As their fans around the world mourn the loss of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds this week, I can’t help but dwell on how important Carrie Fisher and her character, Leia Organa, were to the success of the original Star Wars trilogy and, most importantly, the success of the very first movie of the franchise. Memorable lines from that film such as:

“Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute flyboy!”

“Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?!”

“You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought!”

were both classic Leia and classic Carrie. Leia Organa was a smart, strong, snarky heroine at a time when misogyny was still culturally acceptable (remember the Southwest Airlines hot pants of the era?).

When ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ arrived three years later, Leia was leading the rebels at Hoth and helping to repair the Millenium Falcon. Only by the third movie (‘Return of the Jedi’) did George Lucas succumb to the sexual-objectification-culture and gratuitously outfit her in that gold bikini (which she hated, no surprise).

After waiting 32 years for her return, I was immeasurably saddened to see that in ‘The Force Awakens’ Leia was no longer strong, no longer snarky (not to mention that apparently her brother didn’t bother teaching her the ways of the Force…). The smart, sassy Leia was gone and Disney had replaced her with someone who gave off the aura of being perfectly comfortable in a rocking chair. Episode 8 is slightly under a year away but I seriously doubt that the Leia of old will be back.

And now that Carrie is gone, she never will be …