User:TAnthony/Star Wars research

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Research[edit]

  • Sawan, Amer (March 18, 2024). "Who is Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars?". Comic Book Resources.
  • Grossman, Lev (May 22, 2019). "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Ultimate Preview". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  • Liptak, Andrew (July 25, 2018). "Star Wars author Timothy Zahn on Thrawn: Alliances and toxic fandom". The Verge. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  • Ratcliffe, Amy (4 May 2017). "13 Star Wars Expanded Universe Concepts That Have Become Canon". IGN.
  • "Our Final 4 Theories On Who Rey's Parents Are". Tor.com. October 10, 2017.
  • Biery, Thomas (October 9, 2018). "Poe Dameron's Star Wars comic explains what happened after The Last Jedi". Polygon. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  • "Star Wars' Kathleen Kennedy on the Long Road to Ending the Skywalkers' Story". io9. December 6, 2019.
  • "Catch Up on the Star Wars Canon Timeline Before Rise of the Skywalker". December 8, 2019.
  • Bacon, Thomas (October 7, 2023). "How Old Is Huyang in Star Wars & How Many Jedi He Trained?". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 11, 2023.

Bonomolo, Cameron (December 22, 2019). "Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Timeline Reveals Key Details Behind Original Trilogy Heroes". Comicbook.com. Retrieved December 26, 2019.

  • An updated Star Wars timeline contained in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - The Visual Dictionary reveals key details behind Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The timeline, once relating history to BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After Battle of Yavin) — referring to Luke's destruction of the first Death Star in A New Hope — is now recorded by "BSI," Before Starkiller Incident, citing the firing of the First Order's super weapon that destroyed the Hosnian system in The Force Awakens. Events taking place after the destruction of Starkiller Base are then referred to as "ASI," After Starkiller Incident, encompassing the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Leia and Han's son, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), was born on Chandrila, also the site of the New Republic's Galactic Senate, in 29 BSI. 10 years later, in the same year that future Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) is born, Luke begins training Ben in the ways of the Force.
  • In 12 BSI, Rey is abandoned on desert planet Jakku, and Luke begins investigating leads mentioning Exegol, the hidden world of the Sith. 13 years later, in Rise of Skywalker, Rey follows these leads to confront returned Sith Lord Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
  • Six years before The Force Awakens, Luke's Jedi temple is destroyed and the Jedi Master vanishes; Ben Solo falls to the Dark Side and his parents drift apart. This same year, Leia is ousted from New Republic politics by scandal and she begins to form a paramilitary group: the Resistance. (The scandal, played out in novel Star Wars: Bloodline, was Leia being exposed as the daughter of Darth Vader.)
  • In 5 BSI, worlds begin to secede from the New Republic, forming the visible political core of the First Order, while its military core secretly grows in the Unknown Regions. This same year, Leia begins the search for her missing brother, who had exiled himself on Ahch-To, site of the first Jedi Temple.

Hawkes, Rebecca (April 25, 2016). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 12 things they cut from the film". The Telegraph.

  • Han and Leia have not seen their son, Kylo Ren since he was a young child/teen
  • The script reveals that when Kylo takes off his mask during his fateful confrontation with Han Solo, Han sees "the face of his son for the first time as a man".
  • As actor Adam Driver is 32 (and playing 29, according to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens novel), this suggests it has been a good 10 or 15 years since Kylo overthrew Luke (a scene briefly glimpsed during Rey’s Force vision) and turned to the Dark Side.
  • This also gives us a sense of just how long Luke has been in exile for—and suggests that Rey (who was left on Jakku at the age of around five) may have been sent into hiding as a direct consequence of Kylo's actions.
  • Also: Kylo Ren and the six other Knights of Ren attack

Split character list[edit]

Bloodline[edit]

According to Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo, the character Ransolm Casterfo "existed, in various forms, in the earliest versions of the TFA story".[1] His name is pronounced "RAN-som CAS-ter-foe."[2]

Impact

The novel adds Leia's fan honorific, "Huttslayer", to the canon.[3]

The character Greer Sonnel also appears in the prequel short story "Scorched" by Delilah S. Dawson, published in Star Wars Insider #165 on May 3, 2016, the same day as Bloodline.[4][5]

Reception
  • Bastatha – Though the surface of the planet has been made uninhabitable by its red giant sun, the Niktos run luxurious casinos within the planet's deep caverns.
  • Pamarthe – Ocean world known as a source of talented pilots.
  • Sibensko
  • Five Sabers, piloting championships
  • Toniray, Alderaanian wine
  • Mirrorbright, Leia's ship

References

  1. ^ Pablo Hidalgo [@pablohidalgo] (May 8, 2016). "Casterfo is a character that existed, in various forms, in the earliest versions of the TFA story. And @claudiagray gave him distinct life" (Tweet). Retrieved May 24, 2016 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Claudia Gray [@claudiagray] (April 28, 2016). "Emphasis on the first syllable. CAS-ter-foe. Ransolm sounds like Ransom, basically" (Tweet). Retrieved May 24, 2016 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ Ratcliffe, Amy (April 27, 2016). "New Star Wars Novel Makes Princess Leia's 'Huttslayer' Nickname Canon". Nerdist. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  4. ^ Wilkins, Jonathan (May 4, 2016). "Star Wars Insider #165: 10 Highlights!". StarWars.com. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  5. ^ Trivedi, Sachin (April 26, 2016). "Star Wars: Bloodline: New short story reveals Leia's ally Greer Sonnel". International Business Times. Retrieved December 31, 2016.

Comics[edit]

List of Star Wars canon comics
Release date Title Type of media
May 2014 Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir Comic miniseries
January 2015 Star Wars Comic
February 2015 Darth Vader
March 2015 Princess Leia Comic miniseries
April 2015 Kanan Comic
July 2015 Lando Comic miniseries
September 2015 Shattered Empire Comic miniseries
October 2015 Chewbacca Comic miniseries
November 2015 Vader Down Comic one-shot
January 2016 Obi-Wan & Anakin Comic miniseries
April 2016 C-3PO Comic one-shot
April 2016 Poe Dameron Comic
June 2016 Han Solo Comic miniseries
December 2016 Doctor Aphra Comic
February 2017 Darth Maul Comic miniseries
June 2017 Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith Comic
August 2017 Star Wars: Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu Comic miniseries
September 2017 Captain Phasma Comic miniseries

Force Awakens[edit]

Snoke[edit]

Hidden Content

Some people absorb unspeakable pain, then vow to spend the rest of their lives working and fighting to make sure no one else has to suffer as they did. Others endure the same agony but deal with it by magnifying that pain — and blasting it back upon the world.

