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Revision as of 00:51, 15 March 2006
"I'm more sure than ever that Jacen has a special destiny." —Luke Skywalker
Jacen Solo (b. 9 ABY), is a fictional character in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the eldest son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, the younger twin of Jaina and the brother of Anakin. Even before he and his sister were born, their uncle Luke Skywalker, could sense their strong presence in the Force and the two, with their brown hair and eyes, share an almost inseparable mental bond. Jacen has always been an empathetic person, forming close bonds with humans and animals alike.
History
Childhood
The younger Solo twin was born near the end of the Thrawn Crisis on Coruscant, five minutes after his sister Jaina. The twins, and eventually their younger brother Anakin were sent to live at various safe havens for their first few years, under the protection of Winter. A majority of their time was spent on New Alderaan and Anoth.
The twins returned to Coruscant at age 3 and had many a (mis)adventure there. They once became lost in the underworld of Imperial City with C-3PO but were quickly rescued and returned to their mother, the Chief of State of the New Republic.
Jacen's aptitude for the Force and closeness to his uncle were obvious early. As only a toddler, he managed to defend the unconscious Jedi Master from the dark spirit of Exar Kun. Jacen used the Force to defend his uncle and future mentor with his own lightsaber.
Unlike his siblings, who had inherited their father's mechanical adeptness and action-oriented mindset, Jacen demonstrated an affinity for living beings and empathy towards others. This perplexed Han, who wondered if his son was energetic enough, and why Jacen got along more easily with his mother.
Jedi Academy Years (21-22 ABY – 24 ABY)
When he was old enough, Jacen travelled to Yavin 4 with his sister to begin his Jedi training. Jacen discovered a strong connection to the Living Force and was able to communicate with and calm many of the jungle creatures near the Academy. The young man even kept a small menagerie of animals in his room in the Great Massassi Temple. He and his sister befriended Lowbacca (nicknamed Lowie by his friends) and the warrior princess Tenel Ka, learning Jedi techniques quickly and going through many trials even as young teens.
In their exploration of the jungle near Luke's Jedi Academy, Jacen and Jaina discovered a crashed TIE fighter from the Battle of Yavin. Jaina decided to install a hyperdrive in the downed starfighter and begin fixing it to fly again. Jacen, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka would help her to practice their Force skills until all were held captive by the TIE's original pilot, Qorl, who had been living in the jungle for 19 years. They eventually escaped, but so did Qorl, leaving the jungle moon behind and searching for any remnants of the Empire.
Qorl would discover the Shadow Academy, a training ground for Dark Jedi under the command of one of Luke Skywalker's fallen students, Brakiss and the remains of the Dathomiri Nightsisters. These elements of the so-called Second Imperium managed to kidnap Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca, but they were resistant to the temptations of the dark side and were rescued by Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka.
Jacen learned a valuable lesson while he was at the Shadow Academy. In a training exercise that pitted an unknowing brother and sister against each other, Jacen realized that he was not as powerful in the Force or as wise as he had thought. The young Jedi had wished to construct a lightsaber, but discovered how dangerous they were and how much knowledge and maturity were required to wield one.
The friends returned to Coruscant for a short vacation, and were reunited with the twins' childhood friend Zekk. They were happy to see the young man, but the boy was soon recruited by the Shadow Academy, who discovered before the twins that the boy had Force potential. Zekk would be forced to fight Jacen and Jaina several times, and the twins and their friends finally progressed far enough to be tasked with building their first lightsabers.
Jacen's hard-learned lesson hit home once again when Tenel Ka rushed to complete her lightsaber to keep up with her friends. She used an imperfect crystal and her blade shorted out in a sparring match with Jacen. His lightsaber passed through thin air where her weapon had been seconds before and severed the young woman's arm. Though the girl bore him no ill will, Jacen took it hard, and it became another event that would help shape him into the Jedi he was becoming.
Not long later, the Jedi trainees and the Shadow Academy would have their final confrontation on Yavin 4. The twins, with the help of their peers at the Jedi Academy, Luke, and Zekk would bring down the Shadow Academy and the Second Imperium forever.
