Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series gave many Star Wars fans something we didn’t even know we were missing: Bail and Leia Organa’s relationship. The two never had the chance to really interact in the prequels, given that the series ended with the birth of Luke and Leia, and we just briefly saw Bail bringing her home to Alderaan. But what Obi-Wan Kenobi has done is show us all just show much Bail took being her father to heart. Luke had Uncle Owen, and while he knew his parents died, Luke had family. Owen wasn’t always the best but Owen cared for him and we see that in the show. But for what it is worth, Bail and Breha both raised Leia as their own, even though she’s aware she’s not an Organa by birth.
While getting to see more of Breha has been amazing, too, there’s something about having Bail there again that really hits in a way that I wasn’t expecting. Maybe it’s because it’s just been so long since we’ve seen him and I wasn’t expecting him to play that much of a part in this series that it just feels like a gift I never thought I’d get. And that’s because we knew how the two cared about each other, but we just didn’t know the extent of their relationship.
Seeing how it plays out in Obi-Wan Kenobi and how deeply Bail cares for his daughter is beautiful. He’s the one demanding that Ben helps him find her because, as he says, Leia is important, too—not only to the Empire and in the fight against Darth Vader, but to him and Breha. She’s their daughter, and it’s so clear how he’s willing to protect her no matter what, and that’s important to see.
The missing piece
After Rogue One, it’s made very obvious that Bail trusts Leia completely because he puts her in charge of something so important to the success of the rebellion. After watching Jimmy Smits play Bail in the prequels, we could see little instances of mannerisms or reactions to things that were clearly things Leia picked up from him despite not being her birth father. He’s her dad and he raised her, and getting to see that in Obi-Wan Kenobi really is a completion to both Bail’s storyline and also informs us about Leia by the time we meet her in A New Hope.
Getting to spend time on Alderaan and meet both Bail and Breha together, where they both shine, is something that I, personally, never thought we’d see. So the show giving us their relationship, and especially Bail’s relationship with Leia, is incredibly emotional. I hope we continue to see how Bail influences Leia and vice versa because having him fight for her and her importance to not only Ben Kenobi but the resistance as a whole was something that I didn’t know I needed from Star Wars, and yet, it is what Leia deserves, and I want to see more of it.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
