Leia Organa Solo

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Leia Organa Solo (born Leia Amidala Skywalker) was the daughter of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, and the younger twin sister of Luke Skywalker. After her birth she became the adopted daughter of Bail Organa and Queen Breha of Alderaan, making her a Princess of Alderaan. An accomplished Senator, Organa was most famous for her strong leadership during the Galactic Civil War and other subsequent galactic conflicts, making her one of the galaxy's greatest heroes. Later she married Han Solo and became the mother of their three children: Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo. Around the start of the Swarm War, Leia unknowingly became a grandmother through Jacen's daughter Allana.

One of the most important figures in the Galactic Civil War and the New Republic, she could have been simply another galactic denizen had she not been adopted by Bail Organa. Politician, fighter, and spy were the roles that awaited her instead. She had a forceful personality and bright intellect, having accomplished much in her youth: she was a strong proponent for the Rebel Alliance, the youngest Senator ever of the Galactic Empire at eighteen standard years of age, and a member of the Royal Family of Alderaan. Years later, she was elected Chief of State of the New Republic and served twice in that office.

Though raised in the privileged surroundings of a peaceful planet that had banished weapons from its culture, the times were dark and this fiery diplomat received martial training in order to defend herself, both with a blaster and just her bare hands. She would use this training in the numerous wars and other conflicts that shook the galaxy during her lifetime.

Due to her powerful Force heritage, Leia, following her family's legacy, became a Jedi Knight in the New Jedi Order, partially trained by her brother Luke and later by Saba Sebatyne, who declared her a fully trained Knight at the end of the Swarm War. This training would serve her well as the galaxy teetered on the edge of collapse into civil war once more during the Second Galactic Civil War, although it complicated her allegiance. During this conflict, Leia's son Jacen turned to the Dark side of the Force, becoming the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. Leia and Han became determined to destroy Caedus, feeling that their son was already dead. However, it would be their daughter Jaina who ended his life in a fierce lightsaber duel, that also concluded the war.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life (19–1 BBY) 1.1.1 Birth and adoption into the House of Organa 1.1.2 The tomboy Princess 1.1.3 A senator in the making 1.2 Imperial Senate and involvement in the Rebellion (1–0 BBY) 1.2.1 The rebel Senator 1.2.2 Mission to Ralltiir and the Battle of Kattada[29] 1.3 Early Galactic Civil War (0 BBY–4 ABY) 1.3.1 Death Star I campaign[4] 1.3.2 Hero of the Rebellion 1.3.3 Crisis at Cloud City[38] 1.3.4 Rescue of Han Solo 1.3.5 Endor and a shocking revelation[13] 1.4 Founding of the New Republic (4–8 ABY) 1.4.1 Truce at Bakura 1.4.2 Nagai-Tof War 1.4.3 Leader of the New Republic 1.4.4 Disastrous courtship 1.5 Return of the Empire (9–19 ABY) 1.5.1 Thrawn campaign 1.5.2 Return of Palpatine 1.5.3 Jedi search 1.5.4 Planet of twilight[62] 1.5.5 Waru 1.5.6 Black Fleet Crisis 1.5.7 Almanian Uprising[64] 1.5.8 First Corellian Insurrection 1.5.9 Caamas Document Crisis 1.6 The Yuuzhan Vong War (25–29 ABY) 1.6.1 A new threat 1.6.2 Death of a son and aftermath 1.6.3 Aiding the war effort 1.7 The Dark Nest Crisis (35–36 ABY) 1.7.1 A cry for help[9] 1.7.2 Swarm War 1.8 Second Galactic Civil War (40 ABY) 1.8.1 Rising tensions 1.8.2 Allegiance with Corellia 1.8.3 Breaking from Corellia 1.8.4 Opposing Jacen 2 Personality 3 Talents 4 Romances 4.1 Raal Panteer 4.2 Luke Skywalker 4.3 Fenn Shysa 4.4 Prince Denid 4.5 Prince Xizor 4.6 Trioculus 4.7 Prince Isolder 4.8 Han Solo 5 Behind the scenes 5.1 Portrayal 5.2 Character development 5.3 Name 5.4 Costumes 5.5 Her real mother 5.6 Princess Leia's Theme 5.7 Senator Leia Organa, Sith apprentice 6 Appearances 6.1 Non canon appearances 7 Sources 8 Notes and references 9 See also 10 External links

Biography

Early life (19–1 BBY)

Birth and adoption into the House of Organa

Leia was born on the asteroid colony of Polis Massa in 19 BBY, shortly after the start of the Great Jedi Purge and the foundation of the Galactic Empire. Mere seconds after her birth, her mother Padmé Amidala died, effectively orphaning Leia and her older twin brother Luke.^[2]

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda knew that the children, both strong in the Force, had to be protected from Emperor Palpatine. Deciding it would be best if they were separated, the two Jedi Masters agreed to send the infant boy to live with his father's stepbrother Owen Lars and his wife Beru on Tatooine. Leia was adopted and raised by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and his wife, Queen Breha Antilles Organa.^[2] Through adoption, Leia Amidala Skywalker became Princess Leia Organa.^[10] Nineteen years would pass before the twins saw each other again.^[4]

