Fanclub Jacen Solo Fan Club: Forever in the Light

I did, too. It looked for a while that Jacen and Jaina would be the opposite of Leia and Luke...him following a political path, her keeping more to a 'traditional' Jedi role. I could have been a great dynamic and an interesting way to develop a post-war story line.

With her 'Joining', I think this would have made more sense. Having been cut off from the meld, she could have been looking for another way to 'belong' and maybe she would have stumbled across Lumiya in her quest to belong. Hmmm...actually not a bad idea for a fanfic.

 

Eh, I would say Caedus didn't need an emotional connection in sex, though he may have tried appearing to have one, for Tahiri's need of it. Also the reason he first sleeps with tenel ka is gain access to her fleet(though that was the conclusion of years of romantic tension).

 

LOTF could actually make a pretty good TV show or movie series, its dramatic enough and dark enough to fit the current zeitgeist.

Anyway what would everyone say Jacen's defining trait is? His spirituality? His empathy? His curiosity? Or something else?

 

I don´t think so. Without the background of YJK and NJO this series can´t work because people wouldn´t care for the younger characters, and if they have that background it won´t work because people would hate it for what it does to the characters of the pervious works. Also considering how divisive to say the least the GoT finale was I doubt people would be happy with Jacen dying needlessly and unredeemed.

I would say its his empathy as a lot of his other traits kinda hail from it, its his empathy that lead to him become curious about life and the force, leading to the growth of spirituality. He is so different from most other SW characters, who never second guess their actions, they just blow something up, make a snarky comment and move on, Jacen is different , because of his empathy. The trait that FotJ turns into the exact oppositte turning him into a cruel uncaring mass murder who is willing to slaughter millions because he saw a vague vision of something terrible happening to his daughter. The Jacen from the earlier seaons would have second guessed this, second guessed himself, he would have searched for another way.

 

Ugh...words cannot describe how much I hate that scene. They always had such an easy chemistry, and Denning turns it into a quid quo pro.

I've watched that one, too...it's pretty good. And I might be interested in a 'slightly altered' character...are there any roles you need filled?

Not only that, he probably wouldn't have slept with Tenel Ka had he really 'known' the future. If your goal is to avoid a horrible future and something terrible happening to your daughter, wouldn't you try to avoid having a daughter in the first place?

 

We all know that was a retcon invented in FOTJ.

 

Isn't basically everything post NJO a retcon of characters, backstories, lore and even the outright core themes of SW?

 

In essence yes to greater or lesser degrees.

 

Of course. I just wish LFL had been less heavy-handed about doing it. The whole thing reads like a bad 'I hate Jacen Solo' fanfic.

 

Oh defenetly, though given the apparent Jacen hatred that had started in the fandom since NJO I´m not so suppized he drew the short straw. I mean not that the other characters weren´t mistreated either, like Jaina yelling at her brother to die already being presented as being "cool", but Jacen defenetly got the worst of it.

 

Denning claimed though he liked the character. But I am almost sure that wasn’t the case.

 

This whole Jacen retcons kinda remind me of what GoT did to Stannis, though in that case at least D&D admitted to dislikeing the character.

 

Yeah it wouldn’t bother me as much if denning just admitted for example “I really wanted Anakin to live and be the hero” which I am almost sure were his thoughts verbatim.

 

I don´t think there is that one reason Jacen fell, his somewhat messias complex probably played a role, as did the people he lost, the horrors he experienced in the Vong War that made him determined not to let anything like this happen again. Also there had allways been a certian distance between him and his family I would guess, he was a philosohical soul, something his parents and sister couldn´t care less about, if he had one true friend or confidant during these years I doubt he would have fallen. That in combination with the visions he saw and being forced to kill Mara in self defense I think all played a role.
So at least in my mind, and fanfic, I see Jacen´s fall being motivated by many reasons together and there not being one definitive answer.
At least that´s the watsonian explanation.

The doylist is that fans hated Jacen in NJO and wanted Anakin Solo back. So Jacen was killed and Ben became the new main young protagonist as basically Anakin 2.0.

