WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi!
Princess Leia’s journey to rebellion begins in Obi-Wan Kenobi, with an impressive political career and daring missions taking place before her rescue in Star Wars: A New Hope. While it was hinted that Obi-Wan Kenobi’s story would follow the title Jedi carefully watching over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, the Disney+ series introduced a twist in which Kenobi is forced to rescue the kidnapped Princess Leia Organa. Set 10 years after Leia’s birth in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and nine years before her capture in A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi reveals untold stories about the iconic Star Wars character’s childhood.
Obi-Wan Kenobi depicts Leia Organa during a largely unexplored timeline in Star Wars’ movies and TV shows, with 10-year-old Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) being reluctantly trained as the princess of Alderaan before she’s abducted at the behest of the Imperial Inquisitor Reva (Moses Ingram). Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) then recruits Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who has been hiding on Tatooine for the past decade, to find Leia and return her home, establishing a father-daughter bond between the two characters. As Obi-Wan and Leia travel the galaxy to escape the Inquisitors and Darth Vader, Kenobi is racked with guilt over his past with Leia’s true parents, Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala.
While Leia has previously appeared in Star Wars projects set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope like Star Wars Rebels, canon books and comics, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Obi-Wan Kenobi offers the best look at the blossoming rebel’s personality yet. However, before Princess Leia becomes the talented leader seen in A New Hope, there are plenty of adventures she goes on and career moves she must make that put her on the path to finally defeating the Empire with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Here’s a breakdown of everything that happens to Princess Leia after the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Leia Becomes A Junior Legislator
Four years after Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia follows in the steps of her adoptive father, Bail Organa, and birth mother, Padmé Amidala, as she begins her political career. At the age of 14, Leia Organa became a junior legislator, the same age that her mother was when elected the Queen of Naboo. Of course, this representation of lower rank was just the start of Leia’s path in the galaxy’s politics, as she would grow to become far more influential in her later teenage years.
Leia Is Named Alderaan’s Crowned Princess
On her sixteenth birthday, three years before A New Hope, Leia experienced her Day of Demand, marking the day that she lays her claim to the throne of House Organa. Leia’s parents introduced challenges to test the young rebel, including climbing the Appenza Peak, representing Star Wars’ planet Alderaan in the Apprentice Legislature, and taking on charity missions for other planets. On a mission to Wobani, 16-year-old Princess Leia helped feed the starving population before electing to take as many refugees as possible back with her to Alderaan. The Star Wars character was told by an Imperial major that she couldn’t assist the refugees, so she decided to hire 100 of them and transport them to Alderaan. Leia continued such acts of bravery and confidence on her subsequent missions, and during this time would discover her mother and father’s influential roles in aiding the Rebel Alliance.
Leia Becomes An Aide In The Imperial Senate
Princess Leia’s first significant acts for the Rebellion would occur only a few years before A New Hope when she accompanied the Rebel-ally Bail Organa to Coruscant as his senatorial aide. During their time on the planet, Leia discovered that the Empire had learned about Rebel forces in the system and was planning an attack. Leia managed to send a message to the Paucris System, where Bail’s Rebel fleets were being built, and warn them of the attack, but not before losing one of her allies. At this point, Star Wars‘ Princess Leia Organa officially decides to assist her parents in their efforts with the Rebel Alliance.
Leia Aids Phoenix Squadron With Transports
Approximately seven years after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s timeline, Leia was still serving as her father’s aide in the Imperial Senate when arranging a plan to provide the Rebels with three transport ships on Lothal. This action was the plot of the Rebels season 2 episode “A Princess on Lothal,” which served as Princess Leia’s debut on the animated Star Wars series. When arriving on Lothal, Leia met Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus, who help her to outwit the Empire and successfully steal the three ships required for the Rebel Phoenix Squadron.
Leia Gives Sabine Wren Imperial Data Tapes
About two years before A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Leia was no stranger to real or fake kidnappings, the latter of which would be feigned again to give the Rebels important Imperial data. On the planet Garel, Leia was “kidnapped” by Mandalorian Rebel Sabine Wren, who had been sent to retrieve the data tape that would greatly benefit the Rebel Alliance. Leia explained that she had hidden the tape from the Empire and had to collect it from an interface unit. The Star Wars: Forces of Destiny animated episode revealed that the data tapes contained the locations of several Imperial bases, with Wren and Organa departing with hopes of fighting together for the Rebellion in the future.
Leia Becomes The Youngest Senator In The Imperial Senate
When Princess Leia was only 18 years old, she served as her father’s replacement in the Imperial Senate, becoming the youngest Imperial Senator elected. During this time, only a year before A New Hope’s timeline, Leia had been introduced to both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, with the latter being unaware that Leia was his daughter. Leia realized that the senate couldn’t make a real change under the control of Palpatine but still decided to aid the galaxy and engage in humanitarian work while defying the Emperor. Because of this lack of progress in the Senate, Leia joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Leia Retrieves The Plans To The Death Star
Ten years after Obi-Wan Kenobi, Leia volunteers to transport the plans for the Death Star to the Alliance’s headquarters. This mission takes place at the very end of Rogue One’s movie, which saw the Rebels battle to retrieve the technical readout of the Death Star and transfer it to the Rebel Fleet before the destruction of Scarif. Leia’s role in stealing the Death Star plans was against her father’s wishes, but Bail allowed her to go as long as she sought Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine after intercepting the data. Darth Vader boarded the ship as the plans were being transferred and slaughtered the Rebels, but Leia’s ship was able to escape with the disc before Vader could reach her. However, Princess Leia’s ship was being tracked and was then attacked by the Empire, which stopped her crew before they could reach Tatooine. At this moment, Leia’s story in Star Wars: A New Hope begins as she sends a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s title Jedi to help her deliver the plans.
