Lit 21 years later and I still want Anakin Solo back.

Killing Anakin Solo was one of the biggest disservices to fans who loved old canon. Del Rey created such a solid foundation to groom him as the next leader to replace Luke with an incredible character driven story-arch that ended too soon with no real closure. Ben Skywalker felt like a cheap replacement. I remember the fandom around that time was divided about a resurrection plot twist because it would be too unbelievable. We clearly see now that Disney has blown that notion out of the water after bringing back Maul, Palpatine, Leia Poppins, etc. I would like to see some version of Anakin Solo in Disney Canon once we get a multiverse going which is inevitable. What are your thoughts on Anakin Solo's death 21 years later?

 

A multiverse isn't happening in Star Wars. Not sure why people all of a sudden started thinking it would happen just because one movie (that had three eras of Spiderman fans coming to watch it) was really successful.

 

As a Jacen fan I must firmly disagree.

That said, it is a testament to both the NJO and the YJK that these characters have fans twenty years and a decanonization later.

 

I mean that is what I like about it now. He had all this potential and pressures placed upon him and he dies, heroically/pointlessly in a war. His death made NJO, having this great hero die really threw a twist in a good way.

His story has the ultimate closure, he is dead.

Jacen should have been the replacement. Ben Skywalker is a hero not a leader.

 

Anakin who? Kidding... Of course I remember the kid that flirted with Tenel Ka long before Jacen returned the favor with Tahiri. His death was tragic but heroic, something that kicked the NJO into high gear after Chewies death only ended up being highly controversial among fans.

Any considered or mocked resurrection of Anakin would have lessened his story. I believe his and Tahiris prophecy of "more than the sum of their parts" can still work and come true if they bridge life and afterlife/death and from both sides work the Force's way. Kinda a "Ghost" movie-esque story just with Anakin and Tahiri instead of Demi Moore and Patrick Swayzie!

I wish though Jacen would have lived to become a Ulic Quel Droma type of character for Allana to find later on Vima Sunrider style.

 

multiverse isn't happening

 

Both of the above (and I'd throw in Boba Fett as well) just show a lack of creativity. Or a lack of fore-sight when it comes to planning. Or both. Oddly that scene with Leia didn't bother me all that much -- possibly just because my overall expectations had been lowered substantially.

Getting back on topic: Anakin's death never bothered me as much as Chewie's. For several books, they'd been playing up his 'hero' thing (the authors even admit to doing it on purpose)...and 'heroes' don't typically have a long lifespan in a war. I think we've bought into the hype of what could have been (and I think the in-universe characters have as well), to the detriment of what actually is. Real-world, we've done the same thing with JFK: many people think that he would've gotten the US out of Vietnam much earlier if he'd lived or passed civil-rights legislation sooner; but both ignore the political realities of the time.

In hindsight, what bothers me most about Anakin's death is the way it polarized the NJO fanbase for a long time...maybe even to this day. The "Anakin or Jacen" camps became antagonistic to an extreme. It took me a very long time to come to like Anakin as a character, and that has more to do with what people would say or write here than it ever did with the actual on-page Anakin.

Do I miss Anakin Solo? Not really. Maybe I'm still projecting, but I still feel he was too perfect a character. What I DO miss, however, is the sense of optimism that the Solo kids gave us. That, despite their differences, they were all better together.

 

Anakin Solo is if nothing else-a triumphantly electrifying hero who exudes confidence, smoldering potential, and unconquerable optimism.

I can understand why people like him, IU and out-he’s the sort of figure who naturally acquires a large circle of friends and acolytes.

Do I think he is particularly compelling or interesting? Not really. So I don’t want him back, his death was noble and appropriate from a writing and story perspective.

 

I've got to tell you; Anakin's death is truly and honestly one of the pieces of media that have affected me emotionally the most. It was just so tragic and Han and Leia's response to it was done so well. With it being a tragedy that I felt so deeply, I absolutely feel that emptiness in the lack of his involvement in later stories. I miss him.

