Star Wars: Jaina Solo
Title: Jaina Solo: Sword of the Jedi
Author: chavalah
Spoilers: Original trilogy, Attack of the Clones (and probable Revenge of the Sith spoilers) as well as "The Crystal Star" by Vonda McIntyre, and the Young Jedi Knight and New Jedi Order series'
Notes: Jaina Solo is a novel/comics character born of the Star Wars franchise. Expanded Universe means beyond the movies (and technically "not canon" though they are espoused by LucasFilm.) All quotes are property of the mentioned books and interviews, and I thank all Star Wars authors of novel and website for their intel.
***
Jaina stepped forward, and Luke could feel her cool presence in the Force, the precise way her footsteps matched the drumbeat that still thudded up from the orchestra pit. She wore her military uniform--Cal Omas had asked her to, in order to show her commitment to the New Republic. Kyp and Kenth Hammer, the two pilots, robed her.
Luke placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her dark eyes, and a chill suddenly seized him, flooding his nerves with cold fire.
"I name you the Sword of the Jedi," he said. "You are like tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen. Always shall you be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends. Yours is a restless life, and never shall you know peace, though you shall be blessed for the peace that you bring to others. Take comfort in the fact that, though you stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow that you cast."
Luke fell silent, and for a long horrified moment he stared into Jaina's wide-eyed face. 1
graphics courtesy of http://jaina.venusgospel.net/
PROLOGUE
D. Trull, in one of his remarkable essays2 about the validity of the Star Wars prequel movies, states at one time about the long-awaited "lava scene" fans hope to be seeing in Episode Three, "I think it should be obvious that this sort of long-established 'fan folklore' of Star Wars possesses an entirely different level of significance than the exploits of Han and Leia's Jedi twins in some Expanded Universe novel." These lines stood out to me amidst pages of material with which I agreed whole-heartedly, because of an irony inherent in supporting an aspect of Star Wars lore which is often dismissed, while at the same time dismissing another aspect of that lore. Of course, arguing with a hardcore anti-Expanded Universe fan is probably 10 times less likely to succeed than is arguing with a hardcore anti-prequels fan, but here I am.
Since reading Trull's inspiring essays, I knew I would like my own chance to defend a Star Wars character who is often dismissed. Jaina Solo, to me at least, is an integral character to Star Wars lore, and not just "entertaining apocrypha at best, and soulless hackwork the rest of the time." The daughter of Han and Leia, and the oldest grandchild (and only girl,) to Darth Vader, Jaina's path in life has always been clouded. Her entry in the Star Wars databank3 states, concerning her mother's opinion: " Leia believes her daughter to be the most pragmatic of her children. Whereas contemplative Jacen is often crippled with indecision, and impetuous Anakin would often plunge into action heedless of the consequences, Jaina would measure her actions and suit them to the moment." And yet it was "pragmatic" Jaina who allowed herself to get pulled into the emotional anger of the Dark Side--barring her aunt (through marriage,) she was the only female in her family to make that fall. She shirks from her mother's expectations entirely, and since she was 9 years old and helping with repairs on the Millenium Falcon, always bonded more closely with her father. Her friends--mostly male--all have ambiguous loyalties to her family and/or the New Republic she serves. When it comes to her Jedi training, she is the least invested out of everyone in her familial generation--ironically choosing to align herself to piloting institutions, which her Uncle Luke abandoned for his Jedi Mastership--the Rogue Squadron as the youngest flyer, and then leader of the Twin Suns.
And, much to her own chagrin, she is in love.
These reasons are more than enough to promise a rich character, and a worthy descendent of movieverse Han, Leia and Luke. And we haven't even touched onto examples of her life story!
EARLY YEARS AND ANAKIN
Jaina Solo (along with her twin, Jacen, who is five minutes her junior,) was born on Coruscant, five years after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. Joined by their brother, Anakin, a year and a half later, the Solo children spent their formative years in hiding as their relatives helped spearhead the contested New Republic. Such anonymity, however, did not save the children from kidnappings and assassination attempts, and the first time we are introduced to Jaina's character is when she is five years old, and trying to take charge of a situation as a hostage.
(As taken from No Krakana!: An Fan Tribute to Anakin Solo4 , an exchange in "The Crystal Star" between the brother and sister…)
"Don't cry, Anakin. Don't cry. I'll take care of you. I'm five, so I'll take care of you, because you're only three." - Jaina
"Three and a half!" - Anakin
"Three and a half."
I find this quote an apt way to introduce Jaina--and Anakin--as a strong character, envisioning herself in the protective role. Her relationship with her "baby" brother is perhaps the most integral way to see her as a full person. He brings out the best in her--a protective edge tinged with an emotional bond, and the worst--as his death propelled her over to the Dark Side. Philosophically during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, she finds herself more in Anakin's "camp," with his emphasis on force (no pun intended!) over a more passive response, which Jacen honed up until his brother's death. And they have reached out to each other during times of duress--finding comfort in each other's counsel when friends have died.
When Anakin--and not just overly-emotional Jacen--begins to suspect that his sister is too battle-hardened, the readership can expect something drastic on the horizon. And when Jaina accuses Anakin of being too rash, we can guess that his time has come to an end as well.
(As taken from "Star by Star,"5 when Anakin both rescues Jaina and receives the blow, which will lead to his death. Anakin is 17, and Jaina 19)
He found Jaina pinned against a building, a blob of blorash jelly binding her along one side, blood pouring from a head wound. Despite it all, she was holding two Yuuzhan Vong impostors at bay with a one-handed lightsaber defense…Anakin gathered the Force to him and charged, somersaulting into the air as he had a few moments before.
…As he finished his tumble, the shaft swung away, the head pivoting inside his abdomen. He heard himself scream, then he was coming down, landing on his feet and hammering the butt into the ground. Cold anguish filled his belly. His knees tried to buckle but he would not let them--could not let them.
"Anakin!"
Guided by her screaming voice, Anakin flung a handful of arsensalts in Jaina's direction, used the Force to carry them to the jelly.
Then he grabbed the amphistaff and jerked it from his body.
The agony was crushing.
…"By the Sith, Anakin! Why'd you do something like that?"
"Like what?" he asked.
Jaina glared; they both knew his rescue had been rash.
"We lost two… and I wasn't going to…" The words caught in Anakin's throat, and he had to try again. "You were in trouble."
This was not the first time in "Star by Star" that Anakin had basically sacrificed his health for the emotional bond between him and his sister. Earlier, as they were captured by Vong on a ship, one of the officers basically forced Jaina to choose which of her brothers would be tortured. Anakin looked into her eyes, propelled his voice with the Force, and said "Jaina, you can choose… you can choose me."6
Though these two events are not directly involved with Anakin's death, I have to wonder whether, had Jaina stopped to think about things, she would have felt immense guilt. Her earliest introduction was that of his protector--and now she was not only not protecting him but inadvertently bringing him to harm. Of course, Jaina is not one to overanalyze her feelings, but from time to time--especially when involving her brothers or others whom she loves--they are bound to go haywire. I would argue that this rather directly parallels her grandfather's emotional turmoil when his mother, Shmi, was killed by Tusken raiders. The way Anakin Skywalker so inhumanly destroys her killers reminds me fiercely of the scene where Jaina sets off to retrieve her brother's body from the Yuuzhan Vong:
Rage boiling inside her like magma, Jaina reached out with the Force and shoved Anakin's body hard. The Yuuzhan Vong yelled in surprise and stumbled back into the collapsing arch, his couffe sliding away from [Anakin's] eye. Jaina jerked her brother free of the warrior's grasp and sent him floating in Alema's direction.
"Take Anakin," she said.
As Jaina spoke, she was opening herself to her anger, using the power of its emotion to draw the Force into her as the Dark Masters Brakiss and Tamith Kai had tried to force her to do so long ago, when she and Jacen had been trapped at the Shadow Academy with Lowbacca. The power came surging into her in cold waves, feeding on her hatred of the Yuuzhan Vong and pouring it back to her twofold.
