Princess Leia

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About

Princess Leia is a fictional character prominently featured in the Star Wars saga as the princess of the planet Alderaan, who has been portrayed by Carrie Fisher up to the upcoming title Star Wars: Episode VIII slated for release in December 2017. Widely regarded as one of the most iconic characters from the saga, the fictional character has been a long-running subject of fan art and fanfiction on the web.

Origin

Princess Leia was introduced in the original Star Wars film (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) in 1977 and portrayed by American actress Carrie Fisher.

Character History

In the film, Leia plays an important role in foiling the evil plan of main antagonist Sith Lord Darth Vader and bringing about the destruction of his cataclysmic weapon, the Death Star. In the sequel The Empire Strikes Back (1980), she commands a Rebel base and falls in love with Han Solo. In Return of the Jedi (1983), Leia leads the operation to rescue Han from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and is revealed to be Vader's daughter and the twin sister of Luke Skywalker.

The prequel film Revenge of the Sith (2005) establishes that the twins' mother is Senator (and former queen) Padmé Amidala of Naboo, who dies after childbirth. Leia is adopted by Senator Bail and Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan. In The Force Awakens (2015), Leia is the founder and General of the Resistance against the First Order and has a son with Han named Ben, who now goes by the name Kylo Ren.

Spread

Based on Google Ngram analysis and news articles, Princess Leia has been a subject of interest in American pop culture for almost as long as since the franchise has existed, particularly her character traits marked by heroism, which has been praised by many film critics, feminist scholars and columnists as "an exemplary personification of female empowerment."

Fandom

The character has been widely featured in fan-made artworks, ranging from fanfiction and parodies to illustrations and cosplay. In addition to tributes, Princess Leia has been referenced or parodied in both pop and internet cultures for several decades, including Fisher's appearance in the Leia metal bikini on the cover of Rolling Stone's summer 1983 issue and a painting of Leia featured on the cover of May 1983 issue of TIME magazine announcing Return of the Jedi. In 2008, Leia was selected by Empire magazine as the 89th greatest film character of all time and IGN listed her as their 8th top Star Wars hero. In 2010, UGO Networks listed Leia as one of their best heroes of all time in 2010.

Carrie Fisher's Death

On December 27th, 2016, Carrie Fisher died at the age of 60 after suffering a massive heart attack on an airplane on the 23rd. Her passing led to an outpouring of support in memoriam, as people celebrated her life as an actress and advocate for mental health awareness as well as her unique Twitter presence.^[12]^[13]

Some reactions to Fisher's death drew criticism. Notably, Cinnabon drew backlash when it tweeted an image of Fisher drawn in cinnamon with a cinnamon roll in place of her iconic Princess Leia "earmuff" hair style (below, left). Smash Mouth also drew backlash when it tweeted an image of Fisher with their logo photoshopped onto it (below, right).^[14] Both tweets have since been deleted.

Quartz^[15] and Daily Dot^[16] also wrote articles about a tweet by Katherine Nesbitt,^[17] shown below, which contained a story Fisher told in her autobiography in which George Lucas told her there were no bras in space because they would strangle those wearing them. This lead Fisher to muse "no matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra."

#CarrieOnForever

On December 27th, 2017, the one-year anniversary of Fisher's death, her Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill^[18] tweeted several pictures of Fisher in remembrance. In addition to the pictures, he posted, "No one's ever really gone… #AlwaysWithUs #CarrieOnForever" The post (shown below) received more than 47,000 retweets and 141,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

Following Hamill's post, many other fans and admirers of Fisher began posting tributes to the late actress on Twitter. The posts were categorized using the hashtag "#CarrieOnForever" (examples below).