10 Star Wars Clichés Episode VII Must Include

2. One Plucky Heroine Who Also Happens To Be The Love Interest

Of course, having a princess or queen as a central character also allows for that character to be a great role model. Princess Leia and Queen Amidala were certainly not wallflowers, and helped inspire little girls everywhere to develop advanced firearms skills... um, or to be assertive... For example, Leia was better with a blaster than Luke, and Amidala was a lot more sensible (and right) than Anakin ever was. In fact, without these plucky heroines, it's a certainty that the male heroes would have perished fairly early on. Luke and Han might blast away at pursuing Imperial ships with the quad-laser cannons on the Falcon, but it's Leia who's saving their lives by operating the deflectors properly. It's not much good shooting down TIE fighters if your ship is already blown to bits, now is it? In scenes cut from Episode III, Amidala is shown as a founder of the Rebel Alliance. 'Nuff said. While Anakin is distracted with shooting at things, Amidala is getting on with actually organizing the salvation of the entire galaxy. And it almost goes without saying that once there's a strong female presence in the story, the possibility for romance exists. Audiences want some small element of romance (the Leia/Han romance being one of the most popular elements of the original trilogy), and here's hoping that Episode VII makes some effort in that direction. Naturally, romantic sub-plots can be mishandled (Anakin/Padme, anyone?), but with a new creative team at the helm, audiences should be confident that love can now be treated more realistically.