His uncle is long gone and, presumably, will never provide guidance until his formal Jedi training begins his father is facing something of an existential crisis about having to suddenly give up his adventuring ways and being forced to settle down as both a husband and father (a clueless one, at that, if still a loving and tender one) and his mother is willing to irreparably damage the functioning of the Galactic Senate if it means helping to, say, liberate the Wookiee homeworld. This sheer intensity manifests itself in Leia’s mind as a bright light that has a strong vein of darkness running through it, representing Ben’s potential to turn to the dark side – although she doesn’t much dwell on it, given that Luke had once told her that everyone harbors such pools of darkness within them.Įven beyond such personality quirks, there are the circumstances of the child’s family.

This is how they all find out he’s a boy, and the princess also gets a fair bit of basic information on his personality: he’s a tough fighter, one who will be relentless and passionate about whatever path he chooses in life. Leia has her very first (conscious and deliberate) Force experience when she’s able to make a telepathic connection with her baby while he’s still in her womb. Perhaps the most important bit of foreshadowing work done with the original cast of characters has to do with the birth of Ben Solo and the creation of the circumstances that would eventually allow him to be seduced to the dark side of the Force and become Kylo Ren. And Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has already disappeared from the face of the galaxy, going off on secret missions in order to prepare for the eventual reinstitution of the Jedi Order, making him something of a mythological figure well before the events of The Force Awakens. Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) returns home to Cloud City, only to find it in the throes of a civil war, as citizens start to take up arms to overturn Imperial Governor Adelhard’s new lockdown (yes, he helps them prevail). Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) leaves the smuggler’s side in order to track down his long-lost and -imprisoned family – which he does, starting with his son, Lumpawaroo. Han revokes his military commission in order to go off on his own to try and liberate the Wookiees’ homeworld of Kashyyyk (something which the Republic won’t commit any resources to, unfortunately, given its low strategic importance), meaning he faces an uncertain future once the deed is done.

Leia gets pregnant a few months later, and at the very end of the last book, baby Ben is born.

Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), we learn, got quietly married on Endor immediately following Return of the Jedi though it isn’t a secret, they don’t go around broadcasting it, either.

Star wars aftermath trilogy