#kueller

[or-not-2b---i-dont-know]

This is Alf and Kirk

[michaelfeldmanofficial]

Formal request for Kilf/Kalf/Alk/Whatsit (for ship thingy)

Here you go! Hope you enjoy :)

[hench-thyme]

Friendly Fire!

Pairing: Henchman 21 / You, Henchman 24 / You, Henchman 21 / Henchman 24

Rating: Explicit 18+

Length: 5885 words

Description: Gary gets a crush on the new employee at his favorite comic book shop and 24 notices.

hehe i have gary brainrot

[the-penny-dreadfuls]

Lillian Kuller lived a wonderful life. In her younger years, she managed to snag a coveted spot as a performer for the Ziegfeld Follies. She toured the country until met her husband, Nate, who would become her partner for forty years. Together, they had a son and a daughter. Their home was filled with many wonderful memories. Kuller was a loving mother and later on a doting grandmother. Her family remembers as a gregarious, feisty woman, who possessed a resolute spirit. Although she was certainly not a pushover, Keller had a friendly, compassionate side. Her grandson, Mark, fondly remembers, “Always a great smile, nothing ever negative. If you cut off her arm, she’d say ‘No big deal, it’ll get better”

Kuller’s long life would end in tragedy. At the age of 81, she was murdered inside of her house in St. Paul, Minnesota, the very home she had lived in for well over four decades. On February 1st, 1984 an intruder broke into the house and strangled the elderly woman. The rooms had been ransacked. Drawers were left ajar, their contents falling out. A window remained opened with its screen completely removed. Despite the state of the house, it appeared that nothing of material value had been taken. Kuller’s death left her family and community baffled. Murder of any sort is horrendous in its own right, but the murder of a frail, cancer-stricken elderly woman shook the people of St. Paul to their core. Who killed Lillian Kuller was the question on everyone’s mind.

It would take three decades to find that answer. In 2017 investigators found a match to the DNA found under the victim’s fingernails. That DNA belonged to Michael Withers. When the police came by to interview him, Withers was already in prison, serving time for burglary charges. It was a common thread in his criminal history. In 1987 Withers, who was in his early twenties at the time, plead guilty to a series of break-ins near the area Kuller lived in. His own home at the time was just around a mile away from the victim’s. These burglaries took place just over a week before the murder took place.

After being connected to the crime scene by DNA, Michael Withers was arrested for Lillian Kuller’s murder. He took a deal in which he decided to plead guilty to second-degree murder without intent. In court, Withers said that he was able to gain access into Kuller’s home by posing as a UPS man. He began to go through her house, searching for valuables, while the woman went to grab a pen to sign for the package. When Kuller returned, she saw what Withers was up to and began to shout at him. Then, according to Withers, he panicked and retaliated against the elderly woman. He fled from the house after murder without taking any of her possessions.

This version of events did not sit well Kuller’s family. They didn’t believe it matched up with the evidence of the ransacked house and window with the screen torn out didn’t match up with his story. They were even more disappointed when Withers did not apologize for killing their mother. Instead, he took the time to accuse the judge and court using this case for political gain.

In October of 2018, Michael Withers was sentenced to spend twenty years in prison for the murder of Lillian Kuller.

[hanleiaquotes]

Star Wars: The New Rebellion | Kristine Kathryn Rusch | 1996 | Legends Universe

Part 36

Yes." Then Leia smiled at herself. "But I am rattled. It might be much more simple than that. Kueller might misunderstand the way the New Republic works. He might think I'm an autocrat and that my word is law. Then threatening my family might get me to force my hand."

"He doesn't know you well, does he?" Mon Mothma said softly. "Threats to your family always make you stronger."

Leia's eyes burned. She rubbed at them. She didn't want sympathy. Not yet, anyway. Later, when she had time.

[teagrl]

Peace and love is fine and all but Kyp should have gotten sliced n diced before going oh I don’t know TO WIPE OUT A PLANET on the swanky new superweapon. Kueller can get it too. What the fuck, Legends. Did we not go through Luke Skywalker’s Death Star calculus?