The orphaned daughter of the Naboo Senator and a fallen Jedi Knight was given a loving home within the House of Organa, one of the galaxy's so-called Ancient Houses.^[11] Her adoptive parents could not have children of their own,^[12] so Leia became the heir of the Royal House of Alderaan. Although the Organas were not trying to hide the fact that Leia was adopted,^[1] they never informed the Princess of her true parentage, nor did they reveal the existence of her twin brother.^[13] However, during the short time between her birth and her mother's death,^[2] Leia gained a faint memory of her mother as a beautiful and kind, yet sad woman.^[13]

Leia had a large extended family to take part in her upbringing. It included Silya Shessaun, a mentor and a friend of Amidala,^[14] Queen Breha's sister Deara,^[15] and Bail Organa's three sisters Tia, Rouge, and Celly, whom Leia described as "three redoubtable dowagers" that "made her girlhood an intermittent burden."^[11]

Even though Leia was rather advanced for her age, having learned to speak and walk before the age of one, she did not show any signs of Force potential—much to the relief of her father, who knew that being a Force-sensitive in Palpatine's Empire would be a heavy burden. However, she had inherited her real father's gift, which surfaced for the first time in 18 BBY when her caregiver Memily was about to lean on a weakened fence. Leia threw a laserball at it, alerting Memily and saving her life.^[15]

Because of the incident, Leia became a target of the Galactic Empire for the first, but certainly not the last time. Word of a child with extraordinary reflexes had reached Coruscant, and Inquisitors Ferus Olin and Hydra were sent to investigate. Olin, a former Jedi apprentice, was in fact a double agent trying to save as many Force-sensitives as possible, and had come to Alderaan on Obi-Wan Kenobi's behest. Even though the Inquisitorius was not aware of the child's gender, Kenobi feared the toddler might be Leia and wanted to turn the Empire's eye away from Alderaan. Olin covered up the incident, stating it was nothing more than a rumor, and Leia's heritage remained a secret. The Imperial informer turned out to be Deara Antilles; Queen Breha had mercy on her sister, but exiled her from the royal family forever.^[15] Ferus would soon decide to watch over Leia and protect her from the dark side and the Empire.

The tomboy Princess

The Princess, nicknamed Lelila,^[16] grew up with the two years older Winter, an orphaned daughter of one of Bail Organa's aides. Ever since being adopted by the Organa family, Winter was Leia's best friend and companion. With a natural grace and poise, she was often mistaken for the Princess of Alderaan by court visitors, while the tomboy Leia was regarded as a domestic girl.^[17]

Leia exhibited little of the upper-class gentility, which was a constant source of despair to her aunts Tia, Rouge, and Celly. Nevertheless, they were determined to turn her to what they called "a Proper Princess," and hired deportment teachers to drill into her a behavior fitting for the heir of an Ancient House.^[11]

One part of making her a lady was to learn how a princess dresses up and does her hair. According to Alderaanian customs, Leia's hair was allowed to grow long^[16] and arranged into elaborate hairstyles. Ironically, one of Leia's trademark symbols—her signature "bun" coiffure—was inherited from her mother's homeworld of Naboo,^[10] although a long time passed before she came to know it. To avoid the tiring hairstyling, she even cut her hair once—only to be forced to wear a wig, even though she argued that she did not need earmuffs in the summer.^[18]

While Leia disliked being "everyone's dress-up doll,"^[18] her bright and outspoken nature blossomed out when she had a chance to learn diplomacy, government and languages.^[19] Like her birth mother before her, Leia had the benefit of palace education: best equipment and the finest tutors,^[20] among them Arn Horada, who instructed her in galactic politics and history.^[21]

Wanting to expose her to as many experiences as possible, Bail often took his daughter along to trips to other worlds,^[20] such as Ithor, where he attended the Time of the Meeting as the representative of the Imperial Senate. About six years old at the time, the Meeting was an unforgettable experience for Leia.^[11] She also visited Alderaan's secret Caamasi colony in her childhood.^[22]

Besides receiving palace education, Leia attended the Alderaan Select Academy for Young Ladies under the tutelage of the strict Madame Vesta. Together with other daughters of Alderaanian nobles, the Princess learned etiquette, table manners and many other useful (and to her mind, rather boring) things that a lady needed to know.^[18] During this time, Leia saw the downside of the upper class as well: one of her school friends used drugs,^[11] many of the girls had a condescending attitude towards ordinary people, and expensive parties were thrown in the court even though many in the galaxy were hungry and suffering.^[18]

Despite knowing that she was loved, Leia sometimes felt an outsider to her family. Winter was like a sister to her, but the young Princess still wished she had a brother or a sister of her own, someone she could truly feel close to.^[18] In her growing years, she often felt that she was just slightly different, without exactly knowing how,^[11] and that a part of her was missing. It can only be assumed that this was an indication of her latent Force-sensitivity and of the lingering twin bond with Luke Skywalker.^[18]

