Yes, our precious princess, senator, general, mother, etc. Basically the face of Star Wars women.
I'm gonna say as it is: How in the world can you not love Leia?
Leia was the first ever female protagonist of a trilogy, as well as one of the only three women in the original trilogy. And she immediately became one of the most adored female characters in fiction.
Leia was a character who defied stereotypes of what a fictional princess is. Prior to the premiere of A New Hope, princesses were either the poor, defenseless girls waiting for their prince to come save them or a spoiled brat whom everyone wants to slap some discipline into. The interesting part: Leia is none of those.
Maybe she an occasionally be captured or held hostage, but that doesn't make her weak by any means, and she's definitely NOT defenseless. She's very gifted with a blaster and, while not shown in the movies, she is also trained in Alderaanian martial arts. She is also NOT spoiled at all. She is very kind, selfless, and even horrorized by extreme poverty and bad treatment.
But the biggest reason why people deeply care about Leia, and why she is a strong woman, is her strong indomitable will and her amazing capacity to move on. Throughout the Star Wars storyline, Leia absolutely loses everything.
She witnesses the destruction of her homeworld, and loses her family and lots of friends in the catastrophe. When the galaxy learns that she is the daughter of Darth Vader, she quickly losses the respect and good reputation she had as a New Republic senator, forcing her to rely on Korr Sella as an emissary on the Resistance's behalf. After this discovery (and Luke's unrealistic assassination attempt), her son Ben finally falls to the Dark Side and joins the First Order, becoming a Knight of Ren. She loses her husband Han, at the hands of their OWN SON. In the days that follow, the Resistance she built is almost completely obliterated, leaving only a handful survivors on the Millennium Falcon, and a few agents looking for allies in the Outer Rim, and almost at the same time, her twin brother Luke passes away after confronting Kylo Ren.
An average person would easily lose their sanity upon suffering all of this, but not Leia. Don't misunderstand, her loses DO affect her. She does cry, and feel like the world is falling down upon her, but she doesn't allow herself to crumble. Instead, she always follows her own mantra 'act now, mourn later', which has proven effective to accomplish her goals properly.
Now, in the Last Jedi, we saw Leia being sucked out to space after the destruction of the Raddus' main bridge and "flying" back to the ship via the Force. A lot of people have issues with this scene, and I do agree it looks a bit ridiculous, but I don't think it destroyed her character or disrespected her in any way.
What was really offensive was that Galaxy of Adventures episode dedicated to her...
I will admit that I do like Galaxy of Adventures, a lot. The animation is beautiful and the shorts are very fun, despite not being 100% accurate to what happens in the films. But Leia's episode was just... I don't think I need to develop on that.
All of the GOA episodes have thousands of likes that greatly overshadow the dislikes. But that particular episode... Well, I'll let you see it for yourselves.
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Yes, I subscribed to the channel because I liked the shorts, but I also rightfully disliked this one. Contradictory? Maybe. Do I care? Not at all.
And that's all I have to say about Leia. P.S. R.I.P Carrie Fisher, you will always hold a very special place in all of our hearts.
