Leia Organa

Padmé Amidala, secret wife of Anakin Skywalker, became pregnant with twins toward the end of the Clone Wars. Shortly after Anakin’s turn to the dark side and a violent attack on Padmé, the Naboo Senator went into labor, but something was wrong: according to medical droids, she had lost the will to live. She gave birth to twins -- Luke and Leia -- before dying. Leia was taken in by Senator Bail Organa, a friend of Padmé’s and an ally of the Jedi, and raised as his daughter on Alderaan.

THE DARK TIMES

In her teens, Leia led a secret mission on behalf of her father: delivering three cruisers to the Phoenix Squadron rebels. She brought the ships to Lothal under the Senate-approved guise of a relief mission for the citizenry, but instead worked with the Ghost crew's Kanan and Ezra to stage a theft of the craft. While there were some hiccups, the Princess showed a strong sense of leadership and fearlessness, and the operation proved a success.

GALACTIC CIVIL WAR

Leia continued secretly working to undermine the Empire. When the Rebellion became aware of the Death Star, a small band absconded to Scarif where they daringly stole schematics of the battle station. The data tapes were beamed to a rebel ship and barely passed to the Tantive IV, where Organa received them. When asked what the transmission was, Organa simply replied: "Hope."

Aboard her ambassadorial vessel, *Tantive IV*, Princess Leia Organa was custodian of stolen plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon. While Leia was a member of the Imperial Senate, she was also one of the Rebel Alliance’s most dedicated leaders. Her ship was boarded by Darth Vader and Imperial forces, but she managed to hide the schematics and a message in the droid R2-D2, who escaped alongside his counterpart C-3PO. Leia, however, was captured by stormtroopers and confronted by Vader, who didn’t believe her claim that the ship was on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan.

Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, one of the Empire’s highest ranking officers, held Leia prisoner on the Death Star. They sought to recover the stolen data tapes and uncover the location of the hidden Rebel base, though they knew Leia would never give up its location voluntarily. As such, Vader used an interrogation droid to try and extract the information, but Leia was able to resist. Tarkin, however, found another form of persuasion: he would threaten to destroy her home planet of Alderaan unless she divulged the whereabouts of the base. Reluctantly, Leia confessed that it was Dantooine; Tarkin nefariously continued with the attack, looking to display the Death Star’s might. The Princess protested, but Tarkin and Vader would not listen. Alderaan was destroyed. But the Rebels still had time -- the Dantooine base had been abandoned long ago, which Leia knew, and the Alliance really resided on Yavin 4.

Her situation seemingly dire, events would soon unfold that would change Leia’s fate and that of the galaxy. As it turns out, the message she hid inside R2-D2 was delivered on Tatooine to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and a general in the Clone Wars who knew her father. Obi-Wan arrived on the Death Star with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the two droids to rescue her. Luke reached Leia’s cell first, dressed in disguise as one of the Empire’s foot soldiers. “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” she asked. Taking off his helmet, Luke introduced himself and the two quickly left. But by this time, stormtroopers had found the ragtag group, and Han, Chewie, Luke, and Leia were forced to jump into a trash compactor to hide. Han and Leia immediately clashed, with the Princess having little patience for his bravado. When the walls of the compactor began to close in, all seemed lost until R2-D2 was able to remotely shut them down. The group made their way back to Han’s ship, the *Millennium Falcon*, though Obi-Wan Kenobi fell in battle to Darth Vader. They escaped, but little did they know that Vader had placed a tracking device on their ship.

Leia and her rescuers rendezvoused with the Alliance on Yavin 4, where she delivered the Death Star plans. As the Rebels prepped their attack on the space station, Han and Chewie collected their reward for saving the Princess and were readying to leave. Luke and Leia were disappointed in Han’s decision, but carried on. Meanwhile, having successfully tracked the *Falcon* to Yavin 4, the Death Star closed in. The attack began, with Luke piloting anX-wing, Leia monitoring in the command center, and Han long gone. As the Death Star readied to destroy to Yavin 4 and the Rebel Alliance with it, Han saved Luke by blasting the TIE fighters trailing his X-wing; Luke fired a proton torpedo into the Death Star’s exhaust port, destroying the planet-sized terror. Han, Chewie, and Luke returned to the base where Leia warmly greeted them, and later presented them medals for their bravery.