The Original Trilogy 1977-1983

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Episode IV A New Hope (1977)

Female characters of note: Princess Leia Organa, Beru Lars, Camie Marstrap Loneozner (deleted scene)

Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Female characters of note: Princess Leia Organa

Episode VI Return of the Jedi (1983)

Female characters of note: Princess Leia Organa, Mon Mothma

When it comes to discussing feminism in conjunction with Star Wars, most of the popular and academic focus is on Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, the rebel leader portrayed by the late Carrie Fisher. The analysis on her is mixed given her strength of character as a leader and independent woman yet the deterioration of her character as a sister and love interest with less character development than Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the second and third films in the trilogy presents some complications. Harrison’s research revealed that Leia and the other female characters of the original trilogy (Aunt Beru, Mon Mothma, and a few other minor characters) receive 15%, 22%, and 23% of the screen time over the three films in the trilogy.1 Given the minor roles and interactions between the female characters, Leia receives most of the screen time and thus operates as a functionally alone character, only sharing two scenes with other female characters (moments at Echo Base with another female officer in Empire and the briefing scene with Mon Mothma in Jedi). Notably, the small number of female characters over the three movies prevent multiple female characters from engaging in conversation (on screen, excluding other media set in the Original Trilogy films), thus preventing the film from passing the (now outdated) Bechdel Test’s incredibly low standards.

This page will focus on the narrative role and character of Leia Organa, Beru Lars, and Mon Mothma and the feminist interpretation and analysis of A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983) with some consideration and reference to official retconning (retroactive continuity, making sure canon lines up between pieces of media) of the original trilogy to include more female characters and share their perspectives. This page may reference others in the site and other pieces of media like Star Wars Rebels or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as far as they relate to the original trilogy.

For more about Beru Lars, see Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and The Prequel Trilogy 1999-2005. For more about Mon Mothma, see The Prequel Trilogy 1999-2005, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), The Clone Wars (2008-2020), Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018), and Andor (2022). For more about Leia Organa, see the Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars Rebels, Female Protagonists, and Forces of Destiny for more. For more about official retconning and other female perspectives from the Original Trilogy era, see From a Certain Point of View (2017), From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back (2020), From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi (2023), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018), Andor (2022), Leia, Princess of Alderaan (2017), Film Novelizations, and Lost Stars (2015).

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Princess Leia Organa

The issues with Lucas’s writing of female characters and the sidelining of Leia (both of which will be discussed later) aside, Leia Organa and Carrie Fisher’s role in bringing her to the big screen are critical in discussions of feminist film analysis and feminist film theory and thus cannot be discounted as a subpar female heroine and lead character in the Star Wars franchise. As a “distressing damsel” rather than a princess in distress and needing rescue, Leia is often cited as the basis for the active female protagonist in science fiction and as the inspiration behind characters like Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Aliens franchise, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the Terminator franchise, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) from Indiana Jones, and countless more. Others do not necessarily see Leia (as written by George Lucas) as the true feminist science fiction female protagonist given the limitations on her character arc (as will be discussed below), and others also think that citing Leia as the inspiration for Ripley and Sarah Connor is a false equivalency because while the Alien and Terminator franchises have science fictional elements in them, they are more like horror and action movies respectively in ways that Star Wars is not; thus a cross-genre comparison is less appropriate beyond the fact that the characters of Ripley and Sarah Connor are more gender-neutral or androgynous in ways that Leia simply is not.

