Senator Leia: Bloodline; Early Days of the First Order

The New Republic now finds itself divided into two factions: The Centrists and the Populists, an idea given to author Claudia Gray by Episode VIII director Rian Johnson.

Centrists favor a strong, unified government, believing the defunct Empire’s vision of unity to have been a good idea corrupted by the evil of Emperor Palpatine.
The Populists, living in fear of another Palpatine seizing power, generally support a hands-off approach to governing that allows individual systems their own autonomy. We find Leia on the Populist side of the debate,
driven by her own experiences as the commander of the Rebel Alliance.

With his home world of Kashyyyk finally liberated, Chewie has returned there to settle down and raise a family.

This leaves Han to own devices, and although he’s still married to Leia, he’s out training and mentoring young
racing pilots while she remains on Hosnian Prime to help run the Senate. (There’s no mention of the Millenium Falcon either, meaning it’s already been stolen from its original owners.)

Han and Leia have already sent Ben away to train with Luke, where the pair is apparently out of contact with the rest of the outside world. We know that Leia looks back on sending Ben away as the moment she and Han lost their son for good, so one can reasonably assume there were issues with him that preceded his Jedi training with Luke.
Additionally, Leia hasn’t yet told her son he’s the grandson of Darth Vader, a revelation we imagine shakes his world sometime in the next six years.

The early days of the First Order actually come courtesy of a Centrist Senator in the New Republic, secretly utilizing illegal cartel money to build and fund the military force. Much of Bloodline involves Leia investigating this, unaware that she’s actually uncovering the next great threat to the entire galaxy.

Bloodline shows Leia involved more in politics than connecting the Force though, creating a curious situation, where she eschews her potential to be a powerful Jedi in favor of governing the galaxy as a Senator.
 








The novel shows us Leia reflecting on this very dilemma, telling us about how she felt the place she could do the most good for the galaxy was in rebuilding its government, not going off to become a Jedi. We find her at a time where she’s jaded and frustrated by the Senate’s inability to cooperate, and yet still, she’s also one of its most respected and influential members. Obviously, her frustration leads to her leaving the Senate to form the Resistance.