Editing Princess Leia (section)

=== Original trilogy ===
{{Main article|Star Wars original trilogy}}

==== ''Star Wars'' ====
Introduced in ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' (1977), Princess Leia of Alderaan is a member of the Imperial Senate and a leader in the Rebel Alliance. She is captured when Darth Vader boards her ship, demanding that she reveal the location of stolen architectural plans for the Death Star, the [[Galactic Empire (Star Wars)|Galactic Empire]]'s battle station. Before her interrogation, Leia hid the plans inside the [[droid (Star Wars)|droid]] [[R2-D2]], and sent him to find one of the last remaining Jedi, [[Obi-Wan Kenobi]]. Vader takes Leia to the Death Star and tortures her, but she offers him no information. The Death Star commander [[Grand Moff Tarkin]] threatens to destroy Alderaan unless she reveals the location of the Rebel base. She provides the location of an abandoned headquarters on Dantooine, but Tarkin obliterates Alderaan anyway. Leia is rescued by Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and [[Chewbacca]]. They escape aboard Han's ship, the ''[[Millennium Falcon]]''. After analyzing the Death Star schematics, the Rebels find a small weakness in the battle station, which allows Luke to destroy it with torpedoes launched from his [[X-wing fighter|X-wing]]. After the victory, Leia honors Luke, Han and Chewbacca for their heroism.[[File:Star Wars and the Power of Costume July 2018 13 (Princess Leia's white gown from Episode IV).jpg|thumb|upright|Princess Leia's white gown from the original ''Star Wars'' film]]In 2015, Alyssa Rosenberg of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' praised Leia's courage and resiliency while experiencing imprisonment, torture, and the destruction of her home planet.<ref name="WP Icon">{{cite news |last=Rosenberg |first=Alyssa |date=May 4, 2015 |title=Princess Leia, political icon |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/05/04/princess-leia-political-icon/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729115718/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/05/04/princess-leia-political-icon/ |archive-date=July 29, 2021 |access-date=November 11, 2015 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Rosenberg also notes that while Han is almost immediately attracted to Leia, they end up in conflict because she insists on asserting command and he automatically resists, even as she proves herself to be worthy of it.<ref name="WP Icon"/>

Fisher told ''Rolling Stone'' in 1980 that in the original script, when Luke and Han arrive to rescue Leia, she is unconscious, her eyes are yellow and she is hanging upside down, imagery which alludes to the 1973 horror film ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]''. Fisher explained that the scene was changed because Chewbacca would have had to carry Leia for an extended period of time.<ref name="RS 1980">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/slaves-to-the-empire-the-star-wars-kids-talk-back-19800724 |title=Slaves to the Empire: The ''Star Wars'' Kids Talk Back |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |first=Timothy |last=White |date=July 24, 1980 |access-date=December 16, 2015 |archive-date=December 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220143256/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/slaves-to-the-empire-the-star-wars-kids-talk-back-19800724 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== ''The Empire Strikes Back'' ====
In ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' (1980), Leia is commanding the Rebel base on [[Hoth]]. As Han prepares to leave the base to pay off Jabba, he tries to make Leia admit that she has romantic feelings for him. When Imperial forces arrive and assault the base, Leia leads an evacuation. She then flees with Han, Chewbacca and [[C-3PO]] in the ''Falcon''. While hiding in an asteroid field, Leia and Han share a kiss. With the ship needing repairs, Han seeks out his old friend [[Lando Calrissian]] in [[Bespin|Cloud City]]. Lando welcomes the group graciously, but has betrayed them to the Empire. He turns them over to Vader, who hopes to use them as bait to capture Luke. Leia confesses her love for Han as he is frozen in [[carbonite (Star Wars)|carbonite]] and handed over to the bounty hunter [[Boba Fett]]. As Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca escape from Cloud City, Leia senses that Luke is in trouble, and she orders Chewbacca to turn the ship around and rescue him. He was wounded during a [[lightsaber]] duel with Vader, and used the Force to contact Leia.

Commenting on Han's attempt to pry a confession of affection out Leia, Rosenberg asserts that "Han's not wrong that if Leia doesn't figure out that she's a person with needs, she's going to burn out ... In a way, it's an early confession of love: Han's anxious about the bounty hunters who are still pursuing him ... But he would stay and give his love and support to Leia if she could just acknowledge that she needs him."<ref name="WP Icon" />

==== ''Return of the Jedi'' ====
In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' (1983), Leia infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine disguised as the [[Ubese]] bounty hunter Boushh. She frees Han from the carbonite, but they are both recaptured by Jabba, who chains Leia and outfits her in a metal bikini. After Luke arrives and kills Jabba's [[rancor]], the crime lord sentences Luke, Han and Chewbacca to be fed to a [[Sarlacc]], a deadly ground-dwelling beast. The group overpowers their captors, and Leia strangles Jabba to death with her chain. The companions then escape the planet and return to the Rebel base. Later, they travel to the forest moon of [[Endor (Star Wars)|Endor]] to disable a shield protecting the second Death Star. There, Luke reveals to Leia that he is her twin brother and that Vader is their father. After joining forces with a tribe of [[Ewoks]], the Rebels manage to destroy the Death Star and defeat the Empire.

Following the release of ''Return of the Jedi,'' Fisher commented on the way Leia is depicted: "[She] gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let's not forget that these movies are basically boys' fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes."<ref name="Rolling Stone 1983"/>