- Joined
- Dec 22, 2018
It was used in some German Star Wars parody, apparently.
Star Wars Griefing Thread (SPOILERS) - Safety off
- Thread starter CowReserach Inc.
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
Finns, character should always have been a brooding very cold and almost robotic character. Especially as we were told in the ST that they were conditioned from birth. In the OT, the troopers just seemed like normal volunteers, when we hear them talk this is clear in my opinion. It would have been interesting to play out like the character of "Peace" in the film Wizards. Finn should have been distrusted by almost everyone with some characters waiting for him to betray them, with his actions culminating in a selfless act. Yes, this has been done many times before, but when done well is still interesting.
All they did was just make him another character in the group, interchangeable with any other character. Just like Poe, Rose Tico all of them. You could have switched them all around in different scenes and it would not have impacted the story at all, which clearly demonstrates how poorly all of this was written.
To the contrary of his claims, he got more than enough share of the spotlight and they specifically used his and every other characters race or gender to beat us over the head mercilessly. So Im sorry Mr. Boyega but you and your black power can go to hell.
***Wow posted this last week and it didnt go thorough until today***
Also that gold costume, I highly doubt that was actually designed by John Mollo. Mollo was an expert on historical clothing and especially historical military clothing, uniforms and equipment. His designs for the OT are one of the main reasons for the success of Star Wars and indicate a knowledge and maturity seriously lacking in the ST costumes (and this gaudy gold costume) This is some internet meme I am sure, I would wager money that this was in no way designed by Mollo.
All they did was just make him another character in the group, interchangeable with any other character. Just like Poe, Rose Tico all of them. You could have switched them all around in different scenes and it would not have impacted the story at all, which clearly demonstrates how poorly all of this was written.
To the contrary of his claims, he got more than enough share of the spotlight and they specifically used his and every other characters race or gender to beat us over the head mercilessly. So Im sorry Mr. Boyega but you and your black power can go to hell.
***Wow posted this last week and it didnt go thorough until today***
Also that gold costume, I highly doubt that was actually designed by John Mollo. Mollo was an expert on historical clothing and especially historical military clothing, uniforms and equipment. His designs for the OT are one of the main reasons for the success of Star Wars and indicate a knowledge and maturity seriously lacking in the ST costumes (and this gaudy gold costume) This is some internet meme I am sure, I would wager money that this was in no way designed by Mollo.
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- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
Its only me, or it seem like Rian, and his masterpiece TLJ somehow made a major push for normalization of hack writing?
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Today on this remarkably sunny day, I managed to finish Sacrifice in the LOTF Story Arc…and Jesus Christ, I’ve never needed the radiant and optimistic glimmer of sunlight outside my window more than today. This is it, Kiwi’s: the book whose contents actually managed to render me emotionally ravaged to the point of consuming my entire day. This book makes the struggle to read through the utter bleakness and complete absence of hope in the previous books feel like a breeze by comparison. It’s is the closest I’ve come to closing a book with damp eyes and completely baffled as to what to do with myself since Star By Star, which any EU enthusiast knows to be the literal equivalent of Schindler’s List in terms of emotional devastation.
And who better to drive the knife in, twist it and savor every wince than the author of the previous contender for most misery-inducing book in the series, Bloodline’s very own Mando Aficionado, Karen Traviss.
And who better to drive the knife in, twist it and savor every wince than the author of the previous contender for most misery-inducing book in the series, Bloodline’s very own Mando Aficionado, Karen Traviss.
Right off the bat, I had a major problem with this book, one that I thought had capsized the impressive narrative consistency of LOTF and completely ruined it in my eyes—until I doubled back, and realized that I had fucked up. You may remember in my last post how I was praising the ending of Exile for showcasing Jacen’s gradual shift into school shooter logic with his increasingly-dispassionate outlook on his parents. All of that stands true…except for one thing that I’d actually gotten wrong: I had mistakenly read that scene as Jacen now considering his parents as a potential sacrifice for his ascension to the Sith, and the book ending him being resolute in doing so.
With that mindset, I had mistakenly gone into Sacrifice expecting that decision to be carried out, and not only were Han and Leia missing from the Dramatis Personae, but Jacen barely makes any mention of them and starts the new book with virtually no intent make them the sacrifice and is already staging discussions with Lumiya about Ben being the potential sacrifice instead, as if the writer had completely forgotten about the ending of the previous book. At first, I was thinking: “What kind of bald-faced, gibbering, inexplicable fucking disruption of continuity is this? Did I miss something?” I was swearing left and right, unable to believe that Traviss had completely dropped the cliffhanger ending of the previous book. How could she ignore something this big? Jacen ended the last book so resolute, so determined to make his parents the sacrifice, and now this book opens without even a mention of it….
…and then I re-read the ending of Exile again and saw that I had actually fucked up. The point of that scene wasn’t to establish that Han and Leia would be the sacrifice to help Jacen ascend to the rank of Sith Lord, it was to show that he’d finally cut all emotional ties with them, and had no more misgivings about leaving them for dead or killing them to prevent further hindrances on his quest for galactic peace. The book even states that either as a sacrifice or just getting them out of the way, Jacen felt the galaxy “would be better off without them”…which I had autistically and unattentively misread as a resolute statement, and a cliffhanger that was stating Jacen’s intentions for the next book. The more I think about it, the stupider I feel for making that mistake…largely because the condition for Jacen’s sacrifice is that it has to be someone he loves, and he literally ends the book talking about how he’s lost all love for his parents…yeah, I don’t know how I missed that either. I’m honestly more relieved than anything else, because I’ve been thoroughly enjoying LOTF so far, and thought that I had encountered something that had all but compromised its quality. And naturally, I don’t think I can go back and edit my misconception in my post on Exile, so I’m taking the opportunity to clarify it here.
Sorry about that, Kiwi’s. Thought we had a serious problem for a second there…turns out it was just my own retardation.
With that mindset, I had mistakenly gone into Sacrifice expecting that decision to be carried out, and not only were Han and Leia missing from the Dramatis Personae, but Jacen barely makes any mention of them and starts the new book with virtually no intent make them the sacrifice and is already staging discussions with Lumiya about Ben being the potential sacrifice instead, as if the writer had completely forgotten about the ending of the previous book. At first, I was thinking: “What kind of bald-faced, gibbering, inexplicable fucking disruption of continuity is this? Did I miss something?” I was swearing left and right, unable to believe that Traviss had completely dropped the cliffhanger ending of the previous book. How could she ignore something this big? Jacen ended the last book so resolute, so determined to make his parents the sacrifice, and now this book opens without even a mention of it….
…and then I re-read the ending of Exile again and saw that I had actually fucked up. The point of that scene wasn’t to establish that Han and Leia would be the sacrifice to help Jacen ascend to the rank of Sith Lord, it was to show that he’d finally cut all emotional ties with them, and had no more misgivings about leaving them for dead or killing them to prevent further hindrances on his quest for galactic peace. The book even states that either as a sacrifice or just getting them out of the way, Jacen felt the galaxy “would be better off without them”…which I had autistically and unattentively misread as a resolute statement, and a cliffhanger that was stating Jacen’s intentions for the next book. The more I think about it, the stupider I feel for making that mistake…largely because the condition for Jacen’s sacrifice is that it has to be someone he loves, and he literally ends the book talking about how he’s lost all love for his parents…yeah, I don’t know how I missed that either. I’m honestly more relieved than anything else, because I’ve been thoroughly enjoying LOTF so far, and thought that I had encountered something that had all but compromised its quality. And naturally, I don’t think I can go back and edit my misconception in my post on Exile, so I’m taking the opportunity to clarify it here.
Sorry about that, Kiwi’s. Thought we had a serious problem for a second there…turns out it was just my own retardation.
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- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
First and foremost, before discussing the content of the book itself, I have to make a brief disclaimer on a contentious topic that all but dwarfs online discussions of this book, and arguably the entire series: the editorial decision to kill off beloved EU Heroine and candidate for Best Girl, Mara Jade. Now, a lot has been said about the decision to kill Mara Jade, and I will detail my thoughts on how it was handled in a separate section, but I’d like to address an aspect outside the writing itself, and something relating to the meta: the matter of LucasFilm and Del Rey’s decision not to inform Timothy Zahn about them killing off a character he created, and choosing not to involve him whatsoever in the character’s passing.