So. Leia Organa, Princess and Senator of Alderaan, leader of the Rebel Alliance, daughter of two queens, a senator, and a Jedi-turned-Sith Lord. Leia Organa, played by Carrie Fisher, is known for her iconic twin bun hairstyle, her sass, and her capabilities as a mostly self-rescuing princess. Really, the Princess title does not apply to her character for very long with the destruction of Alderaan, and neither does her title of senator as the Senate had been disbanded before the beginning of the film, so Leia’s identity over the Original Trilogy is primarily shaped by her role in the Rebel Alliance as part of Alliance High Command. Leia, though initially in need of rescue from Luke (Mark Hamill), Han (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca (the late Peter Mayhew), and Obi-Wan Kenobi (the late Sir Alec Guiness), takes control of the rescue efforts and Luke’s blaster, criticizing Han and Luke’s lack of an escape plan. George Lucas himself has noted that the entire first film hinges on Leia’s involvement in the rebellion; her possession of the Death Star plans (later expanded upon in Rogue One) and iconic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi are the catalyst for Luke’s hero’s journey, bringing the rest of the galaxy and the Galactic Civil War to Tatooine.

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Princess Leia Organa, Empire Strikes Back (Carrie Fisher)

While her beauty might have been what inspired Luke to continue to watch her message, Leia’s costuming (particularly in A New Hope and Empire) is modest and not revealing; even the infamous gold bikini from Return of the Jedi has been retconned away from its original objectifying visual purpose (as there is no real narrative purpose for it beyond emphasizing Leia’s lack of agency after being captured by Jabba) in Star Wars: Bloodlines (2017) as Huttslayer, a symbol of freedom and liberation for the people of Tatooine. Even for a princess, her dress (though inconvenient for her escape from the Death Star) is simple and moveable -- no inconvenient shoes or massive hoopskirts (or bras, according to Lucas) in space.

Fans and academics have also criticized Leia’s seeming lack of emotionality, particularly when dealing with grief and shock after the destruction of Alderaan or the reveal of her parentage, and this has also received in-universe commentary in select comics; here, a delicate balance must be struck between “feminine” hyper-emotionality and “masculine” emotional repression with Luke and Leia (in coping with the death of Obi-Wan and the destruction of Alderaan and the discoveries of their parentage in Empire and Jedi) abandoning their gender-prescribed emotional responses for that of the other gender. This too can also be somewhat explained knowing the two characters’ backgrounds as established early in A New Hope: Leia Organa is a professional soldier and politician who has had to learn (off-screen) that emotions might have to be processed later after the fight or the meeting or the vote. Leia grew up in a position of privilege, works in planetary and galactic politics, and has a place in the rebellion which involved both physical and mental training (though not shown on screen) that she must use when fighting the Empire and resisting the mind probe and torture in both A New Hope and Empire. She makes the conscious choice to protect the rebellion over her parents and Alderaan -- Tarkin gives her a chance to give up Yavin 4 after they discover that Dantooine has been abandoned -- and viewers see her react emotionally when Tarkin says that Alderaan will be the Death Star’s new target. Leia is also sad, if not outright crying, after Luke drops that parental bombshell, and later official (particularly Star Wars: Bloodline and several books from Legends) and fan-created media explore Leia’s incredibly complicated feelings about Vader being her father. Gendered assumptions about the expression of emotions and emotionality may be playing a role in the analysis of Leia’s expression of grief, shock, and sadness in the Original Trilogy, but the further expansion of her character in other media makes her reactions more in-character; however, the lack of screen time given to her emotions and her larger character arc is certainly an issue.

Calling Leia’s secondary role in the trilogy and particularly in Empire and Jedi “character assassination” seems a bit too harsh. The reality is that Leia is not the main character in the Original Trilogy, Luke is, because that’s how George Lucas wrote the movie and his target audience was young and teenage boys. And yes, Leia does in part exist as part of his story and in relation to Luke; that’s how character hierarchies work. Also, Luke only dominates the spoken dialogue in A New Hope, not Empire or Jedi; Han Solo (Harrison Ford) speaks the most words in Empire and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) has the most words in Jedi, according to a LA Times study. What matters almost more than screen time in this case (because there are so few female characters), Leia has a stand-alone character narrative over the three films, which is incredibly significant for the larger conversation about female characters in film. Over the three films, Leia receives more and more screen time according to Harrison’s research and she shifts away from being the princess in the dress needing rescue to a soldier in pants leading missions and rescue efforts as a military leader in her own right (which we get the culmination of in the sequel trilogy). As for the development of the Han-Leia romance in Empire and Jedi, it does bring in traditional female-coded genre material and character development, but Leia is certainly not defined by her relationship with Han because she continues to take an active role in missions, escapes, and battles (and of course they have to stay in the same space, the films could only handle an A plot and a B plot in each movie, giving Leia and Han completely separate narratives would have made the films longer and narratively bulky). Leia does not change herself for Han, nor does he expect her to despite his mildly sexist (in terms of severity of word choice and emotional impact, accounting for the different cultural standards of 1977) language in A New Hope, and his language does change from frustrated or irritated with Leia to teasing and impressed (do not mistake this for approval of “boys will be boys” and “if he’s mean to you or teases you, he likes you.” It’s not). Leia having a romantic relationship and it not being the end of her political and military career is important and fairly progressive for the 1970s (despite it being "expected" for female characters at this time).

