Jacen Solo

"Jacen" redirects here. For the son of Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus fromStar Wars RebelsandAhsoka,seeJacen Syndulla.

Jacen Solo Darth Caedus
Star Warscharacter
Jacen Solo as Darth Caedus
First appearance	Heir to the Empire(novel, 1991) -in utero The Last Command(novel, 1993) - born
Last appearance	Fate of the Jedi: - Apocalypse(novel, 2012)
Created by	Timothy Zahn
In-universe information
Alias	Jace Yun-Shuno Najack Ell
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Title	Darth Caedus JCOS-2(Joint Chief of State 2)
Occupation	JediKnight Dark Lord of the Sith Chief of Stateof theGalactic Alliance Head of theGalactic Alliance Guard
Affiliation	New Jedi Order New Republic Galactic Alliance Lumiya's Sith Galactic Alliance Guard
Family	Han Solo(father) Leia Organa Solo(mother) Jaina Solo(twin sister) Anakin Solo(brother, deceased)
Significantothers	Tenel Ka Djo Anja Gallandro(brief love interest) Danni Quee Tahiri Veila(implied in theFate of the Jediseries)
Children	Allana Solo(with Tenel Ka Djo)
Relatives	Luke Skywalker(maternal uncle) Mara Jade Skywalker(maternal aunt, deceased) Ben Skywalker(maternal first cousin) Darth Vader(maternal grandfather, deceased) Padmé Amidala(maternal grandmother, deceased) Shmi Skywalker(maternal great-grandmother, deceased) Jonash Solo(paternal grandfather) Jaina Solo I(paternal grandmother) Thrackan Sal-Solo(paternal first cousin once removed, deceased)
Homeworld	Coruscant

Jacen Solois a fictional character in literature based on theStar Warsfilm series, set in what is now designated as the original-canonStar Wars Legendscontinuity. The son ofHan SoloandLeia Organa Solo,as well as the nephew ofLuke Skywalker,he is a major character in several novels, particularly theNew Jedi Orderseries. He becomes the antagonist of theLegacy of the Forceseries under the nameDarth Caedus.Jacen's other familial connections of note to his native continuity include being the brother ofJaina SoloandAnakin Soloas well as the cousin ofBen Skywalker.

Jacen has been noted as an influence forKylo Ren,the canonical son of Han and Leia and villain of theStar Warssequel trilogy,andJacen Syndulla,the canonical son ofKanan JarrusandHera Syndullafrom theepilogueseries finaleofStar Wars Rebels,later portrayed by Evan Whitten inAhsoka.

Fictional history

Childhood

Jacen Solo was created for theThrawntrilogyof novels byTimothy Zahn,set about five years afterReturn of the Jedi.He is introduced as one of an unnamed pair of twins Leia is pregnant with in the first installment of the trilogy, the 1991 novelHeir to the Empire.In the third installment, the 1993 novelThe Last Command,he is born five minutes after his sisterJainaonCoruscant.The twins, and eventually their younger brotherAnakin,were sent to live at various safe havens, under the protection of Leia's handmaiden,Winter.

InJedi Search,the twins returned to Coruscant at age three and had many adventures there. Once, they became lost in the underworld of Imperial City withC-3PO,but they were quickly rescued and returned to their mother, theChief of Stateof theNew Republic.

InThe Crystal Star,all three children were abducted, together with many other children withForceabilities, by Hethrir. Hethrir tried tobrainwashthem into becomingDark Jediin order to bring about the rebirth of theGalactic Empire,but the children defeated their captor.

Jedi Academy years

In theYoung Jedi Knightsseries, Jacen travels toYavin 4with his sister to begin his Jedi training. Jacen discovers a strong connection to the Living Force — the concentration on the present moment — and can communicate with and calm many of the jungle creatures near the Academy. He even keeps a small menagerie of animals in his room in the GreatMassassiTemple. He and his sister befriend theWookieeLowbacca(nicknamed Lowie by his friends) and the warrior princessTenel Ka.

