Lit Could Ken Palpatine ever be "salvaged?"

Hey, we haven't even gotten the ultimate franchise tie-in where 9 reveals Kylo brainwashed the Knights of Ren by forcing them to drink the blood of Kali. Once Rey shocks them with some fire, they turn on Kylo.

 

Yippy, you never know, “It's like poetry, sort of. They rhyme."

 

Kenstructive discussion.

Every now and again I remember that we knew of Ken before we learned Sheev's name, and I'm amazed.

Agreed that it is a different society with less emphasis non heirdom in a legal sense. Carrie Fishers "spacemarried" comes in handy.

 

Imagine if Kenobi used "Ken" instead of "Ben".

 

I like how this topic aged so well... better than expected even!

Still full of retcons and nice names for lots of future stories and characters!

 

This comment especially:

 

Well I still consider "The Glove of Dark Empire" a potential working title for Episode IX... it would explain a lot.

I'd even propose a book or comic trilogy set between OT and ST dealing with Rey's parents, loosely named after fitting Legends counterparts:

Shadows of Endor (Shadows of Mindor analogue):
which introduces golden robed Snoke (Cronal) and his early manipulations and involvement with Rey's parents. Like setting up her dad as an agent of the FO where Luke would find him... inside a Lost City of the Jedi on Yavin IV. Despite having not much Force potential if barely at all, Luke takes him under his wing.

Dark Apprentice (like the second Jedi Academy trilogy book):
In which Ken(th) Palpatine under the alias of Brakiss joins Luke's Jedi class, not wanting to use his real name in the wider galaxy. As in Legends, Ken/Brakiss would leave to report to the FO/Empire and set up an Imperial Jedi training academy along the likes of Hethir on Snoke's Worldcraft with kidnapped children, that got filtered out of Hux trooper recruits due to Force sensitivity. Helping Ken/Brakiss is a nice lady who he falls in love with.

Young Sith Knights: Shadow Academy (YJK analogue)
Wherein we follow Brakiss/Ken and his love instead of the Sith youngsters (future Knights of Ren) who threaten to out their forbidden love and come after them as they went on the run, pregnant with a child... up until a fateful rendevouz on Jakku and a quick sidestep to Paasana.

 

Are you retconning Rey's father not being Force-sensitive?

 

I wonder if he was ever nicknamed Ken by others.

 

Not really, he still is a Force Muggle, but hey Tionne is kinda likewise and still became a Jedi Master.

 

The idea, imo, was good. But it came waay too late and executed in such a manner that left a lot to be desired. It should have been established in the second movie of the trilogy, at the latest. Ah, well. It was still a bit better than Rey Nobody.

 

I'm still kinda disappointed that Wookieepedia hasn't used the canon/Legends tab system to link Rey and Ken, honestly.

 

Or perhaps Rey and Ken are twins, and their parents pulled the old Luke and Leia split with them.

 

Rey and Ken
Rey loves Ren and Ken loves Key?

Why am I reminded of the WILLOW novel trilogy Sequels right now with

Spoiler

Elora Danan fighting her mirror universe self

? These epic books by Lucas and Chris Claremont turned into a SW story? Well... challenge accepted!



Episode X: Rey is looking for her sibling and begins to question her reality the more she discovers clues about a paralell one where her sibling might be. Her friends think she is going crazy but stick with her and are surprised how she connects the dots and walks the paths through ancient sites and against a new nemesis, a shadow from beyond the veil.

Episode XI: Worlds collide as Rey and Ken reunite, bridging Legends and Canon via employing the World between Worlds, Vergence Scatter or by whatever other names it once went. Many worlds open to them now, including microbiotic ones and macrobiotic ones they even meet a Whill and get new intel on the Force and the origin and end of all things. As the Shadow tries to stop them and preserve either separate continuity, employing even their friends and peers against them that are unable to understand the new grander reality of the multiverse, Rey and Ken find out how connected in the past Legends and Canon already are and always were, how neither can exist without the other and despite differences, both need each other in symbiosis with elements from both always bleeding through into the other at certain intersections.

Episode XII: War for the Multiverse in full effect, Rey and Ken save the universe or die trying!

 

It's a shame this character was never again used in the Legends continuity post-Jedi Prince, nearly everyone introduced in that era as a Force Sensitive got their time to shine, but PALPATINE'S GRANDSON doesn't, i suppose it is the legacy of the books themselves being hilariously silly, but it's not as if characters from sillier stories couldn't be used in a more serious manner.

In TUF, Luceno goes crazy and mentions nearly every named Jedi character in the final Jedi reunion, even listing characters few people would remember:

Yet Ken Palpatine is nowhere to be seen, of course since these are not all the Jedi present as they are many unnamed ones, you could still headcanon that he was there on Zonama Sekot, but the point here is that the character was never used again or even mentioned, despite having been one of Luke's earlier students, a major character in his series, and someone important in-universe, not even a passing mention, surely he was more popular than Izal Waz, Tresk Im'nel, Wonetun, etc. even in an infamous way.

