Nothing pains me more than the fact that I got uncanny valley Luke Skywalker, and I just keep having to hear about things Leia is doing without seeing her. Not that I want to see a CGI Leia Organa. In fact, I think I’d rather someone just play Leia during this rebuilding era if we’re going to keep telling stories in the Star Wars universe, like Ahsoka. What was really upsetting to me, Leia Organa’s number one fan, was to hear her being spoken about while Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) was talking to Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
It’s not just hearing the mention of Leia, though that does make me cry. It’s that we are finally seeing the result of all the work that Leia put in after the war, but we can only hear about what she’s doing because Carrie Fisher passed away, and Star Wars doesn’t seem to want to recast the original trio outside of movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story—despite us all seeing how well recasting can work, with both Alden Ehrenreich in Solo and Vivien Lyra Blair in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
All this to say that in the latest episode of Ahsoka, I was attacked on all fronts. Not only was Leia brought up again, but then I was forced to look at C-3PO. If there is one Star Wars character I hate more than anyone else, it’s him. Played by Anthony Daniels, I just really don’t like that droid. He’s so incredibly annoying and pretentious, and to hear them mention that there was information from Leia only for the big reveal to be that C-3PO was there? No, thank you! No one wants that! That’s the worst-case scenario. At least R2-D2 would have had fun with Hera’s droid, Chopper.
No one wants more C-3PO
This scene, in particular, demonstrated a glaring issue that these shows set post-Return of the Jedi have—we miss our legacy characters. I’m not afraid of recasting these characters we know and love and letting them have a second life. I’d truly give my left arm to see Ehrenreich back as Han Solo in a show set during this unexplored era. Let someone play Leia Organa as a Senator while she is trying to rebuild the New Republic. These are things that I would genuinely be excited about.
Unfortunately, we don’t have those options because it’s been established that we have CGI Mark Hamill instead, and that’s not really a great model to work with. Because then, as Ahsoka has proven, you end up with C-3PO being your “exciting” reveal—and not a single person in this world is excited that C-3PO has entered a room. Quite frankly, I don’t think C-3PO himself is excited when he walks into a room. I don’t want the show to stop talking about Leia, and I’m happy we get to hear about what she’s working on. There’s just a part of me that wishes we could see my favorite princess in action and not have to hear about it through 3PO instead because quite frankly, I never need to see that golden boy again.
(featured image: Lucasfilm/Disney)