InHeirs of the ForceandShadow Academy,Jacen and Jaina discover a crashedTIE fighterfrom the Battle of Yavin. Jaina installs a hyperdrive in the downed starfighter and begins fi xing it to fly again. Jacen, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka help her to practice their Force skills until all are held captive by the TIE's original pilot, Qorl, who had been living in the jungle for two decades. They eventually escape, but so does Qorl, leaving the jungle moon behind and searching for any remnants of theGalactic Empire.Qorl discovers the Shadow Academy, a training ground for Dark Jedi commanded by one of Luke Skywalker's fallen students,Brakiss,along with the remains of theDathomiriNightsisters.These elements of the so-called Second Imperium kidnap Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca, but they resist the dark side and are rescued by Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka.

The friends return to Coruscant for a short vacation, and are reunited with the twins' childhood friendZekk.They are forced to fight Jacen and Jaina several times, and the twins and their friends finally progress far enough to be tasked with building their first lightsabers. Jacen uses a corusca gem he had gained earlier for his focusing crystal.

Jacen's hard-learned lesson hits home once again inLightsabers,when Tenel Ka rushes to complete her lightsaber to keep up with her friends. She uses an imperfect crystal and her blade shorts out in a sparring match with Jacen. His lightsaber passes through thin air where her weapon had been seconds before and severs the young woman's arm. Though she bears him no ill will for the accident, Jacen is wracked with guilt.

InDarkest Knight,the twins and Tenel Ka go toKashyyykwith Lowbacca to witness his sister's adulthood rites. InJedi Under Siege,the Jedi trainees and the Shadow Academy have their final confrontation onYavin 4.The twins, with help from Luke and Zekk, bring down the Shadow Academy and the Second Imperium forever.

Throughout the series, Jacen and Jaina continue their training atYavin 4,meeting new friends likeRaynar Thul.They cannot convince Zekk to stay at the Academy with them, but Jacen and Jaina remain friends with him. With his and Raynar's help, they discover a threat to the New Republic: the Diversity Alliance, an alien, anti-human group. The Alliance is building up massive support among peoples that had been oppressed by the Empire. They are led by aTwi'lekNolaa Tarkona, the sister ofOola,who was murdered byJabba the HuttinReturn of the Jedi.

InJedi Bounty,Jacen, Jaina, and their friends are briefly held captive onRylothand have to escape to its harsh surface. They have gone there in an attempt to rescue Lowbacca, who had misguidedly joined the anti-human Diversity Alliance. In the following book,The Emperor's Plague,they get to the bottom of a plot they had suspected all along, and catch up with Raynar's father, Bornan Thul, to race the Diversity Alliance fleet to an Imperial storehouse hidden in the deep core. There is hidden a supply of deadly diseases created byGeneral Evir Derricotealmost two decades before. Tarkona wishes to unleash aplagueagainst humans and wipe them all out, but the Jedi and Alliance dissidents defeat her. She succumbs to one of the diseases herself on a faraway planet. Bornan Thul dies from one of the plagues right before his son's eyes.

InReturn to Ord Mantell,they go on a trip with their father to the titular planet to watch a race. There, they run into Czethros, a bounty hunter who once hunted Han. They are ambushed byBlack Sunagents, but are helped by Anja Gallandro, a young woman who wields a lightsaber, though she is not a Jedi. Although attracted to Tenel Ka, Jacen becomes infatuated with the older woman. Anja had blamed Han Solo for killing her father, but Solo reveals that her father died in a trap while finding treasure.

InTrouble on Cloud City,they discover Czethros is a minor leader of Black Sun, and is trying to gather enough power to overcome theNew Republic.Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca are ambushed by several Black Sunmercenaries,and Jacen is almost killed.

InCrisis at Crystal Reef,Jaina attempts to helpKesseland capture Czetheros while Jacen rushes to help Anja with her spice addiction and help her with Black Sun. With help, Anja beats her addiction and accepts her father's death. Jacen thinks Anja has Jedi potential, but it turns out she didn't. He gets over his infatuation with Anja when she goes to work for Lando.

Yuuzhan Vong War

In theNew Jedi Orderseries, Luke takes Jacen as his Jedi apprentice. Jacen learns much from Luke, though they disagree on many philosophical issues. Jacen believes in the Force not only as a tool, but as part of something greater. He tells his brother Anakin that the Force is a guide to find one's place indestiny.