Winter remained a comfort to Leia, despite the differences in their personality. Though the pair's physical resemblance was tempered by Winter's stunning white hair, the two friends soon learned to employ similar looks for tactical advantage, a practice they would continue throughout their lives. Winter sometimes disguised herself as Leia so that the Princess could escape the Aldera Royal Palace to create mischief and visit inappropriate boys.^[18] Leia also befriended Neena, a musically talented girl about her age who lived in the Organa household.^[23]

Once she reached her adolescent years, Leia became friends with Heeth and Raal Panteer. She and Raal fell in love soon after, but the relationship failed to last. Organa and the Panteer brothers would meet again during the Galactic Civil War.^[24]

A senator in the making

Leia showed promise in politics and from early on, Bail Organa began grooming her to one day succeed him in the Imperial Senate, encouraging her to attend Alderaanian debates and palace receptions for offworld personnel.^[20] In this Leia unknowingly followed the footsteps of her late birth mother, who had entered politics at an early age and became a Senator. Indeed, Leia resembled Padmé Amidala in many ways: she was confident, poised, and a had a quick political wit.^[19]

When Leia was thirteen, she met Wilhuff Tarkin for the first time when he came to visit Bail Organa on Alderaan. She had heard a lot about the Moff from her father, none of it good. She instantly disliked him, holding that he represented everything that was wrong with the Empire. Leia was particularly disgusted with the idea of Tarkin having a slave, as she did not understand how it was possible that the Emperor allowed slavery. The visit made her seriously contemplate what kind of galaxy she lived in, and what she could do to change it.^[18]

At the age of 16, Leia attended the University of Alderaan together with Winter, whose holographic and audiographic memory, as Leia would joke, was very useful with homework. They studied history and art, two subjects the Empire seemed eager to suppress, which in Bail Organa's opinion was all the more reason to study them.^[18] Leia also began training with Giles Durane, a mercenary her father had hired to teach her self-defense and marksmanship.^[25] True to her tomboyish nature, she enjoyed these lessons far more than those of Madame Vesta, and showed considerable talent in both areas.^[18]

Around this time, Leia began to realize that her father was preparing her for something more than just becoming the next Senator of her home planet. A month before turning 17, she accidentally overheard a secret HoloNet meeting Bail Organa was having with fellow Senators Mon Mothma of Chandrila and Garm Bel Iblis of Corellia, where the name Alliance to Restore the Republic came up. Leia's hatred for the Empire had been growing over the years—she certainly found their treatment of non-Humans and women atrocious and their desire to control everything appalling—but this was the first time she heard anyone discuss an open rebellion. She decided not the tell her father what she had heard, but promised herself to make him proud and do whatever it took to restore the freedoms the Empire was systematically taking away.^[18]

Among the old Houses, it was customary to bring the daughters to Coruscant when they finished school at seventeen—or even sixteen, if the parents were ambitious to start the long and complex search of a suitable groom candidate at the Imperial Court. The Princess's aunts would have been glad to see their niece marry someone from one of the other Ancient Houses; Leia, however, regarded their heirs as "brainless twerps" and refused to be presented to the Emperor until she could do so as a Senator in her own right, not simply as a young girl in the Court marriage market. Her aunts were horrified, doubly so when Leia's decision was backed by Bail Organa.^[11]

The time for Leia's introduction at the Imperial Palace came soon enough, though. At the age of 18,^[source?] she became the youngest Imperial Senator ever elected, and Bail Organa formally presented her to Palpatine shortly before she assumed her Senatorial post. Having witnessed earlier a Caamasi being arrested by two stormtroopers for simply trying to buy a meal at a restaurant, Leia firmly decided that she would bring up the issue to Palpatine at the same time.^[26]

When she met the Emperor, however, she became frightened by the pure evil radiating from him and was unable to do anything more than mutter thanks to his compliments as Darth Vader watched. Following the reception, Bail assured her that there was nothing to be ashamed of, as it was a common reaction to seeing Palpatine, especially for the first time. To make her feel better, Organa told Leia how proud he was of her, and related a piece of good news—he had arranged for the Caamasi she saw arrested to be released. Happy, Leia went to meet the Caamasi, who introduced himself as Eg'Ros Akala.^[26]

Imperial Senate and involvement in the Rebellion (1–0 BBY)

The rebel Senator

In 1 BBY, Bail Organa stepped down as Senator of Alderaan—a position he had held for thirty-one years—and Leia took his place. The day her father retired, Leia told him that she knew about the Rebellion, and that she wanted to make a difference together with him. A keen political thinker, Leia knew that her diplomatic immunity and consular ship would be perfect for running covert missions for the Alliance. Bail agreed, and thus began Leia's double life as a Senator and a Rebel.^[18]

Young Senator Organa inherited her father's diplomatic cruiser, the Corellian corvette Tantive IV. Her uncle Raymus Antilles, who had served under Bail Organa as well, continued as the captain of the ship, and Leia's cousin Corla Metonae was also part of the vessel's crew.^[27] Winter accompanied Leia to Coruscant as an aide; she was aware of the Princess's involvement in the Rebellion, and participated in many of the Alliance's operations herself in the following years.

