Solo family
The fictional Solo family includes some of the Star Wars franchise's most well-known and significant characters. The first of them is introduced with the appearance of Han Solo in A New Hope. Initially a morally ambiguous character, Han is quickly established as one of the heroes of the film, and goes on to be a major character in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as well as the Expanded Universe. Han marries Princess Leia Organa, and their three children Jaina, Jacen and Anakin go on to be major Expanded Universe characters in their own right, appearing as lead characters in several books and other media.
Fictional history
The Solo family was once a prestigious, Corellian royal family. The first known Solo in the family tree is Berethon e Solo, a king who ruled Corellia during the Golden Age of the Old Republic and set up a constitutional monarchy in 312 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). His descendants continued to rule Corellia until the establishment of the Diktat centuries later. By 29 BBY, their declining status had driven them out of rule and into poverty. Han Solo was born during this time.
During the post-Imperial era, however, the Solo family regained its prestige—starting with the marriage of Han Solo and Leia Organa (born Leia Skywalker) around 8 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). Not only did the connection to the Skywalker family give his line a boost, but the heroic and legendary actions and accomplishments of his family (as well his Skywalker relatives), including his children, made the Solo-Skywalker family, overall, one of the most famous and powerful ones in the universe.
Leia and Han had three children: Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin who were all trained as Jedi Knights. Jacen turned to the dark side and became Darth Caedus. Before that, he and Tenel Ka, Hapan Queen Mother and Jedi Knight, had a daughter, whom they named Allana.
Presumed to be a descendant of Ben Skywalker, Cade Skywalker was the last remaining Skywalker; whether this included its Solo offshoots is unknown.
Notable members
Han Solo
Han first appeared in A New Hope where he was played by Harrison Ford. He and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca are initially hired to help Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, strictly for their own financial benefit. They later become involved in the Rebel Alliance and committed to its cause. Over the course of the franchise Han becomes a military leader for the Alliance (and later New Republic) as well as marrying Leia Organa and fathering Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo.
Leia Organa Solo
Leia first appeared in A New Hope, played by Carrie Fisher. She is an adopted member of the Alderaan royal family, a member of the Imperial Senate and one of the leaders of the Rebel Alliance. She later becomes the elected head of the New Republic and continues to serve in various government positions. She marries Han Solo and gives birth to Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo.
Jaina Solo
Jaina Solo (later Jaina Solo Fel) and her twin brother Jacen were created by Timothy Zahn for the novel The Last Command (1994), part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. She is the eldest child of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. She is also the elder twin of Jacen by five minutes and the sister of Anakin Solo. She has appeared in various novels and the Champions of the Force set for the Star Wars Miniatures Game.[1]
The twins played a small role in Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy, and a larger supporting role in Vonda McIntyre's The Crystal Star. Not until the Young Jedi Knights (1995) do Jaina Solo and her friends become major characters.[2]
Elaine Cunningham, author of Dark Journey, commented that the story is a personal one focusing on a difficult time in Jaina's life.[3] Walter Jon Williams, author of Destiny's Way, commented that the plot concerning Jaina Solo's love-life caused some frantic rewrites.[4]
Jaina, named after Han's mother, is born five minutes before her brother Jacen in The Thrawn Trilogy. The twins, and eventually their younger brother, live at various safe havens for their first few years under the protection of Leia's handmaiden Winter. In Champions of the Force, Jaina helps her brother defend their unconscious uncle from the spirit of Sith Lord Exar Kun. In The Crystal Star, Jaina is kidnapped and used in a plot, along with her siblings, to take advantage of their Force powers. In the Corellian Trilogy, Jaina is again kidnapped but escapes. In the Young Jedi Knights series, Jaina travels to Yavin 4 with her brother to begin her Jedi training.
Throughout the New Jedi Order series, Jaina pursues a life separate from her twin brother and becomes Mara Jade Skywalker's apprentice. Jaina progresses quickly as a Jedi and a pilot, eventually joining Rogue Squadron. She also develops a romantic relationship with Jagged Fel. She briefly becomes the apprentice of fallen Jedi Kyp Durron. Jaina's understanding and manipulation of Yuuzhan Vong technology causes them to associate her with their trickster goddess. She is present at the conclusion of the war with the Yuuzhan Vong.