When theYuuzhan Vongattack the New Republic inDark Tide: Onslaught,Jacen comes to believe that many Jedi are handling the threat too aggressively. He abandons his powers temporarily to contemplate the Force and butts heads with his father over the morality of 'pirate' attacks on Peace Brigade vessels. Only his love for his mother brings Jacen back into the front lines of the battle. Eventually, Han and Jacen make their peace, the former declaring that while he doesn't always understand his son, he is proud of him.

InStar by StarJacen joins a daring mission toMyrkr.A Jedi strike force, led by Anakin, is to infiltrate a Yuuzhan Vongcloningfacility where the invaders craft deadly Jedi-hunting beasts calledVoxyn.The mission is a disaster, ending with Anakin's death, in which Jaina reacts by touching the dark side of the Force. Forced into the leadership position, Jacen uses theForce Meldto bind the team together into a cohesive fighting unit. After destroying the voxyn queen, Jacen is captured by the Yuuzhan Vong army under the command ofVergereandNom Anor.Jacen disappears, along with his presence in the Force.

InTraitor,Jacen awakes to find himself in the Embrace of Pain, a rack-liketorturedevice favored by the Yuuzhan Vong. The torture nearly breaks Jacen's spirit, until he learns to use the pain he suffers to sustain himself. He remains under the care and tutelage of the avian Vergere, who he learns had once been a Jedi of theOld Republic,and who had even met his grandfather,Anakin Skywalker. He is put to work on Yuuzhan Vong ship, where he uses a number of herbs to heal slaves and get his captors to trust him. Using the implanted slave seed beneath his flesh as a conduit, Jacen communicates with the living instruments of Yuuzhan Vong technology. He uses this connection to stage a daring escape from captivity, commanding Yuuzhan Vongamphistaffsto surround him like living armor.

Jacen and Vergere flee to Coruscant. The planet's entire surface is undergoing a radical transformation. Yuuzhan Vong organic growths cover the once gleamingmetropolis,remaking the planet into a Yuuzhan Vong paradise. The world is to be their new capital, a recreation of the planet that had spawned them, Yuuzhan'tar.

Vergere removes theslaveseed from Jacen, but he can still sense the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen is later surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong warriors whom Vergere had led to him. Wanting revenge, Jacen channels his hatred for Vergere into Force lightning; he is frightened by this connection to the dark side, however, and runs away. Vergere finds him in his destroyed home and gives him back full use of the Force. He is once again surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong captors; left with no choice, he surrenders and agrees to join their cause. He becomes the "khattazz al'Yun," or Avatar of God. Nom Anor intends to use Jacen to sacrifice Jaina, thus fulfilling an ancient Yuuzhan Vongprophecy.

Jacen's true allegiance is his own, however. During a test of Jacen's faith, the Yuuzhan Vong orders him to sacrifice captured JediGanner Rhysode.Instead, the two Jedi turn against their captors. As Ganner holds off the Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen confronts the World Brain. The malevolent entity remembers the bond that Jacen had forged earlier, and Jacen suggests to it to work against the Yuuzhan Vong.

Ganner dies that day, though Jacen escapes with Vergere. He returns to the dwindling New Republic territories a different man: haggard, thin and hardened. He goes on a much needed vacation, but returns to frontline combat aboard the cruiserRalroost.His ability to start the Jedi Meld is a large asset toAdmiral Kre'fey,and Jacen joined the Alliance Fleet with elements ofGarm Bel Iblis's forces in a large-scale deception atEbaq 9.The battle ends in a victory, but results in Vergere's death. Her spectral form appears to him soon after.

