Lit "Choose. And act." Vergere, Gardening, and Jacen vs. JINO

Yeah I'm not really interested in how Denning wrote Vergere when every other author wrote her as a Jedi in that series.

And Denning was clearly not interested in how those authors wrote Vergere, so I don't feel bad about it either.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure there were complaints about that earlier in this very thread. Or if not there, then in one of the couple of other simultaneous threads were seem to have discussing similar things.

 

Yeah by me.

Of course, I was questioning why the pet of a deception sect priestess was allowed to torture a captive on an advanced scout ship ahead of the war.

But hey gotta be ambiguous right

Edit: I suppose the same could be said for why Tsavong Lah's pet was at a secret shaper facility (practicing heresy, a big no no for Lah) but I'm sure that was retconned too.

 

But am I correct in assuming that Vergere was supposed to mentor Jacen in the series planning? If so that's Denning's problem for writing her that way in SBS, more than anything. It seems to me that he always believed her to be a darker character, and when it turned out that other authors (and maybe even the series planners) didn't intend it that way and took her in a different direction, he just didn't understand it, and went with his view of her in the subsequent stories.

This is true, but he had his...what was it called, his Vergere Manifesto? It was like a whole thing he wrote out explaining why he believed Vergere had been a Sith all along, or something. Clearly, he believed her to be a Sith and wrote everything else to line up with that belief.

Oh, we complain. DM brought up earlier either in this thread or another that she shouldn't have even been able to do that, since she was still Elan's familiar at that point. She shouldn't have been allowed into the torture chamber. And besides, that scene in Legacy was only added after LOTF had already begun to establish Vergere as a Sith, so Ostrander was just going along with it.

Like I said, though, he did say she was a Sith. And even in Inferno the One Sith that Alema meet back this up.

I understand why you wrote that section, I think, and just like with Ostrander, it is meant to accommodate what can be done with the wildly varying depictions of her.

Right. I'm not doubting this at all. It's the very essence of his character, in a way.

I don't actually recall Jacen using green lightning at all in Traitor. He used actual lightning in an attempt to kill Vergere, though. But that doesn't sound like the incident you're talking about. I chalk that up to continuity error.

I can see this POV in a very real way, but it's working off the flawed depictions of Jacen outside of Traitor and TUF. Canonically, yes, this is how we can see this. But we shouldn't need to, because the Jacen at the end of TUF is one at peace with who he is. He doesn't have an internal conflict anymore. Basically, everything from Dark Nest on would've worked if, say, everything after Star by Star had happened differently. But the way it happened, they just don't line up.

 

Is that who I am?
Is that who I want to be?

Jacen had chosen.

Edit: I mean, even if we just take it for granted that five years of publishing was wasted on Jacen being mentored by a Sith (saying very different things than what are later attributed to her, mind you) and this influence was pervasive through the Jedi order in a series called the New Jedi Order, like it is some huge joke on the readers, and if we just cast out any depth to Traitor and take it reductively, and we're fine with all that...

Then we have to deal with all the illogic that treats the readers like morons where Vergere was a Sith candidate that tried to kill Palpatine and then instead of just telling the Jedi council that the Supreme Chancellor was a Sith Lord (since, you know, she wanted him dead) instead presciently knew that going to Zonama Sekot would take her out of the galaxy to evade his assassins, and then we are expected to believe that despite being the lowest of the low in Yuuzhan Vong society, a pet, she had absolute liberty to go where she pleased and talk to whomever she pleased, including secret facilities that would be especially hidden from her patron. Not to mention the notion that she would be a Sith candidate to start when she held absolutely no value to Palpatine in his machinations and could very easily have ruined everything for him if she wasn't carrying the plot mandated idiot ball.

Jesus

 

But you bought the books, didn't you?

 

I didn't.

 

Not after Tempest

 

So, next topic: Jacen's love.

Jacen:



So I'll just quote Traitor here, because I can't do it so eloquently.

