There are a few (very minor) women in the latest three - the kid's mother (a virgin who gave birth) and some Jedi chick (who gets killed), who are little more than cardboard cutouts. But then, so were most of the actors except maybe Obi Wan and Yoda.

Padme is crippled more by the one-dimensional scowling of her moody husband than by any lack of character on her part.

Princess Leia (all puns aside), is a strong character throughout, and is just as 3-dimensional as Luke Skywalker or Han Solo.

I just don't think Lucas, in borrowing from older genres, knew how to draw characters, especially women, out of their stereotypes.

Erik: I wondered that, too.

Also, it's not the 25th anniversary of STAR WARS; it's the 25th anniversary of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps it is simply a symptom of geek-dom, to which Lucas belongs.

Women are treated poorly in Star Wars, from Annakin's mother to Princess Leia to Padmé. Women in Star Wars are "instruments" rather than actual characters with any depth. They're all very passive. All the actual responsibility and heroism are left for the men to pat each other on the back by saying "jolly good show chaps," that sort of thing.

If your interested in that kind of discussion, I heard Robert J. Sawyer, an SF author, talking about some of this sort of stuff on Big Ideas, the Canadian lecture podcast (of which I am a fan).

Anyway, back to Star Wars and Evil. The power hungry were evil and lots of people were just trying to make their living inside an evil empire. From the movies perspective, evil is the Emporers side and the rebels were the good guys. Good guys were farmers, Ewoks (indigenous people), and rogues. Bad guys were by the books semi-robots (storm troopers). Leigh's last name is Organa, which also implies she shops at Whole Foods. Nuff Said.

I don't believe that it's accurate to describe the Biker Scouts (or even Storm Troopers) as "evil"?
They're just soldiers working for their government of the day.

It would also be a bit of a stretch to call Bobba Fett "evil" for the same reason; do you consider American bounty-hunters to be "evil" as well?

Just a few thoughts.

But your comment does raise an interesting point. I can't think of any evil women in Star Wars.