Supreme Leader Snoke is one of the latter.

The enigmatic ruler of the First Order finally emerges from the darkness in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and actor Andy Serkis is revealing a little more about the villain’s origin and creation.

“This time you get to see him, as in his real presence,” says Serkis, who plays the towering Snoke via performance capture. “In the previous movie we saw him as this huge hologram and tele-presence, and you get to meet him in the flesh this time.”

Serkis describes a cruel master, a 9-foot-tall alien humanoid who disparages and dominates his two lieutenants: Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) and General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson.) He’s a predator who identifies weakness and exploits it, drawing the young and promising to his side with promises of power, then using and discarding his protégés when they are no longer of use.

He is seen here in hologram form in The Last Jedi, looking very Wizard of Oz as he bellows at Hux over some unspecified failure or disappointment. Serkis says much of that unhappiness will be directed at the former Ben Solo, however.

“His training of Kylo Ren is not yielding what he wants,” Serkis says. “Therefore his anger towards Kylo Ren is intensified because he can’t bear weakness in others. Part of the manipulation is goading him with Hux and playing them off against each other.”

Maybe the effect of that pairing has worn off, however. Snoke may need to start goading Kylo Ren with another disciple. (Watch yourself, Rey.)

Snoke has an abiding rage toward the Galactic Republic, which he devastated in The Force Awakens by annihilating its capital with a blast from Starkiller Base. And now that anger has shifted toward the wounded Republic’s military force — the Resistance.

“The thing about Snoke is that he is extremely strong with the Force, the dark side of the Force. He’s terribly powerful, of course. But he is also a very vulnerable and wounded character,” Serkis says. “He has suffered and he has suffered injury. The way that his malevolence comes out is in reaction to that. His hatred of the Resistance is fueled by what’s happened to him personally.”

The Last Jedi will reveal that the First Order is far stronger than anyone else in the galaxy realized. “Despite the fact that the Starkiller Base has been destroyed and the Resistance has been putting up a fight, we will discover that the First Order has limitless resources in this one,” Serkis says.

Exactly how Snoke suffered his deformity hasn’t yet been revealed, but we will learn more about it in this installment. At least, a little more.

“Similar to with Rey’s parentage, Snoke is here to serve a function in the story,” writer-director Rian Johnson says. “And, you know, a story is not a Wikipedia page.”

That means the film may not fill in all the blanks for the hardcore Snoke theorists.

“For example, in the original trilogy, we didn’t know anything about the Emperor except exactly what we needed to know, which is what Luke knew about him, that he’s the evil guy behind Vader,” Johnson says. “But then in the prequels, you knew everything about Palpatine because that his rise to power was the story. We’ll learn exactly as much about Snoke as we need to. But the really exciting for me is we will see more of him, and Andy Serkis will get to do much more in this film than he did in the last one, and that guy is just a force of nature.”

Since Snoke only appeared as a hologram in The Force Awakens, the performance by Serkis was mainly in the villain’s face (what’s left of it). Now that we’ll be in his actual presence, we get the full breadth of his movement — and his damage.

“You witness his physicality,” Serkis says. “His body is kind of twisted up like a corkscrew, and so he has limited movement. His aggression and his anger is contained and restricted by that physicality.”

After playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films, Serkis is used to knotting his body for a performance, or adjusting to a simian gait to play Caesar in the Planet of the Apesfilms. But for Snoke, he adds one piece of restraint to his own body.

“The only thing I did use was across his jaw,” Serkis says. “His jaw is completely mangled and the left side of his face is mauled. So I had a way of taping down the lefthand side of my mouth to restrict the lip movement on that side.”

Snoke’s shattered skull and open jaw were also inspired by something real from our own world. “His deformity is very much based on injuries from the First World War, from the trenches,” Serkis says.

In that conflict, modern war machines ripped and gnarled human bodies like never before, but lifesaving contemporary medicine ensured the survival of men who otherwise would have died on the battlefield. They lived on carrying damage previously seen only on corpses.

Perhaps because he does suffer so much, Snoke also makes a point to indulge in the comfort and riches that power bestows. Unlike Emperor Palpatine, who was draped in the relatively humble black robe of a Sith monk, Snoke wraps himself in the kind of shimmering gold usually seen in the palaces of dictators or Las Vegas entertainers.

Revenge is only part of his motivation; greed is another.

“Oh, absolutely. He’s slightly oligarch,” Serkis says. “You know, he’s not afraid of showing his fineries. There is a luxury that’s native to him.”

You can see it in his throne room, and his scarlet-armored Praetorian Guard. “The way that his court is presented, he’s very totalitarian in that way and flamboyant,” Serkis says. “He enjoys that theatricality, I think.”

Hux[edit]

Hidden Content
  • Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux: The commander of the First Order's Starkiller Base.[1] Gleeson described him as "pretty ruthless. A strong disciplinarian would be a mild way of putting it... He's kind of opposite Kylo Ren. They have their own relationship, which is individual and unusual. One of them is strong in different ways than the other. They're both vying for power."[2]
  • Domnhall Gleeson's General Hux, a jackbooted baddie straight out of a Leni Riefenstahl film;[3]
  • The commander of the First Order's stormtroopers, Captain Phasma is described as a "tough veteran commander" and one of a "commanding triumvirate" of the First Order alongside Kylo Ren and General Hux.[4]
  • Max Nicholson, writing for Collider.com, noted the amount of hype for the character, as well as her minimal role in the story. Nicholson suggested that Hux and Phasma should have been merged into one character, as they were too similar, or Phasma should have been given the melee fight scene given to a nameless trooper nicknamed "TR-8R" by fans.[5]
  • Domhnall Gleeson, formerly the brave older brother to Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, is General Hux, leader of the First Order's Starkiller Base, which seems like the next generation of the Death Star. "I think General Hux would just like a little bit more order in the universe," he said, understating the character’s obsession with power as he jockeys against Kylo Ren. “Whatever it takes is where he’s at."[6]

When Poe Dameron is rescued by a stormtrooper from his First Order cell, he asks for the man’s name and gets a jumble of numbers and letters: FN-2187. He inquires about it, and finds out that it is “the only name they ever gave me.” So Poe suggests that name Finn, which his new friend gladly takes to.

