Lit Epic Leia

Leia has faced several former and far younger Jedi in in saber combat and did well enough to not lose any body parts. I haven't read the last few books in the fotj series so I don't know if she got any fighting done.

 

I dunno, I sort of prefer Luke being Leia's superior in that area. Luke chose the life of a Jedi, and devotes hours upon hours of practice to it, while Leia chose the life of a politician. That said, I enjoy it when Luke is shown to be a bit of a chessmaster himself, so I could live two crossing over into each others territories occasionally.

But you are right when you say the Skywalker's are prone to those moments of "oneness" with the Force, so I could live with Leia getting a moment where she's allowed to juggernaut everything in her path. Maybe Luke could find himself in some political scandal in the meantime

 

The only time where Leia went all bad ass and acted like a Jedi was in the novel Planet Twilight. She fought some weird Hutt that had the force and used a lightsaber. That and some weird humanoid made from parasites.

 

I read in Shadows of Mindor that Luke told somebody, Nick Rostu I believe, that his sister Leia was as powerful as himself, she just didn't have the training.

 

Belodorian was a former Jedi, not just a Hutt with the force and a lightsaber.

And Leia has been pretty badass many times after that, and she actually completed her training since then.

 

I don't know if i would classify winning a random lightsaber duel as "epic".

afaik there has been no real Epic Leia moment, like Jacen in TUF, Anakin Solo in SBS, Luke in most EU books . . . etc

 

I love how Leia was able to slap Tahiri around a hangar bay with minimal effort. No matter how illogical it was. (Again; a woman in her early sixties able to exchange lightsaber/physical blows with an established Jedi Knight who fought in the Vong War and actually win?) I think Han had to stop her from striking Tahiri down four or five times though I don't understand why...

 

Granted, she IS the daughter of the Chosen One. There's going to be some badassery from time to time.

 

Leia is kid of the chosen one bro, Tahiri can't compete with that kind of power

 

Something has to be said for the fact that Leia can defeat both Tahiri and Alema, both of whom were definitely not slouches, but they weren't overwhelming victories, from what I can remember. Leia chose to follow the Jedi path, now I'm ready to see her do something awesome, like fight off 5 Sith at once or something. Something on Luke's level.

 

She was pretty bad ass In Inferno during her fight with Tahiri. Sucks it was like two and a half pages though. That fight had SO much potential.

 

But then, how badass is Tahiri? I know that she's not exactly a pushover, but shouldn't she be nothing more than a plaything to the child of the Chosen One?

 

Tahiri was essentially a Jedi Warrior who survived the Vong War. I maintain that Leia should not have been able to smack her around so easily.

 

Did she really defeat her that easily? It's been a little while since I read that book, so I can't remember. Like I said, Leia, being the daughter of the Chosen One and having the same potential as Luke, should mop the floor with all but the most powerful and gifted duelists.

 

Shouldn't "training" play a part as well as "potential"? Being strong in the Force won't make you a fantastic duellist, after all.

Talent will only take you to "Good". Practice will take you to "Master".

 

I don't have the book right in front of me but there were several opportunities where Leia had Tahiri at her mercy with a lightsaber blow and if it weren't for Han or the guards interfering she would have struck Tahiri down. Tahiri has years of technical practice that Leia has so she really shoudln't have been at Leia's mercy. I can see Tahiri losing from a purely Force duel but a lightsaber duel? Leia just doesn't have the skill and she's past her prime.

 

Might depend what Leia was doing over the years since the Vong war. She was being retrained by Saba for half of that time- which (if she was practicing on her own before that) might have rebuilt her lightsaber skills back up to the point of being a challenge to Luke (as per Ambush at Corellia)

 

I wouldn't say that Leia is past her prime. Look at Luke. In his 60's, and he's never been more powerful. Look at Luke's progression from ESB to ROTJ. Just one year, and he was able to defeat Vader. Leia had better training than Luke did, prior to becoming a Knight. Luke is ENTIRELY self trained. Leia had instruction from Luke, if sporadic, over 2 or 3 decades. She should be so much more powerful than she is.

 

Leia has every reason to be both badass and epic - and I'd love her to be both! She wouldn't be as competent a Jedi as Luke, but the only reason for that is that he is a senior in the job while Leia reached knighthood twenty years after him. Still, with her Force abilities + mental strength and ability to focus, she should be Master level or close to, ten years later.

There's been a great deal of annoying tendencies when comes to Leia and knighthood over tge years - the worst being how emotional she's been portrayed, also in her use of the Force. Fortunately in recent books, she's been calm and collected - a rock, really. I kinda enjoy this more low voiced badassery - and it also has the benefit that it works well with Han's perpetual ballistic angle on things. But it would be nice to see her in something epic too!

 

Upon re-reads, this scene really bothered me. C'Boath was at his scariest when he wanted to kidnap and brainwash Leia's children. The YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER command was Mara's big nemesis for the series. Mara got to type up her big existential threat by killing Luuke. Having her take out C'Boath was just excessive. That should have been Leia's moment to shine. Since this happened on the ground floor of the EU, I wonder how this incident colored Leia's future characterizations.

 

How is Leia directing Mara through the Force not an example of "shining"?

 

The kill, dear. No Jedi can truly be said to shine unless they've killed a Sith

 

C'baoth wasn't a Sith.

 

That would let most of the Old Jedi Order- including Yoda & Mace- out- since neither actually killed a Sith.

 

Oh, don't such nitpickers