Princess Leia: An Analysis, or Running the Alliance is Not All Fun and Games

Meta
Title:	Princess Leia: An Analysis, or Running the Alliance is Not All Fun and Games
Creator:	Linda Stoops
Date(s):	1981
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Wars
Topic:
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Princess Leia: An Analysis, or Running the Alliance is Not All Fun and Games is a 1981 essay by Linda Stoops.

It was printed in the feminist multimedia zine Storms #1. Some fans remarked that they felt the essay to be too short, something that may inspired Pat Nussman's essay The Female Hero: Personal Reflections on the Appeal of Leia Organa and Visible Women by Chris Callahan, both published a year later.

NOTE: much of the evidence for the statements in the essay are things from the Star Wars novelization "by" George Lucas. At the time, analyzing things in the two existing movies against what Lucas had written in his novelization was a common fannish pastime. Note also that the second movie had just been released, and this meant that various relationships among characters had not been as yet revealed.

Some Topics Discussed

• Star Wars
• the unpopularity of Leia Organa
• her treatment in fanlit

The Essay

If one were to take a survey (as many have already done) among SWars fans as to their favorite regular character, chances are the top two would be Luke and Han, followed closely by Kenobi and Vader. Given the demographics and distribution spread of said survey, the two pairs would most likely be tied for first and second place, respectively. Because of the relative newness of TESB, it would be difficult to rate the popularity of Yoda and Lando accurately, although this writer has yet to meet any fan who openly disliked the little Jedi master, and the jury is still out on Calrissian. Next in line, therefore, and probably also tied for third place, are Artoo, Chewie, and the Princess, with Threepio bringing up the rear.

What a spot for the female lead, and supposedly one of the four major char acters: tied for third with a droid and a Wookiee.' So what happened? Did Lucas fail in his presentation, or did Carrie misplay her, to get such a low ranking? Is the Princess too simple, too complicated, too strong, too weak, or just not interesting enough? What is it about this young woman that elicits appreciative nods from some, disapproving lip-curls from others, and indifferent shrugs from too many? What do we really know about Leia?

Well, according to her creator, she is "the very young senator from Alderaan," and from what we have heard from Lucas, she is younger than Skywalker, which places her at eighteen or nineteen, quite possibly the latter, at the time of "A New Hope." He also describes her as "slim, and by abstruse human standards of aesthetics . . . of a calm beauty" as well as small of stature.

As to her background, she is the Imperial representative of her home star system, the daughter (probably the eldest or only child, considering her governmental position and responsibilities) of Bail Organa, Viceroy and First Chairman of the Alderaan system, as well as one of the rebel leaders. Someone who handles this much influence and responsibility as capably as she does cannot be credibly pictured as the spoiled little hoyden or Dale Ardenish innocent breathlessly awaiting some gallant and heroic male to take her away from the nasty old war and make an honest woman of her, as Foster and several other fan writers seem to have done.

This leads us to her psychological profile. Leia is said to be"strong- willed, intelligent" and emotionally self-controlled enough to do little more than wince once when Vader comes upon her suddenly, or give him a cold glare in the carbon freezing chamber. The Sith Lord obviously respects this, considering her a worthy opponent comparable to Kenobi. Tarkin is more contemptuous, treating her like a weak, easily frightened female. Remember when he took her chin in his hand, then backed her against Vader? These are the proprietary gestures of a petty bully toward one he views as a mere girl-child. She proves him wrong, and Vader right, though at the cost of her own planet.

Along with her formal-speaking, Senatorial persona that she shows to the general public, there is another part if Leia that is often either ignored or twisted into something completely different from what we've seen in the book and the movies. Within the Alliance, and especially her circle of friends, she is outgoing, quick-witted, loyal and affectionate. This last has been the subject of much discussion, and I feel I should clarify this point. While Leia is not a flirt, neither is she hesitant to give or accept a comforting hand on the shoulder, a hug, or a kiss. She even takes Solo's hand in the final moments of the trash-masher scene, and they later exchange a quick embrace after the walls stop. Following her initial sparring with her rescuers in the first movie, she tries to console a bereaved Skywalker, and defends Han's decision to leave before the battle. By TESB, their friendship has deepened to the point where she is torn between two men she cares a great deal for, and Solo is no longer sure he can "love 'em and leave 'em" with this one, yet can't disregard his friend Luke's feelings in the matter. It should be interesting to see how this works out.

The Princess is not entirely without faults, either. She is hot-tempered, quick to judge, and she bites her nails. This, however, shows her as more than a cardboard cut-out, and since the others have their share of foibles, there's no reason she shouldn't have her own.