Jacen and Jaina continued their Jedi training at Yavin 4, meeting new friends like Raynar Thul. They could not convince Zekk to stay at the Academy with them, but Jacen and Jaina remained friends with him. With his and Raynar's help, they ran into their first discovery of a new threat to the New Republic, the Diversity Alliance.
The all-alien anti-human group was building up massive support among peoples that had been oppressed by the Empire. They were led by a Twi'lek Nolaa Tarkona, the sister of Oola, Jabba the Hutt's murdered dancing slave. She was a very striking woman, with only one lekku and sharpened teeth that she kept perfectly filed.
Jacen, Jaina, and their friends were briefly held captive on Ryloth and had to escape to its harsh surface, all in an attempt to rescue their Wookiee companion Lowbacca, who had misguidedly gone to join the Diversity Alliance.
Finally getting to the bottom of a plot they had suspected all along, the Jedi trainees caught up with Raynar's father Bornan Thul to race the Diversity Alliance fleet to an Imperial storehouse hidden in the deep core. There was hidden a supply of deadly diseases created by General Evir Derricote almost two decades ago. Tarkona wished to unleash a plague against humans and wipe them all out, but was stopped by the Jedi and members of her own group, succumbing to one of the diseases herself on a faraway planet. Sadly, Bornan Thul died from one of the plagues right before his son's eyes.
As Jacen and Jaina were getting older and becoming more experienced Jedi, they went on a trip with their father, Han Solo, to Ord Mantell to watch a race, and ran into Czethros, a bounty hunter who hunted Han Solo. They were ambushed by Black Sun agents, but were helped by Anja Gallandro, a young woman who wielded a lightsaber but was not a Jedi. Although attracted to Tenel Ka, Jacen found a small infatuation growing for the older woman (this probably led to the ending of Jacen and Tenel Ka's relationship). Anja had blamed Han Solo for killing her father, but Solo denied it because her father died in a trap while finding treasure.
When Lando Calrissian invited the twins and their friends to Cloud City, they discovered Czethros was a leader of Black Sun, and was attempting to gain power over places of interest that could hopefully overcome the New Republic. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie were ambushed by several Black Sun mercenaries, and Jacen was almost killed.
On another adventure, Jaina attempted to help Kessel and capture Czetheros while Jacen rushed to help Anja with her spice addiction and help her with Black Sun. With help, Anja got rid of her addicition and accepted her father's real fate. Jacen thought Anja had Jedi potential, but it turned out she didn't, and his infatuation disappeared when Anja went to work for Lando.
Yuuzhan Vong War (25 ABY – 30 ABY)
Once their training at the Academy was more or less complete, Jacen finally began to have a separate life from his twin sister. While she became apprenticed to Mara Jade Skywalker, he was taken under the wing of his uncle. Jacen learned much from Luke, though they disagreed on many philosophical issues, but not quite as many as he did with his younger brother.
Anakin believed the Force, as not only as a tool, but a part of something greater. Telling his younger brother that the Force was more than a weapon to wield against a foe, Jacen believed the Force was a guide to find your place in destiny and was comparatively a pacifist.
When the Yuuzhan Vong attacked, Jacen believed that many Jedi were adopting too aggressive a stance. He abandoned his powers temporarily to contemplate the Force and butted heads with his father over the morality of 'pirate' attacks on Peace Brigade vessels. Only his love for his endangered mother brought Jacen back into the front lines of the battle with the extra-galactic invaders. Eventually, Han and Jacen made their peace with one another, the former declaring that while he didn't always understand his son, he never stopped being proud of him. Jacen still sought answers to put his mind at ease, and remained a deep thinker in matters of the Force and its use, but would use his abilities to defend the galaxy once more.
Jacen applied his more passive talents in the Force in a daring mission to Myrkr. A Jedi strike force, led by Anakin, was to infiltrate a Yuuzhan Vong cloning facility where the invaders crafted deadly Jedi-hunting beasts called Voxyn. The mission ended disastrously, starting with Anakin's death, in which Jaina reacted by touching the dark side of the Force. Forced into the leadership position, Jacen used the Force Meld to bind the team together into a cohesive fighting unit. After destroying the voxyn queen, Jacen was captured by the Yuuzhang Vong army under the command of Vergere and Nom Anor.
