title: Tamils

text: Tamils have strong attachment to the Tamil language, which is often venerated in literature as "Tamil̲an̲n̲ai", "the Tamil mother". It has historically been, and to large extent still is, central to the Tamil identity. It is a Dravidian language, with little relation to the Indo-European languages of northern India. The language has been far less influenced by Sanskrit than the other Dravidian languages, and preserves many features of Proto-Dravidian, though modern-day spoken Tamil in Tamil Nadu freely uses loanwords from Sanskrit and English. Tamil literature is of considerable antiquity, and underpins the decision to recognise Tamil as a classical language by the government of India. Classical Tamil literature, which ranges from lyric poetry to works on poetics and ethical philosophy, is remarkably different from contemporary and later literature in other Indian languages, and represents the oldest body of secular literature in South Asia.


title: Tamils

text: Tamil religion denotes the religious traditions and practices of Tamil-speaking people. The Tamils are native to modern state of India known as Tamil Nadu and the northern and eastern part of Sri Lanka. Tamils also live outside their native boundaries due to migration such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Great Britain, United States, Canada, Réunion, Myanmar, Mauritius and in countries in Europe. Many emigrant Tamils retain elements of a cultural, linguistic, and religious tradition that predates the Christian era.


title: Tamils

text: Ancient Tamil grammatical works, Tolkappiyam; the ten anthologies, Pathupattu; and the eight anthologies, Ettuthogai shed light on early religion. Murugan was glorified as "the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent" as "the favored god of the Tamils." Sivan was also seen as the supreme God. The Sangam landscape was classified into five categories, "thinais", based on the mood, the season and the land. Tolkappiyam mentions that each of these "thinai" had an associated deity such as Seyyon in "Kurinji"-the hills, Thirumal in "Mullai"-the forests, Vendhan in "Marutham"-the plains, Kadalon in the "Neithal"-the coasts & the seas and Kottravai in "Paalai"- the deserts. Other gods mentioned were Mayyon and Vaali who are major deities in Hinduism today. Mercantile groups from Tamilakam and Kerala introduced "Cholapauttam", a syncretic form of Buddhism and Shaivism in northern Sri Lanka and Southern India. This religion was transmitted through the Tamil language. The religion lost its importance in the 14th century when conditions changed for the benefit of Sinhala/Pali traditions.


title: Tamils

text: The cult of the mother goddess is treated as an indication of a society which venerated femininity. Amman, Mariamman, Durgai, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kali and Saptakanniyar are venerated in all their forms. The temples of the Sangam days, mainly of Madurai, seem to have had priestesses to the deity, who also appear predominantly as goddesses. In the Sangam literature, there is an elaborate description of the rites performed by the Kurava priestess in the shrine Palamutircholai.


title: Tamils

text: In Tamil Nadu, Christians and Muslims accounted for 6% and 5.8% respectively in 2001. The majority of Muslims in Tamil Nadu speak Tamil, with less than 15% of them reporting Urdu as their mother tongue. Tamil Jains now number only a few thousand. Atheist, rationalist, and humanist philosophies are also adhered by sizeable minorities.


title: Tamils

text: The most popular Tamil deity is Murugan; he is known as the patron god of the Tamils and is also called "Tamil Kadavul" (Tamil God). In Tamil tradition, Murugan is the youngest and Pillaiyar the oldest son of Sivan and Parvati. The goddess Parvati is often depicted as a goddess with green skin complexion in Tamil Hindu tradition. The worship of Amman, also called Mariamman, thought to have been derived from an ancient mother goddess, is also very common. Kannagi, the heroine of the "Cilappatikaram", is worshipped as Pattini by many Tamils, particularly in Sri Lanka. There are also many followers of Ayyavazhi in Tamil Nadu, mainly in the southern districts. In addition, there are many temples and devotees of Thirumal, Sivan, Pillaiyar, and the other Hindu deities.


title: Tamils

text: Muslims across Tamil Nadu follow Hanafi and Shafi'i schools while the Tamil Muslims in Sri Lanka follow the Shadhili school. While the Marakkayar, Labbai and Kayalar sects claim descent from the Arab world, the Rowther sects Claim descent from the Turkic world.


title: Tamils

text: Among the ancient Tamils the practice of erecting memorial stones ("natukal") had appeared, and it continued for quite a long time after the Sangam age, down to about the 16th century. It was customary for people who sought victory in war to worship these hero stones to bless them with victory. They often carry inscriptions displaying a variety of adornments, including bas relief panels, friezes, and figures on carved stone.


title: Tamils

text: The most important Tamil festivals are Pongal, a harvest festival that occurs in mid-January, and Varudapirappu, the Tamil New Year, which occurs on 14 April. Both are celebrated by almost all Tamils, regardless of religion. The Hindu festival Deepavali is celebrated with fanfare; other local Hindu festivals include Thaipusam, Panguni Uttiram, and Adiperukku. While Adiperukku is celebrated with more pomp in the Cauvery region than in others, the Ayyavazhi Festival, Ayya Vaikunda Avataram, is predominantly celebrated in the southern districts of Kanyakumari District, Tirunelveli, and Thoothukudi.


title: Tamils

text: In rural Tamil Nadu, many local deities, called aiyyanars, are thought to be the spirits of local heroes who protect the village from harm. Their worship often centres around natukal, stones erected in memory of heroes who died in battle. This form of worship is mentioned frequently in classical literature and appears to be the surviving remnants of an ancient Tamil tradition. Munis are a group of guardian gods, who are worshiped by Tamils. The Saivist tradition of Hinduism is significantly represented amongst Tamils, more so among Sri Lankan Tamils, although most of the Saivist places of religious significance are in northern India. The Alvars and Nayanars, who were predominantly Tamils, played a key role in the renaissance of Bhakti tradition in India. In the 10th century, the philosopher Ramanuja propagated the theory of Visishtadvaitam. Kambaramayanam is the Tamil version of the Hindu epic "Ramayana", which was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. The Tamil version is smaller than the original "Ramayana" written by Valmiki. It is not a translation but tells the story in a different perspective.


title: Tamils

text: Tamil Jains constituted around 0.13% of the population of Tamil Nadu in 2001. Many of the classical Tamil literature works were written by Jains. According to George L. Hart, the legend of the Tamil Sangams or literary assemblies was based on the Jain "sangham" at Madurai.


title: Tamils

text: Various martial arts including Kuttu Varisai, Varma Kalai, Silambam, Adithada, and Malyutham are practised in Tamil Nadu. The warm-up phase includes yoga, meditation and breathing exercises. Silambam originated in ancient Tamilakam and was patronized by the Pandyans, Cholas and Cheras, who ruled over this region. "Silapathiharam", Tamil literature from the 2nd century CE, refers to the sale of Silamabam instructions, weapons and equipment to foreign traders. Since the early Sangam age, there was a warlike culture in South India. War was regarded as an honorable sacrifice and fallen heroes and kings were worshiped in the form of a hero stone. Each warrior was trained in martial arts, horse riding and specialized in two of the weapons of that period: Vel (spear), Val (sword), and Vil (bow). Heroic martyrdom was glorified in ancient Tamil literature. The Tamil kings and warriors followed an honour code similar to that of Japanese samurai and committed suicide to preserve honor. The forms of martial suicide were known as Avipalli, Thannai, Verttal, Marakkanchi, Vatakkiruttal and Punkilithu Mudiyum Maram. Avipalli was mentioned in all the works except "Veera Soliyam". It was a self-sacrifice of a warrior to the goddess of war for the victory of his commander. The Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka reflected some elements of Tamil martial traditions which included worship of fallen heroes (Maaveerar Naal) and practice of martial suicide. They carried a suicide pill around their neck to escape captivity and torture.


title: Tamils

text: Wootz steel originated in South India and Sri Lanka. There are several ancient Tamil, Greek, Chinese and Roman literary references to high-carbon Indian steel since the time of Alexander's India campaign. The crucible steel production process started in the sixth century BCE at Kodumanal in Tamil Nadu, Golconda in Andhra Pradesh, in Karnataka and in Sri Lanka. It was exported globally, with the Tamils of the Chera Dynasty producing what was termed "the finest steel in the world", i.e. Seric Iron to the Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Arabs by 500 BCE. The steel was exported as cakes of steely iron that came to be known as "Wootz".


title: Tamils

text: The Tamilakam method was to heat black magnetite ore in the presence of carbon in a sealed clay crucible inside a charcoal furnace. An alternative was to smelt the ore first to give wrought iron, then heated and hammered to be rid of slag. The carbon source was bamboo and leaves from plants such as avārai. The Chinese and locals in Sri Lanka adopted the production methods of creating Wootz steel from the Chera Tamils by the 5th century BCE. In Sri Lanka, this early steel-making method employed a unique wind furnace, driven by the monsoon winds, capable of producing high-carbon steel. Production sites from antiquity have emerged, in places such as Anuradhapura, Tissamaharama and Samanalawewa, as well as imported artefacts of ancient iron and steel from Kodumanal. A 200 BCE Tamil trade guild in Tissamaharama, in the South East of Sri Lanka, brought with them some of the oldest iron and steel artefacts and production processes to the island from the classical period. The Arabs introduced the South Indian/Sri Lankan wootz steel to Damascus, where an industry developed for making weapons of this steel. The 12th century Arab traveller Edrisi mentioned the "Hinduwani" or Indian steel as the best in the world. Another sign of its reputation is seen in a Persian phraseto give an "Indian answer", meaning "a cut with an Indian sword". Wootz steel was widely exported and traded throughout ancient Europe and the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East.


title: Tamils

text: Most traditional art is religious in some form and usually centres on Hinduism, although the religious element is often only a means to represent universal—and, occasionally, humanist—themes.


