Well, Star Wars “fans” are at it again, this time with being gross towards two of the leads of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which the franchise’s official Twitter account has already called out in the case of Moses Ingram. But with little Leia has come a sea of “Why wasn’t it Luke?” responses or “Wow they made Leia annoying and unlikable” tweets online. And frankly, it’s just a display of sexism disguised as “criticism” with no real rationale to their “critical” take.
Focusing on Leia, the argument is that her inclusion retcons A New Hope—you know, a movie where Leia and Obi-Wan see each other as he’s about to die and only then, after she reaches out to him for help via droid. The line of reasoning argues that she references her father knowing Obi-Wan from the Clone Wars but doesn’t say anything about their own relationship, but if you listen to Leia’s iconic message to Obi-Wan, she says, “Years ago, you served my father in the clone wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire.” Yes, Leia may be—as we now know it—leaving her own relationship with Obi-Wan out of this plea, but the internal logic of the wording being focused on her father still makes plenty of sense, especially given that Leia was a bit pressed for time when leaving this message and didn’t really need to get into every detail.
So, in theory, nothing changed. If anything, it makes more sense as to why she reached out to Obi-Wan in the first place, because we see her giving R2-D2 the message, and then she yells, “Ben Kenobi!?” when Luke says that he’s aboard the Death Star as part of the rescue mission. So, her knowing that he goes by Ben would actually be informed by what is happening in the series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
All of this is just poke holes in the argument that Leia knowing Ben is “retconning” something. Because it’s not! It’s just informing the relationship that they have in the original trilogy, so everyone online “criticizing” the show for having Leia be the second lead is … a choice.
Leia deserves her time, too
What I think this “criticism” boils down to is the fact that people are mad that Luke isn’t the focus, which is frankly so frustrating it’s hard to explain. We’ve had trilogies and movies dedicated to Luke Skywalker and yet that’s not enough? We finally get a glimpse of a younger Leia Organa and there is a sea of complaints because it’s not her twin brother we’ve seen over and over again? Like, if you want to see a young Luke Skywalker coming into his own, there’s a movie you should watch and it is called A New Hope.
Leia has nearly always been sidelined by Luke. When we were going to get her time in the sequel trilogy, we unfortunately lost Carrie Fisher, and it changed how the final movie played out. So, we’ve never really gotten a moment where we’ve seen Leia as the focus. Now, Obi-Wan Kenobi is giving that to us in a time when we actually get to see her come into her own, and it explains why she knew Obi-Wan Kenobi’s name and knew he was a Jedi she could trust.
If anything, having Luke be the one to draw Obi-Wan out of hiding would have made no sense at all given that Luke barely knows him in A New Hope and simply knows him as Ben Kenobi, the hermit who lives beyond the Dune Sea.
So why the hate?
The hate stems from it being Leia. Simple as that. And a Leia that these “fans” can’t love in the same way they did before, specifically in thinking that Leia is hot and that’s it. As TikToker Comrade.Curly put it, if you like Carrie Fisher’s Leia but not the portrayal of Vivien Lyra Blair as little Leia, you don’t actually like the character. Because Blair is a perfect little version of the Leia we end up seeing in A New Hope.
I would lay my life on the line to protect little Leia Organa. And that now also entails pointing out the sexist reaction that’s been going around on Twitter.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
