CT Why is Alderaan's destruction dismisssed as no big deal?

It does really come down to the style of film making were seeing displayed of course, ANH is a classic adventure, ESB and ROTJ are more serious in their drama but that drama is still focused on a handful of larger than life characters. Rouge One looks like it might shift towards looking at the situation in realistic political/military terms although I'd guess still rather short of the cold reality where Leia may well have committed suicide rather than risk the Empire getting info out of her well before Alderaan was destroyed.

 

I'm just saying, she looks a little too happy sometimes. Even Luke, whose emtional needs were greater than Leia's after an acquaintance died, was cheering just a few minutes later, after destroying the fighters. Trust me, I'm a Star Wars fan to the core, but even classical adventures should show some realistic emotion. I'm not asking for a breakdown, but they don't need to make Luke's situation worse than Leia's. No disrespect to Obi Wan.

 

Let's not forget that aside from watching her planet destroyed, Leia was

1. Waiting in her cell to be executed
2. Tortured
3. The sole survivor of the ship carrying her. Imagine the feeling of being inside the most fortified enemy stronghold there is while literally nobody else knows where you are

I'd say just getting out of that alive would be reason enough to be happy and excited for a bit, and when they (thought they had) escaped from the Death Star, there was reason enough there

 

You forgot the slow chorus of wailing women.

But seriously, as been stated before, Leia isn't going to break down into tears because she's
(1) the daughter of Padme and Anakin.
(2) the leader of the Rebellion

Having a mental breakdown isn't going to help herself or the Rebellion in the long run. Also, people react to horror in different ways. Her behavior on the Death Star during the escape could very well be her coping and reacting to the loss with sheer rage and authority.

 

She probably did it off camera where no-one would see. In an all boys club she had to show resolve. Plus, its a pulpy schlock kids film from the 70's. Not Schindler's list.

 

This is why we like Star Wars, there is no need for unnecessary whining. We don't need to see that whining on the screen.

 

"It's all Obi Wan's fault! He's jealous, he's holding me back!"

And instead of Luke saying, "I can't believe he's gone," it would have been nice to see Leia simply say"I can't believe everything's gone and Luke saying "there wasn't anything you could have done," and that would be sufficient for me. I understand that Luke's emotional development was more important, but the two losses don't compare. Sorry Obi Wan.

 

Maybe she didn't like Alderaan in the first place. Probably found out some Wookiees moved there and was really ticked off.

 

On second thoughts lets not go to Alderaan, is it a silly place.

 

People grieve in different ways and at different times. In my own family, when there's been a sudden passing away, we're shocked and saddened. But we know there are things that need to be done and people that need to be notified. We grieve, but we prefer not to do it in public. Better to focus on keeping busy, until there's time and privacy to mourn.

 

Quite apart from which, how would you even comprehend anything like this, how could you even process it? It's not one person you liked dying. It's all of your family, all of your friends, your entire culture, your entire history, your entire past and what you thought would be your future destroyed in mere moments. Leia has just lost almost all of what made her who and what she was.

 

That's precisely why I think the event was dismissed too easily. Also, Leia could have told Luke "no time for sorrows" instead of "there wasn't anything you could have done" if that's how we want to go about it. Besides General Willard, nobody acknowledges the pain Leia must be feeling, and I feel bad for her.

 

There's are a couple of scenes in the ANH radio adaptation where Luke and Leia acknowledge each other's tragedies. But, then, that's a 13-part serial, which allows for more depth than a two-hour movie does.

 

It wasn't really brought up later, and it sorta made it like it never happened. Though another answer is to say that "it was moved on" but still....If you're going to do an event like that, at least bring it up a a bit more

 

Again really what it comes down to is that ANH was created as a classic adventure film that could be self contained, I do have to say as well that I think this is alot of the strength of the film, Lucas has been called out for his dialog since but he's great with the wit here and Ford and Fischer especially really deliver it excellently(far superior to TFA's attempts at humour for me), without it I don't think SW would have become the massive success it did. Such a film was not able to deal with the degree of grief/mental damage a character like Leia would experience if such a situation actually existed.

I do think when it came to ESB though that dispite still being nominally a heroic adventure the writer's likely went back to Leia and asked themselves what kind of person she'd actually be. Obviously it still doesnt go for exact realism but I think the romance with Han shifts from what you'd expect in a classic Hollywood adventure or even from Leia in ANH. In either of those two Han would likely win Leia's affection via showing heroic/moral competence(although Lucas's ANH Leia would never be a damsel) but that's not what we see in ESB, they get a bit closer during Han's various acts of daring do to escape the Empire but that's not when she admits feelings for him. What we actually see is that Leia is shown as emotionally detached from Han and responds not to his competence or even morality but to his suffering and honesty with her. Obviously emotional detachment at a professional level is needed in a political/military role but at a personal level it is a typical response to personal tragedy and trauma, blunting your emotional response to everything as a coping mechanism, very relevant at the time as well post Nam.

