History Literature / TheCourtshipOfPrincessLeia

* WomenAreWiser: Hapan women firmly believe this. In fact a popular saying is about never letting a man believe that he's equal to women, as it will only cause evil.

* PowerFloats: Luke levitates down to the ground at one point, awing Isolder.* PraetorianGuard: The Hapan Royal Guard, tasked to protect the Hapans' royal family.

* AbductionIsLove: Han kidnaps Leia to prevent her marrying Isolder. Though she's outraged at him initially, over the course of the book she chooses him instead of Isolder and they get married at the end. It helps that they had been lovers before.

* AmazonBrigade: The Hapan Army, Navy and Royal Guard are entirely made up of women.

* ContinuitySnarl: The book is set a year prior to ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', but implies the Empire has broken up into many independent warlords ruling fiefdoms in the galaxy. ''The Thrawn Trilogy'' meanwhile said nothing of the kind, having it that the Empire had simply shrunken in size over the five years after Palpatine's death at Endor. This was [[{{Retcon}} harmonized]] later by saying both were true-a number of warlords broke off to form their own fiefdoms, while the Empire proper also remained, and their holdings were then reintegrated after Daala [[Literature/TheCallistaTrilogy had the last warlords]] [[BoardToDeath gassed at a meeting]], then Pellaeon took power.

* PraetorianGuard: The Hapan Royal Guard, tasked to protect the Hapans' royal family.

* PraetorianGuard: The Hapah Royal Guard, tasked to protect the Hapans' royal family.

* AmazonBrigade: The Hapan Royal Guard is an all-female elite unit.

* RomanceNovel: The Han/Leia plot.

* WeAreAsMayflies: Mother Rell, though WordOfGod says she dies shortly after the events of the novel.

* WickedWitch: Gethzerion.

Written by noted science-fiction/fantasy author [[Literature/TheRunelords Dave Wolverton]], it was the first ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' novel to feature the future Literature/XWingSeries antagonist Warlord Zsinj, although the way he is portrayed here is [[TooDumbToLive substantially different]] from what [[ObfuscatingStupidity fans of that series]] [[MagnificentBastard may be used to]].

* TheSocialDarwinist: Isolder argues certain people are most genetically fit to rule, as with social carnivores, and this being the right way of doing things (he's a prince himself, making it an unsurprising view). ''Luke'' of all people thinks this might have some merit to it, distasteful though the idea may be. Leia (a princess, of course) disagrees strongly with this (the Alderaanian monarchy was far more limited than the one Isolder's from), plus she was adopted and thus can't claim "superior" royal blood (he doesn't realize this, from his comments-oddly, as she's Luke's brother, who's not royalty).

* TheSocialDarwinist: Isolder argues certain people are most genetically fit to rule, as with social carnivores, and this being the right way of doing things (he's a prince himself, making it an unsurprising view). ''Luke'' of all people thinks this might have some merit to it, distasteful though the idea may be. Leia (a princess, of course) disagrees strongly with this (the Alderaanian monarchy was far more limited than the one Isolder's from).

* KillSat: The superweapon of the week is a cloaking device that surrounds the planet. It's even lampshaded as only working on a primitive planet. Like most of the Empire's superweapons, a single ship destroys it.

* NoodleIncident: The entire reason Zsinj wants to kill Han so badly is brought up about three quarters of the way through the novel; Han telling Zsinj to "Kiss my Wookiee" during gloating over the destruction of his Super Star Destroyer. The Allston-written '''Solo Command'' later fleshed it out.

* AristocratsAreEvil: The general idea behind Ta'a Chume and her sisters. Ta'a Chume killed her eldest son and Isolder's first love because she felt them too weak to rule properly. Her sisters are mentioned to have committed plenty of murders of their own also.

** The origins of the Hapes Consortium - and how! The Hapans' ancestors were a large band of SpacePirates that pillaged nearby shipping lanes, taking the most beautiful females they found on the ships back to their bases, and over time, having only beautiful women giving birth led to most of the Hapan race being extremely beautiful. Put very simply, just because your parents are beautiful, there's no guarantee that you won't have [[{{UnusualEuphemism}} a face for radio]].
** It was never stated that every child born was amazingly attractive. However, those who were not physically appealing didn't do well on Hapes. Survival of the fittest came into play. Family embarrassments were likely stashed away. Hence why Hapans seemed radiant.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Han wins a planet in a pot of cards worth 2.4 billion credits. Luke's speeder got 2,000 credits at a used car lot (for a maximum of 1 credit to $10 US equivalent). An inhabitable planet is worth $16 billion? Even for one under imperial interdiction, that means Bill Gates could purchase 3 planets! The estimated price of Earth is 10 QUADRILLION. This is also ignoring the fact that Han started the novel with an amount of money that is unspecified, but certainly no more than the cost of his Millennium Falcon, so assuming he leveraged that at a starting bid, he went from owning 100k-1M credits to nearly 2B credits. What luck to increase your net worth by 3-10 orders of magnitude in one night. Still, it's possible the price is relatively low as A) its full of Force witches, making "ownership" useless and B) in Warlord Zsinj's territory, so you couldn't do anything with it even without them being there.

