Adopted by the Organas, takes on that name. She didn't know she was a Skywalker until the end of ROTJ.
I'm more wondering if there's FANS that call her this, more than anything. I mean, obviously they don't call her this in the OT. But, this seemed more relevant to the OT than the PT or the Saga, so I put it in here. Suppose I should have been more specific.
Technically her full name is Leia Amidala Organa Skywalker. You can see why she'd just stick with Organa.
It's funny because most fans always know she is a Skywalker but never bother to call her Leia Skywalker. I actually fall into that camp myself. For some reason Organa stuck a lot more than Skywalker. Another funny thing is "Organa" was hardly said in the films. Does anyone know if it was said, and if it was said how often?
Eh, it's always just been Leia Organa for me Spoiler: potential TFA spoiler (speculation) might be calling her Leia Solo soon though
THe fact is she is an Organa. Bail Organa and his wife adopted her, and raised her. They were the ones who invested all their time with her, stayed up with her when she was sick, went through puberty with her, comforted her when she was scared, taught her to talk and walk. They WERE her parents, so why should she change her name to that of a family she had no idea she was even related to until the end of the third movie?
Pretty sure she was aware that she was adopted though, or at the very least that her adopted mother was not her biological mother. It's safe to assume she told Luke at some point as there was no confusion when Luke emphasized asking if she remembers her real mother. Although, I agree with you. Bail and Mrs. Organa are just as real parents to her as Anakin and Padme would have been had things not gone wrong
The odd thing remains that the protagonists in the OT never refer to her as "Princess (or Senator) Organa" but "Princess Leia" instead. TARKIN Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now. DODONNA Well, the Empire doesn't consider a small one-man fighter to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the battle Station. It's a bid reminiscent of Mother Teresa, who was actually born with the family name "Bojaxhiu", but Leia seemed to have gotten renowned for her "mercy missions", too. I couldn't relocate the original thread, but remember that someone vehemently disagreed when I mentioned that already the earliest drafts of ESB hinted the relationship between Luke and Leia. So here it is, from page # 84 of the early "Star Wars sequel" screenplay draft by Leigh Brackett: SKYWALKER (SR.) You've grown well, Luke. I'm proud of you. Did your uncle ever speak to you about your sister? LUKE My sister? I have a sister? But why didn't Uncle Owen... SKYWALKER (SR.) It was my request. When I saw the Empire closing in, I sent you both away for your own safety, far apart from each other. LUKE Where is she? What's her name? SKYWALKER (SR.) If I were to tell you, Darth Vader could get that information from your mind and use her as a hostage.
You overlook some things. First, in the first version of that draft, the sister had a name, Nellith. So clearly it wasn't Leia. Second, in this draft, Luke is in love with Leia. Don't think she was meant to be his sister given this. Third, other drafts have the sister be in training in another part of the galaxy, again making it impossible for it to be Leia. Buy for now. Old Stoneface
Princesses are never called by their last name, Lt. Hija. Think of Princess Diana (not Princess Windsor) or Princess Grace (not Princess... Monaco?). It's just the way the nomenclature works for some reason.
Samuel Vimes But the basic idea of Luke's "sister" and "another Skywalker" already existed at this stage. Thus I'm confident that by the time ESB was filmed, the relationship between Luke and Leia took shape (explaining the presence on the Falcon which Vader somehow mistook for Luke) but it's revelation was saved for ROJ (I think it would have been too much to reveal that Vader was Luke's father and Leia his sister).
I promise I'm not following you around trying to argue with you, but no, this is not true. Lucas and Kasdan have both explained that the Leia = sister idea was concocted during the writing for ROTJ, after ESB had been released. You can read about it in various books, like the Making of... stuff by Rinzler, or the Annotated Screenplays edited by L. Bouzereau.
DavidSword79 I believe you and that thought didn't cross my mind. But you are also aware that much of the "official" information can't be taken at face value, e.g. Lucas' claim that he wanted Vader to be Luke's father from the beginning although he clearly stated in Rolling Stone 1977 that Luke's father and Vader were two different beings, and admitted in From Star Wars to Jedi that to make Vader Luke's father was a premise change during production of ESB. Considering that Luke was supposed to have a "sister" (not a brother!) already in the early stages of ESB and considering Leia's apparent Force sensitivity in ESB is a very strong hint, IMHO, that making Leia Luke's sister was an idea that already solidified in ESB.
Lt. Hija: Sure, I understand that Lucas has obfuscated the origins of some of the ideas and characters, especially Vader = Luke's dad. But he did that in an effort to make the saga look more cohesive, as if he created it as one big story and later broke it up into separate parts. Leia = Sister coming after TESB contradicts that. Why would he tell a story that goes against the illusion of a cohesive saga, unless it were true? Also, Lawrence Kasdan gives the same account: that Leia = Sis came out of the ROTJ story meetings. Kasdan is not a LFL employee (or at least, was not at the time he was interviewed for the above-named books). He would have no reason to lie.
DavidSword79: I don't have all the answers, but if somebody seriously claimed that the thought to make Leia Luke's sister never occurred until ROJ, I would give that person a funny look, considering that the idea of Luke's "sister" aka "another Skywalker" had been around since the early ESB pre-production stages. Alternately, what's the official explanation that Vader was so convinced that Luke (an X-Wing pilot!) was on the Falcon in ESB and that Leia was especially sensitive to his telepathic call for help? Maybe darth-sinister has some useful stuff in his extensive database?
Does Vader ever say he thinks Luke is on the Falcon? Maybe he's hunting it in order to capture Han, Luke's known friend, to use to draw Luke out of hiding? "It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer."
Iron_lord You got a point. His particular obsession with the Millennium Falcon is never truly explained and when Needa reports "they must have been destroyed" he replies "No, they are still alive". Then this would suggest that his plan to capture Luke through his friends was probably one he pursued from the very beginning.
As Samuel Vimes pointed out, Leia was not considered to be Luke's sister until ROTJ. The Leia character was first written in ANH as a fourteen year old princess, who is not related to Annkin Starkiller, the character who goes on to become Luke Skywalker. In that draft, the two have the potential to be in a relationship. In the second draft, Leia is presented as Luke's cousin who is living on the farm with him and his siblings on Utapau. It would be revealed in the sequel that she was in fact the princess of Ondos, who was in hiding from the Empire. With the third draft, Leia is just a princess who is also a rebel spy and leader. The idea of a sibling was always there, but it sat in the background when Lucas finalized the script for ANH. In November of 1977, Lucas and Brackett had their meeting and decided that Luke's sister had a name and was elsewhere in the galaxy. This carried over to the Lucas and Kasdan drafts. Around 1981, Lucas settled on Leia being Luke's sister, but it wasn't an important plot point until the script was being hammered out. It was always an afterthought until Kasdan sat down to write the script. Vader doesn't know that Luke is on the Falcon. He is after it because he knows that Han Solo is friends with Luke and that he can use him, to get to his son. Leia hearing Luke's call wasn't because they were related, but because they were friends and he was close to her and reached out to her. It was only after Kershner cut out the love triangle moments in TESB, that Lucas could handwave things for ROTJ.
