The following contains significant spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi Parts I and II, streaming now on Disney+.
From the distance prescribed by safety, and presumably the demands of Owen Lars, Obi-Wan Kenobi monitors Luke Skywalker as he grows into his boyhood. Though they are not well received, he gives him gifts and sees to his safety to the best of his ability. This glimpse into their relationship is a heartwarming reminder of just how much time was spent on Tattooine attempting to stay hidden from Imperial Inquisitors as well as Obi-Wan's rebuffed attempts to dote on the son of his best friend. Ten years after the battle on Mustafar, Kenobi at this point believed he killed Anakin that day and so his devotion is likely mixed with some degree of guilt as well.
While his relationship with Luke is one-sidedly intimate long before any training, as the series opens Obi-Wan has no rapport with Leia Organa whatsoever. Raised as a princess on Alderaan, her and Luke's lives couldn't be more different, but their personalities are also light-years apart. They both share a love of adventure and a need to step beyond the lives that are laid out in front of them, but whereas Luke was always unsure of himself and fairly obedient, Leia is brimming with defiant confidence. With the first glimpse of Leia's childhood on display, Obi-Wan Kenobi frames the making of the galaxy's most pivotal figure with context and care.
With a nod to Padme Amidala's consistent use of decoys during her tenure as Queen of Naboo, the opening scene of Leia on Alderaan isn't of Leia at all. With a young confidant being dressed formally in her stead, Leia's adopted mother walks in ready to review protocol with her brash daughter only to find that she isn't there. It is clear that this behavior is all too common and the hunt for the missing princess begins in earnest. When she is finally corralled to entire her obnoxious cousin is clear why her mother was concerned about her ability to be diplomatic. Countering every slight with a withering insightful barb, Leia demonstrates a keen capacity to delve into the heart of a matter.
The show makes it clear that she isn't simply using her previous knowledge of her cousin's behavior to arrive at her pointed commentary. When she encounters Obi-Wan on the planet Daiyu she can see through all the vague barriers he has erected as a matter of course to protect his identity. Her assessment of him is so astute that even though he is very aware of her age he is dumbfounded enough to seek confirmation. A conversation with her adopted father, Bail Organa, allows insight into her as well. She lacks the patience for the ambassadorial tenets her family attempts to instill, but she has the mind of a tactician.
When she was abducted and taken from her home she never lost her head. Leia was able to take in her surroundings and remained confident that an opportunity would present itself, the most likely of which being her father sending someone to rescue her if he did not come himself. Even while being shot at on an alien planet, she relied on her instincts to see her through. Though they did not always serve her precisely, they were honed enough to determine when someone wasn't being truthful with her, even if that someone was practiced in that type of deception.
Obi-Wan says to her at one point how much she reminds him of someone, the implication being Padme. However, in truth, Leia is the perfect combination of both her parents. She has the mind and resourcefulness of her mother and the reckless bravery of her father. What she lacks in statecraft she more than makes up for in aggressive negotiations. Her preference to approach a situation head-on with a blaster in hand was exactly the type of leader the galaxy needed during her lifetime. She became the senator she was groomed to become, but she was also one of the leaders of the Rebellion, someone Bail Organa entrusted with the most dangerous and sensitive of clandestine missions.
Leia's position and reputation allowed her to pull factions to their side that the Rebellion would not have been able to secure otherwise. While Luke was on his moisture farm dreaming of piloting a starship, Leia was cobbling together ships, ammunition, weapons, supplies, fortifications and alliances in secret. After the destruction of Alderaan, Leia had to continue the fight with everything and everyone that ever mattered to her atomized by the engine of war she was instrumental in destroying. With the dissolution of the Senate, she became a full-time guerilla warrior, on the field and the political realm to keep these loosely knit partnerships intact while the threat of the Empire remained.
Once the Empire fell, she became the new Mon Mothma, the head of a New Republic and eventually the supreme general in the fight to maintain sovereignty against the First Order. Luke, after failing to maintain the Jedi Academy he set out to create, decided to abandon the fight altogether. Leia had to keep the effort focused on survival amid impossible odds, left to fend for herself by her brother and her husband with her only child seduced by the Dark Side, becoming her sworn enemy. While Luke was on Ahch-To licking his wounds and becoming familiar with indigenous wildlife, Leia was putting every ounce of energy she had into saving the galaxy one more time. After drowning in the vacuum of space, she used her own mastery of the Force to save herself, never content to die meekly or be anyone's damsel in distress.
It is for this reason that when her call for help is ignored in The Last Jedi it is so brutally painful. Leia sacrificed everything for the betterment of everyone and at the moment when she reached out, there was no Lando, no Luke, no one to come to her aid. Now that the Skywalker Saga has come to a close, allegedly, it is clear to see that the true hero of Star Wars has always been Leia. While others faltered or decided it was too tough, she stayed the course. No one in the nine films had to endure more loss and no one exhibited more resolve. Obi-Wan Kenobi has given Leia a fitting origin story thus far, worthy of her revered name.
To see Leia as the uniquely brilliant and brave heroine of the Star Wars saga, Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes every Wednesday.