[hanorganaas]

hans really gonna go sfter kueller himself fucking himbo i love you

[atamascolily]

So I want to talk about one of Luke’s less publicized fails in Legends, namely with Cray Mingla and Nichos Marr in Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly. It’s not as flashy and obvious as his failures with Kyp Durron and Kueller, since only two people die, and the New Republic government doesn’t get involved. It’s framed as the result of his students’ choices, rather than their teacher’s, and Luke benefits a great deal from the fallout. But the more I study the backstory for fic purposes, the more convinced I am that Luke Majorly Screwed Up, and I want to call him out on it.

When we first meet Cray and Nichos, the situation is presented as both a tragic love story, and also a Done Deal. Two Force prodigies (and childhood best friends?) fall in love and come to Yavin to train, only for one to be diagnosed with a fatal illness, and the other uses their life’s work to save them. It’s a Nicholas Sparks novel with robots.... except it doesn’t work.

Instead of successfully transferring Nichos’s spirit into a new body, Cray creates a droid replica straight out of the Uncanny Valley, with life-like face and hands. a metallic body, and all of Nichos’s memories. (How she does this is handwaved as techno-wizardry, with a little bit of Ssi-ruuvi techniques thrown in the mix, which is... even more horrific if you start to think about it.) The result isn’t the “real” Nichos--it’s not the man she fell in love with. It’s a construct, a copy, not a human being.

I get where Hambly was trying to go with this meditation on what constitutes personhood, but I feel like dismissing the new Nichos as “just” a droid” is kinda sketchy, given that machines and droids in the Star Wars universe have emotions and personalities and are clearly capable of independent agency not directly contradicted by their programming. Maybe this new Nichos is “another Corellian by the same name”  and not the original, but does that make him any less deserving of autonomy and personhood? I don’t think so.

Droid-Nichos is clearly aware that he’s not human--he pretends because he wants to please Cray (and there’s a not-so-subtle implication she programmed him to do that, which is hella creepy)--but his conversations with Threepio make it equally clear that he sees that as his only function, and he’s not of much ‘use’ for anything else. His very specificity makes him an outlier among droids. He doesn’t fit into either world, which is why he’s so willing to sacrifice himself at the end of the novel--besides the fact that Cray asks him to and he’s not in position to be able to say no.

But Cray is so deep in denial she refuses to admit that this isn’t the original Nichos until droid-Nichos is unable to rescue her from torture because he’s wearing a restraining bolt. Then she breaks down completely, sending droid-Nichos up to shut down the ship and be shot to pieces while she commits suicide by letting Callista’s spirit take over her own body.

So where does Luke fit into all of this? Isn’t it unfair to hold him responsible for Cray’s decisions, given that he was unconscious at the time and determined to sacrifice himself instead? At twenty-six, Cray was a grown-ass adult; if she wanted to create a walking RealDoll with the memories of dead lover, that was her business, right? Right?

The thing is that Hambly makes it clear during Cray’s breakdown that Luke knew all along that Cray hadn’t saved the “real” Nichos.

“Luke …”

He looked up quickly, to meet the blue glass eyes. In the shadowy gloom the face that he’d known so well was almost a stranger’s, affixed monstrously to the silver cowl of the metal skull.

“Am I really Nichos?”

Luke said, “I don’t know.” He had never in his life felt so helpless, because in his heart—in the secret shadows where the truth always lay—he knew that this was a lie.

He knew.

Luke knew exactly what the new Nichos was, and he never sat down with Cray and talked about this or staged an intervention of any kind. He let her deceive herself, even though one of the foremost principles of being a Jedi is self-knowledge and facing grief and failure directly. He knew and he never said anything, because....  I don’t know, exactly.

The Doylist answer is that Callista needed a hot young body to inhabit, and Cray’s entire existence was to provide her with one, more or less guilt-free. (I still think it’s incredibly creepy, and I know I’m not the only one, but most of the characters in-universe let it slide, and I just... can’t even...)

“Am I ‘another Corellian of the same name’?”

“I’d like to tell you one way or the other,” said Luke. The bolt came away from the brushed-steel chest, lay thick and heavy in Luke’s hand. One hand real, one hand mechanical, but both his. “But I … I don’t know. You are who you are. You are the being, the consciousness, that you are at this moment. That’s all I can tell you.” That fact, at least, was true.