All he wanted was a quiet place to die. Was that too much to ask? Hadn't he earned that? Why did everything have to be so hideous, so gruesome, so just plain rotten all the time? Couldn't he even die in peace?​

Did the whole universe hate him?​

There's only one answer when the universe hates you, whispered the shadow worm from the base of his skull.​

Hate it back.​

So he did.​

It was easy.​

He hated the universe. Hated everything about it: all the pointless suffering and empty death and all the stupid mindless mechanical useless laws and all the squirming blood-smeared ignorant life, hated the stony flesh under his feet and the air that he breathed, hated himself, hated even the hate he felt and suddenly he wasn't tired anymore, he wasn't confused anymore, everything was simple, everything was easy, everything made sense because hate was everything and everything was hate, and he didn't want to die anymore.​

All he wanted was to hurt someone.​

* * *

Jacen was surprised by life.​

The teeth of the World Brain had not closed upon him. Its tentacles had not ripped the flesh from his bones. He had not drowned in the slime pool, asphyxiating on phosphorescent goo. No Yuuzhan Vong warriors swarmed around him to drag him from the slime and carve the life from him with amphistaffs.​

Instead, a bubble of air had formed around him, and tentacles had cradled him like a sleeping child, and lips had closed over sword-edged teeth to touch him with a kiss.​

Because he was the World Brain, and the World Brain was him, and each was everything else, and Jacen had learned that one can meet the Universe and all its irrational pain -- which means meeting oneself -- with fear, or with hatred, or with despair.​

Or one can choose to meet it with love.​

Jacen had chosen.​

But still, he was astonished to discover that the Universe could love him back.​

Anyway, I'm okay. Just got a little dust in my eye.

So, Jacen decides in Traitor that he's going to meet the universe with love even if it doesn't love him back. But, it does love him back. Even if it doesn't, though, he decides to love it (note, it says after he had chosen that the Universe loved him back). This means that Jacen is going to meet everything with love, no matter what. It's his choice. And, uh, I really can't top anything that I just quoted.

JINO:



(That image, though. Yikes.)

The problem with Jacen in the post-NJO stories is, as I posted earlier in this thread, his love is completely conditional. What we saw of Jacen in Traitor shows us this unconditional love that spans everything, no matter what. What we see later, though, is another thing completely. There are lots of passages relating to this, but they're just depressing.

In the Dark Nest trilogy, this hasn't so much become a problem yet. He still obviously loves Jaina, and Ben especially, and the rest of his family. But he's already distant. By Tempest, Jacen decides he doesn't really love his parents anymore. They just don't have that kind of relationship (as if his love for them should be based on whether or not they support his decisions; yep, that's unconditional love, for sure). In Exile, he says he loves Ben but would soon lose his love for him if Ben didn't turn out to be the Sith apprentice Jacen wanted. When Tenel Ka turns on him in Inferno, Jacen ceases to love her (though his love for her apparently returns in Invincible; he sacrifices himself to save her and Allana). The only one he never really stops loving is Allana, and she's a four-year-old who can't really do anything to disappoint him.

Showdown:

This is perhaps the biggest loss to Jacen's character. He's a compassionate, caring character who is transformed into a callous murdering machine. Not only does he not care for others unconditionally anymore, but he actively chooses to no longer love them (see...whichever book it is when he tells his parents goodbye basically because they're dead to him). There's no reconciliation between Jacen in NJO and post-NJO here. Not even close.

Next time:

Jacen the student vs. Jacen the hero.

 

i feel that what jacen went through in NJO, and especially in the five year journey set his path as a sith. He was addicted to the power and feeling of what the force downloaded him with to defeat Omni. He even said in that book, he would always try and feel that again. So his 5 years journey he sought how to attain that, and it led to his downfall. I wish Jacen could be the jedi we saw in the NJO, and the one revanfan1 writes in his fan fic, but sadly it is not so. Now the character is not even canon. We can't even have the character redeemed with a new slate.

