Princess Leia to me has got to be not just one of the best characters in Star Wars canon but also one of the most well-written female characters. To explain why I'm going to go back during the original trilogy.
Imagine Princess Leia having to be forced to grow up pretty quickly. Especially with the Empire hunting her and placing the responsibility of the Rebel Alliance on her shoulders. Luke Skywalker at least had the privilege of having a decent childhood but, taking the insanity of the Empire into consideration, you have to wonder if Leia had the chance to live a life a regular little girl in that universe would live?
Then let's look at the first movie. In an impressive showcase of her genre savvy she not only sends the droids to Tatooine to deliver Obi-Wan a distress signal but take note of how calm and collected she was when she did that. Just think if she didn't set everything in motion by sending the droids to Tatooine then the events of the trilogy might not happen and Luke might not achieve his destiny. So either intentional or unintentional Leia was quite the magnificent bastard.
There is also the things she had to endure while under Vader's custody. Being tortured and watching her home planet get blown up and probably more tortures. Yet she still kept her strong resolve. Vader could have forced her to watch The Ridiculous 6 and she still wouldn't crack. And that is just the tip of the trauma induced iceberg.
She had to watch Han Solo be frozen and deal with the failure of not rescuing him. And lets get into Return of The Jedi. Oh boy Return of The Jedi.
Yeah seeing Princess Leia in the infamous slave bikini brought many fond memories but look at it in a Fridge Horror perspective in her POV. Being constantly molested by Jabba and being forced to endure God knows what degrading acts that Jabba put her through before Luke arrived. There have been stories both in novelization and in fanfic that expand on the horrors Leia endured when being enslaved by Jabba. In one of the stories from Legends: Jabba gave Leia to Boba Fett for a night as a reward for good work. The only reason she wasn't brutally raped is because Boba is disgusted by taking someone against their will. Had it been almost any other of Jabba's minions and she wouldn't have been so lucky. Not to mention the sheer horror of being at the mercy of the bounty hunter who took away the man you love and gave him to Jabba in the first place.
But she bid her time and built up all that inner rage until she finally manage to get her revenge on Jabba. It was glorious. Did that experience darkened her? No. She still kept her resolve to help her friends overthrow the galactic empire. Anyone in her position would have went rogue right then and there. Yet there is something inspiring about Leia still maintaining her humanity after all the shit that she went through.
Princess Leia is also the deconstruction of the Damsel Princess Syndrome that you'd usually see in other works of fiction. Because Princess Leia refuses to be a victim. Princess Leia is a survivor.
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