A Review and Reflection of Jedi Jacen Solo

Even before he was born, Jacen Solo is famous among beings of GFFA, as well as readers of EU literature, not only because who he is, but also because what he is. He is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, heroes of the Rebel Alliance, and nephew to Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Master of his time. Like his mother and uncle, Jacen also has the special ability to feel and wield the Force. He and his twin sister, Jaina, have faced and defeated evil many times alone the way they grow up. But when the galaxy is shattered by the invasion of Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen begins to question the very meaning of being a Jedi.

Jacen's philosophy and inaction make him a coward and heretic to many people, while others consider him brave and wise to explore the essence of Jedi even at the most difficult times. Begin with this post, members of the Jacen Solo Fan Club would like to review Jacen Solo's life as he has appeared in the EU. We will post summaries of Jacen Solo's life periodically. We will present our opinions along with these posts, and we would like to encourage members of lit. forum to voice your opinions regarding these "Jacen summaries," whether you like him or not.

We also welcome you to visit us at Jacen Solo Fan Club.

The Thrawn Trilogy

Five years past the destruction of the second Death Star, one year after Han and Leia's marriage, Leia is pregnant with a girl and a boy; both are strong in the Force.

At that time, Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the Empire's most genius strategist, has come back from the Unknown Region. To restore the New Order to the galaxy, Thrawn asks the cooperation of Joruus C'baoth, a mad clone Jedi Master. In return of his help, Thrawn promises to capture the unborn Jedi twins to be C'baoth's apprentices.

To avoid Thrawn's chase, Leia, with the twins grow inside her, seek shelters first at Kashyyyk, and then at Noghri's homeworld, Honoghr, alone with Chewbacca. They eventually go back to Coruscant. There Leia gives birth to her children with Han at her side. Jaina comes out first and Jacen a few minutes later.

Shortly after the twins are born, they bacome the target of a kidnapping attempt, which is utterly failed because of Mara Jade. After this incident, the infant Jaina and Jacen are put under Winter's protection and nursery through out the campaign against Thrawn.

 

Yet if things happened differently, Jacen and Jaina would have been Anakin's younger siblings instead of his older siblings. Just have to bring that up.

 

How is that, Knight1192? This is the first I?ve ever heard of that. I know that the DE comics were finished before TTT, but I thought that the timeframe for those two things had always been planed for the way it is now. Of course, I could be very wrong?

 

Yeah, how exactly is that knight?

 

Gneghis knows more about it than I do. But apparently DE was supposed to have been released before TTT. Yet something happened and DE got postponed until after the release of TTT. I believe Genghis said that what happened was that DE was originally going to be Marvel instead of DH, then Marvel lost the contract and DH gained it and DH then had to give the ok, which put the release after TTT.

 

Speaking of DE, here are the Jacen (and Jaina) glimpses in the DE trilogy:

The texts in italic are directed quoted from the comic:

Dark Empire II:

New Alderaan

Han and Leia's two young children, Jacen and Jaina, have been kept hidden from the Emperor... On a lush world code-named "New Alderaan."

During the struggles that erupted in the past year, Leia has seen the twins only twice ...And no one except Mon Mothma knew she ever left her post in the alliance.

But now, as the birth of a third child approaches, Leia and Han have arranged to go into hiding with their children, who have been under the care of Leia's lifelong friend, Winder.

It's a Joyful reunion!

Luke comes later to New Alderaan with his Jedi friends. But the Emperor has learned the location of New Alderaan and launches a mass strike. The twins are force to retreat with the adults to the City in Space in the Auril system. There, Leia gives birth to her third child, Anakin Solo.

Empire's End:

The City in Space is attacked by the Galaxy Gun. Luckily for the New Republic, they are attacked by a dumb bomb. This gives enough time for the New Republic to retreat. And the twins leave with their parents aboad the Millennium Falcon into another exile.

But through the power in the Valley of Dark Lords, the Emperor is able to pursuit them to the planet Iziz in his last attempt to transfer his spirit to Anakin Solo. The Emperor failed, and the children are safe from the Dark side.

 

Up, my fellow Jacen fans.

 

Up, Up, UP!

 

And up again! Don't want to lose this.

Looking forward to the JAT summary--gotta love Jacen's first lightsaber battle.

 

THE CRYSTAL STAR: Vonda N. Macintyre
The Solo kids get kidnapped (which was a pretty common plot in the Bantam series) by an Imperial force sensitive trying to resurrect the Empire through Vader's grandchildren. The book was pretty much a waste of time, but I enjoyed the parts with the kids in it. Anakin was only about four or five at the time, and the twins were about six or seven.

There wasn't much to distinguish the kids though. I kept getting confused if I was reading from Jacen or Jaina's P.O.V. It turns out it was mostly Jaina's, and never Anikan's. Their personalities was really one dimensional (I'm not certain as to whether that was because they were little kids or if it was the poor writing of the author)

Finally if you want to read the book and see for yourself go right on ahead but be warned there is good reason IMO that this book is on most people's most disliked booklist.

