Lit What do you think of Jaina Solo (Fel) as a character?

I, personally, have always loved Jaina. She is very relatable to myself, as a strong, spunky, young woman. But I've never really tried out forums or reaching out into the community, (until like yesterday xD) so I've never known what other people think of her. ​

 

Jaina was fantastic in the NJO. She was a strong, independent young woman who kicked ass and wasn't afraid to tell people exactly how she felt. She was sarcastic and snarky in a way that was always in pursuit of what she knew was right. Characters like that always tend to become my favourites --- Nynaeve in Wheel of Time is a pretty good analogue. I loved both Jaina and Nynaeve. Neither of them put up with men's ****. Jaina was a well-rounded character in the NJO who played a variety of roles and shone in every one of them.

Then came Legacy of the Force, which scratched its head about what Jaina could possibly do in it for the first five books. She did nothing in Betrayal, was nearly left out of Traviss's first two books entirely, and somehow played a decently-sized role in both Tempest and Exile without having anything to do. It wasn't until the authors put together the Alema-hunting team that she had any kind of focus, and that was in Book six. But even that was brilliant compared to Fate of the Jedi, which didn't have anything for her to do for the entire damn series. Seriously, she did nothing more than sit on Jag's lap for the first like seven books. And don't get me started on the whole "Sword of the Jedi" thing, which meant nothing to nobody and was desperately grasped at by authors who had absolutely nothing else for the character.

 

Yes, they could have elaborated a heap more on her role as the SotJ. If they were able to start/complete/publish the series SotJ, it may have been explained more then, but sadly that won't be happening.

 

Boring and **** tbh. Same as all the Solo children (except Jacen briefly). Maybe she got too Denning'd

 

I thought she was awesome and also happens to be one of my favorite black series figures.

 

I loved Jaina as a character but I feel like the fate envisioned for her (Empress) was at odds with everything we knew about her.

 

Jaina is defenetly one of my favourite SW characters and alongside Jacen and Tenel Ka one of my personal SW main characters opposed to the big three.
Though I agree with some of the above statements that Jaina was mishandeled in the post NJO EU.

 

What do people think, should have been done with Jaina after the NJO series?

 

Oh, I have an idea, but it'll be controversial.

First of all, having her younger brother slaughtered like a womprat and having to have to kill her own twin after he went mad would severely damage anyone mentally and emotionally.

That having been said, here's where I saw Jaina (and wish LFL saw her a few years ago). It is a period of renewal, where the Galactic Alliance has returned to the name the New Republic and moved their capital to Hosnian Prime as a sign of future positive change. Han has had the Millennium Falcon stolen, but he doesn't care as he recently miraculously found an exiled Chewie alive on a forgotten Yuuzhan Vong prison world. This is detailed in a final prose/comic book work before Episode 7.

in early 44 ABY, Jaina journeys with her Uncle Luke, cousin Ben Skywalker, and husband Jag on an archaeological research journey to the lost Sith Temple of Darth Plagueis.

There, the group discovers the deceased Plagueis' secret from his records: Using the Dark Side, Darth Plagueis could drain the life from a healthy Force sensitive individual and transfer it to a sick or injured person, regenerating that person's cells to prevent them from dying at the cost of the healthy Force sensitive being sacrificed. Palpatine had no knowledge of this temple, and had killed Plagueis before learning this power himself. Greatly disturbed, Luke tells the group that this knowledge must never be spread as the Jedi have no Light Side defense against it (any nearby Jedi can be drained at the whim of a darksider) and they will never speak of this knowledge again.

Leaving the temple, Jag runs into a Sith trap that fatally wounds him. Desperate to save her husband, Jaina uses Plagueis' knowledge to drain the life from Ben Skywalker, killing him and restoring Jag before a horrified Luke can stop her.

