Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker dropped the bombshell that Luke had trained Leia in the ways of the Jedi following the Original Trilogy, with a thrilling flashback to the Return of the Jedi period showing the Skywalker twins engaged in a lightsaber battle. Unfortunately, with Carrie Fisher’s passing meaning there was only so much the movie could do with the character, we didn’t get to learn much more about Leia’s Force-sensitivity than this.
The film’s novelization, by author Rae Carson, however, is just about to arrive and will fill in a little bit more of the Alderaanian princess’ backstory. Yet another extract from the book has made its way online, ahead of the novel’s release later this month, and this one reveals that Leia was spoken to by the odd Force ghost during her life.
You can read the fascinating extract below:
“Leia was no Jedi Master, but she had learned from the best. And not just from Luke; over the years she’d occasionally heard the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi through the Force, and even more rarely, that of Yoda. Some days it had felt as though she’d learned from the Force itself.”
As per Luke’s voiceover of that flashback scene, TROS establishes that Leia could’ve trained further, but she received a Force vision which told her the death of her son would lie at the end of her path as a Jedi. Scared of this outcome, she stopped training with Luke. However, it seems other Jedi spoke to her across the years and aided in her understanding of the Force. Of course, Leia’s vision came true and in her dying moments, she reached out through the Force to send a message to her son, which contributed to his redemption. He ultimately sacrificed his own life so that Rey could live.
This additional bit of backstory for Leia cleverly ties into the climax of the story, in fact. Just when her evil grandfather Palpatine is winning, Rey receives words of encouragement from many Jedi of the past, including Obi-Wan and Yoda, who apparently previously spoke to Leia.
We’ll find out what else Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s novelization expands upon when it releases on March 17th.