* PenalColony: Dathomir was used as one first by the Old Republic, and then later the Empire. In the first case, it housed dangerous makers of war machines, along with a rogue Jedi, while the Empire held mostly engineers who'd refused to work for them and were sent there as political prisoners (to useful to simply kill, but not people they wanted with the Rebels either).

* KingIncognito: Han is outed as the rightful King of Corellia by Threepio (who's trying to help him compete with Isolder, a prince), though Corellia's been a republic for centuries. [[spoiler: It turns out this isn't true-the ancestor he'd supposedly inherited this from was just a pretender, explaining why Han didn't claim the title.]]

* RichesToRags: In a way. After she finds out Luke is a Jedi, Teneniel loses almost all interest in Isolder. He's aghast when she says he's just a commoner compared to Luke.

* LostTribe: The Dathomiri, who descended from prisoners in a penal colony on the planet, including a female rogue Jedi who took power over the rest. Over time, her descendants became (all female) Force users or "witches".
* MaritalRapeLicense: One short scene features Teneniel Djo explaining to Isolder that she's within her rights to do this to him, but she isn't going to. Isolder isn't entirely sure how to respond (especially since he's a prince, back on his own world). Oddly enough they do have feelings for each other, although they're both pursuing other partners at the time. He didn't agree to be her husband either. By their customs, as she captured him, he's hers. However, they later [[AbductionIsLove willingly get married]], with her becoming Queen of Hapes.

* TooCleverByHalf: Ta'a Chume compared to Luke. She essentially attempts to seduce him without sex during their dinner, but underestimates his Jedi abilities (a not uncommon trait amongst Star Wars villains). He knows ''exactly'' what she's doing and what she ''has done'' in the past. At the end of the novel, [[EngineeredPublicConfession he uses the Force to make her confess.]]

* CloudCuckooLander: Mother Rell. Justified in that because of her ability to see the past and future and her extremely advanced age (she's over 400 years old), she often gets lost in her own mind.

* NatureLover: A rare inversion, as it's nature itself who loves the Jedi. After being attacked by Gethzerion, a dying Luke is revived by nature around him, including plants, animals, and a rock.

* TheSocialDarwinist: ''Luke'', of all people, argues

* TheToothHurts: During Han's torture at the hands of a Dark Side witch, two of his teeth are telekinetically shattered. Actually the result of a successful bit of BriarPatching by Han. He specifically asked that she not do anything to his teeth, because he'd rather lose a tooth than something more immediately useful.
** Talking to her itself was a BatmanGambit to keep her occupied and not notice the ''Millennium Falcon'' coming to the rescue.

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame - Han wins the Planet-Of-The-Novel in a Sabacc game.
* AbusiveParents: Ta'a Chume had her first son killed because he was too weak to rule properly. She did the same thing to Isolder's first love.

* AristocratsAreEvil: The general idea behind Ta'a Chume and her sisters. Ta'a Chume killed her eldest son and Isolder's first love because she felt them too weak to rule properly. Her sisters are mentioned to have committed plenty of murders of their own in an attempt to get the throne.

** The Dathomiri probably qualify as well. When you're a placental mammal who only has one or two offspring at a time, polyandry is less stable than polygyny, unless the male to female ratio is skewed towards males.

* DeflectorShield: Isolder has a personal one. It's stated to get unbearably hot. He uses it as a PowerFist at one point, which [[DeadlyForceField burns the living crap out of the spy he and Luke were fighting and cuts another one in half when it's thrown at him.]]

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Luke. Not actually rape, but sexual harassment. Han, Luke, and Isolder are all groped while in the village. One particularly lusty witch attempts to drag off Isolder so she can show him where she sleeps.
* EvilMakesYouUgly: When the Force-sensitive women of Dathomir touch the Dark Side, small blood vessels burst in their skin. Years of this leave the Nightsisters looking like raw, blotchy, lumpy messes.
* FixFic: The Literature/XWingSeries does this for Zsinj and Melvar and the ambiguity of whether the ''Iron Fist'' is destroyed or not. It also contains plenty of straightforward continuity nods to Leia's mission to the Hapans. It also, perhaps accidentally, leaves room for Zsinj to have survived. [[spoiler: In ''Courtship'', Zsinj is on his bridge talking with Solo over the comm when Solo launches torpedoes into the Iron Fist's bridge windows. In the Literature/XWingSeries, we find out that Zsinj liked to hang out in a complete duplicate of his main bridge with all control screens being echoed there so that he could watch over his subordinates shoulders without their knowledge. He also uses it as a stage for acting out his decadent leader persona for visitors without impairing the proper crew from running the ship. If Zsinj was in this bridge, he wasn't where the torpedoes hit and may have escaped. No such luck for Melvar though, who we see die on the planet surface. Zjinj never appears after the book though, indicating he really was killed.]]

