Highlights
- Leia’s capture by the Empire led to Obi-Wan’s sacrifice, highlighting her tendency to put herself in danger rather than pulling the strings from a safer position.
- Leia’s stubbornness and refusal to accept help led to the destruction of her home planet, Alderaan, showing that her determination can sometimes be counterproductive.
- Leia’s lack of combat training and her insistence on fighting battles up close put her in danger and required others to save her, revealing the consequences of her lack of combat abilities.
Star Wars is a huge franchise, filled with lovable characters, many of whom have never been as explored as closely as some fans would like. Leia is one of these characters. Despite going from a princess to a rebel to a general and getting Jedi training there somewhere, she never really got the spotlight in any major project.
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Princess Leia did a lot of good in the Star Wars universe, but like plenty of other well-intentioned characters, she made a few mistakes as well.
This is a shame, given Leia is a fascinating character who has a history with most major Star Wars characters. However, despite her many strengths and accomplishments, Leia also has a few weaknesses of her own which have somewhat held her back or stalled her progress over the years, and she’s still never been the protagonist in her own project.
6 Hero Complex
Led To Obi-Wan’s Death
When Leia is first met, she’s about to be captured by Darth Vader along with the Death Star plans that were so dearly fought for. While she manages to get R2-D2 away with the plans, she is caught, another valuable piece in the Rebellion that needed to make sure she wasn’t captured at any cost.
Leia knew much about the Rebels and their plans. She shouldn’t have put herself in such a sensitive situation. Doing so, her capture by the Empire, led to Obi-Wan Kenobi having to sacrifice himself, so they could get away. This can’t be attributed purely to Leia, but it brings up the issue that she has run into again and again, putting herself in danger and the thick of things when she should be pulling the strings from further away.
5 Stubbornness
Led To Her Planet Dying
Leia, when she was a princess and rebel, was a hugely stubborn person. She wasn’t good at accepting help, felt like she had to do everything herself, and trusted almost nobody. This wasn’t entirely a weakness, because the Rebellion, as seen in Andor, had to be hugely secretive in the early days and those were only just coming to an end in A New Hope.
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Leia’s life, growing up as a public dignitary but also a rebel, made her this way. That was why she initially appeared harsh and uncompromising with Han and Luke, struggling to make friends with them. When Darth Vader had her captured, and threatened Alderaan with the Death Star, Leia accepted the death of her planet to save the Rebels. This could be construed as brave, or simply ridiculously stubborn. Either way, it caused the loss of everything Leia knew, her stubbornness was even addressed in wise words by some close to her like Han.
4 Lack Of Training
Led To Battle Weakness
- Seen In Return Of The Jedi
As fierce as Leia is, she never trained properly in the Force, or at least, not until Luke helped her long after the events of the original trilogy. Despite this, she continues to put herself in danger and escape it by the skin of her teeth. Marching into Jabba’s palace could have led to her death, as could getting on the ground on Endor’s Moon with the Ewoks.
Fighting battles up close like this was a mistake for somebody without any real combat training. Leia was born into royalty, her strengths were in the realm of strategy planning, and politics, but she constantly insisted on coming to the front lines and putting herself in danger. There were multiple occasions when her lack of combat abilities led to others having to save her.
3 Secrecy
Led To Rey’s Weakness
- Seen In The Rise Of Skywalker
Leia became the mentor and trainer for Rey after Luke’s controversial death in The Last Jedi, being the only one left within the Resistance who could help her. However, she made a major mistake in not telling Rey the truth about her parents, as this left Rey open to the shock of realization, bringing her closer to the dark side, as opposed to having time to absorb this news.
Leia’s secrecy was a problem throughout her life. Han Solo was almost driven away from her due to her not revealing the truth about her relationship with Luke earlier. She was never a very transparent person, often thinking she was protecting those she loved by keeping things from them, but often causing problems via her lack of openness.
2 Singular Focus
Led To The First Order
- Seen In The Force Awakens
Leia is not a person for peacetime. She wanted to seek out and destroy every inch of the Empire. Her hatred for everything involved with it made her an aggressive leader. However, she wasn’t careful, she let things slip, leading to the rise of the First Order under her nose. As a leader, she should have helped ensure this couldn’t happen again, and she did in Star Wars Legends.
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Instead, she found herself as a General in a new Resistance, attempting to fight against another authoritarian leader, with the power of her son at his side, again due to Leia’s failures with Ben. Leia needed to look around her occasionally, instead of focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, especially her family.
1 Her Father
Led To Political Problems
- Seen In Bloodline (Novel)
One of the major problems Leia faced as a political figure in the new Galactic Senate following the fall of the Empire was her affiliation with Darth Vader. Despite having never met him as a daughter, Leia was recognized by many other politicians around her as the daughter of that monstrous creature, leading to distrust of her.
This meant that Leia lost a lot of political support she needed as she began fearing the direction of the Senate. She eventually left to form the Resistance, knowing something bad was coming. Despite not being seen in the films, this relationship with Vader caused Leia huge turmoil despite her indifference to him and lack of training toward becoming a powerful Jedi.
