Leia characters was definitely always the strong independent woman type. Her appearance and personality had nothing overtly flirty or sexual until RotJ when they ramped up her role as love interest (and eye candy with the bikini of course). Poor Luke having to grapple with that image and then finding out .. well, you know what I mean.
If she is kept alive as an important character in Ep 8 then im sure it will end up something like you said with an assassination. Unless they can shoot a little cgi post credits scene for tack on to 8 where she accidentally trips on a wet floor sign and falls down a big dark hole to keep up the run of important characters plummeting into abysses.
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