Thirty years passed in the Star Wars universe after the end of The Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens. That's a lot of time for a lot of events to take place without us viewing them. Much of my time watching The Force Awakens was spent wondering how certain things had come to be. How did Chewie and Han lose the Millennium Falcon? Why does this First Order thing exist? Who is Snoke and why have we never heard of him before?
A lot of my questions for the first film in the sequel trilogy centered on General Leia Organa. How had she become a General? Why was she separated from Han? When did she form the Resistance? These questions would have gone unanswered if new material, such as novels and comic books, had not been published. These new stories filled in the gaps, explaining much, if not all, of what happened to our beloved Princess Leia.
If you haven't read any of the new canon, prepare to be shocked. A lot happened to Leia that the movies did not reveal. Leia, more than any of the other characters from the original trilogy, experienced dramatic change as she struggled to set up a new government for the galaxy after the Empire was toppled. Not only did that government struggle to gain solid footing, we also know from The Force Awakens that it was annihilated by the First Order. Read on if you want to learn about Leia's crazy experiences after The Return of the Jedi.
25 Threepio's Employment
After Leia formed the Resistance, she needed someone who could collect and maintain a record of what her enemies were up to. For some reason I can’t quite figure out, she gave Threepio this position.
Leia made C-3PO her Spymaster.
Why Leia, a typically intelligent leader, would decide to give a neurotic droid a position that you would think would require subtlety is beyond me. Threepio has always sort of been a bumbling fool of a droid. As the leader of the Resistance’s network of spy droids, he would have to lose that particular personality trait.
24 The Perfect Time To Get Married
The Battle of Endor was a great win for the Rebel Alliance. However, despite the victory, the Rebels probably still had a lot to take care of. Despite the Emperor’s death, the Empire still existed and needed to be properly dismantled. But there’s always time for a wedding, am I right?
Leia and Han Solo had a small ceremony the very day after the battle of Endor was fought and won. Those two wasted no time in getting hitched. And if you think about it from a certain point of view, that means Leia got married a day after her father was cremated.
23 Public Exposure
Being the daughter of one of the worst (or best, if you think about it) Dark Lords of the Sith is not an easy thing to live with. It’s also a difficult thing to have in your closet if you’re trying to maintain a political career.
As Leia was struggling to get herself elected as First Senator, a position that would have hopefully allowed her to smooth the rifts growing in the Galactic Senate, she was exposed as being the daughter of Darth Vader. Not many people took this news in stride. After that, Leia’s political career was over.
22 Always Help The Ewoks
The Ewoks, despite having a primitive culture, were instrumental in the defeat of the Empire on Endor. Leia did not forget this. After the triumph of the Battle of Endor, Leia stuck around on the forest moon and helped the Ewoks out by rebuilding and resetting all of the traps they had used to fight the Imperials.
Do you remember those log and vine traps the Ewoks had built everywhere? Yeah, so that’s what Leia helped the Ewoks with. I guess you never know when some rotten Imperial army is going to stumble into your forest again.
21 Worst Nanny Ever
Leia was deep in politics when she was expecting little Ben Solo. In order to have someone who could assist her in times of trouble, Leia had a nanny droid named T-2LC. This droid, affectionately known as “Elsie,” was very fond of Leia and her family.
Unfortunately for everyone, some of Leia’s political opponents placed listening devices on Elsie. Leia’s nanny droid became an unknowing accomplice in the plot to ruin Leia’s political endeavors. It’s a shame when you can’t even trust your own nanny.
20 Princess Promotions
For all of the time that we have known Leia Organa, she has been Princess Leia. When Luke rescued her on the first Death Star that was what we knew her as. When she and Han were traveling together on the Millennium Falcon, he called her “Princess” or “Your Highness” more often than he called her Leia.
It was only after she left the Republic to form the Resistance that she became known as General Organa. I think both Princess Leia and General Organa have a very nice ring to them.
19 Trusting A Wayward Uncle
Luke Skywalker seems like a reliable sort of fellow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I would hand my child over to him for years on end for strange Jedi training. However, that’s exactly what Leia did with her son, Ben.
When Ben started exhibiting Force abilities, Leia thought that the best person to train him would be her brother. But giving Ben over to Luke meant that Leia would not be able to see her son for quite a while. Luke’s school for Jedi-in-training was definitely not on the same planet that Leia worked on.
18 Who Are The Amaxine Warriors?
The Empire was not the only problem that plagued our favorite galaxy far, far away. After the Battle of Endor, Leia had to deal with so many issues. It’s almost as if people immediately forgot what it was like to be ruled by a bad Emperor.
One of the troubles that hounded Leia was the Amaxine Warriors, a militant group that admires the ways of the Empire. Leia investigated this group for actions taken against the New Republic. Unfortunately, this group was just a front for the real plotters already within the government.
17 Stand By Your Wookie
Chewbacca may be Han Solo’s main buddy, but that doesn’t mean that Leia doesn’t care about her husband’s Wookie friend too. The destruction of the second Death Star did not end the Empire along with the Emperor.
Chewie’s home planet of Kashyyyk was still under Imperial rule. Leia took time out of her government-building schedule to go assist Chewie in his hour of need. Both she and Han traveled to Kashyyyk to help the Wookies throw out those cursed Stormtroopers once and for all.
