You hit the nail on the head, Easterhay. I felt that having all three members of the original trilogy's main character group would have cast an enormous shadow over Jeni. By killing off what is generally agreed to be the most charismatic and memorable of the three OT heroes, I enhance Han's poignancy as a character and provide Jeni a motivation to do what she does in Episode VII, laying a lot of important groundwork for her character development in the following two films.

And I deliberately echoed certain themes and elements of the OT, like the whole thing about the main character being lied to about how their father died.

Maybe you could post your treatment too, Easterhay!