 

the Force is evil after all

btw nice fanfic Revanfan1

 

DigitalMessiah, what fanfic are you referring to?

 

iunno whatever jedimatteus is referring to

maybe he thinks you wrote Traitor

are you Matt Stover

 

No. No, I'm not.

Or am I.

Spoiler

The answer is no.

I did write a fanfic with Jacen, though.

 

sometimes I wonder if I would enjoy Star Wars more if I just took the most reductive possible interpretation of every single aspect of it

 

I'm confused, "every other author" who wrote Vergere ahead of Denning consists of just Luceno, doesn't it?

And how does Luceno depict her? Ostensibly as a Yuuzhan Vong ally for most of the novel, and when we're led to realise that she's more than that, the only certainties we're given are that this is a character who is very good at hiding her true opinions and motives, a character with an agenda of her own that the reader does not understand, and a character who chooses not to simply join the Jedi or the New Republic and help them with everything that she knows (rather than simply defecting to NRI right at the start, revealing herself as a Jedi, and taking it from there)...

I'd also put it to you that Vergere in Traitor is a character who admits no use for labels like "Jedi" and "Sith" except as philosophical tools to expose how dangerous and self-deceiving they can be.

And Vergere in Destiny's Way gives Luke Skywalker really bad vibes.

Now, yes, we can agree to disagree, but your interpretation of Vergere "as a Jedi" is certainly not something that these novels require the reader to accept.

As to the problem of her acting above her apparent position, which you and others mention... I'd argue that there are indications through the novels that this is not her real status, something is first indicated when Harrar subtly prompts her Elan to take her on her mission in Hero's Trial; it's also seen in Traitor in her supervision of Jacen and Ganner, and her discussions with Nom Anor; it is NOT just in Star by Star and the Krayt flashback where she's doing this sort of thing...

...(and now I think about it, I suppose I should mention my own small contribution, the retcon that Vergere was part of some deeper movement within the Yuuzhan Vong; this shouldn't be taken as anything to do with the intention of any of the NJO novelists, but the retcon does provide additional context for Vergere's actions within the big story formerly-known-as-canon, which should answer people's gripes about her acting above her ostensible status).

As to the story plan, I recall one of the NJO editors saying that Stover did things they hadn't expected in Traitor, which leads me to observe that the plan was probably relatively loose, and that Stover pushed its limits in brilliant (but unspecified) ways.

Secondly, I note that the NJO story team also allowed Denning to write Vergere the way he did in Star by Star, which leads me to conclude that whatever the parameters of the plan, they were equally cool with that presentation of the character. I'd also add that I seem to recall that one reason they asked him to write that novel was his novel Pages of Pain, where there's a very enigmatic and ambiguous antagonist, which leads me to suspect (if indeed I remember that rightly) that they were maybe actively wanting him to bring some of that ambivalence to Vergere.

Thirdly, as outlined above, I'd say that Vergere is a character who resists easy categorizations, and who certainly cannot be simply delineated as a conventional Jedi; whether that makes her "a darker character", or whether such categorization is appropriate, are questions left to the reader...

The term sounds familiar, but I can't find anything about it on the internet. Assuming we can take what Denning says in his old StarWars.com interview at face value, he did suggest behind the scenes that the idea could or should be taken seriously... but as he notes, "The important thing was that the editors liked it." This was an idea that was fully accepted and embraced by the story team.

And the important thing as far as the story is concerned is that the story doesn't really compel you to believe it, anywhere.

It's also completely irrelevant to how we interpret Jacen (at least, that's my arguably rather irrelevant opinion). Denning's view of Vergere and Jacen's path after Traitor are not actually terribly closely connected - it may help to separate them as topics?

Another way to look at this is to ask this: if Vergere was a Sith, how, if at all, does what she wanted from Jacen differ from what she says she wanted, and what you wanted from the character?