In The Joiner King, Jaina and the Jedi Zekk are joined in the Killik hive. Jacen tricks them into attacking a Chiss base to provoke a war between the Chiss and the Killiks; Jaina, furious, vows that she will never fly with Jacen again.
In the Legacy of the Force series, Jacen throws Jaina out of the Galactic Alliance when she refuses to follow his order to destroy a crippled ship. She senses at this time a growing darkness in her twin. In Betrayal, Jacen falls to the dark side of the Force, and Jaina realizes her duty as the "Sword of the Jedi" requires her to stop him. She turns to Boba Fett to train her. In Invincible, Jaina duels and kills Jacen.
In Fate of The Jedi Jaina is promoted to Jedi Master by Luke Skywalker, and marries Jagged Fel.
Jacen Solo
Jacen Solo is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo and the nephew of Luke Skywalker. He is a major character in several Star Wars novels, particularly the Legacy of the Force series. He is the main antagonist of the series, up until his death at the end of Invincible. He is the twin brother of Jaina Solo, older brother to Anakin Solo, grandson of Anakin Skywalker, and cousin of Ben Skywalker. Jacen later became known as Darth Caedus. Around 40 years after the battle of Yavin, Caedus was stabbed in the stomach with a lightsaber by his own twin sister Jaina Solo.[5][6]
IGN listed Jacen as #17 on their list of the top 100 Star Wars heroes, saying that he had a more "profound effect" than any other Solo children on the Star Wars setting.[7] Jesse Schedeen, writing for IGN, also listed him as #5 in a reader-inspired list of top Star Wars villains, and called his "defining moment of villainy" his murder of Mara Jade.[8] UGO.com listed Jacen as their top Star Wars Expanded Universe character, calling him "one of the most fearsome - and most tragic - villains in the Star Wars universe".[9]
Anakin Solo
Anakin Solo is the youngest child born to Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, and the younger brother of Jaina Solo and Jacen Solo. Anakin is named for his maternal grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, and, like his namesake, is a talented pilot who is prodigiously gifted both in the Force and mechanical engineering. He dies in the novel Star by Star.
Anakin Solo debuts in Tom Veitch's Dark Empire II book miniseries. He is first referred to as Han Solo, Jr. by his father, but Leia corrects him. Leia names Anakin after her biological father, Anakin Skywalker, as a reminder of hope; however, Anakin still fears the name and his grandfather's legacy.[10] Anakin appears as an infant and toddler in many Star Wars novels such as the Jedi Academy Trilogy. Anakin and his siblings, Jacen Solo and Jaina Solo, play central roles in other novels such as The Crystal Star, The New Rebellion, and The Corellian Trilogy.
On October 1, 1995, Nancy Richardson started the Junior Jedi Knights series with The Golden Globe starring Anakin and his best friend Tahiri Veila. Anakin was now an eleven-year-old child starting his training at the Jedi Academy on Yavin 4.[10] Richardson continued Anakin's adventures in the following two novels, Lyric's World and Promises, before Rebecca Moesta finished the series with Anakin's Quest, Vader's Fortress, and Kenobi's Blade, starting in 1996. Anakin appears in the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, which follows the adventures of Anakin's siblings, Jacen and Jaina.
In 1999, the first novel of the New Jedi Order series was published, entitled Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. Anakin is now a teenager studying as a Jedi under his uncle, Luke Skywalker, debating with his brother, Jacen, on the ways of a Jedi and the Force. In the novel's climax, his father's copilot and best friend, Chewbacca, dies saving Anakin's life.
Anakin plays major roles in Dark Tide: Onslaught and Dark Tide: Ruin by Michael A. Stackpole published 1 February 2000 and 1 June 2000, respectively, and is the main focus of the books Edge of Victory: Conquest and Edge of Victory: Rebirth by Greg Keyes published April 1, 2001 and August 1, 2001, respectively.