The smooth face did not alter, but the blue eyes looked infinitely sad. “I had hoped that, being a Jedi, you would know.”

And Luke had the uncomfortable sensation that, having been a Jedi, Nichos knew perfectly well that he was keeping something back.

It’s worth noting here that Luke is one of the few people in the GFFA who we see treating droids as people. He’s not dismissive of Nichos’s existential angst, and he’s not going to dictate what Nichos is, no matter how much Nichos wants to be reassured one way or the other. I don’t know if other characters who are less sympathetic to droids would react this way.

I also like the juxtaposition between Nichos’s metallic body and Luke’s mechanical hand. Luke is human; Nichos isn’t--where’s the line between them? Isn’t Luke’s point here is that the line is where you define it to be?

Or at least that’s the image Luke wants to project. He’s still holding something back--namely, the real truth, which he shares with Callista:

“Is Nichos all right?”

Luke nodded, then caught himself, and shook his head. “Nichos … is a droid,” he said.

“I know.”

Callista sees right off that Nichos is a droid; she calls him “the droid with the human eyes” and asks if he’s some new creature of Palpatine’s when she and Luke first meet. Luke can admit to her that Nichos is a droid, but not to Nichos or Cray--not even when Nichos directly asks him. So, #TeachingFail there, I think. What the hell was Luke thinking?

This gets even worse as Callista continues:

“Luke,” she said gently. “Sometimes there is nothing you can do.”

He expelled his breath in an angry gust, fist clenched hard; but he did not, after all, speak for a time. Then it was only to say, “I know.” He realized he hadn’t known that, two weeks ago. In some ways, learning about Sith Lords and cloned Emperors had been easier.

So if Luke didn’t know there was nothing to be done but accept the situation as it was, why didn’t he try to do something for Cray before now? Why did he let her coast along in denial with her robot boyfriend for months?

Which makes it all the more ironic that the conversation turns to the role of mistakes in the education of a Jedi, as well as recounting of Luke’s other teaching mistakes.

“I just wish some of those one thousand eighty mistakes didn’t involve teaching students. Teaching Jedi. Transmitting power, or the ability to use the Force. My ignorance—my own inexperience—cost one of my students his life already, and threw another one into the arms of the dark side and caused havoc in the galaxy I don’t even want to think about. The whole thing—the Academy, and bringing back the skills of the Jedi—is too important for … for ‘Learn While You Teach.’"

Luke isn’t responsible for Nichos’s illness or his death, but he is responsible for letting Cray keep her illusions for so long. He isn’t responsible for the dramatic, over-the-top way in which Cray’s fantasies come tumbling down--but why did he let it get to that point in the first place?

Here’s Cray’s reaction when Luke does try to talk to her about Nichos:

“I know he had a scum-eating motherless restraining bolt, you jerk!” She screamed the words, spat them at him, hatred and fury a bitter fire in her eyes; and when the words were out sat staring at him in blind, helpless rage behind which Luke could see the fathomless well of defeat, and grief, and the ending of everything she had ever hoped.

Then silence, as Cray turned her face aside. The nervous thinness that had advanced on her during Nichos’s illness had turned brittle, as if something had been taken, not just from her flesh, but from the marrow of her bones. Over the torn uniform, grimed with blood and oil, the blanket hung on her like a battered shroud.

If they had had this conversation before now--after Nichos’s death, or at any point before that trip to Ithor--would matters have come to this?  Is Luke culpable for all the things he didn’t say to Cray, as well as the things he did say to Gantoris and Kyp (cited above)?

Does Cray fall prey to the Dark Side here? Is that why Callista loses her powers? I don’t know. I love this novel, but so much of its logic is incomprehensible to me, and I don’t understand it. Maybe that’s why I love it so much, because it keeps me thinking about it.

“Don’t hate him for being what he is,” he said, the only thing he could think of to say. “Or for being what he’s not.”

The words sounded puerile in his own ears, like a half-credit computerized fortune-teller at a fair. Ben, he thought, would have had something to say, something healing … Yoda would have known how to deal with the wretched ruin of a friend’s heart and life.