If you agree with Vergere, are you afraid of the dark?

Does it establish her as a Sith, or just as someone who tortures captive Jedi because that's what the YV expect, and ends up with damaged results?

On the question of what Vergere is allowed to do, I'd say she's pushing well outside her ostensible status in all her appearances, and as I mentioned above, I took the opportunity to provide a mild retcon regarding this in WARFARE.

Conceded, on the Denning point.

As to what One Sith say, that is, at best, a mix of Krayt's opinion and their analysis of the information they have.

I tried - so what do you think you understand?

Consensus!

Oh, no, that's exactly what I mean. There's no green lightning in Traitor, merely a Jacen in Destiny's Way whose inaccurate recollections of Traitor suggest that he's in some sort of very human state of self-denial. Now, yes, it's maybe saner to just say that's a continuity error and ignore it, but then we're getting into selective canon and you can argue anything you want...

Also, in Destiny's Way Jacen does talk to his own hallucinations (and you'll recall that happened in Traitor, too)...

So I'd argue that Jacen is mentally off-balance is an entirely legitimate interpretation of his character even in the later NJO.

This, IMHO, is ultimately why his ability to express and experience love becomes so damaged. The kid is hurting too much....

At the end of TUF, Jacen has just brutally murdered a mentally-ill cripple. And felt really good about it.

I do not find that an unproblematic plot-point.

In short, from my POV, you don't have "flawed depictions", you have human character flaws. Traitor was the novel in which Jacen, with his back to the bulkhead, rose above or pushed past them, aided, paradoxically, by being driven back so close to his warrior instincts; but in the rest of the NJO, where he actually has more space to look for answers and self-edit, he backtracked.

I would have been fine with a Jacen who found a sort of balance after the NJO (at that point, I imagined him jetting around the Outer Rim in a hippyish old space yacht with Alema Rar for company), and I would have been equally fine with Jacen after Invincible becoming a populist tyrant selfidentifying as Sith, backed up by a fleet of pointy space battleships in whatever part of the GFFA would still have him, to pose all sorts of interesting and awkward questions for his sister and the rest of the Jedi (I think I said as much on TF.N back then, too)...

... but Jacen becoming the next mentally-ill cripple who Luke sends his sister's kid to kill? Jacen trying to work through his layers of self-denial and pain and confusion and isolation in order to respond to some instinctive insight only he can understand to fix a broken Galaxy? Jacen being brought back by Tenel Ka off camera, or simply faking his own assassination?

I'm fine with all those options, too (though the first of them should really provoke only pity). But I suspect the central one is the one that was mostly intended by Denning.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Nah, Greg Bear wrote her as a Jedi too (albeit in a recorded hologram form). Luceno also wrote her as a Jedi in Cloak of Deception prior to Star by Star.

She has no use for labels such as Jedi or Sith when asking the question "who is Jacen Solo?"

Okay.

I'd argue it's pretty important to Rogue Planet and Cloak of Deception.

Harrar is not surprised by Jacen's claim that she's a Jedi in The Unifying Force. Vergere does not interact with Ganner at all in Traitor. I don't think there's any question that Vergere was good at deceiving the Yuuzhan Vong; her continued existence was predicated on it until the conclusion of Traitor. However, the character has been wholly flanderized by this trait and it's pretty sad. Back to my point, I was referring more broadly to Denning's retcon of the character, with regard to misattributing certain things Jacen believes in the Dark Nest trilogy to Vergere, and further the entire premise that she was a "Sith candidate"; this is disregarding all the authors that have written Vergere.... which I suppose is just Stover, since Bear and Luceno preceded Denning. And Denning is pretty unapologetic about it in the blog he wrote to promote Crucible, more or less saying he did it because he disagreed with the premise of Traitor. The blog post is no longer on TOS, but quotes from it can be found in the Crucible thread here.

It was in a different thread, but I already reiterated them here.

