Leia Organa didn’t even know she was Force-Sensitive when she first Touched the Darkness, on the first Death Star, and her brown eyes had flecks of gold, almost like the green superlaser beam was reflecting off her face. Being completely untrained, and not even knowing of her Force-sensitivity, all Tarkin felt was a bit of tension around his collar. It still confused him, and reminded him of Vader, though.

The next time, when she saw Han being tortured, she Touched the Darkness enough to catch Darth Vader himself by surprise for a second, with her Skywalker-level power. But he was distracted by dealing with torturing Han to get the son he knew about, that he overlooked the daughter who, while he didn’t know about, looked like Padme had. Her eyes flashed with hints of gold again, and looking back on it, she was lucky Palpatine hadn’t found out about it.

The next time, she didn’t just Touch the Darkness, she grabbed it with both hands and pulled, as she used her chain to suffocate Jabba the Hutt. Instead of being flecked with gold, her eyes turned gold. As Jabba died, it sent shockwaves in the Force, that both Luke and Vader felt.

After Han was free and Jabba was dead, Luke asked, “Leia, do you know what happened? I felt darkness in the Force. Like I felt around Vader.”

“I choked Jabba to death. But it wasn’t just me. It was like there was some… other power involved. It reached out, I took its hand. It felt like a fire, but I knew I could tame it. Harness it.”

“Do you realize your eyes are still gold?” he asked. She’d tried to calm down from the high of harnessing the power, like she had in the past, but couldn’t quite do it.

“What?” Leia snorted.

“Your. Eyes. Are. Gold.” Luke tried to simplify.

“No idea, Luke. I didn’t do anything.” Leia replied nonchalantly.

“That power you tapped. It might have been the Dark Side–” Luke tried to explain.

Leia interrupted firmly, “It couldn’t have been. I’m not Vader. We’ll probably hear about some Imperial atrocity or another, in the next few weeks. Maybe something on Dac, given what Intel says?”

“Just saying.” Luke replies.

“Don’t ever say that I’m using the Dark Side. I’m not Vader. Please don’t say that around me. You know what Vader did. I’m not him. I never will be.”

Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine still die onboard Death Star Two. Luke still makes it off, the New Republic still rises. But, Mon Mothma doesn’t even make it through one term, before Vice Chancellor Leia Organa takes over.