As the newly formed Galactic Alliance emerged, Jacen accompanied his uncle Luke Skywalker into theUnknown Regionsto seek a solution to the Yuuzhan Vong menace. Jacen would be instrumental in the search forZonama Sekotand in the efforts to convince the living planet to join the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen kills Supreme OverlordOnimi,who had been usingSupreme Overlord Shimrraas a puppet, in a spectacular confrontation where the Force uses Jacen as a conduit to defeat Onimi, considering that Jacen was almost killed with just one hit by Shimrra himself, and in that moment Jacen started believing that he is beyond good and evil, marking the beginning of his fall. After the grueling final confrontation and the war's end, Jacen tells Luke that he had decided to travel the galaxy to learn more about the Force. While on his five-year journey Jacen enters a realm of the Force known as beyond shadows, thanks to his training with a sect called the Mind Walkers. In this realm Jacen gazes into the Pool of Knowledge that holds the Throne of Balance, (where in all future events are shown) Jacen sees a dark man ruling the Galaxy and becomes determined to prevent this evil future. Following this experience, Jacen begins his descent to the dark side of the Force.

Dark Nest Crisis

InDark Nest,Jacen feels an urge through the Force and follows his sister to theUnknown Regionsto help the insectoid Killik against an invadingChissforce. He returns to Republic space after his parents, resulting in his uncle and aunt to come for him, Jaina, and the other Jedi. He then travels to the Hapes Cluster to ask Tenel Ka to assist with the Chiss/Killik conflict, believing that the fleet could act as a buffer between the two armies. She obliges and sends a fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons to protect the Killiks.

InThe Unseen Queen,Tenel Ka gives birth to his daughter,Allana,who is then attacked by theGorog.Jacen successfully repels the attack and keeps his daughter safe. 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 acoma.Immediately afterward, 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. Jacen later reveals that he never knew who started the war in his vision.

InThe Swarm War,Luke Skywalker takes his nephew's advice so many times that he even listens when Jacen tells him that he is not ready to faceLomi Plo,the Dark Queen of the Gorog. Jacen, Mara and Luke know that doubt and fear would make Lomi Plo invisible to her enemy. Jacen, along withR2-D2,helps Luke conquer some of his fears about Mara's involvement with the death of his mother, and then accompanies him to face Plo.

During the fight with Plo, Luke falters for a moment when Mara is injured, and doubt enters his mind. Plo then holds him in place, unable to move. In that instant, Jacen is critically wounded by Plo while saving Mara Skywalker's life. A well-placed shot from Mara injures Plo, after which Mara tends to Jacen's wounds. While he and Mara recover, Jacen beseeches Luke to embrace his darker emotions. Luke refuses and goes back to the true Jedi way, defeating the Dark Queen and Raynar Thul without using the dark side.

In the latter novel, Jacen joins his uncle in watching holovideos of his grandparents,Anakin SkywalkerandPadmé Amidala;in particular, he sees Anakin fall to the dark side and Padmé die inchildbirthpartly as a result of Anakin's treachery. (These scenes are first portrayed inStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith). Jacen actually sympathizes with Anakin's desire to protect his wife, and reminds Luke that Anakin was a fallible human being.

Legacy of the Force

InBetrayal,Jacen starts training his young cousinBenin the ways of the Force. After a successful mission to Adumar that ends in a life-threatening attack, they return for a dinner party at his parents' new home. There, Han voices his concern overCorelliatrying to gain independence. Luke orders Jacen and Ben to disable the Centerpoint Station, an ancient artifact that Corellian leader (and Han's cousin)Thrackan Sal-Solois trying to use to his advantage. Ben disables the station while Jacen keeps Thrackan busy, ensuring the Galactic Alliance's partial victory as another fleet built in secret spoils the main attack.

While travelling to a subterranean base, Ben and Nelani, a Jedi Knight, are forced out of a mining car. Their guide, Brisha Syo creates a dark side phantom of Luke Skywalker, who attacks and very nearly kills Jacen. Eventually, Brisha stops the projections and takes Jacen to an office, where Darth Vectivus, the supposed Sith Lord they are hunting, lives. After fighting Force projections with Ben, Nelani catches up with them. Brisha is revealed to beLumiya,theDark Lady of the Sith.She reveals that Vergere is a Sith apprentice, and that Jacen has already received Sith training. Lumiya says that Jacen is going to become the next Sith Lord. Unsure of his next move, Jacen uses the Force to create visions of the future. In each vision in which Lumiya is arrested, the galaxy is consumed in an endless war that eventually places Jacen against Luke. In the vision, Jacen kills his uncle.