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Princess Leia, A New Hope (Carrie Fisher)

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Beru Lars

Beru Lars (Shelagh Fraser) only appears in A New Hope in three scenes, four including when Luke discovers Owen and Beru’s bodies. In her scenes, she tells Luke to make sure one of the new droids speaks Bocce, mediates Luke and Owen’s dinner conversation about the harvest and joining the Imperial Academy, and prepares some type of vegetable in the kitchen. Beru is notably confined to the homestead, both here and in the prequel trilogy, given her centrality to the Skywalker family and Tatooine as family and the home that both Luke and Anakin must leave according to the tenets of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. In her first canonical and chronological (by release date) film appearance, Beru undergoes no character development, and the only way in which she could have any development or greater personality and independence is not shown (interrogation, torture, and death at the hands of stormtroopers). While she receives such development in later movies and shows (some in Attack of the Clones (2002) and much more in Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)) as well as in From A Certain Point of View (2017), Beru is unfortunately a plot point in Luke’s larger narrative and heroic journey, not a complex character independent of his story, in A New Hope.

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Beru Lars (Shelagh Fraser)

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Shada D’ukal (Christine Hewitt) and Karoly D’ulin (Angela Stains), above bottom

Camie Marstrap Loneozner (Koo Stark), above top

Women of Tatooine

Staying on Tatooine, a deleted scene reveals another female character with a speaking role, Camie Marstrap Loneozner (Koo Stark). A Tatooine farm girl in Luke’s circle of friends, she calls him “Wormie” and does not believe that he saw a space battle occurring in Tatooine’s orbit (the capture of the Tantive IV and Princess Leia by Imperial forces). Not even making it into the movie and appearing as “one of the boys” -- other references to the character tie her to a boyfriend and do not note any other female friends her age -- Camie, worthy of note given her sudden appearance in the novelization of The Last Jedi, also lacks the character development necessary to occupy a significant role in the larger narrative (both in A New Hope and the trilogy at large). Several minor female characters appear in the cantina scene in A New Hope, though most receive retconned character development through From a Certain Point of View (2017) and were unnamed in the original release. Mistryl Shadow Guard warriors Shada D’ukal (Christine Hewitt) and Karoly D’ulin (Angela Stains) are later retconned, receiving names and a backstory in From a Certain Point of View, revealing that in this scene they are undercover as sisters Brea and Senni Tonnika. Swilla Corey (Mandy Morton) receives a background through a Star Wars customizable card game, not in a book or other piece of media, while Jenny (Jenny Cresswell) has a scene with Han in the cantina that was ultimately cut from the film. Women appear walking around the streets of Mos Eisley, but they receive no significant camera time. A different deleted scene has an old woman yelling at Luke speeding by in his landspeeder, but she is unnamed and the actress who plays her is uncredited since the scene did not make the final cut.