 

Anakin was 3 and I think the twins were 5 or 6 in Crystal Star. I read the book 10 times, I should know that by heart. It wasn't really that hard to tell who was in what scene. It was mostly Jaina anyway. And yeah, several reasons it's on my dislike list.

I only read it 10 times, because it was the only SW book I had at the time. *rolls eyes*

 

Technically, Anakin was "three and a half!" The twins were five.

It was never the only SW book I had, but it came pretty close, since I'd only gotten the JAT before that. I reread the parts with the Solo kids several times because I enjoyed them, but I barely absorbed the parts with Luke, Leia and Han the first time I read the book.

Anyways, Jacen was fun in that book. I liked how he hid the bat from that planet they were visiting in his shirt, even though he wasn't supposed to be playing with the bats. "I wasn't playing, I was just looking..."

 

Here is the summary of Jacen's (and Jaina's) stories before and in Jedi Academy Trilogy excerpted from The Essential Guide to Characters:

While their parents relocated along with the New Republic back to Corusacnt, the twins and the infant Anakin were taken to a distant world called Anoth, which had been scouted by Admiral Ackbar and Luke Skywalker. A heavily guarded facility was constructed in which Winter could raise and teach the Solo children. No one knew Anoth's location except Luke, Acabar, and Winter. Several times a year, Winter would bring a long-distance shuttle to Coruscant, allow Leia and/or Han to board, and then take multiple hyperspace jumps to cover its path. Thus, even the two parents were protected from knowing where Anoth was.

When Jacen and Jaina were two years old, Winter brought them back to Coruscant, keeping the infant Anakin back on Anoth. Although Leia did her best to take care of the mischievous twins, most of the time the duty was relegated to the fussy C-3PO, or to their giant hairy Wookiee "uncle," Chewbacca. When he was home, Han would read stories to them at bedtime; their favorite was The Little Bantha Cub. The always preferred Han's stories to C-3PO's, even though the droid was a masterful storyteller.

Life in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant was more of an adventure for the twins than their parents ever thought possible. Driving C-3PO out of his circuit was the most fun. In the Skydome Botanical Gardens, during an important reception for Caridian Ambassador Furgan, the twins managed to entangle Threepio in giang tentacle cactus. And when their father took Kyp Durron Skiing, they packed the droid in snow on the hover-ski slopes of the polar regions.

Perhaps nothing was as exciting, or scary, as when they lost Threepio and Chewbacca in the Holographic Zoo of Extinct Animals, and took an unused turbolift to the depths of the ruins below Imperial City. There, they met the feral ex-civil servants of the Emperor, and their king Daykin. Darkin too the twins back topside, to return them to their parents.

Jacen and Jaina eventually went to Yavin Four, where their uncle Luke Skywalker was in grave danger. While in the chamber where Luke's comatose body lay, the twins discovered they could see Luke's spirit calling to them from another plane of the Force. He had them relay warnings about Exar Kun to his students. When Kun sent flying beasts to attack Luke's body, Jacen and Jaina helped defeat them. Not even three years old, Jacen used Luke's own lightsaber as if he had been practicing for years. Evetually, the combined Force powers of the Jedi students, the spirits of Vodo-Siosk Boas and Luke, and Leia and her twins defeated and destroyed Kun's spirit.

 

JediJSolo...
Hopefully, I don't take things too-far off-topic.

"How is that, Knight1192? This is the first I?ve ever heard of that. I know that the DE comics were finished before TTT, but I thought that the timeframe for those two things had always been planed for the way it is now. Of course, I could be very wrong?"

Two separate issues:
1. Our time - Dark Empire was indeed planned, written and completed prior to HttE. In fact, quite a large portion of Dark Empire had been completed before Zahn ever stepped into the Star Wars franchise in 1990. Dark Empire was on Marvel's release calendar for 1990. However, Marvel ended up not getting the comic license and Dark Empire was not published at that time. Dark Horse Comics then stepped in and Dark Empire was published by them in 1991, some few months after HttE was published.
2. In-Universe GFFA time - Dark Empire was to take within a year or so of ROTJ. That is, Han and Leia were to have been married and Leia's pregnancy in Dark Empire, Anakin Solo - was to have taken place long before that of Jacen and Jaina in HttE. However, Timothy Zahn quite simply refused to work with such established Star Wars continuity and refused to modify his work to account for the situation. LFL had two options - scrap TTT or go with a fix. The fix was the introduction in Dark Empire and slight modifications in that series, moving it to the time period after TTT - read it, thinking it takes place around 12 months or so after ROTJ and you'll see it actually fits quite well. So, it was Veitch/Kennedy and Dark Empire which allowed TTT to work, otherwise, TTT would've looked horribly strange when Han and Leia's oldest son never appeared and no mention was made of the Emperor's return and/or Luke's fight with the Dark Side. You can find out more about the official story here:
Our Time:

"The brainchild of writer Tom Veitch and artist Cam Kennedy, the breakthrough series was conceived in 1988, during a dark period of Star Wars comics history. Marvel Comics, who had published Star Wars titles since 1977, had stopped the run in 1986 after over 100 issues... Based on that success, a Star Wars series was soon in the works. It even made it onto Marvel's schedules for 1990, as a double-sized three-issue series for Epic, before the decision was made to switch to Dark Horse Comics."