Putting aside all personal feelings on Mara’s death, and whether or not it was well-executed, let me say up front that while I don’t agree with a lot of people’s contentions on Del Rey and their decisions relating to LOTF, I find myself in the rare situation of agreeing with them…if nothing else, on the inexplicable decision by Del Rey not to even inform Zahn about their plans to kill her. Conduct such as that is very unprofessional, and looks terrible in the lens of the public, and I’m not surprised they got blowback for it. When Chewbacca was killed off in the EU, his actor Peter Mayhew was informed about it via correspondence, and treated the affair very seriously. There were efforts by Del Rey and Dark Horse to make eulogies for the departed character, to ease his passing in the eyes of fans…and those efforts included having Mayhew write a very moving forward for 2000’s eulogy comic, Chewbacca, in which he expressed his consent and admiration for the way the character went out, and celebrating the impact the character had on countless fans across the world. Del Rey made the effort to do something like that before…but for some reason, they weren’t willing exercise that same effort for Zahn, and I have no idea why. I don’t place Zahn on the same pedestal as many others in the EU Readerbase do, especially given his output of work these days, but I won’t pretend for a second that he’s a small or obscure name in the Expanded Universe; hell, there are people who will rightfully credit him for essentially reviving the state of Star Wars fiction (even though I’d argue that the Tom Veitch, and the folks at West End Games deserve equal credit for that as well), and the characters he created, including Mara Jade, are part of why his works are still an enduring part of the mythos all these years later, canonicty be damned. And not only does Del Rey not seek out his involvement to any capacity, but they don’t even contact him that they’re killing his character off, leaving him to find out without warning like he’s a part of the rest of the public. This kind of thing really doesn’t bother me as someone approaching this canon all these years later, but I honestly didn’t know what Del Rey was thinking with a stunt like this. I’m all for killing off characters if it services the story—I pray at the altar of NJO, and unapologetically so—but even I know that you have to soften the blow of something like this, and it seemed like Del Rey wanted to make themselves look as dickish as possible in the eyes of the fanbase with this kind of deceptive stunt. Weirder till, Zahn stated in interviews that despite his disappointment at not being told about Mara’s fate beforehand, he was still willing to write a book concerning Luke, Mara and Ben’s time as a family before the events of LOTF…something that probably would’ve helped dampen the situation. And for some reason, Del Rey never even attempted to make themselves look better in the eyes of the fandom by following him up on his offer. It doesn’t seem to matter all that much in the long term—Zahn’s relations with the editorial seems to have gone on unaffected, considering he was still putting out EU books all the way through its decanonization, with the likes of Allegiance and Choices of One, but it still baffles me that he was never approached to go through with that Skywalker Family book.
Now, all of this is meta stuff that doesn’t affect the quality of Sacrifice as a book in any way. Most new people reading LOTF as a story arc probably won’t do the kind of research I’m doing to know the in’s and out’s of the EU’s publishing. But it’s still a head-scratching decision on the part of Del Rey, and one complaint by LOTF’s loudest detractors that I can absolutely sympathize with…even if it’s mostly off-page drama. As stated, it doesn’t compromise Sacrifice’s quality in any way…and certainly isn’t Del Rey’s biggest blunder as an editor. Most of my problems with them start and end with their insistence on padding out NJO’s length by needlessly splitting books into multiple entries, but that’s a rant for another day.
Putting aside all personal feelings on Mara’s death, and whether or not it was well-executed, let me say up front that while I don’t agree with a lot of people’s contentions on Del Rey and their decisions relating to LOTF, I find myself in the rare situation of agreeing with them…if nothing else, on the inexplicable decision by Del Rey not to even inform Zahn about their plans to kill her. Conduct such as that is very unprofessional, and looks terrible in the lens of the public, and I’m not surprised they got blowback for it. When Chewbacca was killed off in the EU, his actor Peter Mayhew was informed about it via correspondence, and treated the affair very seriously. There were efforts by Del Rey and Dark Horse to make eulogies for the departed character, to ease his passing in the eyes of fans…and those efforts included having Mayhew write a very moving forward for 2000’s eulogy comic, Chewbacca, in which he expressed his consent and admiration for the way the character went out, and celebrating the impact the character had on countless fans across the world. Del Rey made the effort to do something like that before…but for some reason, they weren’t willing exercise that same effort for Zahn, and I have no idea why. I don’t place Zahn on the same pedestal as many others in the EU Readerbase do, especially given his output of work these days, but I won’t pretend for a second that he’s a small or obscure name in the Expanded Universe; hell, there are people who will rightfully credit him for essentially reviving the state of Star Wars fiction (even though I’d argue that the Tom Veitch, and the folks at West End Games deserve equal credit for that as well), and the characters he created, including Mara Jade, are part of why his works are still an enduring part of the mythos all these years later, canonicty be damned. And not only does Del Rey not seek out his involvement to any capacity, but they don’t even contact him that they’re killing his character off, leaving him to find out without warning like he’s a part of the rest of the public. This kind of thing really doesn’t bother me as someone approaching this canon all these years later, but I honestly didn’t know what Del Rey was thinking with a stunt like this. I’m all for killing off characters if it services the story—I pray at the altar of NJO, and unapologetically so—but even I know that you have to soften the blow of something like this, and it seemed like Del Rey wanted to make themselves look as dickish as possible in the eyes of the fanbase with this kind of deceptive stunt. Weirder till, Zahn stated in interviews that despite his disappointment at not being told about Mara’s fate beforehand, he was still willing to write a book concerning Luke, Mara and Ben’s time as a family before the events of LOTF…something that probably would’ve helped dampen the situation. And for some reason, Del Rey never even attempted to make themselves look better in the eyes of the fandom by following him up on his offer. It doesn’t seem to matter all that much in the long term—Zahn’s relations with the editorial seems to have gone on unaffected, considering he was still putting out EU books all the way through its decanonization, with the likes of Allegiance and Choices of One, but it still baffles me that he was never approached to go through with that Skywalker Family book.
Now, all of this is meta stuff that doesn’t affect the quality of Sacrifice as a book in any way. Most new people reading LOTF as a story arc probably won’t do the kind of research I’m doing to know the in’s and out’s of the EU’s publishing. But it’s still a head-scratching decision on the part of Del Rey, and one complaint by LOTF’s loudest detractors that I can absolutely sympathize with…even if it’s mostly off-page drama. As stated, it doesn’t compromise Sacrifice’s quality in any way…and certainly isn’t Del Rey’s biggest blunder as an editor. Most of my problems with them start and end with their insistence on padding out NJO’s length by needlessly splitting books into multiple entries, but that’s a rant for another day.
Since I’m reading this book with the full knowledge that this is her final book in the EU, I was paying particular attention to her characterization and plot contribution. And when reading Sacrifice in that mindset, I must say it actually enhanced the experience for me. Things like the opening first-person monologue, the way her badass attitude still nets a familiar smile out of Luke even after all these years later, as well as all of her internal self-reflection of where her life has led her and the hope she has for her son have way more emotional weight to them. Her character is handled with a lot of respect and care, and the story overall feels very much like a swansong to her. Which, as someone who regards her as potentially my favorite female character in all of Star Wars (and one of the top candidates for Best Girl), that filled me with a lot of relief. I was petrifyingly worried that her send-off would feel like the same kind of empty afterthought as the character deaths in the Disney Sequels…but as with Chewbacca and Anakin Solo’s death prior, the EU handles the departure of a beloved character with the weight, nuance, and reverence that they deserve. Whatever faults Traviss may have—and believe me, she has ‘em—I’m profoundly grateful for at least providing that.
The book does a good job getting the reader into her head, and effectively uses long-running aspects of her character to achieve this. She finds it increasingly difficult to dictate morals to her own son, considering the kind of moral aloofness she back when she was the Emperor’s Hand…an inner conflict that Denning touched on briefly in Dark Nest that makes a welcome return here. The family moments with the Skywalkers, particularly Mara and Ben, are sweet and endearing as they were for the first few books. And they have to be, considering what happens to one of them later in this book, and to make the emotional weight of that moment count. You really feel that sense of relief with Mara when she reunites with her son after he’s spent an entire book missing…and that moment when she promises him that “they’ll spend his birthday celebration as a family next year” really hit me in the stomach, knowing that’ll never happen.
A scene with Mara that I really appreciated as a longtime fan of her was where she and Luke clash on how to deal with Lumiya. Luke, having seen flashes of non-lethal intent in Lumiya during their last encounter, believes in his typical altruistic heroism that she can still be redeemed. By contrast, Mara, having spent her life with sharpened and ruthless assassin instinct (even after becoming a Jedi), expresses frustration at Luke’s refusal to accept that certain people can’t be redeemed—and is now doubly angry now that Lumiya might be posing a threat to their son, and he’s still clinging to the possibility of redeeming her. They argue bitterly over who’s best suited to confront Lumiya once and for all, and Mara says this:
This bout of Farmboy vs Assassin schools of thought is something that was very in-character for both participants, and nice to read, drawing on some of the long-running differences between Mara and Luke that date all the way back to their first meeting in Heir To The Empire. Their opposite mindsets has always been what’s made their romance and marriage interesting, but here in Sacrifice is one of the few instances in the EU after their marriage that it played a pivotal role in the story. It fleshes out Luke and Mara’s relationship just like their struggle with Mara’s illness and pregnancy in NJO did, and goes along way to suggest that their marriage isn’t picture perfect…and has all of the messy aspects that real marriages have. It’s what makes their relationship endearing, and in my opinion, why their romance is my favorite in Star Wars. And I found it welcoming and appropriate for the story to provide explicit reminders of that in Mara’s final EU outing.
