#Leia and Vader

[blxkstar]

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

I made a playlist for Princess Leia Organa. Please check it out!

Princess Leia Organa, you are wise, discerning, kindhearted. These are qualities that came from your mother. But you are also passionate and fearless, forthright. And these are gifts from your father. Both were exceptional people who bore an exceptional daughter.

I would rather be a monster that believes in something, that would sacrifice everything to make the galaxy better, than be someone who sits on the sidelines and watches as if it has no consequences to them.

[tantive404]

Leia Organa as the Gothic Heroine

“Through a dream landscape, . . . a girl flees in terror and alone amid crumbling castles, antique dungeons, and ghosts who are never really ghosts.

She nearly escapes her terrible persecutors, who seek her out of lust and greed, but is caught; escapes again and is caught; escapes once more and is caught . . . [and] finally breaks free altogether, and is married to the virtuous lover who has all along worked (and suffered equally with her) to save her."

-Leslie A. Fledler, Love and Death in the American Novel

The gothic novel is a genre of literature that has grown increasingly compelling to me. Defined by its mixture of romanticism and horror— or “wonder and terror”, with a “loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting”— these stories are known for their forbidden castles, ghostly mysteries, and, most centrally, their heroines, fleeing terrified into the night in a flowing white gown…

Over the years the gothic has become a genre dominated by the feminine and by women writers. And even though the first example of gothic literature, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was written by a man, the story is largely focused on its heroines. The central plot thread sees a corrupt tyrant prince pursuing a much younger princess for the sake of marriage and her desperate attempts to escape him, as she flees through his castle, through twisted corridors, trap doors, and all manner of danger.

I began to think of the relation between the archetype of gothic heroine and Star Wars’s female lead, Princess Leia Organa. After all, she is typically clad all in white and on the run from a dastardly Imperial villain of some sort. And it would not be so difficult for the Death Star to serve as an old manor, filled with secrets and danger… trap doors (garbage chutes), gaping chasms, masked phantoms (Sith Lords) and terrible, power-hungry old men.

The gothic heroine is a young woman often characterized by her virtue, innocence and beauty. She may be born into a position of high social status, with a wealthy or aristocratic family, or even be full-fledged royalty. Some time early in the story, however, she loses her privilege and power… orphaned, imprisoned, or otherwise inconvenienced. In Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, for instance, our protagonist Emily St. Aubert lives an idyllic life with her well-to-do parents, only for both to die and her fortune to be lost in the first act, where she is then given into the power of her aunt and eventually her villainous uncle-by-marriage, Montoni. Leia, too, was a happy and beloved child as the Crown Princess of Alderaan, even with the shadow of the Empire looming overhead… but is captured on a fateful mission for the Rebellion and sees her planet destroyed for her troubles.

And while a gothic heroine may be physically frail she has the mental fortitude and agency to be the one who drives the plot forward. Leia, too, subverts being placed the box of “damsel in distress” with her strong will and her active fierce participation in the rebel cause.

The consistent pattern of “escaping and being caught” is another that Leia follows quite clearly throughout the original trilogy… when we first meet her, she is fleeing from her Imperial pursuers, only to be overpowered and captured. She’s taken aboard the Death Star, endures torture, and gets rescued… only for the next movie to involve yet another game of pursuit between her and Vader where she’s eventually caught yet again at Bespin. After another escape, she opens the subsequent film with an attempt to rescue her (not-so) “virtuous lover” from his prison… and she is made a slave. She escapes with her own ingenuity to rejoin the Rebellion, is nearly defeated in the perilous final battle at Endor, but with the help of her allies, wins the day and all is made right. A typical fairy tale ending.

And then there are her villainous persecutors, of which there are primarily three— Vader, Tarkin, and Jabba.

The gothic heroine is often menaced by a powerful man,?usually bearing misogynistic or patronizing sentiments. He is dark and threatening, yet can also be alluring… and the heroine strives to escape his oppressive power. So too with Leia, as representative of the Rebellion, seeking to destroy the oppression of the Empire.

