#voxyn

[thisiseditsandstuff]

NEW JEDI ORDER: STAR BY STAR — Mission to Myrkr

#anakin solo #jacen solo #jaina solo #lowbacca #star wars #Star Wars EU #Star Wars Expanded Universe #star wars legends #new jedi order #star by star #myrkr #also technically #alema rar #is also in this #voxyn

[checkoutmybookshelf]

My Favorite Star Wars Book Ever

At this point, my deep and abiding love of the Star Wars EU Legends Continuity Books is no secret, and I have apparently pissed off a few people who were fans of Kenobi (the book, not the the show). Them's the breaks in the fandom that is helmed by Anakin *bring the goddamn drama or get off my stage* Skywalker. (Please realize that that is said lovingly; I am HERE for Solo/Skywalker legacy shenanagins.) And speaking of legacy shenanagins, the fact that this book is the culmination of arcs for so many characters that we have literally been able to watch grow up and survive many adventures as the Yuuzhan Vong threaten to annihilate the galaxy is what makes it my unequivocal, hands-down, ride-or-die favorite Star Wars book. Let's talk Star By Star.

*Spoilers abound below the break*

So, like many Star Wars books, the plot of Star By Star is pretty darn straightforward: The Mission to Myrkr to kill the Voxyn Queen and it's immediate aftermath, interlaced with the fall of Coruscant to the Yuuzhan Vong. (For anyone who needs a refresher or an explanation, let me direct you to the one, the only, the wonderful Wookieepedia.)

What makes this book absolutely fucking AMAZING is a combination of the character work and worldbuilding, much of which comes to a glorious head in this book--as well it should, this is very much the turning point of the Yuuzhan Vong war. It also launches a solid half dozen long-ranging new arcs for characters that I just adore.

Normally I do my best to have coherent, organized thoughts about books, but at this point what I really want to do is just a big, messy, disorganized list of stuff I love about this book. So, in the immortal words of Captain Han Solo: Punch it!

The whole concept of the voxyn and the voxyn queen. Let's be real, predators bioengineered to hunt down and murder the crap out of jedi with their ability to sense force-users, sonic blast roars, acid saliva, retrovirous-laden paw pads, and a poisoned tail barb. These things are horrifying and genuinely felt like a threat to the jedi, which honestly got kinda hard to do sometimes in the EU. The big "they're all cloned from a single queen" is a wee bit video game weak spot/boss fight, but honestly I'm not complaining given the sheer grind that this mission becomes.

The Jedi Strike Team Dynamics. This TEAM you guys. This team is an absolute disaster from start to finish. Not only do you have all three Solo kids with their sibling fuckery dynamics--specifically Jacen and Anakin's crippling fundamental disagreement on force use ethics that ultimately is a rehash of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's debate about the living vs. unifying force but in an apocalyptic combat zone--but almost every member of this team is potentially a disaster. You have Tenel Ka, Tahiri Veila, and Zekk on the team, who are collective love interests for the Solo siblings, and I'm pretty sure that sending siblings and couples on life-and-death missions is not a good idea because instincts and motivations get all sorts of fucky and tangled. Then you have Alema Rar, whose sister gets acid-in-the-faced-to-death by a voxyn in chapter 1 of this book, which is just a disaster waiting to happen. Then you have the friendship dynamics with Raynar Thul, Lowbacca, and Tesar Sebatyne, which arguably carries over some of the young jedi knights dynamics that never got solved. This team was a TIME BOMB, and frankly the fact that they managed to pull this mission off is a miracle.

The Battle/Force/Jedi Meld. So, not only do we have a team full of hideously complicated and unstable relationships, but they spend the entire goddamn mission in a meld that basically lets them all be in each other's thoughts and feelings and share extreme physical sensations, including pain. Which like...The Vong are major pain fans, so this might have been a poor life choice. Plus, it sets up some of the complicated stuff with Raynar and Jaina and Zekk in the Killick War later. *weird telepathic forearm rubbing* That said, I love the idea of the battle meld, and it really is just a great ride to watch this shred the team.

