Princess Leia joins Mace Windu as Jedi who have a purple lightsaber in amazing Star Wars cosplay. While Samuel L. Jackson’s Star Wars character is not the only Jedi with a purple lightsaber, it is difficult not to associate the purple blade with Mace Windu. In Disney’s Star Wars canon, Leia had a blue lightsaber, as revealed in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Now, cosplayer Just Steph (@dark_sidecosplay) imagines Jedi Leia with a purple lightsaber, combining the character’s hairstyle from A New Hope with a grey version of Leia’s signature Senatorial gown.
The cosplayer describes this version of Leia as “dark Leia,” raising the question of what the Star Wars galaxy would have been like had Leia fallen to the dark side. Interestingly, in Legends, purple lightsabers denoted a balance between light and dark, something in the middle of blue lightsabers and red lightsabers. It is difficult to imagine a Sith Leia Organa, but a morally grey Jedi Leia could have been very interesting.
Star Wars Needs More Jedi Leia The “Leia is Luke’s sister” twist from Return of the Jedi was one of the many last-minute additions and major retcons made during the original Star Wars trilogy. While Yoda mentioned “another” person who could defeat Darth Vader and the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back, that line was not supposed to be about Leia. Return of the Jedi’s Leia retcon made The Empire Strikes Back’s love triangle plotline very absurd in retrospect, but it set up exciting new possibilities for Leia as a character.
George Lucas decided to explore Darth Vader’s origin story in the prequel trilogy instead of making Star Wars Episode VII right after Return of the Jedi. As a result, the original trilogy’s heroes stayed away from the big screen for decades. Star Wars did have an immediate sequel to Return of the Jedi even before the prequels came out, Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire. In the now Legends Thrawn trilogy, Leia was undergoing Jedi training with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