It was also very cool to have Mara and Jaina team up in the search for Lumiya. With the former having been instrumental in Jaina’s Jedi Training between the events of Jedi Training between the events of Young Jedi Knights and NJO, thus having spent a lot of time together, I was always curious why more authors didn’t economize more interactions between these two. I wanted to see more evidence of them knowing each other well, which I actually got in this book. The dialogue and banter between them is really fun, with Jaina’s plucky snark clashing well with Mara’s tough, no-nonsense attitude.
But once the final stretch of the book arrives, having full knowledge of what’s coming next adds a stomach-churning, heart-wrenching effect to the writing. There have been instances when reading the EU where I’ve been briefly rattled out of the story because of the onslaught of emotions; Mara and Luke’s confession in Vision Of The Future, Han’s mournful withdrawal throughout early NJO, the flashes of warm familial bonding between the Solo parents and children, and of course, the death of characters like Anakin Solo and Nen Yim. All were exhaustively sad reads to be sure, but as I’ve stated since the outset of reading this story arc, LOTF has is unique in that instead of flashing moments of emotional resonance, it drives it into the reader slowly and painfully, almost as if the author is relishing the despair and heartbreak they’re creating. A particular moment where Sacrifice achieved such an effect was when Mara—fresh from her last, failed desperate attempt to make Jacen see reason—slips into her apartment to suit up for her confrontation with Lumiya only to find an exhausted Luke asleep…and rather than wake him, she leans over and kisses him on the forehead, leaving a note that says:
That was the moment, where I felt myself throat seize up. Because I knew, in the shaky pit of my stomach, that she wasn’t coming back. When you encounter a moment like that as a reader, with a character you’ve adored for years, knowing full well what’s coming, all you can do is feel helpless and heartbroken. Stirring that emotion organically, through prose and callbacks, is where I know the author has done an effective job in getting me to care about these characters.
…and then, the cruelest cut of all: the final battle between Mara and Jacen. What made this fight so hard to read was how dirty and raw it was; it didn’t have the sweeping gravitas or dignified drama of the rest of the usual Star Wars duels. It was like something out of a Frank Miller comic, an animalistic, wince-inducing affair: the barbaric snatching of hair, the savage bruising of flesh, as the characters are yanked further and further down to an ugly, desperate, and unsightly level, as both characters fight bitterly to protect what they love most. The fight does Mara’s skills and intuitions as a former Emperor’s Hand plenty of credit; the stealth and outfoxing allows her to reduce Jacen to a bloody pulp, and she gets the upper hand several times, including the penultimate moment where she almost kills him…and then, Jacen draws into his wellspring of unorthodox Force Powers, and inflicts the cruelest death on Mara. He assumes the appearance of her son, taking advantage of her maternal instincts to emotionally disarm her for just the right nanosecond to plunge poisoned needle-dart into her. That moment was beyond sad, beyond cruel…just picturing the look on her face at that instant is the kind of Star By Star-tier levels of heartbreak I didn’t think I’d experience again. The disgustingly-cruel maneuver leaves Mara, one of my favorite strong heroines of the EU lying paralyzed and helpless, poisoned and dying, while Jacen stands over her. Seeing someone so tough, so unshakeable reduced to a feeble and weak heap actually made it hard to read with how my eyes were welling up. The whole fight and final moment had the same gut-wrenching feel as Elektra’s infamous, pitifully-small and helpless death at the hands of Bullseye in the Frank Miller Daredevil comics; watching a brazen, endearing female character reduced to shambles, humiliated at the feet of her killer. It has the same effectiveness, creating the same hollowing feeling in the pit of one’s stomach, to watch someone they care about go out like this. And yet, I didn’t feel like it was a cheap death—it was a cruel, hollowing one, the kind subjected to another favorite Star Wars character of mine, Nen Yim; the kind of death that forces us to watch the character crippled and helpless, where we want to see the killer get their dues for using such a low, cruel and infuriating means of subduing Best Girl. And where that death also made for an effectively agonizing and emotionally-sapping experience, this one is even better…thanks largely to the efforts of the author staging this event after making us bond with the heroine over the course of the book, and amplifying the tragedy significantly. Traviss could have easily made this send-off the same melodramatic joke as Han’s death or Luke’s fart of a final passing in the ST…something that leaves you feeling empty, and apathetic. But she very tactically plays with the readers’ emotions throughout the book, stoking in Mara’s inner emotions and thoughts, exhaustively working to funnel as much emotional investment into the character…in order to secure that heavy, puncturing moment of emotional devastation when she dies. Mara is my favorite female character in all of Star Wars, and one of my favorite characters period…and with all the revulsion and contempt geared towards LOTF online, this was the scene I was most nervous about after Jacen’s Downfall. If Mara’s death was done in a way I deemed unacceptable, or as a catastrophically disrespectful send-off to her character, I would be ending my first-timer EU traversal on this very spot. But it is my sincere belief—and immense relief, as a Mara Fan—that she received a death that was worthy of her; a passing that respectfully recognized her strength and skill, one that was preceded by the kind of self-reflection and closure necessary to give it a sense of weight and finality, and one that ripped at the heartstrings in all the ways that has made LOTF a masterful plunge into despair. The death of Mara Jade was not an empty afterthought like I was led to believe…and was treated with the same tasteful reverence as the previous major deaths in New Jedi Order. In fact, out of all of LOTF’s countless homages and references to NJO, the most important thing it carries over is the authors’ unwavering efforts to give characters tragic and moving send-offs worthy of them…something that, as a huge fan of NJO, is the greatest thing I could hope for out of more post-NJO stories.
And just like NJO, the salt on the wound is everything that comes next: Ben screaming for his mom as he hears her name on her dying lips lightyears away through the Force…Luke feeling the memory of her hand through his hair as her presence disappears into the Force…Ben cradling Mara’s corpse in the tunnel, wanting to clean her bloody face and make her beautiful again…Luke bottling his anguish until he is alone, so that the rest of the Jedi don’t have to see the Grandmaster of the Order collapse into a sobbing, distraught heap…I found myself taking breaks to pick myself back up, the same way I did when Star By Star described everyone feeling Anakin die through the Force. And this is all why I feel that Mara’s death was not only earned, but it was treated with heartfelt and exhaustive sensitivity by the story. Just like Anakin Solo, possibly even more so, her death is not treated as an afterthought whatsoever—it leaves a smoldering mark on the remaining characters: it furthers the growth and full transformation of Jacen Solo, creates burning motivation for the remaining Skywalker Men. It’s a moment heard across the galaxy, tearing at the hearts and rattling characters inside and outside the Jedi Order…sending people like Clighal, Leia, Jaina and Han into petrified states of grief. Mara’s passing was treated as a moment of mountainous, galaxy-shattering importance, a defining and in-character send-off that will leave a lasting impact for several books to come…which as a massive fan of hers, is the best thing I could’ve asked for.
The book does a good job getting the reader into her head, and effectively uses long-running aspects of her character to achieve this. She finds it increasingly difficult to dictate morals to her own son, considering the kind of moral aloofness she back when she was the Emperor’s Hand…an inner conflict that Denning touched on briefly in Dark Nest that makes a welcome return here. The family moments with the Skywalkers, particularly Mara and Ben, are sweet and endearing as they were for the first few books. And they have to be, considering what happens to one of them later in this book, and to make the emotional weight of that moment count. You really feel that sense of relief with Mara when she reunites with her son after he’s spent an entire book missing…and that moment when she promises him that “they’ll spend his birthday celebration as a family next year” really hit me in the stomach, knowing that’ll never happen.
A scene with Mara that I really appreciated as a longtime fan of her was where she and Luke clash on how to deal with Lumiya. Luke, having seen flashes of non-lethal intent in Lumiya during their last encounter, believes in his typical altruistic heroism that she can still be redeemed. By contrast, Mara, having spent her life with sharpened and ruthless assassin instinct (even after becoming a Jedi), expresses frustration at Luke’s refusal to accept that certain people can’t be redeemed—and is now doubly angry now that Lumiya might be posing a threat to their son, and he’s still clinging to the possibility of redeeming her. They argue bitterly over who’s best suited to confront Lumiya once and for all, and Mara says this:
“She’s not your father, Luke. There’s nothing good left in her to redeem. She’s a threat that needs to be taken out, and that’s what I’m trained to do and you’re not. Forget this ‘take her alive if possible’ garbage. The only way anyone’s taking her is dead.”