title: Tamils

text: The most important form of Tamil painting is Tanjore painting, which originated in Thanjavur in the 9th century. The painting's base is made of cloth and coated with zinc oxide, over which the image is painted using dyes; it is then decorated with semi-precious stones, as well as silver or gold thread. A style which is related in origin, but which exhibits significant differences in execution, is used for painting murals on temple walls; the most notable example are the murals on the Koodal Azhagar temple and Meenakshi temple of Madurai, and the Brihadeeswarar temple of Tanjore.


title: Tamils

text: Tamil sculpture ranges from elegant stone sculptures in temples, to bronze icons with exquisite details. The medieval Chola bronzes are considered to be one of India's greatest contributions to world art. Unlike most Western art, the material in Tamil sculpture does not influence the form taken by the sculpture; instead, the artist imposes his/her vision of the form on the material. As a result, one often sees in stone sculptures flowing forms that are usually reserved for metal.


title: Tamils

text: Ancient Tamil works, such as the "Cilappatikaram", describe a system of music, and a 7th-century Pallava inscription at Kudimiyamalai contains one of the earliest surviving examples of Indian music in notation. Dance forms such as Bharatanatyam have recent origins but are based on older temple dance forms known as "Catir Kacceri" as practised by courtesans and a class of women known as "Devadasis".


title: Tamils

text: In its religious form, the karakattam dance is performed in front of an image of the goddess Mariamma. The "kuravanci" is a type of dance-drama, performed by four to eight women. The drama is opened by a woman playing the part of a female soothsayer of the "kurava" tribe (people of hills and mountains), who tells the story of a lady pining for her lover. The therukoothu, literally meaning "street play", is a form of village theater or folk opera. It is traditionally performed in village squares, with no sets and very simple props. The performances involve songs and dances, and the stories can be either religious or secular. Tamil Nadu also has a well developed stage theatre tradition, which has been influenced by western theatre. A number of theatrical companies exist, with repertoires including absurdist, realist, and humorous plays.


title: Tamils

text: Theatrical culture flourished among Tamils during the classical age. Tamil theatre has a long and varied history whose origins can be traced back almost two millennia to dance-theatre forms like "Kotukotti" and "Pandarangam", which are mentioned in an ancient anthology of poems entitled the "Kalingathu Parani". The modern Tamil film industry originated during the 20th century, has its headquarters in Chennai and is known as Kollywood; it is the second largest film industry in India after Bollywood. Films from Kollywood have been distributed to overseas theatres in Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Malaysia, Japan, Oceania, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. Independent Tamil film production inspired by Kollywood originated outside India in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Canada, and western Europe. Several Tamil actresses such as Anushka Ranjan, Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini, Rekha Ganesan, Sridevi, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Adah Sharma and Vidya Balan have acted in Bollywood and dominated the cinema over the years. Some Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, such as MG Ramachandran, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, have had a background in the Tamil film industry.


title: Tamils

text: The people of Tamil Nadu play traditional sports and sports from other countries. Tamil Nadu has some notable players in each sport.


title: Tamils

text: Tamil cuisine includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Some Tamils are vegetarian because of religious reasons. Rice is mostly eaten with vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries. Traditionally, the Tamils sit on the ground and the food is served on a banana leaf. The traditional foods are eaten with the right hand. Dishes such as dosa, idli, and vadai are served with sambar, chutney or in Sri Lanka with coconut sambal. Rasam replaces soup in Tamil cuisine. The Tamil cuisine in Sri Lanka differs little from that of South India. A famous Sri Lankan Tamil specialty is kottu roti, available in most Sri Lankan restaurants in the country and abroad.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the oldest prison in California. The state's only death row for male inmates, the largest in the United States, is located at the prison. It has a gas chamber, but since 1996, executions at the prison have been carried out by lethal injection, though the prison has not performed an execution since 2006. The prison has been featured on film, radio drama, video, podcast, and television; is the subject of many books; has hosted concerts; and has housed many notorious inmates.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: The correctional complex sits on Point San Quentin, which consists of on the north side of San Francisco Bay. The prison complex itself occupies , valued in a 2001 study at between $129 million and $664 million.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: As of July 31, 2022, San Quentin was incarcerating people at 105% of its design capacity, with 3,239 occupants.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Men condemned to death in California (with some exceptions) must be held at San Quentin, while condemned women are held at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla. As of December 2015, San Quentin held almost 700 male inmates in its Condemned Unit, or "death row." As of 2001, San Quentin's death row was described as "the largest in the Western Hemisphere"; as of 2005, it was called "the most populous execution antechamber in the United States." The states of Florida and Texas had fewer death row inmates in 2008 (397 and 451 respectively) than San Quentin.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: The death row at San Quentin is divided into three sections: the quiet "North-Segregation" or "North-Seg," built in 1934, for prisoners who "don't cause trouble"; the "East Block," a "crumbling, leaky maze of a place built in 1927"; and the "Adjustment Center" for the "worst of the worst." Most of the prison's death row inmates reside in the East Block. The fourth floor of the North Block was the prison's first death row facility, but additional death row space opened after executions resumed in the U.S. in 1978. The adjustment center received solid doors, preventing "gunning-down" or attacking persons with bodily waste. it housed 81 death row inmates and four non-death row inmates. A dedicated psychiatric facility serves the prisoners. A converted shower bay in the East Block hosts religious services. Many prison programs available for most inmates are unavailable for death row inmates.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Although $395 million was allocated in the 20082009 state budget for new death row facilities at San Quentin, in December 2008 two legislators introduced bills to eliminate the funding. The state had planned to build a new death row facility, but Governor Jerry Brown canceled those plans in 2011. In 2015 Brown asked the Legislature for funds for a new death row as the current death row facilities were becoming filled. At the time the non-death row prison population was decreasing, opening room for death row inmates. the San Quentin death row has a capacity of 715 prisoners.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: All executions in California (male and female) take place at San Quentin. The execution chamber is located in a one-story addition close to the East Block. Women executed in California are transported to San Quentin by bus before being put to death.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: The methods for execution at San Quentin have changed over time. Prior to 1893, the counties executed convicts. Between 1893 and 1937, 215 people were executed at San Quentin by hanging, after which 196 prisoners died in the gas chamber. In 1995, the use of gas for execution was ruled "cruel and unusual punishment", which led to executions inside the gas chamber by lethal injection. Between 1996 and 2006, eleven people were executed at San Quentin by lethal injection.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In April 2007, staff of the California Legislative Analyst's Office discovered that a new execution chamber was being built at San Quentin; legislators subsequently "accuse[d] the governor of hiding the project from the Legislature and the public." The old lethal injection facility had included an injection room of and a single viewing area; the facility that was being built included an injection chamber of and three viewing areas for family, victim, and press. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped construction of the facility the next week. The legislature later approved $180,000 to finish the project, and the facility was completed.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In addition to state executions, three federal executions have been carried out at San Quentin. Samuel Richard Shockley and Miran Edgar Thompson had been incarcerated at Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary and were executed on December 3, 1948, for the murder of two prison guards during the Battle of Alcatraz. Carlos Romero Ochoa had murdered a federal immigration officer after he was caught smuggling illegal immigrants across the border near El Centro, California. He was executed at San Quentin's gas chamber on December 10, 1948.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: On March 13, 2019, after Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a moratorium on the state's death penalty, the state withdrew its current lethal injection protocol, and San Quentin dismantled and indefinitely closed its gas and lethal injection execution chambers.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Though numerous towns and localities in the area are named after Roman Catholic saints, and "San Quintín" is Spanish for "Saint Quentin", the prison was not named after the saint. The land on which it is situated, Point Quentin, is named after a Coast Miwok warrior named Quentín, fighting under Chief Marin, who was taken prisoner at that place.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 1851, California's first prison opened; it was a 268-ton wooden ship named the "Waban", anchored in San Francisco Bay and outfitted to hold 30 inmates. Some of the "Waban's" timber remains a part of the new hospital structure inside the prison. After a series of speculative land transactions and a legislative scandal, inmates who were housed on the" Waban" constructed San Quentin which "opened in 1852 with 68 inmates." A dungeon built at San Quentin in 1854 is thought to be California's oldest surviving public work.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 1928, a woman, Dorothy Mackaye, #440960, served less than ten months of a one- to three-year sentence.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: One example of a noteworthy leader at San Quentin was Warden Clinton Duffy from 1940 to 1952. Warden Duffy was a man of contradictions. His public persona was quite positive because of his fresh insights informing the reorganization of the prison structure and reformation of prison management. Prior to Duffy, San Quentin had gone through years of violence, inhumane punishments and civil rights abuses against prisoners. The previous warden was forced to resign. Duffy had the offending prison guards fired and added a librarian, psychiatrists, and several surgeons at San Quentin. Duffy's press agent publicized sweeping reforms; however, San Quentin remained a brutal prison where prisoners continued to be beaten to death. The use of torture as an approved method of interrogation at San Quentin was banned in 1944.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 1941, the first prison meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place at San Quentin; in commemoration of this, the 25-millionth copy of the AA Big Book was presented to Jill Brown, of San Quentin, at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 1947, Warden Duffy recruited Herman Spector to work as assistant warden at San Quentin. Spector turned down the invitation to be assistant warden and chose instead to become senior librarian if he could institute his theories on reading as a program to encourage pro-social behavior. By 1955, Spector was being interviewed in library journals and suggesting the prison library could contribute significantly to rehabilitation.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: The dining hall of the prison is adorned by six sepia toned murals depicting California history. They were painted by Alfredo Santos, one-time convicted heroin dealer and successful artist, during his 1953–1955 incarceration. The murals were painted with a thinned, raw sienna oil paint directly to plaster as he was denied use of other colors to paint with.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Lawrence Singleton, who raped a teenaged girl and cut off her forearms, spent a year on parole in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin between 1987 and 1988 because towns in California would not accept him as a parolee. Between 1992 and 1997, a "boot camp" was held at the prison that was intended to "rehabilitat[e] first-time, nonviolent offenders"; the program was discontinued because it did not reduce recidivism or save money.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: A 2005 court-ordered report found that the prison was "old, antiquated, dirty, poorly staffed, poorly maintained with inadequate medical space and equipment and overcrowded." Later that year, the warden was fired for "threaten[ing] disciplinary action against a doctor who spoke with attorneys about problems with health care delivery at the prison." By 2007, a new trauma center had opened at the prison and a new $175 million medical complex was planned.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 2020, the prison became the center of a COVID-19 outbreak, after a group of prisoners were transferred to San Quentin from the California Institution for Men in Chino, California. Initial reports suggested that San Quentin officials were told that the new inmates had all tested negative; however, few had been tested at all. By June 22, at least 350 inmates and staff had tested positive, in what a federal judge called a "significant failure" of policy.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: In 2020, 12 death row inmates at San Quentin died in the span of less than two months after a COVID-19 outbreak. All of the inmates were hospitalized before their deaths.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: Gang-pulp author Margie Harris wrote a story on San Quentin for the short-lived pulp magazine "Prison Stories". The story, titled "Big House Boomerang," appeared in the March 1931 issue. It used San Quentin's brutal jute mill as its setting. Harris' knowledge of the prison came from her days as a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area, and her acquaintance with famous San Quentin prisoner Ed Morrell.


