Princess Leia’s top 20 bravest moments

Still from The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Image is a screengrab via 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm

12. That time she stuck her neck out for Luke Skywalker…again 

While Han, Leia and the droids are getting in trouble in Cloud City, Luke is in Dagobah training with Yoda to be a Jedi knight. Little does he know he’s being baited by Lando and the Empire with the imprisoned Leia and Han.

What’s cool about this moment is that it’s yet another example of Leia’s selflessness in the face of the Rebel cause. Luke Skywalker is so integral to the success of the Alliance that she is willing to sacrifice everything on the spot for herself, to make sure he doesn’t end up trapped like her. So when she sees him in the halls of Lando’s base, she cries out to him to turn back, that it’s a trap. To me that’s so exemplary of how she keeps her head on a swivel at all times, and her fear never takes over in the place of the bigger picture.

Also, there she goes saving the boys again! Yeah Luke is the “chosen one” of sorts, but honestly where would he be without his secret twin sister? Up a galactic creek without a paddle, probably. Even Luke reacts in the moment more emotionally than Leia. In this way they make a great (and necessary) pair.