In short, Star Wars is a very melodramatic, archetypal tale, and Leia’s journey both illuminates and subverts that.

[phoenixkaptain]

It’s very funny to read extended lore Star Wars, canon or Legends’, because Leia and Darth Vader are both very similar, at least to deal with.

It’s like, Leia’s plans and Vader’s plans are so similar! “Okay, step one: we draw all of the fire to me. Step two: attack from the sides. Optional step three, if step two doesn’t work: jump on in again.”

The biggest difference is that Leia does not actually want to kill anybody who’s unarmed, like civilians and prisoners, while Vader has already killed the civilians and prisoners while everyone else was thinking about if they should or not. But even in that way, they are similar, if only because both of them are fucking insane and stubborn as fuck. Leia is like “If I die, I will die not killing someone, sucker. Just try to stop me.” Vader is like “On the off chance I die, I will die killing someone. Can’t believe you thought you could stop me.”

My favourite part of Star Wars is posthumously making Leia and Vader act similar. They are both stonecold and accept no criticism and it is very funny that Leia is the Anakin of the group.

Luke, over there in the corner, is the Obi-Wan of the group. He is painfully optimistic, annoyingly optimistic, he the type of person to land a crashed ship and say “another happy landing.” I don’t know how to explain this any better, Obi-Wan and Luke are twinsies, okay, in being optimistic despite the fact that there is a dagger to their throat.

Han is the Padme of the group. No explanation necessary.

I know knee-jerk reaction is to tell me I’m seeing what I want to be there, but on the other hand! Luke and Leia, especially in later comics, are portrayed very often cloaked in darkness. As in, their faces are shadowed and they don’t often step into the light, which is a clear indication that the writers are going “look! Look these are Vader’s kids! Vader’s kids! Look!” which I approve of tenfold and think we should do in all modern media-

Leia specifically though let’s her anger get the best of her rather often actually. Is the best plan really to try and take the guy (who decided to storm a heavily guarded prison and kill all of the prisoners) hostage? No! No that is not the best plan! But, he specifically says he wants Leia to kill him and that the war against the Empire will be lost if Leia had any humanity and Leia takes that as a challenge! at this point, she lets him live out of spite!

The only thing that distracts Leia from her anger is her friends being in trouble. She’s lucky she’s hanging around Luke Skywalker, honestly, or her anger would’ve taken hold of her ten chapters ago and never let her go. If Luke was a bit less of a damsel, Leia would never be distracted, it’s a symbiotic relationship-

Leia is supposed to be like Anakin. By which, I of course mean that Anakin is supposed to be like Leia. And I think they didn’t really have a choice, when it came to characterizing Anakin, but to make him more like Leia.

If they made Anakin act like Luke, Anakin would not have fallen to the Dark Side. This is for one primary reason: Luke slips and slides his way all across the galaxy except for the place where the fighting is actually actively taking place. If Anakin was like Luke, he would’ve gotten lost fifty times during the Clone Wars, inadvertently freed a LOT of people, and been late to all the events he had to witness in order to break.

He would have been late to Mustafar, okay? Obi-Wan and Padme would’ve been standing there for hours, waiting for him to show up. Then, Padme would get fed up and comm him like “Where are you, Ani? I’ve been on Mustafar-“ and he’d be like “Mustafar? Why are you on Mustafar? I’m over in Corellia. Crazy story! Palpatine told me to go murder some younglings, so I tried to do that, but I got distracted when I noticed some ducks that needed help crossing the street. But then, this big Rodian showed up and- well, long story short, the Jedi temple was empty when I got there, but I figured I should probably try and keep this gold pendant out of anyone’s hands-“ “What?” “-so after I spoke to you, I started getting ready to go to Mustafar, you know, to throw it into the lava, but my accelerator exploded and I tailspun my way out until I happened across a pirate ship-“

And it would just continue like that! Luke’s luck is either horrendous or tremendous, no matter how you look at it! That, or the Force is trying to cover his eyes because it doesn’t want its BABY to see anything BAD.