title: San Quentin State Prison

text: The 1915 novel "The Star Rover" by Jack London was based in San Quentin. A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called "the jacket," a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives.


title: Princess Leia

text: Princess Leia Organa is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists in the "Star Wars" franchise, portrayed in films by Carrie Fisher. Introduced in the original "Star Wars" film in 1977, Leia is princess of the planet Alderaan, a member of the Imperial Senate and an agent of the Rebel Alliance. She thwarts the sinister Sith Lord Darth Vader and helps bring about the destruction of the Empire's cataclysmic superweapon, the Death Star. In "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), Leia commands a Rebel base and evades Vader as she falls in love with the smuggler Han Solo, the owner of the Millennium Falcon. In "Return of the Jedi" (1983), Leia helps in the operation to rescue Han from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt and is revealed to be Vader's daughter and the twin sister of Luke Skywalker.


title: Princess Leia

text: The prequel film "" (2005) establishes that the twins' mother is Senator (and former queen) Padmé Amidala of Naboo, who dies after childbirth, while their father is none other than former Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who would become Darth Vader. Leia is adopted by Senator Bail and Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan. In the sequel trilogy, Leia is a founder and General of the Resistance against the First Order. She and Han have a son named Ben Solo, who adopted the name Kylo Ren after turning to the dark side of the Force and became the lead enforcer for the First Order. In "The Rise of Skywalker" (2019), it is revealed that Leia was briefly trained as a Jedi by her brother sometime after "Return of the Jedi". In the film, Leia is the mentor of Rey, the last remaining Jedi. Leia dies towards the end of the film but returns in the epilogue scene as a Force ghost alongside Luke.


title: Princess Leia

text: One of the more popular "Star Wars" characters, Leia has been called a 1980s icon, a feminist hero and model for other adventure heroines. She has appeared in many derivative works and merchandising, including the now-noncanonical "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, and has been referenced or parodied in several TV shows and films. Her 'cinnamon bun' hairstyle from "Star Wars" (1977) and metal bikini from "Return of the Jedi" have become cultural icons. Fisher was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress twice for "A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi". Fisher later received two Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, the first for "" and the second being a posthumous nomination for "".


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia was created by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who in 1999 explained his early development of the main characters:


title: Princess Leia

text: In the rough draft of "Star Wars", Leia is the spoiled teenage daughter of King Kayos and Queen Breha of Aquilae, with two brothers, Biggs and Windy; Biggs returned to the fourth draft as a childhood friend of Luke. Leia was at one point "the daughter of Owen Lars and his wife Beru ... Luke's cousin–together they visit the grave of his mother, who perished with his father on a planet destroyed by the Death Star." A later story synopsis establishes Leia as "Leia Antilles", the daughter of Bail Antilles from the peaceful world of Organa Major. In the fourth draft it was established that "Leia Organa" came instead from Alderaan.


title: Princess Leia

text: Fisher was 19 when she was cast as Princess Leia, with actresses including Amy Irving, Cindy Williams and Jodie Foster also up for the role. In 2014, InkTank reported that the extended list of "more than two dozen actresses" who had auditioned for Leia included Glenn Close, Farrah Fawcett, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sigourney Weaver, Cybill Shepherd, Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, and Terri Nunn. Asked about Streep in 2015, Fisher said, "I've never heard that one. But Jodie Foster was up for it... that one I knew the most. Amy Irving and Jodie. And I got it."


title: Princess Leia

text: On Leia's 'cinnamon bun' hairstyle, George Lucas stated that "In the 1977 film, I was working very hard to create something different that wasn't fashion, so I went with a kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look. ... The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico." Lucas later noted that Leia's mother, Padmé Amidala, wears a similar-looking Hopi hairstyle in "Revenge of the Sith". A photo depicting famous Mexican revolutionary Clara de la Rocha wearing a similar hairstyle exists in the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art archives. In 2015, "Mental Floss" cited research suggesting that while female Mexican revolutionaries did not have such elaborate hairstyles, young marriageable Hopi women did, and their "squash blossom whorls" superficially resemble Leia's hair buns. Leia's hairstyle may have also been inspired by that of Queen Fria in the 1939 "Flash Gordon" comic strip "The Ice Kingdom of Mongo", and scientist Barnes Wallis' wife Molly (played by Ursula Jeans) in the 1955 war film "The Dam Busters". Comparisons have also been made to the 4th-century-BC Iberian sculpture "Lady of Elche", as well as the 1920s "earphones" hairstyle.


title: Princess Leia

text: Composer John Williams created a musical leitmotif for Leia which recurs throughout the "Star Wars" saga. "Princess Leia's Theme" was recorded as a concert suite (4:18 length) for the score of the 1977 film.


title: Princess Leia

text: The second draft of the "Return of the Jedi" screenplay contained dialogue in which Obi-Wan tells Luke he has a twin sister. She and their mother were "sent to the protection of friends in a distant system. The mother died shortly thereafter, and Luke's sister was adopted by Ben's friends, the governor of Alderaan and his wife." Fisher explained in 1983: "Leia's real father left her mother when she was pregnant, so her mother married this King Organa. I was adopted and grew up set apart from other people because I was a princess."


title: Princess Leia

text: Anthony Breznican of "Entertainment Weekly" describes Leia as a "diplomat, spy, warrior, undercover agent". Mark Edlitz calls her "a smart, feisty, brave diplomat and warrior" in "The Huffington Post". Fisher told "Rolling Stone" in 1983:


title: Princess Leia

text: Introduced in the original 1977 film "Star Wars", Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan is a member of the Imperial Senate. She is captured by Darth Vader (portrayed by David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) on board the ship "Tantive IV", where she is acting as a spy for the Rebel Alliance. Leia has secretly hidden the blueprints for the Death Star, the Empire's moon-sized battle station, inside the astromech droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and has sent it to find one of the last remaining Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), on the nearby planet of Tatooine. Vader arrests Leia and has her tortured, but she resists revealing anything. Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) threatens to destroy her home planet Alderaan with the Death Star unless she reveals the location of the hidden Rebel base. She provides the location of an old, abandoned base on the planet Dantooine, but Tarkin orders Alderaan to be destroyed anyway. Leia is rescued by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and they escape aboard Han's ship, the "Millennium Falcon". After analyzing the Death Star's schematics, the Rebels find a tiny weakness in the battle station, which Luke uses to destroy it in his X-wing. In the aftermath of the victory, Leia bestows medals on the heroes at the hidden Rebel base on Yavin 4.


title: Princess Leia

text: Rosenberg also notes that, though Han is almost immediately attracted to Leia, they conflict because she insists on asserting command and he automatically resists, even as she proves herself to be worthy of it. And despite her initial disdain for the smuggler, whom she sees as selfish, Leia later acknowledges "I knew there was more to you than money" when Han comes through for the Rebellion.


title: Princess Leia

text: Fisher told "Rolling Stone" in 1980 that in the original script, when Luke and Han come to rescue a captured Leia, "I was hanging upside down with yellow eyes, like in "The Exorcist" ... Some form of radar torture was done to me and I was in a beam, bruised and beaten up, suspended in midair. The reason it was cut from the film was because I was unconscious and the Wookiee would have had to carry me for, like, the next fifteen minutes."


title: Princess Leia

text: In "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), Leia is at the Rebel base on Hoth. She leads its evacuation during an Imperial attack, and then flees with Han, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) on the "Millennium Falcon". They dodge pursuing Imperial TIE fighters by flying into an asteroid field when the "Falcon" hyperdrive breaks down, with Leia piloting the ship at one point. Romance blossoms between Leia and Han during their flight from the Empire; while hiding in the stomach of a space slug, they finally share a kiss. With his ship needing repairs, Han seeks out his old friend Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) in Cloud City, the floating city over Bespin. Though he welcomes them graciously, Lando soon turns them over to a newly arrived Darth Vader, who hopes to use them as bait to capture Luke. Leia confesses her love for Han as he is frozen in carbonite and then handed over to bounty hunter Boba Fett (portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch, voiced by Jason Wingreen), who is charged with bringing him to the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Lando helps Leia, Chewbacca and the two droids escape. Leia senses that Luke is in trouble, and goes back to save him after he is nearly killed during a lightsaber duel and confrontation with Vader.


