Concerning Chewbacca, etc.

Well, how long do Wookies live, anyway? And besides, with all that fur it's probably hard to tell a Wookie's age. Cats are like that, too.

As for the 18-year construction time to build the Death Star, that's not unreasonable. It's a huge battlestation the size of a moon, after all. The Empire took its time constructing it, arguably, because in the early days there was no pressing need for a planet-smasher with which to suppress an unruly rebellion. The second Death Star in Episode VI was coming together much faster, but then, the Emperor wanted it badly in the face of growing insurrections.

Leia may have thought she remembered her mama, but it seems reasonable that she might have been mistaken and was indeed remembering her adoptive mother instead. Shit like that happens in real life, so why not in a story?

My question is: did Darth Plaguis(?) actually create Lil' Orphan Ani? Or maybe Sidious did? That would be like Lucas to make Sidious Anakin's "father" (even if a test tube in a laboratory was actually involved).