Who Is Vestara Really?(Allies Spoilers)

Who is Vestara Khai?

Is she really just a good kid thats been raised in a bad enviroment, who upon seeing the error her father and her people have made is going to come around and be Mara Jade version 2.0?

What makes such a large group of people want to like her despite the growing list of horrible acts she has commited? I've seen a lot of comments in relation to Vestara and her portrayal in Allies(and the other novels before to a lesser degree) that seem kind of odd and very removed from how I've been reading and viewing her throughout this series.

Now I'm not saying these people are wrong, but I am thinking some discussion and examples might help me better understand what Vestara's supporters are looking for.

For example:

"Also, glad that Vestara has begun to realize that her father may not be the shining model to emulate "

"Vestara, a 16 year old, is ordered by her father to seduce Ben. I have a personal qualm about this subject matter due to the age of the character and the use of an authority figure to compel her into these actions. Even putting that aside, though, it?s not just that this storytelling choice was made, but the number of times the author chose to bring it into play - repeatedly, from multiple POVs. It suggests the choice was sadly casual, with no appreciation for the undertones of child sexual exploitation."

"Vestara Khai, a minor, her own father encourages her to have sex with Ben Skywalker, another minor."

"His portrayal and everything that goes with it is frankly just disturbing. The majority of his role is concerned with getting his daughter to seduce Ben. It would have been tolerable (though still rather iffy) if he had just hinted that he might be turned due to his attraction to her, but he makes it quite clear he expects her to not only seduce him to the Dark Side but to 'bed him' ....just plain disgusting really."

"Vestara is being put forth as an underage Lolita by her father"

I just wanted to present these as nameless quotes to illustrate some of what I'm wondering about. Every single one of these posts. They range from one reader feelin that Vestara was really starting to turn against her father, to the others all of which are aghast that her father would order her to do such a thing.

None of this assigns any responsibility to Vestara for her actions - it sounds to me to be the stuff of excuses to later allow us to like the Sith girl. Someone who has already commited more than enough crimes to never consider her as someone I would in anyway want to like.

What is the one thing that Vestara Khai has done more than anything else in these novels? She has attempted to harm people, be it her Sith Allies, the Night Sisters, Luke and Ben, basically everyone she comes across.

I submit that Vestara may have her own agenda, one which involves the destruction of Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Order, her own Father and the destruction of Ben as well if he doesn't join her on her path.

She's been preseneted as resourceful, ruthless, intelligent and with little visible compassion or mercy. Her own father is a bumbling Rocky and Bullwinkle villian when compared to her while she clearly has Ben completely trapped in her web - so much so that he'd abandon his father in battle to save her....when she was the one that set the trap up in the first place.

I find her to be in everyway the villian and her actions seem to me to more than match up to that assessment.

So tell me what is there to like about Vestara Khai? Why do some have such hopes for her. Are some looking for her to be the next Mara Jade? Kinda the bad girl gone good?

She seems to be a level of evil very much above Mara Jade to me, but I'll submit that I may be missing something about her presentation.

Thoughts?

 

I can't stand her but am resigned to the fact that SW loves assassins and think it's "cool" to murder innocent people for cash if you can afford it. Vestara is a Sith and should be killed. She's not "ambiguous" like Mara (I never bought that either). At least Mara was weak witout Palpatine whcih indicated he didn't teach her to be a Sith the way he taught Shira, who was filled with hate. Vestara loves but she's still a Sith, just an old time Sith, not the purity of evil that Palps and his apprentice were. And even they had feelings.

That's not what at the heart of this dispute. What is is that we don't need a second generation of Skywalker men influenced by a Sith trained woman.

 

I like the comparison to Mara, though Mara felt an uncontrollable need to kill Luke while Vestara wants to turn Ben for personal reasons. In Allies Vestara thinks about Ben being a Sith and them being together. Also, she seems to be mature for her age and I hold out hopes for her to be turned. I'm rooting for her.

I will say that while she holds some repsonibility for her actions as a Sith, what Gavar did is worse. Okay, she's following his orders and she's manipulating Ben, but there appears to be some good in her. Encouraging your own daughter to seduce a boy? That's so much more wrong I can't even begin to list the reasons that it disturbs me.

In short, I look for the good in her even if there isn't much, hoping that someday we might have a Mara situation where she turns from the dark side.

 

Because you're not a Sith. In a Sith worldview, if you DON'T begin to list the reasons, let alone actually come up with the plan to have her do it, then you're weak and should be killed.