The mightiest Jedi in the universe, he reflected bitterly—that he knew of, anyway—the destroyer of the Sun Crusher, the slayer of evil, who’d defeated the recloned Emperor and the Sith Lord Exar Kun, and all he could offer someone who had been disemboweled was, Gee, I’m sorry you’re not feeling so well …

Luke, you should have had this conversation with her months ago. Or if you didn’t feel up to it, you should have insisted she go to THERAPY as a condition of her continued training at your school, you knew damn well she wasn’t okay, and you just let her go on her way as if nothing was wrong and I just... 

As a result of his screw-ups with Cray and Nichos, Luke survives, his ghost girlfriend gets a body, and the Eye of Palpatine is destroyed, so I guess it works out pretty well for him. Cray and Nichos, not so much, sadly. Does he learn anything from the experience? I don’t know, because nothing quite this weird happens ever again.

Anyway, I don’t know why I’m so mad about this one point from a novel published twenty-five years ago that only a handful of people remember, but I can’t read it anymore without wanting to smack Luke here for his part in this whole mess. Even though I think I understand why he holds back, why he’s afraid he’ll make matters worse, and why it’s easier to just to leave Cray alone and hope it all works out, it’s still the wrong decision and Obi-wan and Yoda and I are all shaking our heads at him, because really, Luke, why did you do that--??

[citymaus]

BART map but in the style of the paris metro map, with stations translated into french. by twitter/kueller, 15.11.2021. 

[erhiem]

Gervonta Davis is an American boxer known for winning several world championships. At such a young age, he has earned the WBA Super title, IBF title and won the Super Featherweight Championship twice.

They have won championships in various weight categories by defeating some popular names and hence their knockout percentage of wins is 95.8%. Apart from winning titles and championships, he is known for his defensive moves and exceptional punching power.

Gervonta Davis At 166cm and Feet Inches, she stands 5’4″ tall. She is a mighty boxer who weighs in at 54kg/kg or 119lb lbs. He will turn 27 in November 2021. He has a sharp and wide body. Has black colored eyes and black colored curly hair.

He has an athletic physique with the following body measurements: 44 inches chest, 36 inches waist, and 34 inches hips. His biceps size is 16 inches while his shoe size is 7 (US).

According to the sources, the estimated net worth of Gervonta Davis is around $2.5 million USD.

Gervonta Davis, born on November 7, 11, is an American but of mixed descent. He was born in Baltimore, USA and comes from the Sandtown-Winchester community which is one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city. He is the son of Kenya Brown and Garrin Davis and was raised alongside his brother, Demetris Fenwick.

He was inclined towards boxing since childhood and started training at Upton Boxing Center at the age of 5. For early education, he attended Digital Harbor High School, which he left to focus on boxing. He later completed his secondary degree through the GED program.

nick name gervonta birth place Baltimore, Maryland, USA Date of birth November 7, 1994 Ages 27 years (as of 2021) Height In centimeter – 166 cm

Feet Inches – 5’4″

weight In kilograms – 54 kg

in pounds – 119 pounds

eye color Black hair color Black profession boxer Zodiac sign Scorpio School Digital Harbor High School University not known Religion Christianity the nationality American hometown Maryland, USA First entry not known father’s name Garrin Davis Mother’s name kenya brown

Gervonta Davis with her family

Brothers Demetris Fenwick Sister not known

At the age of 18, Gervonta Davis scored 1. made his debut by winningscheduled tribe Round Knockout against Desi Williams. In 2015, he defeated Puerto Rica’s Israel Suarez at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pennsylvania and became the first person to stop him. He scored a technical knockout in 1 minute 14 seconds against Alberto Mora at The Claridge Hotel in New Jersey.

He defeated Reiki Dule of the Philippines in 94 seconds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as a part of Floyd Mayweather vs. Andre Berto. In 2016, he challenged Jose Pedraza for the IBF Junior Lightweight title. He won the title in a seventh-round knockout against Pedraza.

He retained his IBF title from Liam Walsh after defeating him in the third round. He got his 10. had recordedth A straight knockout win against Francisco Fonseca, who finished 7th. In front of 13,964 spectators, he defeated former featherweight champion Jesus Kueller in 3.third Round.

