Jacen & Jaina; Yun-Harla & Yun-Yammka - the wrong way around?

So, in the NJO Jacen and Jaina, both by accident and design, start becoming associated with the Yuuzhan Vong's twin gods.

Superficially, the match-ups are good - Jaina as the trickster Yun-Harla due to the trickster tactics she adopts in battle, and Jacen as the warrior Yun-Yammka due to the devastation he wreaks on the Vong (killing the voxyn, cutting of Tsavong Lah's foot) and his later (second half of the series) development as a formidable warrior - again, specifically versus the Vong and their creations.

But I wonder if they didn't get it the wrong way aroud.

Jaina might be adopting trickster tactics, but that's a very conscious decision on her part. At her core she is a warrior, that's where her talents lie, and that's the part she plays throughout the war. She also kills the warmaster Tsavong Lah and is named the Sword of the Jedi.

Jacen, meanwhile, might be a terrifying opponent to the Vong in war, but at his core he is not a warrior. He is always questioning, looking at things from a different perspective, out-thinking and out-smarting his opponents. His very style of combat is based on trickery. On a wider scale, there is the trick he and the Worldbrain pull on the Vong during the vongforming of Coruscant - his choice of seduction over battle. On smaller scales, he uses his vongsense abilities to fool the native vonglife - instinctively choosing to trick them into believing he's not a thing to be attacked rather than outright killing them.

I actually very much like the way the Solo twins get paired off with the Yuuzhan Vong twin gods, but part of my enjoyment is that I feel they're...kind of the wrong way around if you base it on their actual personalities and inclinations.

 

Yun-Harla and Yun-Yammka are not twins.

 

Interesting post...

Of course, the Vong only have the superficial stuff to go with, so you can't blame them...

 

Unless I'm missing something drastic, they are, in fact, referred to as the twin gods.

The Wook supports that theory too - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twin_Gods

Ulicus - glad you found it interesting, and yes, I agree that it makes sense for the Vong to interpret it that way and the Solo twins even end up falling into those roles (though I think Jacen ends up more fully embracing warrior than Jaina does with trickster). It's part of what makes it interesting to me - that the parts they end up playing in the "public eye" are not, perhaps, what they're best suited for.

 

I think in the NJO, they fit this role very well. But in LOTF, they switch roles. I have not read Dark Nest yet (and I get the impression that may be a good thing) but in Legacy, Jaina is the warrior and Jacen is the Trickster.

 

Sithgirl - I agree, though I'd add that in NJO, they fit those roles well because they were consciously forcing themselves into behaviour that wasn't entirely natural to them. Jaina was deliberately trying to use tricks to assocate herself with Yun-Harla rather than just feeling that they were good tactics. Jacen lost his fear of fighting and came to understand the necessity of it during the second half of the NJO, but it wasn't really his preference.

In LOTF, they definitely have "reversed roles" (though like I said, I'd prefer to say, are back in their comfort zones!) and while DNT isn't the best thing ever, I thought it was all right. Jaina is basically a warrior throughout that - acting as a frontline commander for the Killik forces in the war.

Jacen is a trickster, mysterious after his time away with his new techniques and abilities. He tricks his fellow Jedi into starting a war, wipes Ben's mind to keep the secret of his daughter (trickstery), and kills Ta'a Chume for Allana's safety, but does so by making it look like an aneurysm (trickstery).

 

Interesting take indeed...

 

Interesting points. It's a shame something like this won't be expanded on in the novels, though, what with no more Vong for the forseeable future.