another animal entirely. She wasn’t Barbarella, a heroine who existed primarily to have more and more of her clothing removed. Though, of course, that kind of did happen to Leia after two strong movies, but I digress.
Every single strong female action character of the last 30 years owes this woman a debt of gratitude. “Tomb Raider” Lara Croft owes her. Buffy the Vampire Slayer owes her. Uma Thurman’s “Bride” in Kill Bill owes her, because Leia paved the way.
Now here’s the amazing thing: It turned out, it wasn’t that big of a deal! What I mean to say is, there are some people in this world who can really get themselves worked up over what they think is a woman’s place in this world. And characters in movies and TV and toys can become lightning rods for this kind of extremist thinking.
Leia never seemed to get dragged into that. Sure, she was held up as a positive example of a strong female role model, but there was never any negative backlash about it, certainly none that I’ve ever heard or remember. Which is awesome! No one ever referred to her as a witch, or its even less polite equivalent.
The funny thing is, I barely even noticed that it was remarkable. I grew up in a single parent household, raised by my mother. I got taken along to visit with friends of hers, friends who were also divorced women. I hung out with a grandmother who lived two decades longer than the husband she buried. She was sweet to most people she met in person, and she was also the one who, when someone would honk their car horn, would reply without fail, “Shove it where the sun don’t shine and see if it’ll blow.” Except, of course, she was more direct with her language, if you know what I mean.
My life was filled with strong women. I think if I had seen Star Wars and Leia wasn’t a strong woman, I wouldn’t have been as big of a fan.
And then, of course, after a strong movie, and then a human movie, they seemed to not understand where to go with her. So they went to the gold bikini. What can I say? I was 12, the timing was perfect. When Jennifer Aniston whipped off a robe to reveal her own Princess Leia outfit in that one Friends episode, an entire generation of men had a revelatory moment.
Leia is bold, she’s vulnerable, she’s strong, she’s sexy, she’s every woman. Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston are singing about it, it’s all in her.
Of course, she was also the only female character of note in any of the Original Trilogy movies. Maybe that’s asking too much of Lucas or the seventies to have done any better. But it’s fascinating to have watched Lucas repeat the same pattern with the prequels and provide only one female character of note again, when he could have done better.
Really, though, I think we’ve asked as much of George Lucas as we have any right to. Except for giving us back the undoctored Original Trilogy movies. That’s the permanent exception.