# So DID Luke genuinely have the hots for Leia, or she for him? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786 "2014-12-09T19:44:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/21 "2014-12-10T02:45:16Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Didn’t even have a couple of sheep, poor bastard. Well, he tried it with an R2 unit, but it had a bad penetrator. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/22 "2014-12-10T03:25:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Dude, you’ve seen what she looks like, right? I think it’s safe to say that every heterosexual human male, and most of other species, had the hots for Leia. > > Now, the infamous kiss, yeah, that was definitely intended just to piss Han off. And Luke probably knew it, and was playing along just to rub it in. But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy it, too. Not necessarily. The college friend I mentioned above–I knew intellectually that she was hot (that was largely my male friends assumed we were doing it, because they wanted to) but she simply didn’t do it for me. Attraction is idiosyncratic. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/23 "2014-12-10T04:00:59Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Did Lucas intend for them to be brother-sister from the beginning? I always got the feeling it was something he came up with after the first movie was done and he had to shoe-horn it in. This is the essence of the OP. Just another example of Lucas’ crappy retconning. If he intended them to be brother & sister before _Return of the Jedi_ he’d never have them [do this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb1-56aC9YY#t=27) in _Empire_… ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/24 "2014-12-10T04:08:37Z")
They were originally set up to be each other’s love interest but there was zero chemistry. And good ol’ anti-hero Han Solo was a much bigger hit with the public after the first film than originally envisioned. Therefore… ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/25 "2014-12-10T05:25:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Totally disagree. When the movie was made, Lucas hadn’t even thought of any follow-up, no matter what he said later. Luke & Leia were definitely written to be a couple if necessary. The whole family thing didn’t get written until much later. Definitely. The first Star Wars novelization I ever read, Darth Vader was from a planet where they breathed methane. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/26 "2014-12-10T05:40:42Z")
It seemed she wasn’t too impressed with him, calling him small at first, and later only giving him a good kiss to make Han jealous. By the time of **Empire** she cared for him very much, like a younger brother but it’s hard to believe that she was originally intended to be Luke’s sister. It seems like the way it was set up that even though Luke’s the hero, the princess is more attracted to the roguish Han Solo. But as the story was supposed to progress, Luke ends up pulling off a series of super alpha-male exploits which makes Leia think twice about dismissing anything romantic between them. Luke then becomes legitimate competition against Han. This would only work before the completed Empire Strikes Back because she clearly only has eyes for Han when she tells him her feelings. But I just wish they didn’t make them twins. They don’t even look the same age. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/27 "2014-12-10T05:58:32Z")
So? Does relativistic travel speed mean nothing in this galactic setting? ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/28 "2014-12-10T06:17:29Z")
They had plenty of time to get it on between New Hope and the start of Empire, didn’t they? Even if Leia was a bit busy at the time. Nothing happened. Besides, Leia is a Zoey and Luke a Zelda. Wouldn’t have worked. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/29 "2014-12-10T06:48:16Z")
I thought it was a clearly a case of no hots. The first movie it was at best subtext and frankly not even that. In ESB they dropped so many hints about Leia that the mystery of the “other” wasbin ROTJ dispatched in two sentences over tea and biscuits. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/30 "2014-12-10T07:40:59Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Did Lucas intend for them to be brother-sister from the beginning? I always got the feeling it was something he came up with after the first movie was done and he had to shoe-horn it in. No, he did not. Checking with my copy of _[The Secret History of Star Wars](http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/)_, it seems that, in the first draft of _The Empire Strikes Back_, Luke was supposed to have a twin sister, but she was on the other side of the Galaxy, not someone he already knew. In the second draft, when he had the flash of insight to make Darth Vader Luke’s father, he completely removed this element. Even the small bit that made it into the final movie about some