During her time in the Senate, Leia worked with Senator Pooja Naberrie of Naboo, her maternal cousin. The two became good friends, completely unaware of their familial relationship.^[28] Not everyone was pleased with the young Senator, however. Despite her first intimidating encounter with Palpatine, Leia became one of the leading voices of criticism towards the Emperor's policies.^[20] Being somewhat of a political firebrand, her outraged sense of justice made some people feel threatened, while others viewed her as pathetically idealistic. Drost Elegin, head of the Ancient House Elegin and a notorious playboy at Palpatine's court, mockingly called her "Madame Senator" and "Little Miss Inalienable Rights."^[11]

Shortly after becoming a Senator, Organa began working with fellow Senator Mon Mothma on the Rebel war effort against the Empire. During her years in the Alliance, Leia was taken by Mothma as her political protégé and groomed Organa for eventual leadership.

Mission to Ralltiir and the Battle of Kattada^[29]

Prior to the Battle of Yavin 4 Leia went on a diplomatic mission to Ralltiir, a world subjugated by the Empire. It was here that she discovered a wounded Rebel who possessed vital information on the Death Star. While in the process of rescuing him, Leia encountered the Moff of Ralltiir, Lord Tion. After getting the information, Leia rescued the Rebel. Later, Leia killed Tion in self-defense, making her an enemy of the Empire. After discovering the Imperial superweapon, Rebel spies were able to steal the Death Star's blueprints, sending them to the Rebel Alliance before being killed.

Following the trip to Ralltiir where they retrieved the Ralltiir rebel, Basso, Princess Leia and her uncle Raymus Antilles traveled on the Tantive IV to Kattada's main space port in Haloeda. Upon arriving, they were greeted by Haloeda's ruler Madam Mia Ikova, a sympathizer of the Rebel Alliance. Later, at the spaceport, Leia and Mia Ikova received word from a messenger that an Imperial patrol ship was landing. By then, Leia and her crew had realized that it was too late to escape and that they could not leave Mia Ikova and her people to deal with the Empire alone. Shortly after, a force of stormtroopers and scout troopers departed from the landed on the planet under the command of Commander Karg, who announced that all who were present were under arrest in the name of Emperor Palpatine. After refusing to surrender Karg ordered his legion of stormtroopers to shoot, injuring Mia.

Enraged at her refusal to surrender, Karg attempted to shoot Leia. Luckily, Leia was saved when the Tantive IV turbolaser turret opened fire on Karg, wounding him severely. The Tantive IV's crew then retrieved Leia, Ikova and Karg and brought them to the medical bay. Unfortunately, Mia wasn't able to overcome her injuries and died. Leia blamed herself for what had happened and wished she had never come to Kattada. Ikova's father responded by reminding Leia that she had come to seek help for the rebels on Ralltiir who needed their aid badly and that she should not let what had occurred sway her from her purpose, before presumably dying. Later, Organa lead a ground assault, successfully neutralizing the imperial threat on the planet. Following the battle, Leia left for Alderaan on the Tantive IV after saying farewell to her Kattadan allies.

After the disastrous Battle of Kattada, Organa was contacted by her father, giving her an important mission to track down Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and bring him to Alderaan. Leia set a course to the planet Tatooine with the stolen Death Star plans in tow.

Early Galactic Civil War (0 BBY–4 ABY)

Death Star I campaign^[4]

In 0 BBY, Organa was captured along with her ship, the Tantive IV, by Darth Vader. The Sith Lord sought to recover the plans for the Death Star I, which Imperial Intelligence suggested had been stolen by Rebel spy Kyle Katarn.

Unknown to Vader, the young senator had hidden the plans inside an R2 unit, R2-D2, and sent the droid to find the legendary Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi on the planet Tatooine. Leia attempted to hide from the stormtroopers in her ship, but was found and stunned after shooting one of them with her sporting blaster. She was brought before Lord Vader, who accused her of treason, although Leia denied any connection with the Alliance.

Vader brought her to the Death Star I, where he personally interrogated and tortured her, seeking the location of the plans and the hidden Rebel base from which the Empire suspected the Alliance was striking. Remarkably, she managed to keep silent, despite Vader's Sith powers and the use of an interrogation droid.

Wilhuff Tarkin, Leia's old acquaintance and now a Grand Moff, threatened Organa with the destruction of her homeworld, Alderaan, if she did not reveal the location of the Rebel base. She lied, giving them instead the location of a long-since abandoned base on Dantooine. Tarkin proceeded with the destruction of Alderaan regardless, one of the most infamous acts of the Empire and a shocking example of the Tarkin doctrine of rule by terror. Leia was then placed in a holding cell and scheduled to be executed, while the Imperial Navy deployed scout craft to investigate Dantooine.

