—TZ
16 The lesson of Greedo’s carelessness is apparently still remembered in these parts.
—TZ
17 This was one of those little things that probably never even occurred to some of the Alliance leaders in the heat of the Rebellion: that all the ships they were converting to fighters or using—and often losing—as transports would translate to severely lowered carrying capacity once they tried to get the New Republic up and running.
There would be myriad such details, and I certainly couldn’t go into all of them in the book. But I wanted to give a flavor of why Leia is feeling such weight on her shoulders.
—TZ
18 A universal rule of human behavior: if you want someone to do something for you, make it profitable for them.
—TZ
19 Though this clearly is a job that only Han can do, and though he may grouse about it, there’s none of Luke’s or Leia’s angst over the burden. That’s just not the kind of guy Han is.
—TZ
Chapter 3
1 “Sturm und Drang” (storm and stress) was an eighteenth-century German romantic literary movement emphasizing struggles of the individual against society. I thought those names would appeal to Karrde, whom I saw as being an educated, pun-loving sort.
This one didn’t get me nearly as much grief as the hot chocolate reference. My assumption is that those who caught the reference were more amused than annoyed by it.
—TZ
2 I wrote this scene long before we had any cats of our own. Little did I know just how true-to-life it was.
—TZ
3 In some ways, Karrde is my vision of how Han might have ended up if he hadn’t dropped into the Mos Eisley cantina that afternoon for a quiet drink. Both men have a code of honor, especially toward their friends, and both are willing to be part of a larger group, though Han admittedly dragged his feet a long time before getting to that place.
—TZ
4 Not sure Imperial ships (or Rebel ships, for that matter) had their names or operating numbers anywhere on their hulls. Still, it is something most Earth navies do, so I figured it was reasonable here, too.
—TZ
5 At the time of Heir, we had no idea what the common honorific was in the Star Wars universe. C-3PO called Luke master, but that might have been a droid thing. Other people were typically addressed by rank or title.
Still, I think this is the only time I used Mr. in the book. Even Karrde is later referred to as captain, though I’m not sure that’s really accurate. (He owns and runs ships, but doesn’t usually captain them.)
Now, thanks to the prequels, we know that master is indeed the universal term.
—TZ
6 One of the tricky things about writing Star Wars (or any other shared media work) is to not only keep track of what was done in the movies, but also keep track of what wasn’t done. If something that could have been useful wasn’t done, it means there must have been a good reason why not.
The ysalamiri are a good example. A creature that can block Jedi abilities should have been used all over the place throughout the movies by anti-Jedi forces … unless they were unreliable, difficult to find, difficult to use, et cetera. To be on the safe side, I invoked two of those limiting parameters: the creatures are relatively unknown (the Jedi would hardly broadcast their existence, after all), and they’re hard to get off their trees without killing them.
—TZ
7 Early on, I set up Karrde to be more than just a smuggler, but also a seeker of information. That would turn out to have useful ramifications here as well as in several other books down the line.
—TZ
8 Karrde’s not alone here—there are many readers who also want to learn Mara’s backstory.
On the other hand, there are also many readers who want that backstory to remain shrouded in mystery. Whatever I end up doing on this one, I’m going to be in trouble with somebody.
Still, there are a few things we do know about Mara’s past. We’ll get to those in a bit.…
—TZ
Chapter 4
1 I had a whole hyperdrive system worked out, modeled on the time-dilation formula from Relativistic physics, with a range of possible lightspeed numbers that ran exponentially from zero (dead stop) to one (infinite speed). It was elegant, looked very cool, and allowed me to actually use some of my college physics.
Alas, later on, when I wasn’t looking, Lucasfilm and/or West End Games came up with an entirely different system. Still, it was fun while it lasted.
—TZ
2 With the official definition of Sith still a few years in the future, I had to come up with a label for a Jedi who has fallen to the dark side. I chose the descriptive if not very original term Dark Jedi.
The definition is unfortunately a bit squishy, referring nowadays to both a fallen Jedi and also a Force-user who never underwent proper training, but perhaps learned under the tutelage of another Dark Jedi.
For this reason (and probably a few others), the term is somewhat discouraged. At the time, though, it was the best any of us had to work with.
—TZ
3 Tantiss was named after Tantalus, a son of Zeus who was admitted to the company of the gods—and then abused the privilege. (The stories about how he did so are many and varied.) That seemed to fit the Emperor—he had the gift of the Jedi, but had abused his power to enslave the galaxy.
The Sith philosophy, we know now, isn’t quite that simple. But it still involves the use and abuse of power.
—TZ
4 One might ask why Thrawn didn’t routinely wear body armor, given that this shows he had it available.
The answer is that body armor tends to be heavy and uncomfortable, and Thrawn would normally not bother with it unless he expected to be going into danger.
—TZ
5 My original reasoning was just what’s laid out here: that whomever Palpatine had left to guard his storehouse had been killed by Joruus C’baoth when he somehow stumbled on the place.
To my mild surprise, speculation quickly arose that C’baoth was the original guardian, and it was merely because of his insanity that he thought he’d killed someone and taken his place.
Such speculation is wrong, of course.
I think …
—TZ
6 A Jedi Master like no other! George Lucas’s first three films gave us Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Darth Vader. The concept of someone wielding Jedi powers whose grip on reality is, shall we say, tenuous, was entirely new.
—BM
7 In my first outline this character was an insane clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi, created before the Clone Wars by the Emperor and put here to guard the storehouse. That would have given me a very interesting dynamic to work with, especially when Luke faces him in Dark Force Rising. At that point, with his own emotions running high, Luke would have to determine whether this was a trick, or in fact a reincarnation of his old friend and Master.
Lucasfilm vetoed the idea. I lobbied very hard to keep it, modifying it six ways from Sunday to try to make sure I didn’t step on George’s yet-to-be-written prequel toes. But it was to no avail. Reluctantly, grouchily, I rewrote the part for C’baoth instead.
Now, as is the case with so many of the strictures and boundaries Lucasfilm put on me, I’m glad they reined me in. Not only is C’baoth an interesting character in his own right, but my subsequent Outbound Flight novel would have had to be drastically different.
C’baoth, incidentally, is pronounced SA-bay-oth, with the first vowel pronounced like the a in has. If I’d realized how hard it was going to be for everyone else to figure out, I would have changed the spelling.