Anakin couldn’t be like Luke. The only choice was to make him more like Leia. More hot-tempered and more the type of person to walk into a firefight with little to no backup. Therefore, Anakin was made like Leia, and Leia, in return, in extraneous fiction, is made more like Anakin and I enjoy it a lot.

Also, my favourite part of the comic so far is: “How are we going to escape [the ship that we are currently destroying and that is floating in lava, Vader]?”

“By leaving the ship.”

Thank YOU, Anakin, your tactician’s brain never rests.

[disastertriowriting]

Disaster Lineage Appreciation Gift Exchange

Fanfics:

A shower a day keeps the self-loathing spirit away by egeria - Obi-Wan gets hurt on a mission and Anakin can't mentally handle it. Snuggles ensue.

A Talk Under the Veil of the Night by StarxRox - Fives was executed in front of his eyes. Anakin can't forget what happened. He has nightmares. He hopes that they are just nightmares. But they aren't. Also Obi-Wan is the inconspicuous casual disaster child everybody believes is perfect.

Acch-To Soul, Korriban Body by Sinvulkt (Wakare) - The hound - for it had no name but hound, beast, mutant - collapsed in the dark alley, its small paws folding underneath it. Its chest felt heavy, and its breath came ragged, pained. Blood sang loudly to its ears, as did the loud men that were after it. Its muzzle was still wet from the time they tried to drown it.

Acolyte by Courtesy Trefflin - The mission to Ringo Vinda spirals downward when Tup tries to kill Luminara and Ahsoka confronts, and is injured by, Dooku's unknown assassin, called the Acolyte. There is a conspiracy involving the clones, and Anakin will do anything to uncover it when it means protecting the only people he has had left since Obi-Wan's death many months ago. (Winter Soldier AU)

Crisis of Faith by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - Qui-Gon's loss isn't the only thing Obi-Wan struggles with after the battle of Naboo. The entire Order worships him as the Sith killer now, but it means having standards he doesn't know he can reach. He can't forget his master. He used the Dark Side. And he has the Chosen One to train, a padawan who is nothing like what Jedi ought to be.

Do Not Stand at My Grave by ReadingBlueWolf - After saving Naboo, Obi-Wan, and Anakin are kidnapped in broad daylight by Dooku. Frustrated by the Council's lack of response (and the old coot insisting on being called "buir"), Obi-Wan pens a few letters to Qui-Gon about the situation.

Flight Path by Courtesy Trefflin (Amina Gila) - Sidious never let him fly, preferring to keep him chained, and even though Anakin was trapped as a dragon for decades, losing his humanity and memories for a time, he has not lost his love for flying. It’s taken months for him to recover, and now that he and his family are taking a trip to Alderaan, he has the perfect opportunity to test his wings again.

Freefall by InsertSthMeaningful - Rey’s Jedi training on Ahch-To entails many things, like swimming, running, lightsaber duelling – and scaling high cliffs. One day, however she falls, and Master Luke doesn’t catch her. Instead, the Force does.

I dream of water by IceyGemini - For a long time, Luke's dreams nightmares were about heat and fire. This one was different...

Mashaw Bros, Sunset Circus by DragonflyonBreak - Come to the circus and witness what you've never seen before.

Multiples - Leia in ANH by Courtesy Trefflin - On the bridge of the Death Star, moments before Alderaan's destruction, Darth Vader is caught off-guard when a shift in the Force causes four more versions of Leia Organa to appear. Leia, who is... his daughter, apparently, the daughter he never knew he had. And Vader will do anything for his family.

Multiples - Luke in TESB by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - For months now, Vader has waited for the day when he can tell Luke that he's his father. If Luke will join him, they can make the galaxy a better place. That day has finally arrived, except moments before Vader can reveal the truth, the Force suddenly, and unexpectedly, drops four other versions of Luke in front of him as well.

