CT Leia Mega-Thread, formerly Why did Princess Leia criticize her "rescue" on the Death Star?

Leia was grumpy with both Han and Chewie, as said, she'd been tortured and seen her adopted world destroyed. Now here they were along with Luke, to rescue her and she ends up leading the rescue of them all. She's derogatory to Han the whole time, calling him flyboy, questioning his intellect and describing him as a mercenary. Why Chewbacca doesn't get a medal??? who knows, may be the Rebel Alliance didn't consider Chewbacca's part in the rescue and then turning up to help Luke as important as Luke and Han's contribution. One thing is certain, by the time we get to TESB, she is very much good friends with Chewie, accepting him as her bodyguard when Han is frozen in carbonite.

 

I just think Leia called him a walking carpet cos she was angry-not an example of some widespanning disrespect for different beings. I've said all kinds of things I don't mean when I've been mad. It happens. It's so true that instead of being rescued, SHE ends up doing the leading of the escape. And she had every right to talk to Han that way-cos Han made it crystal clear throughout, that he only cared about being rewarded-So Leia didn't appreciate that Han complained the whole time. Sounds natural to me. And why should he care anyway? From his perspective, he was a smuggler who needed a quick job to pay off Jabba, and instead the people he was ferrying got him captured by the Empire-after trying years to avoid them. And then getting pressured into helping the Rebellion, when that's probably the LAST thing he wanted.

As far as Chewie not getting a medal, offscreen I'm sure it was just an unfortunate oversight-just as the lack of Leia hugging him in TFA. But ONscreen, I just figured that he was Han's first mate, not a Captain. I figured Luke got a medal cos he became an official member of the rebellion, and Han was a Captain but Chewie was still just one of Han's crew. If Han had a whole group of crew members under his command, I imagine they wouldn't have all gotten medals every one of them. So ultimately I saw the medals as less of a trophy and more of a ranking acknowledgement formality.

There's no denying Leia's relationship with Chewie grows over the years. But even in the end, Chewie was always more Han's friend than Leia's. I don't really spend all that time with my wife's best friend, although I acknowledge and respect her. Kind of like the way one would see an in-law (if you get along with them ).

 

She should have been grateful to "the Three Stooges". They got her out in the end.

 

Being grumpy is not an excuse for being racist. It’s like if I called someone in real life a racial slur just because I was upset. It means I already have the prejudice built in and expressing it out of anger is just me not hiding it in in that moment, but it was still there all the time. Deriding Han and Luke is not the same. She didn’t criticize them for being human or even male, she picks apart their actions. I imagine Leia, being an imperial senator would have grown up in a very human centric and anti Wookiee environment. Even though she was more progressive than most and a rebel, a lot of the unconscious prejudices could remain. There were very strong anti Wookiee sentiments in the Empire in both Legends and Canon. It happens in real life too. There are many liberals who claim to fight for marginalized groups but harbor some unintentional ignorance or prejudice that they might not even realize.