The story plan seemed to consist of Vergere teaching Jacen a Force aikido technique which allowed him to redirect energy without losing any himself -- it's also stated that it's really just the Art of the Small, which allowed Jacen to microscopically/subatomically counter Onimi's attacks in the final novel. Stover made Traitor into Jacen's journey into the underworld to achieve self-knowledge, which is a lot better than Vergere merely teaching him a Force technique. This is all per Pablo in the Essential Reader's Companion.

In the round robin, Luceno also states (and you just alluded to this quote yourself):

"Our intention was for her to serve as a voice for the Republic-era Jedi and in that capacity answer some of the questions Luke had been pondering for most of his adult life. We also wanted Vergere to demystify the Force, or at least convey a sense that the ability to use the Force was not simply an accident of birth. In Traitor, Matt Stover not only ran with these ideas, but took them beyond our wildest imaginings."

Having her be a Sith all along doesn't seem conducive to that intent -- indeed, her deceptive nature among the Yuuzhan Vong overwhelming her characterization seems to have ruined it.

On the point of what Denning was permitted -- there's a general sense that the authors were given liberty to write what they wanted without parameters beyond capturing key events that were mapped out, or otherwise achieving certain objectives. You noted, and I quoted, how Stover took their ideas beyond their wildest imaginings. That doesn't really suggest there was a lot of oversight in how Denning wrote Vergere vis-a-vis their intent for the character.

I don't really think she resists easy categorization at all and that's a consequence of her flanderization. She's an Old Republic Jedi that, in her isolation among the Yuuzhan Vong, discovered similar things to what Yoda discovered in the episodes of TCW titled "Voices," "Destiny," and "Sacrifice," and beyond that in between the two trilogies. She does appear to Jacen as a blue glowie, after all.

The Vergere compendium (I honestly don't remember the exact term used and don't feel like looking it up) is mentioned in The Essential Reader's companion.

Agreed, despite the retcon and how it was pushed, plausible deniability is pervasive. Except in what you wrote, IMO.

Agreed on the former, which is a strike against the path Jacen took. Which is to say, even if we accept it as gospel truth that Vergere was a "Sith candidate," I'll quote her and ask "is it what the teacher teaches, or what the student learns?" I don't think Jacen's compassion at the conclusion of Traitor is particularly conducive to the path his character took after The Unifying Force. And nothing happened in between Traitor and The Unifying Force to justify it, either.

Again, assuming Vergere was a Sith, her plans for Jacen are completely opaque, and all we have is hearsay from others with their own agendas.

Not sure what you mean here.

I suppose at this point I'll paraphrase Stover and ask which page Vergere tortures Jacen on in Traitor. Unless you're referring to Ostrander's work, but I don't recall her torturing Hett either, just speaking to him while he's already in the Embrace of Pain. I think it's implicit that she didn't put him there.

You'll have to refresh my memory on Jacen talking to his own hallucinations in Destiny's Way (I really hope you aren't referring to Vergere's Force apparition -- Vergere was a part of the Jedi meld after her death, so it wasn't a hallucination). re: lightning, per Jacen's POV it was nonlethal. FWIW, Luke uses a lethal variant on the Slayers in The Unifying Force. He was also an apprentice to Darth Sidious (a much more legitimate one than Vergere, in fact). He was also Jacen's teacher. See where we can go with this?

Jacen didn't murder anyone. Onimi killed himself with his own poisons, which Jacen defended himself against. Murder itself is a pretty loaded word to be using to describe that scene.

 

I'm curious how many of these objections couldn't be applied to the OT. How do we know that Luke isn't just talking to his own hallucinations most of the time when he's speaking with "ghostly" Obi-Wan?

 

I've long been a proponent of Yoda being a Sith Lord.

 

After spending the past hour reading old debates (not even about this subject) because I have nothing better to do, I'm going to summarize my stance on the issues brought up and Traitor and Jacen and Vergere:

A) Vergere was deceptive among the Yuuzhan Vong as a necessity of survival.