Multiples - Obi-Wan in ROTS by Courtesy Trefflin - Anakin and Obi-Wan have just landed aboard the Invisible Hand to rescue Chancellor Palpatine when suddenly, four other versions of Obi-Wan appear with them. One Obi-Wan is hard enough sometimes, but five? That is a whole other story. It doesn't help that they're not terribly fond of each other... or that the eldest are hiding things about the future.

Of Lineages and Hope by MiaSirtnev - Obi-Wan Kenobi never had a daughter but did have a very special Grandpadawan in Ahsoka Tano. And in matters large and small, they will always be there for each other. Always.

Ready to Respond (Do Not React) by Kefalion - After the events on Cloud City, Luke has been working on his ability to meditate. In a dream, he reaches the right frame of mind and he speaks with Yoda who shares some wisdom.

Relief by hayam - In retrospect, Dooku probably should have gone to the healers the first time he felt that sore tickle in his throat. Or that slight bit of nausea. It would have saved a lot of trouble..

Skywalker Snared by Writer_Patriot - Verifying Dooku's live capture didn't go as planned. Anakin blames himself.

Successor by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - Traveling into Wild Space in search of ancient Jedi Temples and holocrons to learn from, in the hopes of rebuilding the Jedi Order, Rey stumbles onto something else entirely: the ancient world of Mortis, except... it's now inhabited by Force ghosts?

Swimming Lessons by Kittona writes (kittona) - Ahsoka plots to get her master to take a vacation; they're going to go to the beach. Sun, sand, relaxation, and most importantly, swimming. There's only one problem, Anakin didn't tell her he never learned to swim

The Time Where Anakin Became Yoda's New Padawan by StarxRox - Basically just another time travel story.

With Me As I Go by Courtesy Trefflin - When Qui-Gon died, becoming one with the Force, he could only watch. Watch as everyone in the lineage mourned him, and as the galaxy fell. But he is not about to let his master die. Or, the five times Qui-Gon tried and failed to help his family, and the one time he succeeded.

Fanart:

Just a Little Family Nap by lulek(szalik)

[numerousbees1106]

WASTELANDS PART 2: PRIMARY SUCCESSION (TEASER/PROLOGUE)

I do not know when the actual Primary Succession story will be posted. This is a teaser/prologue made for angstpril2024 and to assure readers that yes, there is in fact a second part of this series in the works. It may not be ready to start posting until next year, or it could be ready next month. I simply do not know. I apologize for the wait, but I have provided small snippets of this series in between to hopefully quench your appetites.

Enjoy!

Leia was nine years old.

The night was cold and quiet in that way that only snow can make something quiet, a light blanket of it muffling the wide, wild expanse. This was their smaller palace, the one she lived in with her parents, far from the bustling cities and their stone-metal-glass structures that felt like grit against her animal bones.

As she drifted half-asleep in her giant bed, wrapped in her soft fur blankets (blankets her mother had originally disapproved of, citing animal welfare, but Leia always had a talent for picking out clothing and blankets and such made of fur of animals that had lived happy lives: she insisted that she could feel the creatures’ creature-ness still living on in the items, but she got the feeling that nobody really believed or understood her), she dreamt faintly of a great, icy dragon wrapped around a snow-covered peak, snow geese and winter ptarmigans flying around its mighty head.

And as that dragon lifted its snout to bellow out across the frozen tundra, she first smelled the smoke.

It was an acrid thing, pervasive and invasive, pungent and miasmic. It curled and coiled like some great, heinous beast from another world, a silent yet ravenous monster creeping ever closer.

Terror clenched at her chest. She’d only ever smelled smoke outside before, near the crackling campfires that had always filled Leia with an instinctual dread. But why was it here now, in the house? She didn't understand.

Cowering under her beloved blankets, she waited with baited breath as distant shouts began to echo through the halls, morphing quickly into screams of pain and terror. A whimper of fear escaped her, but she hardly dared to breathe, bundling even deeper into her nest of blankets and pillows and sheets despite the oppressive heat. Maybe if she burrowed deep enough, she would fall asleep, and when she awoke maybe everything would be back to normal.

