Princess Leia Almost Became Star Wars' Next Darth Vader
While Leia Organa became a true Jedi in the Star Wars Legends continuity, her path to knighthood brought her far closer to the dark side of the Force than many would think, risking the creation of the next Darth Vader. Leia’s strong connection to the Force and her altruistic leadership in the Rebellion made her a natural choice to become a Jedi in Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order, similar to her story in the ongoing post-2014 canon timeline. Unfortunately, a specific incident that reminded Leia too much of her late father, Darth Vader, led her to put her Jedi training on hold for decades.
As shown in the Star Wars Legends timeline’s Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Empire comics, Leia was tutored in the ways of the Jedi by Luke Skywalker and the venerable Jedi Purge survivor Vima-Da-Boda, becoming skilled in the Force and lightsaber combat relatively quickly, due to her natural aptitude. This happened in the current canon as well, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker showing her complete her training with Luke in a flashback, only to ultimately abandon the Jedi path due to a premonition regarding the corruption and death of her son, Ben Solo. In Star Wars Legends, Leia similarly left the Jedi path after an incident that endangered her children.
Related: Leia's Merciless Stormtrooper Kill Redefines Finn's Origin
Issue 16 of Star Wars Tales demonstrates Leia’s skill and dark side temptation in the story “The Other,” by Jason Hall and John McCrea. On the New Republic capital world of Coruscant, Leia and her three children are attacked by Imperial terrorists, a common occurrence in the Legends timeline. Leia dispatches her assailants with effortless skill, but she nearly kills one of the would-be assassins and stops herself upon
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