This bout of Farmboy vs Assassin schools of thought is something that was very in-character for both participants, and nice to read, drawing on some of the long-running differences between Mara and Luke that date all the way back to their first meeting in Heir To The Empire. Their opposite mindsets has always been what’s made their romance and marriage interesting, but here in Sacrifice is one of the few instances in the EU after their marriage that it played a pivotal role in the story. It fleshes out Luke and Mara’s relationship just like their struggle with Mara’s illness and pregnancy in NJO did, and goes along way to suggest that their marriage isn’t picture perfect…and has all of the messy aspects that real marriages have. It’s what makes their relationship endearing, and in my opinion, why their romance is my favorite in Star Wars. And I found it welcoming and appropriate for the story to provide explicit reminders of that in Mara’s final EU outing.
It was also very cool to have Mara and Jaina team up in the search for Lumiya. With the former having been instrumental in Jaina’s Jedi Training between the events of Jedi Training between the events of Young Jedi Knights and NJO, thus having spent a lot of time together, I was always curious why more authors didn’t economize more interactions between these two. I wanted to see more evidence of them knowing each other well, which I actually got in this book. The dialogue and banter between them is really fun, with Jaina’s plucky snark clashing well with Mara’s tough, no-nonsense attitude.
But once the final stretch of the book arrives, having full knowledge of what’s coming next adds a stomach-churning, heart-wrenching effect to the writing. There have been instances when reading the EU where I’ve been briefly rattled out of the story because of the onslaught of emotions; Mara and Luke’s confession in Vision Of The Future, Han’s mournful withdrawal throughout early NJO, the flashes of warm familial bonding between the Solo parents and children, and of course, the death of characters like Anakin Solo and Nen Yim. All were exhaustively sad reads to be sure, but as I’ve stated since the outset of reading this story arc, LOTF has is unique in that instead of flashing moments of emotional resonance, it drives it into the reader slowly and painfully, almost as if the author is relishing the despair and heartbreak they’re creating. A particular moment where Sacrifice achieved such an effect was when Mara—fresh from her last, failed desperate attempt to make Jacen see reason—slips into her apartment to suit up for her confrontation with Lumiya only to find an exhausted Luke asleep…and rather than wake him, she leans over and kisses him on the forehead, leaving a note that says:
Gone hunting for a few days. Don’t be mad at me, farmboy.
That was the moment, where I felt myself throat seize up. Because I knew, in the shaky pit of my stomach, that she wasn’t coming back. When you encounter a moment like that as a reader, with a character you’ve adored for years, knowing full well what’s coming, all you can do is feel helpless and heartbroken. Stirring that emotion organically, through prose and callbacks, is where I know the author has done an effective job in getting me to care about these characters.
…and then, the cruelest cut of all: the final battle between Mara and Jacen. What made this fight so hard to read was how dirty and raw it was; it didn’t have the sweeping gravitas or dignified drama of the rest of the usual Star Wars duels. It was like something out of a Frank Miller comic, an animalistic, wince-inducing affair: the barbaric snatching of hair, the savage bruising of flesh, as the characters are yanked further and further down to an ugly, desperate, and unsightly level, as both characters fight bitterly to protect what they love most. The fight does Mara’s skills and intuitions as a former Emperor’s Hand plenty of credit; the stealth and outfoxing allows her to reduce Jacen to a bloody pulp, and she gets the upper hand several times, including the penultimate moment where she almost kills him…and then, Jacen draws into his wellspring of unorthodox Force Powers, and inflicts the cruelest death on Mara. He assumes the appearance of her son, taking advantage of her maternal instincts to emotionally disarm her for just the right nanosecond to plunge poisoned needle-dart into her. That moment was beyond sad, beyond cruel…just picturing the look on her face at that instant is the kind of Star By Star-tier levels of heartbreak I didn’t think I’d experience again. The disgustingly-cruel maneuver leaves Mara, one of my favorite strong heroines of the EU lying paralyzed and helpless, poisoned and dying, while Jacen stands over her. Seeing someone so tough, so unshakeable reduced to a feeble and weak heap actually made it hard to read with how my eyes were welling up. The whole fight and final moment had the same gut-wrenching feel as Elektra’s infamous, pitifully-small and helpless death at the hands of Bullseye in the Frank Miller Daredevil comics; watching a brazen, endearing female character reduced to shambles, humiliated at the feet of her killer. It has the same effectiveness, creating the same hollowing feeling in the pit of one’s stomach, to watch someone they care about go out like this. And yet, I didn’t feel like it was a cheap death—it was a cruel, hollowing one, the kind subjected to another favorite Star Wars character of mine, Nen Yim; the kind of death that forces us to watch the character crippled and helpless, where we want to see the killer get their dues for using such a low, cruel and infuriating means of subduing Best Girl. And where that death also made for an effectively agonizing and emotionally-sapping experience, this one is even better…thanks largely to the efforts of the author staging this event after making us bond with the heroine over the course of the book, and amplifying the tragedy significantly. Traviss could have easily made this send-off the same melodramatic joke as Han’s death or Luke’s fart of a final passing in the ST…something that leaves you feeling empty, and apathetic. But she very tactically plays with the readers’ emotions throughout the book, stoking in Mara’s inner emotions and thoughts, exhaustively working to funnel as much emotional investment into the character…in order to secure that heavy, puncturing moment of emotional devastation when she dies. Mara is my favorite female character in all of Star Wars, and one of my favorite characters period…and with all the revulsion and contempt geared towards LOTF online, this was the scene I was most nervous about after Jacen’s Downfall. If Mara’s death was done in a way I deemed unacceptable, or as a catastrophically disrespectful send-off to her character, I would be ending my first-timer EU traversal on this very spot. But it is my sincere belief—and immense relief, as a Mara Fan—that she received a death that was worthy of her; a passing that respectfully recognized her strength and skill, one that was preceded by the kind of self-reflection and closure necessary to give it a sense of weight and finality, and one that ripped at the heartstrings in all the ways that has made LOTF a masterful plunge into despair. The death of Mara Jade was not an empty afterthought like I was led to believe…and was treated with the same tasteful reverence as the previous major deaths in New Jedi Order. In fact, out of all of LOTF’s countless homages and references to NJO, the most important thing it carries over is the authors’ unwavering efforts to give characters tragic and moving send-offs worthy of them…something that, as a huge fan of NJO, is the greatest thing I could hope for out of more post-NJO stories.
And just like NJO, the salt on the wound is everything that comes next: Ben screaming for his mom as he hears her name on her dying lips lightyears away through the Force…Luke feeling the memory of her hand through his hair as her presence disappears into the Force…Ben cradling Mara’s corpse in the tunnel, wanting to clean her bloody face and make her beautiful again…Luke bottling his anguish until he is alone, so that the rest of the Jedi don’t have to see the Grandmaster of the Order collapse into a sobbing, distraught heap…I found myself taking breaks to pick myself back up, the same way I did when Star By Star described everyone feeling Anakin die through the Force. And this is all why I feel that Mara’s death was not only earned, but it was treated with heartfelt and exhaustive sensitivity by the story. Just like Anakin Solo, possibly even more so, her death is not treated as an afterthought whatsoever—it leaves a smoldering mark on the remaining characters: it furthers the growth and full transformation of Jacen Solo, creates burning motivation for the remaining Skywalker Men. It’s a moment heard across the galaxy, tearing at the hearts and rattling characters inside and outside the Jedi Order…sending people like Clighal, Leia, Jaina and Han into petrified states of grief. Mara’s passing was treated as a moment of mountainous, galaxy-shattering importance, a defining and in-character send-off that will leave a lasting impact for several books to come…which as a massive fan of hers, is the best thing I could’ve asked for.
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- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
-The Outlaw Jacen Solo: Civil War references rear their head yet again, with Cal Omas discovered engaging in some highly questionable, even unconstitutional behavior when he secretly negotiates with Corellia’s Dur Gejjen, attempting to appease the Corellians by accepting their under-the-table demands…among them, the elimination of Admiral Niathal and Colonel Jacen Solo. This reminds me of when a certain American President was so desperate to keep the United States orderly and unified, he was even considering deporting all slaves back to Africa to eliminate “the slave problem” to prevent the outbreak of law, as well as breaking several basic constitutional values with his State Of Emergency slave searches. Of course, there’s little evidence to suggest he was covertly negotiating with Jefferson Davis once the war actually started, unlike our friend Omas. His willingness to fork over the troublesome elements of his cause in the form of Niathal and Jacen kind of reminds me of a reverse scenario of The Outlaw Josey Wales, in which members of one side seedily collaborate with the other to covertly kill the last dangerous elements of their own cause, to end the war faster. Except here, the targets in question find out well beforehand.
