I've been thinking about the final moments of both Anakin Solo and Ganner Rhysode and how they are similar in the sense that they both achieve a state of oneness with the force in order to buy time for their friends/allies. However, I wanted to compare the way in which both characters achieve oneness and explain why I believe Ganner's oneness and subsequent death was handled better than Anakin Solo's. (Just to be clear I love both characters so there is no bias in that regard.) Anakin Solo: From The New Jedi Order: Star By Star "The door membrane began to roll upward, revealing forty pairs of Yuuzhan Vong feet waiting to rush inside. Anakin opened himself to the Force completely, drawing it into himself through the power of his emotions--not through his anger or fear like a Dark Jedi, but through his love for his family and his fellow Jedi Knights, through his faith in the Jedi purpose and the promise of the future. The Force poured in from all sides, filling him with a swirling maelstrom of power and purpose, saturating him and devouring him. There was nothing to be frightened of, no reason to grieve. He could feel it flowing into him and himself flowing into it. Anakin was the Force, and the Force was Anakin." I'm just gonna leave it at that because all that happens after this moment is Anakin killing Yuuzhan Vong while communicating to Jacen and Jaina through the Force and then eventually dying. Ganner Rhysode: From The New Jedi Order: Traitor "Ganner didn't move. Illumination burst within his brain. In that instant, everything finally made sense. He understood what Jacen had been talking about. There was nothing to fear. He understood the power of being who he was. He could decide. He could choose, and act. Suddenly, his life made sense. His life made sense. His life had been a story of pretending to be a hero. Well, he thought. Okay then. He has become the Force, and the Force has become him. Those dikes had been built by his parents, trying to smooth the rough edges of his arrogance; they had been built by the mocking laughter of his playmates, when they jeered his every attempt to impress them; they had been built even by Luke Skywalker's Jedi Training--"A Jedi doesn't show off, Ganner. Fighting is not a game. For the Jedi, combat is failure. It is a tragedy. When blood must be shed, a Jedi does so quickly, surgically, with solemn reverence. With grief." Ganner tried for so long, tried so hard to be what everyone told him he was supposed to be , tried to control his flare for the dramatic, for the elegant, the graceful, the artistic, tried to be a good son, a good friend, a humble man, a good Jedi... But in the archway, he finds the end of trying. There is reason no longer to resist the truth of himself. Playacting the hero's part is not only permissible-- It is necessary." I would write more for Ganner but this should be enough for now. Anyway, what I am trying to get at with this comparison is that I feel Ganner's final moments were handled a lot better than Anakin's. With Anakin it comes across like he just wants to ensure the safety of his family and friends and the good of the galaxy, then subsequently powers up. With Ganner, there is the arc of self discovery, he stops trying to be something else and comes to the realisation that in order to achieve his goal in this situation, he had to be himself. The way it was written just made it seem like the culmination of his personal growth and evolution as a character, realising the strength of embracing oneself, of not being afraid of who he was and then, only then could he achieve a state of oneness with the Force. The point is that there is a real sense of finality with Ganner's last stand that we really didn't get with Anakin. There were no mentions of how he has always feared becoming like Vader because of his name or any of his traits from past stories, which could have made the death scene so much better if they were implemented and because of that, I don't think the death of Anakin (not counting the reactions from his family) has anyway near the same gravitas as Ganner Rhysode's death.
I think part of that is because SbS is largely classic Star Wars. You've got Jedi, Dark Jedi, good guys, bad guys, space battles, explosions, cool droids, secret bases, suicidal missions succeeding against all odds. It's heavy on moving the plot forward. Traitor stands as a stark contrast. It's markedly different. It's a much more personal novel. All those shiny toys that SbS played with are put back in the box, forcing you to confront what remains. People, choices, consequences. NJO didn't really explore this aspect of him very much, did it? Granted, I haven't done a full series readthrough in a while. But his internal struggle seemed to be more with survivor's guilt, as well as his and the Yuuzhan Vong's relationship to the Force.