He announced a fight against Abner Mars but the fight did not take place on the scheduled date due to Mars’ career-ending injury. In 2019, he won the WBA Super-Featherweight title against Ricardo Nez. Most recently, he fought against regular champion Mario Barrios and defeated him twice in the eighth round.

Gervonta Davis is an unmarried man but is currently dating Ari Fletcher. Prior to this, he dated Dretta Starr and the couple has a daughter named Gervanny Davis.

He had a fight with his friend Anthony Wheeler at Upton Boxing Center. Therefore, he was charged with first-degree assault, but it was later changed to second-degree misconduct assault, with a fine of 10 years or $2500. Anthony dropped his charges and the two became friends again.

girlfriend Ari Fletcher

Gervonta Davis with his girlfriend

marital status Single wife None children Daughter – Gervanny Davis

Gervonta Davis with her daughter

From 2006–2009, Gervonta Davis won three national silver glove amateur championships.

He has an undefeated career record of 22-0.

In 2012, he won the National Golden Gloves Championship.

During his childhood, he was coached by Calvin Ford.

As for boxing, he was inspired by the character Dennis “Cutty” Wise from the TV series “The Wire”.

They are nicknamed “Tanks”.

He was introduced to boxing by his uncles Edwin Hanks and James Walker.

instagram — @gervontaa

Twitter – @Gervontaa

Facebook — @Gervonta “Tank” Davis

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Source

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[djemsostylist]

When FanBoys Write

I made a post a while back about why Tim Zahn, despite being the first EU Star Wars author, was not the best Star Wars author.  At the time, I was mostly talking about personal taste–having made it through only the first and part of the second of the Thrawn trilogy books, my dislike of Zahn was mostly that he was boring, his characters lacked feeling, and I wasn’t hugely fond of his view on the Force. 

I’ve since read 16 books which followed the Thrawn Trilogy, plus an additional 12 that came chronologically before (although were published after) and I have just started the first of the Hand of Thrawn Duology.  I am not quite 6 chapters in, but I already hate it.  Loathe, actually, might be the closer word.  It’s not just bad…its insultingly awful, and it makes me eternally grateful that he never wrote for Del Rey.  

See, I’ve read a LOT of Star Wars books.  At this point, I’ve read close to 80 Star Wars books, written by 20+ authors, and somewhere around 10 (?) or so comic series.  I’ve read a lot of Star Wars.  Most of the these books span a variety of years, and cover a variety of subjects.  Some I’ve loved, some I’ve hated, some have left me mostly bored.  The one thing about all the books, however (and again, it should be noted that I do not include any of the post NJO books here as I never finished those series plus they actually invalidate everything I’m going to say here fuckyoutroydenning), was the amount of, I guess you could call it respect, the authors had, not only for each other, but for overall plot and character, and an overarching idea. 

Like, Bantam was not one big plot, like the NJO.  Each author sort of did their own thing, had their own special OCs, invented their own alien species, focused on their own plots.  But they never invalidated anything done by other authors, they never made their OCs equal in importance to any of the actual main characters, and they played nicely in the playground.  Take Stackpole, who’s books are mostly written about Corran Horn.  Corran is an OC, and those novels do center around him and his life.  But he doesn’t interact much with the mains (yes he goes to the academy but he’s mostly unremarkable and leaves pretty soon after and Luke has to save his ass).  Corran could be called a “Mary Sue” except that he’s not really, because ultimately…he doesn’t really matter.  If you never read Rogue Squadron or I, Jedi, you’d literally miss nothing.  Also, he’s literally written as a mediocre everything, so… 

Then we have Zahn.  His OCs are the coolest, nicest, smartest, best, most awesomest people in the universe.  Talon Karrde?  Basically Han, but better.  A smuggler with a heart of gold, who helps people and saves the New Republic and is friends with Jedi and runs a huge spy network and has the best intelligence/hackers ever.  Grand Admiral Thrawn, who’s basically Vader, but better.  Smarter, more intelligent, a master planner, a perfect tactician–but he was ignored because he was an alien, sadface.  Mara Jade (who I do love and adore) is like, I mean, she had red gold hair and a dancer’s body (this is an actual Zahn quote I don’t make this shit up) and is also the Emperor’s Hand, like she was hand picked by him to serve and like, she is super smart and strong and a spy and a smuggler and like, she could defeat Luke Skwyalker.  And literally, reading HoT, within five pages, I feel like I watched Zahn walk in, and just sweep his hand across the desk, and knock everything the Bantam writers have done to the floor so he can continue the story the way HE wanted. 

