As much as Carrie Fisher hated her metal bikini, she considered the resolution to this sub-plot as a worthy consolation. “What redeems it is that I get to kill [Jabba],” she explained. “I sawed his neck off with that chain that I killed him with. I really relish that ’cause I hated wearing that outfit and sitting there rigid straight, and I couldn’t wait to kill him.”
And sure enough, Leia strangling Jabba is one of the most satisfying moments in the entire “Star Wars” film series. It’s even more satisfying with the prequel movies in mind, knowing both that Leia is the daughter and granddaughter of enslaved people and Jabba enslaves individuals. In a franchise where so many of the villains have sympathetic backstories and are given moments of redemption before their end, it’s nice to have a moment where a main character gets to murder a baddie the movie doesn’t even try to make us feel bad for.
Whereas Luke (Mark Hamill) struggles a lot with the idea that killing Darth Vader might turn him to the dark side, Leia slays Jabba without a second thought, and it’s perfectly fine; her place on the light side is never in doubt. That might sound like a double standard, but Luke was objectified in the way Leia was. Putting Leia in that outfit may have been a weird, bad choice for “Return of the Jedi,” but at least the film lets her have an unapologetically badass moment in return.