That’s a fair point about SBS being more of a classic Star Wars story, although it’s a Denning book which means lots of gore. I just wish the book fleshed out Anakin Solo a bit more considering it was his final book appearance. I believe this was touched upon briefly in Conquest when Anakin was having a conversation with Ikrit but that was all we got. But you’re right his internal struggle in the series was pretty much just survivors guilt, which is fine but it’s a shame they didn’t expand on his characteristics from Junior Jedi Knights like they did with Jacen and his empathy for animals and life.
I wonder if they had explored this further if GL would have taken a different stance on killing off the character. Maybe establishing his differences to Vader more would have meant that GL, would have been happier with Anakin surviving. Guess we'll never know, but that decision still hurts.
Before George Lucas got involved Anakin was going to be the hero and Jacen would have died. Of course everyone knows this. He never ordered them to kill Anakin, he just said that he couldn’t be the main character because he had the prequels coming out at the time and didn’t want people confusing the two Anakin’s. (I guess we now need to kill Ben Skywalker before people confuse him with Ben Kenobi) Anyway, what people don’t realise is they just swapped Anakin and Jacen’s personalities. Originally Anakin would have been the moody, philosophical and self doubting Solo kid and Jacen would have been the confident, heroic warrior. Part of me thinks that would have worked better when you consider what their personalities were like in Young Jedi Knights and Junior Jedi Knights.
Yeah I think this is where a lot of people go wrong. The idea was ALWAYS to kill the action hero and have the more peaceful one survive.
Jacen was the philosophical and introspective one in Vector Prime though. So it was a switch from YJK where Jacen was more outgoing, socially oriented and Anakin was the introspective loner. So it wasn't like Anakin was going to live and then months before SBS Lucas intervened and got Jacen to live. On another note, I never found Anakin's whole angst about his name particularly convincing, and thought it was always rather silly as if a name was a sign of falling.
I've never seen anything that suggested they always intended to kill off one of the Solos. The only death I know was pre-conceived was Chewie (Killing the family dog to burst the bubble of protection.)
Really? That was one of the first thoughts they had. The Edge of Victory books were an attempt by the author to show Anakin still had stories to tell.
Actually Vector Prime was supposed to be Luke’s death, and that he would have started the book already as the father of a bunch of young kids. Then it became Chewie. And eventually they decided to kill one of the Solo boys, but yeah it was always going to be the one who starts off less of a traditional action hero that would survive. At one time the Vong were going to be the original Sith race. At another time some weird energy or liquid beings. They weren’t always planned to be biotech even after the core idea of them was solidified. In short, they had many drafts.
Though, I remember reading that if Salvatore knew he had a choice, he would have offed Lando instead.
I kinda feel if the authors had once again approached Lucas about killing the big 3 in case legends had continued Lucas would have said to kill Lando instead. Maybe we would have seen that happen by now if the Buyout hadn´t happened.
Yes he came in late to the process. He thought it was all set in stone. I think Chewie's death worked really well.
The thing is that Star By Star for the most part, in action scenes, it focuses primarly on the action alone, not much into the character's perception and deeper meaning of the conflict itself, that's what it's slower parts are for, when Denning writes Han and Leia's reaction to Anakin's death, or Luke's reaction, or the interactions between Anakin and the gang shortly before the fight, he nails it, that is why the last scene between Anakin and Tahiri was so memorable that it was mentioned nearly every time Tahiri was a major character. In many ways Star By Star doesn't focus too much on the death scene itself, but more about what that means afterwards: the death of "the next Luke Skywalker", the death of hope, the death of the leader of the Strike Team, the loss of a son, a son who was hurt by his own father in the past and now Han has do deal with it, it sparks a lot of heart-wrenching scenes between Han and Leia, there's a moment where Leia says some really awful things to Han as a result of the kid's death, it leads to Jaina's grief and Tahiri's desperation, and it's all really well written. Basically Anakin's death was used more as a decive for increasing the hopelessness of the darker chapter of the NJO, not as much to tell a story on it's own, at least in the form it was written, i feel. That said, i think Anakin's death is a culmination of his constant desire to prove himself, something that started ever since JJK, and increased during the NJO, he