Why You Can Trust CNET Leia's Little Red Droid Isn't in other Star Wars Stories, and This Is Why
We never see Leia's adorable little droid in the movies, because its story ended already.
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Regardless of how much you love or hate it, this spring's Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi got a lot of attention. Some consider it a welcome return to something that felt more like classic Star Wars adventuring, while others would have preferred something a little grittier.
The one big takeaway from just about everyone who watched this show is that Young Leia actor Vivien Lyra Blair absolutely nailed the role. Her immediate entry to Star Wars royalty has led to several big convention appearances since the show's release, where she finds herself regularly autographing 3D-printed replicas of her co-star L0-LA59, or "Lola" as it's called on the show.
So what happened to Leia's little red companion as she grew up? Why isn't it hovering next to Leia as an adult, ready to deliver the Death Star plans instead of R2-D2? The real-world answer, of course, is that Lola didn't exist in Star Wars canon until this year. But thanks to a single sentence in the most recent Star Wars novel, we have an in-universe answer for why Lola isn't around during the events of A New Hope and what fate befalls this cute little toy-like companion.
Warning! The rest of this article contains spoilers for the new book Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel.
If you've ever wondered how tightly knit the Star Wars storytelling crew is across mediums, the most recent addition to the Star Wars book universe should be an indicator.
As covered in the review from CNET's Sean Keane, Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel is a mostly fun book covering the moments after the Death Star and Emperor Palpatine were eliminated over Endor. This includes the wedding of Leia Organa and Han Solo, who are gifted a honeymoon on the recently liberated Chandrila Star Line Halcyon.
If that ship sounds familiar, that's because it is the ship you board when checking in to Disney's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel and immersive theater experience. Like the Halcyon Legacy comics before it, this book largely takes place on a ship you can visit in real life and act out your fantasies, should you be fortunate enough to afford something like that.
Emotions are understandably high for everyone in the moments between the final demise of the Death Star and the wedding of Leia and Han, and author Beth Revis does a great job diving into those small but impossibly human moments after a brutal moment in war.
One of the most important of these moments is Leia grappling with the added conflict of now knowing the identity of her biological father... and what he had done to both her and the people of Alderaan. While deep in a moment of grief over the loss of so many people, including her parents who were so excited about her eventually marrying, she thinks back to the contents of her bedroom. Among the many memories in that room she will never see again is Lola, her companion droid from childhood and a prominent reminder of that time in her life.
It's not clear whether Lola was still functional when Grand Moff Tarkin ordered Alderaan eliminated. The average life expectancy of any droid in the Star Wars universe seems to depend largely on whether you can get the parts to repair it. And with the Galactic Empire controlling so many resources at that stage of the story, it's likely parts for droids with limited purpose may have been difficult to find. Either way, like so many others, Lola was a victim of the Death Star.
While we may not need another reason to dislike the Empire, killing that cute little droid sure adds fuel to the fire.