Jag, realizing his life was saved at the cost of Ben's, denounces Jaina as a murderer. Luke, horrified at watching his son die in agony, resists the dark side urge to cut Jaina down, but tells her that by Jedi and New Republic law she must return to the known galaxy where she will definitely face life in prison for Ben's murder.

However, at the last minute, not wanting to see his niece's life wasted in prison despite her crime, Luke tells her that this will only happen if he can "catch" her, subtly and nonverbally telling her to flee and live in peace and exile but never to return to the Republic, as she will be arrested.

In tears, Jaina flees into the Unknown Regions, while Jag returns to the Imperial Remnant and has his marriage to Jaina annulled. A broken Luke calls his Jedi Order together and, trying to spare them the same agonizing fate as Ben (the Jedi have no defense against the Plagueis draining power if anyone used it) orders the Order to disband immediately, with all members returning to civilian life.

Han and Leia angrily demand answers about what happened to Jaina, but Luke flees to the first Jedi Temple to try to research a way to counter Plagueis' power, and if life can be preserved without cost to another. In the Unknown Regions, a broken and demoralized Jaina is recruited by Snoke into his up-til-now unknown government based on the Old Empire: The First Order. Jaina vows revenge on a galaxy that took everything that mattered away, and renames herself Kira Ren.

And thus we have the premise of The Force Awakens, taking place in 44 ABY to match actor ages, EU compliant and released to massive success without alienating the EU fan base (with only Legacy decanonized). Disney realized that they could make a general audience friendly movie that tied to the EU without required reading of any novels (vague references to the Vong Wars will add depth the way mentions of the Clone Wars did in the OT), and the movie is a big hit. At least, in my imaginary 2015 anyway.

 

Well not turn established characters into villians for no reason other than shock value and lacking creativity. I would have prefered it if they had just kept Jaina with Jacen and the other Jedi of their generation and made then the main characters instead of just henchmen for the big three. Have them go through their own stories and adventures. Have Jacen and Jaina play of of each other with their different worldviews and learn from it. Give Jaina actually something to do on her own other than being Lukes go to assassin and worry which boy to choose for more than ten years.

 

Tbh, I don't really know. I've never been a writer or anything (not that that means I can't think up ideas). In my opinion, FotJ and LotJ weren't too bad, but if they were tweaked so that Jaina's character was more indepth, rather than assuming people had read the NJO series.

 

Absolutely loved Jaina in the NJO, it's a real bummer that they couldn't be bothered figure out anything meaningful to do with her post NJO.

The Jedi allready followed Luke like the IKs follow the Empress, and they allready were controling who got put into positions of power. Grand Master (I'm assuming) Jaina deciding that the Galaxy would be better off with the Jedi running things directly seems like a pretty logical extension of the trajectory the Jedi were allready on to me.

 

Basically, I never jived with the "redemption of the Empire."

I also think the Jedi were not interested in ever ruling anyone.

 

Jaina was never my favorite of the Solo children but she wasn't a bad character by any means. I find it ironic that princess leia-hero of the rebellion was the mother of the first Fel empress.

 

The jedi ruled during a period of tremendous crisis and the near collapse of galactic civilization. The New Sith wars especially the last 400 years nearly destroyed both the jedi and the republic.

 

I feel obligated to bring up the example of Roan Fel. A Fel who fell from this righteous path, growing corrupt with entitlement and impatience, so much that he tried to use a bioweapon on the most heavily populated planet in the Galaxy. Not all of the Emperors in the Fel Line were noble idealists.

 

I wonder if Jaina had anything to do with the Imperial mission and victory without war programs.

 

That would be something. As for me thinking about Jaina as a character, I would have liked to hang out with her. She's intelligent, doesn't take mess from anyone, and would do anything to help her loved ones. However, I felt really bad for her due to the loss of Anakin and her killing her twin brother. At that point, she truly needed peace. She and others around her went through a lot...

 

One thing I didn't like about Jaina(or how the writers handled the issue) was her killing Jacen. There should have been far deeper psychological repercussions for this than what was shown in FOTJ.