In the following novel by Troy Denning, Star by Star published on October 30, 2001, Anakin leads a team of Jedi to take out a dangerous enemy of the Jedi resulting in his death. Writers of the New Jedi Order story line revealed in a question-and-answer section of the paperback edition of The Unifying Force published on August 3, 2004 that Anakin was supposed to be the hero of the story and lead the Jedi Order, but this was changed due to the release of the Star Wars prequel films, in which the hero was also named Anakin. Instead, he dies in battle at the conclusion of the novel.
Even after his death, Anakin Solo has been mentioned several times in most following novels, including a possible appearance in Traitor by Matthew Stover, as a droid in Betrayal by Aaron Allston as Anakin Sal-Solo, and in Backlash, where he appeared to his maternal uncle Luke Skywalker and to Luke's son, Ben Skywalker by Aaron Allston.
Anakin is portrayed in the earlier books as being a genius and a loner, but is haunted by his name. In Lyric's World, it is revealed that he loves to take computers apart and put them back together and sees it as a puzzle.[11] He would also have dreams of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader trying to persuade him to fall to the dark side of the Force; Anakin overcomes this fear in Anakin's Quest, in which he confronts himself.[12]
In The New Jedi Order series, Anakin is older. He still spent time alone thinking about the role of the Force, and would get into arguments with his brother, Jacen Solo, on the subject.[13] However, his uncle Luke still sees Anakin as too young and reckless.[14]
Family tree
Legends
| Jonash e Solo (?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2,700 years of Solo family generations (?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Berethron e Solo (?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown number of Solo family generations (?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Korol Solo (?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unknown woman | Dalla Solo / Den Solo (?) | Tira Gama Solo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Threkin Horm's unnamed father | Dalla Solo's unnamed daughter | Randil Sal | Tiion Gama Sal-Solo (née Solo) | Jonash Solo | Jaina Solo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Threkin Horm | Skywalker family | House of Organa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fel dynasty | Thrackan Sal-Solo | Han Solo | Leia Organa Solo (née Leia Amidala Skywalker) | Hapan Royal House | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fel dynasty | Jagged Fel | Jaina Solo Fel (née Solo) | Anakin Solo | Jacen Solo | Tenel Ka Chume Ta' Djo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fel dynasty | Allana Djo Solo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| One Solo family generation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ania Solo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reception
IGN listed the Solo children as the 16th top Star Wars heroes.[15]
References
- ↑ Sterling Hershey; Gary M. Sarli (June 8, 2006). "Champions of the Force Preview 7: Solo Twins and Jedi Sentinel". Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ "Jaina Solo Behind the Scenes". Star Wars: Databank
- ↑ Shared Worlds
- ↑
- ↑ "Answers from Aaron Allston". Lucasfilm. March 30, 2006. Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
- ↑ Kaszuba Locke, Josephine Anna (October 2006). "Interview: Aaron Allston". Bookloons. Retrieved February 21, 2008.
- ↑ "Top 100 Star Wars Characters". IGN. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
- ↑ Schedeen, Jesse (April 25, 2008). "Top Star Wars Villains: Fan Favorites". IGN. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
- ↑ "Top 50 Star Wars Expanded Universe Characters". UGO.com. July 1, 2008. Archived from the original on March 24, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2013.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Richardson, N. Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe. Boulevard, October 1995. ISBN 1-57297-035-9
- ↑ Richardson, N. Junior Jedi Knights: Lyric's World. Berkley Jam, June 1998. ISBN 0-425-16762-3
- ↑ Moesta, R. Junior Jedi Knights: Anakin's Quest. Boulevard, April 1997. ISBN 1-57297-136-3
- ↑ Salvatore, R. A. New Jedi Order: Vector Prime. Del Rey, October 1999. ISBN 0-345-42844-7
- ↑ Keyes, G. New Jedi Order: Edge of Victory I: Conquest. Del Rey, April 2001. ISBN 0-345-42864-1
- ↑ Jesse Schedeen (August 12, 2008). "Top 25 Star Wars Heroes: Day 2". IGN. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
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