In a motion so fast Jaina barely saw it, the warrior sat up and flicked his couffe at her throat. She could have dodged or blocked with her lightsaber, but she did not. Instead, with the fierce energy crackling inside of her, she used her free hand to bat the weapon aside, then raised her hand toward her attacker and released the dark power inside. A fork of lightening crackled into existence a few centimeters beyond her glove tips, then blasted a hole through the Yuuzhan Vong's chest and hurled him onto the rubble pile, smoking and motionless.7
Elaine Cunningham, author of "Dark Journey," which chronologically follows "Star by Star" and chronicles Jaina's coming-to-terms with the loss of her brothers and brush with the Dark Side, says of Anakin and Jaina's relationship, " Anakin was special, and his loss made an impact on readers. It seemed to me that his sister would suffer a profound blow, first because of the family tie and their shared Jedi perspective on life, but also because she had some understanding of his importance and his potential. This, coupled with the severing of her twin-bond with Jacen, was simply was too much for her. She went into emotional overload, and responded by sublimating her grief."8
Cuningham's own novel goes into how she (and some say Kyp, who I will talk about in a later section,) brings herself back from the darkness, but no one can say that Jaina Solo, after the death of her brother, is emotionally sound. As she describes to Jacen several months later when he is finally released from captivity, and she was just named the Sword of the Jedi,
"I've accepted my own death."
Jacen looked at her in surprise and horror. "You haven't--" he stammered. "You haven't felt your death in the Force?"
"No." Her eyes were strangely without animation, as if those were words she'd spoken a thousand times before. "But I can count. I can count the enemy, I can count the number of friends who have been killed, and I can count the number of battles before we can hope to end the war and the number of shots that are going to be fired in my direction in those battles. I don't have to do anything wrong to be killed. I don't have to make a mistake. All that I need is to be there long enough, and it'll happen." She looked at him, and with a half-smile reached out to touch his shoulder. "But it's all right. It's what I've sworn to do. All that will happen is that I'll join the Force, and I'm part of the Force already, so with luck I'll hardly even notice the change."
"All life is precious," Jacen urged. "All life is unique. You shouldn't just throw yours away."
"Anni Capstan was precious and unique," Jaina said. "So was Ulaha Core. So was Anakin. Uniqueness isn't a protection." She looked at him. "And I'm not throwing anything away. I'm just looking at the odds, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe that I'm an exception when so many of our friends aren't." "There is no death, there is the Force. Didn't we all just say that? I'm not just saying it, I'm living it."
"Don't cut us off from you," Jacen said. "We need you too."
Jaina's look softened. "When you need me, I'll do my best to be there. That's a promise. That's being a Jedi too."9
Thus is my argument that only emotional-Jacen to pragmatic-Jaina, two sides of the twin coin, can save each other in the future that is Star Wars: The Expanded Universe. They have, after all, been that to each other all their lives, as I will discuss below.
YOUNG JEDI KNIGHT SERIES AND JACEN
When Jaina and Jacen are 14 years old, they start attending their Uncle Luke's Jedi training facility on Yavin IV in the Young Jedi Knight series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. Although this series is certainly aimed for a younger audience than is the Yuuzhan Vong fighting New Jedi Order, they introduce the characters of the Solo twins as something more than just extensions of their parents, (though Jaina carries that heavy association with her all her life. As she says near the beginning of the New Jedi Order, "With my parents I could be a smuggler who saved the galaxy or a diplomat who saved the galaxy."10 ) But in the (slightly) more light-hearted days of the Young Jedi Knights, Jaina is just a girl with a proficiency at mechanics and piloting, and Jacen is just a boy who tells jokes and is good with animals and together, they make friends with a wookie, Lowbacca, and two humans, Tenel Ka and Zekk. And then Jacen accidentally lops off Tenel Ka's arm in faulty lightsaber practice. And then Jaina, Jacen and Lowbacca are kidnapped to the Shadow Academy. And then Zekk turns (briefly) to the Dark Side. Sounds cute and innocent, no? ;-)
All of this pales, however, to one incident during Jaina's capture by the Dark Masters she will evoke later in life, when calling on the power of the Dark Side. What Brakiss calls a simple "training exercise" ends up being much more. Jaina is confronted with the image of her grandfather, and the reality that her Uncle Luke, faced under similar auspices on Degobah--that she is really just fighting herself and her family line. Or, more specifically, her beloved twin, frequently described as the other half of her, Jacen.
(As taken from "Jedi Shadow," a compilation of the first three novellas in the Young Jedi Knight series,)
Her new opponent stepped out of the barred dungeon doorway--a tall, looming figure wrapped completely in black. The black plasteel mask echoed and hissed as Darth Vader breathed through his respirator.
Startled, she caught her breath, instinctively flicking on her lightsaber. Brakiss wasn't playing fair! This went beyond any of the other illusions he set against her before. Darth Vader had been killed before the twins were even born, but the Dark Lord of the Sith had been her grandfather; she knew all about him.
…Jaina hated the evil acts Darth Vader had performed during his allegiance with the Emperor--but she also loved the idea of what her grandfather Anakin Skywalker could have been, the good man he had become in his last moments when he turned against the Emperor and ended his reign of terror.
…Jaina swung, trying to land a blow on Darth Vader's chest armor, but the Dark Lord brought his own beam up to clash against hers. She backed away as he attacked with greater strength, slashing and striking with his lightsaber. The shrieks of the electrical discharge nearly deafened her. But as Jaina began to falter, she pretended Vader was Brakiss or Tamith Kai--the ones who had kidnapped her and brought all of them to this school of darkness--and was able to defend herself with renewed strength, this time pushing Vader back.
She struck blow after blow. The lightsabers clashed, but Darth Vader seemed to draw strength from Jaina's fury. They fought on for a long time, neither gaining the upper hand. Jaina lost track of how many minutes or hours passed.
…"Enough!" Brakiss's voice came over the intercom.
The training room's holographic simulation faded, leaving her standing in the flat gray room, her lightsaber still crossed with her opponent's. Only now she could see who her adversary really was.
Jacen.11
This excerpt is ripe with "rite of passage" imagery. It is interesting to note how Jaina immediately forgives her grandfather--as Luke had done before her--and in order to fight him, had to "shift the blame" to the Dark Masters. This parallels how she will later hurl lightening at the Yuuzhan Vong-- not the ones who killed her brother (who actually died from his own over-use of the Force,) but simply the ones transporting his body.
The fact that neither of the YJK fighters had "the upper hand" can be seen as a twofold message. Jaina and her brothers and her little cousin, Ben, are the heirs to a man who fell to the Dark Side. They might spend their lives trying to balance the "light" and "dark" within them, and Jaina's own fall is testament to the fact that they are not immune from their grandfather's mistakes.
Of course, the other reason why Jaina and "Vader" were so evenly matched was because that wasn't a hologram at all--but rather, her twin. Throughout the books chronicling their youth and young adulthood, Jacen and Jaina will outwardly become rather different people--he as a Jedi scholar, and she as a brash pilot--but they always seem to be mirror images. This is how Jaina describes her relationship to him when she is forced to choose which brother would be tortured: Jacen had always been her best friend, the person who understood her when she did not understand herself, the presence that enveloped her like a second skin.12 " The only times she feels distant from him is when she brushes the Dark Side--when they are unwittingly pitted against each other at the Shadow Academy and then, when she lost herself to the despair of Anakin's death. This event was further exacerbated as Jacen was captured by the Vong, and Jaina forced to flee with others of her friends. As a numb detachment fills her, she finds herself mourning the loss of her twin more than the loss of Anakin:
Jacen is gone.
It didn't seem possible. It wasn't possible. Jacen was alive. He had to be. How could she be alive if Jacen was not? Her twin brother had been a part of her, and she of him, since before their birth. What they were could not be separated from what they were to each other.
Her thoughts tumbled like an X-wing in an out-of-control spiral. Jaina's pilot instincts kicked in, and she eased herself out of the spin.
Reaching out through the Force, she strained beyond the boundaries of her power and training as she sought her brother. Where Jacen had been was only blackness as unfathomable as space. She went deep within, frantically seeking the place within her that had always been Jacen's. That too, was veiled.
Jacen was gone. Jaina did not feel bereft, but sundered.13
The loss of Anakin was devastating--and led her to the Dark Side. The loss of Jacen tore her in two. All she was able to do was deftly pilot the ship--which had always been her primary distinguishing feature from her twin.
Of course, once Tenel Ka (mistakenly) feels Jacen's death in the Force, Jaina accepts this verbatim, and removes herself even more from her mother when Leia starts insisting that her son is still alive. When the twins are reunited, the biggest things they have to deal with are their "severed" Force bond, and Jaina's fall to the Dark Side. The latter she discusses not only with Jacen, but with their aunt and uncle for, as Jacen realized "it was easier…for Jaina to speak to Luke and Mara than it would have been to speak to him alone.14 " Luke gives his niece a nice, short speech about bringing her out of her Dark Side-esque despair, and all is smoothed over, or so we believe, until Jaina is named the Sword of the Jedi, AKA someone who will never find her own slice of peace.
