ChildOfWinds posted:At sixteen, Ben is finally old enough to be a believable hero, and I'm hoping to see an heroic Ben in FotJ. But I disagree that Ben is Luke 2.0. I don't think they're that much alike. If anything, I would say that Ben is more like Mara than like Luke.
Rouge77 posted:DR clearly wants to make Ben the new hero, put the fact that DR is so eager in this may well backfire. I dislike the character already because other characters have been killed to make way for him, but there's also very much, perhaps too much, effort to make him interesting and the center of things, first in the form of a 13-14 -year old antihero in LotF and now in a more heroic form in FotJ, and it can work against the character. As is him going through very similar experiences as other central characters, often better than they before, which looks like they would be going through a checklist. Too much effort and it all starts looking like force-feeding him to the readers as the new stereotypical Star Wars hero.
Lord_Onveh posted:I say I want him to be a hero. But that doesn't answer your question. That's a very HARD question to answer, because noone knows what they want with Ben. Do they want him to become the next Grand Master? Probably not. Do they want him to become a good Jedi Master? Probably. It's just so hard to come up with a PLAN for him because he's coming after the solo family. Everything laid out for him was already laid out for them. So we want something new. . .but. . .okay? See. Hard to tell.
ChildOfWinds posted:I guess I really disagree that Ben's path has been like Luke's. So what WOULD you have liked to have seen for Ben's character?
S1thari posted:I think you guys are somewhat missing my point, or maybe I couldn't convey it as cleary as I intended. I'm not saying that Ben's personality or abilities are exactly the same as Luke's, I'm saying his path -- what he's being set up to become in LOTF, FOTJ, and any other series or novel that might come next -- is Luke's heir. Can you honestly say that the probability of Ben not becoming the next Jedi Grand Master, or the next SW "hero," is higher than the possibility of him becoming just that? I can't. That's mostly what I'm trying to get at. I'd like to see Ben's character take a different direction other than the one that most fans have been predicting for him since he was born. I'd like to see him take another path, rather than continue to read about the stereotypical Skywalker hero's ascension. It bores me. That's all really.
killfire posted:I guess what it boils down to is the LFL/DelRey fixation on the Skywalker name. IMHO it would have worked better if Ben had been a Jedi in the temple, learning, with force powers above everage, but not special, in LOTF, and his part had been taken by, say, Valin Horn. Jacen would have killed Corran instead of Mara, with Jaina bringing Jacen down in the end of LOTF as she did. Ben could grow up to be wise Jedi as a sideline, eventually marry and have a son named Kol. But the main Jedi focus would be non-Skywalker Jedi for a while. But of course your marketing team would advise against it.
NelanisGhost posted:killfire posted:I guess what it boils down to is the LFL/DelRey fixation on the Skywalker name. IMHO it would have worked better if Ben had been a Jedi in the temple, learning, with force powers above everage, but not special, in LOTF, and his part had been taken by, say, Valin Horn. Jacen would have killed Corran instead of Mara, with Jaina bringing Jacen down in the end of LOTF as she did. Ben could grow up to be wise Jedi as a sideline, eventually marry and have a son named Kol. But the main Jedi focus would be non-Skywalker Jedi for a while. But of course your marketing team would advise against it. I agree. The main thing with Ben is he wasn't likable as others have said, for the longest time. Now he's "OK", IMO. He was a spoiled brat that didn't even have the Solo's impeccable manners. He was disrespectful of his parents and is already a killer. He is still rude and doesn't respect his elders. He has no purity. He is a good person but a tainted one. It was an unfair start to his character. Now, Ben has little history and the overall feeling is that he hasn't earned anything. He never was with the other students, and has never studied the force the way he was supposed to. Luke can correct some of that, but it seems like special privilege to me and he's not that skilled of a force user. I do feel him being with Luke is a good thing because he seems to need a steadying hand. The bad part of it is, that Luke is blinded by love, and Ben is somewhat secretive. Still I think Ben will turn out to be a good man but he starts out with a disadvantage.