The Yuuzhan Vong Worldbuilding. Literally the worldbuilding for the Vong in this whole series is A+ horrifying and fascinating. We just get a lot of it here, and it's used to excellent effect.

Anakin's Death. Ok, so this was fucking heartbreaking, and it might seem like a weird thing to put on a list of things I love about this book. But what makes this death just an incredible read is the quality of the writing, the impact on the mission, and the fact that this death sets Jacen on the path to becoming a Sith Lord, pushes Tahiri into becoming the badass she grows into, fundamentally changes how we think about the unifying and living force, and honestly adds some stakes because if the Solo kids aren't safe, then literally ANYONE could die here. This death is so critical and changed so much and was done with respect and weight.

Borsk Fey'lya's Death. We don't love this Bothan. He's kind of a dick. But uh...I will give him credit for buying time for people to get off-planet during the fall of Coruscant, and for blowing 25,000 Vong to hell along with him.

Lando Calrissian Being the Only Adult in the Room With Eyes. Lando delivers the strike team to the Vong, but before he does, he starts a fight. Lando Calrissian HAS EYES IN HIS HEAD and can clearly see the lines along which the strike team is destined to fissure. He tries so hard to get them to air it out before the mission and to clear the air. It doesn't work, but he TRIED, and that's more than Luke or Han did. I guess that's what happens when you're a farmboy who has never had to lead a pre-fractured team and a gruff loner who did everything himself. Lando though...Lando understands that even Jedi have fracture points and conflict points. Give this man more credit.

I think that more or less covers the things that I love about this book. If you love the EU Legends Continuity, I strongly recommend this whole series. There are more good and great books than there aren't, and the Yuuzhan Vong are such great antagonists.

#star wars #star wars eu books #star by star #the new jedi order #troy denning #yuuzhan vong #han solo #luke skywalker #princess leia #jaina solo #jacen solo #anakin solo #voxyn #the myrkr mission #star wars books #books and novels #books and reading

[lusilly]

Actually. Star By Star is THE most emotionally destructive book I’ve ever read. Even Song of Achilles wasn’t as bad as Star By Star cuz SBS NEVER LETS UP

#it’s one horrible child death after another #it’s anakin well aware that he’s dying and just ignoring it #and the utter TERROR of the voxyn queen #lucy liveblogs the solo kids #IM SO MAD I HAVE 6 ASSIGNMENTS DUE TUESDAY BUT I WANT TO REREAD NJO

[magnetarbeam]

"Only Jaina, whose feelings Jacen could always sense through their bond as twins, seemed calm. Whatever came, warning or no warning, voxyn or not, they would handle it - or not. They had cast their fates to the Force, and now they had no choice but to trust where it carried them. It was a strange sort of composure born of battle and death and suffering, the grim serenity of the soldier, who was both maker and victim of the all-devouring cataclysm."

-The New Jedi Order: Star by Star

#star wars legends #new jedi order #jaina solo #beautiful quote

[tenelkadjo]

I’ve been trying to sort folders full of old random stuff (images, photos, graphics, stories -- all kinds of crap) and I came across some Really Old SWEU-related stuff I made. Here’s what each thing is and some notes about them.

INSERT PHILOSOPHICAL SHIT HERE -- 2008

Some friends and I made playlists that were musicals for EU characters and I did one for Jacen and it was just called HEY. This was one of the images for the main post I made about it. There was one for each song.

I wonder if I can find the other ones because I remember in one of them Jacen had a mullet.

This shit was ridiculous and I really miss all the people I did this ridiculous stuff with. ;D

THE SARLACC -- really early... near prequels?

My sister and I were like LET’S PUT CHARACTERS IN THE SARLACC.

I can’t remember what the site was gonna be but we had a ball in MS Paint.

LOOK AFTER YOUR BROTHER -- a Death Troopers fanmix -- 2009

This was an unfinished front & back cover for the mix I never finished.

THAT BOOK WAS A TRIP AND I EFFING LOVED IT.

god kale and trig were so good and precious

VARIOUS NEW JEDI ORDER FANARTS LOLOL -- mid-2000′s????