But because that moment was done so well I also don't know if I'd prefer a reality where he didn't die or if there was something that brought him back I might find that cheapens that prior moment.

Regarding a multiverse and that possibility, I can absolutely see a possibility where Legends is brought back as a prominent "alternate" continuity, but I do not expect and absolutely would not want these "multiple universe" to actually interact with each other if this ever did come to pass.

 

Your Jimmy's dead, son. Accept it.

 

The fact people miss him and wish him back, 21 years later does speak to how much compelling he and the story he was apart of is.

Same thing for Jacen.

 

For me Anakin Solo`s death was one of the rare times that SW felt real. Because there was no buildup, and his death wasn`t even this world shattering sacrifice at the end of a story. It was basically just the result of bad luck and his own pride. He was Anakin Skywalkers Grandson, but in the end he just died, like all those redshirts who Denning only even created to die.
That feels very real, being an important person won`t save you from a potentially sudden or "random" death in RL as well.

I think it also underlines the cost of war, something that SW often fails at doing. Cause usually we only get numbers of faceless people having been killed. And if characters die its usually by the hand of other characters, rather than just the faceless, nameless enemy soldiers.

 

Anakins death was a shock, but I think what I felt way more was the death of Nelani Dinn, a great character I wished to see in more stories and had lived on.

 

I don't know if I could call her a 'great' character because she just wasn't on-screen enough. But she was definitely a compelling character, and it would have been a better storyline if she'd lived. I've got something like 3 plot bunnies where works with Jacen in LotF and saves him from himself.

 

I want all the Solo kids back, they really added a lot to the universe, I feel. We don't really have a 'next generation' anymore now.

 

Nelani Dinn was only introduced for her to be killed by Jacen. She was only there for that purpose. I don't think the authors ever planned or thought anything for her beyond that function.

I still think that should have been Danni that Jacen kills. It would have more of an emotional impact, since we have known her for a long time, and her past with Jacen. And, the authors obviously did not plan to use her character again. She never appears in LOTF or FOTJ, to my knowledge.

 

That's true, but the character I think had the mixture of innocence, optimism and unambiguous goodness that people were won over by her, her limited role in the narrative notwithstanding.

 

While I miss Anakin...I think the play out of Legends revealed, ultimately, the ideas carried by the family lineage was played out. The Skywalker/Solo names carried too much baggage and impeded where the stories were going (Look at the LEGACY comics).

I wish Anakin's death didn't feel so empty. The romanticizing of his heroic sacrifice came after the fact, while in the book the death seemed sudden, far from impossible to escape, and even to the characters in the moment, a rather uneven cost to pay for the victory achieved.

If he had made it to the end of NJO and died saving his parents or freeing his siblings or liberating the galaxy, it would've meant more.

As it is, Chewie's death is the one in NJO that, while gut wrenching, was delivered with suitable stakes and profound impact.

Perhaps the writers did not want to upstage an original character with a more impressive demise.

If so, they misread their audience, I'm afraid.

 

I don't think it was meant to be epic. I think it was meant to be tragic, sudden and seem pointless. War is full of deaths like that. Young people who die for something that doesn't seem worth it.

 

I think that the main problem with his death is that it is written by Denning, who is really bad at making comprehensible fighting scenes that are complex and epic, with a few exceptions to the rule, this made the events hard to understand, what Anakin was doing in regards to the mission in his last acts, why it is important, how successful he was, how he is positioned in regards to the other characters, what exactly he does with the thermal detonator, etc. it's all fuzzy, unclear, and to the detriment of the story, not to enhance it.