So now we've more or less concluded that this lady is neither the cold, haughty, calculating bitch who uses our poor heroes so shamelessly, as painted by a few writers (I won't name names; you know who you are!), nor the highly emotional, sexually naive Alliance figurehead allowed to play revolution until A Real Man arrives to take her in hand, as depicted by others (these shall also remain nameless), but how do we explain the sad dearth of interest in the Princess? She is not quite the simplistic archetypal female-in-charge we are used to seeing. Could it be that she is too complex a character for writers to even attempt, so we don't even bother with her? Is it because Lucas beat us to the punch by creating a strong, competent female before we had a shot at it, and some of us resent it enough to take it out on her? Are others too ruled by their own hormones or romantic fantasies to imagine a woman who isn't looking for a man to wed her, bed her, and control her (one, two, or all three of the proceeding, and not necessarily in that order)? Are some waiting for more information on her, when she has nearly as much as, if not more than, the other major characters?

Can't we women write about one of our own without making her up ourselves?

Reactions and Reviews

1981

'Princess Leia: An Analysis': a list of Leia's character tags and an appeal for more stories about her. The authors point out that Leia has not been given the treatment and attention in fan fiction that she deserves, a point that is well-taken, but this superficial coverage of her appearance and documented behavior is not enough to inspire expansion of her role by fan writers who have been shelving her in favor of male pulchritude.

1982

"Princess Leia: An Analysis" by Linda Stoops -- The article is good. I agree that not enough attention is paid to Leia as a main character. However, I don't feel that Linda's main source (the SWars novelization) should have been her main source. As I said, the main point of the article is very good, but the assumption everyone has read the book and remembers the smallest details is false.

I don't think the lack of interest in Princess Leia is as much a question of not liking her as of not knowing enough about her. True, she was around, in view, about as much as Han Solo, but she seems to be a much more complex, difficult-to-pin-down character, and I found her more a mystery than any of the others. If I was to write SWars fiction, I might avoid writing her simply out of a sense of not having enough from which to extrapolate. ((That's no excuse -- you've done wonderful things with even less visible Trek guest characters. -- Editor))

Linda Stoops' analysis of Leia is very good but much too short. As to the question of why women seem to have to make up our own characters rather than write about Leia -- in my case, it's at least partly because I haven't felt I would work with a diplomat and political leader. My pilot and smuggler is much easer to hand., especially since she started out being a lot like me and over time has developed into much her own person. I've used Leia as a secondary character in a couple of stories, featured her in one ("Best-Laid Plans" in "Storms" #2)... But there have been a number of stories, including or starring Leia all along (I mean Leia as a strong, positive character, not the various bitches and wimps who are all too common) and they seem to be increasing. The proportion isn't as high as the proportion of Han, Luke, or Darth stories, but they do exist and seem to be becoming more frequent. Another possibility just occurred to me, and I don't remember seeing it mentioned elsewhere -- Leia is too difficult to identify with, as an attractive young woman who's also a strong, competent leader and independent entity without being a stereotypical bitch. It's easy to identify with mythical types like Han, Luke, and Darth, either directly or a female involved with them. We've grown up with those archetypes and have been surround by literary and real versions of them all our lives. But Leia doesn't fit the images from fairy tales, myth, film, TV, children's books, teen novels, real life, and what we've always been told women should and should not be. It takes an unaccustomed leap of imagination (and possibly more than usual ego strength and security) to identify with Leia. Fortunately, some writers are making this identification, and as their stories get published maybe thy'll help encourage others to try. Feminism is unusually strong in fandom by comparison to the mundane world, and maybe this factor will help also. But even committed femistis somethings need outside stimuli to get them going on paper.

As for Leia. Now there's a character I've gotten to know real well. That's because of the story I'm working on in which she is the uncontested lead. She even talks In my head from time to time, which is freaky when the speaker isn't your own character. Why is Leia behind a droid and a Wookiee (or is it with them?--oh well!)? That's a good question, since I like her best (well -- after Luke -- and that's 33% hormones). Actually, I think those hormones and romantic fantasies do have a lot to do with Leia's problems. If an author wants to write a MarySue/alter ego, the character is likely to be female and that means writing about someone who can fall for her; in SWars, that means Luke or Han, principally. Beyond that, the real Leia introduced into most of those stories would totally over shadow those little Mary Sues. As to the "triangle" problem TESB left us with, I'm betting on the "she really is Luke's half sister" solution -- at least this week. ((Kinky! Sounds like something Lucas wouldn't allow us to write about, actually!! --Editor))