[NRW] Jacen Solo: From YJK to NJO

Naruto: hyperactive ninja who was last in his acadmey class. Has a demon inside of him. Desires to become the village's Hokage, the leader of the village. Jacen was more mature than him during YJK, and seemed to have a nack for leadership.

 

Ooookay... still doesn't tell me much. And no, I'm not asking for any further explanation. Jacen was more mature than some, but he was hardly mature for a 15-year old in the last trilogy in particular.

- Keralys

 

Did he paint graphity on a revered monument just to get attention?

 

Not doing things like that doesn't make him mature. It just means he's not as immature as some. I think this is going to be another place where we agree to disagree and move on - at least in this thread, since we're only supposed to talk about the retcon here.

- Keralys

 

It's not really a retcon, it's more of a "Holy nerf, Master Keralys finally made sense of Jacen's bizzare characterization shift between YJK and NJO."

 

Granted. I think I said as much, too, in one of the earlier posts I responded in. It technically isn't a retcon, since I didn't actually rework anything or alter anything. I just explained what was already there... coherently.

- Keralys

 

Excellent thread, Keralys!

Although actually, thinking about what you've said, I'd say we are given the framework: at the start of VP, Jacen has spent six months as Luke's apprentice, while his Master tries to rebuild the Jedi Order.

Let's start with the most obvious issue: Jacen's jokes. They were charming, and genuine, but he did think far too long and hard about them. This mindset, I think, goes from the one context to another; from trying to please Tenel Ka to trying to please Luke Skywalker...

Jacen's jokes are a way he interacts with his friends - which is why we see the ghost of them still in the J/TK scene in The Joiner King: but Luke isn't a friend, for all that they do clearly like each other - he's "Master Skywalker" as much as he is "Uncle Luke". Think back, if you will, to the very start of the first YJK book: Jacen is dreaming about being a Jedi Knight - then Luke walks in, and he's instantly the straight-backed and disciplined Jedi Apprentice.

Now he's spent six months with "Master Skywalker", engaging in adult discussions about the nature of the Force, and observing adult discussions in Senate committees. This is Jacen's world now, and his response is... to be serious and adult about it, of course. He's applying the quirky teenage mind that once thought up jokes in the hope of making Tenel Ka smile to the questions of philosophy, morality and the Force which the adult Jedi Order concerns itself. In itself, there's actually nothing wrong with that, and no need to throw a general indictment at Luke's methods just because of things that happened with Jacen much later on: Jacen Solo, as of Vector Prime, is a sensible and level-headed young man, albeit one who's been seperated from his few real friends, and that is I think something worth considering.

The second issue is Anakin, and Keralys has said almost everything that there is to say here - though I'll stress that Jacen's gone from having a close group of true friends to just a kid brother for company, by turns reckless and brooding. Of course, it seems that Anakin and Jacen have been discussing the Force, too - as teenagers do in that sort of context. The slightly vicious pleasure Jacen takes in provoking an argument and then a lighstaber duel is the one sign that Jacen is less abstracted than he believes - he has issues he can't express, but needs to work out...

... which brings us back, remarkably, to Tenel Ka and his jokes.

However, I don't think it's just that Anakin sets a model - I think Luke likes Jacen more, for one thing; probably trusts him more, indulges him more. At the start of VP, Han, Chewie, Luke, Jacen and Anakin have just come back to Coruscant from somewhere - I don't think it's ever said where. But Han let Anakin fly the Falcon... so while Luke takes Jacen to the council, Anakin's left behind to help repair the mess he's caused.

Anakin probably doesn't even notice the distinction, though, and while he can be meditative about questions of morality, he has a simple attitude when it comes to the Force - an easy shrug. It's a blaster by his side. And nothing in the Galaxy would be set to put Jacen on edge more than that. Anakin, from the outset, seperates the Force from right and wrong. Much as we'd seperate breathing from speaking.