Luke has spent the past 16 novels grappling with his Force use and his place in the galaxy.  And while he isn’t totally sure of his place, he certainly is sure of one thing–he is not afraid of the Dark.  He has gone up against countless Darksiders and truly evil people–and he emerges himself, every time.  In fact, just three books prior, he was literally willing to Obi-Wan himself to Kueller just because he couldn’t bring himself to use the dark to strike him down.  But suddenly, he’s grappling with the Force and having visions of the Emperor laughing at him.  Oh, and he apparently never flies X-wings anymore, despite the fact that again, like three books ago he successfully piloted/bailed out of a crashing X-wing, and a major plot point of the Black Fleet books was him trying to get used to flying an E-wing because Ackbar wanted him to upgrade, and he liked his x-wing better. 

Or we have Leia, who has fought countless fights to maintain the Presidency (she has been Chief of State for the majority of Bantam) including, again, just prior to this, overcoming two votes of no confidence, an Imperial plot, and a Corellian conspiracy, only to suddenly resign in HoT and turn to the presidency over to Gavrisom, some senator we have literally never heard of, despite spending almost 20 books with actual members of the inner circle of the New Republic who apparently don’t matter.  

Or, I dunno, Mara, who left Karrde behind to start her own business (and have a fling with Lando along the way) only to have her suddenly back with Karrde, and when Leia asks why, Karrde (and god I hate this word) like literally steps in front of Mara to mansplain about how her business was actually Karrde’s business and she was just like, trying out being a leader for a while because she will probably take over Karrde’s enterprise someday actually (and I can’t wait for the wanky explanation of how she wasn’t actually sleeping with Lando it was all part of a long con).  

Like, you can literally feel the fanboy rage as he forcibly puts things back the way he wants.  We aren’t even two pages in and we’ve got Pellaeon rubbing one out to Thrawn’s perfect memory, Leia is vacationing on Wayland with the Noghri, and Karrde is already popping up to save the day twice while Luke grapples with how much Force is too much???? 

It’s like, I know people complain about fanboys, but honestly, until Zahn, I never felt it in Star Wars.  At least, not from the materiel.  The majority of the books were written by men, but I never really really felt it, ya know?  Like, yeah, I definitely appreciated having women write (Hambly in particular wrote some really poignant moments I don’t think could have been eloquently captured by a man (the whole thing with Cray Mingla turning her dying boyfriend into a robot but saving his face and hands I don’t think would have been the same if written by a dude)) but we got plenty of great characters, prior plots were always respected, and character development as a whole continued–it never went backwards.  But with Zahn, you get the overwhelming feeling he’s pissed someone wanted to play in his playground and mess with it, because they just don’t understand.  

[instapicsil1]

Boys tennis doubles partners Max Kueller, right, and Jared Arkell of Prairie Ridge pose for a portrait as the boys tennis players of the year at Prairie Ridge High School on Friday, June 14, 2019 in Crystal Lake. For more photos, visit http://www.nwherald.com Photograph by Matthew Apgar (@mapgar) / Northwest Herald (@NorthwestHerald) #NorthwestHerald #Photojournalism #AthleteOfTheYear #PlayerOfTheYear #Sports #Portrait #Sportrait #PrairieRidge #PrairieRidgeHS #PRWolves #PrairieRidgeWolves #Tennis #TennisPartners #TennisDoubles #BoysTennis #IHSA http://bit.ly/2Kq8TTj

[hench-thyme]

Henchman 21 NSFW Alphabet

Pairing: Henchman 21 / You, Henchman 21 / Henchman 24 (mentioned)

Rating: Explicit 18+

Length: 1535 words

Description: NSFW Alphabet / headcanons about our favorite henchman

aaaa i hope you all enjoy this, i had fun making it! :]

[lorerunner]

What are the absolute worst written star wars characters, and why? Including any characters from the EU.