Mon Mothma

Mon Mothma (Caroline Blakiston, portrayed elsewhere by Genevieve O’Reilly and Kath Soucie) is the Chandrilan senator, political mentor to Princess Leia (though not shown in the movies) and part of the top tier of Rebel Alliance leadership. She notably provides the briefing for the Battle of Endor, explaining how their network of spies and many Bothans brought them the location of the second Death Star in Endor’s orbit, its shield generator on Endor itself, and that the Emperor would be on it soon. Receiving further development in Revenge of the Sith (2005), Andor (2022), Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), and The Clone Wars (2008-2020) as a politician and founder of the Rebel Alliance, Mothma is at the height of her power in the Alliance when she first appears on screen and is one of the many Original Trilogy characters to play a central role in the Expanded Universe (now Star Wars Legends). Like Beru Lars, Mothma is already a fully formed character by the time she appears in Return of the Jedi and thus does not receive character development as Leia does throughout the trilogy; Mothma’s role as an Alliance leader and figurehead like Leia disabuses viewers of the notion that Alliance leadership believes in the same misogynistic and sexist ideology that the Empire does. However, placing both Leia and Mothma into positions of power suggests a certain implementation of the mainstream first- and second-wave feminist ideology into the franchise which focused on the needs and problems of elite, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual, conventionally attractive, and feminine white women; this same issue of white womanhood and white feminism reappears throughout the prequel trilogy into the sequel trilogy in terms of characters on screen. Certainly, seeing women in political and military positions of leadership are particularly critical in the 1970s and 1980s when such figures are by no means mainstream is empowering and feminist, especially since Leia and Mothma’s gender does not appear (overtly or subtextually) to be an obstacle for the rest of the Alliance (a theme which carries over into other parts of the franchise). Unfortunately, Mothma and Leia never interact on screen, an act which would further solidify their relationship and show multiple women with multiple types of power (social, political, and military) interacting in noncompetitive ways. In the larger historical context of the late twentieth century, Mothma seems to resemble a woman who achieved her powerful status prior to the second wave of feminism or participated in liberal second-wave feminism (working within the established systems of change) while the younger Leia would be one of those more actively involved in the social activist side of second wave feminism outside official channels of change. Given her continued presence in Original Trilogy-era Star Wars media, further scholarship of Mon Mothma in conversation with feminist and political theories and methodologies seems to be a necessary step in continued scholarship on Star Wars.

Mon Mothma (Caroline Blakiston)

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Dorovio Bolt (Vivienne Chandler)

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Oola (Femi Taylor)

Women of Jabba's Palace

There are several female characters in Return of the Jedi in Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine, but these many female characters occupy a small variety of roles (both as written characters and as figures in Jabba’s court) with limited costume differentiation. Oola (Femi Taylor), Sy Snootles (a puppet in the original release and CGI in the Special edition), Yarna d’al’Gargan (Claire Davenport), Rystall Sant (Mercedes Ngoh), Greeata Jendowanian (Celia Fushille-Burke), Lyn Me (Dalyn Chew), Laudica (uncredited actress), and Jess (Amanda Noar) are all residents of Jabba’s palace, and almost all of them work for or are enslaved by Jabba, who has an interesting place in the intersection of film theory and fatphobia (a project and analysis for another time).

Rystall Sant (Mercedes Ngoh), Greeata Jendowanian (Celia Fushille-Burke), Lyn Me (Dalyn Chew)

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Sila Kott (Poppy Hands)

