It has come to my attention that Carrie Fisher has become one with the force. She has passed away today at the age of 60 due to her recent heart attack. Her loss is a significant blow to Star Wars fans everywhere. The Star Wars Saga has seen many of its great collaborators pass on over the years, with the actors for Count Dooku in the Prequels, Sir Christopher Lee, as well as the actor for R2D2 passing on very recently. But this? This is the equivalent of losing a Beatle.
We, the fans, never think of our heroes as being mortal but they are.
It is now time to thank Carrie for taking the role of Princess Leia Organa despite
what others thought at the time about sci-fi movies. Carrie paved the
way for other SF heroines on film and TV and thereby inspired so many
girls and women with her character. Princess Leia was a important and crucial figure in both current canon and the old Expanded Universe Legends canon. Leia's devotion for peace and democracy was part of what fueled the leadership of the Alliance and in the new canon, the leadership of the Resistance against a resurgent Neo-Empire, the First Order. Let’s hope Star Wars VIII uses Leia well, in both the marketing of the movie and the movie in general, and gives her a proper sendoff .
It was truly marvelous that she not only was an icon in Science fiction, playing the role of Princess Leia and all, but the sort of challenges she went through in her own life and how she managed to overcome the challenges and adversity that she faced. Fisher, had a long history of drug abuse in the 1970s and 1980s. She turned that experience into the comic novel Postcards From the Edge to raise awareness of drug addiction. The novel was adapted into a film by Mike Nichols in 1990, which brought even more awareness to her condition. In the 1990s, she further revealed her diagnosis with bipolar disorder and her experiences with depression. This in turn raised awareness of how she deals with these issues and why there is a need to address physical and mental barriers. Carrie Fisher didn't just fight Space Fascists as a badass space princess, but she also fought a more real and tangible battle dedicated her platform to mental health awareness & female empowerment.
What was important about her fight for awareness was how open it was, she made no secret of her mental conditions. Fisher gave honest testimonies of the trials and tribulations of battling drug addition addiction and bipolar disorder, and gave no quarter when it comes to discussing the realities of mental health conditions. In her final column, published in November, Fisher advised “Alex,” a twenty-something looking for guidance on living with bipolar disorder. She stated that "We have been given a challenging illness, and there is no other option than to meet those challenges. Think of it as an opportunity to be heroic – not “I survived living in Mosul during an attack” heroic, but an emotional survival. An opportunity to be a good example to others who might share our disorder. That’s why it’s important to find a community – however small – of other bipolar people to share experiences and find comfort in the similarities"
It was very appreciated for the media to focus and give emphasis on this part of the legacy. I don't have much faith in the media for reasons I will not state here. Yet, it was very appreciated that they didn't gloss over this part of her legacy but gave a significant degree of emphasis to it.
In regards to activities on this blog, I had the idea of two Star Wars centered articles that I wanted to post regarding how the themes of Star Wars are relevant to our own society. However, one of them is on indefinite hiatus because I have simply lost the will to post that one due to this tragic moment and the other one is cancelled permanently, I feel that the theme of at least one of them is totally obsolete now considering the plot changes that need to happen now, and any way to drag this plot point up that I want to happen now to make the sociopolitical themes I want to make will now be totally unethical and insensitive. Thus that post will not appear on this blog, ever.
May the force be with Carrie and her family now mourning her loss, always
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