Analysis: Legends of a Fall (etc) by wyncatastrophe (3/3)
And, concluding this post and this one, part three.
(For the third I wanted a colour picture - I want each to get progressively more vivid, from sketch to full drawing to a portrait. This is ostensibly of Moiraine Damodred from The Wheel of Time, but the expression seemed to fit Ryn and the fashion reminded me of the PT.)
If the connection is granted - and there seems little reason to doubt it, apart from an aesthetic preference for the narrative elegance of an Orun who pines eternally for one man, Anakin Skywalker -
Again, I love the sort of snide tone. Though the emphasis on things like narrative and saga continue to strike me as odd for what seems to be a historian.
then it raises important questions about the Olin-Lands relationship and how significant Orun’s involvement with the Lands family may have been (or not) after his death; there are no allusions to correspondence between them outside of Skywalker’s materials.
The Skywalker Museum, opened in 200 ABY to great fanfare, quickly received an expansion - the Orun Annex, which was built at the request (and with the money) of Han Solo-Janren (great-great-grandson of the famous General Han Solo who participated in the Rebel Alliance and went on to marry Leia Organa)
This is - this may be my own, personal, pet peeve, but I find it odd that this descendant is identified as a descendant of Han, who was the same Han who married Leia, and not a descendant of Leia. That clearly the Organa name was lost, not passed on - which I just find - I have always found an odd choice. Given the circumstances, given Alderaan ... but this does seem to be more or less compliant with the EU, we've got the Yuuzhan Vong, various things - but yeah, it just seems an odd choice. Maybe it's because he had such a close name, that's why he draws the connection, he's saying, "yes, it is a descendant of that person with the same name" but it just seems odd, especially because, of the two of them, I think Leia would be a more historically significant figure.
less than thirty years later. The Orun Annex is notable not just for its name, or its impressive pedigree, but for the fact that it houses the most extensive collection of “heretical” artifacts anywhere in the Republic.
Okay, that's awesome.
This preoccupation undoubtedly reflects the fact that Skywalker’s holocrons frequently refer to Orun’s construction of herself as a “heretic” under the Old Jedi Code.
There is no evidence that Luke Skywalker cared one way or the other about Orun’s heretical tendencies;
Yeah, Mr "I can save him!" doesn't have a lot of room to talk there.
wild folktales aside, he was by all accounts a singularly unmanaging sort of Grandmaster,
Okay, now I want to know what the wild folktales are. But in this case, it seems perfectly credible that the scholar would not mention them, but would just allude to the existence of wild tales that people tell about his time as Grandmaster. And I prefer to think of this as a jab at the EU, just because ... I don't like it. And it is kind of wild in terms of canon.
and rarely took a stand on matters of doctrine, preferring instead to let “his” followers follow their instincts.
Odd juxtaposition of the same root word.
“They taught my father dogma,” he is reported to have said, “and look how that turned out.”
This seems oddly - I don't know; the content seems like something he would say, but the style seems a little odd for Luke. Kind of hard to pin why. I guess it's that I don't remember Luke ever having a dispassionate word to say about his father, ever. And this does sound, to me, very dispassionate. Again, now this may very well be something like twenty, thirty, forty, however many years after the event, and he's unlikely to still be quite as emotionally affected by it, but if on the other hand, this is fairly early on, I would definitely expect more bitterness, perhaps. But I know that my perception of Luke as not particularly calm or serene is itself rather heretical.
And the other thing is that I'm not sure it's ever addressed in the EU prpoer, but it seems that Vader is very definitely identified as Anakin Skywalker, there is no question about that, Luke has acknowledged him as his father quite early. This doesn't specify that Luke and Leia are siblings, but from other things, I got the impression that that's also widely known, and I just - I still find this odd. I'm not really sure that the Anakin Skywalker equals Darth Vader thing would be something - I mean, early on, Leia still has, politically she wants - her career would crash and burn. And there would be other fairly obvious concerns with acknowledging him anyway.
So this is probably not all that related to this in particular, but I've been kind of trying to think - when did that become an open ... thing to the point that it must have ben very widely known to be so easily known two hundreds years, afterwards given how many things didn't survive. But then one of the main sources is Luke's history, and I can't see him leaving it out.