title: Princess Leia

text: In "Return of the Jedi" (1983), Leia infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine disguised as the Ubese bounty hunter Boushh and brings a captive Chewbacca with her as part of the ruse. She frees Han from the carbonite, but they are recaptured by Jabba. Leia is now chained to Jabba as his slave, outfitted in a metal bikini. After Luke arrives and kills Jabba's Rancor, Jabba sentences Luke, Han and Chewbacca to be fed to the Sarlacc. Lando (disguised as a guard) helps them overpower their captors, and Leia seizes the moment to strangle Jabba with her chain. Luke and Leia swing to safety, blowing up Jabba's barge behind them. Later, the heroes go to the forest moon of Endor to prepare for a battle with the Empire. There, Luke reveals to Leia that she is his twin sister and that Vader is their father. Leia joins Han in leading the Rebels in battle with Imperial troops as the Rebel fleet attacks the second Death Star. Leia is slightly injured, but the Rebels, with help from the Ewoks, ultimately defeat the forces of the Empire, with the Death Star destroyed once more.


title: Princess Leia

text: Fisher told "Rolling Stone" in 1983, "In "Return of the Jedi", [Leia] gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let's not forget that these movies are basically boys' fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes." Rosenberg writes of Han and Leia:


title: Princess Leia

text: In the film, Leia says that she has vague memories of her real mother, who she describes as "kind... but sad". Bouzereau quoted Lucas in 1997:


title: Princess Leia

text: In the prequel film "Revenge of the Sith" (2005), Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) is pregnant with Anakin Skywalker's (Hayden Christensen) twins near the end of the Clone Wars. After Anakin turns to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader, Padmé gives birth to Luke and Leia on Polis Massa and then dies. Leia is adopted by Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) and his wife, Queen Breha (Rebecca Jackson Mendoza), of Alderaan.


title: Princess Leia

text: Film critic Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote, "As we watch Anakin nearly melt in the lava, only to be put together, Frankenstein style, in a lab, while Lucas intercuts scenes of Padme giving birth to the twins Luke and Leia, a link to genuine feeling is established at last."


title: Princess Leia

text: In March 2013, Fisher confirmed that she would reprise her role as an older Leia in "". Set 30 years after "Return of the Jedi", "The Force Awakens" reintroduces a Leia who is "a little more battle weary, a little more broken hearted". In November 2015, director J. J. Abrams said of Leia, "She's referred to as General but ... there's a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her 'Princess.'" Commenting on the story he added, "The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there's not much goofing around where Leia's concerned." Asked how Leia is handling things in the film, Fisher said, "Not easily ... [she is] solitary. Under a lot of pressure. Committed as ever to her cause, but I would imagine feeling somewhat defeated, tired, and pissed."


title: Princess Leia

text: In the film, Leia is the leader of the Resistance, a group formed by the New Republic to fight a proxy war with the First Order (a group formed by the remnants of the Empire) and trying to find Luke, who disappeared years earlier. When her forces foil a First Order attack searching for the Resistance astromech droid BB-8, Leia is reunited with Han, who has helped the renegade stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and orphaned scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) bring the droid this far. Han and Leia are still married but have been estranged for a couple of years; after their son, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), fell to the dark side and became the First Order high-ranking member Kylo Ren. Leia believes Ben can still be brought back to the light side. Han volunteers for a mission to infiltrate the First Order's Starkiller Base to disable its defensive shields. Confronting Ren, Han tries to convince his son to leave the First Order to honor Leia's request of bringing him home, but Ren instead impales his father on his lightsaber. Leia senses Han's death through the Force, and later shares a moment of grief with Rey, who had thought of Han as a mentor and father figure. Leia sees Rey, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 off when they depart to locate Luke, saying, "may the Force be with you".


title: Princess Leia

text: Asked why Leia is not shown to be a Jedi in "The Force Awakens" (as she is in the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe works), Abrams told IGN, "It was a great question, and one that we talked about quite a bit, even with Carrie [Fisher]. Why did she not take advantage of this natural Force strength that this character had. And one of the answers was that it was simply a choice that she made, that her decision to run the Rebellion, and ultimately this Resistance, and consider herself a General, as opposed to a Jedi. It was simply a choice that she took". He also added, "I would like to think that there really isn't much of a ticking clock, and it's never too late ... clearly we've seen, and we do again, that she still is Force strong. And it's something that I think is an intrinsic piece of her character.


title: Princess Leia

text: In December 2015, producer Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that Fisher would reprise the role of Leia in the next installment, then known as "Star Wars: Episode VIII", but later named "". Fisher died on December 27, 2016, after going into cardiac arrest. It was confirmed that she had completed filming her role in the film shortly before her death.


title: Princess Leia

text: In the film, Leia is among those on the bridge of her flagship, the MC85 Star Cruiser "Raddus", who are expelled into space when the ship is attacked by the First Order. Leia uses the Force to pull herself back to the ship. After recovering, she shoots and stuns Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), who has mutinied against her successor, Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern). From his solitude on Ahch-To, Luke projects himself through the Force to the Resistance stronghold on Crait and reunites with Leia, apologizing for what happened to Ben. Leia replies that she knows her son is gone, but Luke reassures her that "no one's ever really gone". While Luke distracts Kylo and his attacking First Order troops, Leia is among the remaining Resistance forces who escape from Crait in the "Millennium Falcon".


title: Princess Leia

text: Following Fisher's death, "Variety" reported that she was slated to appear in "" and speculated that Lucasfilm would need to find a way to address her death and what would become of her character. Filming began on August 1, 2018. Lucasfilm announced in January 2017 that they had "no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher's performance as Princess or General Leia Organa". In April 2017, Fisher's family granted Disney and Lucasfilm the rights to use recent footage of the late actress in "The Rise of Skywalker". However, Kennedy subsequently said that Fisher would not appear in the film. In July 2018, it was announced that Fisher would appear as Leia in "The Rise of Skywalker", using unseen footage from "". Initially, there had also been plans to use additional unseen footage of Leia from "", but it was ultimately not included in the ninth film. Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd, who portrayed Lieutenant Connix in all three sequel trilogy films, also stepped in as Leia for a brief flashback in the film in which her face was digitally replaced by Fisher's likeness, using imagery from "Return of the Jedi".


title: Princess Leia

text: In the film, Leia continues to lead the Resistance while offering guidance and support to Rey as she continues her training to become a Jedi. A flashback reveals that Leia had abandoned her own training after she had a vision foretelling her son's death if she finished. While Rey and Ren duel on Kef Bir, a dying Leia uses all of her remaining strength to reach out to her son. Distracted after sensing his mother's death, Ren is stabbed by Rey with his own lightsaber. Leia passes away, making Rey experience overwhelming guilt. Rey heals Ren's wound using the Force. After the Battle of Exegol, a redeemed Ben Solo sacrifices the remainder of his life force to resurrect a dead Rey, and he vanishes at the same time as Leia becomes one with the Force. Rey then returns to the Lars homestead on Tatooine and buries the lightsabers that had belonged to Leia and her father, Anakin Skywalker as the spirits of Luke and Leia look on with pride, with Rey honoring them by adopting the surname "Skywalker".


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia makes a brief appearance in the final scene of the 2016 film "Rogue One", receiving the plans for the Death Star as a lead-up to the beginning of "A New Hope". Since this movie takes place prior to the original "Star Wars" trilogy, a very young Leia was required. To achieve that effect, a computer-generated image of a young Carrie Fisher was superimposed over Norwegian actress Ingvild Deila's face; archival audio of Fisher saying "Hope" was used to voice the character.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia appears briefly in 1978's "Star Wars Holiday Special" television film as a leader and administrator of the new Rebel Alliance base. She and C-3PO contact Chewbacca's wife Mallatobuck for assistance in finding Chewbacca and Han. Leia also appears in the cartoon segment at a different Rebel Base, located in an asteroid field, and at the Life Day ceremony at the end of the film. Fisher also appeared in and hosted the November 18, 1978, episode of "Saturday Night Live" that aired one day after the holiday special.


title: Princess Leia

text: A teenage version of Princess Leia, voiced by Julie Dolan, appears in a 2016 episode of the animated series "Star Wars Rebels", which is set between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope". In the episode, Leia is sent on a secret mission to assist the titular rebels. Executive producer Dave Filoni said of the appearance:


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia appears in the animated series "Star Wars Resistance", voiced by Rachel Butera and Carolyn Hennesy.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia appears as a ten-year-old child in the live-action series "Obi-Wan Kenobi", portrayed by Vivien Lyra Blair.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia makes her first literary appearance in "", the novelization of the original 1977 film "Star Wars", which was released six months before the film in November 1976. Credited to Lucas but ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, the novel was based on Lucas' screenplay. Leia later appeared in the novelizations "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) by Donald F. Glut and "Return of the Jedi" (1983) by James Kahn. She is also a point-of-view character in the of "The Force Awakens" by Foster.


title: Princess Leia

text: Foster's 1978 novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" was commissioned by Lucas as the basis for a potential low-budget sequel to "Star Wars" should the film prove unsuccessful. In the story, Luke and Leia seek a crystal on a swampy planet and eventually face Vader in combat.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia also appears in the line of novels and comic books, introduced in conjunction with "The Force Awakens" to connect the film with previous installments. She is the lead character in the young adult novel "Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure" (2015) by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry, which is set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", and Claudia Gray's novels "" (2016) and "" (2017). The former is set six years before "The Force Awakens", while the latter features a 16-year-old Leia before the events of "A New Hope". She also leads in Beth Revis' "Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel" which is set immediately right after "Return of the Jedi".