She stifled a gasp of pain. In her mind’s eye, the soft lights that ebbed and flowed around her began to disappear, some slowly dimming and fading into nothingness, others suddenly vanishing. They left shadowy voids in their wake that felt to Leia like someone was twisting her stomach inside-out, like she was losing all her teeth at once.

Physically, she wasn’t doing much better. The room was unbearably hot now, the dry, scorching air burning her eyes. The air was nearly unbreathable, choked with caustic smoke, and the screams now echoed from everywhere at once.

“Leia!” She heard her mother’s frantic voice scream. “Leia, where are you?!”

Trembling, Leia slowly peeled some of the blankets away from her face, but was immediately met with a blast of billowing heat and toxic smoke. Something collapsed nearby. The castle was falling apart around them.

Leia wanted so badly to burst out of her protective cocoon, to run into her mother’s arms, but she felt paralyzed, trapped within her own body, pure animal fear spidering her senses. All she could think about was the smoke that had furled and snapped, its silent, intense malevolence staining the air, its gaseous jaws lying in wait to snatch her up.

“Leia!” Her mother’s cry sounded farther away now, hoarse as she broke into a coughing fit that faded with distance.

“Momma,” she whimpered as her head spun, her chest aching and the heat oppressive. Closing her eyes, even as the fire roared on like the rumble of a faulty engine, she felt tears streak down her cheeks.

An ungodly bang resounded through the room, shaking Leia to her bones and dragging her back into a consciousness she hadn’t realized she’d lost.

In her mind’s eye, she saw herself, a tiny and helpless baby dragon of ice and snow, her white scales dull and stained with smoke and soot, wrapped in blankets like broken eggshells, small and weak and vulnerable. With quasar-eyes, she, as the dragon, gazed up to see a silhouette forming in the suffocating heat, chasing the smoke and flame away with large shakes of its massive head, its legs and tail brushing literal tons of debris off to the side effortlessly.

Another dragon stood in the awning of her room, its scales the same color as the soot that haunted the now-smoldering fires, its eyes a deadly crimson red that somehow felt infinitely sorrowful to her. Chains, glowing red-hot in the near-darkness, bound the dragon’s wings to its side, a collar of thorns dribbling supernova blood onto the once-white diorite tile. It moved towards her like vapor, reaching out with misshapen talons to cradle her gently against its chest, a bubble of silence and tranquility encasing her as if the dragon had reassembled the shards of her eggshell back around her.

Wrapped in her favorite blanket, she felt massive, stiff arms carry her, through what felt like infinite twisting hallways and dozens of doors that crumbled to ash at the stranger’s touch, out into the sudden and stunning frigidity of the mountain air, away from the hellish atmosphere of the burning palace and into the arms of a man she didn’t know.

She blinked up at him, momentarily blinded by the harsh glint of the full moon against the snowy mountain fields, shivering despite the thick blanket she was wrapped in as the stranger called out to the dragon-man as he raced back inside.

The stranger cursed, readjusting his grip on Leia, turning soft, intelligent eyes down onto her. She couldn’t quite make out what he was saying - her mind was racing far faster than it ever had before, and though she heard the words she couldn’t understand them. The stranger looked familiar -

“Tide-Tail?” She croaked, her throat feeling scratched and torn from the inside, a foul sulphuric taste lingering in her mouth. Each breath sent shivers of pain through her upper chest, a violent coughing fit overtaking her until a mask was pressed against her face, Tide-Tail giving her a strained smile as he nodded. The air that rushed into her lungs was oddly sweet, calming her minutely as she turned her head to watch her home burn so fiercely that it stained the ebony sky a wretched pale gray.

The dragon-man emerged from the inferno, carrying a woman draped limply in his arms.

Leia’s heart twisted with panic as she recognized the soot-stained face as her mother’s.