This is the army of the First Order: infants conscripted without choice, removed from their families before they can retain memories of them. They are mentally conditioned to the Order’s specifications, perfect soldiers with perfect loyalty. The ones who don’t respond well enough to the conditioning are essentially reprogrammed—one of the reasons why Finn is so keen to escape is because he failed to follow orders on the planet Jakku, and knows that he’s about to be reconditioned. The First Order keeps careful tabs on signs of nonconformity. When Phasma has Finn report for inspection, General Hux is able to ask her whether or not this trooper had ever experienced signs of rejection to their conditioning, and she’s able to answer in the negative.

This is Hux's program—he argues the merits of “his” army to Kylo Ren when the man suggests that a clone army would have been more suited to the First Order’s needs. But Hux must have inherited the tradition; he is young, a man in his thirties, and there are plenty of soldiers and officers approximately his age. Finn himself is already twenty-three. This suggests that the First Order began kidnapping their new recruits immediately after their establishment and that their welfare was turned over to Hux when he rose high enough in rank. With outer rim planets unprotected it was likely all too easy to gather children for their army this way. Pointedly, the Order does not seem to take alien children, as their fighting force appears entirely human or at least humanoid. This is much the same as the Empire’s stance, though the First Order does have many more women among their ranks. But why did the First Order make this choice int he first place? Why not the clone army, as Kylo suggested? Why not recruit again?

References

  1. ^ Davis, Edward (July 10, 2015). "'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': Domhnall Gleeson Revealed To Be On The Dark Side As General Hux". The Playlist (Indiewire). Retrieved July 10, 2015.
  2. ^ Breznican, Anthony (November 13, 2015). "Starkiller Base and General Hux: New details on the dark side of The Force Awakens". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (December 16, 2015). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A 'rollicking adventure wrapped in epic mythology'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  4. ^ "Captain Phasma". Star Wars Databank. StarWars.com. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  5. ^ Nicholson, Max (April 3, 2016). "6 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Characters Who Need to Up Their Game in 'Episode VIII'". Collider.com. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  6. ^ Tauber, Chris (December 5, 2015). "Who's the Real Bad Guy in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?". People. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
  7. ^ Armitage, Hugh (July 11, 2016). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens villain General Hux's full name has been revealed". Digital Spy. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  8. ^ Libbey, Dirk (July 12, 2016). "Here's The Deal With That Creepy General Hux From Star Wars: The Force Awakens". CinemBlend. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  9. ^ Wilken, Selina (July 12, 2016). "Star Wars prequel book reveals General Hux's first name and backstory". Hypable. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  10. ^ Trendacosta, Katharine (February 22, 2017). "Everything That Aftermath: Empire's End Reveals About the New Star Wars Universe". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 22, 2017.

Kylo[edit]

Hidden Content

Kylo Ren, the Darth Vader-obsessed antagonist whose rage leads to a crushing moment of grief in the film.[1]

At a post-screening Q&A for Episode VII at the Writers Guild of America this weekend, director J.J. Abrams discussed the creation of the monster — and, for the first time, he and co-writers Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt talked publicly about the decision to have him murder a hero we’ve loved for decades.

To create someone new that Star Wars fans would hate and fear, Abrams says they made the hard choice to kill off someone who definitely made that type of mark, someone we love: a particular scoundrel who also proved he was more heroic than anyone might have guessed back when we first met him.

“Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing,” Abrams told the crowd. “We knew we needed to do something f—king bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of the most beloved characters.”

If you’ve seen the film, you already know: Kylo Ren, who was born Ben Solo, runs his ragged, crossguard lightsaber straight through the heart of his father — Harrison Ford’s Han Solo.

It’s a crushing moment that comes as Solo, at the behest of the boy’s mother, Leia, reaches out in the hope of finding something good inside the son who has already hurt so many others. The boy had already chosen a new name and a new fate after joining the monstrous Knights of Ren — but the slaying of his father is the final step in his transformation.

“Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain,” Abrams said. “And not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process.”[1]

He said he took inspiration from real world fears. Anyone raising a child knows the parental anxiety that they might grow up wrong, make poor choices, and then keep spiraling into self-destruction.

“All of us bring our own experiences to it,” Abrams said. “As a father, as a friend to people who have children, I know what it’s like to see struggle, to be part of struggle. I know how painful it can be. I know how real it is. And this is, of course, an insane extrapolated version,” he added with a laugh. “Patricide is not ideal.”


Michael Arndt, who helped craft the story before Abrams and Kasdan penned the script, said Kylo Ren began merely as a way to separate the heroes we remember from the original trilogy.[1]

“In my early drafts, my thinking was we had to bridge the end of Return of the Jedi to what happens in this movie, and we didn’t want everybody to start off all together. We wanted them to be spread all throughout the galaxy,” Arndt said.

The problem was, Return of the Jedi concluded with such a robust happily-ever-after that the writers of The Force Awakens had to find a way to undo that.

“We came up with a backstory that Luke had a pupil who turned against him and fought him, and killed all the other pupils, and that was a thing that exploded the family and destroyed Han and Leia’s relationship,” Arndt said.[1]

Even then, however, they didn’t know Han had to die.

“I had thought Han’s story and Leia’s story was just about them coming back together. At the end of the movie they would have reconciled and gotten over their differences. And you would have said, ‘Okay, bad stuff happened, but at least they’re back together again,” Arndt said. “J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’ If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.”

Audiences have been grieving the character all weekend. So did Harrison Ford, you know… take it hard? “Nah, he was fine,” Abrams said, waving his hand curtly as the audience laughed.

