Leia Organa

Princess Leia Organa is one of the central figures in the Star Wars franchise. Played primarily by Carrie Fisher, she was introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Fisher reprised the role of Leia in the film's two sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. An infant version of Leia was briefly seen at the end of the 2005 prequel film Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Beyond the films, Leia has proven to be a staple of the Star Wars mythos making appearances in related media including novels, comic books, video games and audio dramatizations.

The Rebel Alliance
"You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor!"

- Darth Vader

Desperate hour
Having secured a copy of the plans to the Death Star, Leia boarded the consular ship Tantive IV en route to the planet Tatooine. She had hoped to find the venerated Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and enlist his services in the Rebels' struggle against the Empire. Darth Vader and the 501st Legion tracked down the Tantive IV and locked it within their tractor beam. As Imperial Stormtroopers boarded the ship, Leia hid the Death Star plans in the memory circuits of an astromech droid R2-D2. R2 and his droid companion C-3P0 succeeded in escaping the ship, but Leia was not so lucky. A Stormtrooper squad found her in a corridor and shot her with a stun blast. She was then taken before Lord Vader.

Prisoner of the Empire
"You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life."

- Grand Moff Tarkin

Vader had her interrogated by an IT-O Interrogator droid, but Leia proved resistant to the mind probe. The imperials continued to question her about the location of the hidden Rebel Alliance base, but she refused to give them anything. Since she was reluctant to cooperate with them, the Death Star's commanding officer Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin decided upon a more drastic means of coercion. He threatened to use the power of the Death Star to destroy her home planet of Alderaan. Under duress, Leia told him that the Rebels were located on a planet called Dantooine. Despite this however, Tarkin still gave the order to destroy Alderaan. Afterward, he had Leia returned to her cell. Tarkin soon discovered however, that Leia had lied about the location of the rebels. He ordered her to be terminated.

Rescue
A short time later, Obi-Wan Kenobi came to the Death Star, along with the droids, a farmer named Luke Skywalker, a pilot named Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca. While Obi-Wan set off to deactivate the tractor beam holding Solo's ship on the station, Luke, Han and Chewbacca proceeded into the cell block to rescue Princess Leia. Disguised as a Stormtrooper, Luke found Leia's cell and set her free. Getting off the Death Star proved to be no easy task however, and the group had to fight their way through several squadrons of Stormtroopers. They eventually made their way back to the ship and were able to escape. Obi-Wan Kenobi however, lost his life while dueling Darth Vader.

The Princess directed them to the Rebel Alliance's true location on the moon of Yavin IV. After analyzing the data contained with R2-D2, the rebels were now ready to launch an attack against the Death Star. Leia remained in the command center with General Jan Dodonna and Commander Vanden Willard while the Red Group X-wing squadron went off to battle the forces of the Empire. The rebels proved victorious, owning in no small measure to Luke Skywalker, who fired the kill-shot that destroyed the Death Star. Afterward, a great celebration was held in the old Massassi temple on Yavin IV. Leia personally honored the heroes of the Rebellion by presenting them with medals of valor.

Parodies
A pastiche of Princess Leia appeared in the 1977 parody short Hardware Wars. The character was called Princess Anne-Droid (an obvious pun on "android") and was played by Cindy Furgatch.

The character of Princess Leia has appeared in several Robot Chicken sketches. In the "Moesha Poppins" short, Leia was voiced by Adrienne Palicki, who also provided the voice for Rainbow Brite in the same episode. She appeared in both Robot Chicken: Star Wars and the Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II comedy collections. In Robot Chicken: Star Wars, she was voiced by Candace Bailey. In Episode II, she was voiced by Amy Smart and original Leia actress Carrie Fisher.

In the "Blue Harvest" Star Wars tribute from season six of Family Guy, Leia was patterned after the character of Lois Griffin and voiced by mainstay Family Guy voice actress Alex Borstein.

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