CT Leia Organa's Personal Flaws

Then Lucas should have simply portrayed her as an intelligence agent, instead of a former senator-turned-Rebel Alliance leader. He should have kept it simple. Being the daughter of the former queen of Naboo should not have automatically made her a princess or leader of the Rebellion, since Naboo's sovereigns are elected and she has never been shown in the capacity as a political leader. Giving instructions to the troops and pilots were not good examples. One, it should not have been her job. That job should have solely been General Dodonna's on Yavin 4 and General Rieekan's on Hoth; since they were the military leaders of their respective commands.


And this still does not address the issues of her personality flaws. Is it possible that some fans do like to consider the possibility that Leia has personal flaws?

 

Leia is a Princess because Breha Organa is Queen of Alderaan and as such, Leia would have that title as part of her adoption. As to being an intelligence agent, she's not. She was doing what she did because she had either volunteered to do so, or Bail had asked her to do it.

 

Real quick, I'm just going to list all of Leia's flaws:

Yep, I think that's all of them.

 

I know that officially, Leia was not an intelligence agent. But I've never seen her in the capacity of political leader. Never. Which leads to my complaint that Lucas did not handle her role very well in regard to what her profession was.

I believe you may have answered my questions that some fans do not like considering the possibility that Leia has personal flaws.

 

But Leia didn't want to play princess, or otherwise she would have stayed at court and try to find a suitable husband and stuff. She wanted to be a rebel and in the rebellion you aren't simply rewarded high position just because you're royalty. She had to do her duty just like everybody else and that duty was to gather imperial secrets in the senate. It's not hard to believe she became a military leader in the time-frame between ANH and TESB.

 

I've always wondered what her role/rank was exactly. She's delivering stolen plans and is a hostage in ANH, she's in the command base and giving orders to the pilots in TESB, and she's assisting General Han Solo in ROTJ.

 

That's because there is no Senate. Her diplomatic role is essentially what we see in Act I of ANH. Once the Senate and Alderaan are gone, Leia becomes a military leader.

She doesn't have a rank. That's why she only really issues orders when no one of rank is around like in Echo Base.

 

Forget it.

 

the only flaw I see is her lack of urgency in her "threepeeo tell them, they must be set free"

seriously, they were about to be cooked, wasn't like somebody had sent her a china cup with a chip in it

 

It seemed to me like General Rieekan was answering to her:

Rieekan: "I don't think we can protect two transports at a time."
Leia: "It's risky, but we can't hold out much longer. We have no choice."

And also Major Bren Derlin:

Derlin: "Your Highness, there's nothing more we can do. The shield doors must be closed."
Leia: "Close the doors."

 

her make up was somewhat cakey on the death star.

 

In the former, I think he was sharing his opinion with her more than she outranked him. In the other, Rieekan was not out there. So like with when he is gone during the final evacuation of Echo Base, she was issuing orders. There's more that I would say, but I can't since it involves spoilers.

 

To be real:

She doesn't have any genuine flaws. Somewhat like Ahsoka, what flaws she does have (anger and such) are actually cool wish fulfillment that don't have any real weight (unlike Ahsoka, Leia is actually cool). They don't affect her or impact her or the story in any significant way. Han and Luke aren't repulsed by her anger. Unlike Luke and Anakin, her anger doesn't push her into any real mistakes, she doesn't seek revenge only to get hoisted by her own petard, it doesn't come back to bite her.

Unlike Ahsoka, she's not an overwhelming source of Sueness. What does she actually do? The story isn't about Leia, she's not the main character. The story doesn't focus on her enough to make her flaws real. Despite all the subversion, in ANH she's still a princess to be rescued. In ESB she's a princess to be romanced. In ROTJ she's a princess in a bikini to be rescued.

What does she do?

In ANH, she has plans beamed to her...only to lose them. She gets captured along with her ship. She manages to shoot one stormtrooper before she's taken down. She gets tortured. Despite her sarcasm, Tarkin still plays with her, and Vader holds her in place as her planet is destroyed. She gets rescued and manages to kill a few stormtroopers along the way, but she still has to run from them in fear for her life. When it comes time to fight off the TIE fighters...she's sitting in the cockpit doing nothing while the men clear their escape. She sits out the final battle entirely. While Han clears the way for Luke to make the miracle shot to save the day...Leia is standing there helpless, watching. Han and Luke get medals, Leia doesn't.

In ESB, she sits out the battle of Hoth entirely. She never even steps foot outside the base. She's doesn't go save Luke after he was attacked by the wampa. She plays virtually no part, no part at all, in the Falcon's escape from Vader. She's captured on Bespin with her friends. She gets to shoot a few stormtroopers during their runaround on Bespin. She doesn't save Han from Boba Fett. She gets a telepathic call from Luke and tells Lando to turn the ship around. Possibly the only significant thing she does the whole movie.

