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In The Empire Strikes Back we have the scene shortly after Han Solo and friends are apprehended on Cloud City by Darth Vader and Boba Fett. I never really noticed this before, but when everyone's all happy and dandy with how much they've tortured Han, they bring him back to his "prison cell". Leia, though, enters later. Where was she? was she being tortured as well? if so, then why doesn't she seem as weak as Han? Also, why does she have a new set of clothes on? I know it runs in her family to change every scene, but under the circumstances, it seems strange.

Related but not duplicate: Why did Darth Vader torture Han Solo in Cloud City?

[Enter HAN SOLO]

Chewbacca: arg!

Han: I feel terrible.

[enter LEIA ORGANA]

Leia: Why are they doing this?

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    It runs in her family to change for every scene? I think someone forgot to tell her dad that… May 1, 2016 at 7:31
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    Oh, yeah, her dad was a serial style switcher before he got stuck in the same outfit for, what, 20 years? lol :) That's why he needs the meditation chamber to take off his helmet: so he can try on different hats.
    – ruckus
    May 1, 2016 at 18:57

1 Answer 1

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Leia's location is the easy bit to answer. She was being tortured in a different room:

From the original script;

HAN: I feel terrible.

Chewie helps Han to a platform and then turns as the door slides open revealing Leia. She, too, looks a little worse for wear. The troopers push her into the cell, and the door slides closed. She moves to Han, who is lying on the platform, and kneels next to him, gently stroking his head.

and from the new Junior Novelisation;

Han is whimpering. “They didn’t even ask me anything….” He seems more than half dead. Leia looks only a little bit better.

The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to be a Jedi?

Interestingly, the 1980 comic adaptation has Leia in the cell with Chewie when Han is returned.

enter image description here


As to why her outfit has changed, my guess would be that her clothing was probably damaged during her interrogation or that they undressed her, then put her back into the wrong clothing when they dressed her again.

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    @VinceScalia - Vader comments (in the previous film) about Leia's exceptional ability to resist torture.
    – Valorum
    May 1, 2016 at 19:33

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