One of the rarest but also one of the most fascinating archetypes in literature is the fabled woman warrior. The reason why it is intriguing and rare is because women are traditionally life-givers and nuturers. Fighting and violence are antithetical to this role.
Nevertheless, the woman warrior arises from time to time. Greek mythology gave birth to the famed Amazon warriors. Ancient Hawaii had the sister of the goddess Pele, Hiiaka, who fought demons with "a bamboo knife in one hand and a lightning skirt in another."1 Celtic lore had the warrior queen Medb.2
History had a few real-life women warriors. Boadicea (also known as Boudiccea or Boudicca) led the ancient Celtic Iceni tribe in a violent two-year uprising against the Romans.3 There is of course the very famous Joan (Jeanne) of Arc, the young teenage girl who went from being an illiterate peasant to leading armies against the English and their Burgundian allies.4
Modern popular culture had comic book heroines like Wonder Woman (herself an Amazon) and JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series featured a woman warrior, Eowyn. 1990s television brought about Xena: The Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But the character who popularized the woman warrior in modern cinema was Princess Leia Organa. In many ways, Leia follows this old archetype and in other ways, she is different. "(The princess in peril) is the one we have seen time and time again in fairy tales and legends of knights in shining armor with their damsels in distress; this is Leia's starting point. This is the one we thought she was until she opened her mouth."5 As Carrie Fisher has put it, Leia isn't so much a damsel in distress as she is a distressing damsel.
Most woman warriors arise out of necessity, since it has generally not been a traditional role for women. Usually, women have been pressed into warrior or defender roles if there is a shortage of men or there is no strong male leader. Amazon society was a matriarchy, ruled by two queens.6 The women rarely associated with men, except to produce more Amazon offspring.7 Boys born to the Amazons were killed, crippled in some way and kept as slaves, kept and raised for mating purposes, or given to a neighboring tribe.8 Boadicea's husband, the King of the Iceni, died in 60 AD. The Romans publicly beat Boadicea and raped her daughters during a dispute over distribution of the king's lands after his death.9 Joan of Arc would never have donned armor had the voices of St. Catherine, St. Michael, and St. Margaret not asked her to do so.10 France at that time had a dauphin meant for the throne, but the English and the Burgundians controlled a significant amount of territory, including its capital Paris. Resistance to the occupation was weak and disorganized.11
There are plenty of men present in the Star Wars galaxy, but before the Battle of Yavin the rebellion against the Empire was small, outmatched in resources and firepower. Leia grew up on a pacifist planet. ("Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons.") According to the radio version of A New Hope and other background sources, she did covert missions for the Alliance, using her status as an Imperial senator as cover. A New Hope however, shows her clearly at home with using a blaster when necessary. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi show her as a full-time fighter since she no longer has a home planet or a position with the dissolved Senate. She emerges as a leading figure within the (mostly male) Alliance, which is itself led by a woman, Mon Mothma. Her mother Padmé also came from a pacifist planet, vowing not to take any actions that would lead to war, until realizing it was going to take a lot more than talk to save her world. It is noteworthy that while Queen Amidala had the protection of two male Jedi Knights, sought help from the heavily male Senate, and had mostly men serving her, none of them besides young Anakin Skywalker had the power to defeat the Trade Federation. It was mostly because of her ability to form an alliance with the Gungans and her plan to capture the Viceroy that the Naboo were victorious.
What made women warriors heroic was the nobility of their cause, which drew others --especially men -- to follow them. Boadicea and Joan wanted to free their people, just as Padmé and Leia wanted to free theirs, although Boadicea was also driven by revenge and Joan was driven by her faith as well as her patriotism. Before fighting their last desperate battle against the Romans, Boadicea "and her daughters drove round in her chariot to all her tribes before the battle, exhorting them to be brave. She cried that she was descended from mighty men but she was fighting as an ordinary person for her lost freedom, her bruised body and outraged daughters. Perhaps as a taunt to the men in her ranks, it is said that she asked them to consider: 'Win the battle or perish: that is what I, a woman will do; you men can live on in slavery if that's what you want.'"12
Joan wrote in a defiant letter to the English on May 5, 1429: "You, men of England, who have no right to this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven orders and notifies you through me, Joan the Maiden, to leave your fortresses and go back to your own country; or I will produce a clash of arms to be eternally remembered. And this is the third and last time I have written to you; I shall not write anything further."13
Leia never had to give a grandiose speech to her fellow Rebels, but Leia had a way of rallying others to her cause. Luke joins the Alliance as a pilot, and eventually, even a rogue mercenary like Han Solo finds himself a general by the time it's all over. Lando joins not only in Han's rescue, but also in the attack on the second Death Star. It's also through Leia that the Ewoks, who helped turned the tide of the Battle of Endor, became allies.
