'Every line spoken by a woman (not named Leia) in Star Wars' is not a very long video
Let's hope J.J. Abrams paid attention to this.
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Your support makes all the difference.Star Wars has given us one of the most iconic female characters in cinematic history. Princess Leia: diplomat, leader, rebel, warrior. Outspoken and defiant until the very end, she was an icon to so many women in her ability to play the hero without rejecting her femininity. She was proof you could save the day and rock a pair of sweet hair buns, too.
But, as great as she is, she's also basically the only female character of any note in the entire Star Wars trilogy. Unless you're just a massive Aunt Beru fan.
To illustrate the problem, New York Magazine compiled a supercut of every single line of dialogue in the movies spoken by a female character who isn't Leia. Now, the original trilogy's combined runtime is 386 minutes. The length of this video? 63 seconds. Ouch.
Let's break it down. Aunt Beru's collected 30 seconds of dialogue are the only other lines given to a woman in A New Hope outside of Leia. Empire Strikes Back has a single line and it's an unnamed rebel officer saying the deeply unthrilling, "Stand by, Ion Control...Fire." That's kind of shockingly terrible in itself. At least Return of the Jedi gave a little explanatory dialogue to Mon Mothma (Caroline Blakiston), as the character in charge of the rebel briefing before the Battle of Endor.
Thankfully, it looks as if New York Magazine may not have been the only ones to notice this. J.J. Abrams' upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens promises a significantly larger chunk of screentime for its female characters. Rey (Daisy Ridley) picks up the lead, with Carrie Fisher's Leia returning alongside Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and pirate Maz Kanata (a motion-captured Lupita Nyong'o). Hopefully, Abrams will also have littered the background with plenty of female X-wing fighters and First Order supporters.
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