Leia’s at Tosche station getting her damn power converters, no matter what Owen says. Him and Beru are still super dead when she gets back. The old guy they hung out with sometimes shows up once she’s buried them… and he has to talk her out of shooting up an imperial convoy. She’s ready to bullseye some Stormtroopers in her T-16 when he recognizes his old astromech droid and thumps a hidden message out of it: some pretty-boy diplomat pleading for his help, by name.
Said pretty-boy recorded that message shortly before getting lifted by the throat. He makes no excuses about being an ambassador; he personally volunteered to exfiltrate stolen plans from a secure location, and immediately boarded the fastest ship at his disposal. He zooped out of Imperial space without so much as filing a flight-plan. He’s halfway to Yavin by they time they realize the plans are missing. Once the Empire’s much faster ships catch up, he’s afforded no kindness and has no clever snark. He laughs in Tarkin’s face for showing up in-person at a combat site, and when Vader hoists him against a wall, he spits in the creepy bastard’s plastic eyes.
One funny implication is that the dramatic rope swing on the Death Star plays out roughly the same. It’s just, instead of Luke being surprised when the freshly-rescued princess blasts some mooks, it’s the badass-bitch protagonist surprised she’s getting Errol Flynn’d out of a tight spot by an aristocrat who’s never heard of fear.
Leia’s at Tosche station getting her damn power converters, no matter what Owen says. Him and Beru are still super dead when she gets back. The old guy they hung out with sometimes shows up once she’s buried them… and he has to talk her out of shooting up an imperial convoy. She’s ready to bullseye some Stormtroopers in her T-16 when he recognizes his old astromech droid and thumps a hidden message out of it: some pretty-boy diplomat pleading for his help, by name.
Said pretty-boy recorded that message shortly before getting lifted by the throat. He makes no excuses about being an ambassador; he personally volunteered to exfiltrate stolen plans from a secure location, and immediately boarded the fastest ship at his disposal. He zooped out of Imperial space without so much as filing a flight-plan. He’s halfway to Yavin by they time they realize the plans are missing. Once the Empire’s much faster ships catch up, he’s afforded no kindness and has no clever snark. He laughs in Tarkin’s face for showing up in-person at a combat site, and when Vader hoists him against a wall, he spits in the creepy bastard’s plastic eyes.
One funny implication is that the dramatic rope swing on the Death Star plays out roughly the same. It’s just, instead of Luke being surprised when the freshly-rescued princess blasts some mooks, it’s the badass-bitch protagonist surprised she’s getting Errol Flynn’d out of a tight spot by an aristocrat who’s never heard of fear.