Personally I would argue this rather feeds into Luke's story as well where his success is based not on becoming emotionless but rather on being controlled in his actions whilst retaining a very strong empathy for others. Leia seems to go in a similar direction although you could argue not as completely and indeed I think if Lucas had made sequels in the 80's or 90's it would have made most sense to have Leia as the central character as I think she still had the most unresolved drama that could have played into becoming a Jedi.

 

Leia choosing not to show her own grief, doesn't mean she can't empathise with Luke's grief and be kind to him.

 

What I am saying is, I don't think she actually was in pain at that point (except whatever injuries Vader and Tarkin had inflicted on her to get information.) The sheer magnitude and scale of the loss is just too vast for her (or anyone in her position) to comprehend it. It's not a question of her not caring, it's a question of there just being too much for her to be able to care about.

 

I'm thinking that Leia is very Jedi-like in how she deals with this.

 

Similarly, when Luke's complaining about Han not sticking around to help them - Leia doesn't take the opportunity to badmouth Han, or tell Luke to suck it up and stop complaining - she gives him some wise words of advice.

She shows that "strong" doesn't have to mean "abrasive".

 

"That boy is our last hope." Nobody recognizes that, they're all too focused on Luke, who apprenetly was much less Jedi like. From the arguments I see, it sounds like Obi Wan and Yoda should have given Leia a chance.

 

Not sure I agree with that, as I said I think Luke's success comes from a combination of being in control of his emotions but not distanced from them. Leia by the start of ESB is much more emotionally repressed and when it does surface she's most prone to anger hiding self doubt/trauma which to me seems like it has potential to turn her to the darkside. Luke has afterall had a stable family life prior to the evens of ANH whilst Leia has been a politician and military leader that's contributed towards she being more cynical and repressed.

Besides the shift in the tone of the films I think theres a shift in character focus between ANH and ESB as well, in the former I think Luke and Han are really the lead characters. They both have arcs that we see devolp across the film where as whilst Leia is not a damsel(despite teasing this) to be won she is pretty stable as a character, someone who's respect is the prize Luke and Han win via there development. That means there's much less room for Leia to show the loss of Alderaan than if she'd been a lead.

Come ESB though Leia is clearly elevated to a lead character, you could argue above Han as whilst he does become softer to her theres less emotional arc there than there is for her getting past her emotional detachment. Indeed I think you can see that whilst Han might be driving the plot more during the film theres a strong effort to put the audience in Leia's shoes with a lot of shots looking to have us view the world though her eyes and focus on her emotional state, the kind of thing we didn't get nearly as much in ANH. Leia as a lead character with an arc rather than Leia as a standard to meet leaves a lot more room to show her weaknesses, the intension being I think to have us view ESB as the "real Leia" we didn't get to see much in ANH. Personally I take the view that her showing emotion to Han at the end of ESB(both pre freeze and failing to stop Boba Fett escape) is the first time she's done so in along time.

In terms of Jedi suitability as well notice that its this Leia that Luke connects with, not really stated explicitly but you could argue its her greater emotional openness that allows this to happen as a two way process.

 

Emperor Ferus wrote

"Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?"
Right after it took place. And for that matter, she should have said to Luke, "stop whining about Obi Wan! I've just lost everything I know, and you don't see me crying about it! We have a war to fight!"

IIRC George Lucas once stated that Leia expected to be raped by that unknown "short" storm trooper entering her cell. The way I see it she saw that he left the door open and probably realized that this stormtrooper might be an opportunity for her to a) knock him down, b) grab his blaster and c) blow a hole into the garbage chute and try - somehow - to escape the Death Star or to commit suicide, rather than to be tortured again and ultimately reveal the location of the secret Rebel base...

That she later on comforts Luke (while nobody is comforting her!) rather tells me that she put the needs of others always above her own, so I can find absolutely no fault whatsoever in her behavior.

Other than that I'm pretty certain - though it was never talked about - that the Alliance pilots did consider the destruction of Alderaan as a big deal and as a gesture of solidarity added Alderaan's (original) crest to many of their helmets, i.e. the bird logo (except for those, of course, already wearing Alderaan's bird), which ultimately replaced the original Alliance logo (i.e. the circle with the seven overimposed lines, visible on every ANH pilot's helmet).