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I read a very compelling AU that has totally sparked my interest as far as existential questions and character growth.

The context was dark indeed but I still think the question and insight rings true for the character in question.

Specifically, Luke's insights after the 'victory' at Endor.

The quote that got me thinking is from vaderincarnate's amazing Kessel Run. The quote is under the tag.

Spoiler

"I fought, and the Alliance cheered. I saved my father, and he died in my arms. I destroyed the Emperor, and the Empire kept going." His voice dropped
lower. "It took me years, but do you know what I realized?"
Mara didn’t answer.
Luke tilted his head, watching her. "That the Dark never left. It was still there - in the cracks of the New Republic, in the whispers of what came next.
They called me a hero, but what did I really change? I gave everything for their cause, and the war still went on."

So, short of going completely dark, I still believe that's something he would understandably grapple with and I want Mara to be the one to give him perspective.

I think that it would be something that would be in the back of his mind but some crisis or situation would bring it out in the open.

• What kind of crisis would be likeliest to draw that to the fore?

• What words and actions could Mara use to give him perspective?

 

The first question to me can depend on whatever Luke's situation is at the moment. Maybe it's not a crisis that triggers his thought. Reflection such as he displayed could appear just about anywhere, in theory. It could be a tragedy, whether he is personally involved or not. Or it could just come from him witnessing a heroic act, or even just remembering one.

What words could Mara give him perspective?
Balance. The teachings of the Force are basically the same whether there's a Dark Side teacher or Light Side. There is always balance of both sides.
Mara can speak to the balance. She has quite literally been on both sides of the balance. She has experienced both the singularity of Palpatine's teachings and the inclusion of Luke's. To Luke's point of "the Dark never left; it was in the cracks of the New Republic", there is no existence where Dark does not live without Light, and vice versa. It's the Yin-Yang all over again. One cannot exist without the other. One can survive while the other hides, but they don't disappear completely.
In that sense, Mara can explain to Luke that he cannot make the Dark Side disappear completely either. Tell him he will always be the hero for what he has accomplished already. When evil returns again, they can't blame that on Luke. They won't revoke his hero status because they have to fight again. Luke has done his heroism. They can't take that away from him.
That's the feeling I get from that last sentence of Luke's reflection. If there's one weakness that Luke has shown throughout the movies, books, and comics, it is his self-pity. "Oh no, they have to go to war again that I stopped. They'll hate me." That's when Mara can give him the above resolution.
Right after she gives him a swift slap on the head!

 

Well, this kind of already happens, in Legends canon. It's basically the central thread of the Luke/Mara plot in the Hand of Thrawn Duology. The only real difference is that Luke's crisis is precipitated by the accumulated failures of his various fallen students, not anything involving the NR or the by then largely concluded Galactic Civil War (from a strategic perspective, the war ends with the destruction of Byss in 10 ABY, everything after that is just the flailing of dead-enders).

 

Injury or death of a friend. Starting his academy, students graduating from the academy. Marriage, having kids, being an uncle or godparent.

 

Wondering how a typical reader would respond to some (plot critical) stuff from a capital ship bridge. I have a character, an Admiral about her flagship, with both the main and auxiliary bridges out of action in an ambush, arriving at the engine room with something like the Third Engineer just standing there not have taken the initiative to actually command, then she declares "I have the conn." It's a old wet-navy term still in use today in real life, and I explain what it means right after so no issues, but a couple paragraphs later there's "Belay that" without explanation, which I'm assuming gets used in SW (it seems we have very little action plot from capital ship bridges), but can I assume the reader knows what that means? (There's enough context to figure it out.) Also she's issuing helm orders directly, in this case an attempt at a glancing collision. There's "27 degrees port, 8 degrees down," which is easy enough, but it's followed a few seconds later by a couple of additional ones such as "1 degree up, 2 degrees starboard," "2 degrees port", which the intention is her lining things up correctly after the first order, (so we've still turned/in the process of turning to port); can I safely assume the reader will understand that's in addition to/on top of the previous orders?
There's also the question of capital ship speeds. I hew to a RPG-derrived system where a Dreadnought or SSD is the slowest at speed 3, a ISD is 6, and a Lancer is the fastest at 8, as is a Y-Wing while an X-wing or TIE starfighter is 10 and an A-wing is 14. (The starfighter numbers never come up.)
I'm following the system in terms of plot and action, but how to communicate that to the reader? The numbers are easy enough and don't need to be remembered by the reader (they're briefly re-given on the occasions it actually matters), but what to call the unit? "Battle-(number)" happens to be an actual WWII US Navy system for formation speeds, but I'm not sure that would work in this context, but nothing else I've come up with seems superior. Any breakthrough ideas? (It's might be possible to avoid giving any numbers at all, depending on the details. Would that be better?)
Also how speed orders are given within the ship. The old engine-room telegraph based system of "stop, (ahead-) slow, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full" (With "emergency full ahead" being above that.) (Or I suppose "ahead flank.") Or just "ahead-X percent"? (With X always being a multiple of 10 for convenience.)
Also a sequence where a space transport is diving full speed into an atmosphere with the sublight drive at full throttle. Somebody's calling out velocities. Better to use kph, or mach? (kph would peak at around 6000, mach at around 7-9, possibly calling out altitude in km as well. That's safe for a highly compact and streamlined space transport (such as a Baudo) but a TIE Interceptor would break up at perhaps 4000-4800 kph, or mach 4, 5 or 5.5-ish.
"Line ahead" and "line abreast" are easy enough, but what about "line echelon?"

Sorry for a convoluted and not all that well written post full of terms and teach to reader questions.

 

This may not be the sort of confirmation you're looking for, so I apologise in advance, but all those examples of naval terminology you mention are used extensively in "the other enduring space franchise", a.k.a. Star Trek, and are therefore more widely known than many might suspect. Anybody who's even casually watched an episode of The Next Generation or Voyager will have likely heard the words "conn" and "belay" before, with plenty of context to pick up meaning. They also commonly use "ahead, [unit of speed]" and fractions (one-quarter, one-third, etc.) when issuing orders related to speed.

For the consecutive course corrections, I'd recommend adding the word "now" and occasional ellipses to make the sequence crystal clear. Your Admiral could order, "27 degrees port, 8 degrees down" then briefly pause while she's mentally lining things up, before adding, "Now, 1 degree up... 2 degrees starboard... 2 degrees port... there. Hold." But please, this isn't me telling you how to write your own story! That was just an illustration. Also, because of three-dimensional movement in space, "down" tends to be described in relation to the ship's axis as "z-minus [number] degrees" or "negative [number] degrees" (or, if you don't want them to sound too technical, pilots might say "dip the nose" or use some other common phrase, so long as it's still in relation to the ship's axis).

Star Wars: The Clone Wars featured numerous bridge scenes involving Republic admirals, crews, and their Jedi generals. It's been a while since I watched the show, so I'm afraid I can't recall the exact terminology, but methinks I would've remembered if it were anything other than naval standard.

In other words, I think you're good.