The Jedi Strike Team because of course.

A totally accurate depiction of a voxyn.

Shimrra and Onimi. :)

#SWEU #New Jedi Order #Jacen Solo #Jaina Solo #Zekk #Tenel Ka Djo #Ganner Rhysode #Lowbacca #Death Troopers #Yuuzhan Vong #Star Wars: Expanded Universe #Star Wars: Legends #Alema Rar #Tesar Sebatyne #Tahiri Veila #Vergere

[corelliaxdreaming]

I remain convinced the voxyn are just mean dogs who need to be raised right.

#Katie reads Star Wars #Legends: njo: Star by star

[mystarwarslifedebt]

The New Jedi Order: Star By Star by Troy Denning Review

As ‘The New Jedi Order’ series reaches its mid-point, the Galaxy is in utter turmoil. A new weapon, the genetically engineered Voxyn, a Force Sensitive monster that hunts Jedi are being created and used by the Yuuzhan Vong to wipe out the Jedi. Anakin Skywalker leads a strike team into the heart of Vong territory to wipe out the Voxyn Queen and irradiate the threat. Meanwhile Tsavong Lah drives…

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[jenetranslations]

Welcome to the Star Inn (Youkoso, Hoshi no Oyado)

Subs are up! An old Kikuo song just got a new video. Lyrics and notes available on my wordpress.

This was a collaborative translation by the following official Kikuo fansubbers: JeNeTranslations, Voxyn, spicy sweets, Tackmyn, Ng Wen Juin, and chron :3

#kikuo #hatsune miku #lyrics translation #vocaloid #spooky #how do i get seen with tags is this a functioning website am i cool #Youtube

[visionhaunted]

— the aftermath of Myrkr

As previously discussed, Myrkr left 40% of the team dead and the rest scarred for life. No one, absolutely no one left this mission as the same person that they started it as. That very much includes Jacen. He lost both his humour and his love for animals on this mission and throughout the rest of the war, he lost his brother and in his opinion lost his twin sister too and eventually declared that he HIMSELF never fully returned from Myrkr.

The consequences of this mission already started to show the moment Anakin died. Jacen and Jaina, albeit still closely linked right after Anakin's death, start to drift apart very quickly as Jaina's anger and grief threaten to consume her:

Jacen could feel the guilt and anger tearing his sister apart, though her emotions were so intermingled with his own that he could barely distinguish them. They shared a void that would never again be whole, an emptiness that he sensed pulling at Jaina like a vacuum breach.

It gets so bad eventually that Jacen can't even be sure if she is dead or alive, marking the first ever break in their twin bond, HOURS before Vergere would cut them off from each other properly.

Jacen reached out to his sister and spent the next minute or so struggling to stay in contact with the dark emotions that now filled her.

She did not seem frightened, only angry and focused on the effort at hand. Then, as he sensed her efforts growing even more intense, her anger abruptly deepened to a level that Jacen could not bear, and he lost her.

"She's gone," he gasped.

"Dead?" Ganner asked.

"I don't know." Jacen looked up. "I didn't feel that. I just don't feel her at all."

This break also has lasting consequences as it contributes to the twins never properly finding BACK to each other once Jacen returns because they feel rejected by each other and are unable to reconnect with the twin bond basically in pieces. The Myrkr mission marked the beginning of the END of the twin bond and Jaina and Jacen's connectedness as a whole and it never returned to the level it had been at before the war.

What follows the Myrkr mission isn't any better. Jacen is captured by Vergere and handed over to the Vong where he endures months of torture and eventually loses his sense for pain, similar to how Tahiri lost hers during her time as a prisoner of the Vong. He loses much, much more in the aftermath of the Myrkr mission however. He misses the chance to come to terms with his brother's death, missing the funeral and not being granted any moment to ever truly PROCESS his brother's death. Jacen says he has made his peace with Anakin's death by the time he returns home but that is simply not true. He is haunted by his brother over a decade later, names his daughter in Anakin's honour, hides on a ship named after his brother, wonders if Anakin would understand him now that he has changed so much when everyone else does not. Anakin's death left Jacen in DENIAL of his grief for years as he tried to concentrate on doing what he had to, thinking about how Anakin gave him the responsibility to end the Myrkr mission while Vergere claimed to have handed him the tools to bring peace to the galaxy.

