Anakin Solo
Anakin Solo (10 ABY - 27 ABY) was a fictional character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the youngest child born to Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, who had elder twin siblings, Jaina, and Jacen. He had "dark good looks" (Balance Point), dark brown hair and the traditional Skywalker blue eyes. Anakin is named for his maternal grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, and, like his namesake, was a talented pilot who was prodigiously talented both in the Force and mechanical engineering.
History
Childhood
The resurrected Emperor Palpatine touched the unborn Anakin Solo through Leia's womb, in a failed attempt to steal the infant's body for himself. Originally, he was to be named Han Solo Jr., but his parents decided to name him after his grandfather.
Anakin was born on Nespis VIII about a year and a half after his siblings, Jaina and Jacen. Like his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, he was incredibly strong in the Force, especially for a child so young. However, Anakin felt that he had inherited not only his grandfather's name, but also Vader's dark legacy. As a child he often had nightmares of Darth Vader and a very strong fear of the dark side. By the time he was three, Anakin's gifts had become obvious to his uncle, Luke Skywalker. By the time he was seven, he had demonstrated a remarkable ability to make anything mechanical work, regardless of whether he understood the device's purpose or its components.
His siblings, Jacen and Jaina, had discovered his abilities, and used them to bypass locks and security cameras. They even tried once to have Anakin create a working droid from various scrap components. Unfortunately, the primary motivator Jacen found was faulty, and the droid blew up. Anakin figured prominently in the discovery and activation of some of the ancient Corellian planetary repulsors during the reign of Thrackan Sal-Solo on Corellia. He continued to show great aptitude with the Force, and when his siblings returned from their initial studies on Yavin IV, Anakin was allowed to go to start his Jedi training.
Jedi Academy Years
Anakin was eleven at the time he arrived on Yavin IV. He then immediately befriends Tahiri Veila, a girl two years his junior who was recently discovered by Luke Skywalker on her home planet of Tatooine. Together, they discovered the Golden Globe beneath the Palace of the Woolamander and the existence of the ancient Jedi Master Ikrit, who had told them that the thousands of souls were imprisoned within could only be released by Force-sensitive children.
After that, Anakin and Tahiri traveled to Yavin 8 at the request of their Melodie friend, Lyric. There, they accompanied her whilst she went through the Changing Ceremony, in which Lyric would change forms. Anakin fought and killed their ambushers, which included an avril, a reel, several raiths and a purella. During this, the duo found a matching ancient carving on the wall of a cave that informed them that in 3,997 BBY, Lord Exar Kun trapped countless number of Massassi children with his Sith magic. It also said that the magic could by penetrated by Force-sensitive children.
Tahiri's foster father, Sliven, the leader of the Tusken clan, demanded that she return to Tatooine, where she would decide her fate after six months of her stay at the Academy: whether she would train as a Jedi or return to her tribe. There, Sliven told Tahiri of her true heritage. Her parents were Force-sensitive moisture farmers named Tryst and Cassa Veila, who were accidentally killed by the Tribe, who went looking for the missing Sliven. In reality, he was in care of her parents and after they were killed, Sliven took Tahiri under his wing, who had to strike a deal with the Tribe so that she could stay. When Tahiri was of age, she would undergo a test to prove herself and Sliven as a leader. Anakin came along with Tahiri during her test, which also turned out to test their Force abilities—surviving the harshest deserts of the Dune Sea and battling a Krayt dragon. The duo returned to Yavin IV and freed the souls.
Later, Anakin was plagued by dreams of the Emperor and Darth Vader telling him that he was destined to become a Dark Jedi. Worried, Anakin requested that he travel to Dagobah and face himself in the same cave Luke Skywalker had done so years ago. He was accompanied by Tahiri and Ikrit—and to their surprise, a stowaway named Uldir Lochett, who thought himself to have Force potential, but really only had an ability to sense when the Force was being used. The four faced swamp creatures and both Tahiri and Anakin went inside the cave seperately and emerged victorious.
Back at Yavin IV, Tionne Solusar, the Jedi historian, found that Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber was saved by Darth Vader. With Anakin, Tahiri, Uldir and Ikrit, Tionne went to Vader's fortress at Bast Castle on Vjun to retrieve it, only to have Orloc, a self-claimed "mage" after it as well. Orloc, after capturing Uldir, manipulated the youth by claiming that he had great powers and therefore would grant him Jedi powers. When his companions rescued him and escaped with the lightsaber and the Jedi Holocron, Uldir stole the artifacts and went back to Orloc.
His companions chased him to Exis Station, in which Orloc had demonostrated his powers to Uldir. In reality, they were only technological tricks that could only be performed in Orloc's base, Exis Station. Uldir, seeing his friends battle Orloc with true Force powers, joiined them and defeated the mage. Anakin and his companions returned to the Jedi Praxeum with both artifacts safely in their possession.
