Channel72 said:
…having Leia involved seems unnecessary when ultimately the plan revolves around Luke showing up, getting taken prisoner, and then getting Old Republic on everyone’s ass.
Lol, love the phrasing!
The way I see it, one of the only things they didn’t totally expect was for Leia to be “enslaved”, despite Jabba’s reputation. Not only does Oola’s death set up the Rancor, but it sets up Jabba having an open position for a slave girl. Of course, it’s not like Jabba can only have a certain amount of slaves, but her death sets up a vacancy in the mind’s of the audience, if that makes sense. But they all probably expected Leia to be imprisoned with Han and be on the skiffs with the rest of them. I do like the idea though that maybe they did anticipate it, and Leia saying she can handle it if it did happen.