As we all know, Ford was way ahead of them. He’d been advocating decades ago for Solo’s death as an emotional sacrifice. “He was all for it back when we were doing Empire and Jedi,” Kasdan said. “He may have rethought it a little bit in the interim.”

Abrams said his fears about taking such an extreme measure were assuaged by Kasdan’s enthusiasm for the idea. “You wrote some of the greatest lines that Han ever spoke, so there was a level of comfort in the danger,” Abrams told him. “You were willing to go there, which made me feel like it wasn’t necessarily the worst idea.”

There are reports of adults breaking into tears during that scene, but it’s probably not the shock of that lightsaber stabbing through their favorite character that triggers the waterworks: It’s more likely what Han does with his final moments of life, reaching out to touch the face of his lost son. It’s not Han Solo’s fate that is sealed in that moment, it’s Kylo Ren’s. And the cruelest act in Star Wars was followed by one of its most tender.

So what was it like on set for that scene?

“It was really chilling,” Abrams said “Seeing these two actors, they weren’t chewing up the scenery. They were just doing this thing in a way that, frankly, was disturbing. To see Harrison reach out and touch Adam. I know this sounds stupid, but literally watching it, I forgot — I forgot that he wasn’t his son. He did it so beautifully.”

There’s no denying — it was one hell of a goodbye.

He hates her. This girl. This garbage picker. This amateur who somehow drew his family lightsaber to her hand, overpowering his own bond with the Force.

And yet, Adam Driver says Kylo Ren can’t help but harbor an admiration for Daisy Ridley’s Rey in The Last Jedi.

“He has been aware of this ability in himself from such a young age, and I don’t think there’s a lot of people around him who are on the same level,” the actor says. “I think that there is something familiar there, as well as something to be feared, or something … that he can’t quite place.”

This burns at him, too. He craves respect, so he has none to spare. It just wells up in him as more corrosive envy.

Rey is unburdened by these distractions. She doesn’t think anything about him at all.

The dynamic between them, the dark and the light, pushing and pulling at each other, is the heart of the Dec. 15 film, and although they are on opposite sides, their fates are still interlocked. That’s why writer-director Rian Johnson paired them on the first of EW’s four covers devoted to the movie.

Rey doesn’t have his will to power over others. All she wants is to understand this ability that appeared within her – and to use it to help others. “She doesn’t really know what she wants,” Ridley tells EW. “She really is trying to do the right thing and morally, her compass is really pointing north.”

But that she could still be led astray.

“The Resistance is really not that much to her,” the actress says. “I mean, she’s been left her whole life, and very quickly is eager to sort of help other people, which is wonderful. She wants to be part of something. I mean, everyone wants to be part of something.”

But when Luke Skywalker displays fear toward her, and rejects her rather than embracing her as a student, Rey feels cast out. After all, Luke banished himself rather than help the Resistance, and has now decided that the order he devoted his life to must end. The Last Jedi will find her adrift.

That’s where Kylo Ren once found himself, too.

Both of these main characters know what it’s like to feel abandoned.

Driver says Kylo began turning against his mother and father, Leia Organa and Han Solo, because he felt they cared more about the Rebellion and rebuilding after the fall of the Empire than they cared about him. That created a bitterness that ultimately consumed him.

“I think the idea of someone whose parents are very much devoted to the cause, that’s something a lot of people could relate to, whether it be religion or politics or a business,” Driver says. “Not identifying with [that cause] yourself, I think can give someone a complex.”

Selfish? Sure, a little. Maybe more than a little. But it’s also understandable, even in our world. Ironically, Kylo Ren just rebelled against an actual Rebellion.

“Looking around and not seeing yourself and not identifying with what’s around you, I think, affects how we behave,” Driver says.

After the events of The Force Awakens, and his choice to end one of the most beloved figures in George Lucas’ universe, Kylo is still trying to figure out if he did was the right thing – if only for himself.

“From his perspective, what he’s done is hopeful,” Driver says. “If anything he has justice. I think he’s surprised by how he would feel after Han Solo. He’s hoping for hope. He’s hoping for clarity.”

“There’s a big part of the story yet to be written and not by me,” says Johnson, who will hand the trilogy back to The Force Awakens filmmaker J.J. Abrams for 2019’s Episode IX. “But I don’t think it’s very interesting if the whole story is just ‘Will Kylo get his comeuppance?’ He’s a more complicated character than that and I think he deserves a more complicated story than that. I don’t see the point of trying to get behind his mask and learn more about him if all we’re going to learn is ‘Yeah, he’s just an evil bad guy that needs to be killed.’”

When Rey feels rejected by Luke Skywalker, who also sees parallels between the power in her and the abilities of his estranged nephew, the old Jedi master inadvertently pushes the two toward each other.

“This is very much about Rey trying to figure out how she fits into all this, much like any of us as we’re growing up, as we’re transitioning from childhood into adulthood,” Johnson says. “You’re going meet people who you think are going help who don’t. And help is also going come from unexpected places.”

That unexpected place is Kylo Ren, and the situation she finds herself in – alone, unappreciated, is similar to where Ben Solo found himself when broke from his Uncle Luke and followed the Knights of Ren down a darker path.

Supreme Leader Snoke, the enigmatic ruler of the First Order, detected the power in him and saw someone who could be swayed. But the young man’s shaky resolve means he could also be swayed back.

“Anybody that’s committed to anything, at a certain point in their life … you kind of constantly question why you got into it in the first place,” Driver says.

Rey and Kylo Ren are reaching toward each other in combat, but each one could also end up pulling the other to his or her side.