The former item is a little more difficult, as it requires an explanation of why Jacen did not try to contact his sister through their bond. The reason for that has to do with the fact that they are twins. And in the Yuuzhan Vong religion, that makes them a special kind of infidel. The kind that needs to fight til one of them is dead. So basically, Jacen was safe from death until they caught Jaina, and vice versa. Too bad Jaina didn't know about this when she chose Anakin, and not Jacen, to be tortured. ("You overestimate your brother's value," Duman Yaght said. "The priests will be happy as long as I return with you and Jacen. You two are the twins."15 )
Because of this association, the New Republic decides to mess with the Vong psychology by "re-naming" Jacen and Jaina as YV gods. As Viridity, the Jacen Solo fanlisting16 explains, " Jaina plays up to the Trickster Goddess Yun-Harla, while Jacen plays up to Yun-Yammka, who is the Slayer God." Lesser Vong start to wonder whether the twosome actually are the gods they proclaim to be, as both seriously kick the Vongs' asses, not to mention, survived even though twins in their culture die at birth.
As time goes on and the twins reach 20-years-old, they tentatively start to open up to each other again. Though it is apparent that Jaina is choosing to embrace her destiny as the Sword of the Jedi, a weapon with as few emotional attachments as possible, it is also clear that she can never dissociate herself from her bond with Jacen. She even allows herself to display such sentiment with him as he prepares to leave her again:
"I hope you find what you're looking for," Jaina said, intruding upon his thoughts.
"I'm sure we will," Jacen said. "All available data suggest that the Unknown Regions are where-"
"I meant in your heart, brother."
His smile came easier this time. "I won't come back until I do."
"Is that a promise, Jacen? Or a prophecy?"
"Perhaps it's a little of both."
She embraced him, then, tightly and warmly. "Just make sure you do come back, okay?" she whispered close to his ear.17
Her display does not only show affection for him, but a respect for his thoughtful ways, finding what he needs to in his "heart," as if that is a corporeal plane. Jaina herself does not think like that--she sees things in terms of cold, hard data about physical survival--but in a way, that is precisely why she doesn't need to. Just like when they were "evenly matched" so many years before at the Shadow Academy, each of the Solo twins offers something crucial to the other--the other part of their being. The other way of believing. An anchor for when the other one falls. And ultimately, the silent support for when the other must stand on his/her own. ("You wouldn't let me help you," [Jaina] said. Jacen comforted her with a smile. "I needed you to help yourself."18 )
This is something, which Jaina's closest friends and lovers--Zekk, Kyp and Jag--cannot provide for her, nor does she expect them to. It is the direct province of their twinship, though the men mentioned above offer her something more--a look into her individuality.
JAINA AND ZEKK: JEDI TURNED DARK
In many ways, Jaina was first drawn to Zekk because he is her opposite. He grows up an orphan, scavenging for food on the lower levels of Corusant, whereas she lives in the highest towers, known by all as the daughter of those who saved (or at least reformed) the galaxy. He is wild and uncultured, whereas she is stifled by "diplomatic behavior"--seeing as her mother was Chief of State. He knows nothing of his Jedi powers until the Solo twins & co find him, whereas Jaina was surrounded by it since birth.
Their biggest similarity is the grudges they hold. Jaina, about her mother never being around, and feeling trapped by the actions of her parents. And Zekk, about being a street kid, who happens to be friends with some of the most powerful people in the galaxy. Both of them eventually turn to the Dark; Zekk is just sooner (during their years at the Jedi Academy). And like Luke did for Vader, Jaina, through her friendship, is the one to get him out of it.
(As taken from Dhalbreth Square, a Jaina/Zekk fanlisting, a scene from "Jedi Under Siege"19 )
A feral grin spread across Zekk's face, almost as if he was glad that it had come to this.
"You see, Jaina," he said, taking a step toward her and twitching his energy blade from side to side, "once you let it in, the dark side is like a disease for which there's no cure." He lunged toward her, and their two blades met in a sizzling struggle of red against violet. "And the only way to remove the disease" - he lunged again and again and Jaina parried - "is to" - thrust - "cut" - thrust - "it" - thrust - "out!"
…At that moment Jaina realized that she had been trying to force Zekk to turn to the light side. She had been trying to fix him. But she couldn't. It had to be his choice. She drew a deep breath, letting the Force flow through her, and backed away from Zekk.
"I won't fight you anymore, Zekk," she said, switching off her lightsaber and tossing it to the ground. "There's still good in you, but you'll have to decide which direction you want to go - starting now. It's your choice, so make the right one for you."
Surprise and anger and confusion chased each other across Zekk's face. "How do you know I won't kill you?"
…Jaina shrugged. "I don't know that. But I won't fight you. Make your choice." Jaina pushed back her straight brown hair and looked directly into Zekk's eyes with calm assurance - not assurance that he wouldn't harm her, but assurance that she had done the right thing.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she whispered.
With slow deliberation, Zekk raised his glowing red lightsaber over Jaina's head.
Of course, it should be noted that Zekk does not harm Jaina. He has actually saved her in the past, on account of their friendship, even though he was working for the dark and she the light. But I like how this passage shows Jaina's feelings. How deeply she parallels her Uncle Luke (who is actually watching her at the time, and allowing her to do this on her own.) At first, she confronts him brashly and then she makes the attempt to understand him--even trust him. That is how she is able to bring him back from the dark. It is interesting to note, that when their roles are reversed, and Zekk is with her when she leaves her two presumably dead brothers behind, he does not take the same sort of action.
(As taken from "Dark Journey," when Jaina and Zekk argue about who will fly the ship,)
"Let me have her, Zekk."
The pilot shook his hooded head and put the ship into a rising turn. "Forget it. You're in no condition for this."
She planted her fists on her hips. "Yeah? Everyone here could use a few days in a bacta tank, you included."
"That's not what I meant. No one could be expected to fly after loosing… after what happened down there," he concluded lamely.
…Jaina caught a glimpse of the memory that most disturbed Zekk--an image of a small, disheveled woman in a tattered jumpsuit, hurling lightening at a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. A moment passed before Jaina recognized the furious, vengeful, bloodstained face as her own.
Suddenly, she knew the truth of her old friend's concern. Zekk, who had trained at the Shadow Academy and experienced the Dark Side firsthand, was as wary of it as Jacen had been. In taking the pilot's chair, Zekk hadn't been considering her loss, her state of mind. He simply didn't trust her.
She brought to mind an image of the molten lightening that had come so instinctively to her call. She imbued it with so much power that the air nearly hummed with the energy, and the metallic scent of a thunderstorm seemed to lurk on the edge of sensory perception. She projected this image to her friend as forcefully as she could.
"Get out of the seat, Zekk," she said in cool, controlled tones. "I don't want to fry the controls.20 "
Zekk, so blinded by his own experience with the Dark Side, cannot muster up any empathy, even for the person who saved him from it. This action immediately put Jaina into the defensive, and drove her deeper into her own angry despair. I personally find it a wonder that she forgave him at all--but sure enough, a few pages later, Jaina is opening up to him about her brothers' "Force argument" they'd quibbled over for two years, and in the end, didn't save either one of them from harm. It is not Zekk who is important to her anymore, but her brothers. And it is her brothers who once again push them apart. (Before Jaina accepted his "death") Zekk decides to stay on Tenel Ka's home-planet of Hapes rather than help in the search for Jacen. In retaliation, Jaina flaunts her new apprenticeship to Kyp--a liaison Zekk would despise, as Kyp also fell to the Dark Side. Ultimately, they leave each other on bad terms, and Jaina's adolescence is definitively over. Now, she turns her attention to friends she made in young adulthood--Jag and Kyp.
JAINA AND KYP: ROGUE JEDI
I believe that most people say that Kyp brought Jaina back from the Dark Side. It would make sense initially; he could do what Zekk could not, and relate to Jaina empathetically, having come from the same place. (""You can't compare our situations." "We both lost brothers." "And maybe hitting the Yuuzhan Vong hard will give some meaning to my brothers' deaths." "I tried to avenge my brother," Kyp reminded her, "and I ended up killing him. Your mother thinks Jacen's still alive. What if she's right?21 ")
But personally, I am more of the belief that Kyp is a major a-hole. He was brash and arrogant ever since the moment Han found him at 16, and turned him over to Luke for training. He constantly challenged Luke's authority, and went so far in the "aggression" direction that even Anakin gave room for pause. As for Jaina, she had a special reason to despise him. He used her in an attempt to destroy a Yuuzhan Vong civilian ship--by lying to her and saying it was military. When Jaina found out the truth, she dished out my favorite insult of all time--("I'll never help you again," Jaina said. "You can count on it. If you were dying of thirst on Tatooine, I wouldn't even spit on you.22 ")
Her "apprenticeship" to Kyp served one purpose only--a way to distance herself from her family, AKA, people to whom she was emotionally tied. Their relationship was never "consumated", and when Kyp started to get too protective, Jaina slipped back into the aggressive Dark Side.
