A Hero and A Princess

I thought the days were supposed to be getting longer, not darker.

I remember in 1997 when the original trilogy was re-released for the 20^th anniversary and Star Wars started to show up in my life. The first Star Wars movie I saw was The Empire Strikes Back and even though I was quite the precocious child, I wouldn’t have said it changed my life then, even though I remember more about that day than I do about my high school and college graduations combined. I don’t think I really appreciated the role Star Wars played in my life until I started listening to others’ stories about representation.

See, it never crossed my mind that young women couldn’t rule the world. I’d seen Princess Leia do it a million times.

Carrie Fisher redefined what it meant to be a princess for me. A princess is a diplomat. A princess is a rebel. A princess sits in on war councils and gives commands and is the last one to leave the base when it is under attack. Even if a princess had to be rescued from time to time, it wasn’t because she was powerless or useless—it was because she had been taken captive by the Empire and it’s hard to beat Darth Vader. That rescue is not an escort mission—a princess grabs a blaster and gets them out of the poorly-planned mess they’re in, or takes the chain she’s been bound in and strangles a space slug/gangster overlord. And she does it all by being genuine and unapologetically in charge. Indomitable.

Every time I saw her in a movie after that, I was always delighted. Here was my hero, from before I even really understood that I had heroes, off doing something else. I love her in When Harry Met Sally. When I started getting into screenwriting and found out that she was a script doctor for Hook and Sister Act and so many other movies, my heart jumped again and I pulled those screenplays out first. I haven’t read any of her books yet because I was worried they would just be over-dramatic tell-alls, something that I regret intensely now. I had no idea how funny and honest she was and I have been depriving myself of a joy.

And then she comes on screen in The Force Awakens and of course she’s a general. Of course she’s leading the resistance. Of course she went back to the thing she was good at: leading. That’s what she taught all of us to do. While Luke was off finding himself and losing his hand and Han was off growing a soul, Leia was always fighting, always leading, always standing up for what is right. There’s never going to be another Princess Leia and there’s never going to be another General Organa. She blazed a trail and they broke the mold after they made her, all those clichés.

Those clichés apply to the lady we lost today as well. There will never be another Carrie Fisher. She fought her battles and taught us how to live our lives without undue concern for what other people think of us and left us with a legacy to enjoy and be inspired by. She’s gone too soon and I’m going to watch Star Wars on repeat to help deal with that fact, but at least we’re left with that.

Rest soundly, Carrie. You’ve earned it.