The Star Wars saga may have been quite different if Leia, not Luke, had been the one sent to live on Tatooine. The two are twins, separated at birth and sent to grow up in literal different worlds. The story could very easily have begun with Luke Organa on the run from Darth Vader, and Leia Skywalker living on a moisture farm with her Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith closes the prequel trilogy with the birth of Luke and Leia, both of whom inherit strength in the Force from their father Anakin Skywalker. Orphaned, the newborn twins are in need of a home. Bail Organa makes the snap decision to adopt baby Leia, saying that he and his wife had always wanted a daughter, and Obi-Wan Kenobi takes Luke to live with his remaining family on Tatooine. This swift action ends up defining the lives of the two, with Leia growing up to become a leader of the Rebel Alliance and Luke eventually becoming a Jedi Knight, like his father before him. But if the Organas had wanted a son rather than a daughter, their situations could easily have been reversed.
Despite being twin brother and sister, Luke and Leia have very different personalities. At the start of A New Hope, Luke is patient and dutiful, while Leia is hotheaded and impulsive. Had their roles been reversed, their paths would have been very different but, ultimately, the two could have both been more satisfied with the way their lives had gone. Leia Skywalker may have struggled more with the pull of the dark side, but her leadership skills could have made her Anakin’s equal as a military commander. Luke Organa, patient and protective, could have been a skilled leader of the Rebellion without growing to resent the overwhelming pressure of being the galaxy’s last remaining Jedi Master.
Jedi Training Would Have Been Difficult For Leia Skywalker
The Jedi Code teaches that one of the most important aspects of being a Jedi is to keep careful control of your emotions. As Anakin Skywalker found out, in his tragic hero story, allowing yourself to be controlled by emotions can lead to the dark side, even with the noblest of intentions. Luke was able to learn this lesson, but Leia doesn’t have the same kind of patience and earnestness as Luke. In personality, she much more strongly takes after Anakin.
After she’s rescued from the Empire by Luke and Han Solo, it rapidly becomes clear that Leia is a brash figure, confrontational and even a little reckless, perfectly happy to grab the nearest blaster and tackle problems head-on. This trait serves her well as a Rebel commander, where her kind of attitude can often be the best course of action. With Leia being trained as a Jedi, on the other hand, this could easily lead her down an all too familiar path. Seeing Leia Skywalker echoing her father’s behavior, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda may feel hesitant to train her. She would need to work hard to maintain control, particularly when confronting Darth Vader.
Luke Organa Would Have Been A Dutiful Rebel Commander
One of Luke’s strongest traits is his sense of duty. His actions, throughout the Star Wars original trilogy, are consistently selfless. When offered the chance to leave Tatooine, he tries to return to his family first. While training with Yoda during Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, he leaves because his companions are in danger. In Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi, Luke chooses to face Emperor Palpatine, putting himself straight into harm’s way to save his family members on both sides of the war. This trait, the tenacity to protect those he cares about at any cost to himself, is the main way Luke takes after Anakin.
As Star Wars: The Clone Wars showed, Anakin Skywalker was a skilled and respected leader of the Republic military. Between his superhuman piloting skills and his stubbornness in protecting others, Anakin became a legendary commander, respected by both sides of the conflict. Taking after his father in both respects, Luke Organa could easily become a respected commander in the Rebel Alliance. There’s every reason to believe that it could have been Prince Luke fleeing from Darth Vader with the stolen Death Star plans. What's more, Prince Luke would have gladly surrendered himself in return for mercy towards the Rebels under his command.
Leia May Not Have Been Able To Forgive Darth Vader
Star Wars Legends may no longer be canon, but there are parts of old Star Wars lore that suggest that Leia was never fully able to reconcile the idea that Darth Vader was her real father. A big part of this, admittedly, is because she was forced to watch the destruction of her home planet, Alderaan, as well as the fact that she wasn’t there for Vader’s redemption. While Alderaan would not have had the same meaning to Leia Skywalker, it’s hard to say whether Leia would have been able to see past Vader’s villainous actions as easily as Luke did.
In Return of the Jedi, Luke believes there's still good in Darth Vader, and wants to redeem him to the light side. Leia Skywalker, on the other hand, might not have been so optimistic. Had she faced Palpatine, it’s likely that Vader would still have sacrificed himself to save her life. Her reaction to this act could well have been very different. Luke takes this act as a confirmation of his belief that Vader was still good deep down. Leia Skywalker may have been more surprised by the change of heart. Vader’s dying words, thanking her for turning him away from the dark side, would have been much more impactful for Leia, helping her to realize how easily someone could fall from one side to the other, serving as a caution of how easily she could have turned to the dark side herself.