Princess Organa's message had reached Obi-Wan Kenobi by this time, and he set out from Tatooine with Luke Skywalker, intending to bring R2-D2 to Leia on Alderaan. Kenobi had hired Han Solo as a pilot. Arriving in the Alderaan system shortly after the world's destruction, the Millennium Falcon was captured by the Death Star's tractor beam.

Surprisingly, this small group managed to avoid immediate capture. Finding that Organa was on the station, they set out to rescue her. Killing a number of stormtroopers they succeeded in rescuing Leia. Tarkin had by this point discovered that Dantooine was indeed abandoned. In order to find the true location of the hidden base, he ordered his soldiers to allow the small band to escape with Leia, after planting a tracking device on the Falcon. Darth Vader, meanwhile, set out to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom he later killed in a duel.

Organa realized that her escape must have been deliberately permitted by the Empire, and surmised that the ship was being tracked. However, she nonetheless decided to return to the base on Yavin 4.

Presumably, she would have been arrested immediately had she tried to land on any inhabited Imperial world, and finding another place to trade ships would have been complicated and dangerous. (Locating the tracking device would have been virtually impossible, given how small such a device could be.) This was a risk, of course: if no weakness could be found, or if the discovered weakness could only be exploited by, for instance, a saboteur on board the Death Star, it would be necessary to stage a massive evacuation.

Returning to Yavin 4, Princess Organa found that her gamble had paid off, as the plans did in fact reveal a weakness that starfighters could potentially exploit. At the Battle of Yavin, the Death Star was destroyed by Organa's twin brother, Luke Skywalker (although this familial relationship was unknown by both twins at this time). This marked a turning point for the Rebellion.

Following the Rebel victory at the Battle of Yavin, Leia held a public ceremony, rewarding Luke Skywalker and Han Solo for their accomplishments and heroism during the battle. She gave Han the rank of Captain and Luke the rank of Commander.

Hero of the Rebellion

Several days after the Battle of Yavin, Leia received reports that Han Solo was stealing Sith treasure from the ancient temples on the forest moon. She, along with Luke, raced out to catch him, but he rocketed away in the Millennium Falcon just as they got to the temple. Furious, she denounced Solo, despite his efforts at the major battle, and issued a warrant for his arrest, should he return to Yavin 4. When he did return, she found out that the treasure was sold to finance the Alliance, and she forgave him. Subsequently, she went with him on a mission to the Incom Factory to negotiate the purchase of new X-wings with Vors Voorhorian.^[30]

With Organa now exposed as a Rebel, she took over the Alliance's diplomatic efforts. At the Conference of Uncommitted Worlds on Kabal, she won the Alliance the support of Silver Fyre and her Aquaris Freeholders.^[31] She also encouraged sedition among the planets of the distant Minos Cluster.^[23]

A week after the Battle of Yavin, Leia, R2-D2, and Luke traveled to Rebel base of Akuria II to insure against a sudden Imperial counter-attack on Yavin. But because Artoo wasn't properly repaired the ship went off course. After a near-miss with an Imperial fleet, Organa and Skywalker encountered four android children, who had the power to control the elements, and a computerized "Keeper" on a formerly war-torn world who helped them to escape the Imperials.^[32]

During the time period shortly after the Battle of Yavin, Leia was assigned to go Shelkonwa to meet with an Adarian named Chivkyrie to see if she could integrate three separate Adarian groups into the Rebel Alliance. Originally, Luke and Han were going to go with her, but a series of pirate attacks on their supply lines caused the Alliance to send them to investigate, and Han's attention had been annoying her anyways. She would later regret that decision, though. Arriving on Shelkonwa, Leia met with the leaders of the resistance groups, and later with Administrator Vilim Disra, who she had been told wanted to seek to join the Alliance. However, Disra, upon seeing her, double-crossed them, locking down the spaceports and starting a search for her. Leia took cover in a small lower-income neighborhood, posing as a tapcafe waitress. While there, she foiled a burglary attempt on a nearby tenement, causing the local populace to not tell patrollers of her presence. Eventually, Vader and the 501st Legion arrived in search of her, but Han, Luke, and Chewie arrived on Shelkonwa, having heard that she was in trouble. Using an ISB freighter that had been appropriated by the Hand of Judgment, who were working with Han, Luke, and Chewie, they made their way back to the Falcon, where the Rebels and rogue stormtroopers parted ways.^[33]

Against Luke's better judgment, Leia sought the help of Raal Panteer, a childhood friend from Alderaan, in finding a new location for the Rebel base. Raal did not care for the Rebellion much, though he did care for Leia, and proposed that she stay on the moon with him and together they could preserve a bit of Alderaan together. When Leia accompanied Raal on a tour through the wild preserve, they crash-landed on planet where Panteer was bitten by a creature and died. Enraged Heeth ordered Leia to leave the planet, refusing to help the Rebellion.^[24]