B) Vergere was purposely equivocal with Jacen because she wanted him to form his own conclusion to her question. The question was, "Who is Jacen Solo?"

"I do have an answer. But it's my answer, not yours. You will find no truth in me. Ask yourself. Where else can one look?"

C) Jacen Solo discovered who he was, and in so doing, he learned to see beyond fear and look at the universe with love.

In the context of this thread, JINO, i.e. Jacen in the post-NJO literature, is motivated by fear: fear of loss of his daughter, fear of a bleak future, whatever. But "Jacen had learned that one can meet the Universe and all its irrational pain -- which means meeting oneself -- with fear, or with hatred, or with despair. Or one can choose to meet it with love. Jacen had chosen."

I would argue that Jacen had realized that there are things he cannot control, and all he can do is remain true to himself, look beyond fear, and meet the universe with love.

"That's most of what's wrong with the Yuuzhan Vong. Instead of working with what is, they keep trying to force everything to be what they think it should be."

"That's most of what's wrong with the JINO/Darth Caedus. Instead of working with what is, he keeps trying to force everything to be what he thinks it should be."

Not arguing the point any further.

 

revenfan1 has like at least 3 fan fic novels during the lotf/fotj time period pretty darn good. jacen is stupid acting in some of it, but gets better by the third novel

 

Thanks for quoting me to tell me about my own fanfics.

Just kidding. I'm glad you enjoy them! And yes, Jacen does have some pretty dumb moments, but that was intentional because taking into account that YJK and NJO never happened in my fanfic's timeline, Jacen never had the Hero's Journey or trials he had in canon.

 

lolol, did not realize you were the one asking lol.


So i forget Revanfan1, where is Anakin Solo?

 

I wanted to include Anakin, but I felt I couldn't because when I originally wrote the fic, it was supposed to be a "what you think will happen in Episode VII" fic, and I had to pair actors with characters. When it came down to it, there wasn't one for Anakin (at the time). If I were to write it now, there were new actors announced after I wrote it, so I'd probably put Pip Andersen in the role of Anakin.

 

Yay, I avoided the triple post. I considered posting this in my NJO thread, if only to avoid the controversy (and a triple post).

With regard to why Jedi isn't an acceptable label -- not just due to the general idea which Vergere wants Jacen to discover who he is on his own terms -- in the context of the question: who is Jacen Solo?" As Vergere explains:

"Jacen Solo had to be bereft of friends, of relatives, of teachers and knowledge and the Force and everything that could help him. He had to be reduced to nothing -- or rather, to himself only. And then he had to act -- to act purely out of himself, out of his own inner being. In that state of complete disinterest, everything else having failed him, he had no choice but to be himself, to choose and to act."

I think we already went over choose and act in this thread, but why not be repetitive?

"Choose, and act."
Jacen saw with preternatural clarity the choice he was being offered. The opportunity.
Anakin's lightsaber. Anakin had made it. Anakin had used it. It had changed him, and he had transformed it. Its crystal was not like those of other lightsabers, but was a living Vonglife gem.
Part Jedi. Part Yuuzhan Vong, he thought. Almost like me.
They were offering him Anakin's life: his spirit, his skill, his courage.
His violence.
Jacen had first used a lightsaber in combat at the age of three. He was a natural.
And now he could feel the Yuuzhan Vong. And the Force was with him.
He could follow Anakin's path. He could be pure warrior. He could be even greater than his brother had been: with the dark power he could command, he could surpass any living Jedi, even Uncle Luke. Surpass even the Jedi Knights of old.
He could be the greatest sword of the Force who had ever lived.
More: He could avenge his brother with the weapon his brother had forged.
I could pick that up, he thought, and kill them all.
Is that who I am?
Is that who I want to be?