I feel the writing is purposefully trying to make his death epic, with him being empowered by the Force, becoming a warrior of Light, taking down an entire horde of Yuuzhan Vong, force pushing Nom Anor while raising the thermal detonator above his head, etc. they're all elements that indicate that the intent was for it being an epic death scene with a small part in advancing the plan to take down the queen, even if he doesn't quite make it, but with all the details poorly described, we don't understand how the queen got away or why, and what Anakin did to at least make the best of the situation, all we really understood was that he got empowered by the Force, and killed a bunch of Vong before he couldn't do it anymore, it's not very well presented, but i think it is meant to have a similar feeling to Chewie's death, just more tragic since this is a young boy who is dying a martyr in a bloody conflict, but the effect is not as strong.

I think i understand what Denning's intent was when writing action scenes like that: to illustrate the confusion of battle, but it hurt the writing when the action was meant to have emotional significance.

That said, even though i don't like the way it is written, per se, i like Anakin's death and the role it has in the ongoing storyline, on top of serivng as an ending to his character arc of needing to prove himself leading him to unnecessary risks.

 

You are right, I think. It does sound like Denning to try to make something epic and fail.

I remember, Anakin being wounded and making a last stand and glowing. I don't recall the rest.

Though it is 'funny' that after he sacrifices himself for the mission, the mission falls apart and only Jacen stays with the mission.

 

I think he's better with quetier scenes when he wants to be emotional, the reaction to Anakin's death, from Han and Leia's perspective, was much better written than the death scene itself.

Yeah, this shows that Anakin, in spite of his own doubts and failings, had the presence of a leader, thus he inspired some sort of unity and purpose in the others, once he's gone, they can't rally around the "Next Luke Skywalker" figure anymore, so they fall apart.

At the same time his death motivated Jacen to do better, because, in a way, Jacen was blaming himself for what happened, given he wasn't properly supporting Anakin before, which he did apologize for, that sudden urgency to finish the mission and honor Anakin sort of makes Jacen self-destructive for a bit, yearning for having an end like his brother's, we also see this in the World Brain garden at the beginning of Traitor, when Jacen tries to sacrifice himself while killing the brains.

In a way, Anakin dying but Jacen coming in as the new main hero is a nice take on the "there is another" aspect Lucas hinted at with Leia.

 

I think it shows Anakina FLAWS. He was able to inspire and lead the team, but then he got him self killed and left them all and they feel apart, the mission almost failed because Anakin either didn't know or didn't care how the rest viewed him. Only Jacen was Jedi enough to keep going with the mission, or maybe that is more 'proof' he is going dark as he didn't want to abandon the mission.

 

True, i hadn't thought of that, it reminds me of something Paxton Rall says about Zakuul falling apart once Valkorion "died"

Perhaps Anakin being such a renowned hero for the Jedi and Republic made people progressively more dependant on him as the one to take care of stuff, i think it might have leaked to the adults as well, hence why Luke decides Anakin should lead the mission, and Leia supports it, only to later realize how bad of an idea it was (even considering they were on a tight situation when making the decision).

So Anakin's leadership and heroic qualities were a double-edged sword, certainly speaks to how these hero types can cause greater despair and hopelessness if they are to fail, just imagine for example, if Luke had fallen during the OT.

lol one could twist it like that, in many ways it does seem he goes darker from that point until halfway through Traitor, at least in regards to how he wants to go down, but later on he leaves those suicidal tendencies behind because he realizes he's not being true with himself by trying to emulate Anakin.

I think it also has something to do with how it wasn't just Anakin's leadership, Jacen's Force Meld was also key in keeping the team together (even if it made them more sensitive to each other's emotions), so he had a more clearer view of the big picture than most of them because of that.

 

I HATE that luke signed off on the mission. One major change I would make would be to have Anakin just do it on his own and bringing others along.

And yeah heroes tend to die in wars, so if Anakin was that big he should have been kept back from the front for a while.

If you put all your hope in another then you leave non for yourself.

Nah Jacen was evil because he completed the mission and wasn't a hero worshiper, in denningverse all jedi must serve a great hero.