Defending Ferus Olin

Ferus Olin is a character that has recieved an immense amount of flack upon the discovery that "Last of the Jedi" wouldn't be starring Obi Wan Kenobi's adventures off Tatooine like it was initially seeming. That itself had been controversial but the character has since recieved a great deal of scorn and derision I think is somewhat unjustified. The worst of the accusations has Jude Watson attempting to press the character forward as an equal of Anakin. I find this to be similiarly ridiculous.

The character of Ferus Olin has the rather inauspicious beginning of being Anakin's Bruck Chun. For those who remember Bruck, he was Obi Wan Kenobi's "heel" at the Academy. The student whom represented Obi Wan Kenobi's opposite side. The character of Ferus was deliberately written as the character everyone hated. He was a smarmy, arrogant, know it all that was deligent in his service to the Jedi Code to the point of annoying even Obi Wan Kenobi.

In a peculiar bit of irony, Ferus Olin ends up quitting the Jedi Order and being unable to reconcile his own beliefs with the organization while Anakin goes on to become one of the greatest Jedi Knights of all time. The Ferus Olin found by Obi Wan Kenobi has found happiness by choosing to become more like Anakin. He's abandoned his diligent devotion to the Jedi Code (even coming to love a woman), become emotional, and even given up his connection to the Force which he has to rediscover.

....Hardly a character that hasn't changed tremendously.

Ironically, what strikes me most about Ferus is the fact that he's a character that seems a contrast to the massive changes in the galaxy around him. In Anakin and Obi Wan's case...hell....Qui Gon and Obi Wan, each adventure saved entire worlds. Ferus has been imprisoned by the Empire, been entrapped by the Empire's Jedi trap at the Jedi Temple, and when confronted with Darth Vader.....

Darth Vader doesn't even bother to react. The rivalry Anakin Skywalker had with Ferus Olin is something so far removed from the hero of the Clone Wars and Sith Lord that its rather like swatting an insect. His greatest accomplishment is killing Inquisitor Malorum in a fight that was won more by Malorum's overestimation of his force power (he even goads Malorum into growing STRONGER by increasing his rage in stupid actions).

I suspect we'll find an equally final flaw with his new service to palpatine as the character is invited to merely serve as a heel to Vader.

Comments are of course welcome but if you're going to comment "He's a Gary Stu" and "watson makes him out to be the best thing since sliced bread" pleased try and back it up.

 

Here's what always got me. As you said in your post:

Comments are of course welcome but if you're going to comment "He's a Gary Stu" and "watson makes him out to be the best thing since sliced bread" pleased try and back it up.

The funny thing is, though, Watson didn't really do that, even though she constantly gets flack for it. Watson made Ferus out to be powerful and successful and promising, yes, but these characters exist in all sorts of fiction. The fans didn't like him much. Guess what? The characters in the books didn't either. His overacheiving nature peeved them off. He's Hermione Granger: he's always got the right answer and the correct way to go about things, and it's annoying.

 

I called him the "heel" to Anakin and one designed to tick him off and it works. However, the irony is that he has the exact personality that Siri Tachi had. While Obi Wan got to fall in love with Siri, Ferus and Anakin didn't have that option

In the end the two didn't become friends and Ferus ended up washing out.

 

Yeah, he's his "heel," I just thought it'd be helpful to make a comparison. Anyway, most of it points away from him being a Gary Stu: sure he one ups the characters every once and a while, but he does it so that the reader can seethe at him for being insufferable. I'd kind of like the new books to address his old smarminess. Geez, if him and Vader get to reminisce in the next book...that'd be something.

 

While it's true that Olin isn't a Gary Stu in and of himself, in my opinion he becomes one because of Watson's portrayal of Anakin.

Anakin starts off as mostly the same kid from TPM, just with a lightsaber- and then she spends about 9 books turning him into Darth Vader. Look at the last JQ book- that's someting Anakin in ROTS or Vader might've done, but before then? By all other evidence, before his first taste of the darkside, and even after, Anakin was your resident good guy.

