Lit A Cynical Walk Through the NJO

And they did so through an awesome moral quandary for which there was no right answer and yet everyone pretended that there was one and blamed Jacen for it.

 

Well, anakinfansince1983 does have a great point: Jacen needs to learn that war is not the ideal time to be philosophizing, not when there are thousands of lives on the line. When it was a matter of politics, then his advice was valuable. When it became a matter of life and death, he should have re-thought his position and kept his big mouth shut. Anakin knew what he could do and Jacen had no idea. But he kept arguing the same position as if the situation had not changed. It may not have been his fault, but if he hadn't been there, Anakin probably would have pulled the trigger.

 

Thank you. Jacen as he was pre-Traitor is the ideal peacetime Jedi. Anakin is the ideal wartime Jedi.

 

Whose lives? What happens if Anakin pulls the trigger? Where does it stop? How is it serving life to wipe out the Yuuzhan Vong?

Jacen isn't viewing the Yuuzhan Vong War subjectively from the New Republic perspective. He doesn't want to win if winning requires genocide. He's looking for the middle way.

There's no right or wrong answer to the Centerpoint dilemma.

 

True. While Jacen isn't the ideal wartime Jedi, he certainly has the right idea about how far a Jedi can go before crossing the line.

 

I think "wartime Jedi" is an oxymoron.

 

Well, isn't that what Anakin Solo is, though? He still maintains Jedi standards and protects innocents, but he's not afraid to take lives doing it. It's not that he enjoys killing; it's just that he wants to keep people safe, and if it requires killing evil beings, then so be it. Isn't that what a Jedi is, one who protects the innocent?

 

That's the thing. Jacen is looking at things from a far larger, wider perspective than even Luke is at this point, in the service of all life, not just the friendly sort. Anakin and the other more action-oriented Jedi see the Yuuzhan Vong as being pure evil. But, as we'll see later, they're not, they are a complex, complicated race just like any other in the galaxy, something that people both IU and OOU forget far too often. But the New Republic is fighting a war for survival at this point. A war where losing means annihilation. It's hard to argue the merits of the value of all life when that same life is trying to assimilate or kill you.

But, as I said, this is a moot debate. Decisions were made, for better or for worse. Maybe there was no right answer. But the answer that was given, in the end, is what matters.



"It's not who you are, it's what you do that defines you."

 

The problem that the old Jedi had was that they allowed themselves to be defined by their enemy.

 

I'm ready.



Ben, tell them I'm ready.

 

Ready, are you? What know you of ready?


Oh god I ruined the quote. And I don't have the fancy Force Heretic SF Book Club hardcover.

 

At times like these, I wish I had an actual camera.

...damn it, BP is the Marakin novel, isn't it?

 

It has that, yes. But so does Onslaught.

 

You know what, I noticed that Mara was completely absent from Jedi Eclipse. I didn't note it in the review, but, aside from the one mention Luke gives where he notes that she's better, but not fully healed, she doesn't appear. Odd, you'd think she'd be featured since she's on the upswing, maybe she's still undergoing treatment an monitoring by Cilghal et al.

Ready are you? What do you know of ready? Over nine hundred pages of NJO I have read, hmm. My own council I will hold on who is ready!

 

She is said to be on Coruscant getting treatment when Luke is talking to Karrde on Yavin 4. And IIRC that's where she is in Balance Point.

 

Geez, I think this one is weak.

 

Which is the problem right there - you can't have one form of sentient life go around choosing to kill numerous others without consequence. And yes, if Jacen hadn't been systematically undermining his brother's confidence, who knows what would have happened?

It's arguable that a few firings of Centrepoint by Anakin would have broken even the will of Tsavong Lah and Shimmraa to continue with their holy invasion - how many lives would that have saved - Vong and GFFA alike? Yet, would it have condemned the Shamed Ones to eternal slavery? For their salvation the entire Vong social structure, with Shimmraa and Lah at its apex, has to be torn down.

 

No, they don't.

Considering that Tyers's personal beliefs would make that something she would never consider, and that Tyers had Tim Zahn read all her Mara sections to vet her handling of the character - and that Stackpole had also worked with Zahn on Mara and knows the character quite well - the "Marakin" stuff is merely the rather cracked imagination and incredibly forced reading of subtext that just isn't there by fans with very obvious agendas. IMO.

 

Most of that reading is due to one T. McEwok, who I don't think ever really expected anyone to treat his wacky theories as being factual!

 

Well, it was some while before your time.

Basically, you name it, in terms of off-the-wall crazy theories McEwok supplied it. What happened to him? He went off to write the Essential Guide to Warfare with Jason Fry.

 

I'm most likely going to regret this but I'll jump in anyway. I don't think Mara is that bad of a character. Some books like Zahn's latter books are somewhat over the top with her from what I remember but think that her characterization is overblown by fans wanting to see the worst in her or refuse to see the good in her or interpreting things to fit their belief. Maybe I'm good at giving characters the benefit of the doubt or don't think too much of the descriptions. One scene I will say was questionable was in Inferno when Luke was flying a Stealth X and had a new wing person and was reminded every second (multiple times maybe) that she was dead. Frankly I chalk that up to after having a certain wing person for however long they were together, that would be a change, they were married so that would suck for Luke (I don't have any personal experience with that so I will concede the point if need be) and Denning who wrote that. Didn't care for his description of Nek Bwua'tu in Dark Nest. He guessed this and that and that and even that and yes even that.