Not only would Star Wars have been more interesting had they swapped Luke and Leia’s roles, but the characterization would be stronger, too. I see every so often “what if Leia had been raised by Anakin and Luke been raised by Padme”, but let’s take that a bit further.
I mean, think about it. Leia Skywalker growing up with her aunt and uncle on Tattooine, hearing constantly that her father was a deadbeat. Growing up as a mechanic and a pilot, helping on the farm but wanting more. Finding Ben Kenobi who tells her the “truth” – from a certain point of view, all that bullshit.
Imagine a Leia Skywalker clashing wills against a brash, loudmouth freighter pilot who is willing to take her to Alderaan. First she thinks he’s hitting on her, as she mistakes his posturing for strutting, when it’s simply that he’s really just that full of himself. Then he charges her an outrageous fee, which she manages to talk down because Leia Skywalker, the terror of Tattooine, is not about to get swindled by some two-bit spice peddler from Corellia.
They bicker the entire way there, while Ben patiently tries to teach her Jedi moves, and when Han makes a crack she waves the lightsaber in his face and dares him to do better. And does not back down until he takes the lightsaber and subsequently gets his ass handed to him by a floating golf ball with a laser pointer.
Leia Skywalker, who shoots down the Death Star with nothing but a faulty targeting computer and a voice in her head, while Han Solo comes to her rescue… just in time for her to save the entire Rebellion.
Leia Skywalker, who confronts Vader at Bespin, and is told that she looks just like her mother.
Leia Skywalker, who brushes dangerously close to the dark side as she mounts a rescue at Jabba’s Palace, who knows exactly which buttons to press because she’s been dealing with Jabba’s goons all her life. “How fitting,” she says, as she stares him down with a freshly-built lightsaber in her hand, wearing all black and looking the worse for wear, “that no matter how many times your thugs came by the farm, it’s you that really needed protection.”
Leia Skywalker, leading the strike team of General Han Solo and Prince Lucas Organa through the Sanctuary Moon, trying to shut down the shield generator.
Leia Skywalker, taunted on both sides in the throne room aboard the skeletal Death Star, finally giving into her rage to disarm Vader and depose Palpatine once and for all, before saying no, I’m better than this, and so was my mother. Turning her back on Palpatine.
“I destroyed your mother long ago, and I’ll finally get to end your accursed family once and for all,” sneers the Emperor, raising his hands to unleash enough Force Lightning to reduce her to ash. Vader stepping in to protect his child, precisely as he might have done in an alternate universe to protect his son.
Leia Skywalker, forgiving her father as he dies, taking his body away to burn with respect, as the Empire crumbles and the Rebellion celebrates.
Leia Skywalker, not the last of the old Jedi, but the first of the new.
#Obi Wan Picked The Wrong Skywalker
You know what? I’ve got more to say about this. Because of course I do.
What do you get out of a Prince Luke Organa? The same petulant, reactionary character he is in canon, but instead of being a soldier and a thug who undergoes A Hero’s Journey… you get the journey of a haughty-if-well-meaning Prince, member of the Rebellion, who all of a sudden has to grow into a leadership role. Canon Leia already had that so she didn’t need to grow into it; instead, her journey was about learning to delegate and also to wear badass-yet-combat-appropriate wraparound braids on the front lines of combat.
But a Prince Luke? Grew up in privilege, and while he means well, doesn’t really have that same connection to The People. Then he gets captured by Vader and has to be rescued by the spitfire action hero farm girl from a backwater desert planet and also Han Fucking Solo who is dorky and awesome and needs no changing from canon whatsoever.
So you have Leia Skywalker and her own Hero’s Journey, but not only is her story about Saving The Universe and Redeeming Her Father, but it’s also about her discovering the massive shadow her mother casts and pushing past it, because she’s her own damned person and Anakin needs to just fucking understand that she is not Padme.
But you’ve also got Luke Organa who learns to take command, to take charge, and to take responsibility. He goes from Enjolras – playing at Revolution – to really understanding what it means and finds an entire new purpose. And from that all, becomes the great front-line General that Canon Leia already was from Day One.
MY MIND HAS JUST EXPLODED!!!
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