Thanks! Ahh, I definitely differ there -- I can see her as a leader, but not a bureaucrat and not like Padmé at all in this regard. I don't think she's especially inclined to politics and I definitely don't think she enjoys it or is emotionally fulfilled by it at all. She had to fight in some way, and I think politics was the only way open to her -- but she'd have honestly been better suited to being something like a military commander/pilot.

(Even apart from epic sexism, I suspect her parents did their best to prod her towards Padmé-things and discourage Anakin-things, however much she preferred the latter. Maybe all the more because she does seem happier racing on a speeder and shooting things. It's definitely odd that she's clearly a gifted pilot but doesn't seem to even know how to fly a starship.)

So personally, I can see Leia wanting to be involved at some level, but not going back to bureaucracy after ROTJ . It just seems incredibly counter-intuitive in terms of her arc. And I think she'd wholly commit to whatever she did (I can't see her a maverick like Luke and Anakin, really -- she's much more of an i-dotting, t-crossing Lawful Good type than they are; she is like Padmé in terms of the inflexible-duty thing).

So I think she'd be much better off as, say, representing the Order to the NR, liaising with the NR, she and Luke serving as bad-cop good-cop politically neutral diplomats, establishing an Alderaanian state, whatever. But locking herself into a massive bureaucracy seems like it would be a decided step backward in terms of her development.

(Ha, I know that I disagree with pretty much everyone about this. But I liked cheerfully badass!Leia, and I thought the movie gave every indication that she'd left politics, was better off for it, and was going to become a fabulous Jedi in very short order. [Which is about the only thing that could make depowering her remotely palatable.])

Re: awkward nepotism -- Oh! That's actually why I think Luke specifically suggested that they both leave their respective sides and go off together. Anything else would be kind of impossible. But otoh, Empress Leia is pretty badass. (And that's the kind of politics I can see her getting around, ha.)

I sort of love the idea of Anakin and Han getting on really well. I can definitely see Han getting him, and getting past the horrific things he's done, more easily than Leia or even Luke did. (Ha, even in canon, I can see Han coming to terms with ghost!Anakin quite a bit more quickly than Leia does and bizarrely finding himself as a sort of mediator when all three Skywalkers are flying into their regularly scheduled rages.)

because here is a creator who is being incredibly validating of fannish response and fannish... absorption and transformation, and... yeah. I have no words for my squee at this.

Exactly! I'm willing to forgive a lot for that.

Heh, I don't really mind his horrible cringeworthiness because it was presented as cringeworthy (unlike ... other things). But I can definitely see her being a sort of imaginary friend for him and then a dream-girl, and it's difficult for both of them to process the difference between the other person in-their-head and the actual, independently existing person. (Padmé pretty clearly struggles with the clash between her idea of Anakin and the actual Anakin, too, even if she has the maturity and not-brought-up-in-a-monastic-order-ness to express it a bit more smoothly.)

I never thought I'd want an Anakin/Padmé icon! Fandom, what have you done to me?)