Emotional twaddle getting in the way of all that power and all...

And, therein lies the crux of the issue: you all are not Sith. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

Yes his actions make sense to me, too, but people like and dislike charcters based on personal reasons. For example I appreciate Palpatine as a villain because he was just so fantastically manipulative and evil. I didn't like a lot of his actions, but I understood them and appreciated that he was a great villain. For Gavar, I understand what he's doing, but it just seemed so over the top.

All the villains kill and manipulate and all and Gavar and Vestara are no different, but this didn't just make him evil it was disturbing to me and I dind't like it. When it comes down to it that's all that matters because it's just my own personal reason and I'm entitled to like and not like who I want. Everyone is.

 

I predicted it right from Omen. Vestara is going to be the next Mara Jade and Ben is going to turn her and then she will be all good. Its so predictable.

But I honestly hope it doesn't happen. I have this whole soap opera-ish plot planned out where Vestara stays a Sith, she turns Ben (cuz every Skywalker has to have his flirt with the dark side), she gets preggo ( teen pregnancy), Luke turns Ben back before either learn of the kid and in about 20 years we have an angsty sith teenager show up on Ben's doorstep. It would be epic.

Anyway, I hope Vestara stays bad, but she is probably going to turn.

 

Sadly, I think your explanation is very likely.

 

They need to introduce young characters to replace all the young characters that they've killed off, otherwise when Han, Leia, and Luke are simply too old for it to be believable that they'd be active, there won't be many young characters to work with. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if that's their plan, to get to that point and then leave a gap until Legacy in stories.

It might have been a better choice to have Vestara be another Jedi than to have her be a Sith, though. There aren't many young Jedi -- or really, young characters at all -- that have been developed as well as Vestara has.

 

A Croke.

 

Maybe the Lost Tribe are all secretly Croke like the Sorcerers of Tund were.

 

Well, the Lost Tribe are kinda the Pepsi Diet of evil Sith, anyway. First off, they've had to adapt to live in a type of society where the chronic backstabbing disorder of normal Sith doesn't really work. Secondly, they mostly seem to bumble around without a really cogent plan ( "Okay, let's steal a bunch of ships and then we'll TAKE OVER THE GALAXY!" What? What will they do when a real GA battlegroup shows up against their dingy frigates? ).

I am sure that on a personal level the people who died to them thought them to be plenty of evil, but let's be honest, life is pretty cheap in the Star Wars universe. There's plenty of space pirates who exhibit the same level of competence and malice than the Lost Tribe.

That said, on a personal level Vestara seemed to be presented at the start as a really nice kind of kid. That was later being contrasted with her being hardened through her Sith training, but, IMO, she still hasn't done anything so horrific as to label her as irredeemable. Being on the strike team against Luke and Ben? Orders by her superior. Trying to escape Luke and Ben? Kinda natural, innit? Setting up the Nightsisters? That's one point where she really looked bad, but "evil on evil" strife never bothers me that much... also the Lost Tribe just wanted more recruits. Agreeing to manipulating Ben? Orders from her superior AND father.

About the only thing she did which felt really "evil" to me, and not just following orders, was shooting force lightning at that guard on Klatooine... and I'll be able to ascribe that simply to her training teaching that this was an acceptable weapon to use.


TL/DR: Vestara still hasn't really done the "horrific things" which a REAL Sith would have done by now, so she seems plenty redeemable to me.

 

Ok maybe she has a chance to join the lightside... but how would that happen?
A crush on Ben... not likely going to be as strong as her ties to the sith.
Also most Sith who turned had someone who they had extremely strong ties with in the light- Vader, Caedus, Cade(kinda), Luke
Vestara doesn't- which makes the journey the interesting part... that is if the authors don't screw up

 

The Lost Tribe ain't around for Legacy, y'know. They probably won't make it past FotJ. So, assuming she survives, she will be cut off from her former comrades, which will probably be the chance to show her another way to live her life.

 

Vestara's feelings for Ben clash with her loyalty to the Sith -- loyalty that is borne through the sheer fact that she was raised in the culture and it is all she knows. She laments that Ben is not a Sith. Ben asks Luke if Gavar would kill Vestara if she did something substantive to disappoint him, and Luke thought that he would.

She's already betrayed Ben, but we know that he is forgiving -- much more so than the Sith. Thus, it seems likely that torn between conflicting loyalties, she will probably end up helping Ben in some way to the detriment to the Sith, which will burn that bridge.