* GatlingGood: Hapan Battledragon cruisers have their main Turbolaser battery built like a flat version of this, and it works much the same way. The guns are built in a rotating ring around the central reactor, and each gun gets adequate time to charge. During a fight with a Star Destroyer, it states that there's a huge chunk of time where the imperial ship has it's guns silent, while the Dragon just keeps pounding on them. However, the Destroyer's got [[TechnologyMarchesOn a higher damage-per-shot]] ratio than the Dragon does.

* KillSat: The superweapon of the week is a cloaking device that surrounds the planet. It's even lampshaded as only working on a primitive planet. Like most Empire superweapons, a single ship destroys it.
* LadyLand: Dathomir-women run the tribes and the men are essentially slaves. The Hapes Consortium applies as well, with women at the top of the social structure.
* LostTribe: The Dathomiri.
* MaritalRapeLicense: One short scene features Teneniel Djo explaining to Isolder that she's within her rights to do this to him, but she isn't going to. Isolder isn't entirely sure how to respond (especially since he's a prince, back on his own world). Oddly enough they do have feelings for each other, although they're both pursuing other partners at the time.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Han wins a planet in a pot of cards worth 2.4 billion credits. Luke's speeder got 2,000 credits at a used car lot (for a maximum of 1 credit to $10 US equivalent). An inhabitable planet is worth $16 billion? Even for one under imperial interdiction, that means Bill Gates could purchase 3 planets! The estimated price of Earth is 10 QUADRILLION. This is also ignoring the fact that Han started the novel with an amount of money that is unspecified, but certainly no more than the cost of his Millennium Falcon, so assuming he leveraged that at a starting bid, he went from owning 100k-1M credits to nearly 2B credits. What luck to increase your net worth by 3-10 orders of magnitude in one night.

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: Level 8 (Women Rule, Men Obey) for both the Hapan Consortium and Dathomir, although the latter is arguably worse.

* SpareToTheThrone: Isolder, after his mother [[spoiler:murdered his older brother.]]

* TooCleverByHalf: Ta'a Chume compared to Luke. She essentially attempts to seduce him without sex during their dinner, but underestimates his Jedi abilities (a not uncommon trait amongst Star Wars villains). He knows ''exactly'' what she's doing and what she ''has done'' in the past. At the end of the novel, {{EngineeredPublicConfession he uses the Force to make her confess.]]

* DoAndroidsDream: As seen under NiceToThe Waiter, Luke can sense droids through the Force and thus treats them no different to any other sentient, pointing to "yes" ([[ContinuitySnarl other books had them unable to be sensed]]).

-->'''Isolder''': "You shouldn’t do this! The universe doesn’t work this way!"
-->'''Luke''': "What do you mean?"
-->'''Isolder''': "You—you’re treating those beasts as equals. You show my mother, the Ta’a Chume of the Hapes empire, the same degree of cordiality as you give a droid!"
-->'''Luke''': "This droid, these beasts, all have a similar measure of the Force within them. If I sense the Force, how can I not respect them, just as I respect Ta’a Chume?"

Possible subversion if it was done on purpose, for several reasons: 1) the Sabacc player is a strapped-for-cash noble-ish owner, 2) said owner most likely knows that the planet is not only in a sector under Zsinj's control but also inhabited by pesky (and more-powerful-than-they-look) natives, hence driving down the value of the planet - after all, what good is owning a planet if you can't come in and collect taxes or colonize it?, 3) this takes place in a "galaxy far, far away" wherein inhabitable planets aren't exactly scarce (in real life Earth is unique and even if a similar planet were located it would be near-impossible to relocate to it, but in Star Wars there are literally millions of planets where humans live and travel between them is relatively trivial; something that's irreplaceable is inherently going to be more valuable), and 4) this particular game of Sabacc is quite clearly pegged as being the equivalent of getting a Royal Flush at the high-rollers table of the MGM Grand. So all in all, it could go against the trope and be more realistic. Granted, Dathomir is described as particularly inhabitable, but it is also remote (location, location, location) and mostly unknown.
In the novel itself it's made clear that Han was royally screwed over, and he's chided for trusting a Drackmarian (the species of the player he won it from).
1) It's mild canon that Obi-Wan used a mind trick to get a better price on the speeder. Remember that this is not some BMW series vehicle that could sell for that kind of price used. This is more akin to a beat-up old model pickup truck that he is selling. 2) It states clearly that Han had to go through several games before making it to this high-rollers table and that he used his Hutt loan shark to get into it. 3) This isn't just any old ship. This is probably the most famous ship in the entire galaxy. Its primary value isn't its not-inconsiderable performance, but the simple fact that ''it's the Millennium Falcon''. It's worth far more than a million credits. There's probably not a real-life vehicle in existence that would be of equivalent value to the Falcon. And Omogg is completely tapped out and doesn't think Han could win again. Even so, as Omogg says, the planet is of little use to her as a methane breathing creature and it's behind the largest Imperial blockade in the galaxy. Who else would buy it?