In fact, no one in the family seems to have given much consideration to Orun’s anti-Jedi heresies, or indeed her unhappy history with the Jedi in general, until Jacen Solo
Okay, very very very EU.
decided to write his dissertation on non-Jedi philosophy, and realized that he had a ready-made informant in his grandfather’s perpetual ally.
His dissertation - it seems to imply that he was at some kind of university. Which gives me the impression that Luke's academy was much more of a university-type thing than a monastic order like the old Order, because I certainly can't imagine that Obi-Wan wrote a dissertation to achieve Knighthood. Though that would be awesome.
Whether he interviewed her personally is not clear - the existing accounts are fragmented, due largely to Solo’s own personal history -
Yeah, I was wondering, "does this Jacen fall?" This makes it sound like he did.
but it is certain that he began the collection which his sister Jaina’s great-grandson later bequeathed to Restoration University via the Orun Annex. The great treasure of that annex, consequently, is a poignant narrative of the Skywalker Saga
Again! ...It seems almost more how we would refer to it than people in the story would refer to it.
told strikingly from Orun’s perspective, reportedly written down by a young Darth Caedus (or, depending on whom you ask, a justly angry Jacen Solo whose reputation was severely damaged by malicious rumors that he had turned to the Dark Side).
Okay, I do like this in the sense that his fall is so ... stupid. And that it treats the EU as another document that can be variously interpreted. If one is going to incorporate the EU and try to make it work with canon in some way, I think that's certainly the best way to do it in. And also, this sort of implies that the records they have not just of the period right after the fall of the Empire but we're talking by the generation after Luke and Leia's and so on, the next generation's records are themselves still sparse. Which I suppose makes it more likely that any memoirs written by survivors of the old Republic and then the Empire and then the New Republic might not have survived. But to me it seems odd that there wouldn't be good records from that period; I can't see any reason why they'd have been destroyed, unlike the old Republic ones.
The text is notable not just for the narrative complexities that make it clearly a creative work of tribute rather than historicity, presenting the most humane of the early renderings of Orun’s “side” of the story, but for its explanation of the so-called Altisian heresies, with which both Ryn Orun and Anakin Skywalker evidently had some currency; whether mutually or independently is left unclear.
Again, I love the ambiguity.
The Skywalker Museum, though it accepts artifacts and occasionally presents exhibits related to any area of Galactic History, has for obvious reasons a special interest in the “Long” Imperial Era - the period extending from, roughly, the Trade Federation Blockade of Naboo (some scholars would push it forward ten years to the first battle of the Clone Wars) to the treaty with the Thrawn Empire, leading into the Yuuzhan Vong invasions. Included among the museum’s various collections are the following items of key importance to our story:
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber (retrieved from a vault on Imperial Center/Coruscant following its conquest by the infant New Republic)
-- Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan braid, meticulously preserved
-- Several holoimages of Anakin Skywalker bequeathed to the museum by Evinne Ardel
-- A variety of personal items belonging to participants in the saga, largely important because in some cases their existence underscores the veracity of particular episodes in the saga
The particular word choice there is episode, which is a bit amusing, but continues to seem an unlikely word choice for a historian. I definitely like the value of the physical evidence, I think that's very accurate, and I also think it's interesting that - not regarding the Imperial Era as the actual time of the Empire that spans the actual six movies, but extends well beyond that. Because of my own personal objection to the warwarwarwar and, oh, more war that we get in the EU I'm not personally thrilled with it but I do like it as a sort of academic approach that seems likely to be made.
The Skywalker Museum is currently maintained under the auspices of Chief Curator Rhiel Arganadron; the Orun Annex is managed separately but in congruence by Managing Curator Antil Zharaya Leh. Both of these beings contribute immeasurably to the value of their collections. There is a sense of personal reality one gets from holding Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber, or feeling the silk of Padmé Amidala’s dressing-gown, that one cannot get from reading their history, no matter how well-articulated.
And we get more poetry from our scholar again. This is really a very interesting person.
But the best feature of the Skywalker Museum and its annex may be the readiness of the resident curators to tell stories to the curious - vividly, meaningfully, and with the deep sense of rootedness that comes from handling the daily objects of the lives of heroes.
