Legacy of the Force: Revelation [spoilers inside!]

[Ender 8]

He was getting up there, wasn't he something like 70-80 years old?

[Drake 53]

91 or 92, actually.

And I finished the book today. It was an all-around solid read with a lot of high-points and some exciting action. I'm glad Traviss finally brought her Fett/Mando storylines together with the main plot. The cover for Invincible makes sense as Jaina was training under the Mandos for the purpose of facing Caedus.

I'm also happy that Mara finally visited Luke as a Force apparition.

Edited March 8, 2008 by Drake

[Winters 0]

Well, she had to, considering how much they loved each other... Sure it's kinda spooky to have your dead wife follow you around, but I doubt that Luke will re-marry anyway, so it'll be great, but kinda hard to express feelings and emotions and such to a "ghost".

[Drake 53]

He can express them. Obi-Wan Kenobi did well conversationally when he was a Force ghost. It's also doubtful that Mara will stay around long. She'll join the Force completely soon.

[Winters 0]

*sigh...* I ment physically.... because everyone knows that Mara Jade Skywalker is so attractive that lesser mens eyes melt, i.e. men from Adumar...

[Princess 35]

I wanna kill Jacen myself!

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

get in line :p

[Winters 0]

Ok... if we kill Jacen, something will come around and take his place... or the galaxy will fall apart.

[Mara 29]

The way it was written and the way he accepted his own death before Tahiri even shot him (yeah, she's Caedus' official Sith apprentice now) made it easier to accept for me, I found.

And I just finished the part where Caedus went to rescue Tahiri from Pellaeon's ship. Loved it when Jaina and the Mandalorians attacked. Tahiri got tackled, beaten, and had her femoral artery stabbed. Caedus got a crushgaunted ankle and a blaster shot through the knee. Mandos are awesome.

Yeah, but to be honest... I had forgotten Pellaeon was still around.

And silly "letting Jaina have Jacen"... they shoulda just killed Jacen right then.

91 or 92, actually.

And I finished the book today. It was an all-around solid read with a lot of high-points and some exciting action. I'm glad Traviss finally brought her Fett/Mando storylines together with the main plot. The cover for Invincible makes sense as Jaina was training under the Mandos for the purpose of facing Caedus.

I'm also happy that Mara finally visited Luke as a Force apparition.

I just finished it, too.. and I have to say that I thought the first 2/3 was rather slow. But it picked up at the end.

The ending also made me happy... but sad, too. Damn Karen for making me tear up.

I took notes, and I'll have more thoughts laters.

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

I took notes, and I'll have more thoughts laters.

*cough*GEEK*cough*

[Mara 29]

Yeah, and what of it?

[Winters 0]

I'm reading Isard's Revenge right now... and Star Wars has a great deal of "Boo! I'm not really dead..." people... Lazy...? Or Geniouses?

[Mara 29]

Haha... maybe. Convenient to add oldies then think of new characters.

...

Anyway.... here goes.

Cover art:

- Maybe it's me, but the Jacen on the cover seemed way too young for how old he's supposed to be... *shrug*

D.P.:

- My first surprise was finding out that Pellaeon was still around. Like I mentioned earlier... he had kind of disappeared for a while. And, like he said, some might have thought he died.

- Also, missing characters like Zekk, Jag, Tenel Ka, Allanna...

The book:

- Um... holy italics, Batman! Karen seems to love these things...

The plot/rest:

- I felt the whole "bringing back Sintas" was just over the top.

Yeah, bring in Jaina, let her train with Boba. Yes, that makes sense. But the whole "tear jerker" thing just seemed unnecessary for the rest of the novel.

- Oh, and... at the beginning... Luke knew that Ben thought Jacen did it? I don't remember Ben telling him his thoughts earlier... but it's been a few months since Fury and Inferno, so....

- Okay, and maybe I missed something in the previous novel(s), but since when was Niathal on Luke's side and not on Jacen's side? Earlier, I had thought she was just as bad as Jacen was. I guess I was wrong.

Either way... it was good for her to get out of this GA mess now. If she had stayed any longer, I don't think she would have gotten out alive. Eventually, Jacen would have taken her out. And, well, he still might.

- I did wonder about more of Han/Leia with Alanna, but that will probably come up later, and this was more about Jaina and Ben, so no more thoughts on this.

- I was so happy when Mara appeared to Ben.. but I had to wonder about the motive and the timing. Obviously she wanted to reveal to Ben that he was right and set the "CSI: Coruscant" ball rolling... but.. I dunno. Maybe I was hoping for a more touching reunion.

To be honest, I've been waiting since Sacrifice for this to happen. And, up until the end of Revelation, I was feeling bad for Luke, just like Ben was.

- Perhaps part of the revelation in Revelation is the fact that Jacen is finally getting a lot looser with telling people about his Sithy emo boy nature. I dunno if he was just loosing his grip (which, yeah, I know he's not, but it seemed like that when I read it) or, more likely, finally sick of living a lie and wants people, those around him, to know the truth. But he still has to fully reveal himself. Telling people is great, but he has to actually go around like he's the new emperor and crap, probably in Invincible.

- And like I keep saying... I can't believe that Jacen actually thinks that he is no where near what his grandfather was doing. Just because Anakin was doing it for love, and Jacen is doing it for... what did he say? Duty? Saving the galaxy? Different reasons, same Sith. That's what I say.

Everyone else knows that. Jacen is just delusional with the evil.

- Maybe I read into too much or missed something, but I thought Pellaeon gave in to Jacen's request for ships and help way too easily. He had just been talking about how he wasn't sure and perhaps considering being there when the GA collapsed.. but then suddenly he was acting on them. Just seemed too easy to me.