Horrified, Jacen spares Lumiya. Nelani then tries to arrest the Sith, but Jacen intervenes. Jacen realizes that Nelani will, if allowed to survive, possibly fulfill the dark vision he had seen. He then fights and kills her, asking her forgiveness before striking the fatal blow. He agrees to consider what Lumiya had said and leaves theasteroidwith an unconscious Ben. Jacen then erases Ben's memories of Lumiya and tells him that both she and Nelani had been killed by dark side phantoms. They return toCoruscant;however, after Jacen departs, Lumiya says that she had won.

InBloodlines,fully pledged to Lumiya, Jacen becomes head of the GFFA's newly formedsecret police,the Galactic Alliance Guard. With Ben at his side, he begins rounding up Corellians forinternmentanddeportation.During an interrogation of a suspected assassin (who turns out to beAilyn Vel,Boba Fett's daughter), Jacen tries to use the Force to extract information from her and kills her accidentally in the process.

InTempest,Jacen also takes command of Rogue Squadron while it participates in the blockade of Corellia. He shoots down a civilian freighter that was attempting to run the blockade, and had fired on him, then relieves his sister from duty because she had refused to do it. He also uses theAnakin Soloto fire upon theMillennium Falcon,while both his sister and his parents are on board. He believes his parents to have been involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Tenel Ka; the Solos had in fact been set up by Dur Gejjen, Prime Minister of Corellia.

InSacrifice,Lumiya says she is pleased by his progress, but instructs him that to truly become a Sith he would have to undergo the Trial of Sacrifice: to kill that which he loves most. Doing this, he believes, would allow him to use the powers of the Sith without becoming evil and would "immortalize his love" for his sacrifice. Jacen decides there is only one way to fulfill this last obstacle: he would have to kill Tenel Ka and their daughter Allana. Nevertheless, after Ben tells Mara that he overheard Jacen communicating with Lumiya, Mara tracks Jacen down in the Hapes Consortium. After a long and heated battle, Jacen kills Mara Jade; the sacrifice necessary to becoming a Sith Lord is not Jacen's love, but Ben's. Ben suspects Jacen almost immediately, upon meeting Jacen at his mother's body. Eventually, Jacen chooses theSith nameDarth Caedus.

ByFury,Darth Caedus is the principal antagonist of the series, and the declared enemy of nearly every other major character: His parents and sister have disowned him, Luke is sworn to redeem him, and Ben is driven to seek justice for his mother. In the novel, Caedus kidnaps Allana so Tenel Ka and the Hapans won't decide to leave the government, but Han, Leia, Luke, Jaina, Ben, and their allies save Allana. After saving Allana, Leia tells Caedus to become a Jedi again, but he refuses. Han and Leia later find out Allana is Caedus and Tenel Ka's child. At the end, Jaina plans to have training from Boba Fett to help her face off against Caedus, despite her parents once being foes with Fett.

InRevelation,Caedus takes on a new apprentice, Tahiri Veila to replace Ben and turns to the task of ending the war. He entices the Imperial Remnant to join him in an attack on the planetFondor.AlthoughAdmiral Niathalwants to offer the planet the chance to surrender, Caedus is determined to make an example of Fondor by crippling the shipyards and its planetary government. After previously sharing military secrets, which leads to hundreds of deaths and compromises the battle plan at Fondor, Niathal arranges a cease-fire without consulting Caedus. Enraged at thistreason,Caedus orders the fleet to ignore Niathal's orders and bombard the major cities. Niathal orders all ships loyal to her to attack theAnakin Solo.Two-thirds of the fleet side with Caedus, while the rest ally themselves with Niathal. When the Imperial Remnant refuses to assist Caedus, his new apprentice assassinatesImperial Head of StateGilad Pellaeonand turns control over to the Moffs who then come to aid Jacen. A mysterious fleet led byAdmiral Daala,loyal to Pellaeon, appears, accompanied by one hundredMandalorianmercenaries and together, owing to Daala's experimental weapons, they send the Galactic Alliance Fleet into retreat.

Caedus then takes control ofCoruscantand claims sole control of the Galactic Alliance.

