| Separated at an early age from a mother she barely knew and a heritage that was hidden from her, Leia Organa was raised as the daughter of Viceroy and First Chairman of the planet Alderaan, Bail Organa, a hero of the Clone Wars. Leia grew up in a highly-charged political atmosphere and watched as Senator Palpatine took increasing control of the galactic government, eventually declaring himself Emperor. She became the youngest Senator in galactic history, even as Palpatine committed more and more atrocities in the name of pacifying the galaxy. Leia is at the heart of many of the Rebel Alliance's most secret missions, using her consular ship, the Tantive IV to travel throughout the galaxy with diplomatic immunity. Near Tatooine, on a mission to recruit General Obi-Wan Kenobi into the Rebellion, she and her ship are captured by the Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Devastator. Leia manages to get top-secret intercepted plans for the Death Star battle station to Alliance forces, but not without paying a supreme price: the destruction of her home planet of Alderaan. After the Battle of Yavin, Leia becomes a full-time leader of the Rebel Alliance. Those who have rescued her from a Death Star cell, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the Wookiee Chewbacca- along with the droids R2-D2 and C3P0- become a kind of second family to her. She helps lead the evacuation of the Rebel's Echo Base on Hoth and travels in Solo's Millenium Falcon to Cloud City above Bespin to repair the ship. But Solo's old gambling buddy, Lando Calrissian, betrays them. Months later, Leia enters the palace of Jabba the Hutt in a bounty hunter disguise and manages to free Solo from his carbonite prison, but Jabba discovers her and reduces her to one of his slave girls. She soon seizes an opportunity to choke the crime lord to death, then joins Solo on a strike team to Endor to destroy a generator for a shield that protects a second Death Star. She needs all her diplomatic skills to gain the help of a primitive tribe of Ewoks that they encounter, but the Rebels persevere and Leia is brought to the threshold of amazing discoveries about herself and her family. |