 

One could argue that Ken never did complete his Jedi training, simply doing enough to gain control then went into obscurity somewhere, particularly when the Palpatine Clone went on a rampage. As to why he wasn't used, the Jedi Prince books were not exactly well liked by certain parts of the fandom and were at one point considered fictional within the Star Wars Universe (stories told by Leia to her kids).

 

That certainly is a possibility, though if his character ended up like that it would be a bummer, considering he has potential to be an interesting Jedi considering his origin and the tension that it entails.

I certainly see Ken, right after Jedi Prince, taking that route, because remember, Luke at this point doesn't want to teach people to be a Jedi (we see an example of this in the Marvel Star Wars issue 92) and he's busy in the military until Shadows of Mindor, when he resigns (which is after Jedi Prince) from there on, he goes on a journey by himself to discover more about the Jedi (6-8 ABY, the timeframe of the X-wing series basically), i think that, after that point, he's willing to teach people in the Force, especially after his arc of rediscovery in COPL, which is why he teaches Mara.

But after that point, and after the Jedi Academy Trilogy, i can see Ken going back to Luke to finish his training, and become a full-fledged Jedi, i feel the writers wasted an opportunity to give him a mention as one of the Jedi Masters on Luke's side on the NJO books or something.

In my mind, a way to reconcile his absence while having him being a Jedi is that he is a loner Jedi, much like Saba's Master, because in this era, from what we see in Darksaber, once you were knighted, Luke basically went "all right, now you go and do good for the Galaxy as you see fit" i think that Ken could be out there helping people on the sidelines.

Yes, that is certainly the reason, Jedi Prince being... an interesting storyline, to put it mildly

I have to ask, though, was the "fictional story" a retcon seen in the material itself? By current standards i think it's included in the regular Legends timeline, but was that retcon a thing in a sourcebook, or is it something established online by Leland Chee or someone else?

 

That was in the Polyhedron RPG magazine. All issues prior to Wizards of the Coast (who owned the SW RPG license at the time) acquiring Polyhedron in 2002 are considered to be non-canon and typically contradict canonical sources.

 

Oh, ok, then i would say it is something in the middle, it is a source, but it would be taken less seriously than Leland Chee's online words.

I suppose this means that the explanation is "revoked"

 

I've actually tried to imagine the idea of Ken being in the Bantam era books. This was years ago and I think I found a small way to work in TCOPL, the Thrawn books and Jedi Academy trilogy. Pity I lost interest or was busy with other ideas.

 

That's a shame you never finished it, it sounds fun.

What was the "fix" for those books in particular?

 

Well, that Luke fosters Ken as his ward (not a formal adoption) and gets appearances and mentions. Early on, Luke took Ken with him on his journeys, with a tutor droid to accompany them. Though occasionally he'd leave Ken on Coruscant in the care of the droid and Leia while he went on travels. He was on Coruscant during the Hapes/Dathomir Issue on 8 ABY and the Thrawn Campaign in 9 ABY. Ken was 15 in 8 ABY and 16 in 9 ABY. As to his real identity, the only ones who know are Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando and Mon Mothma. Essentially, he's there but not there all the time. He stayed with Mara Jade and the Smugglers during the Dark Empire crisis in 10-11 ABY. During the Jedi Academy trilogy, he was among the first twelve students to Luke.

 

Well, it was never canon.

 

So this means they're...

I like it! I think it works, too, it could be easily retconnable into the regular Legends timeline if one so wishes (the Jedi Academy part being the easiest to retcon, thanks Kevin J. Anderson for the nameless and faceless students), the idea of Mara having to take care of Luke's apprentice/ward before she fully comes around is hilarious to me, the only think i feel wouldn't exactly work is that he was with Mara during Dark Empire, i think, because isn't she busy in the events of Mysteries of the Sith at that time? Or do those events don't happen in your idea or happen differently?

My favorite aspect is him being with Luke in his travels pre-COPL, someone should write a fanfic story about that (maybe i will someday lol).

 

So Luke unofficially adopted Ken Palpatine and Malinza Thanas and never cared much for both? At least he is consistent!

Also, for whatever reason, it would fit in my mind if Ken met Callista after she left Luke and trained with her some before parting ways with her.

One could spin a metanarrative from that tying Bakura and the Ssi Ruuvi entechment to Callista's past as a spirit in the computer and her host, Cray Minglas attempt to entech Nichos Marr. And have Ken's story expand and connect through it, Malinza as his younger peer till the NJO and Malinza's actions then, with maybe offscreen him around.

And despite all that he could still be turned into Ken(th) Hammner if rejoining the Jedi later on only. *headcanoned *