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Last time, I put up a couple of stories from Star Wars Tales #15 which centered on Luke Skywalker as a child. Now it's Leia's turn.
First is The Princess Leia Diaries, from Star Wars Tales #11. Four pages out of twelve.
Young Leia is a terror.
It's got a narrative device in the form of her diary. At ten years old, she complains that the line between how she wants to live and how she's expected to live is about as thin as a Hutt after a buffet. She doesn't like being a princess, she doesn't like her governess - "who for some reason thinks 'real ladies' can walk with books on their heads - and must eat as if it were a ceremony".
So she rebels. Constantly. At some kind of dance... hall thing for the nobility, she somehow gets to perform "The Dance of the... um - Twi'lek Slave girl. Oh dear."
At a banquet, she throws food into the face of a senator's son who is annoying her even as his father is annoying hers. "Of course, the boys I want to meet are those my father would never allow me to even talk to," she writes as she gives her friend Winter the wig and flies off with a rougish-looking boy in faux-Han Solo garb, sneaking out at night.
She loves Winter, who's like a sister. She knows her aunts love her, but sometimes she feels like an outsider in her own family. Sometimes she feels like part of her is missing - cue a panel of young Luke watching the suns set on Tatooine.
Leia meets Governer Tarkin - well, "meets". Pursued by her governess, she runs past him speaking to her father, and when caught and coming back he asked "Get a bit of a beating, did you?" Leia replied "This ain't nothin'! You should see the Wookiee!" and writes that when he looked at her it was like death was staring her in the eye.
Yep, that's a cameo by Ackbar, pre-Admiralty. Also, Daala, Tarkin's lover and not yet a horrific Villain Sue, is the redhead.
When she's thirteen she's at a high class banquet, all human with nonhuman servants, and is angry about the lavishness, when she knows that kind of money could be so helpful elsewhere. Then she splashes liquid on the dress of another girl who's being insulting to her servants. In her diary she worries that her father thinks her ways are unfitting, but we see that Bail watched the whole thing and was smiling.
A month before she turns seventeen, she writes that she knows what her father's preparing her for now. The Alliance to Restore the Republic. She spied on him talking to Mon Mothma about it and is shocked. Still, she resolves to make him proud. "My hatred for the Empire continues to grow. Their treatment of non-human species and women is atrocious and their desire to control every form of expression is appalling. I'm going to do whatever it takes to restore the freedoms the Empire is systematically taking away."
The day finally comes when her father steps down for Leia, the youngest elected member of the Imperial Senate. Bail is very surprised when she tells him that she knows about the Rebellion and wants to help - with her diplomatic immunity and a consular ship, she could run covert missions. He's a little worried by the idea, but wants her to know how proud he is.
"First Impressions", an eight-pager from Star Wars Tales #15, isn't as good, IMO, but it does have a very memorable bit. Two pages.
Basically what's happened here is that on her first visit to Imperial Center - which in the Republic era was called Coruscant - Leia saw a Caamasi being mistreated by stormtroopers and tried to stop them. The stormtroopers threatened to arrest her, and only her guards hauling her away helped. She told her father that she'd bring this up before the Emperor, and he told her to that the Emperor is neither reasonable nor flexible.
She says it's like he was pitch black inside. Bail comforts her, strengthening her resolve to take his place and make a difference. He's also managed to pull strings and get the Caamasi set free. Sometimes, he tells her, things can only be done surreptitiously.
...and okay, one more, not-really-related thing which made me laugh. See, the "Tales" collections are always preceded by the editors interacting with the characters somehow, and this is the one from #15.
First is The Princess Leia Diaries, from Star Wars Tales #11. Four pages out of twelve.
Young Leia is a terror.
It's got a narrative device in the form of her diary. At ten years old, she complains that the line between how she wants to live and how she's expected to live is about as thin as a Hutt after a buffet. She doesn't like being a princess, she doesn't like her governess - "who for some reason thinks 'real ladies' can walk with books on their heads - and must eat as if it were a ceremony".
So she rebels. Constantly. At some kind of dance... hall thing for the nobility, she somehow gets to perform "The Dance of the... um - Twi'lek Slave girl. Oh dear."
At a banquet, she throws food into the face of a senator's son who is annoying her even as his father is annoying hers. "Of course, the boys I want to meet are those my father would never allow me to even talk to," she writes as she gives her friend Winter the wig and flies off with a rougish-looking boy in faux-Han Solo garb, sneaking out at night.
She loves Winter, who's like a sister. She knows her aunts love her, but sometimes she feels like an outsider in her own family. Sometimes she feels like part of her is missing - cue a panel of young Luke watching the suns set on Tatooine.
Leia meets Governer Tarkin - well, "meets". Pursued by her governess, she runs past him speaking to her father, and when caught and coming back he asked "Get a bit of a beating, did you?" Leia replied "This ain't nothin'! You should see the Wookiee!" and writes that when he looked at her it was like death was staring her in the eye.
Yep, that's a cameo by Ackbar, pre-Admiralty. Also, Daala, Tarkin's lover and not yet a horrific Villain Sue, is the redhead.
When she's thirteen she's at a high class banquet, all human with nonhuman servants, and is angry about the lavishness, when she knows that kind of money could be so helpful elsewhere. Then she splashes liquid on the dress of another girl who's being insulting to her servants. In her diary she worries that her father thinks her ways are unfitting, but we see that Bail watched the whole thing and was smiling.
A month before she turns seventeen, she writes that she knows what her father's preparing her for now. The Alliance to Restore the Republic. She spied on him talking to Mon Mothma about it and is shocked. Still, she resolves to make him proud. "My hatred for the Empire continues to grow. Their treatment of non-human species and women is atrocious and their desire to control every form of expression is appalling. I'm going to do whatever it takes to restore the freedoms the Empire is systematically taking away."
The day finally comes when her father steps down for Leia, the youngest elected member of the Imperial Senate. Bail is very surprised when she tells him that she knows about the Rebellion and wants to help - with her diplomatic immunity and a consular ship, she could run covert missions. He's a little worried by the idea, but wants her to know how proud he is.
"First Impressions", an eight-pager from Star Wars Tales #15, isn't as good, IMO, but it does have a very memorable bit. Two pages.
Basically what's happened here is that on her first visit to Imperial Center - which in the Republic era was called Coruscant - Leia saw a Caamasi being mistreated by stormtroopers and tried to stop them. The stormtroopers threatened to arrest her, and only her guards hauling her away helped. She told her father that she'd bring this up before the Emperor, and he told her to that the Emperor is neither reasonable nor flexible.
She says it's like he was pitch black inside. Bail comforts her, strengthening her resolve to take his place and make a difference. He's also managed to pull strings and get the Caamasi set free. Sometimes, he tells her, things can only be done surreptitiously.
...and okay, one more, not-really-related thing which made me laugh. See, the "Tales" collections are always preceded by the editors interacting with the characters somehow, and this is the one from #15.