is a kid who was burdened by constant expectations of greatness or darkness, being the most powerful in the Force of the three Solo kids, and the pressure increases when Chewbacca's death happened, there, Anakin started to obsess over proving his worth as if to justify Chewie's sacrifice, of course he reconciles with Han, but the pressure to prove himself is still there, the Yuuzhan Vong are still there and there's Jedi like Kyp who put him as an example of a hero for the entire Galaxy. And that only increases when he does his Yavin IV mission to save the Academy and Tahiri, then everyone started looking up to him even more, that's why i feel he gets increasingly reckless over time, he begins obsessing about doing everything himself and justifying everyone's expectations of him, that is not to say he isn't introspective or thoughtful at all, he is a very smart guy, and he achieves some deeper understanding of the Vong before Jacen did, but his actions are marked by this constant desire to prove his worth because of everyone's expectations of him, and that lead him to his death. This is also showcased in his funeral scene, he only becomes one with the Force once Han tells him that he was right about saving everyone on the Falcon in Sernpidal, and thanks him, i think that is when Anakin finally found peace. There is this narrative catharsis with the character's end, just that it isn't focused on his death scene itself (nor is it as elegantly written as Ganner's catharsis on Traitor). With Ganner, it should also be mentioned how his last stand is a deliberate call back to Anakin's last stand fighting hordes of Yuuzhan Vong warriors, just as Jacen sees his path is not to follow Anakin's Warrior path (when Anor offers his Lightsaber to Jacen) Ganner does follow it, Anakin's greatness, his violence, all of it gets embodied by Ganner in his last stand, but amplified by his theatrical personality, which is something that Anakin didin't have, he was straightforward, Ganner isn't, he loves the grandiose, and so he indulges in it during his last fight, thus, while Anakin became the start of the Jeeday Heresy by his redemption of Vua Raapung and became a symbol with his final battle, a symbol of hope for the opressed Vong, (as Yu'shaa puts it, "the greatest of them all") Ganner became a full-blown deity for the future generations of Yuuzhan Vong, they both serve the purpose of creating the Heretic's adoration for the Jedi, by following the Warrior path. So, in many ways, you could say that Ganner's last stand is also an extension of Anakin's and they are thematically linked, there's a reason why, in the Japanese cover for Traitor, Ganner shows up holding Anakin's Lightsaber with his ghost behind him, after all.
@Irredeemable Fanboy That’s a very good analysis. I just wish that there was more of a focus on Anakin’s catharsis as a way to bring his character arc full circle. I think we’re very much in agreement on his character though. He’s trying to impress everyone around him and he’s placing more of a burden on his shoulders as his reputation continues to grow and he gets told things like: “you’re the next Luke Skywalker”, which is quite the reputation to live up to. The way I see it, he looks up to Luke as his hero and he’s trying to emulate the man his uncle is. Not Master Skywalker or uncle Luke, but the hero Luke Skywalker as seen through the eyes of the galaxy in holothrillers and other stories. The hero who destroyed the Death Star, the hero who defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, the face of the Rebellion. That is the man Anakin is trying to emulate in NJO and in trying to emulate someone else instead of embracing who he was, that image of him as the next Luke Skywalker consumes him and became his public image, as well as his own self persona. Thematically I’d say this works really well when you consider Traitor and the importance of embracing oneself in order to achieve your full potential. Anakin did the opposite of that, he was trying to be someone else, and that is why he failed. Though Conquest was amazing, I really wish Anakin got his own novel that served as a katabasis, similar to how Jacen got his with Traitor and Jaina with Dark Journey, though to a lesser extent with the latter as that book didn’t focus enough on Jaina’s decent for me and had to much Hapan politics injected into the story, when the primary focus should have been on Jaina and her decent into darkness. Time to press the upgrade button for a katabasis for Jaina: Kark go back! I SAID GO BACK
Exactly right! funny how my view of Anakin's character being primarly driven by the expectations of everyone around him was formed before i even read Traitor, it shows how thematically consistent the NJO series is. As for Jaina, i always felt her journey to the Dark was handled beautifully, i never felt the Hapan politics got in the way of that story, perhaps it is because i like Kyp a lot as a character and how his teaching of her helped him realize his mistakes makes their mutual redemption special for me, or perhaps it is because i like Hapan politics to begin with.