-A Tribute To KOTOR and Jango: After the Mandos enhance a ship with the newly mined beskar metal they’ve discovered, Boba Fett christens it “the Basilisk”, as a nod to the ancient Mandalorian war droids of the same name. Very cool reference to Tales of the Jedi and KOTOR. While visiting his father’s grave on Mandalore and discussing the afterlife with his daughter—which the Mandalorians believe to be a shared consciousness with other fallen warriors—he expresses reluctance to share an ethereal existence with Montross or Tor Vizsla, which is a very welcome reference to Bounty Hunter and Open Seasons.
-An In-Character Moment For Jaina: There’s a moment that implies that the reason Jaina has fixated so much attention on the tensions between her, Jag and Zekk is because she’s trying to avoid thinking about Jacen, and the hurt he’s putting their parents through. I actually thought this was rather in-character of Jaina; she was never the contemplative or philosophical member of the Solo Children, often taking to piloting whenever a blunt, easy solution didn’t present itself. She also spent a good chunk of the Yuuzhan Vong War trying to run away from her emotional hurdles (in the aftermath of Star By Star), a phase that took the likes of Jagged Fel to shake her out of. Other characters like Mara silently admonish it as immature behavior (Mara in particular characterizing Jaina as “acting less mature at thirty-one than Ben acts at fourteen). So not only is this a present and active character flaw, one that Jaina has a history of demonstrating through behavior, but it also works to justify why LOTF is keeping her and Jacen separated…thus enabling it to have some build-up to the eventual moment where they’ll have to confront each other.
-The Post-War “Vong Scare”: I like how when Ben Skywalker turns up in the Sith Meditation Sphere, everyone aboard the Alliance Flagship thinks it’s a Yuuzhan Vong craft, and immediately get on edge. It’s a neat detail that the traumatic scar of the Vong Crusade is so deep even ten years later, that something like a familiar ship design can frighten soldiers of the current age.
-OT References (Good and Bad): I’m not one for overly-hamfisted OT catchphrase references (see my last two rants about the authors touching themselves to unfunny “DER HER HAN SHOT FIRST” gags), but I’ll admit that I did chuckle when Boba Fett told his granddaughter “no disintegrations” during one of their missions. I do, however, take issue with Traviss placing an ill-timed and tonally-botched Admiral Ackbar “it’s a trap” reference in the middle of a tense, 3 AM argument between Luke and Mara. It’s not as bad as when she inserted a retarded “Han Shot First” joke during the fucking assassination scene in Bloodlines, and she’s far less inclined towards comedic impulses than Alliston…but it’s still far from welcome.
-Jacen Doing What The Jedi Won’t: Traviss uses a subplot of Jacen attempting to pull strings so that he can draw on invasion forces and resources whenever he wants, through the unconstitutional ravaging of Alliance law, which the corrupt Senate is all to willingly to swallow. In addition to accomplishing his initial goal, the story uses this as an opportunity to showcase Jacen’s growing disgust with the way things are in the galaxy, and how the feeble ideology of the Jedi doesn’t accomplish what’s necessary to fix it. This is evident with the way that Jacen reacts to his constitutional changes being passed:
This further enforces the fact that Jacen doesn’t see the Dark Side as some kind of utopian solution to the world’s problems, like Anakin before him. He’s fully aware of its detrimental nature, its sinister and destructive underpinnings…but to him, it’s the most effective tool out of a swath of ineffectual alternatives…the Jedi Path very much included.
-A Surprising Amount Of Depth and Tragedy For Alema: One of my favorite scenes in the entire book is the acidic conversation that Lumiya and Alema share aboard the Ziost Sith Meditation Sphere. Reading their hostile back-and-forth only highlights the issue I had with the previous book, Exile, and Aaron Alliston’s seemingly strange inability to understand what makes for good reading: it’s not having unfunny or eye-rolling exchanges involving characters we don’t know, but rather to have in-character and interesting, even humorous, exchanges between established characters we do know. Work with the characters you have, don’t Rian Johnson it and stuff in a bunch of one-and-done assholes that we’re never going to see again. I was much more engaged in this one conversation involving familiar characters than any of Alliston’s farcical comedic characters from Exile. There was a lot of dripping lethal intent between the two women, and Lumiya talking down to Alema like she’s some insane thought was entertaining. It’s all good fun…and then Traviss segways the tone someplace I never expected. She delves into why Alema wants revenge on Leia—how her beauty was stolen, how her ability manipulate and coerce others was stripped from her, how the nerves in her lekku that would enable her to feel love for another of her species was severed. The tone suddenly shifts to a surprisingly melancholy one, and then we get this exchange:
Alema has been many things since she was introduced in NJO: a source of conniving sex appeal, a narrative annoyance and foil to the main characters…but very rarely was she sympathetic, until now. In only a few paragraphs, her character managed to tug on my heartstrings a little. I think the author deserves some special commendation for eliciting that reaction through a recurring background character like Alema of all people.
-Rebutting A Fandom Complaint: A common complaint I see leveled at LOTF’s overarching plot is that the main characters inexplicably don’t make the connection that Jacen is allied with Lumiya, and that his family seems to be looking for all kinds of personal, mental excuses for his sinister behavior…such as the possibility that her dark influence from some secret part of the GFFA is influencing him remotely, or that she’s controlling him from afar. This leads to the criticism that the characters were made intentionally stupid to allow the unfurling downfall of Jacen…when this isn’t the case at all. The characters aren’t written to be stupid; they’re in denial. They don’t want to believe that Jacen sound-mindedly and willingly is committing such horrible actions, blinded by their unconditional love for him. Lumiya even outright says this in Betrayal, stating that Luke will never see the threat poised in his visions with Jacen’s face, because he subconsciously refuses to believe Jacen would ever become a threat to all of them. This isn’t erratic, stupid or irrational behavior; the families of serial killers and school shooters make up all kinds of excuses to remove accountability for their loved ones—because those kinds of delusions about someone going crazy or acting under influence are easier to believe than the cold, unsettling reality that their loved one is fully capable of doing horrible things. And in the post-Endor environment, where the characters have been conditioned to believe that everyone can be saved and redeemed, and that a lot of evil actions of people like Mara Jade, Kyp Durron, Zekk or Darth Vader can be waved away as people under a dark influence that can be swayed back, this new scenario with an irredeemable loved one is a horrible pill to swallow. It’s a dilemma that completely clashes with the simplistic and uncomplicated errand of redemption they’re all used to, and why they’re in such denial over what Jacen is doing. Mara, someone who who’s been consistently portrayed in this series as clinging to this mindset, assesses that denial and even points to the familial bias helping to fuel it:
Countless times, the Skywalker/Solo family have dealt with people they know going to the Dark Side, and having things like outside forces to blame, and redemption to use as a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. This new scenarios deprives them of both, which is why they struggle with it for so long, instead of taking immediate action. It’s only when the undeniable amount of agency Jacen has when doing these horrible things is uncovered when Luke and Mara finally force themselves to let go of their denial, and start to take action. Although there is also substantial evidence to suggest that part of what geared them was the threat Jacen posed to their own son, something that Mara guiltily admits should not have been the final straw to kick them into confronting Jacen. The story doesn’t lionize or validate this decision whatsoever, going as far as to portray the Skywalkers as committing a grievous but believable error for which they suffer dire consequences, something I felt was a tasteful and well-handled. Having characters be blinded by familial bias is infinitely more in-character than something as retarded as Luke turning his back on his family like he does in the ST, especially given what we know about him through the films.
The familial bias over pragmatism even creeps up again in a very characteristic way when Mara, having discovered Jacen’s secret through Ben and fully determined to defeat him after he exposed her son to danger, feels a moment of immense guilt when encountering Leia. She doesn’t tell her about the recent discovery with Jacen, or her intentions to kill him…and suddenly decides to try and reach out to him during their confrontation. Not only because she herself was brought back from the brink, but because she cares for Leia, and doesn’t want to subject her to the tragedy of losing another son. We as the audience know that this thinking is futile, that no one has a shot in hell at saving Jacen after all he’s done…and it makes the situation all the more heartbreaking, because Mara and co. would certainly and willingly die trying. They struggle with crossing the line of pragmatism, and sacrificing a family member for the greater good…while Jacen is coldly and calculatingly committed to doing just that. That dichotomy is, I think, at the heart of this book and why it makes for such an emotionally-devastating read.