Jacen disappeared. His presence in the Force had seemingly vanished. Many in the New Republic considered him dead, even his sister. Vergere was able to strip Jacen's ability to use the Force, and this ripped away his connection with Jaina. Jedi and even untrained Force-sensitives throughout the galaxy could feel Jacen's presence die in the Force, and only his mother trusted that he was alive, somehow, somewhere.
Jacen awoke to find himself in the Embrace of Pain, a rack-like torture device favored by the Yuuzhan Vong. His captor puzzled him with queries and riddles as Jacen drowned in his agony and sorrow. Yet his inner strength of character staved off madness or total collapse as he learned to become sustained by pain. He remained under the care and tutelage of the avian Vergere, who he learned had once been a Jedi of the Old Republic, and who had even met his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker.
Jacen was put to work at the Nursery in a Yuuzahan Vong seedship. His natural empathy for living creatures forged a strong bond with the dhuryam, a sort of larval form of a World Brain. Using the implanted slave seed beneath his flesh as a conduit, Jacen was able to communicate with the living instruments of Yuuzhan Vong technology. He used this connection to stage a daring escape from captivity, commanding Yuuzhan Vong amphistaffs to surround him like living armor. The dhuryam, protective of Jacen, aided his efforts of escape, but Vergere foiled his larger plans to destroy the seedship and all aboard.
Jacen and Vergere fled to Coruscant. The city planet's entire surface was undergoing a radical transformation. Yuuzhan Vong organic growths covered the once gleaming metropolis, remaking the planet into a Yuuzhan Vong paradise. The world was to be their new capital, a recreation of the planet that had spawned them, Yuuzhan'tar.
Vergere removed the slave seed from Jacen, but he found he could still sense the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen was later surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong warriors that Vergere had led to him. Feeling deep hate for her for betraying him, taking the Force from him, torturing him, and being betrayed again by her, he channeled the hate into force lightning and used the dark side of the Force. Soon after running away, Vergere found him in his destroyed home and gave him back full use of the Force. Immediatly afterward, he was once again surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong captors, he surrendered and agreed to join their cause. He became the "khattazz al'Yun," or Avatar of God. Nom Anor intended to use Jacen to sacrifice his twin sister, Jaina, thus fulfilling an ancient Yuuzhan Vong prophecy.
But young Solo's true allegiance was his own. During a test of Jacen's faith, the Yuuzhan Vong ordered Solo to sacrifice a captured Jedi, Ganner Rhysode. Instead, the two Jedi turned against their captors. As Ganner valiantly held off the Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen confronted the World Brain controlling the transformation of Coruscant. The World Brain remembered the bond that Jacen had forged earlier, and Jacen suggested to it to work against the Yuuzhan Vong.
Ganner perished that day, though Jacen escaped with Vergere. He returned to the dwindling New Republic territories, haggard, thin and hardened. He was given a much needed vacation, but returned to frontline combat aboard the cruiser Ralroost. His ability to start the Jedi Meld was a large asset to Admiral Kre'fey and Jacen joined the Alliance Fleet with elements of Garm Bel Iblis's fleet in a large-scale deception at Ebaq 9. The battle was a victory, but resulted in the death of his latest mentor, and finally friend, Vergere. Her spectral form would, however, appear to him soon after.
As the newly formed Galactic Alliance emerged, Jacen accompanied his uncle Luke Skywalker into the Unknown Regions to seek a solution to the Yuuzhan Vong menace. Jacen would be instrumental in the search for Zonama Sekot and in the efforts to convince the living planet to join the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen killed Supreme Overlord Onimi, who had been using Shimrra as a puppet, in a spectacular confrontation where he became one with the Force without dying. After the grueling final confrontation and the war's end, Jacen told Luke that he had decided to travel the galaxy to learn more about the Force, possibly studying with other Force-users like the Aing-Tii Monks, Witches of Dathomir and the Jensaarai.
