Star Wars: The most frustrating part of each film in the original trilogy
By Nik Edlund
Leia’s Lack of Reaction After Alderaan is Destroyed
In about the middle of A New Hope, Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader interrogate Leia and want to find out the location of the Rebels’ base. They threaten to destroy Alderaan if she doesn’t tell them the truth, so she lies and says the base is on Dantooine. Tarkin calls her bluff and proceeds to destroy Alderaan anyway.
Leia screams a no and has a concerned look on her face but instead of seeing her reaction to the destruction of her home planet, people, and adopted parents, we instead cut to Obi-Wan and his reaction to sensing the mass loss of life through the Force.
This edit was a strange choice as it would’ve made much more sense to stick with Leia and see her grief and horror at the loss of her home. Knowing how headstrong she is, she may have even lashed out and started swinging at Tarkin or Vader.
The next time we see Leia is when Luke finds her in her cell. She seems completely over the extinction of her people, planet, and loss of her parents. Obviously the pacing of the movie doesn’t allow her time to properly grieve, but seeing her initial reaction and hearing her at least show sadness later in the film for the loss of her people would’ve made a lot of sense.