  • Tom Long of The Detroit News: It also offers up a great new villain, Kylo Ren, played deliciously by Adam Driver. Kylo Ren literally worships at the altar of Darth Vader and wears a similar black mask, although thankfully he takes it off once in a while to let Driver’s heat out.[2]
  • Ann Hornaday, writing for The Washington Post: Adam Driver is similarly right-on as a shadowy, somewhat simian figure named Kylo Ren.[3]
  • The astonishing newcomer here is Adam Driver’s Ren. A helmeted, caricatured villain to begin with, the moment of his unmasking is revelatory and inventive. Driver brings a palpably sinister edge to the role, vulnerable and humanised in ways Darth Vader (more machine than man, remember) ever could be.[4]
  • Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, an impertinent, Oedipally-motivated Vader Lite in an inky cloak and a metallic duck-billed muzzle that renders his voice a digitized growl [5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Breznican, Anthony (December 21, 2015). "We Need to Talk About Kylo". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  2. ^ Long, Tom (December 16, 2015). "Movie review: The Force is back, baby". The Detroit News. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  3. ^ Hornaday, Ann (December 16, 2015). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens gets the nostalgia-novelty mix just right". The Washington Post. p. T29. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  4. ^ Robins, James (December 17, 2015). "Film review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  5. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (December 16, 2015). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A 'rollicking adventure wrapped in epic mythology'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 19, 2016.

When Ren lures Han Solo onto the bridge at Starkiller Base, both sides of the Force are still warring across his face. As the Death Star 3.0 absorbs the final surges of solar power it needs to annihilate the Hosnian system and the Galactic Senate, Ren’s face is split in two—one half covered in shadows, the other bathed in light.

“I’m being torn apart,” Ren tells his father, eyes welling with tears. “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?” He hands Han his lightsaber hilt, a conflicted gesture that could be construed as a silent plea for an end to his pain (death, perhaps)—or a ploy to put Han off his guard. More likely, it’s some inscrutable combination of both.

“Yes, anything,” Han replies with resolute open-heartedness—a trait Ren seemingly interprets as weakness. The sky goes dark and shadows consume the rest of Ren’s face. He makes a choice: he ignites the blade straight through his father’s heart, proving to himself (if to no one else) that he has what it takes to devote himself to the Dark Side.[1]

References

  1. ^ Leon, Melissa (December 27, 2015). "Emo Kylo Ren: Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Polarizing Villain". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 30, 2015.

First Order[edit]

Hidden Content
  • Tom Long of The Detroit News: Much as Vader before him, Kylo Ren is one of the leaders of a new dark army, the First Order, which is out to conquer, well, everything, and any planets they can’t conquer they’re happy to blow up.[1]
  • Stephanie Zacharek of Time: "The fascist First Order has risen from the remains of the old Empire. Darth Vader disciple Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is one of the chief baddies, answering to Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), a giant, scary, noseless dude who sits placidly in an oversized chair like a dark-lord version of the Lincoln Monument. The First Order hopes to destroy…everything."[2]
  • Andrew O'Hehir wrote for Salon: a bunch of pompous generals with Nazi-like uniforms and a planet-destroying superweapon.[3]

[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

References

  1. ^ Long, Tom (December 16, 2015). "Movie review: The Force is back, baby". The Detroit News. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  2. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (December 15, 2015). "Review: The Force Awakens Is Everything You Could Hope for in a Star Wars Movie—and Less". Time. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  3. ^ O'Hehir, Andrew (December 16, 2015). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens: You know all the spoilers in J.J. Abrams' obsessive reboot — because you've seen this movie before". Salon. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  4. ^ Trendacosta, Katharine (February 22, 2017). "Everything That Aftermath: Empire's End Reveals About the New Star Wars Universe". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  5. ^ Wendig, Chuck (2017). Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire's End. Del Rey. ISBN 9781101966976. It's time to start over ... That is our first order. To begin again. And to get it right, this time.
  6. ^ Richard Brody (16 December 2015). "The Pre-Fab "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"". The New Yorker.
  7. ^ Apolon (28 December 2015). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoilers: The First Order, The Resistance And The Republic Explained". iDigitalTimes.com.
  8. ^ "Star Wars: How The First Order Has Upgraded From The Death Star In The Force Awakens".
  9. ^ "Star Wars 7 Is Apparently Changing The Name Of The Empire".
  10. ^ Jim Tankersley (23 December 2015). "Why the First Order in 'Star Wars' is fascist, evil — and far smarter than you think". Washington Post.
  11. ^ Lucas Siegel. "Lucasfilm Reveals Huge Force Connection for First Order in Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Comicbook.com.
  12. ^ "The First Order Are The (Anti)-Heroes Of 'The Force Awakens'". The Federalist.
  13. ^ "New 'Star Wars' Clip Reminds Us of the First Order's Nazi Comparisons". Inverse.
  14. ^ "Star Wars: The Force Awakens -- What is the First Order?". Dork Side of the Force.
  15. ^ "'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': The First Order's Starkiller Base Is Hiding A Big Secret". Tech Times.
  16. ^ ABC News. "'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': First Order Inspired by Nazis". ABC News.
  17. ^ Sarah Doran. "Who is General Hux? Star Wars villain gives his first order in new behind the scenes sneak peek at The Force Awakens". RadioTimes.

Misc[edit]

Star Wars gay[edit]

  • Commando and bounty hunter Goran Beviin is married to Medrit Vasur in the Legacy of the Force series (2006–08)[2]
  • Karen Traviss: "Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur are a gay couple. Homosexual men. Call it what you like, they're in a same-sex marriage. Mandalorians are different colours, too. Black Mandos, brown Mandos, all kinds of Mandos. Some are from other species, not just humans. They're all ages, all types, and some of them are disabled. Because so many of them are soldiers, Mandos know all about dealing with disability. The gay Mandos - like the rest of the Mandalorian cast - are in the series because I think the Star Wars galaxy, with millions of worlds and species, is probably more diverse than just a regular vanilla diet of straight, good-looking, able-bodied white folk with red hair and emerald eyes or whatever. So I decided it was time SW had its first gay characters, because it was dumb for such a rich universe like that to be so narrow and unreal. And I say that as a straight white able-bodied woman. Because whatever your personal prejudices, we live in a diverse world, and people you don't happen to like because of colour or orientation or age or gender are not going to vanish because you don't accept them. I don't like slave-owners and people who think decapitating another being is casual work, but I still write about them, because they're there in the SW universe. If you didn't spot that Goran and Medrit are queer—well, maybe you were only looking for pink armour, limp wrists, and mincing walks, not hard-as-nails mercenaries and armoursmiths. But none of the gay men I know are mincing pink-clad queens, so...I wrote what I saw around me. Real people who just happen to prefer their own gender. And I wrote it as a detail rather than a major issue on which a plot hung. Kids won't spot it and ask awkward questions that their parents might not be ready to answer. But for the mature reader, it's there, and Goran and Medrit aren't just close friends. They're an old married couple with adopted kids and grandchildren, just a regular and unremarkable part of the Mandalorian community. Because Mandalorians don't give a toss what you do in your private life as long as you follow the basic rules about clan and looking after your kids properly. So...no big deal."[2]
  • "He's not the first gay character to turn up in the new canon. That distinction belongs to last April’s Lords of the Sith novel by Paul S. Kemp, which introduced fans to Moff Delian Mors, a lesbian Imperial officer who feels adrift after her wife is killed in an accident. But Sinjir Rath Velus holds the distinction of being the first major hero in a Star Wars story to come from an LGBT background."[7]
  • Star Wars: Resistance Reborn (2019): Monti Calay, spy for the Collective holding a cadet position in the First Order. He has a male ex-lover.