Myrkr changed Jacen, and for the worse. He carries a lot of trauma with him from Myrkr and refuses to truly admit and face most of it. The one thing he is very aware of is the LOSS of his love for animals. After being forced to use his gift for connecting with animals to force animals to kill and eventually to fight and kill the voxyn queen, Jacen never willingly interacted with animals again:

Once upon a time he’d been able to charm a sand panther into purring, had been able to coax the cub of any species into his hand. How long had it been since he’d done that? Since he’d wanted to do that?

Animals, evil animals, with their razory teeth and their hatred for Jedi…

Jacen himself is somewhat blind ( or better, ignorant ) of some of these changes, with people close to him having to point them out to him, like when Wedge had to point out Jacen had lost all humour after Myrkr, other changes though, he is very aware of. Jacen eventually drew the final conclusion for himself that he does not mind the changes, while his loved ones agree he changed for the worse.

And he could finally recognize that the boy he had been, the optimistic, joke-spinning, animal-loving, kidnap-prone Jedi boy, was dead, slain on the same mission that had claimed his brother, Anakin.

At last, understanding what had happened, Jacen did not miss his younger self.

#friendly reminder jacen was 18 when myrkr happened #(star by star says 19 but thats .... simply not true lmao it does not line up with the timeline) #sibling death tw #> HEADCANONS

[thisiseditsandstuff]

The realization of where she knew Allana from was like rising from a pool after too long underwater. Suddenly Leia could breathe again, could think again. Allana had Tenel Ka's coloration-the fair skin, red hair, gray eyes-but her face, her expressions, her lively intelligence, were so like his when he was a child, before Yuuzhan Vong and voxyn and Vergere and who-knows-what twisted all the happiness out of his life. 

— Legacy of the force: Fury

#tenel ka djo #jacen solo #allana solo #star wars #star wars legends #Legacy of the Force #legacy of the force: fury #tenel ka x jacen #idk what their ship tag is or if they even have one im just thinking about them and had to put this into SOMETHING

[checkoutmybookshelf]

*Star Wars Nerd Rant Incoming*

So...Can we maybe get a Jenna Zan Arbor/Yuuzhan Vong "Find and Destroy the Force" combined task force? Because I feel like if the Vong are big into fully murdering all Jedi, leveraging Zan Arbor's experiments plus vong bioengineering plus voxyn plus vornskyrs plus ysalimiri would do WONDERS for both the Vong invasion and Zan Arbor's research. Not to mention it would actually be a legit paradigm shift for Luke's new jedi order, because y'all never had to deal with vornskrs and ysalimiri when the empire was hunting your asses down.

At that point, you want to reach out to Mandalore for beskar and cortosis *at the very least* and maybe recreate some of the force research of the jedi order, because between the living and unifying forces, I'm betting there's a way to leverage the unifying force without the living force giving you away to either Zan Arbor or the vornskrs.

Ok, yes...I do just kind of want to watch Jenna Zan Arbor fight with Vong Shapers, because COME ON, that partnership would be horrifying but not seamless.

#star wars #star wars books #star wars eu books #new jedi order #jenna zan arbor #yuuzhan vong #vornskr #beskar #living force #unifying force #voxyn

[forcesung]

There was a thought circling around the periphery of his awareness. It was something Captain Lavint had sparked into existence, something Wedge had fanned into a live flame. But he couldn’t quite bring it into focus.

Well then, he needed to look more closely.

Captain Lavint thought Jacen used to be a hero. Clearly, if such things were measured by numbers of admirers, he was now a greater hero than he ever had been, and yet she thought he no longer constituted one. Why? Because he’d passed judgment on her? Perhaps. Maybe it was because the sentence he’d passed on her was one that would have broken his father’s heart, or the heart of any smuggler. Perhaps it was because he’d hurt her where she was most vulnerable. It wasn’t necessarily a heroic thing to do, he conceded, but it was fair. So let’s dismiss that for now.

