Carrie Fisher has remained one biggest icons in fandom for a reason. If it wasn’t her role as Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars franchise, then it was her work as an author. She was the voice for young women everywhere, and she used her platform to talk about mental illness, drug addiction, and what it meant to accept yourself for who you are.
From her Twitter account to the encounters fans had with Fisher herself, she left a legacy behind that continues to remind us, as fans, of her importance. The most wonderful thing about Carrie Fisher was her willingness to help those around her in whatever way she could.
Personally, I’m lucky to have gotten to speak to her twice. They were brief fan interactions, and it couldn’t have lasted more than five minutes in total, but those five minutes changed me. That’s the ability that Carrie had to make those around her feel important and wanted. These simple moments we, as fans, got to have with her made it very clear what kind of person that Carrie was.
If it wasn’t at a convention, it was her liking tweets or responding to DMs from fans. It was her ability to make you feel special for just a moment, while she turned her attention to you and to all of us, that made her so special. All of this is on my mind as the future of the Star Wars franchise continues to grow and evolve, because it’s going to be hard seeing a Star Wars movie that she’s in but didn’t really have a part of, when she appears in Episode IX through previously unused footage.
What is Lucasfilm going to do with her character? Leia taught women everywhere that we can be a hero; we can be the one who takes on the entire empire, and we just want to make sure she gets the treatment that she should.
This is why it is going to be so hard to watch her take on Leia Organa once more in Star Wars Episode IX. She brought an entire generation of girls someone to look up to and, hopefully, her story ends up being what fans want for the character. Leia has meant so much to us for so long; we just want to have her story end in the right way. If anything, both Carrie Fisher and Leia Organa deserve to have a beautiful end to their careers in the Star Wars universe.
Here’s to Carrie Fisher. May we go about our days not caring what people are saying about us and remembering that it is about the story you’re leaving behind more than anything else. We miss you, Carrie.
(image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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