Luke Organa May Have Struggled As A Resistance Leader
In the Star Wars sequel trilogy, the story shows how the weight of being a hero and a savior of the whole galaxy became too much for Luke to bear. He began to resent being viewed as a legendary hero and ended up retreating from the whole galaxy in response. By the time of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke has become a hermit, not unlike Obi-Wan before him. He may have been less of an iconic figure as a Rebel Commander rather than a Jedi Knight, but he would likely still have found the pressure overwhelming.
Of course, destroying the Empire wasn’t the only thing Luke was burdened with. He was also tasked with single-handedly rebuilding the Jedi Order, accidentally repeating Yoda's mistakes in the process. What he saw as his failure in this was ultimately the straw that broke the camel’s back. Without this catastrophic moment in his past, General Luke Organa of the Resistance may not have felt the need to take make such a drastic response. While he would have struggled with the pressure a Resistance Commander would obviously be under, it would be significantly less than the burnout he must have felt as a Jedi Master.
Master Leia Would’ve Been The Mentor Rey Needed
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rey has a somewhat contentious relationship with Luke as her master. He’s stubborn, disinterested, and would seemingly prefer to let the Jedi fade into the past. For someone like Rey, who’s never had a parent figure in her life, this is understandably a source of great frustration for her. Luke is also put off by how strongly Rey is pulled by the dark side. But Master Leia Skywalker may have been a far more sympathetic mentor for Rey.
Rey and Leia have a good relationship in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and it’s likely this may have been the same if Leia had been the one to become a Jedi master. Leia has a much more similar personality to Rey, which would have led her to have her own struggles with the dark side. This may have made her a far better choice to train Rey in the ways of the Jedi.
Leia is also one of the strongest leaders in the entire Star Wars saga. By the time of the sequel trilogy, Leia Organa is a general of the resistance. Had she become a Jedi master, Leia Skywalker would likely play a role similar to figures from Clone Wars, like Mace Windu or even Yoda. She could use her Jedi training together with her leadership skills, to be an even more brilliant general. Rey would see her as a strong role model in every regard.
Kylo Ren May Still Have Been A Villain
In Star Wars canon, there’s nothing that stops Jedi from having children. Their restriction is actually about forming emotional attachments. Understandably, this is where the difficulty lies for many. Certainly for Leia, as a deeply emotional person, this would have been a challenge. Had Ben Solo been born to Leia Skywalker, she may have ultimately chosen not to follow this rule. Perhaps in doing so, she may have worked to bring about a new version of the Jedi Order.
In The Mandalorian and The Book Of Boba Fett, Luke is clearly keen to follow the old ways of the Jedi, including giving Grogu an ultimatum over his emotional attachments. It seems less likely that Leia Skywalker would do the same. Her involvement in the Rebel Alliance and the Resistance was because she was unwilling to simply submit to authority. It seems more likely that someone like Leia, after fighting so hard for freedom, might choose to form a different and less restrictive version of the Jedi Order.
On the other hand, if she did try to maintain an emotional distance from her son, this would have given Ben Solo an understandable source of childhood turmoil. If he’d grown up with a mother who seemed uncaring, it would give him a far stronger reason to resent both his family and the Jedi overall. A situation like this would have given a much stronger reason for his ultimate fall to the dark side, as Kylo Ren. It would also mean Leia Skywalker may have to face her own son in combat, in a twisted reversal of the famous battle between Luke and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. This moment could have even more impact if Leia didn’t know Kylo Ren’s true identity when the fight began, only for him to remove his mask mid-fight, saying, “no, I am your son.”
In all of this, it’s worth remembering that the personalities Luke and Leia have in the Star Wars movies were undoubtedly influenced by the places they grew up. As a humble farm boy, Luke Skywalker would have learned patience and duty as simple facts of life. Growing up in a rich and powerful family almost certainly would have influenced Leia’s impatience. While nature vs nurture is a whole different conversation, there’s still a chance Leia Skywalker and Luke Organa would have had much the same attitudes as Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker. Leia seems like the kind of person who would have gone to Tosche Station to pick up those power converters, whether her Uncle Owen agreed to it or not.