Illumination burst within his brain.
In that instant, everything finally made sense. He understood what Jacen had been talking about. There was nothing to fear.
He understood the power of being who he was.
He didn't even really have to know who he was. He could decide.
He could choose, and act.
Suddenly, his life made sense. His life had been a story of pretending to be a hero. Well, he thought. Okay, then.
His nausea had vanished. It wasn't even a memory. No more weakness. No more uncertainty. Doubt and fear had disappeared along with the nausea.
He hefted Anakin's lightsaber.
"We both lose unless" -- he spoke slowly -- "unless somebody doesn't let them in."
"You have to play the hero," Jacen said sadly. "Even if it kills you."
Ganner squeezed the blade to life, and stared at its sizzling purple shaft. Here was the weapon of a hero. A real hero. Not a playactor. Not a pretend-hero, like Ganner had always been.
But this weapon was now in Ganner's hand.
I don't have to be a real hero, he thought. A dazzling, old-Ganner, forget-the-consequences-and-have-some-fun smile dawned on his face. He shook himself and years fell from his shoulders; his eyes lit up, sparking like arc gaps in the red-lit gloom. He felt shiny as a war droid and twice as tough.
I don't have to be a hero, he thought in silent wonder. All I have to do is pretend.
"Like I said, I'm just the sidekick here," he said carelessly. "My job is to make sure the real hero lives long enough to do his. That whole `needing to be a hero' thing has always been my greatest weakness."
Jacen stared at him, into him, through him, as though he knew him to his very core, and he nodded. "But you should know that it can also be your greatest strength. Give yourself permission to use that strength, Ganner. You'll need it. "
"Yeah." Ganner looked into the lightsaber's blade as though his future could be read in its amethyst shaft. He grinned at what he saw. "You know, I never liked you, Jacen. I thought you were soft. Wishy-washy. An overintellectual bleeding heart."
"I never liked you either." Ganner looked up to find Jacen answering his grin with a gentle, knowing smile. "I thought you were nothing but a grandstander. A playacting glory hunter, more concerned with looking good than with doing good."
Ganner laughed out loud. "You were right."
"So were you." Jacen held out his hand. "So: here's our chance to show the Yuuzhan Vong what a grandstander and a bleeding heart can do."
Ganner took Jacen's hand and gripped it fiercely. "It'll be a show they'll never forget."

Thus,

"We are playing the same game we have been playing ever since Myrkr: we are playing `Who is Jacen Solo?'"
"If that's the game, I can end it right now. I know who I am, Vergere. No matter what you do to me. No matter what new torture you put me through. If I never touch the Force again. It doesn't matter. I know."
"Do you?"
"Yes. I'm a Jedi."
"Indeed? Then the game is over."
"Really? It is? "
"Yes. And you lose."

-- just as she did herself:

"You -- you are a Jedi!"
"No, I am not. Nor am I Sith."
"What are you, then?"
"I am Vergere. What are you?"

as an aside, you'll note that Jacen introduces Vergere as an Old Republic Jedi to Luke, and she doesn't contradict him, and further states in response to Luke's question:
"What does hold your allegiance?"
"The Jedi Code. And what you would call the 'Old' Republic."

The reason why it isn't an acceptable answer is because it's a non-answer. Jacen's hero's journey, and the series, titled The New Jedi Order, is predicated on the question of "what is a Jedi?" As put succinctly by Jaina:

"You aren't sure if what you've learned about being a Jedi is what you were supposed to have learned about being a Jedi. You want to find a way to become the ultimate Jedi."

The series painstakingly establishes that Jacen is dissatisfied with what he knows of being a Jedi, and believes there's more to learn. The definition of a Jedi that he's been taught is unsatisfying to him. Therefore, to answer that he's a Jedi is to give no answer at all.

I suppose it's worth noting that Ganner also realized that all he can do is remain true to himself, look beyond fear, and meet the universe with love.

"You need not like someone to love him. Love is nothing more than the recognition that two are one. That all is one. Ganner knew that, at the end, more fully than even you do. That knowledge is the seed of greatness."