Leia's Job

What exactly is Leia's position in the Rebel Alliance? I don't think we ever find out in the movies.

At the beginning of ANH, it seems she's a spy: she uses "mercy missions" and "diplomatic missions to Alderaan" (if she's from Alderaan, why is she on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan, anyway?) to cloak her other activities, such as stealing top-secret Imperial military intelligence. Her position in the Imperial Senate probably gives her other opportunities to overhear things, sneak around, and maybe bribe and blackmail for the cause.

But I wonder whether that's all she does for the Alliance. She is a senator, after all, and thus must have some political and leadership ability; does she also have a say in directing Alliance policy? Or is that Bail's job? And while Bail says in RotS that he's going to toe the party line to stay under the radar, Leia doesn't seem like she knows how not to speak her mind. Maybe she keeps her tongue in check until she's captured, when she figures it makes no difference.

What really puzzles me, though, is what her position is once she starts living on Alliance bases. We see her ordering pilots around in ESB, so she has some authority over military personnel. She also spends time in the command center, looking at probe droids and such. But is she actually in the military chain of command, or is she part of the civilian branch of the Alliance, like Mon Mothma? Do they even have separate civil and military branches at this point?

Then in RotJ, she's part of the mission to rescue Han from Jabba along with Luke, who may or may not still be a commander; Lando, who may or may not have officially joined the Alliance (but who probably isn't a general yet); and Chewbacca, who wasn't officially in the Alliance at the end of ESB but who may be now. And the entire mission may or may not be an Alliance mission. Is this an extension of her covert operative job? Has she joined the Rebel version of a commando squad? Did she go get Han on her vacation hours? We just don't know.

Finally, she volunteers to be part of General Solo's command crew for a military mission on Endor--so is she in the military, or do they accept civilian volunteers, or what? And what is her job on that mission, exactly? To help Han give the team orders and take over if he dies?

I think the real-world explanation is that Lucas didn't think about it much and just gave the barest explanation possible to keep all the main characters involved. But all the guys get official job titles, so why doesn't Leia get one too? She's not doing much princessing these days, so shouldn't she get a second title to reflect what she actually does?

Actually, come to think of it, she's not the only one in title-less limbo: what's Chewie's job title? Do only human males get titles? Maybe he's General Solo's aide-de-camp...

...but that still doesn't explain what Leia's been doing for a living during the trilogy.

"The Galactica Goes Dry," BSG gen

Time to stop fiddling with this one. For notes on the story's origin, check my WIP list.


Title: The Galactica Goes Dry
Fandom: new Battlestar Galactica (Disclaimer),
Categories: Gen (with reference to Sharon/Helo), PG, Parody
Word Count: 963
Summary: Soon after the events of Maelstrom, a riot at Joe's Bar heralds the greatest crisis the Colonial fleet has ever faced: they have completely run out of alcohol.


( Tigh's eye widened in horror. 'You've got to be frakking kidding.' )

* * *

Can you prove you're a citizen?

Yikes.

If a baptismal record and school records aren't good enough, how exactly are you supposed to prove you're a citizen when your birth certificate's authenticity is in doubt due to geography? People with immigrant parents won't have their parents' US school records, because duh, immigrant parents! Poor people often won't have prenatal care, and thus no prenatal care records from a US hospital. As for birth announcements in local papers - people still do that? Seriously? How much does that cost, anyway?

And then there's the midwife aspect. Okay, if midwives in that region in the '90s forged 15,000 birth certificates, I can see why the State Department is wary of birth certificates from around there. But what are you going to do? Force every woman to give birth in a hospital, regardless of her preference or (lack of) health insurance etc.? And what are people already born at home with a midwife supposed to do? Especially if the midwife has died in the intervening decades?

I understand that it's a lot simpler if you know who is and isn't a citizen, for record-keeping if nothing else, but lots of legitimate citizens don't have the documentation the State Department would like. So this is not a good way to sort out who's in which category. (Heck, two of my grandparents wouldn't qualify as "proven" citizens either. Born at home without even a midwife present, immigrant parents, and no birth certificate for years after the fact.) If it doesn't do the job and harasses law-abiding people, what's the point? Not to mention, you would think that the SD would have to have a substantial reason to question a birth certificate's authenticity - "you're from a sketchy region and your mama's poor" doesn't seem all that substantial.