Click to view(For the third I wanted a colour picture - I want each to get progressively more vivid, from sketch to full drawing to a portrait. This is ostensibly of Moiraine Damodred from The Wheel of Time, but the expression seemed to fit Ryn and the fashion reminded me of the PT.)
If the connection is granted - and there seems little reason to doubt it, apart from an aesthetic preference for the narrative elegance of an Orun who pines eternally for one man, Anakin Skywalker -
Again, I love the sort of snide tone. Though the emphasis on things like narrative and saga continue to strike me as odd for what seems to be a historian.
then it raises important questions about the Olin-Lands relationship and how significant Orun’s involvement with the Lands family may have been (or not) after his death; there are no allusions to correspondence between them outside of Skywalker’s materials.
The Skywalker Museum, opened in 200 ABY to great fanfare, quickly received an expansion - the Orun Annex, which was built at the request (and with the money) of Han Solo-Janren (great-great-grandson of the famous General Han Solo who participated in the Rebel Alliance and went on to marry Leia Organa)
This is - this may be my own, personal, pet peeve, but I find it odd that this descendant is identified as a descendant of Han, who was the same Han who married Leia, and not a descendant of Leia. That clearly the Organa name was lost, not passed on - which I just find - I have always found an odd choice. Given the circumstances, given Alderaan ... but this does seem to be more or less compliant with the EU, we've got the Yuuzhan Vong, various things - but yeah, it just seems an odd choice. Maybe it's because he had such a close name, that's why he draws the connection, he's saying, "yes, it is a descendant of that person with the same name" but it just seems odd, especially because, of the two of them, I think Leia would be a more historically significant figure.
less than thirty years later. The Orun Annex is notable not just for its name, or its impressive pedigree, but for the fact that it houses the most extensive collection of “heretical” artifacts anywhere in the Republic.
Okay, that's awesome.
This preoccupation undoubtedly reflects the fact that Skywalker’s holocrons frequently refer to Orun’s construction of herself as a “heretic” under the Old Jedi Code.
There is no evidence that Luke Skywalker cared one way or the other about Orun’s heretical tendencies;
Yeah, Mr "I can save him!" doesn't have a lot of room to talk there.
wild folktales aside, he was by all accounts a singularly unmanaging sort of Grandmaster,
Okay, now I want to know what the wild folktales are. But in this case, it seems perfectly credible that the scholar would not mention them, but would just allude to the existence of wild tales that people tell about his time as Grandmaster. And I prefer to think of this as a jab at the EU, just because ... I don't like it. And it is kind of wild in terms of canon.
and rarely took a stand on matters of doctrine, preferring instead to let “his” followers follow their instincts.
Odd juxtaposition of the same root word.
“They taught my father dogma,” he is reported to have said, “and look how that turned out.”
This seems oddly - I don't know; the content seems like something he would say, but the style seems a little odd for Luke. Kind of hard to pin why. I guess it's that I don't remember Luke ever having a dispassionate word to say about his father, ever. And this does sound, to me, very dispassionate. Again, now this may very well be something like twenty, thirty, forty, however many years after the event, and he's unlikely to still be quite as emotionally affected by it, but if on the other hand, this is fairly early on, I would definitely expect more bitterness, perhaps. But I know that my perception of Luke as not particularly calm or serene is itself rather heretical.
And the other thing is that I'm not sure it's ever addressed in the EU prpoer, but it seems that Vader is very definitely identified as Anakin Skywalker, there is no question about that, Luke has acknowledged him as his father quite early. This doesn't specify that Luke and Leia are siblings, but from other things, I got the impression that that's also widely known, and I just - I still find this odd. I'm not really sure that the Anakin Skywalker equals Darth Vader thing would be something - I mean, early on, Leia still has, politically she wants - her career would crash and burn. And there would be other fairly obvious concerns with acknowledging him anyway.
So this is probably not all that related to this in particular, but I've been kind of trying to think - when did that become an open ... thing to the point that it must have ben very widely known to be so easily known two hundreds years, afterwards given how many things didn't survive. But then one of the main sources is Luke's history, and I can't see him leaving it out.