Anakin graduated from his Junior Jedi Class and returned to Coruscant, where he attended school, developed his piloting skills, and studied under the careful tutelage of C-3PO. Following the attack by the Shadow Academy in 23 ABY, he returned to Yavin IV and helped rebuild the Great Temple by viewing its rubble as a huge puzzle to be solved.
When he turned fourteen, Anakin graduated from the Academy and became apprentices along with other students like Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, Lowbacca and Zekk. Together with his brother Jacen, Anakin trained directly with Luke, just as Luke began moving the new Jedi Knights back to the pre-Empire format of teaching.
The Yuuzhan Vong War
It was when Luke started training both Anakin and his brother that Anakin grew stronger and became more respected among the Jedi.
Both Jacen and Anakin had different ideas on what the future of the Jedi should be. The two brothers often clashed, claiming their intense lightsaber duels were simply training.
Anakin agreed with Luke, that the formation of a new Jedi Council would help bring the vigilantes under control. Jacen believed more in the spiritual aspects of the Force, while Anakin held to the physical uses of the Force as well as the Living Force, which, according to Lucas, has to do with a Jedi's sensitivity to living things, intuition and living for the moment[1]. Both brothers had the Living Force, but towards the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Jacen had more so to do with the Unifying Force, which deals with fulfilling destiny, and less with the Living Force later. Anakin's relationship with the people, as well as his way of acting on instinct and concentrating on the present, caused him to thrive on the Living Force (perhaps a bit too much). His love and compassion for them and his strong and stubborn unwillingness to sacrifice others, spurred even more so by the guilt that he couldn't save the people who'd sacrificed in his stead, was what would cause his death in the future.
Anakin was at the forefront of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, present at Sernpidal, the first planet lost to the Vong. Fifteen-year old Anakin was forced to fly the Millennium Falcon and flee. The freighter was taking on as many refugees as possible before Sernpidal's moon could crash into its surface. Anakin kept the Falcon grounded as long as he could, soaring away from the cataclysm at the last possible instant. This decision resulted in the death of Chewbacca, who was unable to board the Falcon in time. The death of the beloved Wookiee forever changed the dynamics of the Solo family. Han blamed Anakin, and it was many months before the two were reconciled. Anakin also blamed himself, and further threw himself into his beliefs despite his brother Jacen's protests. Because of his losses, Anakin pushed himself harder and harder against the invading enemy forces, trying to live up to Chewbacca's sacrifice while keeping other loved ones from slipping away. The Jedi had to take a proactive stance against the Yuuzhan Vong, Anakin believed, or more and more people would die.
Anakin began developing Jedi tactics that could be used against the Yuuzhan Vong. He rediscovered a lost Force skill, Battle Meditation, and refined it into a technique known as Force Meld which was used to coordinate Jedi in battle, namely in spaceflight. He also designed the prototype for the Yuuzhan Vong Hunter Droids (YVH) manufactured by Lando Calrissian. Anakin doggedly protected a terminally ill Mara Jade Skywalker on Dantooine and fought with other Jedi at Ithor. Word of his accomplishments travelled across the galaxy, and citizens of the New Republic regarded him as a galactic hero, the freshest face of the Jedi Order and somebody who might one day take his uncle's place as the most powerful Jedi.
Archaeologists and engineers at Centerpoint Station had been trying to reactivate the superweapon, but discovered that the Station had attuned itself to Anakin's fingerprints, brainwaves, and DNA. It wouldn't activate without him. The New Republic hoped to use this massive station to wipe out the Yuuzhan Vong fleet, but Jacen convinced Anakin that using the Station in such a way would be tantamount to turning to the dark side. Frustrated with Anakin's recalcitrance, Thracken Sal-Solo fired the weapon himself—and missed, destroying much of the allied Hapan fleet. Knowing that he would have had precise aim had he been at the controls, Anakin blamed both Jacen and himself for the friendly casualties.
When the Yuuzhan Vong bore down on Yavin IV and the New Republic refused to send aid, Anakin impetuously ran off to the system in an attempt to save the students studying there. In the ensuing battle, Anakin's childhood mentor Master Ikrit was killed and his friend Tahiri captured. Anakin found an unlikely ally in Vua Rapuung, a Yuuzhan Vong outcast, who helped him infiltrate the enemy encampment and rescue Tahiri. Anakin's lightsaber was damaged in the rescue attempt and he had to rebuild it using a Yuuzhan Vong lambent. He attuned his lightsaber to himself and discovered a way to sense the Vong through the Force. Anakin was the first Jedi after Vergere to have sensed the Yuuzhan Vong thus. He called it the "Vongsense". This name was later adopted by Jacen Solo.
The Yuuzhan Vong had performed numerous experiments on Tahiri during her captivity. Anakin helped her recover from the ordeal and the two of them fell in love. Meanwhile, rumors of their exploits on Yavin IV ran rampant through the working class "shamed ones" of the Yuuzhan Vong, who soon began to see Jedi as their salvation.