And... In-Universe Time:

"As originally envisioned by Veitch and Kennedy, the series was to have taken place shortly after Return of the Jedi."

Actually, had Dark Empire taken place as originally intended, a lot of things would've worked out better (Han and Leia's marriage, etc.) - a more reasonable "expansion" of the saga. We have Tim Zahn to thank for complicating things and generally screwing the continuity - but that's a whole seperate issue unrelated to this.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Genghis12. Now it makes more sense.

 

It's time to up this thing. Heaven forbid it should be lost!

 

Hey, I like this idea. Imo Jacen gets way too much flak as a character! Btw, don't forget to note the JAT clearly came before Crystal Star.

 

JAT will be posted at some point, never fear. But for now, next up is the Corellian trilogy...

...part one of which I am going to post up very soon. I swear.

 

You see? Just as I promised.

What follows is the summary for Ambush at Corellia, part one of Roger MacBride Allen's Corellian Trilogy:


We are first reintroduced to the now-nine-year-old Jacen Solo in Chapter 2 of Ambush at Corellia, where he and his two siblings are putting the finishing touches on their latest project/attempt to wreak havoc. The three children have worked together to assemble their own secret droid?an idea apparently Jacen?s own?and as Jacen and Jaina now watch, Anakin attempts to fix a ?melty? circuit using his unusual Force abilities. Although he does his best, the results are still in question, and an uncertain Jaina decides to volunteer her twin when it comes to having the honor of pushing the ?on? switch. Luckily for Jacen, the droid is activated with a minimum of fuss, and even appears to work properly? at least, before it explodes.

Fortunately none of the children are hurt, although they are now left in an undesirable position: explaining it all to their parents. Jacen is here shown to be quite mature compared to most his age, acknowledging that, although they didn?t mean to do it, nonetheless the deed has been done, and they must now own up to the consequences. He also displays a decent sense of fair play: Jaina suggests blaming the whole thing on Anakin, but Jacen, despite not wanting to be punished any more than Jaina, realizes that pointing the finger at Anakin isn?t the right thing to do. Apparently, the numerous lectures he?s had in the past from his mother and uncle have actually had a bit of an impact. The twins are caught by Luke about then, who gives them a stern talking-to before he escorts them and Anakin to dinner.

Han Solo and Chewbacca arrive for the meal late and rather flustered after an encounter with a probe droid and an NRI agent warning Han about his family?s safety during their upcoming trip to Corellia. Although Han doesn?t mention anything to Leia, she doesn?t need the Force to pick up on the fact that something?s wrong, and as a result, by the time Luke and the children arrive, the tension around the dinner table is already building up. It isn?t long before a sullen Jaina stirs up trouble with a comment or two and is sent to her room, and the meal doesn?t get much better from there. Later that evening, the twins reflect on things. Jaina insists that she didn?t mean to cause trouble, and once again Jacen displays his thoughtful side, musing that, regardless of intention, it?s what you do that actually matters. Jaina?s response: ?Now you?re starting to sound like Uncle Luke.? Apparently, even at this young age Jacen is already beginning to mature into his philosophical NJO self. He also exhibits a distinct talent for being able to read others even now; he notes to Jaina that in his opinion the ?grown-ups? seemed to already be worked up over something even before their arrival. Jaina muses that it might have something to do with them if it?s got their parents anxious, and Jacen agrees: ?They sure do worry.? But then again, as Jaina counters, ?If you were our parents [Jacen], wouldn?t you worry??

A few days later find the Solo family busy at the landing pad with last-minute departure preparations. As Han ?negotiates? with a few government officials (with Jacen by his side, apparently quite interested in the argument), Luke says his farewells to Leia, and gives her a new lightsaber as a parting gift. The takeoff goes much as planned, and the first two days of traveling go remarkably well. On the second evening, Han, badgered by questions from his eager children, sits down with the family to talk a little bit about Corellia. (It?s a bit amusing to note that Jacen is the only one among the three children who doesn?t scramble into a parent?s lap for ?story time.? ) Han tells about the five planets of the Corellian system (all of which are inhabited, making the system a unique one) and the two other races besides humans that reside there (the Drall and the Selonians), and explains a bit about the awkward politica

 

Excellent summary, B_P.

You formulate some very interesting parallels:

Jaina insists that she didn?t mean to cause trouble, and once again Jacen displays his thoughtful side, musing that, regardless of intention, it?s what you do that actually matters. Jaina?s response: ?Now you?re starting to sound like Uncle Luke.?

Hrm, maybe some would argue that Jacen fails to do much of anything in the NJO and therein lies the problem .

 

I think that quote shows just how confused Jacen was about the force in the early stages of the NJO.

 

UP!