Fanclub Kyp Durron: Endangering Fangirl Marriages Since 1994

God, I would've loved to have had him get a toy.

 

Sorry, missed the what?

 

I know it’s late but whatever, happy new year fellow Kyp Durron fans!

Also I finally read the Jedi Academy trilogy, finished it on Sunday and……. I didn’t like it. There were some neat ideas but overall there were a lot of writing/storytelling decisions that didn’t work for me.

I liked Kyp Durron in the first book and the second half of the third when he’s not under Exar Kun’s influence. My problems with the way his fall is done is more with how Anderson writes it and less Kyp as a character. In Dark Apprentice he’s still the likeable young man that he was in the first book and then out of nowhere he becomes an edgy, impatient teenager, he almost felt like a different character altogether. As for his Sun Crusher rampage, Champions of the Force makes it clear that he only killed Imperial military, there are no mentions in the book of any civilian populations or intelligent life in the star systems he blew up, at least that’s what I remember. I understand why the New Republic view his actions as morally repugnant since the idea of casually flying around with a super weapon and blowing up solar systems is something the Empire would do, and they don’t want to reduce themselves to the Empire’s level by being associated with those kind of tactics. Which makes sense. I would also note that Kyp, while not under the complete control of Exar Kun, was heavily influenced by the Sith spirit. Kyp is about to fire at Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon, all the while Exar Kun is defeated by the Jedi, and once that happens Kyp snaps out of it and immediately surrenders to Han.

I do like that Kyp genuinely feels remorse for his actions, which I think mainly stem from the unintentional death of his brother, though I still think he would feel remorse regardless.

Anyhow, I still think Kyp is an awesome character and it’s a real shame we didn’t get more stories with him as a main character.

 

The exact nature of Carida isn't exactly elaborated on in Jedi Search, but the implication is that the establishment of the Imperial training facility was done with the Caridans' consent - it wasn't a case of "exterminate the local population and move the facility in"


Furgan was a barrel-chested humanoid with spindly arms and legs. The eyebrows on his squarish face flared upward like birds' wings.
Despite the Emperor's known prejudice against nonhuman species, apparently the Caridans had been acceptable enough to secure the Emperor's business, since Palpatine had built his most important Imperial military training center on Carida.

That's the only one of the 3 "Sun Crusher uses" portrayed as a possibility for killing civilians in any great number - Eol Sha, the only inhabited world near the Cauldron Nebula (with only a tiny colony), had been evacuated and all its population moved to Dantooine in between Jedi Search and Dark Apprentice, and the red dwarf system destroyed in Champions of the Force after Carida, is specifically stated to have no habitable worlds - just a military base, and archives, present in the system.

 

Happy new year to you all, too!

I don't want Kyp in the new canon. I do NOT trust Disney to do him right.

 

There's a bit of foreshadowing even in Jedi Search.


Somehow, it seemed, the Imperials were always there to wreck his aspirations. On Deyer the stormtroopers had stolen him away from his home; on Kessel they had thrown him into the spice mines. Now that he and Han had finally escaped, the stormtroopers had clamped around him again.
Kyp's anger focused into a projectile, and he tried again to use his ability on the meal tray. He pushed, and a drop of sweat fell into his eyes, blurring his vision. Had the tray moved, jerked a little? He saw a small dent in the textured protein patty that formed the main course. Had he done that?
Perhaps anger was the key to focusing his latent energies.

...

Kyp's reproduction hung in the air, bathed with the pale-blue corona Luke had found on the others with genuine Jedi potential. But the aura waxed and waned, knotting itself, turning darker, growing brighter, streaked with red, then becoming tangled.
"What does that mean?" Kyp said.
"He's okay, isn't he?" Han seemed eager to have his protégé accepted.
Luke wondered at the anomalous mapping, disturbed because he didn't know how to interpret it. The shimmer could be a result of faulty scanning equipment, since the instrument had been roughly treated and could no longer be calibrated--or it could be that because of the strain and pressure on Kyp for so many years, he hadn't quite sprung back to his full potential yet.

Jedi Academy Sourcebook goes on to say (in the section on the crystal paddles scanner) that red streaks in the aura means the character is partially or wholly under the influence of the Dark Side.