Wedge thought the loss of his sense of humor meant that he’d become a fanatic of some sort. Whether it had or not, Jacen had to admit, it did mark a change in him.

Both Lavint and Wedge had addressed changes Jacen had experienced, and that recognition bothered him at some level.

For a moment, he tried to recapture a sense of what he had been as a teenager, before the war against the Yuuzhan Vong: gawky, happy, usually in the company of his twin sister, Jaina, and younger brother, Anakin, all too infrequently in the company of his parents…His sense of humor, always present, had usually manifested itself in the form of awful jokes learned in the four corners of the galaxy.

And then there were animals, Wedge’s “cubs in trees.” Once upon a time he’d been able to charm a sand panther into purring, had been able to coax the cub of any species into his hand. How long had it been since he’d done that? Since he’d wanted to do that?

Animals, evil animals, with their razory teeth and their hatred for Jedi…

He snapped out of the half doze into which he’d fallen, but didn’t sit up. There was an answer for him. At the height of the Yuuzhan Vong war, he, Jaina, Anakin, and an elite unit of young Jedi Knights had mounted a mission to an enemy world, there to destroy the voxyn—creatures bred by the Yuuzhan Vong, creatures that could sense the Force, creatures that had hunted and claimed the lives of numerous Jedi before this mission destroyed them.

But Anakin had been fatally wounded on this mission. Had died.

The children of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo had suddenly gone from three to two. Had suddenly stopped being invincible, invulnerable, immortal. Suddenly there was no room in his life, no room in his universe for humor.

And from that time on animals had all seemed to wear the faces of voxyn. They were no longer his friends.

Jacen had been captured, ending up in the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong. Ending up under the tutelage of Vergere, who was sometimes Jedi, sometimes Sith, sometimes neither. She had taught him much, including how to separate himself from pain or embrace it, how to survive when drowning within the Force or cut off from it, how to be human or Yuuzhan Vong or neither.

She had taught him to distance himself from everything, should he need to. And now, more than a decade after those events, after her death, he could see another reason why. Only separation offers perspective. All learning benefits from perspective. Therefore all learning benefits from separation.

—Legacy of the Force: Exile, Aaron Allston

#Legacy of the Force #legacy of the force exile #Aaron Allston #jacen solo #excerpt

[bornitereads]

Star by Star - Troy Denning

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order book 8

Reread: Nov 2023

Denning said this is one is going to have so much crazy shit in it. And he wasn't lying. New Jedi hunting beasts, voxyn, are on the scene and the young strong Jedi Knights go on a mission to Myrkr to kill the voxyn queen. It's a hard mission and many of them perish. Including Anakin Solo. RIP little Solo, we knew you so briefly. Meanwhile the invasion of Coruscant starts. Traitors try to kidnap Ben Skywalker, but fail thanks to his Uncle Han and Aunt Leia. Lots and lots of people die.

It's an very action packed and tense read, especially the voxyn mission parts. But the fall of Coruscant doesn't lack for action either. The war is going badly for the New Republic, very badly. In fact I would say that this is essentially the death blow for it. Oh sure it lingers for a couple books, but it's really over.

Info: Del Rey; 2001

#star by star #troy denning #star wars #the new jedi order #njo #fiction #science fiction #sci fi

[abloodlineunraveled]

Jacen's Verses

General Verses

A Long Time Ago - Jacen’s fifteen or sixteen with his whole life spread out in front of him but no idea what to do with it.  (No Vong unless specifically stated otherwise)

Death Doesn’t Discriminate - Jacen’s reaching adulthood in the midst of a war that could be the end of the galaxy as he knows it, fighting alongside his family and friends for survival and their way of life against an enemy like none he’d ever faced before. (Vong War Verse)

After the Storm - After the war things are slowly trying to return to normal, Coruscant is rebuilt and the Jedi try to find their footing.  Jacen is helping, as best he can, while still healing from his experiences during the war.

