Although Obi-Wan Kenobi has the ancient Jedi’s name in the title, the young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) is stealing all the scenes. We know where both characters end up, with Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) becoming an older Jedi and Leia taking the position of leader of an intergalactic rebellion. And though we have seen three movies detailing Obi-Wan’s growth, Leia’s character in the original trilogy, while still interesting, remains largely the same throughout the narrative. Aside from her romance with Han Solo, she doesn’t change. But here, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series has decided to give us a chance to explore her character more.
Leia has already played a significant role in the first two episodes of the limited series. Her character isn’t just added as a target for Obi-Wan to pursue, even though she does fill this role well. We’ve already seen moments of the young Leia struggling to accept Senator Organa as her father and trying, again and again, to shove off her quiet status quo. If there’s any character in this series who desires to grow, it’s her.
On the other hand, Obi-Wan is continually trying to return things to normal and keep everything stable and balanced. If there’s a character primed for growth along the traditional line of the Hero’s Journey, it’s Leia. And it will make her character much more interesting than expected.
Leia: The Displaced Child
The first place that Leia is primed for growth in a traditional way is through her relationship with her father, and we don’t mean Anakin. Early in the series, when we are introduced to Leia’s character, we see her on her home planet of Alderaan. She backtalked her adoptive father, Senator Organa, and escaped into the woods, where she was free but promptly captured by the Inquisitors.
This is a story that has been done many times before -- the child refuses to accept their relationship with the adoptive parent because they will only accept their biological parent as their real parent. But by the end of the story, the child comes to understand that what makes a parent is the individual’s ability to care for them when their biological parent has, in most cases, abandoned them.
In this story, so far anyway, Obi-Wan has stepped in as a representative surrogate for Senator Organa. Leia will experience this growth of fatherly feelings through Obi-Wan and eventually pass them on to the Senator. While it seems like a stretch, this is done because it doesn’t make sense to send Senator Organa out to fight the Inquisitors, and the story is still technically about Obi-Wan Kenobi. But it makes for a capable character arc for the young Leia that we can all follow.
Remembering Who Leia Is
Another reason why Leia might steal the show is that she is just generally a more compelling character than Obi-Wan. Although, it may depend on your reasons for watching the show. If what you want from this Star Wars tale is a depiction of a real struggle, following someone competing against the odds, you’ll want to focus on Obi-Wan more. But if you’re more interested in the fate of Anakin’s children, or even if you’ve come into the series from a place of neutrality, you will likely find Leia a more dynamic character.
Leia is a strong female lead. When we were introduced to her in the original trilogy, she was meant to subvert all those ideas in the cinema of those days that came with the label “princess.” She was hot-headed, stubborn, and independent. She didn’t need any saving. As far as Luke and Han went, she took initiative from there once they opened the prison door. And this nature is represented faithfully in the new series.
As a child, the most common descriptor other characters give her is stubbornness. And her ten-year-old self seems to mirror quite precisely the woman that she grows up to be.
While it might be the little Leia’s job to cause chaos in Obi-Wan’s life on a broad scale, she might bring some order into it, if only on a child-sized scale. She clearly has a sense of bravery in the face of the unknown and adapts quickly to new situations. Where Obi-Wan’s character is continually trying to keep things the same, Leia will be the one who shakes things up in the series. And she’ll shake it up in a good way.
Where challenges and difficult changes will come from the Inquisitors, Leia will provide the light-side version of these changes. Even though the series is about Obi-Wan Kenobi, we may find audiences cheering for Leia by the end. Though nothing could be as cute as Baby Yoda, she might take the same role.