Warning! Spoilers for Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 (2015)
Long before Leia choked Jabba the Hutt to death in Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader nearly did it himself in a scene from the comics. As the Sith mirrors his daughter’s future actions, their contrasting motivations are put on display.
Throughout the saga, many events and lines of dialogue are echoed. From Luke and Anakin both losing their hands in their trilogies’ second installments, to the frequently repeated “I have a bad feeling about this,” Star Wars is constantly referencing itself. Although Luke and Anakin often mirror each other as father and son during their journeys to become Jedi Knights, there haven’t been many moments in which Leia resembles her dad. However, a possibly unintentional interaction that calls back to Leia occurs in Star Wars: Darth Vader #1 (2015), written by Kieron Gillen with art by Salvador Larroca.
When Darth Vader visits Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine, he nearly Force chokes him to death as a means of intimidation. In Return of the Jedi, Leia doesn’t have a choice but to choke the sluggish crime lord to death with the chain she is attached to in order to escape imprisonment. Darth Vader and his daughter Leia haven’t had many connections, as the films focused on Luke, but this is an interesting overlap between them. While Vader is characteristically trying to strike fear into Jabba and those watching in the palace, Leia is left with no other option but to kill him.
Unlike Luke, Leia didn’t have many opportunities to get to know Darth Vader as her father. The biological connection was introduced in Return of the Jedi while she was stuck on the moon planet of Endor. In this context, it makes Vader’s encounter with Jabba a rare time in which Leia emulates her dad. Throughout the original trilogy, they only cross paths twice— when Leia is captured by stormtroopers and speaks back to Vader, and when the rebels are ambushed on Cloud City.
Considering Leia’s strong leadership skills, there might be a few other ways in which they relate to one another. However, their shared disgust of Jabba the Hutt is a surprisingly specific point of commonality. As Luke connects to his father through compassion and forgiveness, Leia connects through her assertive action and wit. Darth Vader’s confrontation with Jabba doesn’t tell fans anything new about the two of them, but his means of intimidation speaks to a bond he has with Leia.