16 The Unpopular Populists
The galaxy was not a peace-loving utopia after the end of the Empire. You would hope that everyone would be sick and tired of strife, but the New Republic became split into two factions.
The Centrists believed that a new central government should run things similar to how the Empire used to run things. The Populists believed that every planet should have sovereign rule over their own affairs. Leia Organa, as you can probably guess, was a staunch Populist. Seriously, who wants another government similar to the Empire?
15 Was It Already A Strained Marriage?
As you might have already suspected, Leia and Han did not spend that much time together as husband and wife. A lot of their adventures happened when they were apart.
Han spent most of his time helping his friend Chewie reunite with his family. Leia spent most of her time trying to establish a working form of government for the galaxy that wasn’t an Empire. (Leia’s task definitely sounds the more daunting of the two.) Maybe a separation was in the stars for them before their son turned to the Dark Side.
14 A Bouncing Baby Boy
Han and Leia wasted no time in getting married, and they also wasted no time starting a family.
Leia gave birth to baby Ben Solo within a year after the Battle of Endor.
Given that pregnancies usually never last more than nine months, you can bet that Han and Leia got busy during the first three months of their relationship. I don’t blame them for this. For most of the original trilogy, they always danced around the idea of liking each other. I would want to cut to the chase if I was in their position too.
13 Her Final Resignation
Leia always seemed like a firm believer in the power of righteous politics. It came as no surprise to me that she followed her mother’s footsteps and became a Senator later on in her life. What did surprise me is that she resigned as a Senator when she could have stayed and tried to continue a life of politics.
After being outed as Darth Vader’s daughter, Leia felt she had to leave the Senate floor. Admittedly, she formed the Resistance right afterwards, so it’s not like she just gave up trying to effect change.
12 How Did She Meet Poe Dameron's Mom?
Poe Dameron is not just some hotshot pilot that Leia thinks could be a phenomenal Resistance fighter. She has history with Poe’s family. Leia knew Poe’s mother, Shara Bey. They worked together right after the destruction of the Empire.
In fact, Leia saved Shara’s life.
So in a way, Poe can thank Leia for being alive. If Leia hadn’t saved Shara, Shara would not have gotten together with her husband and had her child. And then we would have all missed out on knowing our favorite ace Resistance pilot.
11 The Nefarious Nikto Cartel
Will it never be trite for a Princess to be captured? Not only was Princess Leia captured by Imperials at the beginning of A New Hope, she was also captured by the Nikto Cartel after the events of The Return of the Jedi.
The Nikto Cartel is a criminal group who has some definite hatred for the Hutts. They captured Leia when she was trying to work for the New Republic. Even though they kept her prisoner, they made sure to thank her for choking the life out of Jabba the Hutt when she was his prisoner.
10 Picking Out Poe
When Leia first heard of the work that Poe Dameron was doing with his group of X-Wing fighter pilots, she was impressed. She invited Poe to join the Resistance because she thought her guerilla group could use people like him.
He quickly grew to be one of her favorites.
There was not a mission that she sent him on that he did not complete to satisfaction. And that’s no small thing to say. The Resistance was facing an uphill climb when it came to enacting change. Poe’s help made a huge difference.
9 Trusting The Right People
I wouldn’t trust an Imperial agent as far as I could throw them. Leia, on the other hand, not only trusted an Imperial agent, she trusted two. Iden Versio and Del Meeko were two Imperial defectors from the infamous Imperial group known as Inferno Squad.
Inferno Squad had done so much damage to the Rebellion in the past, I can’t understand why Leia was so quick to trust these two. And don’t go spouting off that bull-turkey about “hope.” True, she ended up being right about them, but what if she had been wrong?
8 The Hunt For Luke Skywalker
I understand why Poe Dameron rose so high in General Leia Organa’s esteem, and I understand why she would select him for hard-to-accomplish missions. But she entrusted him, and only him, with the perilous quest of locating her lost brother.
After Kylo Ren destroyed Luke’s burgeoning school of young Jedi trainees, Luke went into hiding. Leia sent Poe Dameron to see if he could find Luke. That was a huge responsibility to set on the shoulders of a guy who ended up being kind of a fool in The Last Jedi.
7 Meeting Mas
Do any of you guys remember who Mas Amedda is? Just in case you forgot, he was that large, blue-skinned alien with head tentacles that always followed Chancellor Palpatine around in the prequel trilogy.
Mas ended up being a high-ranking member of the Empire, even though we don’t necessarily see him in the original trilogy. After the Emperor perished aboard the second Death Star, Leia met with Mas Amedda to see if she could discuss the Empire’s terms of surrender. It is occasionally nice to see the high and mighty brought low.
6 Befriending The Enemy
The political factions of the New Republic, the Centrists and the Populists, fought all the time. They could never seem to come to an agreement with how things should be run. Despite being a staunch Populist, Leia became close friends with a staunch Centrist.
Ransolm Casterfo was a fellow Senator of Leia’s, except he believed that a central government should still rule the galaxy. Their friendship became strained after Casterfo found out Leia was the daughter of Darth Vader, but they ended up still respecting each other.