Lit Sword of the Jedi by Christie Golden

Allana??!! Dear God, no!

 

Jag, Ben and Allana are somewhat predictable inclusions but I'm very pleased to hear that Tahiri won't be getting forgotten again. They really need an actual, well, cast rather than just Jaina and her near two-decade younger cousin. Putting Jag and Tahiri into the mix more formally will, hopefully go a ways towards this. Plus I'd like to see Jaina interacting with Allana. Dare I hope for an actual apprenticeship?

 

I was already very hesitant about these books because of Christie Golden. I loathe Allana so learning she will feature heavily as probably pushed me into not reading them at all. I'm pretty close to just writing off the post NJO EU completely.

 

Manisphere, Hope - what's wrong with Allana?

I don't like Golden's writing. She doesn't GET the characters at all.

 

Well, there is nothing wrong with her really. I just a) don't buy these books to want to deal with a 9 year old principal character. And b) No one has made her interesting. Putting her with Han and Leia for 10 books was a terrible idea repeated 10 times. I hate her nexu. I think she comes off as bossy. Especially when she's literally bossing adults around. What Denning did with her was ridiculous. 9 year old warrior with no PTSD. And Allston didn't do much better. Having Han and Leia abandon her for over a week on the Falcon. That was nuts. And that damned nexu.

I also have a problem with her being another "chosen one" with that throne prophesy.

 

Allana reminds me of those annoying Indigo children. ::shudders::

Maybe Allana could be a little more palatable if written by different authors. But unfortunately all the good authors are writing in different eras. Legacy is stuck with Denning and Golden who have no clue when it comes to writing children (and a whole lot of other stuff). IMO

 

Well, can't say that unexpected. But still don't like it. Allana is one of those characters who's very presence seems to warp the plot into a Three Stooges act and Ben... just kinda annoys me.

 

I think half the problem is they tried to squash a Young Adult storyline into an adult book about blood, guts, and murder. This is why they should get on with it already and do a YJK for Ben and Allana so they can have their kids/teen stuff without trying to force it into the main books.

 

I am very pleased to hear about Tahiri, even if I think "Tahiri, Hand of the Empire" would have been another awesome trilogy

 

Yeah, but whatever we want to say about Allana, it mostly comes down to the fact she's a child. She's going to change as she grows older. A novel series which actually tries to seriously develop her character, instead of using her as inappropriate comedy relief and cuteness factor, is probably what she needs.

Sure, it could be a disaster, but I actually think they did a pretty good job with Ben in LOTF. It's part of why I'm hoping for an actual apprenticeship. I think if Allana were Jaina's apprentice, we'd start to see her written less as the amusing child-in-an-inappropriate-situation, and more as, well, an apprentice. It's a role with precedents throughout the EU.

Finally, that's an interesting point about the throne prophecy, I hadn't seen it that way. Perhaps just because it's not as messianic, or because, for some reason, I tend to read more ambiguity into it. Probably because it's not a canonised prophecy but rather more of a recurring dream? But I see your point.

 

I actually really liked her nexu. I don't like her being a warrior at 9, I don't like her lisping (really, I just don't like Denning writer her...or pretty much anyone) - but I think the idea is actually a really great one, and I quite enjoyed both Allston and Golden's takes on her. I just hope she definitely develops, and doesn't just stay a brat.

Agree with beccatoria about Ben and Legacy of the Force (well, mostly in Exile and Fury - Tempest had him being really, really annoying - and Invincible, for all that Tahiri/Ben was one of the most misjudged ideas ever, actually was pretty cool with him). I think the Jaina/Allana apprenticeship would be excellent - if a bit too nepotistic (yes, it's a word. Now.) I mean, Luke and Mara did it with Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin, but I'm hoping for a bit more exogamy this time (metaphorically, not literal). But if it offers Jaina to finally become the Master she's been promoted to, that's a really positive idea.

 

PTSD- Post traumatic stress disorder is classified with the constant recalling of events and living through them over and over again ( mostly from war time).

the fact that alanna does not show signs of this, does not mean that she is not effected by it. we do know that she was troubled by this event in her life and we do not know what will happen in the future. your assuming that the signs of PTSD is sudden and should happen after the event, but you would be mistaken. Denning demonstrated that she is growing up to fast, just as Han and Leia feared.



As for the thread, I do like the idea that we will see a story that is based on a important character. How important is the title " sword of the jedi" and will this title be reinforced with the fact that she is a master? Does she get a apprentice to train? Does a conflict split her between the Jedi and her love Jag? They are married now, but that does not mean that life wont be complicated. Where will her path take her? possible leader of the Jedi order or a life in the empire?

 

Well, I doubt there will be much PTSD in her future. She has a "destiny." I suspect that she'll be your usual dazzling, unflappable Skywalker.

 

A Jaina/Allana apprenticeship? No thanks. One of the big things I want to see them do is get rid of the fence between the "elite" friends and family of the movie characters group and everyone else. It really doesn't seem like alot of these characters are a part of the larger universe. Don't like how Ben and Allana got the special learning treatment cruising around the galaxy with their parents sheltered from the Jedi gen-pop.

