Strictly the only sign of aging I can detect, is that my youth heroes start falling like dominos. I cannot blink an eye, or there is one gone. The bizarre thing is, I only detect the impact these people had on my life, when they lay down their head for the last time. It’s kind of sad.
I was profoundly disturbed to watch Han Solo die stupidly in the last Star Wars. Wait a minute. How could they. Why. Luckily, Harrison Ford is still alive for the prequels.
But now, Princess Leia is dead. Gone. Not blasted into oblivion by an Imperial Laser, or cut down by a dark side of the force fuelled light saber. No, a stupid heart attack on a commercial airplane. That is no way to die for an intergalactic hero. That’s not the way to go for the proudest rebel. Her own obituary is more like it:
“She drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra”
George Lucas explained the young Carrie Fisher that she had to go commando under her white robes in the Star Wars trilogy. In space, her breasts would expand, her bra would not… and that could be dangerous. So Carrie wanted to have “Drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra” as her last line, her last comic wink.
The golden Bikini
When Return of the Yedi aired in 1983, I was a sweaty young boy of 14. The impact of the delicious Rebel Princess in a metal golden bikini on all kind of conscious, unconscious, projected and phantasmal levels cannot be underestimated. That sight can never be unseen. It’s rare that so little had such an impact on so many. Screw the baby boomers, the gen X’ers, the gen Y’ers. They can have Pokémon. I am a proud part of the Golden Bikini generation.
Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers who designed the famous bikini, could not have dreamed the impact the sensual outfit would have on a whole generation of Star Wars Loving Adventurers.
Smart, bipolar and funny
Of course, princess Leia was more than the golden slave girl, and of course Carrie Fisher was more than the sexy warrior-princess of the rebellion. Carrie was smart, witty. Her outing of her bipolarity was courageous. Her talking about her mental disorder, and her difficulties with addictive substances helped other people in understanding and accepting. She was extremely funny. She was a damned good writer, a superb script doctor. But for me, she will always be the crush of my young years, the courageous princess with the golden bikini.
“Everything is negotiable. Whether or not the negotiation is easy is another thing”. Carrie Fisher
