u/wandering_soles

I've been re-reading all of Zahn's Star Wars work, and I keep stumbling on little things that suggest he wrote some of his books in a different order than they were actually published, sometimes by quite a gap, particularly details in Allegiance, the Thrawn Duology, and Survivor's Quest. It seems like he might have written at least parts of the different books early, then didn't always revise them to reflect changes he made.

Here's an example - in Vision of the Future (1998) set 19 ABY, Mara doesn't know how to use a healing trance and wants Luke to teach her:

> "I'm putting you in a healing trance" Luke explained, his voice sounding oddly distant. “It can be a little slow, but sometimes it’s as effective as a bacta tank.”“I hope this is one of those times,” Mara murmured. Suddenly she was feeling very tired. “Yet another wonderful Jedi trick you’ll have to teach me sometime."

But in Allegiance (2007) set 0 ABY, she's capable of healing trances and other force based healing techniques, as seen in two different scenes:

> She’d been taught a dozen Force techniques for self-healing, but nothing that could be used on others.

And here:

> The chiming of the ship’s proximity alarm, as Mara had prearranged, brought her out of the dreamless sleep of her Force healing trance. She had arrived at Shelkonwa. For a moment she lay quietly on the ship’s fold-down cot, taking quick inventory. She was hungry and thirsty, a typical side effect of healing trances, but the burns and scrapes she’d received at the BloodScars’base were completely gone.

There's a slim chance that this squeaks by because she was referring to Luke's ability to use a healing trance on another person, but even that seems improbable - she wouldn't need him explaining how effective it is, and if she's capable inducing it herself, why would she need Luke to? Seems like an odd oversight.

I've been re-reading all of Zahn's Star Wars work, and I keep stumbling on little things that suggest he wrote some of his books in a different order than they were actually published, sometimes by quite a gap, particularly details in Allegiance, the Thrawn Duology, and Survivor's Quest. It seems like he might have written at least parts of the different books early, then didn't always revise them to reflect changes he made.

Here's an example - in Vision of the Future (1998) set 19 ABY, Mara doesn't know how to use a healing trance and wants Luke to teach her:

> "I'm putting you in a healing trance" Luke explained, his voice sounding oddly distant. “It can be a little slow, but sometimes it’s as effective as a bacta tank.”“I hope this is one of those times,” Mara murmured. Suddenly she was feeling very tired. “Yet another wonderful Jedi trick you’ll have to teach me sometime."

But in Allegiance (2007) set 0 ABY, she's capable of healing trances and other force based healing techniques, as seen in two different scenes:

> She’d been taught a dozen Force techniques for self-healing, but nothing that could be used on others.

And here:

> The chiming of the ship’s proximity alarm, as Mara had prearranged, brought her out of the dreamless sleep of her Force healing trance. She had arrived at Shelkonwa. For a moment she lay quietly on the ship’s fold-down cot, taking quick inventory. She was hungry and thirsty, a typical side effect of healing trances, but the burns and scrapes she’d received at the BloodScars’base were completely gone.

There's a slim chance that this squeaks by because she was referring to Luke's ability to use a healing trance on another person, but even that seems improbable - she wouldn't need him explaining how effective it is, and if she's capable inducing it herself, why would she need Luke to? Seems like an odd oversight.

This happened a few years ago, but a very similar incident occurred today and reminded me. I was getting ready for work when my fiancée answered the door and had to deal with a pushy salesman pitching home improvement projects we'd already made plans with our own electrician, plumber, etc, for. I was in the other room but could hear how pushy he was and not taking her word that we didn't need anyone.

Short while later I'm walking out of the house to go to work, and since he's still canvasing the neighborhood he comes SPRINTING over and starts asking if we need any home improvement help. I told him that no, my fiancée already told him we didn't and he says "Well, but what like more important projects she wouldn't know about?" In what world would she not know/be able to handle that without me?! Told him she handles all that stuff and I'm not really involved (not true, it's truly a partnership) and told him to not bother us again. Similar deal happened when we went to buy new appliances, our new family car, and a gaming laptop for her.

I was recently talking to my mom and she told me about her amazing experience with the captain from her local TJ's that she's been going to for years going above and beyond for her. She's been shopping at the same location for almost 30 years, been shopping at TJ's since it was founded, and knows almost every crew member at her store by name.

She was doing shopping as usual, and accidentally locked her purse in the trunk, keys, phone, wallet and all. She couldn't even call and have my dad bring the extra set of keys, because he was at a doctor's appointment on the other side of the county and didn't have his phone on him. She was so stressed out because she needed to get to her own appointment within the hour too.

The captain let her use the phone to call Auto Club, and when they quoted her over a two hour wait to come unlock the car, he offered to personally drive her home and back so she could get the spare car key, which she took him up on. 30 minutes later, they were back and he insisted she check the groceries and cooler in the trunk so he could replace anything that had gotten too warm for her. Absolute class-act who saved the day.