 

I always felt Jacen falling was best explained by a complex tangle of differing motivations, that he acted on at different times and in different ways.

 

Jacen's fall can't be blamed on Vergere nor his NJO self. I can only see it as natural end of his sojourn, he learned all he could about the cults and Force, now to learn more, only the darker side of it was left to explore. And he dove in as Luke did in Dark Empire, with good intentions and thinking he is strong enough to resist and turn back. Only that the suckers of a family did kill instead of redeem him. In a way I see him like Revan or Dooku or Sifo Dyas here, a knowledge craving Jedi that on his quest for completism falls prey to the dark side.

 

Find it ironic that you bring up Dooku, given that it was none other than Stover who turned him from a fallen idealist into a cratoon villian who was rascist Palpatine 2.0.
Though I agree on the terrible way the rest of the Skysolo´s choose to deal with Jacen. Is it actually just me or did Jacen always felt like Han and Leia were neglecting him? I mean the novels make it clear that Jaina was the favourite child of both her parents but Jacen often feels like he is treated as something of an outsider.

 

@Anedon

I saw Stover keeping him an idealist in the ROTS novelisation. Sidious promised him a lot that never was intended to happen, like Dooku dreaming of his own remade Jedi Order and all post victory.

As for Jacen neglected? In earlier books i do not see signs of that at all. He always was a loner, brooding and rather around nature and wildlife than people. Less risky than adventurous Anakin even. In that regard they had it easier with him than the other two. I'd not call him neglected. Doubt the parents had a favourite child at all and treated all equal.

Point is though, once Jacen had gone really dark, they didn't bother trying to redeem him. In general, when younger the Big Three were more prone to redemption, as even the Rebels took in Imperial deserters and in part forgave warcrimes if the Imperials saw the light and acted accordingly helping them then. Now once older they are more bitter and harsh, like even towards their own government. Instead of counting on democracy working, they go to rebell against their own government they helped create. No faith in the system at all. Or in change from within. That same attitude they showed then towards Jacen. Wrote him off and view him as enemy to take out.

 

Jacen wasn't anti social, he was just not concerned much with things like mundane small talk, and the like. A key aspect of jacen's character is his immense empathy and compassion. His fondness for nature and wildlife really helped grow that sense I believe.

 

Jacen was my second favorite EU character after my namesake. I agree with @ColeFardreamer that his family gave up on him too quickly. Of course, he did commit pretty heinous crimes soon afterwards, although as ColeFardreamer said, Jacen was far from the only one to commit war crimes but was given less of a chance.

 

He'd have cared about anyone who would try to change the galaxy and seek domination of it at the cost of others. His goal was to create a lasting peace and unite everyone for it, either under his own iron rule, or united against him. The One Sith fit neither, they do not unite in either way so they have to go.

My question rather would be, in what way is Jacen different from the Force itself?

"Dark" Jacen imposes his will upon others and with good selfless intentions and harsh anything goes means/tools to create a better future.

The Force itself tries to balance itself. And to do that it employs Choosen Ones but also life AND death both. Did it calculate in that Anakin would become Vader and commit atrocities? Is the Force/Life ruthless or is it only natural and our sentiment is the only thing that tries to picture life less cruel than it actually is? Is it only mortals that worry too much about death tolls, given they cannot look beyond the veil? Is actual immortality, rebirth cycles, reincarnations etc. the case of the luminous soul and beings we actually are? And from such a pov where death is but a door and does not matter except that one stage of evolution ends and another beings... how would it look from that point of view? Did mortals just not yet embrace that they too are butterflies instead of simply one-lived wingless critters?


In that regard, the jedi are too romantic in preserving Life that still slithers towards death at natures pace. The Sith are too impatient and try to accellerate the inevitable to look beyond the veil or rip the veil apart and have immortality right now.

 

Yes, undoubtedly. Both for allana’s golden future, and in the event Caedus defeated all his enemies.

The one Sith were pretenders to his title, a threat to his legacy, weeds in his garden(to use vergere’s famous metaphor) and so I have no doubt jacen would have destroyed them at the first opportunity.