"You're my responsibility now," Kyp persisted.
Jaina laughed. "I wish Uncle Luke could hear this! Paralysis and inactivity, not the Dark Side, will overcome the Jedi. Haven't you said that a hundred times?"
…The older Jedi spun towards the door. Jaina pulled out her lightsaber.
Kyp stopped dead at the click and hum unique to the traditional Jedi weapon. He slowly turned to face her, hands raised in a placating gesture. "I don't want to fight you."
Her violet blade rose towards his throat. "You'd change your mind if the stakes were high enough…If I win, you fly the rest of the battle under my command. If you win, I'm yours. No more holding out, no more games. I'll keep the channels open, act like a real apprentice.
He considered for a long moment. "Done.23 "
So rather than take the high road, Kyp slips back into his natural aggressiveness himself. It should be noted that he does stop the fight… and that soon, both he and Jag would fly under Jaina's command, as Luke handed the Twin Suns onto her. But I contest the idea that Kyp is any more mature than Jaina, despite their 16-year age difference. He is overly arrogant and overly aggressive, and though a valuable asset to Jaina as an empathetic friend, he is in no shape to be her mentor.
Cunningham describes it best in an interview copied onto the Jaina/Kyp fanlisting.24 Jaina's relationship to Kyp is one of peer-like empathy, grounded in the fact that Kyp was at first her father's protégé, and Jaina was always hopelessly a Daddy's girl.
Jaina knows Kyp Durron's history, and that would inevitably color her opinion of him. Throughout the course of the Yuuzhan Vong conflict, however, Jaina has been moving closer toward Kyp's stated position. In fact, she has admitted more than once that she wasn't certain whether he was right or wrong. Her attitude toward him suffered a setback with his deception over the Sernpidal attack, but she learned from this event - and not all the lessons she picked up were bright and shiny. Jaina isn't accustomed to being used or tricked, and this event had an enormous impact upon her. Once she got past her outrage, however, she couldn't help but notice that, hey - this tactic WORKED. Kyp's deception prompted her to wonder how trickery and misdirection might be used against the Yuuzhan Vong. Kyp gets results, and that matters to Jaina. She also idolizes her father, and Han has always had a soft spot for Kyp. She probably recognizes the similarity between the two men, and she definitely realizes that, for good or ill, she has quite a bit in common with the rogue Jedi Master.
But personally, I am more in agreement with a minor statement Jaina made during "Dark Journey." "Hurling black lightning is one thing, but quoting Kyp Durron puts me lower than I ever expected to get." So let us move onto someone who definitely boosts Jaina's morale.
JAINA AND JAG: ROMEO AND JULIET
I call this pairing the Romeo and Juliet of Star Wars, because they make Anakin and Padme look perfectly workable.
Jag, though Wedge Antilles's nephew, is the son of a baron who was loyal to the Imperium, and still resides with the Chiss in Imperial space. (Wedge's sister did not defect to the Rebel Alliance, as did her brother.) Jaina is descended from the very people who overthrew the empire.
Of course, Jaina's first impression was somewhat skeptical, as at their primary meeting, when the New Republic was tentatively reaching out to the Imperium in hopes of banding to fight the Yuuzhan Vong, Jag completely sidestepped all of the official Republic delegates so that he could flirt with her.
As time goes on, however, Jaina begins to respect his emotionless, detached demeanor. (He is what the Jaina Solo fanlisting, The Other Side of the Galaxy,25 calls "Captain Cardboard.") For Jaina, though, this is exactly what she is trying to achieve--complete distance, so she will cease to get hurt. Ironically, her very draw to this man opens up one of the most emotional relationships of her life--her first romance.
It is with Jag with whom she finally admits that she does have an emotional response to her brothers' deaths, to the deaths of many friends, and the fear of being alone.
(As taken from "Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream":)
"I... I... Everyone is going away. They keep going away and I can't stop it. I didn't want you to go away."
"I won't go anywhere," he said.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why won't you go anywhere?"
"Because I don't want to."
And thus, the romance is born. And it is a beautiful romance, filled with passion (they… uh, make out a lot,) and it even has the tension of a threesome triangle, as both Jag and Kyp fly under Jaina's command of the Twin Suns. (Sounds like a metaphor, don't it?)
But ultimately, the real thing, which could break off the Jaina/Jag ship is the Sword of the Jedi herself.
"I love you, Jaina," [Jag] blurted.
Jaina made her lips into a thin line, then sighed and said, "I love you, too. Someday I want a partner, and I want what my mom and dad have, and what Luke and Mara have. I intend to raise a family. I just want to be sure that I can offer my children more than what Mom and Mara have been able to offer theirs." She reached for both his hands. "I'm glad that we found each other, Jag. You made the worst time in my life a lot easier to bear. But now I'm still on the move. I'm still a Jedi and a fighter pilot. Do you understand--even a little?"
Jag blew out his breath. "As much as I don't wish to, I understand."
…Gently, he pulled her back into his arms and lowered his voice. "I'll work hard at making our encounters nothing short of wonderful."
Jaina laughed. "Maybe there is a touch of the scoundrel in you, after all."
They kissed passionately, while the snow continued to fall.26
In one swift passage, Jaina manages to both rebuke and invite her lover, while doing the usual of dissing her mother and elevating her father (with the "scoundrel" comment, because how much closer to Han Solo can you get?) Jaina is now about 21-years old, and the Yuuzhan Vong crisis is over. She has at least accepted that her death is not at hand, and desires for a normal, emotional life despite her status as Sword of the Jedi. At the moment, however, she cannot achieve this with Jag. She will continue to be a Jedi and a pilot, and he will actually become a liaison to their new government, and doubtless, the two will find times to get together and make out. And with that, Jaina Solo's transition into adulthood is now officially over.
EPILOGUE
So what now lies on the horizon for Jaina Solo and the Star Wars Expanded Universe? In recent months, starwars.com has published some promos about new novels set post-NJO, where Jaina and Jacen go missing in the outskirts of space, led by voices only they can hear.27 Part of me can't help but be worried. Why can't Jaina receive a break from all of the angst? Of course logically, I know that she has been named Sword of the Jedi, and is therefore bound to that fate. But hopefully, she will continue to follow in the path of her Uncle Luke. Perhaps she, too, can shake off destiny.
Although I have written pages upon pages (thank you all for reading!) I have only touched upon the relationships, plot points and nuances available in the 14 Young Jedi Knight books, the 19 New Jedi Order books, and the smattering of novels chronicling the Solo kids' childhood. If you are as intrigued by the continuation of the epic Star Wars movies as I am, I urge you all to consider these books. Jaina Solo is not a piece of meaningless fluff. She is a character, bound to the same heritage as her mother and uncle, fighting similar demons, and attempting to come up on top. So far, she's doing an excellent job and I cannot wait to see how she changes the galaxy next.
(As taken from the Yuuzhan Vong crisis in "Destiny's Way",)
Tenel Ka gave Jaina an appraising look.
"Goddess?"
"You can call me 'Great One'," Jaina said. "Most people do."
FOOTNOTES
1 "Destiny's Way," pages 309-310
2 The Lard Biscuit: The Definitive Mythology of Modern Times, http://www.lardbiscuit.com/starwars.html
3 http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/jainasolo/eu.html
4 http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jedifreac/anakin/
5 pages 406-407
6 "Star by Star," page 264
7 "Star by Star," pages 523-524
8 Interview for "The Zone," http://www.zone-sf.com/ecunningham.html
9 "Destiny's Way," pages 317-318
10 "Dark Tide I: Onslaught"
11 pages 224-225
12 "Star by Star," pages 263-264
13 "Dark Journey," page 10
14 "Destiny's Way," page 274
15 "Star by Star," page 265
16 http://www.echuta.net/jacen/
17 "Force Heretic I: Remnant"
18 "The Unifying Force," page 473
19 http://glowfish.venusgospel.net/
20 pages 15-16
21 "Dark Journey," page 264
22 "Edge of Victory II: Rebirth"
23 "Dark Journey," pages 262-263
24 http://www.geocities.com/kyp_and_jaina/
25 http://jaina.venusgospel.net/
26 "The Unifying Force," pages 520-521
27 http://www.starwars.com/eu/lit/novel/news20050215.html
Author: chavalah
Spoilers: Original trilogy, Attack of the Clones (and probable Revenge of the Sith spoilers) as well as "The Crystal Star" by Vonda McIntyre, and the Young Jedi Knight and New Jedi Order series'
Notes: Jaina Solo is a novel/comics character born of the Star Wars franchise. Expanded Universe means beyond the movies (and technically "not canon" though they are espoused by LucasFilm.) All quotes are property of the mentioned books and interviews, and I thank all Star Wars authors of novel and website for their intel.
