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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When the Star Wars prequels came out, fans were excited to learn more about the various characters and events that made up their favorite galaxy far, far away. Unfortunately, the controversial Prequel Trilogy introduced some major plot holes, including the fact that Leia would have no memories of her mother (Padme died after giving birth to her twins) as she claimed in Return of the Jedi. This apparent Princess Leia plot hole has irked fans for nearly two decades, but one fan theory neatly explains what happened: Leia apparently received images of her mother unknowingly through the Police.
Leia Remembers Her Mother
When Return of the Jedi Coming out in 1983, fans had no reason to doubt Leia’s account of her mother. She told her secret sibling Luke Skywalker that she remembers her mother as “very beautiful” and “kind, but…sad.” But Princess Leia was suddenly in the middle of a plot hole when Revenge of the Sith It came out in 2005 and we saw that Padme died (apparently of a broken heart) right after giving birth to Luke and Leia. This led to the natural question: how would Leia remember what her mother looked like if she never really got to see or know her?
According to a fan theory about Princess Leiathis isn’t really a plot hole. Instead, Leia was telling the truth from the only perspective she had. Growing up and even at the beginning of her conversation with Luke, she had no way of knowing she was force sensitive (in fact, this is the conversation where she finds out). But she’s had access to the Force all her life, and considering how often this mystical energy field sends visions to would-be Jedi, it’s entirely reasonable to assume that Leia has had Force visions of’ to my mother (either earlier or later in life) and believed they were genuine memories of Padme.
Fan Theory Makes Complete Sense
Interestingly, the fan theory that solves this Princess Leia plot hole makes even more sense when you revisit her conversation with Luke in Return of the Jedi. When Luke asks what she remembers about her mother, Leia initially tells him, “Just…images, really…feelings” before providing the aforementioned physical description. Taken at first glance, it seems like Leia may have already squared this circle, unconsciously implying that what she received was a vision (because, let’s face it, there are “images” and “feelings” is a strange and clumsy way of describing fond childhood memories).
For fans who are still angry about the Prequel Trilogy, the resolution to this Princess Leia plot hole may bring peace. Instead of a shocking storytelling error, this theory provides a solution that ties elegantly to the Original Trilogy. Unfortunately, this theory can’t fix the many other problems with the prequels that range from terrible dialogue (who can forget that sand speech?) and obnoxious new characters (“meesa Jar-Jar Binks!”) to the strange decision to have Padme die of a broken heart. That plot point alone is almost a ruin Revenge of the Sithundoubtedly the best of the prequels.
After all, we all know that broken hearts can’t kill. If they could, heartbreaking Star Wars prequels would have been like a Thanos snap that caused half the fandom to suddenly cry out in terror before being suddenly silenced.
