Who Is Princess Leia? 10 Surprising Facts About Carrie Fisher's Star Wars Hero

Princess Leia didn't put up with trash from anyone, not even the father of her children, Hans Solo. Carrie Fisher made the royal fighter a global icon, and her passing Tuesday after suffering a cardiac event on a flight from London to Los Angeles brings her portrayal of the Sci-Fi princess to an end. Not quite a Star Wars fan? Read on for some interesting facts about the woman who helped make one of the world's most beloved series a feminist tale as one of the Rebel Alliance’s greatest leaders.

1. Fisher, an alum of the London Central School of Speech and Drama, won the Princess Leia role after competing against Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Glenn Close, Jessica Lange and Farrah Fawcett, among other actresses.

2. Princess Leia was the lead female role in "Star Wars," "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars: Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi." In 2015, she shared the female top spot in "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens."

3. Princess Leia became an international sensation in part because of how she looked in an iconic metal-and-leather bikini while being held hostage by Jabba the Hutt. “There are a lot of people who don’t like my character in these movies; they think I’m some kind of space b—-,” Fisher said in a Rolling Stone interview just before “Return of the Jedi” opened in 1983. “She has no friends, no family; her planet was blown up in seconds — along with her hairdresser — so all she has is a cause. From the first film [‘Star Wars’], she was just a soldier, front line and center. The only way they knew to make the character strong was to make her angry. In ‘Return of the Jedi,’ she gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let’s not forget that these movies are basically boys’ fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes.”

4. But Princess Leia wasn't a victim or a bikini-clad object of desire. The Washington Post writes of the famous bikini scene: "Leia may be captive in these scenes, but she’s not exactly a compliant fantasy. Instead, she’s biding her time for the moment when she can put that fury into action, carrying out a carefully laid plan to rescue her lover (Harrison Ford). And when that moment comes, the bikini doesn’t condemn Leia to passivity. She rises, and uses the very chains that bind her to strangle the creature who tried to take away her power by turning her into a sex object."

5. Her full name was Princess Leia Organa.

6. Her family ties were often shocking plot twists in the films. She is the daughter of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker and the sister of Luke Skywalker.

7. Leia, of course, was too cool to be stunned when it turned out her friend, Luke Skywalker, was her brother. “I know,” she says on screen. “Somehow, I’ve always known.”

8. Leia's father, Anakin, eventually becomes Darth Vader, and she fights to stop the Sith Lord, often risking her life.

9. Fan fiction claims Han and Leia were supposed to get married in the films. The wedding never made the cut in various Stars Wars scripts, however, but still eventually became part of Star Wars canon and was explored in the comic book and novel spin-offs.

10. The one word C3PO ever utters to the Ewoks is “Naboo,” the home world of Luke and Leia’s mother, Queen Amidala.