USA Today (via SFFGazette.com) has shared an excerpt from the upcoming Star Wars novel, The Princess and the Scoundrel. Set to be released on August 16, it's going to explore what happened to Luke, Han, and Leia in the immediate aftermath of Return of the Jedi, a period fans have been curious to explore in this new Disney canon.
Another recent excerpt revealed how Leia felt about Darth Vader's funeral, but we now know how Luke reacted to his sister, Princess Leia, marrying Han Solo.
The first time Luke offers her the chance to join him on his path to becoming a Jedi is also explored. Leia clearly has little to no interest in exploring her connection to the Force at this point in time, and counters his offer with one of her own: come to Coruscant and work with the New Republic the same way the Jedi did years earlier.
There are a lot of reveals here that are very interesting, and we can't help but wonder what might have been had Luke and Leia made some different decisions at this very specific point in time.
You can check out the part of this excerpt from Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel below, but be sure to head over to SFFGazette.com to see how Leia reacts when Luke offers her the chance to become a Jedi Knight.
"You and Han, huh?" Luke asked her.
Leia felt a twist of nerves in her stomach as she waited for his response. What if he didn’t approve, what if this soured their friendship, what if—
"Finally!" Luke shouted, elation spread over his face.
"Really?" Relief flooded her senses.
Luke pulled her into a hug. "You should know," he said with a chuckle in his voice, "that Chewie was already threatening to kidnap you two and drop you off on some deserted planet until you could both figure out how right you were for each other."
Leia’s shoulders shook with laughter. "Wookiees aren’t exactly known for subtlety, I suppose."
"Not at all." Luke stepped back, eyes sparkling. "Seriously, I’m happy for you both."
"I told him," Leia said. "I told him what you told me, and he didn’t care."
"Of course he didn’t. Han’s one of the good ones."
Are we? Leia wanted to ask. How did the knowledge of their parentage not disturb Luke the way it did her? For that matter, how had Han’s reaction been so calm? He should have been disgusted; he should have been—
Concern washed over Luke’s features, but Leia ignored him, wrapping her arms around herself. A part of her wondered at how quickly Luke had come to this deserted landing. She’d sought out Han earlier, intent on reuniting with him after his mission with the Pathfinders. But Luke had seemed to arrive almost as soon as she’d thought of him. Had she somehow unconsciously reached out to him — or did he control their connection? She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Luke had told her that she could have the same power he did, but . . .
Her brother’s eyes searched hers, and she knew he didn’t need the Force to see the conflicted emotions coursing through her. "How do you feel?" he asked.
He was so different now from when she’d first met him. Years had passed, of course, but the boy she’d met on the Death Star, proclaiming he’d come to save her, had been boisterously excited, full of optimism and opportunities. This man before her now was the same Luke, but . . . calmer. He moved with purpose rather than crashing around, bursting through doors or bumbling across the galaxy. Leia almost mourned the change. She had seen it before, of course, over the years of the war — bright hopefuls who became jaded when they realized they were no longer shooting at inanimate targets. Luke held a deeper sort of stillness within him, like a tree growing on a moon with no air, no wind to shift the branches.
Leia walked away from him and stepped to the edge of the platform. Railings circled the landing, but they were built for the Ewoks’ diminutive stature. More than one pilot drunk on jet juice in the celebrations after the destruction of the Death Star had toppled over the barriers that hit them around knee height. Now Leia let the sturdy rails press against her legs as her toes, covered in leather slippers, curled over the edge of the wooden platform. "I feel like I’m on a precipice, "Leia answered Luke as she forced herself to look down, through the tree branches to the distant ground below.
She glanced over her shoulder. "I feel like that for all three of us. You, me, Han. This moment, right now, it feels like..." She turned back to the railing, but this time her eyes were on the tree-dappled horizon. "It feels like one step, and we’ll all scatter in different directions. Right now, we’re together. Right now, we’re safe."
And I just want to make this moment last forever, she thought, although she guessed that Luke understood her unspoken sentiment.
Luke didn’t move toward her; he stayed in the center, near the place where the fires had burned. "When you think of the future..."
"I don’t want to think of that," she said, her tone pleading. "I want this moment to last. When we’ve won. When we’re all together." And, if she were honest with herself, getting married right now would give the moment permanence. To her, if nothing else. Endor was not just the place where the war ended...because, after all, the fighting wasn’t over yet. The war wasn’t over. It might never be over, not if the Empire continued operating despite the Emperor’s death. But getting married now, here, turned the battle-that-wasn’t-actually-the-end into the day she forgot about the war and chose love instead.
"I think..." Luke’s voice trailed off. Leia searched his eyes. His brow crinkled in a smile that belied the gravity of the moment. "I think you’re forgetting that the end of the war didn’t just buy the galaxy peace. It bought you time."
Leia shook her head, confused. In answer, Luke took her hand, pulling her away from the edge. "You are right," he conceded. "The three of us have many different paths we could take. And this moment is a deciding one. The choices we make now will...linger." He paused. "But following this path doesn’t mean you can’t follow others. You have the freedom now to pursue any route you want to explore."
"I don’t know if I want..." Leia’s voice trailed off. She knew what Luke was offering, but as much as she was curious about what the Force could offer her, she also knew that every step closer to it was a step closer to the power that had twisted Darth Vader into a monster...