References

  1. ^ Eng, Dinah (June 23, 2004). "Star Wars books are soldiering on". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 20, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Karen Traviss: FAQ". KarenTraviss.com. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  3. ^ Keane, Sean (April 28, 2015). "REVIEW: Star Wars: Lords of the Sith throws Darth Vader and the Emperor onto the battlefield". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  4. ^ Hensley, Nicole (March 11, 2015). "Star Wars novelist adds first lesbian character to canon". New York Daily News. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  5. ^ Breznican, Anthony (September 4, 2015). "Star Wars: Aftermath: Gay hero introduced in new story". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  6. ^ Young, Bryan (March 6, 2015). "Star Wars Introduces an LGBT Character Into Canon". Big Shiny Robot. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Breznican, Anthony (September 4, 2015). "Star Wars: Aftermath: Gay hero introduced in new story". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  8. ^ Flood, Alison (September 11, 2015). "Star Wars novelist strikes back at gay character slurs". The Guardian. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  9. ^ https://www.indiewire.com/2019/09/star-wars-resistance-gay-couple-flix-orka-1202177646/
  10. ^ https://comicbook.com/starwars/2019/09/30/star-wars-resistance-gay-couple-orka-flix-disney-channel/
  11. ^ https://comicbook.com/2019/12/24/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-director-jj-abrams-addresses-same-sex-kiss/

Poe[edit]

Oscar Isaac wanted Poe & Finn together (The Rise of Skywalker 2019)[2][3][4]


References

  1. ^ Duffy, Nick (April 25, 2017). "Star Wars boss confirms 'talks' about gay Finn/Poe romance". PinkNews. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
  2. ^ "Star Wars: Oscar Isaac Says 'Disney Overlords Weren't Ready' for Finn/Poe Romance". IGN. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  3. ^ "Oscar Isaac Wanted Finn and Poe Romance in Star Wars, But Disney Supposedly Wasn't Ready". SlashFilm. January 5, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  4. ^ "Oscar Isaac on Finn-Poe Relationship: 'I Thought They Should Have Been Boyfriends'". Remezcla.com. December 18, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2020.

Princess Leia[edit]

The film's original feminist icon has evolved too. Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia is now General Leia, who brings a warmth and steadfastness to her command, and she shares a brief but meaningful scene with Rey.

For a generation of women and girls, Princess Leia was groundbreaking in her power. That she is often best remembered for the slave bikini scene in "Return of the Jedi" is unfortunate, as it reduces a character who was ahead of her time to a poster on a 14-year-old's wall. Nevertheless, Leia, for all of her pioneering action scenes, never got to wield a lightsaber, nor did she have access to the power of the Force the way her brother, Luke Skywalker, did.

  • Stephanie Zacharek of Time : It has its share of charm, like the moment when Han and Leia reconnect after years of separation—they’re the classic lovers who can’t stand to be in each other’s presence for more than five minutes, but who miss each other quietly and desperately year in, year out.[1]
  • Variety's Justin Chang: But the film’s most indelibly moving scenes are reserved for Han and his estranged love, Leia (Carrie Fisher), no longer a princess but a Resistance general. Their banter is raspier and gentler than it was 30 years ago, less barbed and more bittersweet, and viewers can expect their hearts to swell to Mandallian proportions whenever the actors are on screen.[2]

Leia POP: [3] [4] [5] [6]

Leia comic[edit]

References

  1. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (December 15, 2015). "Review: The Force Awakens Is Everything You Could Hope for in a Star Wars Movie—and Less". Time. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  2. ^ Chang, Justin (December 15, 2015). "J. J. Abrams' hugely anticipated blockbuster brings welcome jolts of energy, warmth and excitement back to the biggest franchise in movie history". Variety. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  3. ^ "Star Wars Vault Pop!: Slave Leia".
  4. ^ "Pop! Star Wars: Princess Leia".
  5. ^ "Pop! Star Wars: Princess Leia (Boushh)".
  6. ^ Christine Marie. "Wal-Mart To Release Exclusive Slave Leia, Jabba, and Salacious B. Crumb POP! Vinyl 3-Pack". Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News.
  7. ^ Brown, Tracy (April 20, 2015). "Star Wars Celebration: Princess Leia fans praise her strength and femininity". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 11, 2015.

Princess Leia's bikini[edit]

Princess Leia's bikini (also known as Princess Leia's metal bikini) is an iconic costume worn by actress Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in the 1983 Star Wars film Return of the Jedi.