This probably could've been handled better if Jedi Quest had been as long as Apprentice, allowing for more even character development.

As for Last of the Jedi, I think the series would've been much more interesting if she'd made Vader a main character with him hunting Olin and other surviving Jedi, with the climax being a duel between the two. Give justification to Vader's belief that Anakin is dead.

 

What's wrong with a smarmy, supercillious Olin? I write his persona all the time. They're a spiderweb of cause and effect, tangent and possibilities on everyone around them. It's bamtastic. I don't understand why readers invest emotional attachment to page words, but hey, it's interesting to see and learn from.

SW characters are too often genric blanks pouring out of a factory, one after another after another Bith head. I was thrilled to a see a slutty Jedi recently. It's . . .

It's a crime to write anyone so bland.

 

Everything said here. If Watson had gotten to know George's Anakin better, IMO, she would have written him better. Every author loves their own characters, but as an antognist to Anakin's protaganist, he fails because she's not giving Anakin the protaganist role. She's giving him the OTHER antoganist role. She backs it up with platitudes about the Jedi that reinforce Ferus' feelings and actions, even if they are smug and annoy Obi-Wan.

In the new series, the Gary Stu part comes in with all the things he now is being credited with that really we could have done without. The fact the HE help start the rebellion screams it to me. I'd be more inclined to like him if he went on with the path you have him on, Charles, as flawed and having to deal with coming down a peg or two. I don't see this new Ferus Olin as humble as you make him out to be because let's face it, he's still getting the offers Anakin did (Palpatine has now summoned him thinking he could replace Vader maybe? He starts the rebellion way before Bail and Leai and Mon Monthma get out there and involved?) and turing into what Anakin should have been. That there is your Gary Stu. It's not Ferus' place to be what Anakin should have been to me, it's Luke's. This is what causes Vader to relent to the "dead" Anakin in ROTJ.

On another note: In what book does he even come close to Vader? I've got all up to Death on Naboo. Is that all that's out?

 

He meets up with Vader in Underworld at the begining of chapter seven. He and Trevor were hiding behind a wall when Vader had shown up to talk with Malorum. The wall was destroyed by an explosion and everyone just sort of stared at each other for a couple of seconds. Then Ferus and Trevor ran for it. I thought it was kinda funny

 

Except where exactly if Ferus doing any of this?

He's gotten imprisoned, beat up, and most of his "Rebellion" killed TWICE.

He's not exactly Bail Organa here.

 

I was always under the impression that Ferus was going to be an important element in getting the rebellion rolling, but not the founder of the alliance. The Rebel Alliance comes along later, but they end up really being a conglomerate of rebel cells throughout the galaxy, uniting in one cause. Ferus seems to be working towards fomenting rebellion, saving people that could be helpful in the future. The Erased are interesting: independent of Ferus - though they had his help at one point - they've decided to begin openly resisting as a consequence of their interaction wit Ferus. I wouldn't be surprised if the Erased ended up becoming members of the Rebel Alliance. Dexter, a blaster in each hand, taking out stormtroopers? Sweet!

 

"Anakin starts off as mostly the same kid from TPM, just with a lightsaber- and then she spends about 9 books turning him into Darth Vader"

*face palm*

Isn't that kind what Geaorge Lucas did.

Its called: character devolpment.

 

It's choppy character development.


The premise of the Jedi Quest books is what were Anakin and Obi-Wan up to for 10 years. And yet, the Anakin in AoTC is not the same- nowhere near the same- Anakin in JQ #10. What I wanted to see in Jedi Quest was Anakin and Obi-Wan in their prime, maturing, growing together.

In my opinion, the best Jedi Quest books were the special edition and the first book.

 

Where was this?

 

Rar. Alema Rar. Any more juicey, and Joiner King's exemplar characterisation have messed your bibs.