Lit We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SNARK)

Another bump of this thread, another near-heart attack induced by joy, another disappointment when it's not Havac posting something new here. I just died a little inside.




In all honesty, I think this thread needs to go into the Lit Forum's top 100 threads list, if there is one. It was hilarious, and used that hilarity to bring up excellent points about characterization and continuity. However, it's not Jaina who needs a similar thread. It's Luke Skywalker.

 

This thread always makes me smile.

 

Agreed, though that would truly be an epic and ambitious project.

Luke and Jacen are really the only characters worthy of a grand project like this (and possibly Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, but probably not even him). Realizing that makes me miss Jacen. Maybe he'll eventually come back, like Exar Kun or Marka Ragnos. Such a great character... such a waste.

 

We Hav to Take a Trip with the Jedi Council.

 

I just finished reading all the entries in this thread and it has been one hilarious ride. I grew up on the YJK series and even though I shall always have fond memories of them this thread did a good job of pointing out how silly they are. However, I think the thread actually leaves me feeling a little sad.

I was never able to get into the NJO in large part because I didn't recognize any of the characters. Jacen was my favorite, sort of reminding me of myself at times (scary), but his characterization in NJO was just completely off. I could buy his demeanor and outlook changing radically as a result of the Vong War, his torture, and his five-year-journey. However from his first appearance in the NJO he is unrecognizable. It hasn't even been that long since the YJK series ended at that point.

What happened? How did he change so suddenly? I think his character went in the totally wrong direction. Not sure how I'd write him myself, but where was his sense of humor? Part of me thinks he should have been part comic relief for his companions and part motivational speaker. The guy who stays optimistic despite the tragedy of war and reassures everyone that they'll make it through.

I can see his lingering youthful enthusiasm getting the better of him too. With such an epic battle being waged on a galactic scale he might want to live out his boyish dreams and be the hero. Maybe that is how he and Anakin should have switched places in the series, with Jacen's death being a heroic act to save his comrades and his loss being a painful and demoralizing one for those left behind?

I don't know. Another poster said that for them Star Wars was kind of killed for them. I feel the same way. I'm still here, but it's been a long time since I've been at all motivated to read a modern Star Wars novel. The EU as a whole has just differed to much from what Star Wars is to me.

 

Yes it did seem like NJO Jacen borrowed heavily from the brooding worrying JJK Anakin, but a single novel or even novella could have explain what happened between YJK and NJO. But as for Comic relief no, In comics characters who take up the mantle of ?comic relief? tend to get the short stick when it comes to development, or even simply being displayed properly.

New Warriors by Marvel Had Speedball, Teen Titans/Young Justice had Kid Flash. In X-men Iceman, Beast and Jubilee have been given various short sticks because they have cautiously been written off (Ironically be fans turned writers) as weak, despite power sets, past story lines because they are perceived as comic relief characters.

Maybe it?s a societal thing but Jokers are just not taken seriously in most media that?s not comedy oriented.

Anakin?s death being a heroic sacrifice was not what was repeatedly foreshadowed thought the 1st half of New Jedi Order. Anakin?s death was repeatedly foreshadowed that he took too many risks, that in taking on Chewbacca?s death, and what happened on Ithor (That Twi?lek Jedi) that he pushed himself too far too fast.

Corran Horn and Ikrit actually call him out on it, It was always intended for the reckless brother to die. And Anakin and Jacen were not switched at the last minute but before the first book of the series was written.

It can be seen in the way Anakin receives his fatal blow, Jacen would have simply force pushed Jaina out the way of the thrown Amphi-staff. Or like he did with Corran and the Coral Skipper in Dark Tide, and stop it with a Man Hole cover, or a piece of rock he would pull out of the ground.

Because Jacen at that point in time is a conservative fighter, Careful, the opposite of Anakin who threw himself in front of the Staff, It was reckless, heroic and in character for him at that time.

The only reason it came as a shock to fan readers was because they were so entrenched with the idealized Star Wars heroic Jedi they could not see what was right in front of them. In the Original, Star Trek: The Next Generation enamored with the Kirk type Star Fleet captain some felt Picard was going to die to make way for a more Kirk like Riker. But Roddenberry was instant of a different type of captain.

It was a Similar idea behind NJO I think.

 

Well, since Havac doesn't want to continue it, I'll write a little one for Jacen's part in Abyss:

So, anyway, Luke sees Jacen, and Jacen tells him about the dark man. Luke thinks it's him, but Jacen says it's not, making it abudantly clear to everyone but Ben that it's Ben. Ben, of course, has no idea what the hell they're talking about. What happened to those sleuthing powers, Ben? Oh wait, Traviss was fired.

 

Remember how incredibly awesome this thread was?

 

Sorry, but you're no Havac.

 

[image=http://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/7/70/079Slowpoke.png]

 

Okay, I'm coming into this thread late - but I have to ask: since when did Stormshadow start working for the New Republic?

 

I think Jacen's radical change of personality from YJK to NJO could be seen as fairly typical... after all, while it may be a short time in between, teenagers do often change very much around age 14-17, sometimes radically. I'm only 18 at the moment, so I can remember my transition fairly well. Around age 16, I became much more quiet and cynical, and developed an interest in music and literature almost overnight, whereas before I was quite talkative, hated anything that could possibly be seen as intellectual, and a bit of a brat. The change was gradual, sure, but still amazingly sudden.

Now, of course, the NJO did obviously want to make Jacen into a new character while mostly disregarding the old depiction. Still, while I don't believe Jacen's change is natural, even for teenage standards, it personally doesn't break my suspension of disbelief.

 

I was rereading Dark Journey and I stumbled upon this:

How sad this was never followed up on.

 

Whoh... good catch.

 

I am pretty sure thats Han.

 

still reading this great, great thread but wanted to point out once I saw this-he looks WAY more like Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in the past 2 decades, a great star in many a great film (hahahaha but no...really I do like the Hammer a lot, specially his movies in the 70s, total bad-a$$!).

And I give extreme props if he was indeed the reference.

 

Oh wow. That's almost too close for coincidence.

 

Han: First I'm a housewife, now I'm a midwife. Great.

 

So there's a LiveJournal that reposted all the entries through Ylesia for no reason. I've started restoring them at least temporarily until we get full restorations up.

 

I would kill for someone to do that with my first forty Marvel issues.

 

Why do I always have to apply the thread prefix?