Anghraine

Hm. I can't really see Leia committing her life to serving the Force itself (or anything remotely approximating a deity), but I can imagine her committing herself to the organization itself.

My personal headcanon is that, traditionally, there are two basic types of Jedi: paladins and monks. That's why Obi-Wan's description of them as warriors fighting for justice is so different from Yoda's -- they're following different traditions.

I can't see Leia as the guru-type Jedi ever, but I can see her as extremely gung-ho about superpowers FOR GREAT JUSTICE. I think she'd cheerfully crusade across the galaxy -- though I think it's probably for the best that she has an organization to answer to.

(That's where Luke starts out too, but I think he would shift over to the guru/master tradition through his twenties, while Leia becomes the ultimate Jedi Knight. So even the baby NJO is more balanced than the old school leadership was.)

And Luke's total comfort with Leia learning the skills in whatever philosophical orientation she chooses is also a big YES.

Oh, thanks! That came very late in the writing process, but I really like the idea. The whole concept of concealing someone's own innate abilities from them because they don't follow your idea of what they should do with them is really iffy to me. Which might have bled through a little. :P

Palpatine grooming them both would have been awesome -- and potentially given Padmé a role independent from Anakin's-love-interest, which is really what she became after the opening of AOTC. I don't like TPM, but I did like that she had her own concerns and motivations and goals and life and wasn't just prodded into Incubator For Luke and Leia.

Well, I was thinking that w/ the dual offer, Luke and Leia had been brought up together in the first place, so Leia would be as up-to-her-ears in the Force stuff as Luke.

If it happened differently (say they were separated in childhood rather than infancy, and knew who each other were), I can see it happening your way. Though I think Leia would still want to master her abilities -- having an advantage and just opting not to use it isn't very Leia to me -- but I agree that she'd focus much more on politics, which her father and brother really don't have the patience for. And yeah, she definitely wouldn't have the father-issues that Luke does (though possibly brother-issues!).

I definitely agree about Palpatine being all about siccing Anakin on slavers and generally despised types for the PR, while Anakin is just BURN KILL DESTROY. And I think that's the last time he went to Tatooine -- he went to forcibly obliterate slavery (at least the open, legal, organic, explosive-transmitter kind; there's no sign of that by Luke's day).

I can definitely see Han and Vader getting the grey areas in ways that Luke and Leia can't -- especially what might be termed unnecessary greyness. Luke would understand doing something ambiguous or even wrong for a loved one or a cause, but not for something so prosaic as a living. Leia probably wouldn't get it at all (she could do ambiguous things, but I think she'd have to convince herself they weren't).

the Family Skywalker would probably just keep screeching because it feels good

Ahahaha, I love this description. Yes. And ten years later, Han's sort of bemused at how he went from smuggling for Jabba to family facilitator for Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and Luke Skywalker.