The dragon-man turned once more, racing back into the rapidly collapsing palace, his retreating form quickly obscured by the rabid flames and billowing smoke. Leia twisted and wriggled out of Tide-Tail’s grasp, racing over to her mother’s side, ignoring the sharp sting of the snow against her bare feet.

“Mom,” she whimpered, curling up against her, watching as her mother’s eyes twitched open for a brief moment.

Tide-Tail was by her side in an instant, pressing another mask to Leia’s mother’s face before turning and rewrapping Leia in her blanket.

“You’ll get frostbite,” he scolded gently, pulling out a silvery emergency blanket from a large bag that he had draped over his shoulders.

“Please,” Leia’s mother gasped as Tide-Tail gently laid the blanket over her. “Please, take care of her.”

“Of course, your majesty,” Tide-Tail murmured softly, his eyes filled with sorrow as the Alderanian queen’s already rapid, shallow breaths became strained gasps, the oxygen mask dutifully delivering air to lungs that simply couldn’t take it in. Leia remembered the mysterious illness her mother had, the illness that nobody really told her about other than that it affected her mother’s lungs.

Still, trembling as she pressed against her mother’s side, she found that they needn’t had told her anything about it at all - knowing about it wouldn’t have saved her mother’s life, their words would have meant nothing, their words did mean nothing as the star-speckle Leia kept close to her heart dimmed and faded away.

The dragon-man reappeared, holding Papa’s body. Leia didn’t need to look up to know that it didn’t matter now - his star had vanished, too.

“We must move quickly,” a voice that felt like 10,000 flickering embers said, gently yet with an urgency that belied the peril they were in. “This was no accident - nobody is here because nobody was called.”

Tide-Tail - that wasn’t actually his name, she knew, but didn’t much care - stood, gently scooping Leia up into his arms. She screamed. How could they expect her to leave her mother and father lying there, cold and motionless in the snow? How could they expect her to allow herself to be dragged away from everything she’s ever known and loved?

Tide-Tail flinched, a sort of nervous fear uncurling in his presence as he shot an uncertain look over his shoulder at the darkened woods beyond.

Silently, the dragon-man held out his arms, and Tide-Tail handed her over to him.

Darkness, like wings, soothing and promising a safer tomorrow, wrapped around her mind.

She fell unconscious.

[alies22]

I've been reading star wars from a different point of view and I think that if Anakin had raised Luke and Leia, the Jedi order had survived and the twins were trained, Yoda would be Leia's master.

He wanted to train her instead of Luke, he just trained him because Obi-Wan asked.

So maybe he would want to be her master in this AU too.

He or Ahsoka (because it seems cool and right to me)

And Luke would be trained by Obi-Wan or by his father Anakin

Perhaps Obi-Wan could be Leia's master too, they were good together in the Kenobi series, but maybe she would make him do anything she wanted and the training wouldn't go further.

So Leia would probably be Yoda's padawan.

And her lightsaber is purple. Because I think it fits her better than blue or green.

And because I want to.

[fanfictasia]

Adrift Through Time Chapter 3 - Until The End Of Time, a star wars fanfic | FanFiction

Adrift Through Time - Chapter 3 - Until The End Of Time - Wattpad

[tantive404]

If it’s a Star Wars fic and it doesn’t have:

-Leia suffering

-Leia being captured and dramatically chained, but also being feral and sassy

-Vader being possessive and protective to Leia but feeling Conflicted about it

-Vader being extremely angsty and suffering

-Tarkin being a massive creep to Leia, alongside possible other Imperials

I probably didn’t write it sorry❤️❤️

If it doesn't have grumpy x sunshine, I didn't write it, sorry

[jarenka]

It's like angel and demon on her shoulders, but they are her birth parents.

[galactic-rhea]

First || Previous

Careful with who you meet in a lonely alley

[sabictlali]

Perfect interaction with your kiddo

[stealingpotatoes]

Hi it’s me again!