Awoken - TFA verse, Ben/Kylo Ren is Jacen’s older brother and Jacen has been active in the Resistance as a scout while hiding the training he had as a Jedi though he hadn’t yet reached the rank of Knight when Ben turned and the Academy was destroyed.  But upon feeling his father’s brush with death he’s returned to the Resistance base to be with his family while Han is in bacta and critical condition, reconnecting with his twin sister who left with their father all those years back.

Teen Rebel - Pre-Movies TFA verse; Han and Jaina have left, Anakin is presumed dead, and Jacen is growing up on a series of resistance bases with Leia.

Of Royalty - Leia stepped up as Queen of New Alderaan after the New Republic was up and running, with Han as her Consort.  Jaina is her heir and Jacen is about to step up as Senator for the New Alderaanian people.  Though all three children trained at their uncle’s academy under their father’s name to protect their identities only Anakin continued on to become a Jedi, as the twins felt their other duties necessitated them dropping out shortly before they would have been knighted.

Wanderer - Takes place during his post-Vong journey of self-discovery.  Jacen’s wandering the Outer Rim, searching for peace and trying to reconnect with the kind of Jedi he’d been before the war.

A Knight’s Tale - After returning from his years of wandering Jacen dedicates himself to the Order once again, traveling as needed to serve the people of the Alliance.  He remains a knight, turning down the offer of a promotion to Master as he doesn’t feel he’s ready for that title just yet.

Earth Born - Modern/Earth AU where Jacen is a wildlife photographer and zoology student, son of UN Ambassador Leia Organa, who attended a fancy international high school with his sister and friends as a teenager.

Muse-Specific Verses:

Tryptich - The Solo Twins are the Solo Triplets.  Jaina, Jacen, and Julian Solo are all on the Myrkr mission when Julian is lost in the destruction of the Voxyn Queen.

Lost and Found - Jacen disappeared in the Vong war and was never actually seen again, the Jacen Solo who returned and became Caedus was a clone created by Vergere so that she could hide the original at a secret home of hers in Wild Space.  Eventually he finds his way back, only to discover that his face is reviled and someone committed heinous crimes in his name

Knight Follows Queen - After the war Jacen spent a single night with the Queen Mother of Hapes, a culmination of the feelings they’d been forced to put on the back burner by circumstances, before leaving to try and figure out who he was to become in the aftermath of such a devastating conflict.  He essentially fell off the radar and completely out of contact with everyone he had known, thus never learning of the daughter he and Tenel Ka shared.  But when said daughter is kidnapped he senses Tenel Ka’s uncharacteristic rage and rushes back to discover what went wrong and how he can help.

Sideways - A freak hyperspace accident launches Jacen into a parallel world, one in which the local version of him was consumed by darkness and became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus.

Aldera - Fantasy AU!  Jacen has been sent to the courts of the Hapan Empire to gain their protection for the shattered remnants of the kingdom of Aldera.  The nobles back home hope he will marry the Empress, Tenel Ka, but he’s content to simply negotiate a protectorate status for his people.  Unless love so happens to bloom on its own.

#i've been out here too long alone;jacen #there's a place in time for me;jacen verses #jacenv;a long time ago #jacenv;death doesn't discriminate #jacenv;after the storm #jacenv;awoken #jacenv;teen rebel #jacenv;of royalty #jacenv;wanderer #jacenv;a knight's tale #jacenv;earth born #jacenv;tryptich #jacenv;lost and found #jacenv;knight follows queen #jacenv;sideways #jacenv;aldera

[corelliaxdreaming]

So Jedi aggression against the Vong, who are actively enslaving civilians, is wrong, but Jedi aggression against the voxyn, who are specifically targeting Jedi is fine.

I N T E R E S T I N G. 😐

#katie reads star wars #Legends: njo: Star by star

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

Was deep cleaning my study earlier and came across these voxyn sketches from years ago. The concept of eight-legged, waist-high lizards always intrigued me, and this is probably my favorite redition of them I've done

#stars draws #star wars legends #voxyn #concept art #sw legends fanart #star wars fanart