InInvincible,Jaina takes it upon herself to defeat her brother. Caedus's meditations are disrupted by Luke Skywalker, in an attempt to hide Jaina's attack. Jaina, accompanied by severalMandaloriancommandos, confronts Caedus, who quickly dispatches the Mandalorians, while Jaina acts as a sniper. When she finally runs out of ammunition, she seizes a Mandalorian saber and severs Caedus' arm. Jaina withdraws, however, due to her own injuries. After escaping an attack led by Luke Skywalker on the bridge of theAnakin Solo,Caedus sees a vision of his daughter Allana on a white throne in a time of peace. This vision convinces Caedus that he has won — he would bring peace to the galaxy, and prevent his visions of war and suffering from coming true.

At the book'sclimax,Caedus and Jaina face off in a final lightsaber duel aboard Caedus' flagship, theAnakin Solo.In the midst of the duel, Caedus comes back to the light and attempts to persuade Jaina of his intentions to protect Tenel Ka and Allana. Jaina refuses to listen, however, and attacks him after he deactivates and holsters his lightsaber. She later slams the door shut in his face when he tries to leave the fight. After a grueling battle in which both are seriously injured, Jacen is defeated when Jaina severs hisAchilles tendonand stabs him in theheart.As he dies, Jacen reaches out to both his former lover and his child through the Force, warning them to flee from an approachingbio-warfareattack designed by the Imperial Remnant to kill them. In this act of selflessness, Jaina sees the remnants of the good man her brother had once been. Following Caedus's death and the war's end, the Galactic Alliance emerges victorious over the Confederation and peace is restored to the galaxy, just as Jacen had foreseen through a vision in the Force.

Fate of the Jedi

Though Jacen makes few true appearances in theFate of the Jedi,which follows theLegacy of the Forceseries, his legacy is felt throughout the series, as Luke Skywalker is arrested fornegligence of dutyand is sentenced to a ten-yearexile,in which alongside his son Ben, he tries to ascertain the circumstances of how and why Jacen turned to the dark side.

Jacen's spirit makes its first appearance inAbyss,wherein he warns Luke and Ben aboutAbeloth,the main antagonist of the series.

Then, in the final novelApocalypse,Jacen's spirit (along with Mara's) provides aid to Luke as he partners withDarth Kraytin the final battle against Abeloth. Following Abeloth's destruction, Jacen reveals that Krayt was the dark figure he saw in his vision of the future and the source of his downfall; he saw his daughter Allana standing next to Krayt. In response, Krayt insists that while Caedus's actions simply delayed the Sith, and they are eventually going to succeed in their planned takeover of the galaxy.

In aiding the Jedi against Abeloth, Jacen posthumously redeems himself; however, he still refers to his fate asdamnation.While Luke does not forgive his nephew for his complicity in Mara's death, he does receive an understanding of what led Jacen to that point.

Star Wars: Legacy

The second volume of theLegacycomic series, set about 140 years afterReturn of the Jedi,features Jacen's descendant Ania Solo as the protagonist. In general, the descendants of Jacen, Jaina and Ben are main characters in this era, set when and after Darth Krayt takes over the galaxy. Although they themselves do not appear in person as spirits, older characters like Luke and Mara do.

Reception

IGNlisted Jacen as #17 on their list of the top 100Star Warsheroes, saying that he had a more "profound effect" than any of the other Solo children on theStar Warssetting.Jesse Schedeen, writing for IGN, also listed Darth Caedus as #5 in a reader-inspired list of topStar Warsvillains, and called his "defining moment of villainy" his murder ofMara Jade.UGOlisted Jacen as their topStar Warsexpanded universe character, calling him "one of the most fearsome - and most tragic - villains in theStar Warsuniverse ".

Legacy

With the sequel filmStar Wars: The Force Awakensin production, in April 2014 most of the licensedStar Warsnovels and comics produced since the 1977 filmStar Warswere declared non-canon to the franchise.Theepilogueof "Family Reunion – and Farewell",theseries finaleofStar Wars Rebels,introduced a character namedJacen Syndullaby series creatorDave Filoniin honor of Jacen Solo.

See also

• Solo family
• Kylo Ren

External links

• Darth CaedusonWookieepedia,aStar Warswiki