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia is the lead character in the five-part comic limited series "" (2015), taking place immediately after "Episode IV: A New Hope". She is also featured prominently in the four-part comic limited series "" (2015), set immediately after "Return of the Jedi". "Princess Leia" reveals Leia to have had royal training in martial arts and explores her reaction to the destruction of Alderaan, while "Shattered Empire" portrays her as a skilled pilot who undertakes a dangerous mission alongside Poe Dameron's mother. In "Princess Leia" and "Shattered Empire", Leia senses the past while on Naboo (briefly envisioning her mother and Darth Maul, respectively), and in "Star Wars" #12, she uses a lightsaber as a weapon for the first time, canonically.


title: Princess Leia

text: The original three "Star Wars" films have spawned a large franchise of works that include novels, comic books, and video games. Leia appears in much of this material. In April 2014 (with the sequel film "The Force Awakens" in production), Lucasfilm excluded the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe from official "Star Wars" canon, rebranding it as "Star Wars" Legends.


title: Princess Leia

text: In this continuity, Leia continues her adventures with Han and Luke after "Return of the Jedi", fighting Imperial resurgences and new threats to the galaxy. She becomes the Chief of State of the New Republic and a Jedi master, and is the mother to three children by Han: Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo.


title: Princess Leia

text: The 1991 "New York Times" bestselling novel "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn began what would become a large collection of works set before, between and especially after the original films.


title: Princess Leia

text: The bestselling "Thrawn" trilogy (1991–93) by Timothy Zahn begins five years after the events of "Return of the Jedi". In "Heir to the Empire" (1991), Leia is married to Han and three months pregnant with twins. Noghri commandos repeatedly attempt to kidnap her as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's plan to restore the Empire and crush the New Republic. In "Dark Force Rising" (1992), Leia realizes that Darth Vader and the Empire deceived the Noghri to secure their allegiance, and by revealing the truth she turns the alien race to the side of the New Republic. At one point, she remembers her adoptive parents on Alderaan, implying that the "mother" she discussed with Luke on Endor was Queen Breha. In "The Last Command" (1993), Leia gives birth to the twins Jaina and Jacen Solo on Coruscant during Thrawn's siege.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia, now the Chief of State of the New Republic, is a minor character in the "Jedi Academy" trilogy (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson, set after the "Thrawn" trilogy. Next in the timeline is the "Callista" trilogy: "Children of the Jedi" (1995) by Barbara Hambly, "Darksaber" (1995) by Anderson and "Planet of Twilight" (1997) by Hambly. In "The Crystal Star" (1994) by Vonda McIntyre, young Jacen, Jaina and their three-year-old brother Anakin are kidnapped in a plot to restore the Empire, but are rescued by Leia and Chewbacca. Leia struggles with the responsibilities of her position in "The Black Fleet Crisis" trilogy (1996) by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. In "The New Rebellion" (1996) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, she avoids an assassination attempt and then aids in the defeat of the Dark Jedi Kueller, whom she shoots to death. The "Corellian" trilogy (1995) by Roger MacBride Allen finds Han and Leia swept up in a civil war while visiting his homeworld of Corellia with their children. In the two "Hand of Thrawn" novels by Timothy Zahn (1997's "Specter of the Past" and 1998's "Vision of the Future"), Leia tries to hold the New Republic together as Moff Disra conspires for its volatile factions to destroy each other. Leia appears periodically in the "Young Jedi Knights" series (1995–98) by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. The 14-volume young adult fiction series covers the Jedi training of Jacen and Jaina.


title: Princess Leia

text: In "The Truce at Bakura" (1993) by Kathy Tyers, set one day after the ending of "Return of the Jedi", Leia establishes New Alderaan, a sanctuary for the destroyed planet's surviving inhabitants. The spirit of Anakin Skywalker appears to Leia and pleads for her forgiveness, but she angrily banishes him. The six-volume "Jedi Prince" series (1992–93) by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids, later contradicted by other novels, is set within a year after "Return of the Jedi". In "The Glove of Darth Vader" (1992), the self-proclaimed son of the defeated Emperor Palpatine, Trioculus, seeks the titular glove to cement himself as the new Emperor. Entranced by Leia's beauty in "The Lost City of the Jedi" (1992), Trioculus vows to make her his queen. He captures her in "Zorba the Hutt's Revenge" (1992), but Jabba the Hutt's vengeful father, Zorba, offers to trade his own prisoner Ken—Palpatine's real grandson whom Trioculus has been seeking—for Leia, his son's killer. But Leia and Ken are rescued and Trioculus is frozen in carbonate by Zorba. "Mission from Mount Yoda" (1993) finds Ken's father Triclops alive and willing to join the Rebels against the Empire. Leia, now engaged to Han, is captured by Zorba in "Queen of the Empire" (1993). Trioculus is revived and seizes Leia before Zorba can kill her. Leia is rescued and replaced with a lookalike droid decoy, which kills Trioculus. In "Prophets of the Dark Side" (1993), Leia looks forward to her wedding to Han and has a vision of their two children. Matthew Stover's 2008 standalone novel "Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor" picks up the story soon after, as Luke, Leia and the Rebels fight the Sith Lord Shadowspawn.


title: Princess Leia

text: In "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (1994) by Dave Wolverton, set immediately before the "Thrawn" trilogy, Leia is presented with an advantageous political marriage to Prince Isolder of the planet Hapes. A jealous Han abducts Leia and takes her to the planet Dathomir; Luke and Isolder follow, and there they all find the hidden forces of the Imperial warlord Zsinj. Defeating him, Han and Leia marry. The 2003 novels "A Forest Apart" and "Tatooine Ghost" by Troy Denning are set immediately after "The Courtship of Princess Leia". The newly married Leia fears that any children she has may succumb to the dark side like her father. During an adventure on Tatooine in "Tatooine Ghost", she discovers the diary of her grandmother Shmi Skywalker and meets some of young Anakin's childhood friends. When she learns of Anakin's childhood as a slave and the traumatic death of his mother, Leia learns to forgive her father.


title: Princess Leia

text: In "Shadows of the Empire" (1996) by Steve Perry, the only "Star Wars" novel set between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", Leia is searching for Boba Fett to find a captive Han. She is bewitched by the crime lord Prince Xizor using pheromones, but Chewbacca helps her elude the seduction.


title: Princess Leia

text: "Allegiance" (2007) and "Choices of One" (2011) by Timothy Zahn are set between "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", and feature Leia and her cohorts seeking new allies for their Rebellion against the Empire. "" (2013) by Martha Wells and "" (2014) by James S. A. Corey take place in the same time period and also chronicle the adventures of Leia and Han.


title: Princess Leia

text: In the "New Jedi Order" series (1999–2003), Leia resigns as Chief of State, and on the heels of her warnings before the Senate, the alien Yuuzhan Vong invade the galaxy. They destroy system after system and defeat both the Jedi and the New Republic forces in countless battles. Chewbacca dies in "Vector Prime" (1999) by R.A. Salvatore, which sends Han into a deep depression that causes a rift between him and Leia. They reunite after Leia is gravely wounded at the Battle of Duro in Kathy Tyers' "Balance Point" (2000). She is targeted by a deadly Voxyn slayer in Troy Dennings' "Star By Star" (2001), and though she manages to evade death, her son Anakin is later killed during a mission to prevent more Voxyn from being cloned. The Vong are finally defeated in "The Unifying Force" (2003) by James Luceno.


title: Princess Leia

text: In Denning's The "Dark Nest" trilogy (2005), Leia, Han, and several Jedi become involved in an escalating border dispute between the Chiss and the insidious insectoid Killiks, and Leia makes a bitter enemy in the Twi'lek warrior Alema Rar. In "The Joiner King" (2005), Leia asks Saba Sebatyne to train her as a Jedi Knight. R2-D2 malfunctions in "The Unseen Queen" (2005) and shows Luke a holoclip of his father Anakin and a pregnant woman, whom Luke learns is his and Leia's biological mother, Padmé Amidala. Anakin and Padmé are discussing a dream of Anakin's in which Padmé dies in childbirth; later, Luke and Leia watch a clip in which Padmé is talking to Obi-Wan Kenobi about Anakin. Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, has a daughter, Allana, secretly fathered by Jacen. In "The Swarm War" (2005), Luke and Leia view holoclips of their mother's death, and Leia is promoted to Jedi Knight.


title: Princess Leia

text: The bestselling "Legacy of the Force" series (2006–08) chronicles the crossover of Han and Leia's son Jacen to the dark side of the Force while the Jedi, Solos, and Skywalkers fight against his growing power. In "Betrayal" (2006) by Aaron Allston, Jacen turns to the dark side, believing that it is the only way to save the galaxy from the chaos brewing among the member systems of the Galactic Alliance. Jacen realizes in "Bloodlines" (2006) by Karen Traviss that the Sith discipline will require him to kill one of his loved ones, which he decides is an acceptable sacrifice to save the galaxy. In Troy Denning's "Tempest" (2006), Han and Leia thwart the assassination of Tenel Ka and Allana but become caught up in a Corellian conspiracy. They are almost killed when the "Millennium Falcon" is attacked by a Star Destroyer controlled by an increasingly powerful Jacen—who knows that his parents are on board. With Han injured, Leia and Lando further investigate the Corellians in Aaron Allston's "Exile" (2007), but Alema reappears to exact her vengeance on Leia. "Sacrifice" (2007) by Karen Traviss finds Leia and Han on the run, hunted by Jacen as traitors to the Galactic Alliance. He kills Luke's wife Mara Jade as his final sacrifice to become Darth Caedus, the new ruler of the Sith. In "Inferno" (2007) by Troy Denning, Han and Leia are faced with the reality that their son, now Joint Chief of State, is the enemy. Leia attempts unsuccessfully to manipulate Jacen in Aaron Allston's "Fury" (2007) so that the Jedi can both thwart him and neutralize Alema. Finally, in "Invincible" (2008) by Troy Denning, Jaina kills Jacen in a lightsaber duel. At Tenel Ka's request, Leia and Han adopt Allana, disguised with the name "Amelia" to protect her from any future vengeance against Cadeus or the Hapes Consortium. Multiple novels in the series made the "New York Times" Best Seller list.