***
Jaina stepped forward, and Luke could feel her cool presence in the Force, the precise way her footsteps matched the drumbeat that still thudded up from the orchestra pit. She wore her military uniform--Cal Omas had asked her to, in order to show her commitment to the New Republic. Kyp and Kenth Hammer, the two pilots, robed her.
Luke placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her dark eyes, and a chill suddenly seized him, flooding his nerves with cold fire.
"I name you the Sword of the Jedi," he said. "You are like tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen. Always shall you be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends. Yours is a restless life, and never shall you know peace, though you shall be blessed for the peace that you bring to others. Take comfort in the fact that, though you stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow that you cast."
Luke fell silent, and for a long horrified moment he stared into Jaina's wide-eyed face. 1
graphics courtesy of http://jaina.venusgospel.net/
PROLOGUE
D. Trull, in one of his remarkable essays2 about the validity of the Star Wars prequel movies, states at one time about the long-awaited "lava scene" fans hope to be seeing in Episode Three, "I think it should be obvious that this sort of long-established 'fan folklore' of Star Wars possesses an entirely different level of significance than the exploits of Han and Leia's Jedi twins in some Expanded Universe novel." These lines stood out to me amidst pages of material with which I agreed whole-heartedly, because of an irony inherent in supporting an aspect of Star Wars lore which is often dismissed, while at the same time dismissing another aspect of that lore. Of course, arguing with a hardcore anti-Expanded Universe fan is probably 10 times less likely to succeed than is arguing with a hardcore anti-prequels fan, but here I am.
Since reading Trull's inspiring essays, I knew I would like my own chance to defend a Star Wars character who is often dismissed. Jaina Solo, to me at least, is an integral character to Star Wars lore, and not just "entertaining apocrypha at best, and soulless hackwork the rest of the time." The daughter of Han and Leia, and the oldest grandchild (and only girl,) to Darth Vader, Jaina's path in life has always been clouded. Her entry in the Star Wars databank3 states, concerning her mother's opinion: " Leia believes her daughter to be the most pragmatic of her children. Whereas contemplative Jacen is often crippled with indecision, and impetuous Anakin would often plunge into action heedless of the consequences, Jaina would measure her actions and suit them to the moment." And yet it was "pragmatic" Jaina who allowed herself to get pulled into the emotional anger of the Dark Side--barring her aunt (through marriage,) she was the only female in her family to make that fall. She shirks from her mother's expectations entirely, and since she was 9 years old and helping with repairs on the Millenium Falcon, always bonded more closely with her father. Her friends--mostly male--all have ambiguous loyalties to her family and/or the New Republic she serves. When it comes to her Jedi training, she is the least invested out of everyone in her familial generation--ironically choosing to align herself to piloting institutions, which her Uncle Luke abandoned for his Jedi Mastership--the Rogue Squadron as the youngest flyer, and then leader of the Twin Suns.
And, much to her own chagrin, she is in love.
These reasons are more than enough to promise a rich character, and a worthy descendent of movieverse Han, Leia and Luke. And we haven't even touched onto examples of her life story!
EARLY YEARS AND ANAKIN
Jaina Solo (along with her twin, Jacen, who is five minutes her junior,) was born on Coruscant, five years after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. Joined by their brother, Anakin, a year and a half later, the Solo children spent their formative years in hiding as their relatives helped spearhead the contested New Republic. Such anonymity, however, did not save the children from kidnappings and assassination attempts, and the first time we are introduced to Jaina's character is when she is five years old, and trying to take charge of a situation as a hostage.
(As taken from No Krakana!: An Fan Tribute to Anakin Solo4 , an exchange in "The Crystal Star" between the brother and sister…)
"Don't cry, Anakin. Don't cry. I'll take care of you. I'm five, so I'll take care of you, because you're only three." - Jaina
"Three and a half!" - Anakin
"Three and a half."
I find this quote an apt way to introduce Jaina--and Anakin--as a strong character, envisioning herself in the protective role. Her relationship with her "baby" brother is perhaps the most integral way to see her as a full person. He brings out the best in her--a protective edge tinged with an emotional bond, and the worst--as his death propelled her over to the Dark Side. Philosophically during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, she finds herself more in Anakin's "camp," with his emphasis on force (no pun intended!) over a more passive response, which Jacen honed up until his brother's death. And they have reached out to each other during times of duress--finding comfort in each other's counsel when friends have died.
When Anakin--and not just overly-emotional Jacen--begins to suspect that his sister is too battle-hardened, the readership can expect something drastic on the horizon. And when Jaina accuses Anakin of being too rash, we can guess that his time has come to an end as well.
(As taken from "Star by Star,"5 when Anakin both rescues Jaina and receives the blow, which will lead to his death. Anakin is 17, and Jaina 19)
He found Jaina pinned against a building, a blob of blorash jelly binding her along one side, blood pouring from a head wound. Despite it all, she was holding two Yuuzhan Vong impostors at bay with a one-handed lightsaber defense…Anakin gathered the Force to him and charged, somersaulting into the air as he had a few moments before.
…As he finished his tumble, the shaft swung away, the head pivoting inside his abdomen. He heard himself scream, then he was coming down, landing on his feet and hammering the butt into the ground. Cold anguish filled his belly. His knees tried to buckle but he would not let them--could not let them.
"Anakin!"
Guided by her screaming voice, Anakin flung a handful of arsensalts in Jaina's direction, used the Force to carry them to the jelly.
Then he grabbed the amphistaff and jerked it from his body.
The agony was crushing.
…"By the Sith, Anakin! Why'd you do something like that?"
"Like what?" he asked.
Jaina glared; they both knew his rescue had been rash.
"We lost two… and I wasn't going to…" The words caught in Anakin's throat, and he had to try again. "You were in trouble."
This was not the first time in "Star by Star" that Anakin had basically sacrificed his health for the emotional bond between him and his sister. Earlier, as they were captured by Vong on a ship, one of the officers basically forced Jaina to choose which of her brothers would be tortured. Anakin looked into her eyes, propelled his voice with the Force, and said "Jaina, you can choose… you can choose me."6
Though these two events are not directly involved with Anakin's death, I have to wonder whether, had Jaina stopped to think about things, she would have felt immense guilt. Her earliest introduction was that of his protector--and now she was not only not protecting him but inadvertently bringing him to harm. Of course, Jaina is not one to overanalyze her feelings, but from time to time--especially when involving her brothers or others whom she loves--they are bound to go haywire. I would argue that this rather directly parallels her grandfather's emotional turmoil when his mother, Shmi, was killed by Tusken raiders. The way Anakin Skywalker so inhumanly destroys her killers reminds me fiercely of the scene where Jaina sets off to retrieve her brother's body from the Yuuzhan Vong:
Rage boiling inside her like magma, Jaina reached out with the Force and shoved Anakin's body hard. The Yuuzhan Vong yelled in surprise and stumbled back into the collapsing arch, his couffe sliding away from [Anakin's] eye. Jaina jerked her brother free of the warrior's grasp and sent him floating in Alema's direction.
"Take Anakin," she said.
As Jaina spoke, she was opening herself to her anger, using the power of its emotion to draw the Force into her as the Dark Masters Brakiss and Tamith Kai had tried to force her to do so long ago, when she and Jacen had been trapped at the Shadow Academy with Lowbacca. The power came surging into her in cold waves, feeding on her hatred of the Yuuzhan Vong and pouring it back to her twofold.
