Ah the irony of Jacen Solo (possible SbS spoilers)

"In my opinion, you can't become a black belt by thinking about karate moves all day. However, apparently you can become great at killing vong simply by meditating on the subject."

Exactly Risste. I could not have put it any better if I had tried. Jacen has an unbelievably intimate connection to the Force, deeper than Anakin's, and I think probably as deep as Luke's, just without Luke's years of practice. That's fantastic, and I think Jacen is incredibly powerful in the Force, largely because of that intimate connection. What I have a problem with, like Risste, is using Jacen's connection with and complete trust in, the Force, to explain his combat prowess against a foe who is Force-blind. Up until this point, Jacen has been absolutely flawless, for the most part, in his fighting of the Vong. I would say he has been more deadly to the YV than anyone except Anakin. But why? We know how much he has spurned practice with the lightsaber over the course of this war, so why on earth is he so effective? I mean, natural talent can only carry you so far, and admittedly, Jacen seems to possess that in abundance. It just irks me how he is nearly flawless in combat, with his only mess up coming BECAUSE he trusted in the Force too much, and not in himself enough, on Belkadan. Anakin was as good as he was because he practiced constantly without the Force. He sought the solution to the question "How do we beat a foe who we cannot sense their intentions in the Force?". The obvious answer was "Practice without it". He's that good because he trained nonstop to be that good. But Jacen just seems to BE that good, without the benefit of practice.

*Shrug* Perhaps another mystery we'll never know the answer to.

JMA

 

Up.

 

"However, the warrior who is AMAZING and invincible without any practice"

YOu mean like Anakin Skywalker? Or Anakin Solo?

 

While I do not find irony in the writing of Jacen Solo, I do indeed find hypocricy in what he says to himself and what he does. His philosophical musings do provide a good sidebar to the inner Jedi conflict and allow the reader to retreat from the furious action that is Star Wars and contemplate how the Jedi should fight this war. However, when Jacen resolves to forego the Force but later uses it to save his mother, he is in fact a hypocrite. I do think that he was right to act, but that his inactivity and opposition to Kyp has been wrong all along. Jedi doesn't mean passive, but instead reactive. Jacen has finally shown himself heir to his heritage by becoming the reluctant hero.

There is a quote by a certain American Romantic: "Don't be too timid or squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." I do not say this to promote rash behavior, but I do say it in the spirit that Jacen must realize that he can't reason or through intuition come to all the answers he needs. He should be walking down the path he is destined too, and he could just be the heir to Luke Skywalker.

 

"However, the warrior who is AMAZING and invincible without any practice"-me

"YOu mean like Anakin Skywalker? Or Anakin Solo? "-fenton

No, fenton, I do not mean like either of them. Skywalker has not yet fought a battle, has he? All we've seen him do is fly and pod race, and in the flying segment he had no idea what he is doing. I submit a quote from the battle scene: "Now this is pod racing!"--Anakin can't seem to get it into his head that he is in a battle. Why? Because he never had any intention of fighting! He blows up the droid control ship through a mishap, displayed in another quote: "Oops." He was not aiming, not trying to fight a battle. He is trying to escape. You can't judge his combat abilities based on an escape attempt gone fortunately destructive.

Skywalker is not invincible. He died, killed mostly by Palpy's lightning, and I think he will lose at least one fight in the next to movies, to Obi-Wan to be exact.

As I stated previously, Anakin Solo is not amazing at battling Vong warriors at the beginning of the NJO series. He nearly gets killed trying to defend a pregnant Mara. However, He PRACTICES and gets better! Whoa, who'd have expected that! Anakin Solo is not invincible. Proof: HE DIED.

Try backing up the attempt at disagreement next time, instead of outlining a vague premiss for the sheer sake of contradiction.

 

And the warring philosophies continue

 

Another irony:


If Jacen is the subject matter of Traitor, we'll have arguably one of the more intense authors of our time writing about one of the "softest" characters Star Wars has ever seen: Jacen.