title: Princess Leia

text: The nine-volume "Fate of the Jedi" series (2009–12) by Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, and Christie Golden finds Han and Leia become caught up in the intensifying conflict between the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi. In the wake of Darth Cadeus' death, the now-peaceful Galactic Alliance harbors a growing mistrust toward the Jedi, and the situation is worsened by a Force-induced psychosis that begins afflicting individual Jedi, sending them on violent rampages.


title: Princess Leia

text: In "Millennium Falcon" (2008) by James Luceno, set between "Legacy of the Force" and "Fate of the Jedi", a mysterious device hidden inside the eponymous spacecraft sends Han, Leia and Allana on an adventure to investigate the ship's past before it came into Han's possession. Troy Denning's "Crucible" (2013), set after "Fate of the Jedi" and the last novel to date in the "Star Wars Legends" chronology, reunites Leia, Han and Luke with Lando as they aid him to thwart a vast criminal enterprise threatening his asteroid mineral refinery in the Chilean Rift nebula.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia's youth is depicted in the non-canon "Star Wars Tales" story, "The Princess Leia Diaries". In it, she develops her disdain for the Empire, as well as a conflict with Tarkin. She discovers and decides to support the Rebellion.


title: Princess Leia

text: During the events of the comic series "Dark Empire" (1991–92), Palpatine has been resurrected in a young clone body and seduces Luke to the dark side of the Force as part of his plan to restore the Empire. A captive Leia, resisting Palpatine's attempts to turn her as well, escapes with an artifact he needs to secure his power, the Jedi Holocron. Luke pursues her, and Leia manages to turn him back. Brother and sister then fight Palpatine with the light side of the Force, turning his own Force-generated storm against him and destroying Palpatine and his Star Destroyer. In "Dark Empire II" (1994–95), Leia gives birth to a third child by Han, whom she names Anakin. Palpatine is reborn in an inferior, rapidly deteriorating clone body in "Empire's End" (1995), and seeks to possess the body of the infant Anakin.


title: Princess Leia

text: Princess Leia has been called a 1980s icon, a feminist hero and "an exemplary personification of female empowerment". In 2008, Leia was selected by "Empire" magazine as the 89th greatest film character of all time, and IGN listed her as their 8th top "Star Wars" hero. UGO Networks listed Leia as one of their best heroes of all time in 2010.


title: Princess Leia

text: The character has been referenced or parodied in several TV shows and films, and celebrated in cosplay. Fisher appeared in the Leia metal bikini on the cover of the Summer 1983 issue of "Rolling Stone", and a painting of Leia and other characters surrounding Lucas appeared on the cover of the May 25, 1983, issue of "Time" announcing "Return of the Jedi". In 2013, cartoonist Jeffrey Brown published the bestselling "Star Wars: Vader's Little Princess", a comic strip-style book featuring Darth Vader and a young Leia in humorous father-daughter situations. Princess Leia appears on a 2007 US postage stamp and a 2015 UK stamp.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia has also been used in a wide range of "Star Wars" merchandise, including statuettes, action figures and other toys, household items and clothing, office supplies, food products, and bubble bath and shampoo in Leia-shaped bottles with her head as the cap. In her one-woman show "Wishful Drinking", Fisher called the Princess Leia Pez dispenser one of the "merchandising horrors" of the series. In a 2011 interview, Fisher said:


title: Princess Leia

text: After the 2012 acquisition of LucasFilm by the Walt Disney Company, the Disney Store stated in May 2014 that the company had "no plans for Leia products". After public criticism, Disney told "Time" in June 2014 that it would be releasing several Leia products. Funko has since produced several versions of Leia (at least one for each film) in their POP! line of 4.5-inch vinyl figures in the Japanese super deformed style. Hasbro is set to release an action figure of Leia as she appears in the "Star Wars Rebels" animated series.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia's unique hairdo in 1977's "A New Hope" has come to be known as the "doughnut" or "cinnamon buns" hairstyle, and is iconic of the character and series. A February 1978 cover story for the British teen magazine "Jackie" included step-by-step instructions on how to replicate Leia's hair buns. In the 1978 short film parody "Hardware Wars", Princess Anne-Droid has actual cinnamon buns on the side of her head. Miss Piggy of "The Muppet Show" copied the hairdo in a "Star Wars"-themed episode of the series in February 1980. In the 1987 Mel Brooks comedy film "Spaceballs", Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) appears to have the hairstyle, which is soon revealed to in fact be a large pair of headphones. In the parody film "Thumb Wars", the role of Leia was filled by a character named Princess Bunhead, who has two cinnamon rolls for hair. In 2015, Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd's character in the horror-comedy TV series "Scream Queens", a rich and disaffected sorority girl known as Chanel No. 3, wears earmuffs in every scene as an homage to Fisher's iconic Leia hairstyle. Lourd also has a cameo in "The Force Awakens" (2015) in which she wears Leia's distinctive hair buns.


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia has been the subject of feminist analysis. Mark Edlitz wrote for "The Huffington Post" in 2010 that "Leia is an exemplary personification of female empowerment." David Bushman, television curator at the Paley Center for Media, said in 2012, "From the male perspective ... Princess Leia was a very creditable character for her time—not perfect, but certainly defiant, assertive, and strong." Alyssa Rosenberg of "The Washington Post" wrote in 2015, "Leia wasn't just the first great heroine of science fiction and fantasy to capture my imagination. She was one of the first characters I encountered whose power came from her political conviction and acumen." In her 2007 article "Feminism and the Force: Empowerment and Disillusionment in a Galaxy Far, Far Away", Diana Dominguez cited Leia as a welcome change from the previous portrayals of women in film and TV. She wrote:


title: Princess Leia

text: Rosenberg writes that, though at first Luke is an apolitical innocent in search of adventure and Han is a detached opportunist in search of money, both are "influenced by Leia's passion [and] take their places as full participants in the Rebellion". She notes, "Everyone else eventually comes around to Leia's view of the world." Leia herself, singularly dedicated to her political movement against the Empire, "finds a partner in Han, acknowledging that personal happiness can help her sustain her commitment to building a better galactic order". Rosenberg cites "Leia's willingness to see the best in him, and Han's desire to live up to her belief in him" as a foundation of their relationship, also pointing out his attempts to make her recognize that she has needs like anyone else and should acknowledge that she needs him.


title: Princess Leia

text: In their 2012 essay "Lightsabers, Political Arenas, and Marriages", Ray Merlock and Kathy Merlock Jackson cite Leia as the successor of earlier science fiction heroines Wilma Deering of "Buck Rogers" and Dale Arden of "Flash Gordon", and the embodiment of "a new stage in the ongoing presentation of the fairy-tale princess in jeopardy". Writing that "after Leia, no longer would princesses be passive and salvaged simply with a kiss," they note the reflection of the character in later Disney Princess animated films and in woman warriors such as Ellen Ripley from the "Alien" franchise and Xena of the adventure TV series "". A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" described Leia as "a foremother of Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen and of countless latter-day Disney princesses. She also foretold the recent, somewhat belated feminist turn in the "Star Wars" cycle itself".


title: Princess Leia

text: Fisher herself described Leia as a "huge" feminist icon, dismissing the suggestion that the character was ever a "damsel in distress". Fisher said of Leia, "She bossed them around. I don't know what your idea of distress is, but that wasn't it! And I wasn't some babe running through the galaxy with my tits bouncing around. So I wasn't threatening to women". She added, "I "like" Princess Leia. I like how she was feisty. I like how she killed Jabba the Hutt". "I think I am Princess Leia, and Princess Leia is me. It's like a Möbius striptease."


title: Princess Leia

text: Leia's slave costume when she is held captive by Jabba the Hutt at the beginning of "Return of the Jedi"—made of brass and dubbed Leia's "Metal Bikini" or "Gold Bikini"—immediately made the character (and Fisher) a "generational sex symbol" celebrated by pin-up posters, and later merchandising and cosplay. The outfit has gained a cult following of its own.


title: Princess Leia

text: Rosenberg noted that "the costume has become culturally iconic in a way that has slipped loose from the context of the scenes in which Leia wore it and the things she does after she is forced into the outfit." "Wired" wrote in 2006, "There's no doubt that the sight of Carrie Fisher in the gold sci-fi swimsuit was burned into the sweaty subconscious of a generation of fanboys hitting puberty in the spring of 1983." Acknowledging the opinion of some that the "Slave Leia" iconography tarnishes the character's position as "feminist hero", Rosenberg argues:


title: Princess Leia

text: Science fiction filmmaker Letia Clouston concurs, saying "Sci-fi has had a long history of strong female characters. Yes, Princess Leia was in a gold bikini, but she was also the one who single-handedly killed Jabba. When you take into account movies and TV shows like "Terminator", "Aliens", "Battlestar Galactica", and even video games like "Metroid", you can see sci-fi has consistently promoted the strength of women more than any other genre."


