Princess Leia?!?
Yes, when I heard about this theory I thought it was
pretty off the wall, or as Lukas would say "outside the box". But the
more I think about it the more sense it makes. There are definitely still
several serious problems with it that I do not think we can just discard, but
for analysis sake lets set them aside for a moment and look at the pros.
Darth Vader's last words were "If you will not
turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will." Anakin's last words also
referenced the same character. This is actually quite a bit of emphasis on a
character that, after she dumped the plans into R2, was really of marginal
significant for the rest of the story. And how exactly did Leia handle the revelation
that Darth Vader was her father? Well,
first she wanted to be held, then there was business, then there was a party,
then there was her wedding, and dad could not be there because he had decided
that being evil and getting zapped with blue lightning was more important, and
mom could not be there because in his anger dad killed her...or maybe it was
the concentration of medaclorians in her body...well pretty much either way dad
killed her. So, perhaps not very well.
Girls tend to be more emotionally attached to their
fathers than boys are, and Leia never knew the unmasked Anakin dying in the
shuttle bay like Luke did. Her only memory of the man she now knows to be her
father would be the sinister agent probing her mind on the death star and
torturing her lover at cloud city. How does she connect with this father? She
may have been told that he turned to the light side before he died, but that is
not who she knew.
Moving on to The Force Awakens, it certainly seemed
curious how Johnny on the spot Ren was for what had been billed as "a
secret mission". And he did not just happen to be in the right place at
the right time with a few squads of storm troopers to investigate some
suspicious activity. Ren tells Tekka "We know you found the map." So,
there has to be a mole pretty high up in the resistance. Who all do we know for
sure knew about the mission? Tekka? He died rather then give up any
information. Poe? He was tortured. That leaves only Leia.
Princess Leia the spunky hothead, who liked to slide
down garbage shoots and dress up as bounty hunters and exotic dancers, is not
in this movie. Neither is Han Solo for that matter, instead we get Indiana
Jones wearing a blaster (I mean couldn’t he have at least shaved?), but people
at least call him Han Solo, or Han, or Solo, or Mr. Solo. Leia prefers to be
called General Organa. Now, Bail Organa was a nice guy and all, but why does
she not want to be associated with her heroic husband or her heroic brother?
She does not seem to care much for the princess title either.
When they meet after being estranged for some number
of years Han comments that she changed her hair. This may just be a way to
reference one of the real princess Leia's most iconic attributes but could it
have plot significance as well? What if
she is wearing a wig? Possibly to hide a deep gash in her forehead? Some have
noted how the scars on Snoke line up well with Vader/Anakin’s, could they be
self inflicted?
Then when discussing their son Han laments "There is
too much Vader in him". Now this is a rather nasty thing to say, it
basically amounts to "it is all your fault, you should have known better than
to have kids." The real Princess Leia (and most of Indy's girl friends for
that matter) would have treated his face to a serving of her hand. But General
Organa just says "Oh no its Snoke who's the bad boy, Bin's a good boy really he is" or something like that. But why would there be any Vader in
Bin if there was none in Luke or Leia...or was there? Also, how did Snoke get
access to Bin in the first place? One would think that creepy old guys in bath
robes, hanging around offering the padawans treats and tie fighter rides would
be frowned upon at Jedi School. Seems like that mole close to general Orgona
has been there a while (I wonder if it is that cute blond that kind of looks
like Beru from Ep.II). Organa also says of Ren, "there is still light in
him". This is certainly reminiscent of statements Padme and Luke made
about Vader but the difference is, both those statements were based on recent
encounters. As far as we know Organa has not been on the same planet as Ren in
over a decade.
Both Organa and Snoke are trying to find Luke
Skywalker. At first glance this is not particularly remarkable. Dialectical
sides are often looking for the same thing, some times just to keep the other
from getting it. But in this case it is not clear why either side should be
that interested in finding Luke. They both act like Luke just needs to step out
of his hovel, brandish his fathers light saber, and he will have an army of
Jedi ready for battle...some how I don’t think that’s going to happen. For
Snoke it still makes sense to want to tie up the loose end, if you are into
galactic domination that is typically a good thing to do. But why is Leia
poring precious resistance resources into finding Luke? It’s not like they have
much to spare (as far as I can tell the resistance consists of a few squadrons
of aging X-wings and a lot people who like being called admiral and general).
Leia acts like Luke is some neerdowell who just needs a good talking to and he
will come home and eat his soup. But Luke is a big boy, if he has found what he
was looking for, wouldn't he contact her? If not what good does she think
sending him a young girl, an old wookie and a cantankerous droid is going to do?
And how about that outfit at the end? Despite an
extremely egalitarian resistance Organa is, I believe, the only one wearing a
dress. And its about the most unprincess like dress I can think of, and what's
up with her hair? Is she trying to look like an evil queen from some Disney
fil...ah, moving right along.
We sometimes talk about the OT and the PT but what we
really have now is an OS, an original sextilagy. It tells the story of Anakin
Sky walker and the story of the rise and fall of emperor Palpatine. In the
first part of this OS Palpatine/Sidious played both sides and appeared to the
“bad guys” only as a hologram. Could a similar Organa/Snoke plot line be meant
as a “rime” with the OS? This would actually seem more like a repeated line and
a long one, but they have already gone for the big bad guy being only a
hologram phrase so why not go for the whole thing?
Now, before we get carried away lets look at some of
the problems.
Andy Serkis has said that Snoke is an original
character...and Smeagol would not lie to us would he precious? Ok, I am not
saying Serkis is being intentionally dishonest, but Jones originally thought
the “I am your father” line was a lie. Actors do not always know every thing
about their characters.
What about the gender bender? Well, Snoke's voice is
the only thing that is positively masculine, the face is pretty messed up and
the body is frail and enveloped in a robe. If you are trying to hide your
identity switching genders (if it can be done convincingly) is always a plus.
It is also rumored that Snoke was at one point going to be female. At what
“point” was this? The point that existed from the beginning up to when they
realized that that would make it to obvious perhaps?
So what about the fact that Snoke orders the First
Order to destroy the planet Organa is on, would that not be suicide if they are
the same person? Humm, alright that’s a toughie. But consider this, when they
destroyed the Republic they gave them no warning (which is kind of the whole
point behind a hyperspace, system busting weapon, is it not?) but when it was
the Resistance base’s turn they seem to have tweeted out their plans. It is
almost as if they wanted to give some of the Resistance personnel time to
escape, hum…
Ok, what bearing does all this have on the real
question...Rey's parentage?
Leia having turned to the dark side does not really
affect all of the things pointing to Luke, but does it make the Soloist
position less untenable? Yes, it actually does. First, it does make it more
likely that Han would not even have known of her existence, but that was never
really a problem anyway. The real issue is Leia. Would turning to the dark side
have kept Leia from recognizing that Rey was her own child? No, of course not.
But it certainly could have changed what she did about it. On the dark side
Leia's only motivation for telling Rey would be if it served the purpose of
turning her to the dark side. In that situation it would be rather tricky, if
she tells her and continues to pretend to be on the light side she may do the
opposite of what she intends, if she tries to tern her quickly to the dark side
and fails then her cover is blown. But would not the last she would want be for
Rey to train with Luke on the light side? (Assuming Luke is still on the light
side, we have not seen his light saber yet.) Of course, daughter or not she
would just be using Rey as bait to lure Luke out into the open.
In any case Chewy and R2 better keep an eye on the
scanner. That mole that knew about Poe's mission and where Bin was training,
almost certainly knew where they were going.
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