In fact, no one in the family seems to have given much consideration to Orun’s anti-Jedi heresies, or indeed her unhappy history with the Jedi in general, until Jacen Solo
Okay, very very very EU.
decided to write his dissertation on non-Jedi philosophy, and realized that he had a ready-made informant in his grandfather’s perpetual ally.
His dissertation - it seems to imply that he was at some kind of university. Which gives me the impression that Luke's academy was much more of a university-type thing than a monastic order like the old Order, because I certainly can't imagine that Obi-Wan wrote a dissertation to achieve Knighthood. Though that would be awesome.
Whether he interviewed her personally is not clear - the existing accounts are fragmented, due largely to Solo’s own personal history -
Yeah, I was wondering, "does this Jacen fall?" This makes it sound like he did.
but it is certain that he began the collection which his sister Jaina’s great-grandson later bequeathed to Restoration University via the Orun Annex. The great treasure of that annex, consequently, is a poignant narrative of the Skywalker Saga
Again! ...It seems almost more how we would refer to it than people in the story would refer to it.
told strikingly from Orun’s perspective, reportedly written down by a young Darth Caedus (or, depending on whom you ask, a justly angry Jacen Solo whose reputation was severely damaged by malicious rumors that he had turned to the Dark Side).
Okay, I do like this in the sense that his fall is so ... stupid. And that it treats the EU as another document that can be variously interpreted. If one is going to incorporate the EU and try to make it work with canon in some way, I think that's certainly the best way to do it in. And also, this sort of implies that the records they have not just of the period right after the fall of the Empire but we're talking by the generation after Luke and Leia's and so on, the next generation's records are themselves still sparse. Which I suppose makes it more likely that any memoirs written by survivors of the old Republic and then the Empire and then the New Republic might not have survived. But to me it seems odd that there wouldn't be good records from that period; I can't see any reason why they'd have been destroyed, unlike the old Republic ones.
The text is notable not just for the narrative complexities that make it clearly a creative work of tribute rather than historicity, presenting the most humane of the early renderings of Orun’s “side” of the story, but for its explanation of the so-called Altisian heresies, with which both Ryn Orun and Anakin Skywalker evidently had some currency; whether mutually or independently is left unclear.
Again, I love the ambiguity.
The Skywalker Museum, though it accepts artifacts and occasionally presents exhibits related to any area of Galactic History, has for obvious reasons a special interest in the “Long” Imperial Era - the period extending from, roughly, the Trade Federation Blockade of Naboo (some scholars would push it forward ten years to the first battle of the Clone Wars) to the treaty with the Thrawn Empire, leading into the Yuuzhan Vong invasions. Included among the museum’s various collections are the following items of key importance to our story:
-- Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber (retrieved from a vault on Imperial Center/Coruscant following its conquest by the infant New Republic)
-- Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan braid, meticulously preserved
-- Several holoimages of Anakin Skywalker bequeathed to the museum by Evinne Ardel
-- A variety of personal items belonging to participants in the saga, largely important because in some cases their existence underscores the veracity of particular episodes in the saga
The particular word choice there is episode, which is a bit amusing, but continues to seem an unlikely word choice for a historian. I definitely like the value of the physical evidence, I think that's very accurate, and I also think it's interesting that - not regarding the Imperial Era as the actual time of the Empire that spans the actual six movies, but extends well beyond that. Because of my own personal objection to the warwarwarwar and, oh, more war that we get in the EU I'm not personally thrilled with it but I do like it as a sort of academic approach that seems likely to be made.
The Skywalker Museum is currently maintained under the auspices of Chief Curator Rhiel Arganadron; the Orun Annex is managed separately but in congruence by Managing Curator Antil Zharaya Leh. Both of these beings contribute immeasurably to the value of their collections. There is a sense of personal reality one gets from holding Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber, or feeling the silk of Padmé Amidala’s dressing-gown, that one cannot get from reading their history, no matter how well-articulated.
And we get more poetry from our scholar again. This is really a very interesting person.
But the best feature of the Skywalker Museum and its annex may be the readiness of the resident curators to tell stories to the curious - vividly, meaningfully, and with the deep sense of rootedness that comes from handling the daily objects of the lives of heroes.