I don't need to say that there's a contrast between them in this, or which brother I think was right here, I suspect. But there is the question of why. Partially, this is to do with Anakin, rather than Jacen... but I will point out that there was one major difference betweenn the Solo kids' earlier training, which I think may have been significant: Jacen had spent time - however brief - at the Shadow Academy. I wonder if Brakiss' dealing in concepts of Dark-and-Light didn't - quite literally - leave a negative impression on his mind.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Nice summary there, Thrawn. good point about him not being able to joke in front of Luke there. Shame he really didn't anywhere else in the entire series... Even before the Vong Incursions began.

Interesting observation that it really was Jacen under Luke's wing was actually doing fine, but after Vergere got her thrice-damned claws into her...

 

i dont think jacen needs friends. or at least he doesnt need to spend lots of time with the ones he does have. he never struck me as a touchy feely type who needed people. his needs are met thru knowledge.

 

Must disagree. He hung out with the YJK a lot, after all. And was pretty... clingy with Tenel Ka.

Keralys, about Lusa; IIRC, it's so far been her, Cilghal and Tekli who have predominantly healing powers. And of the three, she had-at minimum-moderate training when part of the Diversity Alliance.

 

Thrawn McEwok:
However, I don't think it's just that Anakin sets a model - I think Luke likes Jacen more, for one thing; probably trusts him more, indulges him more. At the start of VP, Han, Chewie, Luke, Jacen and Anakin have just come back to Coruscant from somewhere - I don't think it's ever said where. But Han let Anakin fly the Falcon... so while Luke takes Jacen to the council, Anakin's left behind to help repair the mess he's caused.

Anakin probably doesn't even notice the distinction, though, and while he can be meditative about questions of morality, he has a simple attitude when it comes to the Force - an easy shrug. It's a blaster by his side. And nothing in the Galaxy would be set to put Jacen on edge more than that. Anakin, from the outset, seperates the Force from right and wrong. Much as we'd seperate breathing from speaking.

Wonderful point at the end there. Imagine if each of the Solo boys had been permanently stripped of the Force. Jacen, I don't think it's hard to imagine, would likely have gone somewhat, if not completely, insane. The Force is simply too important to his life, to his very identity, to lose it. His moral center and sense of purpose would be gone. Anakin, however . . . well, if Anakin were to be completely stripped of the Force, he wouldn't go mad or lose his moral center. He'd just . . . become Han.

KW

 

I like this, but I never truly saw it as that much of a difference between his earlier characterizations and how he appeared in the NJO with the sole exception of his pacifistic leanings. Maybe because I read YJK after earlier novels and the NJO, but it was the humorless jokes, puns and the fact that he HAD friends which seemed out of place to me.

After all, we have Han's musings on Jacen in BFC(BTS)

and

Jacen grew up, for all intents and purposes alone and frustrated in the Force. He knows it's possible to move things, but even at seven is unable to do so...compare this to Anakin who

So not only is he frustrated at his inability to move things, he's shown up by his little brother who did it as a temper-tantrum. Then he and Jaina get to go to the Academy while Anakin is forced to wait behind 'so their parents won't be lonely' and suddenly he has a number of friends there for him.

Of course one has to wonder if they were not really Jaina's friends and Jacen was just brought along for the ride, but that's another issue...

but back on topic, he suddenly has these friends surrounding him, one of which is a beautiful Dathomari girl with a penchant for wearing form-fitting leather outfits as described in:

So not only is one of the new people around them, giving Jacen a chance at friends for effectively the first time, one is a warrior girl, who dresses in these outfits, which show off her legs. And of course Jacen being a red-blooded teenaged male cannot help but notice such things.

but his upbringing, as well as his characterization of not wanting to socialize with others, leaves him floundering for HOW to act and react around her. He literally doesn't know what he's supposed to do, so he resorts to the jokes and puns as a way to cover this lack in his social skills and knolwedge.


Of course, now we need to compare/contrast this to Anakin, especially since he is descriped as a loner-child as well. The key difference is the fact that Anakin is not so much a loner, as he is autistic (Leia's comment about Anakin dancing to a drum that no one else knows is playing or something similar). Yet he finds himself in the same situation when he goes to the academy. His first day there, the loner who doesn't talk finds himself pair