What happened with the scene where Maz Kanata gives the lightsaber to Leia?

It is without question Leia--- according to Pablo Hidalgo on Twitter:
"the script changed over the course of a year."

 

I find it significant that - of all the deleted scenes - this is one that JJ Abrams goes public with. I guess they realise now that by cutting the scene, they cut out vital information the audience would have needed to actually comprehend the plot. So now they have to provide that extra information another way.

I think the point of the scene is for wise Maz to point out the big elephant in the room: Why doesn't Leia use the Force? Wasn't she supposed to learn the ways of the Force from Luke after ROTJ? Didn't both the dying Yoda and the dying Anakin ask Luke to involve his sister? But in TFA we learn that she basically refused the call. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember any confirmation in TFA that Luke was ever a part of Leia's life after Ben was born. (Why that was may be revealed in VIII.) Later she sends her son away to Luke rather than teaching him herself, she sends Poe to talk to Lor San Tekka rather than doing it herself. What's keeping her? The intended resolution - Leia finally embracing her heritage (Vader's "light" daughter) and her destiny as a Force user alongside her brother never made it into the movie.

Maybe it was Carrie Fisher's performance that made many of her scenes unusable. Her part looks oddly underwritten the way it is presented. I read The Making of Empire Strikes Back, and they have a facsimile of a script page where Kersh cut more than half of her lines from a Bespin scene; maybe she had problems remembering her lines at the time. That's a really sad story.

 

it could have been a really cool scene.

 

Yeah.
If Maz, who isn't a Jedi but knows the Force, can bring down a ceiling (they cut that scene, too) - imagine what Leia could have done for the Resistance. They're like guerilla Jedi.

 

That is very common dude. They will remove scenes that interfere with pacing, or do not serve the overall plot in any significant way.

I've read over all the deleted scenes, and I agree that had they included them,it would most likely have messed up the pacing and distracted us from major scenes they were attempting to set up.

 

That is a big question I have in this new canon: does she come to terms with being Vader's daughter and embrace her FS? Or does she reject that and goes along with her life?

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 11, 2016, Original Post Date: Feb 11, 2016 ---

Well, back then she was partying hard so it might be. So far one of the deleted scenes from Bespin I recall was sort of cheesy - according to a friend, I was Ok with it lol.