I always think a joke about that scene from Empire strikes back being Vader hosting a dinner party is so funny to me

Because, like it gives the vibes of your dad sitting you down from one of those talks where you know you’re in trouble. But your boyfriend is also there, and so is his best friend, his ex (cough Lando), and his rival. Bonus points because the rival happens to be your dad’s best friend.

I don’t know I just want to know the discussion that happened after those doors closed LMAO

LMAO YEAH top ten messiest dinner parties ever

(donation doodles! // tip jar)

[tantive404]

Recently, I came across these tweets, and I kind of can’t stop thinking about this.

I adore villain x heroine ships and dynamics, and frequently find myself pondering what it is I love so much about them. One thing I’ve come to notice is this very idea: the importance of the male villain’s desire for her… his near-obsession and the fact that he is threatened by her. And, as mentioned in those tweets, part of what makes that so special is the rarity of seeing men or male characters treat women as being so important, as being valid or worthy of consideration as a threat. To me, it can be almost empowering to explore such dynamics through fiction.

One of my favorite movies, of course, is Star Wars: A New Hope, and primarily because I’ve always been absolutely obsessed with whatever is going on with Leia and Vader and Tarkin there. It always draws me right in… the powerful Dark Lord near-obsessively chasing down this tiny defiant young princess, slaying so many soldiers and going through such effort, so adamant that she be brought to him alive.

And from there, she’s treated as a high-class prisoner, heavily guarded and locked up tight, interrogated ruthlessly… but resisting with all the strength and pride of a leader in an underdog rebel movement. She’s essentially the one who is the key to the entire story.

As for Tarkin, he spends much of his screen time dealing with Leia… focused on how best to break the rebel prisoner who holds such key information in this galaxy-spanning war. Most famously, of course, this is illustrated with the destruction of Alderaan… an entire planet wiped away as an act of spite and a means to manipulate the girl he regards as a critical enemy. He is rather creepy and demeaning to her, too, but this only serves to add to a complex power dynamic worth exploring….

Moreover, I imagine it is rare to see a powerful military man treating a nineteen-year-old young woman as a credible threat to his Empire, but in ANH, it’s very much the case. And with the villain/heroine subtext I rather enjoy envisioning from their little scenes together, it can be quite captivating and unique.

There are a lot of similarly enjoyable pairings in many mahou shoujo series— Usagi and Dimande in Sailor Moon, Ichigo and Kisshu in Tokyo Mew Mew, and all manner of Pretty Cure rarepairs— where young girls simply trying their best are the ultimate key to defeating evil and have an ongoing rivalry/love-hate relationship with the worst of monsters. The subtext in such dynamics is fun to explore just as it popular in fandom to do with many popular male superheroes and their archenemies— Batman and the Joker, for instance.

In fact, even when it comes to the most cliche and stereotypical damsel-in-distress stories, the inciting incident, the villain’s capture of the innocent girl, always comes from his inherent desire for her— whether it be her beauty or status, or some form of obstacle which she presents to his evil plan.

It’s so strange and fascinating to think that these sorts of dynamics, particularly when it comes to ship discourse in fandom, are often decried as “toxic” and “abusive”. It’s not as if there aren’t some very dangerous power dynamics at play— which only makes these relationships that much more fun to explore in fiction— but so too can they truly serve as a power fantasy for women and girls, who are so often told made to feel as if we aren’t important.

Sometimes I just need a villain to chase me across the galaxy and regard me as his “worthy foe”, you know? 🥺🥰

[phoenixkaptain]

Leia + Vader, forced to bond in a cave while Luke is unconscious. A recipe for angst? Yes, but I accidentally added way too much sugar

[darth-memes]

[tantive404]

Not only is it after Vader tortured her… it’s after they blew up her planet…

Leia’s coping mechanism is nonchalantly sassing the people who hurt her and it’s both adorable and kind of heartbreaking 🥺

I think about this scene a lot?

Because that's Leia after Vader has tried to torture information out of her?

I'm a little terrified cause the first thing she does is make fun of a stormtrooper for being short???? Like my queen, please.... You're making your dad look bad at his job...