-A Tribute To KOTOR and Jango: After the Mandos enhance a ship with the newly mined beskar metal they’ve discovered, Boba Fett christens it “the Basilisk”, as a nod to the ancient Mandalorian war droids of the same name. Very cool reference to Tales of the Jedi and KOTOR. While visiting his father’s grave on Mandalore and discussing the afterlife with his daughter—which the Mandalorians believe to be a shared consciousness with other fallen warriors—he expresses reluctance to share an ethereal existence with Montross or Tor Vizsla, which is a very welcome reference to Bounty Hunter and Open Seasons.
-An In-Character Moment For Jaina: There’s a moment that implies that the reason Jaina has fixated so much attention on the tensions between her, Jag and Zekk is because she’s trying to avoid thinking about Jacen, and the hurt he’s putting their parents through. I actually thought this was rather in-character of Jaina; she was never the contemplative or philosophical member of the Solo Children, often taking to piloting whenever a blunt, easy solution didn’t present itself. She also spent a good chunk of the Yuuzhan Vong War trying to run away from her emotional hurdles (in the aftermath of Star By Star), a phase that took the likes of Jagged Fel to shake her out of. Other characters like Mara silently admonish it as immature behavior (Mara in particular characterizing Jaina as “acting less mature at thirty-one than Ben acts at fourteen). So not only is this a present and active character flaw, one that Jaina has a history of demonstrating through behavior, but it also works to justify why LOTF is keeping her and Jacen separated…thus enabling it to have some build-up to the eventual moment where they’ll have to confront each other.
-The Post-War “Vong Scare”: I like how when Ben Skywalker turns up in the Sith Meditation Sphere, everyone aboard the Alliance Flagship thinks it’s a Yuuzhan Vong craft, and immediately get on edge. It’s a neat detail that the traumatic scar of the Vong Crusade is so deep even ten years later, that something like a familiar ship design can frighten soldiers of the current age.
-OT References (Good and Bad): I’m not one for overly-hamfisted OT catchphrase references (see my last two rants about the authors touching themselves to unfunny “DER HER HAN SHOT FIRST” gags), but I’ll admit that I did chuckle when Boba Fett told his granddaughter “no disintegrations” during one of their missions. I do, however, take issue with Traviss placing an ill-timed and tonally-botched Admiral Ackbar “it’s a trap” reference in the middle of a tense, 3 AM argument between Luke and Mara. It’s not as bad as when she inserted a retarded “Han Shot First” joke during the fucking assassination scene in Bloodlines, and she’s far less inclined towards comedic impulses than Alliston…but it’s still far from welcome.
-Jacen Doing What The Jedi Won’t: Traviss uses a subplot of Jacen attempting to pull strings so that he can draw on invasion forces and resources whenever he wants, through the unconstitutional ravaging of Alliance law, which the corrupt Senate is all to willingly to swallow. In addition to accomplishing his initial goal, the story uses this as an opportunity to showcase Jacen’s growing disgust with the way things are in the galaxy, and how the feeble ideology of the Jedi doesn’t accomplish what’s necessary to fix it. This is evident with the way that Jacen reacts to his constitutional changes being passed:
The irony was too delicious sometimes. Jacen didn’t know whether to be satisfied with the outcome, or angry that Senators were so stupid that they let him get away with this.
They deserved to be ruled by the Sith. They needed to be.
They deserved to be ruled by the Sith. They needed to be.
This further enforces the fact that Jacen doesn’t see the Dark Side as some kind of utopian solution to the world’s problems, like Anakin before him. He’s fully aware of its detrimental nature, its sinister and destructive underpinnings…but to him, it’s the most effective tool out of a swath of ineffectual alternatives…the Jedi Path very much included.
-A Surprising Amount Of Depth and Tragedy For Alema: One of my favorite scenes in the entire book is the acidic conversation that Lumiya and Alema share aboard the Ziost Sith Meditation Sphere. Reading their hostile back-and-forth only highlights the issue I had with the previous book, Exile, and Aaron Alliston’s seemingly strange inability to understand what makes for good reading: it’s not having unfunny or eye-rolling exchanges involving characters we don’t know, but rather to have in-character and interesting, even humorous, exchanges between established characters we do know. Work with the characters you have, don’t Rian Johnson it and stuff in a bunch of one-and-done assholes that we’re never going to see again. I was much more engaged in this one conversation involving familiar characters than any of Alliston’s farcical comedic characters from Exile. There was a lot of dripping lethal intent between the two women, and Lumiya talking down to Alema like she’s some insane thought was entertaining. It’s all good fun…and then Traviss segways the tone someplace I never expected. She delves into why Alema wants revenge on Leia—how her beauty was stolen, how her ability manipulate and coerce others was stripped from her, how the nerves in her lekku that would enable her to feel love for another of her species was severed. The tone suddenly shifts to a surprisingly melancholy one, and then we get this exchange:
Alema looked at the courier shuttle and seemed to be somewhere else entirely. Then she gazed down at the deck of the hangar and began swaying a little as if listening to music. She raised one arm—the other hung limp, paralyzed from Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber—and seemed to be going through the motions of a dance, turning slowly and with difficulty on her crippled foot.
For a moment, Lumiya thought it was one of her affectations. Then she realized that it was quite genuine: Alema was remembering her past, what she could no longer do.
“We were a dancer,” she said wistfully, but she was talking to herself. “We loved to dance.”
For a moment, Lumiya thought it was one of her affectations. Then she realized that it was quite genuine: Alema was remembering her past, what she could no longer do.
“We were a dancer,” she said wistfully, but she was talking to herself. “We loved to dance.”
Alema has been many things since she was introduced in NJO: a source of conniving sex appeal, a narrative annoyance and foil to the main characters…but very rarely was she sympathetic, until now. In only a few paragraphs, her character managed to tug on my heartstrings a little. I think the author deserves some special commendation for eliciting that reaction through a recurring background character like Alema of all people.
-Rebutting A Fandom Complaint: A common complaint I see leveled at LOTF’s overarching plot is that the main characters inexplicably don’t make the connection that Jacen is allied with Lumiya, and that his family seems to be looking for all kinds of personal, mental excuses for his sinister behavior…such as the possibility that her dark influence from some secret part of the GFFA is influencing him remotely, or that she’s controlling him from afar. This leads to the criticism that the characters were made intentionally stupid to allow the unfurling downfall of Jacen…when this isn’t the case at all. The characters aren’t written to be stupid; they’re in denial. They don’t want to believe that Jacen sound-mindedly and willingly is committing such horrible actions, blinded by their unconditional love for him. Lumiya even outright says this in Betrayal, stating that Luke will never see the threat poised in his visions with Jacen’s face, because he subconsciously refuses to believe Jacen would ever become a threat to all of them. This isn’t erratic, stupid or irrational behavior; the families of serial killers and school shooters make up all kinds of excuses to remove accountability for their loved ones—because those kinds of delusions about someone going crazy or acting under influence are easier to believe than the cold, unsettling reality that their loved one is fully capable of doing horrible things. And in the post-Endor environment, where the characters have been conditioned to believe that everyone can be saved and redeemed, and that a lot of evil actions of people like Mara Jade, Kyp Durron, Zekk or Darth Vader can be waved away as people under a dark influence that can be swayed back, this new scenario with an irredeemable loved one is a horrible pill to swallow. It’s a dilemma that completely clashes with the simplistic and uncomplicated errand of redemption they’re all used to, and why they’re in such denial over what Jacen is doing. Mara, someone who who’s been consistently portrayed in this series as clinging to this mindset, assesses that denial and even points to the familial bias helping to fuel it:
It was the last thing Mara wanted to hear. She wanted to hear that Jacen was a good kid who went along with the others, who got into bad company but was a good boy at heart. She wanted a reason to go after evil Lumiya and rescue deluded Jacen, because that was easy, black and white, palatable.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Countless times, the Skywalker/Solo family have dealt with people they know going to the Dark Side, and having things like outside forces to blame, and redemption to use as a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. This new scenarios deprives them of both, which is why they struggle with it for so long, instead of taking immediate action. It’s only when the undeniable amount of agency Jacen has when doing these horrible things is uncovered when Luke and Mara finally force themselves to let go of their denial, and start to take action. Although there is also substantial evidence to suggest that part of what geared them was the threat Jacen posed to their own son, something that Mara guiltily admits should not have been the final straw to kick them into confronting Jacen. The story doesn’t lionize or validate this decision whatsoever, going as far as to portray the Skywalkers as committing a grievous but believable error for which they suffer dire consequences, something I felt was a tasteful and well-handled. Having characters be blinded by familial bias is infinitely more in-character than something as retarded as Luke turning his back on his family like he does in the ST, especially given what we know about him through the films.
