# Princess Leia Princess Leia is the Rebel leader from the Star Wars saga, played by Carrie Fisher, whose cinnamon-bun hair and gold bikini turned her into one of the most parodied characters in fan art, cosplay and internet culture. After Fisher's death in December 2016, tribute posts and the #CarrieOnForever hashtag transformed Leia into a recurring memorial figure that still circulates every anniversary. ## Origin The character debuted in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in May 1977, written and directed by George Lucas, with Fisher cast as the 19-year-old senator and Rebel leader[3]. Her two most meme-heavy visual beats came from that film's side buns and from the gold metal bikini worn during the Jabba the Hutt sequence in Return of the Jedi (1983), an outfit later reported on by outlets covering its complicated legacy in fandom[4]. Leia's move from film character to internet shorthand happened gradually across the 2000s and 2010s through cosplay circuits, DeviantArt galleries and Tumblr fan communities, where the buns and bikini became instantly readable costume references[3]. Fisher's own social presence sharpened the meme surface further: her blunt tweets and self-deprecating jokes about the character made Leia feel active online in a way most 1977 film roles are not[1]. - **Platform:** Film (Star Wars, 1977) / Tumblr and Twitter (viral fan spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 1977 ## Overview Princess Leia works as a meme on three loops that fans keep looping back to: the side-bun hairstyle from A New Hope, the gold Jabba's-palace bikini from Return of the Jedi, and Carrie Fisher's sharp real-life voice on Twitter[1]. Cinnamon-bun jokes, Photoshops swapping her buns for headphones or pastries, and the endlessly reworked bikini shot are the base image formats, while her lines and blaster-toting stills are recycled as reaction images inside Star Wars fan spaces[1]. The second layer is tribute content. When Fisher died in 2016, fan art, GIF sets and quote cards took over Tumblr and Twitter, and the character became a stand-in for mourning the actress herself[2]. That mix of parody and eulogy is what separates the Leia meme from most other legacy Star Wars characters, whose meme output is mostly jokes without a mourning strand attached[3]. ## How to Use The template is usually visual: swap Leia's buns for another round object (cinnamon rolls, headphones, Beats, donuts), or drop her Rebel-briefing stills into a modern political or fandom caption. Tribute posts often pair a still of Fisher-as-Leia with the tag #CarrieOnForever and a line about "no one's ever really gone," borrowed from Mark Hamill's 2017 remembrance post[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Princess Leia? Princess Leia is a fictional Rebel Alliance leader from the Star Wars films, played by Carrie Fisher, whose side-bun hairstyle and gold bikini made her a long-running subject of fan art, cosplay and reaction memes[3]. ### Where did Princess Leia come from? The character was created by George Lucas and first appeared in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in 1977, with subsequent appearances through the sequel trilogy shaping her most-memed looks[3]. ### What does Princess Leia mean as a meme? Online, Leia works as both a nostalgia and tribute meme: bun swaps and bikini cosplay for jokes, and #CarrieOnForever posts as annual memorials for Fisher after her 2016 death[1]. ### How do you use Princess Leia? The common convention is to remix her buns with another round object or caption a Rebel-era still with a modern joke; tribute posts typically pair a Leia image with #CarrieOnForever and a line from Hamill's 2017 remembrance[1]. ### Is Princess Leia still popular? Yes, Leia stays a classic fandom meme: tribute posts recur every December 27 anniversary, and her buns and bikini remain heavily referenced in Star Wars cosplay and fan-art archives[5]. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/945986946663174144]() 2. [https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/carrie-fisher-tributes-star-wars/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/princess-leia]() 4. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/11/03/the-fraught-history-of-princess-leias-infamous-bikini/]() 5. [http://mentalfloss.com/article/62453/brief-history-princess-leias-buns]() 6. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cinnabon-truly-sorry-for-carrie-fisher-tweet-after-backlash/]() 7. [https://qz.com/872530/carrie-fisher-the-obituary-she-wanted-drowned-in-moonlight-strangled-by-her-own-bra/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/princess-leia Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library