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Stephen Thompson (born February 11, 1983) is an American professional mixed martial artist and model. Thompson currently competes in the Welterweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former full-contact kickboxer and was undefeated through 37 amateur and 20 professional kickboxing matches. Thompson is regarded as one of the most accomplished strikers in the UFC. As of November 8, 2022, he is #6 in the UFC welterweight rankings.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson is well known for his polite demeanor, and is often cited by other fighters as one of the most respected fighters in the UFC.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was born on February 11, 1983, in Simpsonville, South Carolina. He has two sisters and two brothers. Thompson started training at the age of three, under the guidance of his father, Ray Thompson, a former professional kickboxer and owner of Upstate Karate, a karate school in Simpsonville, South Carolina.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson started competing in kickboxing and karate at the age of 15. He holds black belt ranks in Tetsushin-ryū Kempo, American Kickboxing and Jujutsu. He studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Machado who is also his brother-in-law. Thompson graduated from high school in 2001 and is the Head Instructor of the children's karate program at Upstate Karate.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: As an amateur kickboxer Thompson amassed 16 titles and finished his career with a record of 37 wins, 18 by knockout and no losses.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: He turned professional on May 15, 2004 against Kadir Kadri who he defeated by knockout in the fifth round.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: On December 14, 2004 Thompson traveled to Montreal, Canada to face Eric Boudreau at "La renaissance du Kickboxing" event. He won the fight by technical knockout in the fifth round.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: On May 21, 2005 Thompson rematched Kadir Kadri at Martial Arts May-Hem 05 in Greenville, South Carolina. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: On September 3, 2005 Thompson faced Freddie Espiricueta at the APEX – Undisputed event in Montreal, Canada. Thompson won the fight by technical knockout in the third round.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson has also been featured in "Martial Arts Digest" magazine, "Fighter" magazine, and "MMA Authority" magazine.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson has performed along with his father at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in the “Athletes Project”, and has appeared in several TV commercials.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: In 2006, Thompson joined the newly created World Combat League. He went undefeated during that year earning wins over opponents such as Antoine McRae, Armin Mrkanovic, James DeCore, Tim Williams and Carlos Tearney. He was the #1 ranked fighter in World Combat League at the end of 2006.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: On January 20, 2007 Thompson fought Raymond Daniels in a highly anticipated bout. Thompson lost the bout by technical knockout due to a knee injury he suffered that left him unable to continue. However, this was later overturned into a no contest.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was expected to face Justin Edwards on February 4, 2012, at UFC 143, replacing an injured Mike Stumpf. However, Edwards was forced out with an injury and replaced by Dan Stittgen. Thompson won the fight via KO in the first round after landing a flush head kick. For his performance, Thompson was awarded "Knockout of the Night" honors.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson lost to Matt Brown on April 21, 2012, at UFC 145 via unanimous decision (30–27, 29–27, and 30–27).


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was expected to face Besam Yousef on November 17, 2012, at UFC 154. However, Thompson was forced out of the bout with a knee injury and replaced by Matthew Riddle.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was expected to face Amir Sadollah on May 25, 2013, at UFC 160. However, Sadollah pulled out of the bout, citing an injury, and he was replaced by Nah-Shon Burrell. Thompson won the fight via unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, and 29–28).


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson next faced Chris Clements on September 21, 2013, at UFC 165. He won the fight via knockout in the second round.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced future UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker on February 22, 2014, at UFC 170. Thompson won the bout via first-round technical knockout. The win also earned him his first "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Patrick Côté on September 27, 2014, at UFC 178. Thompson won the fight via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, and 30–27).


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was expected to headline against Brandon Thatch on February 14, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 60. However, Thompson pulled out of the fight on January 30, citing a rib injury, and was replaced by former UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Jake Ellenberger on July 12, 2015, at . He won the fight via KO in the first round and earned a "Performance of the Night" bonus.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson was expected to face Neil Magny on January 2, 2016, at UFC 195. However, Magny was tabbed as an injury replacement for Matt Brown and instead faced Kelvin Gastelum on November 21, 2015, at . In turn, Thompson was removed from the card and rebooked to face former champion Johny Hendricks on February 6, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 82. He won the bout via TKO in the first round. The win also earned Thompson his third "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson next faced Rory MacDonald on June 18, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 89. He won the fight via unanimous decision (50–45, 50–45, and 48–47).


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson fought for the UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 205, where he faced reigning champion Tyron Woodley. The fight ended in a majority draw with two judges scoring the fight 47–47 and the third 48–47 in favor of Woodley. However, there was some confusion as the result was initially announced as a split decision victory for Woodley only to be corrected moments later when the decision of a majority draw was announced, albeit with the same result of Woodley remaining champion. Subsequently, both fighters were awarded "Fight of the Night" bonus awards. UFC President Dana White stated that he expected that a rematch would be next for each fighter.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: The rematch with Woodley took place on March 4, 2017, in the main event at UFC 209. Thompson lost the bout by majority decision (48–47, 47–47, and 48–47). In a sample of 19 media pundits scoring the fight, five scored it in favor of Woodley, six scored in favor of Thompson, and eight scored it a draw.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Jorge Masvidal on November 4, 2017 at UFC 217. He won the one-sided fight via unanimous decision (30–26, 30–27, and 30–27).


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: As the first bout of his new multi-fight contract, Thompson faced Darren Till on May 27, 2018 at UFC Fight Night 130. At the weigh-ins, Till weighed in at 174.5 pounds, 3.5 pounds over the welterweight non-title fight limit of 171. After negotiating with Thompson's team, the bout proceeded at a catchweight, with the stipulation that Till could not weigh more than 188 pounds on the day of the fight. Till also forfeited 30 percent of his purse to Thompson. Thompson lost the bout via unanimous decision (48–47, 49–46, and 49–46). Conversely, 22 of 25 media outlets scored the bout in favor of Thompson.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced former UFC Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in the headliner of UFC on ESPN+ 6 on March 23, 2019. Despite outstriking Pettis for most of the bout, he lost the fight via knockout in the second round, marking the first time that Thompson had been stopped in MMA or kickboxing competition.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Vicente Luque on November 2, 2019 at UFC 244. He won the fight via unanimous decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Geoff Neal on December 19, 2020 in the headliner UFC Fight Night 183. He won the fight via unanimous decision. This win earned him the "Performance of the Night " award.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: As the first bout of his new six-fight contract, Thompson faced Belal Muhammad on December 18, 2021 at . He lost via unanimous decision after being forced into bottom position on the ground for a large portion of each round.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson faced Kevin Holland on December 3, 2022, at UFC on ESPN 42, in the main event. He won the fight by technical knockout after Holland's corner stopped the fight after the fourth round. This fight earned both the "Fight of the Night" award.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson is well known for his Kempo style of karate which he has trained in from an early age. This karate background is evident in the stance he adopts, as his feet stand far apart and he sits wide with his hands low. This style is very uncommon in MMA, with most fighters having a background in wrestling or jiu-jitsu, or striking arts like boxing, muay thai, or other styles of kickboxing. His wide, karate stance allows him to cover distance, and launch kicks rapidly, which he is known for doing. Analysts and fighters have praised 'Wonderboy' for his ability to keep other fighters in his range whilst staying out of theirs. The risk of being knocked out compels most fighters to keep their hands up in 'guard', but Thompson, among others such as Jiří Procházka, keeps their hands very low. The benefits of a very low guard are that your punches and elbows become very hard to predict, and you are better prepared to defend against takedowns. Thompson is more suited to keeping his hands low than other fighters who adopt more orthodox MMA stances, as he can negate the risk of being hit with a clean shot to the head through his footwork and rapid movement. His footwork is simply described as "hopping back and forth", like other practitioners do such as Conor McGregor and Zhang Weili. The benefit of this "hopping" while in neutral is that, like the low or non-existent guard, that your striking and movement becomes unpredictable.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: Thompson's sister is married to Carlos Machado and Thompson's brother, Tony, is married to Chris Weidman's sister.


title: Stephen Thompson (fighter)

text: In 2022, Thompson made his acting debut as Sensei Morozov in two episodes of season 5 of the Netflix series "Cobra Kai".


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula One cars. It was the 66th Formula One World Championship recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Twenty-two drivers representing 10 teams contested 19 Grands Prix, starting in Australia on 15 March and ending in Abu Dhabi on 29 November as they competed for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Lewis Hamilton was the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his second title at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His team, Mercedes, began the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having clinched its first championship title at the 2014 Russian Grand Prix.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The calendar featured two significant changes from the season. The first was the return of the Mexican Grand Prix, held for the first time since . The other change was the cancellation of the German Grand Prix after a venue could not be agreed upon, leaving the nation without a World Championship event for the first time in fifty-five years.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Hamilton secured his third Drivers' Championship with three races left in the season. The runner-up was his teammate Nico Rosberg, 59 points behind, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel third, another 44 points adrift. Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team clinched the 2015 Constructors' Championship at the Russian Grand Prix, ahead of Ferrari and Williams, and ended the season with a record 703 points. Hamilton also won the FIA Pole Trophy with a total of 11 pole positions in the season and the DHL Fastest Lap Award. Ferrari won the inaugural DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The following teams and drivers took part in the 2015 Formula One World Championship. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Four drivers drove as third or test drivers throughout the season. Jolyon Palmer drove for Renault, Fabio Leimer for Manor, Raffaele Marciello for Sauber and Susie Wolff for Williams.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Several team changes took place before the season began. Both McLaren and Lotus changed engine suppliers for the 2015 season. McLaren ended their 20-year partnership with Mercedes-Benz, in favour of a return to Honda, who had previously supplied them from until 1992. Honda had been absent for seven years: they had provided British American Racing and Jordan Grand Prix with engines until they purchased the former in and then had competed as a constructor until .


