Amongst the many things that proved controversial in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, one that’s been much-debated by fans ever since is Leia’s “Force Flight” through space during the movie. As the daughter of Darth Vader, it was always suspected that she must have some latent Force abilities, but she’d never previously expressed any in the past four films she starred in. When she was stranded in space and about to die, though, it finally happened and the princess-turned-general glided through the vacuum to safety.
Perhaps what caused at least a portion of the backlash from fans is the ambiguity of the scene in question. Some argued that it didn’t make sense, as Rian Johnson left it unclear as to whether Leia was conscious at the time. At long last, though, this part of the scene has now been cleared up, as the comic book adaptation of The Last Jedi reveals that, yes, Leia was very much aware of what she was doing.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi #2 from writer Gary Whitta and artists Michael Walsh and Mike Spicer fleshes out this moment with the aid of an internal monologue which lets us see Leia’s thoughts during her first use of the Force. It reveals that she looks into it and discovers that this is not when she’s meant to go, thereby finding the power inside to save herself.
Fans will note that the line about the future being in motion was first told to Luke by Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, so it seems he passed that message onto his sister at some point. This then spurs Leia on to look into the Force to find her own future. Exactly what she saw, we don’t suppose we’ll ever know, but it’s interesting to think about.
We could speculate that Leia saw her own fate play out at a later date, though. Due to Carrie Fisher’s tragic passing, of course, the character won’t feature in Star Wars: Episode IX and one of the prevailing theories is that she’ll be killed in the interim between the movies. It’s hard to say right now if that’ll for sure happen, but it’d make a certain amount of sense with the reveal of this new Last Jedi comic, don’t you think?