In a motion so fast Jaina barely saw it, the warrior sat up and flicked his couffe at her throat. She could have dodged or blocked with her lightsaber, but she did not. Instead, with the fierce energy crackling inside of her, she used her free hand to bat the weapon aside, then raised her hand toward her attacker and released the dark power inside. A fork of lightening crackled into existence a few centimeters beyond her glove tips, then blasted a hole through the Yuuzhan Vong's chest and hurled him onto the rubble pile, smoking and motionless.7
Elaine Cunningham, author of "Dark Journey," which chronologically follows "Star by Star" and chronicles Jaina's coming-to-terms with the loss of her brothers and brush with the Dark Side, says of Anakin and Jaina's relationship, " Anakin was special, and his loss made an impact on readers. It seemed to me that his sister would suffer a profound blow, first because of the family tie and their shared Jedi perspective on life, but also because she had some understanding of his importance and his potential. This, coupled with the severing of her twin-bond with Jacen, was simply was too much for her. She went into emotional overload, and responded by sublimating her grief."8
Cuningham's own novel goes into how she (and some say Kyp, who I will talk about in a later section,) brings herself back from the darkness, but no one can say that Jaina Solo, after the death of her brother, is emotionally sound. As she describes to Jacen several months later when he is finally released from captivity, and she was just named the Sword of the Jedi,
"I've accepted my own death."
Jacen looked at her in surprise and horror. "You haven't--" he stammered. "You haven't felt your death in the Force?"
"No." Her eyes were strangely without animation, as if those were words she'd spoken a thousand times before. "But I can count. I can count the enemy, I can count the number of friends who have been killed, and I can count the number of battles before we can hope to end the war and the number of shots that are going to be fired in my direction in those battles. I don't have to do anything wrong to be killed. I don't have to make a mistake. All that I need is to be there long enough, and it'll happen." She looked at him, and with a half-smile reached out to touch his shoulder. "But it's all right. It's what I've sworn to do. All that will happen is that I'll join the Force, and I'm part of the Force already, so with luck I'll hardly even notice the change."
"All life is precious," Jacen urged. "All life is unique. You shouldn't just throw yours away."
"Anni Capstan was precious and unique," Jaina said. "So was Ulaha Core. So was Anakin. Uniqueness isn't a protection." She looked at him. "And I'm not throwing anything away. I'm just looking at the odds, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe that I'm an exception when so many of our friends aren't." "There is no death, there is the Force. Didn't we all just say that? I'm not just saying it, I'm living it."
"Don't cut us off from you," Jacen said. "We need you too."
Jaina's look softened. "When you need me, I'll do my best to be there. That's a promise. That's being a Jedi too."9
Thus is my argument that only emotional-Jacen to pragmatic-Jaina, two sides of the twin coin, can save each other in the future that is Star Wars: The Expanded Universe. They have, after all, been that to each other all their lives, as I will discuss below.
YOUNG JEDI KNIGHT SERIES AND JACEN
When Jaina and Jacen are 14 years old, they start attending their Uncle Luke's Jedi training facility on Yavin IV in the Young Jedi Knight series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. Although this series is certainly aimed for a younger audience than is the Yuuzhan Vong fighting New Jedi Order, they introduce the characters of the Solo twins as something more than just extensions of their parents, (though Jaina carries that heavy association with her all her life. As she says near the beginning of the New Jedi Order, "With my parents I could be a smuggler who saved the galaxy or a diplomat who saved the galaxy."10 ) But in the (slightly) more light-hearted days of the Young Jedi Knights, Jaina is just a girl with a proficiency at mechanics and piloting, and Jacen is just a boy who tells jokes and is good with animals and together, they make friends with a wookie, Lowbacca, and two humans, Tenel Ka and Zekk. And then Jacen accidentally lops off Tenel Ka's arm in faulty lightsaber practice. And then Jaina, Jacen and Lowbacca are kidnapped to the Shadow Academy. And then Zekk turns (briefly) to the Dark Side. Sounds cute and innocent, no? ;-)
All of this pales, however, to one incident during Jaina's capture by the Dark Masters she will evoke later in life, when calling on the power of the Dark Side. What Brakiss calls a simple "training exercise" ends up being much more. Jaina is confronted with the image of her grandfather, and the reality that her Uncle Luke, faced under similar auspices on Degobah--that she is really just fighting herself and her family line. Or, more specifically, her beloved twin, frequently described as the other half of her, Jacen.
(As taken from "Jedi Shadow," a compilation of the first three novellas in the Young Jedi Knight series,)
Her new opponent stepped out of the barred dungeon doorway--a tall, looming figure wrapped completely in black. The black plasteel mask echoed and hissed as Darth Vader breathed through his respirator.
Startled, she caught her breath, instinctively flicking on her lightsaber. Brakiss wasn't playing fair! This went beyond any of the other illusions he set against her before. Darth Vader had been killed before the twins were even born, but the Dark Lord of the Sith had been her grandfather; she knew all about him.
…Jaina hated the evil acts Darth Vader had performed during his allegiance with the Emperor--but she also loved the idea of what her grandfather Anakin Skywalker could have been, the good man he had become in his last moments when he turned against the Emperor and ended his reign of terror.
…Jaina swung, trying to land a blow on Darth Vader's chest armor, but the Dark Lord brought his own beam up to clash against hers. She backed away as he attacked with greater strength, slashing and striking with his lightsaber. The shrieks of the electrical discharge nearly deafened her. But as Jaina began to falter, she pretended Vader was Brakiss or Tamith Kai--the ones who had kidnapped her and brought all of them to this school of darkness--and was able to defend herself with renewed strength, this time pushing Vader back.
She struck blow after blow. The lightsabers clashed, but Darth Vader seemed to draw strength from Jaina's fury. They fought on for a long time, neither gaining the upper hand. Jaina lost track of how many minutes or hours passed.
…"Enough!" Brakiss's voice came over the intercom.
The training room's holographic simulation faded, leaving her standing in the flat gray room, her lightsaber still crossed with her opponent's. Only now she could see who her adversary really was.
Jacen.11
This excerpt is ripe with "rite of passage" imagery. It is interesting to note how Jaina immediately forgives her grandfather--as Luke had done before her--and in order to fight him, had to "shift the blame" to the Dark Masters. This parallels how she will later hurl lightening at the Yuuzhan Vong-- not the ones who killed her brother (who actually died from his own over-use of the Force,) but simply the ones transporting his body.
The fact that neither of the YJK fighters had "the upper hand" can be seen as a twofold message. Jaina and her brothers and her little cousin, Ben, are the heirs to a man who fell to the Dark Side. They might spend their lives trying to balance the "light" and "dark" within them, and Jaina's own fall is testament to the fact that they are not immune from their grandfather's mistakes.
Of course, the other reason why Jaina and "Vader" were so evenly matched was because that wasn't a hologram at all--but rather, her twin. Throughout the books chronicling their youth and young adulthood, Jacen and Jaina will outwardly become rather different people--he as a Jedi scholar, and she as a brash pilot--but they always seem to be mirror images. This is how Jaina describes her relationship to him when she is forced to choose which brother would be tortured: Jacen had always been her best friend, the person who understood her when she did not understand herself, the presence that enveloped her like a second skin.12 " The only times she feels distant from him is when she brushes the Dark Side--when they are unwittingly pitted against each other at the Shadow Academy and then, when she lost herself to the despair of Anakin's death. This event was further exacerbated as Jacen was captured by the Vong, and Jaina forced to flee with others of her friends. As a numb detachment fills her, she finds herself mourning the loss of her twin more than the loss of Anakin:
Jacen is gone.
It didn't seem possible. It wasn't possible. Jacen was alive. He had to be. How could she be alive if Jacen was not? Her twin brother had been a part of her, and she of him, since before their birth. What they were could not be separated from what they were to each other.
Her thoughts tumbled like an X-wing in an out-of-control spiral. Jaina's pilot instincts kicked in, and she eased herself out of the spin.
Reaching out through the Force, she strained beyond the boundaries of her power and training as she sought her brother. Where Jacen had been was only blackness as unfathomable as space. She went deep within, frantically seeking the place within her that had always been Jacen's. That too, was veiled.
Jacen was gone. Jaina did not feel bereft, but sundered.13
The loss of Anakin was devastating--and led her to the Dark Side. The loss of Jacen tore her in two. All she was able to do was deftly pilot the ship--which had always been her primary distinguishing feature from her twin.
Of course, once Tenel Ka (mistakenly) feels Jacen's death in the Force, Jaina accepts this verbatim, and removes herself even more from her mother when Leia starts insisting that her son is still alive. When the twins are reunited, the biggest things they have to deal with are their "severed" Force bond, and Jaina's fall to the Dark Side. The latter she discusses not only with Jacen, but with their aunt and uncle for, as Jacen realized "it was easier…for Jaina to speak to Luke and Mara than it would have been to speak to him alone.14 " Luke gives his niece a nice, short speech about bringing her out of her Dark Side-esque despair, and all is smoothed over, or so we believe, until Jaina is named the Sword of the Jedi, AKA someone who will never find her own slice of peace.