The familial bias over pragmatism even creeps up again in a very characteristic way when Mara, having discovered Jacen’s secret through Ben and fully determined to defeat him after he exposed her son to danger, feels a moment of immense guilt when encountering Leia. She doesn’t tell her about the recent discovery with Jacen, or her intentions to kill him…and suddenly decides to try and reach out to him during their confrontation. Not only because she herself was brought back from the brink, but because she cares for Leia, and doesn’t want to subject her to the tragedy of losing another son. We as the audience know that this thinking is futile, that no one has a shot in hell at saving Jacen after all he’s done…and it makes the situation all the more heartbreaking, because Mara and co. would certainly and willingly die trying. They struggle with crossing the line of pragmatism, and sacrificing a family member for the greater good…while Jacen is coldly and calculatingly committed to doing just that. That dichotomy is, I think, at the heart of this book and why it makes for such an emotionally-devastating read.
As is standard with LOTF at this point—particularly with Traviss’ entries—the book does a good job making Jacen’s characterization feel balanced and human, even as he slips further and further into the Dark Side. The story never characterizes him as a cackling mustache-twirling villain or some shallow psychopathic killer…in fact, he’s even afforded a sense of levity in some areas, as things start going his way again. He starts bending the law in his favor, not out of hunger for power but out of a need to end the war as quickly as possible and prevent further ones from ever occurring…and we see flickers of relief and satisfaction in him with the more progress we make, even though we as readers can see the kind of fascistic measures he’s taking. His subordinates aren’t uneasy or fearful of him like Vader—we even get a scene where Jacen shares his plan to monitor Senators, a scheme that would shock and startle most people, and he gets welcome support and enthusiasm from his Alliance Troops. We see Ben take some warmth and comfort in the atmosphere Jacen has created in the GFFA headquarters, with troops unreservedly expressing their loyalty and support of his cousin…looking up to him as a hero. And we see that Jacen himself isn’t manipulating or cheating respect out of his men, either; unlike Palpatine or Vader, he actually values his men as individuals, and shares a mutual respect for them. It’s kind of like the mutual respect Anakin earned from the Clone Troopers in his service, except here it’s after the person in question has fallen to the Dark Side. And that’s kind of what makes Jacen’s Dark Side turn unique from his predecessors…it has an air of heroism and good-naturedness to it that’s reciprocated by his underlings. People working with him don’t regard him as some ruthless Vader figure who will fuck them up at the first sign of incompetence…they’re fighting alongside him because they respect him, and believe in his cause. And Jacen’s status as a galactic hero even before the events of LOTF help convince people to side with him, and fall for his charisma and heroic image in spite of the increasingly-sinister nature of his actions. It makes Jacen’s transition to an in-universe villain more believable, because largely, he’s much the same person he was before the events of LOTF, and the public still sees him the same way, and many of them are roped in to emphatically fight beside him. This aspect is what I appreciate from the writers; they took Jacen’s character and image in-universe into account when making him into the narrative antagonist, instead of sloppily attempting to make him another Vader…like a certain Emo Cosplayer in another, inferior continuity.
Actually having Jacen show some conflict and remorse in what he’s doing is also good. That’s been something that was crucial to his Downfall and featured prominently in the earlier books, but it seems after Bloodlines, that aspect of his psychological breakdown had been kind of sidelined. It seemed like Jacen was getting a little too comfortable with the actions he was taking—chiefly because he’d been spared the negative consequences of his actions for two books straight. Thankfully, Traviss brings that conflict back in a crucial moment, where Jacen is emotionally devastated at the possibility that he’ll have to sacrifice Ben, the young and wide-eyed kid who’s idolized him for years, whom he’s grown fond of and is desperate to keep pure in this blizzard of civil war and moral deterioration. We get many powerful moments of Jacen spending time and passing wisdom to Ben, sending him off smiling and then breaking into tears the second he’s gone…knowing that he can’t bring himself to kill him. It’s a somber throwback to things like the heartfelt message to Jaina he deleted back in Bloodlines, or the empty miserable feeling in his stomach when Han all but disowns him at the end of the same novel. Scenes like this demonstrate that for all of Jacen’s commitment to Lumiya/Vergere’s teachings, and his efforts to cleanse himself of personal weaknesses, to be the pragmatic, calculating enforcer willing to take whatever measures are necessary…he still can’t bring himself to emotionally detach himself, and effortlessly kill a person he cares about. Stuff like this is why I still don’t concur with the unanimous online consensus that “JACEN’S OUT OF CHARACTER, HE’D NEVER TURN EVIL THIS QUICKLY!111!!!1”. I think people overlook all the time and effort the authors did to flesh out Jacen’s downfall, to show that the process is agonizing and not a seamless transition. The layering and nuance is there, and is within the parameters of his character.
Something that stood out to me is how earlier in the series with Tempest, Jacen explicitly told Lumiya that he wouldn’t enact any Force Tampering on Ben’s mind in order to make him a more suitable slave and apprentice, saying that he wouldn’t do that to his cousin…only now, we see Jacen consider the very real possibility that he might have to kill him to attain his Sith ascendancy. At first, one might point to this as another glaring continuity problem, but I would argue that Jacen is in a very different place since Tempest. At the start of that book, he was riding high off of success after success, increasing his status as the Hero of the Galactic Alliance with every decisive victory against Corellia. But as the plot unravels, he starts to get stung by his plans being routinely and bitterly thwarted, his confidence as an “all-knowing” manipulator sabotaged by short-sightedness at his part, that blows up in his face with the disastrous GFFA stalemate at Gilatter Eight. Stunted and growing increasingly frustrated, we see Jacen start considering desperate alternatives he wouldn’t have considered before, when things were going in his favor. In this mindset, I think it’s plausible for him to start caving in and have a small part of him consider Ben as a sacrifice, when he probably wouldn’t have in more favorable circumstances. He’s still shown to be immensely conflicted about it—far more emotionally torn than he is with Luke or his own parents, whom he’s grown long-since cold and dispassionate towards.
However, after spending the entire novel conflicted about this, he reaches a point where his secret has been uncovered by Mara, and they have their eventual confrontation. During this duel, he realizes and he instinctively feels through the Dark Side of the Force that she is the person he must sacrifice, not Ben. He doesn’t fully understand why, and he grapples with it during and after the confrontation…even spending Mara’s final moments trying to justify what he’s done, the amount of lives he’s saved with her, death without fully being convinced of it. He dwells on it for untold days after their confrontation, wondering if he’s really accomplished the trial of Sith Mastery by killing what something he loves, when Mara had transformed into a bitter enemy well before their duel. It’s during this contemplation that he didn’t sever his ties with Mara—he severed those with Ben:
By killing Mara, Jacen had sacrificed all emotional ties with him, carving out one of the few things he treasured in this world outside of his endgame goal of protecting his wife and child. As the story was progressing, I was already entertaining this possibility in my mind, even before it was unveiled through the revelation above. The teachings of the Sith and the Dark Side have always been shown as treacherous, duplicitous and rife with hidden meanings, so this loophole that the author had created to address the “immortalize what you love” part of the prophecy in Betrayal was something I found surprisingly fitting, and well-executed. Without the character work and fleshing out done by the authors across LOTF, I feel something like this would run the danger of being tacked on or hacky. Instead, it works…and is something Jacen realizes for himself, in a world without Lumiya or any other master manipulating him. He seals his resolution with a long, somber moment of self-reflection, and the novel ends with the declaration of his Sith name…Darth Caedus.
Actually having Jacen show some conflict and remorse in what he’s doing is also good. That’s been something that was crucial to his Downfall and featured prominently in the earlier books, but it seems after Bloodlines, that aspect of his psychological breakdown had been kind of sidelined. It seemed like Jacen was getting a little too comfortable with the actions he was taking—chiefly because he’d been spared the negative consequences of his actions for two books straight. Thankfully, Traviss brings that conflict back in a crucial moment, where Jacen is emotionally devastated at the possibility that he’ll have to sacrifice Ben, the young and wide-eyed kid who’s idolized him for years, whom he’s grown fond of and is desperate to keep pure in this blizzard of civil war and moral deterioration. We get many powerful moments of Jacen spending time and passing wisdom to Ben, sending him off smiling and then breaking into tears the second he’s gone…knowing that he can’t bring himself to kill him. It’s a somber throwback to things like the heartfelt message to Jaina he deleted back in Bloodlines, or the empty miserable feeling in his stomach when Han all but disowns him at the end of the same novel. Scenes like this demonstrate that for all of Jacen’s commitment to Lumiya/Vergere’s teachings, and his efforts to cleanse himself of personal weaknesses, to be the pragmatic, calculating enforcer willing to take whatever measures are necessary…he still can’t bring himself to emotionally detach himself, and effortlessly kill a person he cares about. Stuff like this is why I still don’t concur with the unanimous online consensus that “JACEN’S OUT OF CHARACTER, HE’D NEVER TURN EVIL THIS QUICKLY!111!!!1”. I think people overlook all the time and effort the authors did to flesh out Jacen’s downfall, to show that the process is agonizing and not a seamless transition. The layering and nuance is there, and is within the parameters of his character.