Leia's slave costume when she is held captive by Jabba the Hutt at the beginning of Return of the Jedi—made of brass and dubbed Leia's "Metal Bikini" or "Gold Bikini"—immediately made the character (and Fisher) a "generational sex symbol" celebrated by pin-up posters,[1][2] and later merchandising and cosplay.[3][4][5][6][7] The outfit itself has gained a cult following of its own.[6]

Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post noted that "the costume has become culturally iconic in a way that has slipped loose from the context of the scenes in which Leia wore it and the things she does after she is forced into the outfit."[3] Philip Chien of Wired wrote in 2006, "There's no doubt that the sight of Carrie Fisher in the gold sci-fi swimsuit was burned into the sweaty subconscious of a generation of fanboys hitting puberty in the spring of 1983."[8] Acknowledging the opinion of some that the "Slave Leia" iconography tarnishes the character's position as "feminist hero",[3] Rosenberg argues:

Leia may be captive in these scenes, but she’s not exactly a compliant fantasy. Instead, she’s biding her time for the moment when she can put that fury into action, carrying out a carefully laid plan to rescue her lover. And when that moment comes, the bikini doesn’t condemn Leia to passivity. She rises, and uses the very chains that bind her to strangle the creature who tried to take away her power by turning her into a sex object.[3]

Science fiction filmmaker Letia Clouston concurs, saying "Sci-fi has had a long history of strong female characters. Yes, Princess Leia was in a gold bikini, but she was also the one who single-handedly killed Jabba. When you take into account movies and TV shows like Terminator, Aliens, Battlestar Galactica, and even video games like Metroid, you can see sci-fi has consistently promoted the strength of women more than any other genre."[1]

Despite its iconic status among many fans of the franchise, the Slave Leia outfit has sometimes incited controversy. In 2015 Fisher, commented on Twitter:

SlaveLeiaDolls R causing OUTRAGE 4 Sum parents on Fox TV & Im thinking-if folks R outraged NOW, shouldnt I have been OUTRAGED 40yrs ago? MAYBE I WAS! ... That chain only "enslaved" me until I could use the frabjous thing to KILL THAT DROOLING SWOLLEN SUPERTONGUED SLUG & whirl him off into infinity[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Schou, Silvej (November 2, 2012). "The new Star Wars and women: Female sci-fi directors on Leia, Amidala, and what lies ahead". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  2. ^ Merlock; Merlock Jackson (2012). "Lightsabers, Political Arenas, and Marriages". Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars. p. 79.
  3. ^ a b c d Rosenberg, Alyssa (October 23, 2015). "The fraught history of Princess Leia's infamous bikini". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  4. ^ Baxter, Joseph (November 7, 2015). "Star Wars: 15 important and/or insane pieces of Slave Leia merchandise". Blastr. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  5. ^ "Princess Leia". Star Wars Collectors Archive. Retrieved December 10, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b Townsend, Allie (July 5, 2011). "Princess Leia's Gold Bikini in Return of the Jedi". Time. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
  7. ^ Vokes-Dudgeon, Sophie (November 1, 2015). "Neil Patrick Harris and His Kids Win Halloween Again With Amazing Star Wars Outfits". Us Weekly. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  8. ^ Chien, Philip (July 11, 2006). "The Cult of Leia's Metal Bikini". Wired. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  9. ^ Meyer, Ken (July 15, 2015). "Parents Outraged by Star Wars Slave Leia Action Figure; Carrie Fisher Responds". Mediaite. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
Bikini links & info[edit]
Hidden Content
  • In 2015, GQ listed Slave Leia Perfume (with a chain attached to the neck of the bottle) among the "worst Star Wars merchandise of all time".[1]
  • In cartoonist Jeffrey Brown's bestselling comic strip-style book Star Wars: Vader's Little Princess (2013), one panel features a teen Leia in the bikini outfit as Darth Vader bemoans, "You are not going out dressed like that!"[2][3][4]

Who can forget Carrie Fisher’s gold, swirly, shamelessly skimpy bikini as a slave girl held captive by Jabba the Hutt in 1983’s Return of the Jedi? Cue sex icon posters of Fisher taped to salivating fanboys’ walls.[5]

What do I remember from making the movies? I remember that iron bikini I wore in "Episode VI": what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell. I was lying next to Jabba the Hutt, in the third film--the one I can't remember the name of. (I keep wanting to call it "Rebel Without a Cause.") The actor who played Boba Fett stood behind me while I was wearing the bikini, and he could see all the way to Florida. My mother was always the girl next door. I wasn't quite girl-next-door material; I was the girl-next-dogstar, the one in the titanium thong.[6]

For many fans, Leia is an exemplary personification of female empowerment. She's a smart, feisty, brave diplomat and warrior. And for these admirers it is disturbing to see her formidable stature diminished by the endlessly evoked image of her as a sexual object.[7] (MORE in the article as well)

There are even bikinis in space. In 1983, Star Wars' Princess Leia Organa landed herself in custody of the gluttonous space varmint Jabba the Hutt and into curiously bikini-shaped shackles. Leia's metallic lingerie has since gained a cult following sizable to the films themselves. Made of brass, the Return of the Jedi costume was famously uncomfortable to wear and described as "what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell" by actress Carrie Fisher. The original "slave Leia" look is still paramount in the geekosphere and is often imitated by female fans at conventions — much to the delight of cosplaying Han Solos everywhere.

Made of brass, the Return of the Jedi costume was famously uncomfortable to wear and described as "what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell" by actress Carrie Fisher.[8]

"There are a lot of people who don't like my character in these movies; they think I'm some kind of space bitch ... She has no friends, no family; her planet was blown up in seconds ... so all she has is a cause. From the first film [Star Wars], she was just a soldier, front line and center. The only way they knew to make the character strong was to make her angry. In Return of the Jedi, she gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let's not forget that these movies are basically boys' fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes."

One thing that made the cut is some very funny stuff about how the Slave Leia metal bikini fromThe Return of the Jedi made you a sex symbol.
That's only determinable way after the fact, I think. There's no experience that tells you, "Oh, I'm a sex symbol." Were people coming up to me and jacking off to me in the streets? No. All of the attention I ever got was, in a way, freakish. Generally the reaction I would get was, "Did you know it would be that big of a hit?" Every so often someone would come up to me and say, "I thought about you every day from when I was 12 to 22." But that's after the fact — they didn't come up at the time and say, "I'm thinking about you every day," i.e., "In between watching the movies and putting together these spaceship models that I have, I retire to the bathroom and jack off to you." I wasn't aware of it at the time, and I'm very glad I wasn't.
Why?
It's gross.