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Lotus ended its association with Renault in favour of a deal with Mercedes. This ended a 20-year involvement of Renault with the Enstone-based team, (which operated as Benetton from 1992 until 2001, as Renault from 2002 until 2011 and as Lotus from 2012 until 2015) after being an engine supplier to Benetton since , and being the owner of the team from to .


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Both Caterham F1 and Marussia went into administration towards the end of the 2014 season. The latter was saved narrowly from liquidation in February 2015, re-entering as Manor Marussia, when new investment was secured and the team left administration after an agreement with creditors was reached. Caterham ultimately folded and its assets were auctioned off by company administrators after the start of the season.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The driver line-ups saw a couple of changes prior to the 2015 season and one more prior to the Singapore Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso replaced Kevin Magnussen at McLaren, returning to the team after he last raced for them in . Following an accident during pre-season testing, Alonso withdrew from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and Magnussen returned as his temporary replacement. Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season after six years with the team and nine years with its wider junior development programme to join Ferrari in place of Alonso. Daniil Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso to fill the vacated seat.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Toro Rosso changed their entire line-up: along with Kvyat joining Red Bull, the team chose not to renew Jean-Éric Vergne's contract. Vergne went on to compete in the Formula E Championship while also becoming a Ferrari development driver. They were replaced by the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Carlos Sainz Jr. and the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship third-place finisher Max Verstappen. The latter became the youngest driver to make a Formula One début, at the age of 17 years, 164 days when he started the season.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrian Sutil were released from Sauber, where they were replaced by the former Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and the GP2 driver Felipe Nasr. Gutiérrez and Sutil went on to join Ferrari and Williams respectively as reserve drivers.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Manor Marussia also had two new drivers: They employed the former Caterham driver Will Stevens to drive for his first full season in the sport, while another former Caterham test driver, Roberto Merhi, was signed to a short-term deal while he also drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. Max Chilton relinquished his seat, joining the Indy Lights championship, while Jules Bianchi was in a coma at the start of the season and ultimately died from injuries sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi was later drafted in by Manor Marussia to make his Formula One début at the Singapore Grand Prix, replacing Merhi. The Spaniard returned to the team for the Russian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, sharing the car with Rossi for the remainder of the season.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Kamui Kobayashi went on to race in the Super Formula series in Japan after the folding of Caterham left him without a drive in Formula One.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: There were a few revisions to the calendar from the previous season. The Mexican Grand Prix returned to the Formula One calendar for the first time since 1992. The race was held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit located in the centre of Mexico City, which was the location of all Mexican Grands Prix in previous decades. The circuit was substantially reconfigured to accommodate the sport's return.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The Grand Prix of America and the Indian Grand Prix were both contracted but did not feature on the calendar. The former originally aimed for a debut in at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey after a 15-year contract was signed, but was delayed for a third straight year, while the latter was cancelled for the second consecutive year due to an unresolved tax case in the Bombay High Court.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The German and Korean Grands Prix were both included on the provisional calendar. The former was set to return to the Nürburgring, in accordance with the event-sharing agreement established between the Nürburgring and the Hockenheimring in 2008. The Nürburgring had previously hosted the race in 2013 and so was scheduled to host it again in 2015, but the venue was left off the provisional calendar, leaving the event-sharing agreement at a stalemate. With both venues unwilling to host the event, the race was ultimately cancelled, leaving the country off the Grand Prix calendar for the first time since . The Korean Grand Prix was scheduled to return to the Formula One calendar after being removed in 2014, but the plan was ultimately abandoned.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The number of power units a driver could use in a season was reduced from five in 2014 to four in 2015. This was tweaked after the 2015 British Grand Prix, with new power unit manufacturers being allowed one other power unit in their first season of competition; the only manufacturer affected in the 2015 season was Honda, who were allowed to take advantage of the rule even though it had been introduced after the season had begun. The rules regarding engine development that were introduced for the previous season were changed as well, with the manufacturers allowed to perform half the development permitted in 2014.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Following the backlash over "ugly" nose designs in 2014, the FIA moved to amend the rules surrounding nose designs for the 2015 season. Noses were lower than in 2014, retaining a minimum cross section, but they had to taper to a point at a fixed linear rate, effectively outlawing the dramatic finger shapes seen in 2014 in favour of a more gradual shape. Furthermore, the design of the nose had to be symmetrical and consistent with the centreline of the car, thereby banning the more exotic designs, such as the "twin-tusk" approach used by Lotus on the E22 chassis.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The minimum weight of the cars at all times during an event was increased to , a difference of from 2014, addressing concerns raised the year before that the lighter weight limit forced taller drivers to become unhealthily slim. The ban on front-and-rear interconnected suspension systems (FRIC) that had been implemented in the middle of the 2014 season was formalised, with the regulations stating that the front and rear suspension had to be designed in such a way that any change in performance had to be a direct result of a change in load applied solely to them. The anti-intrusion panels on both sides of the survival cell were extended upwards to the rim of the cockpit and alongside the driver's head in order to improve the drivers' safety in event of a side impact. Titanium skid blocks on the underside of the car were made mandatory for the 2015 season, which led to a return of sparks being created by the cars as the underbody touched the track.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Several rules regarding penalties were changed for the 2015 season. The replacement of a complete power unit, exceeding the maximum number allowed per season, no longer resulted in a penalty in itself. Penalties continued to be applied cumulatively for the replacement of individual components of the power unit, and if such a grid place penalty was imposed and the driver's starting position was such that it could not be applied in full, the remainder of the penalty was no longer carried over to the next race, but was instead applied in the form of a time penalty during the race corresponding to the number of grid spaces remaining in the penalty. This was tweaked after the 2015 British Grand Prix with immediate effect, to make demotion to the back of the grid the maximum penalty for engine changes. Additional time penalties to be served during the race were abandoned.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: As well as the existing five-second penalty that could be served during a driver's scheduled pit stop, a new ten-second penalty was introduced, to be served in the same manner. If a car was deemed to have been released from a pit stop in an unsafe manner, the driver would receive a ten-second stop-and-go penalty. Further penalties could be applied if the stewards believed the driver was aware of this and attempted to drive the car regardless. If any team personnel or team equipment remained on the grid after the fifteen-second signal had been shown before the start of the formation lap, the driver of the car concerned would have had to start the race from the pit lane. If the driver concerned failed to obey this, they would have received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: The rules regarding qualifying and the start times of some races were tweaked. The qualifying procedure was further clarified to cater to different sizes of starting grids: if twenty-four cars were entered for the race, seven would have been eliminated after each of the first two qualifying segments; if twenty-two were entered, six would have been eliminated after each qualifying segment and so on if fewer cars were eligible. In light of a regulation introduced in 2014 dictating that a race could not run for more than four hours and following recommendations from the report into Jules Bianchi's accident the previous season, the start times of five Grands Prix were moved forward by an hour so races did not start with less than four hours until dusk. Thus, the Australian, Malaysia, Chinese, Japanese and Russian Grands Prix started an hour earlier than in 2014.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: There were other changes introduced in a bid to further increase the safety of the sport. In the aftermath of Bianchi's accident, a new procedure called the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was introduced following trials during the last three Grands Prix of 2014. The procedure could be initiated when double waved yellow flags were needed on any section of a circuit where competitors and officials were in danger, but the circumstances did not warrant deployment of the actual safety car. It obliged drivers to reduce their speed to match one indicated on the displays on their steering wheels. The safety car procedure was amended as well: once the last lapped car had passed the leader, the safety car returned to the pit lane at the end of the following lap. This was a change of the previous practice which required the unlapped cars to have caught up with the back of the pack before the safety car could return to the pit lane.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: If a race were suspended (red-flagged), the cars would no longer have lined up on the grid but instead would have slowly proceeded to the pit lane. The pit exit would have been closed and the first car to arrive in the pit lane would have proceeded to the exit with the others lining up behind in the order in which they arrived, regardless of race standing or garage location. Severe circumstances could still have required cars to stop immediately on track.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Beginning with the Belgian Grand Prix, radio communication from engineers to drivers pertaining to race starts, such as recommended torque map settings for optimal acceleration, was no longer allowed. This restriction added to the partial radio ban implemented at the end of the previous season. Drivers were also no longer permitted to change the design of their helmet in-season. The time limit rule was also adjusted, so that after races reached two hours and the leader completed a lap, an additional full lap would be run before the race ended.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Lewis Hamilton was the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his second title at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His team, Mercedes, began the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having clinched its first championship title at the 2014 Russian Grand Prix.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Before the start of the season, Hamilton announced he would not be exercising his option of switching his car number to 1 for 2015, as was his prerogative as reigning World Champion, and would instead race with his career number 44. It was the first season since , when Alain Prost retired from the sport following his fourth and final World Drivers' Championship title in , that the field did not contain a number one car.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: Following the financial struggles faced by Marussia and Caterham in 2014, the FIA approved the use of 2014-specification chassis in 2015 provided that teams showed cause and received an individual dispensation to compete with their old chassis. A request by Manor Marussia to use their 2014 car was rejected by the other teams. Subsequent regulation changes allowed the team to use a modified 2014 chassis which met updated safety and dimensional limits. The car was powered by a 2014 specification Ferrari power unit, with a new chassis to be introduced later in the season. However, following the twelfth round, Manor Marussia elected to abandon those plans in favour of developing the car for the following season.


title: 2015 Formula One World Championship

text: McLaren's Fernando Alonso was involved in a pre-season testing accident that saw the two-time World Drivers' Champion hospitalised. McLaren claimed the crash was caused by a sudden gust of wind disrupting the car's downforce, while Alonso insisted the crash was caused by his steering wheel locking up. On physicians' advice, Alonso elected to sit out the opening round in Australia, prompting the team to replace him with Kevin Magnussen for the race. Alonso was cleared to race by the second round in Malaysia.