The former item is a little more difficult, as it requires an explanation of why Jacen did not try to contact his sister through their bond. The reason for that has to do with the fact that they are twins. And in the Yuuzhan Vong religion, that makes them a special kind of infidel. The kind that needs to fight til one of them is dead. So basically, Jacen was safe from death until they caught Jaina, and vice versa. Too bad Jaina didn't know about this when she chose Anakin, and not Jacen, to be tortured. ("You overestimate your brother's value," Duman Yaght said. "The priests will be happy as long as I return with you and Jacen. You two are the twins."15 )
Because of this association, the New Republic decides to mess with the Vong psychology by "re-naming" Jacen and Jaina as YV gods. As Viridity, the Jacen Solo fanlisting16 explains, " Jaina plays up to the Trickster Goddess Yun-Harla, while Jacen plays up to Yun-Yammka, who is the Slayer God." Lesser Vong start to wonder whether the twosome actually are the gods they proclaim to be, as both seriously kick the Vongs' asses, not to mention, survived even though twins in their culture die at birth.
As time goes on and the twins reach 20-years-old, they tentatively start to open up to each other again. Though it is apparent that Jaina is choosing to embrace her destiny as the Sword of the Jedi, a weapon with as few emotional attachments as possible, it is also clear that she can never dissociate herself from her bond with Jacen. She even allows herself to display such sentiment with him as he prepares to leave her again:
"I hope you find what you're looking for," Jaina said, intruding upon his thoughts.
"I'm sure we will," Jacen said. "All available data suggest that the Unknown Regions are where-"
"I meant in your heart, brother."
His smile came easier this time. "I won't come back until I do."
"Is that a promise, Jacen? Or a prophecy?"
"Perhaps it's a little of both."
She embraced him, then, tightly and warmly. "Just make sure you do come back, okay?" she whispered close to his ear.17
Her display does not only show affection for him, but a respect for his thoughtful ways, finding what he needs to in his "heart," as if that is a corporeal plane. Jaina herself does not think like that--she sees things in terms of cold, hard data about physical survival--but in a way, that is precisely why she doesn't need to. Just like when they were "evenly matched" so many years before at the Shadow Academy, each of the Solo twins offers something crucial to the other--the other part of their being. The other way of believing. An anchor for when the other one falls. And ultimately, the silent support for when the other must stand on his/her own. ("You wouldn't let me help you," [Jaina] said. Jacen comforted her with a smile. "I needed you to help yourself."18 )
This is something, which Jaina's closest friends and lovers--Zekk, Kyp and Jag--cannot provide for her, nor does she expect them to. It is the direct province of their twinship, though the men mentioned above offer her something more--a look into her individuality.
JAINA AND ZEKK: JEDI TURNED DARK
In many ways, Jaina was first drawn to Zekk because he is her opposite. He grows up an orphan, scavenging for food on the lower levels of Corusant, whereas she lives in the highest towers, known by all as the daughter of those who saved (or at least reformed) the galaxy. He is wild and uncultured, whereas she is stifled by "diplomatic behavior"--seeing as her mother was Chief of State. He knows nothing of his Jedi powers until the Solo twins & co find him, whereas Jaina was surrounded by it since birth.
Their biggest similarity is the grudges they hold. Jaina, about her mother never being around, and feeling trapped by the actions of her parents. And Zekk, about being a street kid, who happens to be friends with some of the most powerful people in the galaxy. Both of them eventually turn to the Dark; Zekk is just sooner (during their years at the Jedi Academy). And like Luke did for Vader, Jaina, through her friendship, is the one to get him out of it.
(As taken from Dhalbreth Square, a Jaina/Zekk fanlisting, a scene from "Jedi Under Siege"19 )
A feral grin spread across Zekk's face, almost as if he was glad that it had come to this.
"You see, Jaina," he said, taking a step toward her and twitching his energy blade from side to side, "once you let it in, the dark side is like a disease for which there's no cure." He lunged toward her, and their two blades met in a sizzling struggle of red against violet. "And the only way to remove the disease" - he lunged again and again and Jaina parried - "is to" - thrust - "cut" - thrust - "it" - thrust - "out!"
…At that moment Jaina realized that she had been trying to force Zekk to turn to the light side. She had been trying to fix him. But she couldn't. It had to be his choice. She drew a deep breath, letting the Force flow through her, and backed away from Zekk.
"I won't fight you anymore, Zekk," she said, switching off her lightsaber and tossing it to the ground. "There's still good in you, but you'll have to decide which direction you want to go - starting now. It's your choice, so make the right one for you."
Surprise and anger and confusion chased each other across Zekk's face. "How do you know I won't kill you?"
…Jaina shrugged. "I don't know that. But I won't fight you. Make your choice." Jaina pushed back her straight brown hair and looked directly into Zekk's eyes with calm assurance - not assurance that he wouldn't harm her, but assurance that she had done the right thing.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" she whispered.
With slow deliberation, Zekk raised his glowing red lightsaber over Jaina's head.
Of course, it should be noted that Zekk does not harm Jaina. He has actually saved her in the past, on account of their friendship, even though he was working for the dark and she the light. But I like how this passage shows Jaina's feelings. How deeply she parallels her Uncle Luke (who is actually watching her at the time, and allowing her to do this on her own.) At first, she confronts him brashly and then she makes the attempt to understand him--even trust him. That is how she is able to bring him back from the dark. It is interesting to note, that when their roles are reversed, and Zekk is with her when she leaves her two presumably dead brothers behind, he does not take the same sort of action.
(As taken from "Dark Journey," when Jaina and Zekk argue about who will fly the ship,)
"Let me have her, Zekk."
The pilot shook his hooded head and put the ship into a rising turn. "Forget it. You're in no condition for this."
She planted her fists on her hips. "Yeah? Everyone here could use a few days in a bacta tank, you included."
"That's not what I meant. No one could be expected to fly after loosing… after what happened down there," he concluded lamely.
…Jaina caught a glimpse of the memory that most disturbed Zekk--an image of a small, disheveled woman in a tattered jumpsuit, hurling lightening at a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. A moment passed before Jaina recognized the furious, vengeful, bloodstained face as her own.
Suddenly, she knew the truth of her old friend's concern. Zekk, who had trained at the Shadow Academy and experienced the Dark Side firsthand, was as wary of it as Jacen had been. In taking the pilot's chair, Zekk hadn't been considering her loss, her state of mind. He simply didn't trust her.
She brought to mind an image of the molten lightening that had come so instinctively to her call. She imbued it with so much power that the air nearly hummed with the energy, and the metallic scent of a thunderstorm seemed to lurk on the edge of sensory perception. She projected this image to her friend as forcefully as she could.
"Get out of the seat, Zekk," she said in cool, controlled tones. "I don't want to fry the controls.20 "
Zekk, so blinded by his own experience with the Dark Side, cannot muster up any empathy, even for the person who saved him from it. This action immediately put Jaina into the defensive, and drove her deeper into her own angry despair. I personally find it a wonder that she forgave him at all--but sure enough, a few pages later, Jaina is opening up to him about her brothers' "Force argument" they'd quibbled over for two years, and in the end, didn't save either one of them from harm. It is not Zekk who is important to her anymore, but her brothers. And it is her brothers who once again push them apart. (Before Jaina accepted his "death") Zekk decides to stay on Tenel Ka's home-planet of Hapes rather than help in the search for Jacen. In retaliation, Jaina flaunts her new apprenticeship to Kyp--a liaison Zekk would despise, as Kyp also fell to the Dark Side. Ultimately, they leave each other on bad terms, and Jaina's adolescence is definitively over. Now, she turns her attention to friends she made in young adulthood--Jag and Kyp.
JAINA AND KYP: ROGUE JEDI
I believe that most people say that Kyp brought Jaina back from the Dark Side. It would make sense initially; he could do what Zekk could not, and relate to Jaina empathetically, having come from the same place. (""You can't compare our situations." "We both lost brothers." "And maybe hitting the Yuuzhan Vong hard will give some meaning to my brothers' deaths." "I tried to avenge my brother," Kyp reminded her, "and I ended up killing him. Your mother thinks Jacen's still alive. What if she's right?21 ")
But personally, I am more of the belief that Kyp is a major a-hole. He was brash and arrogant ever since the moment Han found him at 16, and turned him over to Luke for training. He constantly challenged Luke's authority, and went so far in the "aggression" direction that even Anakin gave room for pause. As for Jaina, she had a special reason to despise him. He used her in an attempt to destroy a Yuuzhan Vong civilian ship--by lying to her and saying it was military. When Jaina found out the truth, she dished out my favorite insult of all time--("I'll never help you again," Jaina said. "You can count on it. If you were dying of thirst on Tatooine, I wouldn't even spit on you.22 ")
Her "apprenticeship" to Kyp served one purpose only--a way to distance herself from her family, AKA, people to whom she was emotionally tied. Their relationship was never "consumated", and when Kyp started to get too protective, Jaina slipped back into the aggressive Dark Side.