Shortly after the loss of their base on Yavin 4, Leia, Nera Dantels, and Jorin Sol accompanied Luke to Jabiim where they discovered that the locals had a personal vendetta against Anakin Skywalker after he abandoned them to the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. They were captured by the natives shortly after. Having managed an escape from the rebel group who wanted revenge for their father's actions during the Clone Wars, Leia, Luke, and the droids fought their way through Imperial stormtroopers and encountered Nolan Gillmunn, a local resistance leader and son of Orliss Gillmunn. Becoming allied with Nolan and his band of rebels, Organa and the others participated in the Second Battle of Jabiim.^[34]

In 1 ABY Organa traveled to Metalorn on a mission to spread the message of hope to its residents. Metalorn, a factory planet, had been controlled by the Empire, under the direction of Governor Corwyth with no information of the Rebellion reaching its citizens. Leia managed to evade Imperial stormtroopers long enough to contact her former instructor Arn Horada in order for him to spread the word that the Rebel Alliance actively opposed the Empire's tyranny. Soon after Organa was confronted by Baron Orman Tagge before she was able to establish any details, but managed to escape with the help of a youngster named Tammi.^[21]

Sometime after the Battle of Yavin 4, Leia, accompanied by Luke, crash-landed on Mimban. On Mimban Leia and Luke encountered Halla, a Force-sensitive. They struck a deal with the Halla, promising to find the Kaiburr crystal if she aided in their escape. During their search, Leia and Luke confronted Darth Vader. Darth Vader managed to injure Skywalker and would have killed him if it weren't for Leia. Using Luke's lightsaber, Leia briefly dueled the Dark Lord and was quickly defeated due to her inexperience with the weapon. Luke was able to heal her wounds with the Kaiburr crystal and defeated Vader, with the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi's spirit. Leia subsequently secured funding from the Circarpous IV business underground after revealing an illegal Imperial mine on Mimban.^[35]

Shortly after the disastrous mission to Mimban, Leia was able to access lost Organa resources of money and capital on Ord Mantell greatly needed for the Rebel war effort. Leia also focused her efforts on rallying planets to help them defeat the Empire. On one occasion she traveled to the Minos Cluster, where she helped unify Rebellion against the Empire.

As the war continued, Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Rebellion finance minister Viscount Tardi traveled to the banking world of Aargau to complete the financing of a sale of X-wing fighters to the Rebellion. However they were unaware of Darth Vader and his entourage of paid assassins was also on the planet.^[36]

Vader's assassins made several attempts on Tardi's life, but Leia's quick wit not only saved the Viscount, but destroyed the assassins as well. Ultimately Vader was forced to play his hand and cut Tardi down with his lightsaber, only to discover that Viscount Tardi was actually just a droid made in his image and the real Tardi had died months ago. Leia had R2 record video images of the "murder" and transmitted them to C-3PO who was at police headquarters in order to prevent Vader from exposing their ruse to the authorities. Leia needed the fake Viscount to secure the loan, and used the Crown Jewels of Alderaan as indisputable collateral. As a precaution Leia had to manipulate Vader into destroying the duplicate droid of Tardi.^[36]

Unbeknownst to Organa, Darth Vader had manipulated her as he really had no interest in preventing her financial deal for the starfighters, he only wanted to take possession of the priceless Alderaanian jewels. He bribed an officer at the local customs station, and acquired the treasure, and had only played along with Leia's plan to ensure he could leave the planet without the jewels being missed by the authorities. Nonetheless Leia secured the funding for the starfighters.^[36]

Just before the Fifth Battle of Yavin IV and the imminent Rebel evacuation, a transport filled with Alderaanian refugees, Bail Organa landed at the Rebel base. As Leia went out to greet them, she was reunited with Darlen, a friend from her life as a Princess on the destroyed planet.^[37] Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Princess Leia and Captain Chedaki went to investigate Imperial activity in the Shiva system, but as the two entered a shuttle to go down to the planet Shiva IV, the ship was damaged by a space mine that caused an explosion that killed Chedaki. Leia was forced to launch the damaged shuttle in order to protect the ship and the rest of the crew from harm.

The shuttle crashed on Shiva IV, soon after Leia was immediately attacked by a savage raiding party. A group of natives led by Aron Peacebringer and Kéral Longknife repelled the raiders and rescued the princess. After her encounter with the raiding party Leia returned to the capital Illyriaqüm with Aron, and tried to warn him of the danger that the Galactic Empire posed, but the warlord was not convinced that such an empire existed. But during a gala of Calian nobility, Aron and Leia were both secretly captured by Imperial stormtroopers and brought before General Sk'ar as prisoners, however Leia and Aron escaped.

