## Chapter 25

1 Though I tried to give each of the three main movie characters a fair share of the action in Heir, it was in the nature of this part of the story that Leia got a bit shortchanged.

Still, she has a few memorable moments, this being one of them. And of course, she’ll have a much larger and more pivotal role later in Dark Force Rising.

—TZ

2 I was pleased, during this reread, to find very few things I would have edited differently now from the way I did twenty years ago. One exception appears here. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Leia, and obviously some time has passed. Yet there’s no mention of her advancing pregnancy. It’s odd that I didn’t request a sentence or two, especially as I was going through my own first pregnancy at the time and discovering that there is not a moment when that developing child escapes a mother’s awareness. Yet Leia doesn’t give a thought to her baby bump in this very exciting chapter.…

—BM

3 I had a small problem with the Ewoks of Return of the Jedi. Not that they weren’t effective as aliens, but they were just so darned cute—as they were of course meant to bethat it was hard for me to visualize them as real fighters.

The Noghri were sort of my answer to that. They were roughly the same size as Ewoks, with a similar family and village life and a sense of honor and commitment to those they’ve accepted as friends and allies.

Only they’re true warriors, and extremely deadly. And they’re not at all cute.

—TZ

4 It would, in fact, be another ten years before the war with the Empire would end (in the Hand of Thrawn Duology).

And that brief period of peace would be quickly followed by the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, which would be followed by more trouble, and yet more trouble. Some galaxies never seem to catch a break…

—TZ