Dark Nest Crisis (35 ABY – 36 ABY)
Template:Spoiler After spending much time with different Force-based societies and religions around the galaxy in an attempt to find answers to his questions about the Force, Jacen felt an urge through the Force and followed his sister to the Unknown Regions to help the insectiod Killik against an invading Chiss force. He returned to Republic space after his parents, uncle and aunt came to retrieve Jacen, Jaina and the other Jedi that had been called to the Unknown Regions. He then travelled to the Hapes Cluster to ask his old friend and love interest Tenel Ka to assist with the Chiss/Killik conflict, believing that the fleet could act as a buffer between the Killiks/Chiss. Buying them time to come up with a better solution in the process. She obliged and sent a fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons to protect the Killiks. However Raynar admitted to Jacen's twin Jaina that Jacen had grown more powerful then even he or the Killik collective mind could control, so it is doubtful that Jacen was under any kind of mind control when he made the request. One of the many abilities he has learned from his time spent with other Force-based societies, is the "flow walk" ability which allows him to manipulate time and the destinies of people both past and future. Something that has caused great awe and concern among the Jedi Masters who believe that the power to control destiny is too dangerous for anyone to wield. It was during this time when Tenel Ka gave birth to his daughter Allana, who was then attacked by the Gorog. Jacen successfully repelled the attack and kept his daughter safe, for now. Possessed with a strong fear of his daughter or Tenel Ka being harmed, Jacen uses the Force to send Tenel Ka's grandmother (the person behind the attack) into a comotose state, frying her brain. Immediately after, he sees a vision of a neverending war that will destroy the galaxy, with the Killiks at the heart of it. Determined to save his daughter and the galaxy from his vision, he sets out to provoke the Chiss into destroying the Killiks. But by provoking a war, it appeared to some as though he has helped his vision to come true. Also Jacen later revealed that he never knew who started the war in his vision, supporting the theory that Jacen began the never-ending war.
Jacen's rationale for the preemptive strike was to keep the Chiss forces from starting a war on their own terms; and it succeeded to a point. His actions prevented a genocidal attempt by the Chiss to wipe out the Killiks. He was able to disrupt their ability to fully develop and deploy the biogenic weapon against the Killiks. But, despite young Solo's efforts, the war eventually did spread to the Galactic Alliance when Killik forces tried to dominate the Alliance's insectoid species. Under Jacen's advice however, the Jedi managed to prevent all of the strikes except one attack which targeted the Alliance's bacta supplies.
Luke Skywalker came to respect Jacen almost as much as a senior master, much to the dismay of Jacen's peers. He took his advice so many times that he even listened when Jacen told him that he was not ready to face Lomi Plo, the Dark Queen of the Gorog. Jacen felt that Luke's doubts and fears would make Lomi Plo invisible to him. Jacen helped Luke conquer some of his doubts about his mother's death and then accompanied him to face Lomi Plo.
During the fight with Lomi Plo, Jacen's concern was realized when Luke faltered for a moment and allowed doubt to enter his mind. This enabled Lomi Plo to hold him in place unable to move. In that instant, Jacen was critically wounded by Lomi Plo while saving Mara Skywalker's life. A well placed shot from Mara blasted Lomi Plo away, after which Mara tended to Jacen's wounds. While he and Mara recovered in a medical bay Jacen taught Luke not to run away from his pain and fear, but to accept and embrace it. It was through this knowledge that Luke was eventually able to eliminate his doubt and defeat the Dark Queen.
Jacen Solo's actions have provoked a belief among the fan community that he is following the path of his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Both of them were gifted with premonitions (Anakin—the death of his wife Padmé, Jacen—a galactic war), and both of them actively sought to prevent those premonitions from coming to pass. Jacen also seems to fear the loss of his daughter and Tenel Ka as much, or more, than Anakin feared losing Padmé. It should also be noted that when seeing holovideos of Anakin and Padme (in events which took place in Revenge of the Sith), Jacen actually sympathize with Anakin's desire to protect his wife, but disagreed with the manner in which he handled the situation. In the end though, Jacen was left wondering what caused Anakin to succumb to the dark side. It remains to be seen whether or not he will repeat Anakin's mistakes in the Legacy of the Force series.
See also
External links
- Star Wars Wiki | Jacen Solo
- Official Star Wars databank entry
- Viridity: A Jacen Solo fanlisting and fansite