In 3 ABY, Leia moved the Rebel base to the ice planet Hoth after their base on Yavin 4 was discovered. Soon after, Luke went missing. Worried, Organa sent Han to look for him. Fortunately Han returned with an unconscious and badly injured Skywalker in tow. Luke was immediately put into a bacta tank and recovered from his encounter with a wampa. When Han confronted Leia on the issue of their relationship, an incensed Organa kissed Luke, causing a love triangle between the three friends.^[38]

When Darth Vader and the Empire discovered the base, Organa helped coordinate the evacuation of the rebel base from Hoth. Despite the ongoing battle, she remained composed and issued commands from the crumbling base. Luckily, she was able to escape any danger and flee with C-3PO, Han Solo and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon. Pursued by Imperial fighters, and hobbled by a non-functional hyperdrive, they escaped by flying into an asteroid field.^[38]

Crisis at Cloud City^[38]

Princess Organa's initially adversarial relationship with Han Solo around this time evolved into a more romantic one. Not long after their escape from Hoth, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and Threepio went to Cloud City, then owned by Han's friend, Lando Calrissian, to get help with the Falcon. Soon after they landed, C-3PO went missing, and worst of all, Lando betrayed them by bringing them to Darth Vader. Han was soon tortured and Leia and the Wookiee were thrown in the dungeon. Moments later Lando came to the dungeons to tell the group that he did what he needed to and informed them of Vader's trap for Luke Skywalker.

Solo was then used as a test subject for the carbonite-freezing process which Darth Vader intended for Luke Skywalker (Solo survived the freezing process, and was taken to Jabba the Hutt by the bounty hunter Boba Fett.) Before he was frozen, her parting words were "I love you," to which Solo responded "I know." After Han was frozen Leia unsuccessfully warned Luke of the incoming danger before being taken as Vader's prisoner. Fortunately Lando managed to rescue Leia, Chewbacca, and Threepio.

Leia displayed latent telepathy, despite having never been trained in the use of the Force, when she sensed Luke's distress as he hung from a weather vane after being defeated by Darth Vader. She led the Falcon back to rescue him, and together they departed for a secret rendezvous point where the Rebel fleet was hiding.

Rescue of Han Solo

In the months that followed, Leia divided her time between missions for the Alliance and the search for Han. At one point, she was forced to stop the search as Skywalker was infected with a lethal disease called "Crimson Forever" after boarding an Imperial vessel, finding its crew members crimson-colored and dead. Suspecting a red-glowing stone aboard the ship to be the source of whatever killed the Imperials, Luke rushed back to the Rebel headquarters, but he was already infected. In a short time, Luke was lying comatose, his eyes turned scarlet red. Leia remembered a story Han Solo had told her about the Red Nebula that featured a pair of stones similar to the one that infected Luke. Chewbacca regaled the tale, and the group came to the conclusion that the "Crimson Forever" stone was indeed one of those Chewbacca and Han had encountered—when the two stones were separated, they were extremely lethal. After summoning Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca to the Rebel base on Golrath, the trio set out in the Falcon and ventured to the Red Nebula. Leia and Lando boarded the vessel while Chewbacca waited in the Falcon and immediately saw victims of the "Crimson Forever". Convinced that it was nearby, they started looking for the second stone. Their search was cut short, however, when they were captured by a gang of bounty hunters employed by Domina Tagge.^[39]

Tagge explained that the stones were part of her plan to kill Luke Skywalker as revenge for the death of her brother, Orman Tagge, which Darth Vader had falsely accused Luke of being responsible for. She had hired the bounty hunters to retrieve the stones once word of the deadliness of the red-glowing rocks reached her. Bombing the planet where the stones had been held, she soon had them in her grasp. Shortly afterwards, an Imperial warship loaded with Imperial stormtroopers boarded the Nebula unaware that Tagge had tinkered with the canister of their stone, making it burst open when it was placed under the pressure of hyperspace travel. Tagge managed to coax them into leaving by revealing the location of the Rebel base on Golrath. By the time they arrived near Golrath, they were all dead, and the ghost ship trap was set for Skywalker. However, priest, one of Tagge's prisoners, released the stone in Tagge's ship from its canister as well, killing many. Domina and a few bounty hunters were able to seal themselves away on the ship, avoiding certain death, but lacking space suits to shield themselves from the disease, they were trapped.^[39]

Escaping Tagge and her crew by jumping through an airlock, Leia and Lando were picked up by the Falcon. Realizing that they needed the stone to cure Luke, Leia struck a deal with Domina—the Rebels would save her and her bounty hunters from the "Crimson Forever"-infested ship, and in return, she would hand over her stone so they could stop the plague. As the crystals were reunited on Golrath, Luke was cured. Domina and her accomplices flew off in an escape ship per the agreement, and the stones were loaded aboard the Imperial ghost ship, which was sent straight into Golrath's sun. The Rebel base, however, was destroyed by Leia to avoid discovery by the Empire.^[39]

Some time later, Organa sought assistance from Prince Xizor of the Black Sun criminal syndicate. In order to get past Imperial security, Leia was disguised as the Ubese bounty hunter Boushh, and Chewbacca took on the identity of the Wookiee bounty hunter Snoova. From there the two became guests of Black Sun's leader, the Falleen Prince Xizor. Xizor also became enamored of Leia, and attempted to seduce her. He used his pheromones upon her and was succeeding when he was interrupted by Chewbacca, who revealed Xizor's scheme to her. Upon returning to Xizor's presence, she stalled for time and then quickly rebuffed his advances by kneeing him in the groin, leaving an enraged Xizor who locked her up. Leia was able to escape due to the efforts of Luke, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian and Dash Rendar.^[40]