mysterious “Other” was removed, replaced with Yoda saying he needed to find “another” Obi Wan apparently disagreeing, saying “He’s our only hope.” According to Lucas himself, that line was added back in, not as some hint at the existence of Luke’s twin, but to create tension. “I was trying to set up subliminally in the audience’s mind that something is going on here, that [Luke] could fail. And if he does fail, ‘there is another hope.’” (Bouzereau, _Annotated Screenplays_, p. 200.) The author of the book suggests that, instead, that there was a further reason–to set up the sequel series that was supposed to follow the original. It was only in the first draft of _Return of the Jedi_ that Leia becomes Luke’s sister. Having abandoned the idea of a sequel trilogy, and the fans constantly speculating about who the “other” could be, Lucas felt he needed to tie up that plot line. Having her be his twin sister did that nicely, making her legitimately a possible other hope (with Force powers), and having her be born at the same time as Luke so Vader wouldn’t know about her. Even Lucas pretty much admitted he threw that in because he had to. He didn’t particularly like it. “It’s one thing for Darth Vader to tell Luke that he’s his father, and it’s another thing to have Luke tell Leia that he is her sister and that Darth Vader’s his father. That really gets hard to swallow.” (_Return of the Jedi_ commentary track, 2004) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/31 "2014-12-10T07:53:28Z")
Voted “He was hot for her, she wasn’t for him” but Skald, what is this ? : > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The way Carrie Fisher is desexed in the first movie I have [no idea](http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130313220113/starwars/images/1/10/Cell_2187.png) what you’re talking about… ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/32 "2014-12-10T12:59:13Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > {…} I have [no idea](http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130313220113/starwars/images/1/10/Cell_2187.png) what you’re talking about… [There are no bras in space!](http://www.blastr.com/2010/08/how_george_lucas_convince.php) (And we won’t be discussing forbidden inter-species love . . . no way that’s the first time Chewie got to first base. A private “medal awarding” ceremony, riiight.) CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/33 "2014-12-10T13:09:19Z")
You forgot to include “Some mild attraction, but I’m pissed you didn’t include a link to [this](http://lolsnaps.com/upload_pic/SlavePrincessLeiaPillowFight-80324.jpg) photo.” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/34 "2014-12-10T13:18:24Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, he did not. Checking with my copy of _[The Secret History of Star Wars](http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/)_, it seems that, in the first draft of _The Empire Strikes Back_, Luke was supposed to have a twin sister, but she was on the other side of the Galaxy, not someone he already knew. > > In the second draft, when he had the flash of insight to make Darth Vader Luke’s father, he completely removed this element. Even the small bit that made it into the final movie about some mysterious “Other” was removed, replaced with Yoda saying he needed to find “another” Obi Wan apparently disagreeing, saying “He’s our only hope.” > > According to Lucas himself, that line was added back in, not as some hint at the existence of Luke’s twin, but to create tension. “I was trying to set up subliminally in the audience’s mind that something is going on here, that [Luke] could fail. And if he does fail, ‘there is another hope.’” (Bouzereau, _Annotated Screenplays_, p. 200.) The author of the book suggests that, instead, that there was a further reason–to set up the sequel series that was supposed to follow the original. > > It was only in the first draft of _Return of the Jedi_ that Leia becomes Luke’s sister. Having abandoned the idea of a sequel trilogy, and the fans constantly speculating about who the “other” could be, Lucas felt he needed to tie up that plot line. Having her be his twin sister did that nicely, making her legitimately a possible other hope (with Force powers), and having her be born at the same time as Luke so Vader wouldn’t know about her. > > Even Lucas pretty much admitted he threw that in because he had to. He didn’t particularly like it. “It’s one thing for Darth Vader to tell Luke that he’s his father, and it’s another thing to have Luke tell Leia that he is her sister and that Darth Vader’s his father. That really gets hard to swallow.” (_Return of the Jedi_ commentary track, 2004) Well if that’s the case the decision to make Leia the twin must have been taken sometime before the premier of ESB. In that movie Leia’s force sensitivity is hinted at throughout and more or less confirmed at the end when she senses Luke hanging off the shaf exit at Bespin. