Star Wars: Princess Leia’s 5 Funniest (& 5 Saddest) Moments

Princess Leia is one of the most iconic characters in the history of science fiction. (Okay, technically, Star Wars is science fantasy, but it all pretty much falls under the same banner.) This year, Leia’s 40-year character arc will come to an end as the Skywalker saga culminates in its long-awaited ninth chapter.

Unfortunately, due to the tragic and untimely passing of Carrie Fisher, Leia’s ending might not be as fitting as Han and Luke’s endings were. J.J. Abrams is stitching together an arc for Leia out of unused footage from The Force Awakens. Still, this character has an incredible legacy. Without further ado, here are Princess Leia’s 5 Funniest (And 5 Saddest) Moments.

10 Funniest: “Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” (A New Hope)

The Empire wanted Leia to be terrified when they captured her and locked her in a holding cell on the Death Star, but she simply wasn’t. She could see through their tricks, she had faith in R2-D2 to deliver her message to Obi-Wan, and she was simply waiting to be rescued.

When Luke Skywalker entered her cell, disguised as a Stormtrooper, she maintained her sharp wit and asked, “Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” Then, Luke heroically removed his helmet and told her, “I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you!” She wasn’t as impressed as he was expecting.

9 Saddest: Getting blown out of a spaceship and facing death (The Last Jedi)

Star Wars fans went into The Last Jedi unclear about how the movie would handle General Leia. Carrie Fisher had passed away a year before the movie came out, but it was reported that she’d already shot all of her scenes. Halfway through the movie, the side of Leia’s ship is blown out and she’s sucked out into space.

It was an abrupt and shocking moment that many fans expected to be a ham-fisted way of writing her out of the saga. Before Leia taps into her Force abilities and flies back to the ship, the frost begins to form on her face and she has to confront the possibility of death. And it’s pretty heartbreaking.

8 Funniest: “I know what you’re gonna say. I changed my hair.” (The Last Jedi)

In the months following the release of The Force Awakens, Mark Hamill lamented the fact that Luke Skywalker and Han Solo didn’t get one last moment together before the latter’s death. So, it was a relief when Rian Johnson at least allowed Luke to have one final moment with Leia in The Last Jedi before he went out to confront Kylo Ren and die for the Resistance in the process.

Despite the dire circumstances and the terrible things she went through, Leia still maintained her delightfully dry sense of humor. When Luke arrived, she said, “I know what you’re gonna say. I changed my hair.”

7 Saddest: Being captured immediately after saving Han (Return of the Jedi)

In the opening act of Return of the Jedi, all of the Rebels separately show up at Jabba the Hutt’s palace to save Han Solo from his carbonite freezing. Leia Organa arrives, disguised as a bounty hunter, and breaks into the room where Han is being kept.

She manages to unfreeze him, hold him in her arms, and tell him that she loves him, all before Jabba and his goons reveal that they’re onto her. Leia is promptly captured, forced to wear a bikini, and chained up. What’s really sad is that she got to feel like she’d saved Han and they were home free before the harrowing revelation that they weren’t.

6 Funniest: “I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.” (A New Hope)

Even after being attacked, captured, and imprisoned by the most evil man in the galaxy, Princess Leia maintained her acid tongue. She was taken on board the Death Star and brought to Grand Moff Tarkin, who she recognized from a previous encounter.

With pitch-perfect comic timing (all thanks to the comedic gifts of Carrie Fisher), Leia snapped at him, “Governor Tarkin, I should’ve expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.” Leia might have been arrested and detained and terrorized by these guys, but she definitely wasn’t afraid of them.

5 Saddest: Being forced to watch Alderaan get destroyed (A New Hope)

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren showed off the power of Starkiller Base by blowing up some random planet that no one cared about. In A New Hope, Darth Vader did a much more effective job (dramatically, at least) of showing off the power of the Death Star.

He brought out Princess Leia and made her watch as the Empire’s superweapon blew up her home planet, Alderaan. The destruction of Leia’s home world became the basis for her character arc, as it gave her an even clearer motivation to take down the Empire and left her without a home, instead finding one with the Rebel Alliance.

4 Funniest: “Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, flyboy.” (A New Hope)

The great thing about Princess Leia is that when the combined forces of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Chewbacca all infiltrate the Death Star to rescue her from her holding cell, Leia is still the one who ends up saving the day.

They break in and get her out of her cell, but they don’t actually have a plan to leave in one piece. So, Leia opens the garbage chute and tells them to jump down there. She comes up with her own exit strategy that initially puts them in even more danger, but leads to their clean break.

3 Saddest: Finding out Han was killed by Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens)

Han Solo sort of resented Leia for sending their son Ben to be trained as a Jedi by Luke, resulting in his turn to the Dark Side, but he also doubted his own abilities as a father. He figured that if Luke – a peaceful, heroic, inspiring Jedi Knight – couldn’t make his son a good person, then what chance did he have?

But Leia assured him, “Luke is a Jedi. You’re his father. There’s still light in him. I know it.” So, he went to Starkiller Base to save his son. And that’s what made it all the more tragic when Han actually couldn’t bring Ben back over to the Light Side and he killed him instead. When Leia found out, it was heartbreaking.

2 Funniest: “Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!” (The Empire Strikes Back)

Near the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, as Leia and Han were barbing each other at the Rebels’ base on Hoth, Leia proved that sometimes, made-up insults can sound even more insulting and searing than existing ones when she told Han, “Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!”

Out of the four offensive things that Leia called Han in that incredibly imaginative sentence, he was only truly insulted by one of them, as evidenced when an incensed Han replied, “Who’s scruffy-lookin’?” Ironically, that’s arguably the one thing out of the four that can’t be argued with. Han is scruffy-looking.

1 Saddest: Telling Han she loves him (The Empire Strikes Back)

At the end of The Empire Strikes Back – the infamously downer ending where the bad guys won, the good guys were at their lowest point, and the Rebels’ victory wasn’t in sight – Han was getting ready to be frozen in carbonite by the Empire and sold to Jabba the Hutt.

Leia stepped forward and told him, “I love you,” and he simply replied, “I know.” Not only was it not the response she was expecting; it was the last interaction the two would have for the foreseeable future. Leia was in love, and as soon as she realized it, the guy she was in love with was being frozen and locked away.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

More From Ben Sherlock