Women warriors are often noted for their cunning and ruthlessness in battle. Medb of Connacht was considered "wild and willful" and "slaughtered many heroes."14 Boadicea's two-year fight against the Romans included sacking and razing cities (modern Colchester, London, and St. Albans), and even going as far as killing women and children.15 Roman historians put the number killed during the uprising at about 70,000.16
The Amazons' own bravery and ferocity made them legendary. Myth tells of how they cut off a breast in order to make fighting, particularly with a bow or javelin, easier.17 They fought on horseback and also used swords and double axes.18 Homer in The Iliad wrote about the Amazons going to Troy in aid of King Priam during the Trojan War, and in another instance, the Amazons invaded Attica and fought in Athens to reclaim their abducted queen.19
Leia is never afraid of challenging her enemies or throwing herself into the thick of things, and it has been frequently noted by fans that she's probably the best shot of any of the main characters. When Imperials capture her ship at the beginning of A New Hope, she isn't captured without a fight and she's not afraid to argue with Darth Vader. After Luke frees her from her cell aboard the Death Star, Leia immediately takes charge of her own rescue. In The Empire Strikes Back, she is clearly in command, giving orders and staying almost until Hoth base is captured. Han practically has to drag her out of the command center. Later on, she attempts to save Han at Cloud City and in Return of the Jedi, she takes an active part in his rescue. Jabba the Hutt learns the hard way not to underestimate the strength or righteous anger of the princess. She then takes part in a dangerous mission on Endor. She's the first to pursue fleeing scouts on speeder bikes, barely waiting long enough for Luke to join her. After she is shot outside of the Imperial bunker, she is prepared to go down fighting, even in the face of impossible odds. However, Leia never would resort to Boadicea's brutality, especially not against civilians.
Because for a long time they bucked tradition, woman warriors are frequently killed or vanquished by their enemies. "It would appear that all through literature that a strong woman must be tragic or evil or sexual, as Ishtar, Aphrodite, Lilith, and all of the other seductresses, good hearted (and bad hearted) hookers, femme fatales, and sensual heroines."20 This is true in real life as in legend, myth, and literature. The ninth labor Hercules had to perform was securing the Girdle (belt) of Hippolyta, the Amazon queen. Hippolyta was killed in the process.21 The Athenian hero Theseus abducted Hippolyta's sister Antiope (in other versions he abducts Hippolyta) and married her; the Amazons went to war to get her back. But at Athens they were defeated and Antiope was killed.22 After the Iceni were defeated, Boadicea is said to have poisoned herself to avoid capture, but other sources say she died of disease in her cell.23 She is allegedly buried beneath Platform 9 at the King's Cross station in London.24 Joan of Arc was defeated in battle, left to her fate by the people she supported, sold to the English, accused of heresy, and burned at the stake.25
But even though she is put through her own share of perils and trials, Leia doesn't die a horrible death at the hands of her enemies and she never compromises her ideals. As Star Wars: The New Myth says of Padmé, "The Star Wars universe allows her heroic spirit to thrive by accepting her for herself, not her gender."26 Leia is not a tragic figure who must suffer a terrible fate for defying the conventions of her time and place. She is never "punished" in the story for simply being a woman fighter.
Her role is also more integrated than what has been found in tradition. This might have to do with the real life changes in sex roles over the past 50 years in Western culture. "Between 1965 and 1975 about ten million women entered the workforce (compared to only seven million men), and by 1975 nearly half of all American women held jobs outside the home. Leia...was a most appropriate heroine for her time."27 Because Star Wars is a product of the late 20th-early 21st century, it features women with "a more developed animus" or male spirit.28 Joan of Arc famously dressed in men's clothing, but it was done more to protect her modesty among men by playing down her femininity rather than to make a statement against gender roles.29 Leia takes part in missions, works the command center, gives pep talks to her troops, and can turn any situation into an impromptu diplomatic mission. She is just as comfortable in a uniform as she is in a dress, and is just as comfortable as a symbol of the Alliance as she is an active participant in it.