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/35 "2014-12-10T13:22:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Even Lucas pretty much admitted he threw that in because he had to. He didn’t particularly like it. “It’s one thing for Darth Vader to tell Luke that he’s his father, and it’s another thing to have Luke tell Leia that he is her sister and that Darth Vader’s his father. That really gets hard to swallow.” (_Return of the Jedi_ commentary track, 2004) Lucas gets a lot of crap from fans like me for some of his SW-related decisions, but reading the creative process involved and the what he was dealing with (divorce, wanting to move onto to something else creatively, needing to wrap up loose ends) I’m much more sympathetic. I always hear how he says, after the fact, that everything that ended up being int he OT and PT was planned from the very start, and I always thought he was full of it, especially as things transpired in the film so haphazardly at times. It’s cool to see that even he realized it was a stretch to make Leia Luke’s sister but the movie needed to get finished so he was under pressure. > [@AK84](#): > > Well if that’s the case the decision to make Leia the twin must have been taken sometime before the premier of ESB. In that movie Leia’s force sensitivity is hinted at throughout and more or less confirmed at the end when she senses Luke hanging off the shaf exit at Bespin. It definitely seems that way but it could be a one way Force related telepathic message. Like maybe if Luke focused hard enough he could have sent a message to someone else he was close with, who wasn’t Force sensitive. I very much like the idea that Leia and him have a strong bond as shown in that scene, but not having it merely be because they are twins. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/36 "2014-12-10T14:09:24Z")
You have to wonder why Obi Wan didn’t tell him from the beginning. Luke accepts the light saber and that his dad wasn’t a pilot on a spice freighter, but he’s still on the edge. Telling him that the girl pleading for help in the recording is his sister is so improbable Luke will think he’s making it all up. When Luke says he is only going to take him to Mos Eisley he thinks he has the whole speeder ride to tell him, but they run into the murdered Jawas and Luke takes off. When Luke finds his home burned down that would have been the time to tell him he’s got family left. But then does he explain the truth about his father at this terrible time? He’s committed to going now so forget about it. When Obi Wan is fighting Vader and looks over to see Luke and Leia together, they are wet and he’s got lipstck on his face, that’s when he realizes he has waited too long. It finally makes sense why he would tell Vader to strike him down. He did not want to get on that ship and have to deal with that mess all the way to the next rebel base. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/37 "2014-12-10T15:14:50Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I thought they were mutually attracted to each other, and was certain they would end up together. It wasn’t quite like that Folgers’ commercial with the brother and sister, but close. I knew something was missing from this Christmas season! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wmUKuwklZQI/hqdefault.jpg "Folgers Brother and Sister") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmUKuwklZQI) ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/38 "2014-12-10T15:26:15Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Definitely. The first Star Wars novelization I ever read, Darth Vader was from a planet where they breathed methane. How about [Splinter of the Mind’s Eye](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_of_the_Mind%27s_Eye)? It was the authorized novelization that came out between Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. Throughout the entire novel, Luke was seriously in love with Leia, and wound up making out with her at the end. I seem to remember a mud wrestling scene in there as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/39 "2014-12-10T15:27:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Where do you get that first sentence from? Luke was about 18 at the time of the first movie (I refuse to even type the phrase _epoH weN A_ except backwards), and there’s no reason to think thee’s no girls in town. “going in to town to pick up some power converters…” so _that’s_ what the kids are calling it these days… ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786/40 "2014-12-10T15:54:54Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > “going in to town to pick up some power converters…” so _that’s_ what the kids are calling it these days… [Toshi Station](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpUkokRx3-k). And the other relevant [Robot Chicken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMMVrYly73k) segment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-did-luke-genuinely-have-the-hots-for-leia-or-she-for-him/706786.md?page=3)