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Currently working a bit on my Role Reversal verse, with Anakin as the farmboy and Luke as the fallen Jedi Knight.
I'll admit, the part where Luke falls is going to be the most difficult to write, IMHO. Not because I'm afraid of him falling, but the real problem is writing him sympathetically. Especially since after reading LOTF , I walked away from the series utterly loathing Luke Skywalker. He didn't kill anyone or commit any atrocities like blowing up planets for the hell of it -- it was something as simple as this: the glorified degradation of Luke Skywalker's character.
Now you're probably wondering, "Well, hadhafang, isn't that a little harsh?" To which I say, maybe. Keep in mind, I mostly read some of the EU in anachronic order (LOTF first, then NJO and DARK NEST), so my observations may be a...little off. But I do know that in the NEW JEDI ORDER series, Luke was awesome. Hell, even in the DARK NEST trilogy, he was pretty awesome. Then came LEGACY OF THE FORCE and things...started to get a little hairy. And honestly, saying "a little hairy" doesn't even cover it.
Explaining LEGACY OF THE FORCE is a little difficult, but basically, it centers around Luke's oldest surviving nephew, Jacen Solo, as he tries to fight off the threat of, basically, Corellia (and other systems) going rogue and destroying the entire galaxy. In the process, he ends up embracing the legacy of Darth Vader if only to make the galaxy a stabler, safer place -- especially after things like his brother's death in a previous war (which is made worse considering the last time they spoke, they had an argument), and the birth of his daughter, Allana (insert your own observation about the parallels between Anakin Skywalker and his oldest surviving grandson here), along with...other things. In a way, Jacen's turn to the dark side parallels Anakin as in he's afraid to lose the ones he loves; in fact, the reason he doesn't turn in Lumiya (a surviving disciple of the Empire who sort of plays the Palpatine role here -- if slightly nicer) is mostly because he's afraid that a war might break out where he'd have to kill Luke. Why is this important? Just to set up the course of the battle. Luke, of course, has his reasons for doing what he does, but the problem mostly comes from the way he executes them. He doesn't even seem to want to redeem Jacen Solo -- he mostly sees him as a nuisance.
At the very least with Anakin and Obi-Wan, you could see that Obi-Wan cared about Anakin, even slightly. Hell, even the infamous Mustafar scene, you could make the argument that the reason Obi-Wan didn't kill Anakin then and there was because somehow, he couldn't bring himself to (granted, it's still pretty cruel in its own way. 0.0). But with Luke...it didn't even seem like he even cared about Jacen. At the very least, in scenes where he tried to "redeem" Jacen, he mostly does it via screwing with his mind, projecting illusions, stuff like that. If Luke cared about Jacen, even slightly, he would have gone personally to Jacen's ship and tried to talk with him. He did it on Endor with Vader; why couldn't he use it with Jacen?
It's especially galling considering that if you step back and look at it, Vader did things far worse than Jacen did as Caedus -- killing younglings, for instance, choking his pregnant wife, torturing Leia, participating (in that standing-back-and-watching way) in the destruction of Alderaan, taking Luke's hand on Bespin, trying to turn Leia to the Dark Side, etc. etc. Yet Luke still found it in himself to forgive Vader and try to turn him back to the light. With Caedus...well, in the interest of fairness, Luke did try to redeem him, but it's less "I love you and want to help you" and more "I'm right and you're wrong, and you should just fucking accept it". Which isn't even the Jedi way. It's like something that Atris would say -- except even Atris would express disgust at Luke's actions. And this coming from the woman who inadvertently caused the genocide of an entire race if only because of an old grudge against one of Revan's former generals for doing what she thought was right.
So where does Luke think that Caedus crossed the line? When he finds out that he killed his wife, Mara Jade -- in self-defense, no less. I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking here, but things like that say volumes. Granted, it's not easy to find out that someone killed your spouse and lied to you about it, but honestly, it really does weigh in to Luke's later decision: sending Caedus' twin sister, Jaina, to kill him. In the interest of fairness, in the last book, he does come close to redeeming himself: finally getting up and trying to make things right in contrast to sitting back, watching the show, and then calling other people "evil" for having the "audacity" to do something he didn't have the guts to do -- as well as trying to console Jaina about the possibility of killing her twin * -- but even so, how is this proportionate to killing someone else's wife in self-defense? This doesn't even seem like something Luke would do; it sounds like something Anakin would do -- except even Anakin wouldn't go this far. Perhaps Luke saw it as a Shoot The Dog moment, but honestly...there were better ways that the writers could have handled the final confrontation. This, for instance. Disposing of the villain while still keeping the dignity of both hero and villain intact. ** To be fair, the writers do give Luke a reason not to go after Caedus -- he's worried about falling to the Dark Side -- but even then, it's pretty weak. To paraphrase The Dark Knight, a true hero makes the choices that no one else could make. Hell, even Lumiya and Jacen lampshade this in-story, with Jacen musing that Luke mostly wanted to feel good about himself (which isn't the real Luke. Not by a long shot), and Lumiya saying that it's easy to be a clean-cut hero slaying dragons, but the true hero tends to be completely despised. Meaning, don't let PR get in the way of doing what you think is right.
Yes, Luke, the Designated Complete Monster of the series is somehow more heroic than you. *** Good grief.
So where does the "glorified degradation" come in? The writers expect us to side with Luke. Yes, Luke's opinion is supposed to be right. It gets even worse in one book of Fate of the Jedi, Allies, (at least I've heard; feel free to correct me) when Luke says to Vestara Khai (the Sith woman traveling with him and Ben to fight the Dark Side Eldritch Abomination Abeloth), and I'm quoting, "Compassion is for those who deserve it."
Yeah...
Keep in mind it's after Vestara's basically called Luke out on his lack of concern regarding blasting mooks to smitheerens and complaining about the mess they've made. And a Sith calls him out on it. I guess it's pretty neat to see something like that happen, but at the expense of Luke's character? *Sighs* To quote Linkara, our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
* Keep in mind that they've been mentally bonded at birth. Yeah...
** And considering the shit that Clu pulled is far worse than what Caedus pulled, that's...pretty tragic, in a way.
*** As well as Jaina, the twin sister in question, but that's not the point.
*Sighs*
And that's my rant/rambling about Luke for the day. I'm very sorry if I offended anyone; I mostly needed to get it off my chest. Hopefully I can manage to get around this issue -- I should really watch the old movies again, just to see reasons why I used to love Luke -- but even so...
Thoughts? Comments? Rotten produce? I'll take them. :)