Orphan. Adoptee. Refugee. Rebel. Mother. Survivor of genocide. General.
Leia isn't awesome because she loves Han or because (**spoiler**) she's Luke's twin or because she's the mother of Kylo Ren or because of her famous hair or because she rocks a metal bikini and kills Jabba.
Leia's awesome because Star Wars changed everything about science fiction and movie-making and the way women are heroes, too. Ah, George Lucas. Without Leia, would we even have Starbuck and Six, Sara Conner, Aeryn Sun, River Song, Zoe Washburne and River Tam, Janeway, Ellen freaking Ripley, I mean even Katniss?
I listened to Don McLean singing American Pie twice on Tuesday because it was, in a weird way, the Day the Music Died. We love Princess Leia. Personally, I LOVED the CGI that brought back Peter Cushing as Tarkin and gave us young Leia at the end of Rogue One. But it's all the more heartbreaking that she's gone right after we heard her promise Hope.
And now her mother, Debbie Reynolds, too, which takes me back another stage of life, LOUDLY singing while spinning around light posts. (Hopefully when it was raining because otherwise I looked weird carrying that umbrella.)
It's nice when famous people use their fame to care about things that matter in the long-term instead of jumping onto whatever trendy political bandwagon is available. Bipolar is not an easy battle, and fighting against the stigma and shame of mental health could easily be considered her greatest accomplishment.
Goodbye, Carrie Fisher. Thank you.
Note: Edited because Jeff Caddick is a genius and pointed out that Uhura came first. Nyota Uhura is also amazing but pre-dates Leia. I had given credit in the wrong order.