In ROTJ, her rescue attempt fails completely and goes absolutely nowhere. She gets put in a humiliating slave bikini and is licked by Jabba. She does nothing but watch as Luke defeats the rancor. She does kill Jabba, though. Later, she's subordinate to Han on the Endor mission. She tries to get in on the action on the speeder bikes...but once again fails. She does get to play "friend to every animal" with the Ewoks. After she gets shot, she does take out those two Imperials at the bunker. Ooo, big deal.

What does she do? She's not some Arnold-esque commando. She's not an ace pilot. She's not a Jedi warrior.

So what is there to balance? She doesn't accomplish anything that needs to be offset with mistakes.


What are Han's personal flaws? Like Leia, he doesn't have any genuine flaws. All of his flaws are cool guy wish fulfillment and/or played as comedy. His immorality? It's cool, and it turns out he has a heart of gold. His lack of faith? It's cool, and he becomes a believer, anyway. His recklessness? It's cool, and it's used as comedy. He charges the stormtroopers, only for them to turn on him...but nothing comes of it. There's no price that is paid. His cockiness? It's cool. His overconfidence and disregard for the odds? He always comes out on top. He actually does fly through the asteroid field. His goofs on Endor are played for comedy, and once again, ultimately nothing comes of it.


None of this really matters. Not to me. They're highly entertaining characters, some of the most entertaining characters of all time, in highly entertaining movies, some of the most entertaining movies of all time. Obviously the lack of genuine flaws didn't do much to hurt the movies. I was too busy being entertained to notice.

A lack of flaws is only a flaw when it disrupts the entertainment.

 

I guess Leia could come off fairly abrasive. Particularly in the first two films. Both times Han calls her on it. ("Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, your highness!" & "You could be a little nicer though.") I chalk it up to her being somewhat haughty, by station. I get the feeling she doesn't suffer fools gladly. (Which isn't really a flaw, mind you.) I think the intention with ROTJ was to mature/soften her in the same way Luke did in that movie. I like their characterization there, best.

 

I don't know why Fisher read the line that way. Lol.

 

The destruction of Alderaan and the Imperial Senate had a great deal to do with Leia's vague position in the story. Her planet is gone, so she's a princess of nothing (and she was a royal like the crew in England - just sort of there for decoration) and the Senate got dissolved, so she's out of a job. The only thing she has left is the Rebellion and we never are really told what her position is within it. (Her Marvel miniseries takes place right after this, so maybe they clarify?) So, I wouldn't say the writing failed her so much as gave her some pretty big loses to overcome.

Flaws-wise, I'd say she's SO focused on the Big Picture that she overlooks people. Much like Obi-Wan in TPM, she's not mindful of the beings around her. Obi-Wan dismissed both Jar-Jar and Anakin, and they both turned out to be the key to the victory he and Qui-Gon were searching for. Leia was so concerned about finding Obi-Wan and getting the plans to Yavin that she ignored Luke and Han, the two men who ultimately were key to the victory SHE was searching for.

 

As far as people complaining about Leia being rude in ANH... If i'm not mistaken wasn't Han rude too? It seemed to me they both bullied Luke and viewed him as the "little brother" type character (In a tongue-in-cheek fashion, not actually being mean to him) to an extent in ANH. Leia and Han both seemed to initially despise each other at first throughout AHN, but ya know what they say. "Opposites attract I guess." midway through ESB they warmed up to each other and both cared for Luke deeply... its called character development people. Initially Han was a drug-smuggling, womanizing, cold-blooded gunslinger; Leia was a vain, short tempered, and somewhat reckless political freedom fighter; and Luke was an awkward, reckless, winy, teenage, farm-boy. But by ROTJ the three all matured into great people. (Despite Leia and Han being slightly stiff at the end, and taking a backseat role to Luke, Vader, and Palpatine.)

Flawed? Peharaps, slightly at first, but would I consider the big 3 as having bad traits? No I wouldn't want them any other way.

 

Both abrasiveness and softness can either be flaws or virtues, depending on the moment.

I wouldn't be surprised if all three had retained some of their flaws. People rarely changed that drastically.

 

Personally, I think the shoes she was wearing with the slave bikini made her calves look fat. Perhaps a little more make-up would've been nice too.

 

Personal flaws, not "physical attributes I personally find unappealing because I'm a misogynist".

 

it's a joke genius. grow a sense of humor and stop bullying people with the pc rhetoric.

 

Oh dear, that's not very nice. I'll give you that one .

Tell me if this a personal flaw... "Ironically, i'm a REAL precious princess, who feels the need to defend a fictitious princess, because I can't take a joke, due to a flaw in my persona"