Upon discovering that Han was being held captive in Jabba's Palace, Leia once again posed as the bounty hunter Boushh and entered into Jabba's demolition games in order to increase her credibility with the Hutt as well as to prove that she is in fact the notorious bounty hunter. It was because of this that she was able to perform the role of Chewbacca's captor in order to infiltrate Jabba's Palace. She played her role well, for the urging of more money led the Hutt to believe "he" was his kind of scum. However, in order to convince the ruthless Hutt, Leia coldly held an armed thermal detonator ticking down its time until it blew unless Jabba agreed to a higher bounty.

That night she freed Solo from carbonite but Solo and Leia were caught by Jabba. Han was thrown into a cell with Chewbacca, while Jabba had better plans for her. To Leia's discomfort, he licked her face with his over-exocentric tongue. She was then forced into replacing Oola as Jabba's favorite slave girl. Several of the dancers stripped her of her costume and put her slave costume on her in front of the audience.^[41] During this time she was forced to wear a skimpy metal bikini costume and endure the shame and humiliation of being one of Jabba's slaves. She was kept beside Jabba on his large throne, kept on a metal leash.^[13] The night after her captivity, she was offered to Boba Fett by Jabba. However, Fett was not interested in the princess and went to sleep after arguing with her.^[42]

Leia's spirits rose when Luke arrived to rescue everyone but were temporarily dashed when Jabba tried to kill Luke by putting him into the rancor pit. To her relief, Luke killed the monster, however Leia was rewarded by being choked and hassled around by a furious Jabba. Leia, unlike her friends was to be kept alive and remain serving Jabba. During the ride on Jabba's sail barge, she was made to drink a grotesque drink and was kept close to the crimelord. After Luke escaped once again and as Jabba's skiff guards fell into the sarlacc, Leia made her move. She crushed the light that lit up the barge and turned it into a pitch-black frenzy. As everyone was too preoccupied to help Jabba, Leia hopped over him and choked him with the very chain that held her captive, dealing with the vile gangster once and for all. R2-D2 then cut her chains and she joined Luke on the top deck of the sail barge. From there she pointed the deck gun at the barge and swung away to safety with Luke.^[13]

Endor and a shocking revelation^[13]

After leaving Tatooine, Leia joined the gathered Rebel fleet near Sullust, and accompanied General Crix Madine's commando force to the forest moon of Endor where the Death Star II's shield generator was located. Soon after Leia accompanied Luke and Han to Endor. On Endor, Leia and Luke confronted stormtroopers. In order to make sure their arrival was kept secret, Leia jumped on a speeder bike, with Luke in tow, and chased them throughout Endor's dense forests. Leia was able to shoot down one but was also shot down herself and collapsed. After falling off of her stolen speeder bike, she was found by a curious Ewok named Wicket Wystri Warrick, a local to the sanctuary moon of Endor. Soon after a stormtrooper attacked them, but Leia and Wicket were able to subdue him. To keep her safe, Wicket took her to his village where she was considered a princess to the Ewoks.

Worried, Han, Luke, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO searched the forest, only to be captured by Ewoks, however, the Ewoks saw Threepio as a god. Taken to Bright Tree Village as a feast to honor Threepio, Leia reunited with her friends and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince them to let her friends go. Fortunately Threepio was able to persuade them to let Han, Luke, Chewbacca, and Artoo go, with the help of Skywalker. Later on, the Ewoks accepted them as part of their tribe.

The night before the battle, Organa received news that forever changed her life. Her long-time "friend", Luke Skywalker, revealed to her that they were brother and sister, and that the fallen Jedi, Darth Vader, was their father. After Luke revealed to her of their relationship, Leia told Luke that she had somehow knew that Luke was her brother. During the conversation, Leia revealed to have memories of her real mother, but they were only "images" and "feelings." She recalled her mother as being "very beautiful, kind, but sad". When Luke told Leia that he had to confront Darth Vader, still stricken with shock, she tried to convince him to just "run far away" instead, but Luke had already made up his mind and left her deeply shocked.

Leia fought alongside Han in the battle that followed, though she was injured with a blaster wound to her upper arm during the fighting. Even with this injury, Leia was able to shoot dead two stormtroopers who attempted to capture her and Han at the shield bunker. The mission to Endor was eventually a success, and the Death Star II was destroyed in the epochal Battle of Endor when Lando Calrissian and Nien Nunb, piloting the Millennium Falcon, flew into the station's core and destroyed it from the inside. Following the battle, Leia informed Han of her familial relationship with Luke, and the two shared a kiss as the explosion of the Death Star lit the skies above.

Founding of the New Republic (4–8 ABY)

Truce at Bakura