Unlike most women warriors who are singularly devoted to their tasks, Leia and her latter-day progeny must balance other concerns. As the book Star Wars: The New Myth puts it, "the female must become the warrior, yet remain a mother figure, be a comforter and an aggressor, and utilize them concurrently in her exploits."30 In A New Hope, no sooner does Leia help blast her way out of the Death Star than she is comforting Luke, almost in a motherly way, when he mourns Ben Kenobi's death. She becomes the comforter again just before Luke goes off to attack the Death Star. In The Empire Strikes Back, Leia and her companions fight their way out of Cloud City, she rescues Luke, then she leaves the Falcon's cockpit to go comfort him. Return of the Jedi shows her again as a battle-hardened warrior, but she is still there for Luke in the moments before he leaves to confront Darth Vader and is there for Han when he is brought out of carbon freeze. Some of the other women warriors of the 1970s and 1980s also had familial concerns. Ellen Ripley briefly flirts with a familial arrangement in Aliens with young Newt and Sarah Connor of the first two Terminator films raises a son.
Unlike the grieving widow Boadicea or the modest Joan of Arc, Leia allows romance into her life. Initially she does so reluctantly, because like her forebears she puts the job at hand first. But as a modern heroine, she is permitted to explore other aspects of her life, including romantic love. Other modern heroines like Xena, Wonder Woman, and Buffy have had their love affairs. Leia is fortunate in that she is able to integrate her love for Han into her life instead of having her romance endlessly interfere with her mission and vice versa, which seems to be a recurring theme for other modern women warriors. Many latter day heroines are faced with fears of commitment, falling for the wrong man, and finding difficulty balancing personal desires with "career." This perhaps reflects real-life contemporary concerns among young women.
A fascinating and unique aspect of Leia's character as a warrior is that she combines what was best about this archetype in the past with a modern understanding of women's roles in society. Yet unlike her modern or ancient sisters, Leia is allowed to find personal fulfillment and indeed live happily ever after.
Works Cited:
1. Hanson, Michael J. and Kay, Max S. Star Wars: The New Myth. Xlibris, 2001, 386-387.
2. Hanson and Kay, 355.
3. "Boadicea Queen of the Iceni" http://travesti.geophys.mcgill.ca/~olivia/BOUDICA/;
"Boadicea the Victorious" http://www.enya.org/stories/story04.htm.
4. "Joan of Arc" http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/joanarc.html.
5. Meluch, R.M. "In Search of A Princess." The Princess Tapes, Krystarion Press, 1982, 11.
6. "Amazons" http://www.allaboutturkey.com/amazon.htm.
7. "Amazons" http://www.mythweb.com.
8. http://www.allaboutturkey.com/amazon.htm.
9. "Boudicea Queen of the Iceni" http://travesti.geophys.mcgill.ca/~olivia/BOUDICA/.
10. "Joan of Arc" http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/joanarc.html.
11. http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/joanarc.html.
12. "Boudica Warrior Queen of the Iceni" http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/Boudica.htm.
13. Letter from Joan of Arc ("Joan the Maiden") to the English at Orléans, May 5, 1429; http://joanofarc.info/joanofarc_letter_May_5_1429.html
14. Hanson and Kay, 355.
15. Burke, Jason. "Dig Uncovers Boudicca's Brutal Streak." The Guardian. December 3, 2000. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html.
16. Burke, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html.
17. "Amazons" http://www.allaboutturkey.com/amazon.htm.
18. Leadbetter, Ron. "Amazons." http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/amazons.html.
19. Leadbetter, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/amazons.html.
20. Meluch, 10.
21. Leadbetter, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/amazons.html.
22. Leadbetter, http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/amazons.html.
23. Burke, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html.
24. Burke, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,406152,00.html.
25. "St. Joan of Arc." Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm.
26. Hanson and Kay, 354.
27. Henderson, Mary. Star Wars: The Magic of Myth. Spectra, 1997, 158-159.
28. Hanson and Kay, 387.
29. "St. Joan of Arc." Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08409c.htm.
30. Hanson and Kay, 353.