"You're my responsibility now," Kyp persisted.
Jaina laughed. "I wish Uncle Luke could hear this! Paralysis and inactivity, not the Dark Side, will overcome the Jedi. Haven't you said that a hundred times?"
…The older Jedi spun towards the door. Jaina pulled out her lightsaber.
Kyp stopped dead at the click and hum unique to the traditional Jedi weapon. He slowly turned to face her, hands raised in a placating gesture. "I don't want to fight you."
Her violet blade rose towards his throat. "You'd change your mind if the stakes were high enough…If I win, you fly the rest of the battle under my command. If you win, I'm yours. No more holding out, no more games. I'll keep the channels open, act like a real apprentice.
He considered for a long moment. "Done.23 "
So rather than take the high road, Kyp slips back into his natural aggressiveness himself. It should be noted that he does stop the fight… and that soon, both he and Jag would fly under Jaina's command, as Luke handed the Twin Suns onto her. But I contest the idea that Kyp is any more mature than Jaina, despite their 16-year age difference. He is overly arrogant and overly aggressive, and though a valuable asset to Jaina as an empathetic friend, he is in no shape to be her mentor.
Cunningham describes it best in an interview copied onto the Jaina/Kyp fanlisting.24 Jaina's relationship to Kyp is one of peer-like empathy, grounded in the fact that Kyp was at first her father's protégé, and Jaina was always hopelessly a Daddy's girl.
Jaina knows Kyp Durron's history, and that would inevitably color her opinion of him. Throughout the course of the Yuuzhan Vong conflict, however, Jaina has been moving closer toward Kyp's stated position. In fact, she has admitted more than once that she wasn't certain whether he was right or wrong. Her attitude toward him suffered a setback with his deception over the Sernpidal attack, but she learned from this event - and not all the lessons she picked up were bright and shiny. Jaina isn't accustomed to being used or tricked, and this event had an enormous impact upon her. Once she got past her outrage, however, she couldn't help but notice that, hey - this tactic WORKED. Kyp's deception prompted her to wonder how trickery and misdirection might be used against the Yuuzhan Vong. Kyp gets results, and that matters to Jaina. She also idolizes her father, and Han has always had a soft spot for Kyp. She probably recognizes the similarity between the two men, and she definitely realizes that, for good or ill, she has quite a bit in common with the rogue Jedi Master.
But personally, I am more in agreement with a minor statement Jaina made during "Dark Journey." "Hurling black lightning is one thing, but quoting Kyp Durron puts me lower than I ever expected to get." So let us move onto someone who definitely boosts Jaina's morale.
JAINA AND JAG: ROMEO AND JULIET
I call this pairing the Romeo and Juliet of Star Wars, because they make Anakin and Padme look perfectly workable.
Jag, though Wedge Antilles's nephew, is the son of a baron who was loyal to the Imperium, and still resides with the Chiss in Imperial space. (Wedge's sister did not defect to the Rebel Alliance, as did her brother.) Jaina is descended from the very people who overthrew the empire.
Of course, Jaina's first impression was somewhat skeptical, as at their primary meeting, when the New Republic was tentatively reaching out to the Imperium in hopes of banding to fight the Yuuzhan Vong, Jag completely sidestepped all of the official Republic delegates so that he could flirt with her.
As time goes on, however, Jaina begins to respect his emotionless, detached demeanor. (He is what the Jaina Solo fanlisting, The Other Side of the Galaxy,25 calls "Captain Cardboard.") For Jaina, though, this is exactly what she is trying to achieve--complete distance, so she will cease to get hurt. Ironically, her very draw to this man opens up one of the most emotional relationships of her life--her first romance.
It is with Jag with whom she finally admits that she does have an emotional response to her brothers' deaths, to the deaths of many friends, and the fear of being alone.
(As taken from "Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream":)
"I... I... Everyone is going away. They keep going away and I can't stop it. I didn't want you to go away."
"I won't go anywhere," he said.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why won't you go anywhere?"
"Because I don't want to."
And thus, the romance is born. And it is a beautiful romance, filled with passion (they… uh, make out a lot,) and it even has the tension of a threesome triangle, as both Jag and Kyp fly under Jaina's command of the Twin Suns. (Sounds like a metaphor, don't it?)
But ultimately, the real thing, which could break off the Jaina/Jag ship is the Sword of the Jedi herself.
"I love you, Jaina," [Jag] blurted.
Jaina made her lips into a thin line, then sighed and said, "I love you, too. Someday I want a partner, and I want what my mom and dad have, and what Luke and Mara have. I intend to raise a family. I just want to be sure that I can offer my children more than what Mom and Mara have been able to offer theirs." She reached for both his hands. "I'm glad that we found each other, Jag. You made the worst time in my life a lot easier to bear. But now I'm still on the move. I'm still a Jedi and a fighter pilot. Do you understand--even a little?"
Jag blew out his breath. "As much as I don't wish to, I understand."
…Gently, he pulled her back into his arms and lowered his voice. "I'll work hard at making our encounters nothing short of wonderful."
Jaina laughed. "Maybe there is a touch of the scoundrel in you, after all."
They kissed passionately, while the snow continued to fall.26
In one swift passage, Jaina manages to both rebuke and invite her lover, while doing the usual of dissing her mother and elevating her father (with the "scoundrel" comment, because how much closer to Han Solo can you get?) Jaina is now about 21-years old, and the Yuuzhan Vong crisis is over. She has at least accepted that her death is not at hand, and desires for a normal, emotional life despite her status as Sword of the Jedi. At the moment, however, she cannot achieve this with Jag. She will continue to be a Jedi and a pilot, and he will actually become a liaison to their new government, and doubtless, the two will find times to get together and make out. And with that, Jaina Solo's transition into adulthood is now officially over.
EPILOGUE
So what now lies on the horizon for Jaina Solo and the Star Wars Expanded Universe? In recent months, starwars.com has published some promos about new novels set post-NJO, where Jaina and Jacen go missing in the outskirts of space, led by voices only they can hear.27 Part of me can't help but be worried. Why can't Jaina receive a break from all of the angst? Of course logically, I know that she has been named Sword of the Jedi, and is therefore bound to that fate. But hopefully, she will continue to follow in the path of her Uncle Luke. Perhaps she, too, can shake off destiny.
Although I have written pages upon pages (thank you all for reading!) I have only touched upon the relationships, plot points and nuances available in the 14 Young Jedi Knight books, the 19 New Jedi Order books, and the smattering of novels chronicling the Solo kids' childhood. If you are as intrigued by the continuation of the epic Star Wars movies as I am, I urge you all to consider these books. Jaina Solo is not a piece of meaningless fluff. She is a character, bound to the same heritage as her mother and uncle, fighting similar demons, and attempting to come up on top. So far, she's doing an excellent job and I cannot wait to see how she changes the galaxy next.
(As taken from the Yuuzhan Vong crisis in "Destiny's Way",)
Tenel Ka gave Jaina an appraising look.
"Goddess?"
"You can call me 'Great One'," Jaina said. "Most people do."
FOOTNOTES
1 "Destiny's Way," pages 309-310
2 The Lard Biscuit: The Definitive Mythology of Modern Times, http://www.lardbiscuit.com/starwars.html
3 http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/jainasolo/eu.html
4 http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jedifreac/anakin/
5 pages 406-407
6 "Star by Star," page 264
7 "Star by Star," pages 523-524
8 Interview for "The Zone," http://www.zone-sf.com/ecunningham.html
9 "Destiny's Way," pages 317-318
10 "Dark Tide I: Onslaught"
11 pages 224-225
12 "Star by Star," pages 263-264
13 "Dark Journey," page 10
14 "Destiny's Way," page 274
15 "Star by Star," page 265
16 http://www.echuta.net/jacen/
17 "Force Heretic I: Remnant"
18 "The Unifying Force," page 473
19 http://glowfish.venusgospel.net/
20 pages 15-16
21 "Dark Journey," page 264
22 "Edge of Victory II: Rebirth"
23 "Dark Journey," pages 262-263
24 http://www.geocities.com/kyp_and_jaina/
25 http://jaina.venusgospel.net/
26 "The Unifying Force," pages 520-521
27 http://www.starwars.com/eu/lit/novel/news20050215.html