Something that stood out to me is how earlier in the series with Tempest, Jacen explicitly told Lumiya that he wouldn’t enact any Force Tampering on Ben’s mind in order to make him a more suitable slave and apprentice, saying that he wouldn’t do that to his cousin…only now, we see Jacen consider the very real possibility that he might have to kill him to attain his Sith ascendancy. At first, one might point to this as another glaring continuity problem, but I would argue that Jacen is in a very different place since Tempest. At the start of that book, he was riding high off of success after success, increasing his status as the Hero of the Galactic Alliance with every decisive victory against Corellia. But as the plot unravels, he starts to get stung by his plans being routinely and bitterly thwarted, his confidence as an “all-knowing” manipulator sabotaged by short-sightedness at his part, that blows up in his face with the disastrous GFFA stalemate at Gilatter Eight. Stunted and growing increasingly frustrated, we see Jacen start considering desperate alternatives he wouldn’t have considered before, when things were going in his favor. In this mindset, I think it’s plausible for him to start caving in and have a small part of him consider Ben as a sacrifice, when he probably wouldn’t have in more favorable circumstances. He’s still shown to be immensely conflicted about it—far more emotionally torn than he is with Luke or his own parents, whom he’s grown long-since cold and dispassionate towards.
However, after spending the entire novel conflicted about this, he reaches a point where his secret has been uncovered by Mara, and they have their eventual confrontation. During this duel, he realizes and he instinctively feels through the Dark Side of the Force that she is the person he must sacrifice, not Ben. He doesn’t fully understand why, and he grapples with it during and after the confrontation…even spending Mara’s final moments trying to justify what he’s done, the amount of lives he’s saved with her, death without fully being convinced of it. He dwells on it for untold days after their confrontation, wondering if he’s really accomplished the trial of Sith Mastery by killing what something he loves, when Mara had transformed into a bitter enemy well before their duel. It’s during this contemplation that he didn’t sever his ties with Mara—he severed those with Ben:
He’d killed not a person he loved, but something precious whose absence was going to agonize him. It was already searing a hole. It had mattered. …What he’d loved and yet killed was Ben’s admiration and devotion to him. Jacen had grown to love that adulation—and he had loved robbing Luke of the role of adored father and mentor.
And now, he realized that he knew Ben well enough to know he would never rest until his mother’s killer was caught, and that she would always be the perfect icon of beauty and courage to him. Ben’s love would be immortal now, it’ll last as long as he lives, unchanging, like his vision of Mara…and the hatred and vengeance he would feel for Jacen would live forever, too.
And now, he realized that he knew Ben well enough to know he would never rest until his mother’s killer was caught, and that she would always be the perfect icon of beauty and courage to him. Ben’s love would be immortal now, it’ll last as long as he lives, unchanging, like his vision of Mara…and the hatred and vengeance he would feel for Jacen would live forever, too.
By killing Mara, Jacen had sacrificed all emotional ties with him, carving out one of the few things he treasured in this world outside of his endgame goal of protecting his wife and child. As the story was progressing, I was already entertaining this possibility in my mind, even before it was unveiled through the revelation above. The teachings of the Sith and the Dark Side have always been shown as treacherous, duplicitous and rife with hidden meanings, so this loophole that the author had created to address the “immortalize what you love” part of the prophecy in Betrayal was something I found surprisingly fitting, and well-executed. Without the character work and fleshing out done by the authors across LOTF, I feel something like this would run the danger of being tacked on or hacky. Instead, it works…and is something Jacen realizes for himself, in a world without Lumiya or any other master manipulating him. He seals his resolution with a long, somber moment of self-reflection, and the novel ends with the declaration of his Sith name…Darth Caedus.
In conclusion, I ended up enjoying this book far more than I thought I would, which speaks volumes of the quality of the writing since I pretty much already knew about the controversial death that would occur in its pages. The last time I went into a book spoiled with that knowledge was Star By Star, and just like that book, Sacrifice exceeded every one of my expectations with how it delivered the climactic moment, with spectacular attention to characterization and an admiral reverence for the person dying…perhaps even more so here, with the welcome efforts to pay tribute to Mara one last time. And in full honesty, in spite of the immense controversy Karen Traviss attracts online, I was absolutely relieved that she was the one who tackled this entry in the series. I think Alliston and Denning are mostly good writers, but they struggle with things like tonal consistency and plotting, and neither of them strike the same devastating emotional chord in the same way Traviss knows how to do. They certainly come close, but I think Traviss’ uncanny ability to write misery-inducing prose and labyrinthine traversals into the emotions and minds of her characters gives her the edge…which is why, I think, she was the perfect one to write this book. Her efforts here are even better than Bloodlines, and not only is this book is now my new favorite of the series thus far, it has officially hooked me to this series like a crack addict. I need to see how things transpire, how the ripples of Mara’s death affects the story and characters going forward…and how Jacen’s machinations turn against him, and lead to his rightful elimination.
So as I enter the final stretch of LOTF with its final four books, having been subject to and surprisingly enamored by its most controversial aspects—the fall of Jacen Solo, and the death of Mara Jade—I think it’s a safe bet that I’ll enjoy the remainder of this story arc. I have two more Traviss and Denning entries awaiting, and much to my middling enthusiasm, one more Alliston novel, whose contributions to this story arc I’ve found to be the least consistent. I also understand that the involvement of the Mandalorians in Jacen’s defeat is the last major controversy to tackle, and I still have to see how it’s handled in execution. But the one upcoming aspect I’m most anxious about is the handling of the one character whose presence has been all but absent throughout LOTF; a character who I know plays a bigger role going forth, and one whose treatment will determine the continuing goodwill the authors have earned from me thus far. So join me next time, Kiwi’s, as I assess the way LOTF’s trio of writers decide to make use of the last living female character to have the bulk of my investment, one of the recurring EU characters I adore the most:
…Tahiri Veila.
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2019
Well, that's an issue that existed well before TLJ.
I think TLJ being a critical darling was more simple than that.
Rian married a critic, socialized/ass-kissed through critic circles...
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2018
New promo pics from the second season of The Mandalorian:
Damn, Gina got thicc
Damn, Gina got thicc
LORD IMPERATOR
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2020
That explains why they keep kissing his ass even though his movie was a tire fire of epic proportions. I believe Razorfist called it the "HBO Method/Effect," when the makers try to appease the critics and the critics alone:
Razör vs. Comics: HAIL DOGMA
The protracted, withering death of an American comic book icon.
This explains why critics keep shilling for TLJ even though the fans practically pissed on it for years.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2019
Either my memory is lying to me and she always looked that way, or the GRRL POWER chick became a real heffer between seasons.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2020
She's like fit thick, but the costume / angle of that shot isn't doing her any favors.
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
Rey Kenobi is trending on Twitter.
Literally nothing was planned out, fucking hell.
Literally nothing was planned out, fucking hell.
Honka Honka Burning Love
In Clown World, the only god is the one who Honks.
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
The Mandolorian with a Fat WOC and Discount Morgan Freeman.
Tootsie Bear
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2014
Hell, I'm surprised they haven't made everyone related in the Disney Star Wars to the point it's the Game of Thrones but in space!
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2018
While I like the fan theory about Satine's nephew being Kenobi's son, I just find the idea of Rey Kenobi so fucking dumb. Like @Tootsie Bear said, not everybody has to be related, it's supposed to be a huge galaxy FFS...
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
Apparently who she was got changed every single movie.
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2018
Fucking a, talk about incompetence.
Add everyone else to the list.
So. Is this better or worse than what we got? Also, does making her lineage important shit on Last Jedi?
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2019
I think the original idea was probably a nobody. I think the idea of the adopted Skywalker was always in the cards. The idea, in of itself, is not a bad idea. It can be complimentary to the idea of family...
The problem was that Rian wanted to subvert everything. Even necessary stuff like a time jump.
So, you couldn't infer or build on a relationship between Rey and Luke. They would end up having no relationship. This makes what we got in ROS absolutely absurd.
It's completely unearned...
It's pretty obvious that Rian had a VERY different conclusion for the ST. He didn't like what Abrams or the story group had originally plotted..
It probably would have been much more coherent if he had finished the trilogy. Not good mind you, but atleast coherent...
The Palpatine stuff was clearly reactionary. No way was that stuff originally plotted. Well, Palpatine being ressurected may have been in the cards(or atleast an option). But, the pathway wildly different...
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