yeah , The original Zahn trilogy was great and Mara was a good character ( though I suspect that Zahn borrowed heavily from Shira Brie in the original marvel series when creating her ) . As for Leia being a damsel in distress , She turned that trope on it’s head and actually ended up taking charge ,“into the garbage shoot flyboy !” and during the swing across the chasm , she blasted her fair share of stormtroopers.plus, she is the best shot out of all of them …she never misses throughout the OT.