Monday, March 30, 2009

Dr Haggis' Mad Collection

Yes, the Flickr user Drhaggis has such an awesome flickr stream that he warrants a title! What am I talking about? Well, it appears way back in 1982, Mad Magazine managed to predict quite a number of prequel plot points. Go here and view it!

Beyond that, I have still been busy, and lack even those nice little list of Geekery which amuse me so.

That said, there is a thread on TheForce.Net's Literature forum which seems instinctively a good fit for this blog: Anakin Solo will return... prepare for the Inevitable (theory based on LOTF Inferno regarding FOTJ).

Now, I've waxed eloquent a number of times in this blog on the ways, whys, and hows that the youngest Solo child should return. While I've not spoken at length at the reason for my belief that he should, it is not necessary a need to have a favored character return from fictional death, so much as it is the fact that by killing him Del Rey broke the monomyth.

The Monomyth is the literary structure upon which all of Star Wars was built. It has been used as a framework for the expansion of the universe through novels since the beginning. Yet Del Rey broke it with Anakin's death in the middle of the NJO.

Basically, they removed the HERO from the fantasy franchise that is Star Wars, and when they attempted to replace him with a lesser character, the only reasonable action to result from that replacement was a rather quick descent to the Dark Side and an ignoble death.

The Monomyth is broken, and in the process they have tainted every other character to the point where the HERO mantle does not fall naturally and fluidly upon their shoulders. Everyone else lacks both a Solo's humanity and a Skywalker's power--the two traits which Anakin Solo held.

But even that is not the most startling bit out of said thread. No, what got me the most was the fact that Vergere's death was probably faked.

First, let's look at a bit of novel excerpts:


"Vergere!" the subaltern cried, his voice ringing high above the sound of the grutchyna bringing down stone.

Tsavong Lah swung at the subaltern. "What of her?" Impatiently. "Isn't she coming?"

"She comes! But she isn't slowing down!"


The A-wing that Vergere stole from Ralroosts fighter bays impacted Ebaq 9's main shaft head traveling at thirty-five thousand kilometers per hour. The starfighter's weapons had been scavenged for use elsewhere, but weapons were scarcely necessary. The impact vaporized the heavy girders and machinery at the shaft head, and the starfighter's power plant and the two huge Novaldex engines turned into a fast-moving ball of plasma that swept the length of Ebaq 9's central shaft and blew out the other side, a brilliant volcanic eruption that blinded any holocams that happened to be turned in that direction.
Then

He turned to her. "You did this, didn't you?"
Vergere's whiskers twitched with distaste. "It was necessary that you be liberated from your choices."

Jacen sighed. "My choices weren't very good, were they?"

"You chose with your heart. And you achieved your object, did you not? Your sister lives." She looked at him solemnly. "And I achieved my object as well. You are free to pursue your destiny."

Truth struck Jacen. He looked at Vergere in shock.

"I just realized," he said. "You're dead, aren't you?"
and Finally,

Jaina's excited presence interrupted. Jacen? He's here?

Yes. Jacen's presence in the meld was calm. With Vergere. She's saved us.

Vergere, thought Luke. His reaction was strong enough to send his complex feelings into the Force-meld, and he felt the others react. Luke quickly dampened his contact with the meld. There were secrets he didn't want all Jedi to
know.

Was Vergere with the Yuuzhan Vong? The complex idea took some time for Luke to formulate. If the answer to his
question was yes, the Yuuzhan Vong knew of the Alpha Red weapon and this whole victory might be pointless.

No. Vergere's astringent personality flowed into the meld from wherever she had been concealing herself, and spoke with extraordinary clarity. I have been hiding among the New Republic forces. I stole a fighter and dived it into the moon to destroy the enemy.

Luke absorbed the implications of this. You gave your life to save the others.

Vergere's response was the answer she had given all along. It was necessary.
Look closely, at no point in the narrative are we shown that she is actually IN said A-Wing fighter. Additionally, if she is dead, then she is showing Force-ghost abilities which a prequel-era "Jedi" should not have. And finally, in light of LotF's revelation that she was a Sith, we also have to give her the Force Phantom ability which allows a Sith to create phantoms which can act/react with the environment--meaning that she could have created something to pilot the A-Wing for her.

In Summary:
  1. We only know that Vergere STOLE the A-Wing. Not that she actually flew it.
  2. She was doing that Force-projection thing Lumiya liked to do AFTER her death in a fiery ball of flames and hard radiation.
  3. She said that she stole it, and drove it into the moon--but that does not necessarily MEAN that she was still IN it to do so
  4. She projected herself into the MELD post-dive-bombing.
Thus, we get that Vergere is still out there alive and well somewhere in GFFA-land. My guess, in the same spot that she transported Anakin Solo too post the Vong War.


Well, that's enough rambling for a Monday Morning.

2 comments:

bschuster said...

Why o why wont del ray hire you on their creative team. Someone needs to talk some sence into them and bring back our true hero: Anakin Solo.

Stephen Wrighton said...

bschuster: Aye. Killing off Anakin Solo was a miserable thing to do, and I think it's backfired a bit on them personally

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