Pack Allana off to the Dathomir boonies, Streen can whip her into shape. No more bossing around adults who could throw her like a football with their minds because of a force vision or something.

I'd prefer Jaina's apprentice to be new blood. Some kid of some nobodies from some backwater agri-world who's barely even heard about her or her family.

 

I'd love to see that too - I just don't think it's likely to happen. How about that Klaatooinian kid who was sent with Kyp in Conviction? She seemed like a great potential story!

 

I really liked Allana In Tempest, so I'm glad to see she'll be heavily focused on in SOTJ. I really hope we see some interaction with Ben. Thank god the big 3 weren't said to be heavily featured.

 

Yeah, just for the record, I'd be fine with Jaina getting a different apprentice too, and Allana a different master, I'm just trying to say that how she's being written now is not likely to be how she'll be written in the near future, and I think being an apprentice will likely help with that.

As to PTSD, well if you want to be hyper realistic about it, it's not always obvious at the time and particularly with complex PTSD can even manifest years later, but no, I agree that Allana's probably not going to be telling us a realistic tale of childhood PTSD, nor do I really think that would be a great idea.

That said, the EU can and does incorporate childhood trauma into characterisation - see also Ben Skywalker's refusal to use the force until he was as old as Allana is now. End of the day, it's a space fantasy series that says it's perfectly normal for pre-teens to be taken out on life-threatening missions with laser swords. None of that means we can't also have complex psychology, but we're probably in the wrong franchise if we want something other than a mix of D&D and Frontiersman attitudes towards the appropriate age to...give a child a deadly pet animal?

 

I really want to see Ben as Allana's master.

 

My desire to see Jaina get an apprentice is at war with my desire for the damn Skywalkers to train outside the family for once.

 

Oh, I'm all for the Skywalker/Solo/Djo family actually INTERACTING more.

But I think it would be a waste to have Allana as an apprentice to either Ben or Jaina (though it would be interesting).

They can have great interactions without being master/apprentice.

 

Allana's 'bossiness' may be down to who she is - the child of the Hapan Queen, grandchild of a former Alderaanian Princess and great-granddaughter of a former Queen (later Senator) of Naboo.

I'd not be inclined to put overmuch credence in the 'Chosen One' factor at this stage - I've got more than a sneaking suspicion that everything on Abeloth's planet is a Dark-twisted misrepresentaion of real locations on Mortis; and, therefore, not to be trusted!

So what that she has a Nexu for a pet! Anji (even at this early-ish stage) seems very well trained - and if Allana follows the family tradition of continuously getting into scapes, could well turn out to be a life-saver!

Thinking about Padme, and having just re-read "Plagueis" - she was Governor of Theed at thirteen and Queen at sixteen (complete with having to eject umpteen hundred battledroids from her homeworld)!

 

And concurrently at war with my desire to see the Skywalkers interact with each other outside of their predefined dip- and triptychs.

Team Padme I'd love to see Ben train someone too - I want Ben to do everything very young, including getting married and having kids, but it'd be kind of ridiculous for him to get an apprentice before Jaina, I think that would narratively undermine her, so if they have him train Allana I think Jaina needs someone else, unless they make some kind of plot point of the thing in a way I can't imagine that makes me all right with it.

 

I'd love to see more interaction and more varied interaction, too, but the Skywalkers are becoming such a cliquey group of Jedi. None of them (obviously not counting Luke) have been trained by anyone outside the family, except Leia, who was trained by Saba in addition to years of training by Luke. And not one of them, Luke included, has taken a personal apprentice outside the family. Luke trained big batches of students at a time, then when he moved to more individual master-apprentice pairings, he trained his nephews. They graduated (or died), and he never took an apprentice again, because apparently he can't be bothered to interact with or care about the education of anyone outside his family.

That's why I'd really like Jaina to have someone else as an apprentice. She should become a Jedi Master to a student because she's a mature Jedi who wants to pass on her knowledge and do her duty as a Jedi, not because her niece is old enough to need a Master and oh, god, we can't trust anyone outside the family to do it; better train my niece just like Mara did me! Hell, make Tahiri Allana's Master, and have Tahiri hang around Jaina and Jag a bunch because Allana wants to be with her family, or whatever, and Jaina and Jag are some of the only people Tahiri's comfortable with, too.

I'm going to be seriously pissed, too, if Luke and Leia never take apprentices. They're wise, mature Jedi. That's what they're supposed to do. Obi-Wan can take an apprentice, twenty-year-old Anakin can take an apprentice in the middle of a galactic war, but sixty-year-old Luke is just too busy hanging out with Han and Leia to spend any time taking responsibility for the next generation of Jedi. You have a purpose-built mechanism for introducing new major characters, creators. Take advantage of it.

 

You could argue that Luke had something resembling an apprentice with Kam Solusar, but Dark Empire II leaves out pretty much all of the details.

Didn't Luke work particularly close with Kyle, too? I thought I remembered reading he worked with him carefully, because he had briefly "fallen" before, and Luke wanted to make sure he was under control (because let's face it, Kyle unleashing his rage upon his galaxy would be a catastrophe of a previously unheard of caliber). I may have pulled that out of thing air, though.