Rosenberg/The fraught history of Princess Leia’s infamous bikini[edit]

I was moderately perturbed by the idea she advanced that previous “Star Wars” movies had been any less egalitarian or that Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) was any less of a feminist hero, simply because in “Return of the Jedi,” there are a number of scenes in which the sluglike gangster Jabba the Hutt (voiced by Larry Ward) holds her hostage and forces her to wear what has become an iconic metal-and-leather bikini.[9]

Princess Leia’s outfit — known in fan shorthand as Slave Leia — in those scenes does have a vexed history. And the costume has become culturally iconic in a way that has slipped loose from the context of the scenes in which Leia wore it and the things she does after she is forced into the outfit.[9]

In J.W. Rinzler’s “The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” he notes an interview Fisher gave in which she explains what it was like to film those scenes. ”This was no bikini. It was metal. It didn’t go where you went. After the shots, the prop man would have to check me. He’d say, ‘Okay tits are fine. Let’s go.’ So I started checking for any bounce or slip after takes. Then it was, ‘Cut. Hey, how they doin’, hooters in place? Tits all right?’ I was embarrassed at first with a hundred guys going crazy over my revealed self. Dignity was out of the question.”[9]

Fisher wasn’t wrong to think that “Star Wars” fans would be so blinkered by the sight of a nearly naked Princess Leia that they’d miss the context of the scene. In fact, taking the costume out of the context has become something of a mini-trope in popular culture.[9]

In the third-season premiere of “Friends,” Ross (David Schwimmer) confessed to Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) that he has a sexual fantasy about Leia in captivity. “Every guy our age loved that,” their friend Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) tells Rachel when she asks whether Ross’s fantasy is normal. “It’s huge. That’s the moment when she stopped being a princess, and she became, like, a woman.”[9]

Self-aware nerd culture shows, from “Family Guy” to “Robot Chicken” to “Chuck,” have deployed the bikini in a wide range of storylines, sometimes fulfilling male fantasies in the process. It’s lady-nerd Zoe’s (Kristen Bell) cosplay of choice in “Fanboys.” “The Big Bang Theory’s” Kaley Cuoco even filmed a satirical public service announcement about the ubiquity of the costumes at fan gatherings:[9]

And the outfit is hardly confined to geeky spaces. The gold bikini has showed up in a “Dancing With the Stars” routine, and on Kim Kardashian, who wore it in a pilot for a puppet show her now-husband Kanye West shot in 2008.[9]

There’s perhaps no better sign that Slave Leia is simply considered sexy (rather than complicated) than the fact that a doll of the character in the outfit became the subject of a trollish local news story this year after a disgruntled parent complained about the fact that the toy was being sold at Target.[9]

But treating the gold bikini as merely sexy misses the point not just of the outfit itself, but also of the scenes in which Leia wears it. Whether the costume was supposed to provide visual interest to Leia’s monochrome wardrobe, soften a character some fans apparently felt to be inaccessible or simply give the franchise a jolt of sexual heat, there’s no denying the contempt and disgust on Leia’s face when she is forced into Jabba’s idea of appropriate clothing. It’s well worth contrasting Leia’s expression with the joy and humor Fisher put on display during the Rolling Stone photo shoot for which she wore the costume.[9]

Leia may be captive in these scenes, but she’s not exactly a compliant fantasy. Instead, she’s biding her time for the moment when she can put that fury into action, carrying out a carefully laid plan to rescue her lover (Harrison Ford). And when that moment comes, the bikini doesn’t condemn Leia to passivity. She rises, and uses the very chains that bind her to strangle the creature who tried to take away her power by turning her into a sex object.[9]

Even more than Fisher’s excellent acting in the scenes at Jabba’s palace, that setting complicates any attempt to read Leia as a simple sex object in a way that fawning fans often ignore. If you wanted to see Princess Leia naked, or nearly so, it ought to be uncomfortable that the person who makes her that way is a violent, brutish grotesque. The comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnickhas talked about reversing perspective to “turn the camera on the watcher” in scenes with nude women, and the Jabba’s palace sequences are as stark an example of that technique as I can think of. Some viewers might be getting their fantasy, but along with it, they’re getting a reminder that they share that fantasy with a crude monster — and that their fantasy is being accomplished only by force. Then there’s that unsettling ending, Jabba’s leering tongue lolling out of his mouth in death. No wonder people have spent decades forgetting about Leia’s revenge and focusing on her sex appeal instead.[9]

It’s for this reason that Amy Schumer’s recent GQ photo shoot, in which she played a robot-bedding, hard-partying, leather-bar-crashing Princess Leia, is one of the most refreshing riffs on Leia, slave and otherwise, in recent pop culture. By sticking a lightsaber in her mouth, she rendered Slave Leia fantasies as the silly, boorish, context-free things they so often are. By climbing up on a bar and hosting shots as the denizens of a gay bar hit on Chewbacca and get lectured by C-3PO, Schumer suggests a Leia who’s in it for her own good time, not anyone else’s.[9]

There have always been “Star Wars” fans who weren’t in it for a depiction of women that still counts as revolutionary. But if Jabba the Hutt couldn’t break Leia’s spirit by forcing her into a ridiculous bikini, we shouldn’t let the outfit cloud our memories of her, or the franchise that gave birth to Princess Leia, either.[9]

References

  1. ^ Williams, Max (November 10, 2015). "The worst Star Wars merchandise of all time". GQ. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  2. ^ Miller, Farah L. (May 4, 2013). "Star Wars: Vader's Little Princess Imagines How The Sith Lord Would Have Parented A Young Princess Leia". The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  3. ^ Clark, Noelene (April 19, 2013). "Darth Vader's Little Princess: Sith Lord no match for teen Leia". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  4. ^ Lee, Stephan (May 31, 2013). "See 10 images from Vader's Little Princess and Darth Vader and Son". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference EW Schou was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Fisher, Carrie (May 16, 1999). "Postcards From the Edge of the Galaxy". Newsweek. Archived from the original on July 2, 2001. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Edlitz, Mark (August 5, 2010). "Fashion by Jabba the Hutt". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Townsend was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cite error: The named reference WP Bikini was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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