Vestara, like Galen Marek, didn't *choose* to be a Sith. When given another option, like Galen, she may take it. Especially if the Sith betray her, or don't accept her for helping Ben.

 

Ben: "I take this snail to be my..."

 

Unless they get folded into the One Sith at some point.

 

Oh, I can see that, definitely. For the survivors, that is...

Vestara gonna get her chance to break with the Sith, I am pretty sure of that.

 

I kind of want Vestara to become Ben's Catwoman. The obvious route they would take is to have her turn away from the dark side and reject the Sith -- and I could definitely see that happening -- but I think it'd be more interesting if she and Ben ended up as enemies with benefits. At least for a while.

As an aside: doesn't she know about the One Sith? Don't the rest of the Tribe? (via Ship). That would make any redemption storyline where she turns to the Jedi a bit difficult, short of a mind-rub.

 

Or they simply forgot, since Ship told them the One Sith sucked, and it was two years before FOTJ that they learned this and reacquired space travel, and they didn't attempt any effort to team up with them.

 

Ship might not have even considered the One Sith to be Sith in its own mind.

But I do think it assumes a great deal to say the Lost Sith are extinct in the Legacy comics - just because we haven't seen them doesn't mean they aren't around.

 

Somewhat ironic, considering Krayt was actually tutored by the gatekeeper/spirit of a Sith Lord (XoXaan), whereas the Tribe -- while Sith -- can be nothing but pretenders to the title of "Sith Lord". Well, at least prior to Ship's arrival, I suppose, depending on exactly who built him. (I won't pretend that it didn't bother me that the Tribe apparantly has duelists that would be a match for Kyp and Kyle, either. That's as ridiculous as them having duelists that would be a match for Dooku or Mace Windu)

 

Well, let's also bear in mind that Ben and Vestara could have a Luke and Mara style courtship where they spend several years apart. Might not be a bad idea either, in that it'd allow them both to develop independently, though of course that also bears the possibility that they might develop to the point that a relationship isn't feasible.

I think it'd be best for the character of Vestara if "redemption" is more than just an "I wuv Ben Skywalker" thing. Maybe she turns away from the Sith, but doesn't embrace the Jedi, at least not right away. A few years as an "independent operator" might not be bad.

Heck, maybe Vestara helps start the Imperial Knights for all we know. While her ending up with Ben would be very much in keeping with the "style" of Star Wars so far, we've also seen that, at least in the novels, it can be a very long and winding road until they get there.

Then again, if they're not planning on telling many post-FotJ stories (I believe they've hinted as much?) then it's entirely possible that Ben and Vestara will be wrapped into a neat little package by the end, just to leave no doubt.

Or maybe they'll pull the biggest curveball of all and have Vestara dead by the end of the crossover. That'd make some waves, I'd bet, and be a pretty brilliant skewering of expectations on the part of the writers.

 

To me it seems that the only one worthy of really being a Sith Lord in this era according to the Ship seems to be Ben Skywalker, so even if Sidious himself would find one more clone body to hop in, the Ship would would just disparage him.

As far as I'm considered and care, the IKs can turn out to be the Lost Sith.

 

That's an interesting way of looking at Luke and Mara's out-of-the-blue marriage. It's not like they were an on-again off-again that finally decided to stay "on" (though I'd be quite happy if that got retconned in). They just... well, actually, the less said about how they handled the Luke/Mara relationship prior to their marriage the better. I'll stop.

Absolutely. That's part of why I'd prefer them to stay ostensible "enemies" even if they were involved to some extent.

Yeah. Vestara turning away from the Sith without joining the Jedi seems more likely to me than a straight switch.

I could dig that -- depending on how she dies, of course.

Haha. You may well be right.

Aw, man, I'd love for Sidious to turn up again and show these would-be Lords who's boss. I miss Palps so much.

 

We haven't seen Kuat in Legacy. Ergo, it must have been OBLITERATED in between Legacy of the Force and Legacy. Also Kashyyyk. Doesn't exist anymore.

That logic doesn't work. I'll concede that, in all likeliness, something will happen to the Lost Tribe so it will cease to exist (its citizens will either be killed, scatter to avoid the Jedi, become Light and integrate into the GA, or a combination of all three. But in real-life, a 5,043-year-old society wouldn't just fold and collapse under the pressure of a government it just discovered. And any invasion of Kesh would undoubtedly take severe losses. And any orbital bombardment would garner extremely bad press for the GA, and it would go explicitly against Fel's Victory Without War.