When the Yuuzhan Vong bioengineered Jedi-hunting creatures called Voxyn, Anakin's mermaid friend Lyric was among the first to fall. Anakin led a strike team into the Myrkr system; its mission was to destroy the cloning facility where the creatures were being bred. But things went wrong from the beginning when Ulaha Kore, one of the strike team tacticians, was gravely injured. Jaina cracked when Ulaha was further subjected to torture. The Yuuzhan Vong torturer decided to pick on her and force her to choose between her brother or her twin.
"They're both my brothers," Jaina protested, but Anakin told her to to select him as the next victim. The Yuuzhan Vong tortured him, but he didn't react. He bought the strike team enough time to take over the ship they were on, but his decisions were again criticized by Jacen.
During another skirmish aboard the Banu Rass, Anakin impulsively ran to his sister's rescue and was stabbed in the gut. The wound ruptured his spleen. Even as his spleen was leaking away, Anakin refused to drop into a Force trance- his mission objective was more important to him than his own well being. His connection to the Force remained strong, and he gathered energy around him like a magnet. Anakin became a glowing extension of the Force itself and he achieved complete oneness with the Force, a state that was achieved only by Anakin Skywalker and Ganner Rhysode. Being almost invincible, he cut down Yuuzhan Vong in order to get his friends closer to the voxyn queen. An interesting thing to note is that at that moment, he could sense the Yuuzhan Vong through the Force as well as he could the other Jedi. This matter still remains a mystery as to why he could suddenly sense the Yuuzhan Vong with such clarity. A theory is that the Force supernova that consumed his body eventually was able to further Anakin's perception and allow him to see the full spectrum of the Force, including the Vongsense. However, the intense energy quickly consumed him as it escaped through his mortal wound (being mortally wounded meant that Anakin could not sustain and keep the Force energy within him as it consumed a vessel too weakened to hold it), and Anakin died shortly after ensuring that Tahiri was safe. Anakin gave his life destroying the voxyn cloning samples. His death was transmitted through the Force and his family and fellow Jedi Knights were devastated by it.
His death forced Jacen into a leadership position, pushed his sister Jaina to the dark side, and launched Tahiri into the throes of despair. His sister rashly attacked a Yuuzhan Vong mortuary and recovered his body. She flew his body to Hapes, where the entire family gathered for a funeral. After a memorial ceremony, the fallen hero was cremated by Luke Skywalker.
Anakin's lightsaber was to have a bigger role in determining the fate of the Yuuzhan Vong. Nom Anor gave it to Jacen, in hopes that he could convert him to their religion, which failed. Ganner Rhysode, who'd come to rescue him, died after killing many Yuuzhan Vong with Anakin's lightsaber. The last time his lightsaber would be used was during the duel between Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane and Luke in the Battle of Coruscant; starting out in the hands of Shimrra and ending with Luke, who cut off the Overlord's head. When the war ended, Han Solo, as a way of tribute, placed the lightsaber in the tree stump, in front of a carving of Chewbacca on Kashyyyk like a 'sword in the stone'.
Dead or Alive?
Theories abound, arguing that Anakin is still alive. But since a body universally identified as Anakin's was burned and his death was felt through the Force, it's highly unlikely that he is alive in the conventional sense of the word. Jacen did catch three glimpses of Anakin's ghost while prisoner on Coruscant (though Jacen was cut off from the Force and nearing a mental breakdown at the time, so this could be suspect), and Tahiri still has nightmares about him.
Many a prophecy about Anakin has gone unfulfilled because of his death, including Luke's vision of Anakin and his siblings leading the Jedi Order in Dark Empire II. Jedi Master Ikrit also prophesized that there would be something great born in Anakin and Tahiri, which seems to have been abruptly cut short, too.
Also of note is a boy named Tarc (originally Daq Hantaq), whose face was modified by corrupt senator Viqi Shesh to look like young Anakin. He will presumably grow out of the plastic surgery, and currently travels with famous documentarian Wolam Tser.
See also
External links
- Star Wars Wiki | Anakin Solo
- Star Wars Databank entry
- No Krakana - An Anakin Solo fansite and fanlisting
References
- Star Wars: The essential guide to characters, 1st edition, 1995. Andy Mangels. ISBN 0-345-39535-2
- Dark Empire II, Issue #6, 1st edition, 1995 (trade paperback). Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy, ISBN 1-56971-119-4
- Star Wars: Ambush at Corellia, 1st paperback printing, 1995. Roger Macbride Allen, ISBN 0-553-29803-8
- Star Wars, The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime, 1st edition, 1999. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42845-5
- Star Wars, The New Jedi Order: Balance Point, 1st edition, 2000. Kathy Tyers, ISBN 0-345-42857-9
- Star Wars, The New Jedi Order: Edge of Victory 1: Conquest, 1st paperback printing, ISBN 0-345-42864-1
- Star Wars, The New Jedi Order: Star by Star, 1st hardcover edition, 2002. Troy Denning, ISBN 0-345-42867-6