Considering that Mara would have been a maximum of two years old at the time of RotS, I think it's safe to say her omission was a good decision . . .

I always liked Leia with a red lightsaber too--it helps go against that whole 'every bad guy has red and every good guy has blue or green' thing.

And Bobby Jay, now I've got an image of the Sarlaac taking a colossal shist out the other end of the planet seared into my head. Forget ion cannons, the rebels should have just installed themselves a Sarlaac cannon on Hoth and taken out the Star Destroyers with that. lol