Women in the Alliance and Empire

There are very few women in the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire in the original films; many female members of both organizations have been retconned in by other pieces of media (Shara Bey and Evaan Verlaine being added via the Marvel Comics post-Disney acquisition, Winter Celchu added via Star Wars Legends) or appearing in limited capacities in other shows or films (Governor Arihnda Pryce in Star Wars Rebels, Ciena Ree in Lost Stars, or Dedra Meero in Andor). There are no female members of the Galactic Empire depicted on screen in any of the three films, though it is certainly possible women extras played stormtroopers or pilots on screen and never spoke or were credited for their roles. Later media certainly reveals the presence of women within the larger Empire (thanks to the retconning power of TV and print media), but the lack of women is telling of the general air of superiority of the Empire -- no women or no people of color, and men occupy all the major positions of power as named characters. Unfortunately, the Rebel Alliance is not much better; besides Princess Leia and Mon Mothma, only one other female Rebel Alliance officer has a speaking line over the trilogy (in Empire), and the rest of the female characters are unnamed and in the background. Deleted scene footage reveals that three female pilots -- Dorovio Bolt (Vivienne Chandler), Sila Kott (Poppy Hands), and a third unnamed pilot played by an uncredited actress -- were cut from the film or, in Poppy Hands’ case, had their line dubbed over by a male actor; this dubbing is a particular shame because Kott would have been both Green Leader (commanding officer of the A-wing squadron) and the pilot who dive-bombed a Star Destroyer in the final cut of the film. All three women would have had lines and made Return of the Jedi the movie with the most speaking roles for women in the trilogy. Several other women, unnamed pilots, presumably Chandrilan aides working for Mothma, and flight crew appear in the Home One briefing scene in Return of the Jedi. In Empire, one other female character, an Alliance communications officer played by Brigitte Kahn, has a line, ordering ion control to stand by and fire during the evacuation of Echo Base. Female Alliance soldiers, flight crew, and officers appear throughout the Echo Base hangar bay and the Hoth control room, though none are visible in the ground or air battle for Hoth. Women also appear in the background on Cloud City but have no lines or significant camera time.

The Original Trilogy: Feminist?

Could Leia’s character have received more screen time and character development? Absolutely. Could the gold bikini have been avoided entirely because it serves no significant narrative purpose? Definitely. Was a romance between Han and Leia necessary? Depends on who you ask. Should more female characters have had names, screen time, or lines? Of course. But at the end of the day, the standards for feminism and women in movies (not even science fiction, just movies in general) in 1977, 1980, and 1983 are so different from 2024’s standards that it is a false equivalency to compare it to modern standards for female characters in film. Can the original trilogy be compared to modern film theory and feminist theory (but not the Bechdel test)? Yes. The difficulty lies in comparison; Leia is not the main character of the trilogy the way Rey is the main character of the sequel trilogy, and the standards for empowered and/or feminist female characters in 1977 is very different from the much higher standards we have now. And yet the narrative flexibility and cultural staying power of Rey, Padmé, Riyo Chuchi, and so many more women from Star Wars is because of Leia, Carrie Fisher’s portrayal of her, and George Lucas’s revolutionary script. Breaking the glass ceiling is hard, and there were limits to how much Leia could break the glass ceiling in the original trilogy, but break it she did so others could soar and prevent it from repairing itself.

Does the original trilogy empower women within its universe? Some more than others, but that is the nature of the world. Does it empower women here, both in 1977, 1980, and 1983 and now in 2024? Yes -- and partly because we know it gets better from here. Is Leia empowering and empowered? Definitely.

Is it feminist? Kind of. The characters with power or development like Leia and Mon Mothma are feminist because they are on equal or superior (in terms of military ranking) than many of their male colleagues and receive equal treatment as a leader, politician, or soldier that is not impacted by their gender. Beru seems to have an egalitarian marriage with Owen, though it is not expanded upon in A New Hope, and the other female characters in Empire and Jedi are not sufficiently developed (in the films, excluding post-release canon and noncanon material) and do not have speaking roles which explore their background and agency, thus preventing an accurate analysis of whether they feel empowered in-universe. George Lucas did not use feminist film theory in creating the trilogy, as most of the core texts in this interdisciplinary field had not been written by 1977, and the Bechdel test, as noted elsewhere, is an insufficient marker for feminist film criticism. Ultimately, however, the small number of narratively significant female characters, the decision to cut female pilots from Jedi, and the lack of interactions between female characters really harm the trilogy. By contemporary standards it is both feminist and empowering, but by modern standards it is empowering but not feminist.

1. Chris Kempshall, "'We Don't Want Them Here': Aliens, Androids, and Far Outsiders," in The History and Politics of Star Wars: Death Stars and Democracy (n.p.: Routledge, 2022), 198, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315145426-6.