- Then another surprise -- Daala. Another character, like Pellaeon, who had kind of disappeared and shows up at random moments.

But... I do think Daala will be more ruthless at taking down Jacen, so maybe it's for the better. And Jacen doesn't like surprises. So I suppose us readers can live with the random popping up.

- Okay, so I totally loved how at Fondor, Luke totally pissed off Jacen with the whole illusion thing. SO AWESOME. But, Luke, come on! Still trying to redeem him? He's not your father. Jacen actually doesn't have any good left in him.

But I wondered who was helping Luke, if indeed there was like Jacen thought.

I wanted it to be Mara (just in the previous novels where I thought she should come back and help him with the Force..) ... but...from the ending, I suppose that is not true.

Either another Jedi hiding in the Force, or Jacen is wrong and Luke is actually more powerful than he believes. I'm willing to go with the latter.

- And then there's the whole Tahiri apprentice thing... just kind of weird.

I never liked Tahiri to begin with anyway and now I guess I have more reason to. I wish she would have bled to death.

And Jacen coming to rescue her? Haha. I loved the Mandos fighting him. Even though they couldn't finish the job and had to "leave him for Jaina."

- And Jaina's training... well... Like I have said, I didn't think it was really dwelt on all that much. She seemed to spend more time with Mirta and Sintas then actually training with Boba and Beviin. But maybe it was supposed to "be understood."

She is training just because she "believes" it has to be her, even though she isn't sure herself if she can do it. Even if she does close off feelings and go berserk.

Second thoughts, second thoughts -- not good for focus to kill delusional whiny emo Sith boy.

And then, suddenly... she's convinced in just a minute that she has to do it by talking to Gotab? What? She's has second thoughts about what she has to do throughout this whole series and some former Jedi talks to her and she's finally "okay, I must kill"? I don't believe it.

I totally do not think she has what it takes, despite whatever she learned, to take down Jacen by herself. Even if she believes she has to kill him out of "love."

And, no, this is not just because I would rather Luke do it. This is because I really think that Jaina won't be able to do it.

Second thoughts will emerge again.

Like was mentioned in the book... they need hundreds of Jedi to take down Jacen.

Oh well. We'll see who really is the Invincible one in a few months.

- I loved the touching moment at the end with Luke and Ben sitting up in the tree. After all that had happened, after the whole investigation and Ben telling everyone his evidence, after all that... it was nice to have them just be together. I suppose Ben needed to go down that path with Jacen in order for him to get where he is now: stronger in himself and in the Force and with his family. [Even though I hated it at the time].

- And that was made all the more sweet at the end, when Mara finally came to Luke. Damn Karan made me tear up again. I gave up thinking about why, the motive. I figured it was just Mara waiting until Luke had made peace with her murder and finally knowing that Jacen was behind it. I no longer muse about why she waited so long. I am sure she had a good reason for it this time.

I really hope she shows up more, at least a few more times in Invincible before becoming one with the Force. Hopefully she'll have more to tell Ben and Luke, just as Obi-Wan had more to tell to Luke decades ago.

...

So I suppose the big question now is... who/what will be invincible?

Obviously, there were many revelations in Revelation, not just. It was pretty multi-faceted -- Jacen revealing himself as Sithy boy to Niathal, Shevu, others; Ben finally revealing to Luke/Han/Leia/Jaina about Mara's murder; Jaina's revelation about whether or not she thinks she can kill Jacen out of love; lots of things...

So.. will it be Jacen who is Invincible and continue to rule the galaxy as an evil tyrant?

Will it be Jaina, the Sword of the Jedi?

Will it be Luke? Ben?

Or perhaps just the light side of the Force, which defeats the dark side.

We'll have to see...

*takes a breath*

Edited March 28, 2008 by Mara

[Winters 0]

I believe they're actually going to make CSI: Courscant... it's the live action TV show GL is making... I'd watch it, but I'm sure it'll get old REAL quick.

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

as if there aren't enough CSI knock-offs already.

although CSI: Coruscant could be kinda cool of GL was demoted to coffee-boy.

[Drake 53]

Not even that. If he were coffee-boy, his terrible ideas would poison the coffee and infect the rest of the crew.

[Mara 29]

Hahaha...

I'd rather watch something like "CSI: Anchorage." Now THAT might be fun.

[Winters 0]

Bona dea no...!

It'll be....

"Did you see who sold the droids?"

*Jawa language*

"No...? I don't believe you..." *smacking of Jawa*

It'll be boring and involve WAY too many Banthas.

[Mara 29]

No, Anchorage, not Anchorhead. Anchorage, Alaska.

Sorry, just a tangent.

[Andy 60]

So... what has Alaska got to do with anything? :???:

[Mara 29]

Nothing.

Just a tangent on an idea for a regular CSI....

Carry on with Revelation talk.

[Winters 0]

It could turn out that Pellaeon isn't really dead... he's famous for turning out not to be dead... (see Battle of Bastion). That would be hillariously awesome and add more proof to the idea that SW authors like bringing back people from the dead (Baron Fel (roughly), Dalaa, Pellaeon, The Emperor, Viqi Seesh, Ysanne Isard (in fact, all of Isards Revenge is full of people who come back from the dead, including Isard and Wes Janson...)

[Mara 29]

Maybe... but it seemed pretty permanent. At least for Pellaeon. Either way, he would be soon anyway. He was in his '90s.

[Rebel_Ghost 0]

92 years old.

[Ender 8]

Daala and Pellaeon's banter was fantastic, I thought. She and Boba were really good, too.