Lit Nelani Dinn's death

Ugh you're all reminding me of the depressing trainwreck that was LotF. There were some things in that series that were good and effective, but overall it was not remotely worth the time and effort I put into it. Between them, LotF and FotJ almost killed the Star Wars EU for me for good.

Still, analysing LotF is actually quite instructive about writing and the nature of Star Wars; because what's really, deeply wrong with LotF (and FotJ) is not the plot or events or even the characters, really (many of which are interesting and good), it's the fundamental ideas underlying and permeating it all. Denning's "eternal dirty war between cold, callous Jedi and cruel, bastard Sith" is probably the worst interpretation of Star Wars that's ever existed, and that's saying something. Damn, am I glad it's dead forever.

 

Darth Caedus wasn't worth saving. There was no mercy or sanity left in him. Jacen Solo began a slow decline into insanity after meeting Lumiya and by the time of the Battle of Shedu Maad he was so utterly deluded that he believed he was Invincible. Jaina Solo proved him wrong by stabbing him right through the heart and ending his mad reign of terror.

Vader was evil and heartbroken but he was sane, or at least rational. That's why Luke was able to reach what remained of Anakin within him. But Caedus was just insane, believing that his supposed "destiny" would prevent him from dying or falling in combat.

Honestly, it's amazing that Darth Caedus survived as long as he did. If Ben hadn't been so homicidal aboard the Anakin Solo, Luke Skywalker would have ended his twisted nephew's miserable life in his own torture chamber. And even before that, if Jacen hadn't been able to conjure an illusion at the last moment, Mara Jade would have killed him on Kavan. Darth Caedus was a poor character in many ways, but one of his greatest failings was the fact that he kept getting defeated. The only reason he wasn't killed earlier was because his enemies had the decency to not strike him down while he was helpless.

 

I was just thinking about this character! Very sad

 

Caedus didn't think he was invincible. In the last duel he in fact resigned to dying if that meant saving Tenel Ka and Allana. He could have devoted all his energy to one final force blast and killed Jaina. The fact that he chose sacrificing his life over getting one last blow at the Jedi and his family tells me he was sane and redeemable.

 

You may be right. It's a shame that Darth Caedus had alienated every single person that loved him, through his brutal acts and monstrous betrayals. When the time came to stop Caedus there was no one left that loved him enough to take a chance on trying to redeem him.

 

Which in the hands of effective writers could have been written as a truly deep and heart wrenching story.

If that was the idea? Under Matthew Stover that could have been the best series the SWEU ever produced.

 

Sorry Double Post:

 

LotF did kill it for me for a very long time. It's only been in the last year that I started reading SW books again...started with the Thrawn books, because Zahn can write a coherent, entertaining story. I disagree with @Onderon1 in that it was stupid to go to the asteroid: I don't think it was. What is stupid is the flimsy excuse that if he lets Nelani leave, then word will get back to Luke about Brisha and then he has to fight Luke. He knows that Brisha is not going to stay on the asteroid, so he has to know that Luke is going to find out about her at some point. Furthermore, by brining Lumiya to Coruscant, he invalidates the very reason he used to murder his former student.

What is most annoying is that Jacen thinks he has to stay on the Sith path. He learns from all of these other Force-wielders and then leaves....but he stays on this one? The one he probably knew most about in the first place? You're correct....he is mental.

 

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason that Nelani exists, rather then it being Danni Quee? They seem to occupy the same narrative role.

 

Well she isn't blonde... so there is a difference, not a big one though!

But it'd be interesting, with Quee in the role, Jacen could pretend to Lumiya to have killed his love for the mission, while his true love, Tenel Ka stays secret.

 

Yeah, I tend to imagine Nelani as brunette and shorthaired (no idea how she is actually described).

 

IIRC she has black hair?

Let me look,

This is a fan image of her.

As no official artwork exists.

 

I didn't think much of it first time honestly. Jacen was a Sith Lord now, which I thought was cool (being a Sith fan).

Still said no one cared.

 

I'm not sure we see enough of Nelani to say she has a 'narrative role'. She could have had one, and I've argued that it would have been a more interesting series if Jacen would have talked her into being his assistant, but we just don't see enough of her to make that argument.

Killing Danni in book1 certainly would have given the scene more emotional impact to both the reader and to Jacen, but they'd already dismissed her in the '...for us or against us...' scene in Swarm War.

 

Nelani Dinn is a foil, for Jacen and Ben to a lesser extent. She is the "good Jedi girl" who does what is right, she refuses to embrace any sort of utilitarian ethics, and from what I recall frustrated Vectivus' ghost with how intransigent she was, when it came to not buying what he was selling.

She's not "innocent" in the childlike sense, but her moral compass is depicted as being conventionally Kantian and is counter posed with what Jacen is offered. Jacen is offered a worldview of "do things you might see as evil for the evils will be greater otherwise", and Nelani's attitude is along the lines that no "doing evil that good may come" is false.

And that you are to do what is right, even unto death, regardless not because of what the outcomes are but because it is right.

Jacen embraces the notion that one can "do evil that good may arise". Even if said good, is simply the absence of a greater evil.

 

Vectivus... I still recall the discussions back then if he was ever real, a Sith of the past, or rather a fake projection or even a flowwalker from the future or maybe Jacen from the future himself. Fun old days...

 

I lean towards thinking he was either an illusion cast by Lumiya, or that really was his ghost.

 

Why not both? Imagine a Sith spirit unable to manifest unless someone gives him form willingly? A fate worse than death. He can only appear but is bound to someone guiding him.

 

That would make sense, actually. And would explain why we never hear about him again.

 

The relationship is obvious to me. Lumiya separated Nelani and Ben, and neutralized Ben. After Ben's memory was erased. Nelani's disappearance puts Jacen under suspicion. Therefore, I believe Vectivus was a phantom of Lumiya, who was trying to neutralize the Jedi. This alignment even answers my questions about the biography of Lumiya, what and why she had been waiting for so long before unleashing a war. Even before the appearance of the phantom, she scoffed at this idealist. How, like, she mocked her own position, forcing her to wait so long. Lumiya felt sorry for Allan Solo, she did not feel enthusiasm for her own actions, she was tired. But no matter what Lumiya had planned, the work would not have done herself. Her happy ending required sacrifices, and she wasted many years in her refusal of multiple sacrifices.

 

Maybe....but do we really know what she was doing all of those years?

 

At least it is known that she spent an obscene amount of time on Carnor Jax destroying Luke's enemies, instead of spending it on revenge on Luke. And then she fled without trying to help Jax survive his usefulness. It is clear that there are still many years left, but Luke could not have them, if Palpatine had not lost so many body-vessels in the Dark Empire. It's also funny that she saved his life at the Circle of Kavaan (and Mara was killed on Kavan), although this is less relevant to the events described.