Tough one.  I’m tempted by Lumpawaroo, Kueller is pretty ridiculous, and Callista just aggravated the hell out of me.  But as much as it’s a cliche and the expected response, I just have to go with Hethrir.  The man was immensely disinteresting, and actively badly written, in addition to being in that train wreck of a book.

[teagrl]

You know EU!Luke made sense to me in all his flaws. It made sense that he try to avoid cutting down his students at all cost -- even to the point of having to deal with the fact that his students went out and committed heinous acts of genocide (see Kyp and Kueller). After all it worked with dad! This is what I’ve written about a lot -- the Death Star Calculus and how reluctant Luke is to do it.

Later on, it made sense to me that he be unable to let his Jedi Council shoot itself in the foot and collapse. His life’s work, man. I get it and it’s heartbreaking.

These things are in line with what I saw in the OT, where Luke went from as a pal put it “cool laser sword to fuck up the dude who killed my dad” to someone who realized that violence was not a solve-all.

But for Luke to have lived through the throne room at Death Star 2.0, for him to have had his faith in his dad’s goodness validated (his dad who killed kids...and helped the Emperor commit attrocities...) to spiral into a moment of doubt by the gathering darkness in his own young nephew who hadn’t done anything yet, seems fundamentally unsound to me.

[atamascolily]

Mara Jade in The New Rebellion, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Mara Jade has a few brief appearances prior to the final act of the novel, but her role in the plot kicks off with this:

Whoever he was, this Kueller had Force abilities. And he already held Luke prisoner. Which meant he was strong in the Force.

Like Vader.

Han clenched his fists. He had never been any match for Vader. The man had hurt him at every turn. The abilities that Luke, Leia, and the children possessed sometimes looked like magic to him.

But sometimes magic could be used against its owner.

“Chewie, see if you can find Mara Jade for me. Lando says she’s with Talon Karrde. Tell them I need their help.”

Chewie growled a query.

Han grinned at him. “A plan? Of course, I have a plan. Have you ever known me not to?”

Smuggler Dad Talon Karrde drops his adopted daughter off for playtime, but not without some stern fatherly admonishments: 

“I believe it, Solo. And every once in a while, I donate my services too. Mara’s outside with your ysalamiri. Say thank you.”

Han hadn’t expected Karrde’s quick capitulation. It made him instantly suspicious. “Yeah, ah, thanks,” Han said. He waved a hand at Chewie. “Go let her in.”

Chewbacca was already out of his seat.

Han turned back to Karrde. “You’re letting Mara come with us?”

“I’ve got no need for her. Seems she has some interest in what happens to Skywalker. Says you might need her.”

Yeah, sure, Karrde, I TOTALLY believe you there.

“She knows this Kueller, then?”

“I doubt it.” Karrde’s pet vornskr put its face near the screen. The creatures were ugly, even from a distance. “I think it’s more personal than that. She’s been having daylight dreams. She thinks she’s hiding them from me, but she’s not.”

“Kueller’s after her too.”

Karrde nodded. “I’m beginning to think the phrase, ‘May the Force be with you’ is a curse.”

“I sure hope not,” Han said. “The Force has been with me for years now. My family’s steeped in it.”

“You know what the ysalamiri will do, don’t you?”

Han grinned. “That’s why I want them. Thanks, Talon.”

“Don’t mention it,” Karrde said. “I mean that.”

Rusch really plays up the impact of the ysalamiri on Force users for dramatic effect:

[Mara] shook her head, and then put a slim hand against her forehead. The ysalamiri affected her Force senses. Han had heard about this but never really seen it. He’d only had Luke’s descriptions.

I don't believe this for a moment, because Mara lived on Myrkr back in TTT and the ysalamiri didn't bother her that much. What's actually bothering her then?

“I’ve been seeing Luke on a sandstone street, burning alive.”

Her husky voice sent chills through Han. “Can you see the future?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said.

So Mara is having visions of Luke dying - no wonder she's in such terrible shape. Of course, she's not actually going to admit it, though.

“Why did you really come?” Han asked.

She swallowed. Her color was poor. Luke said the ysalamiri pushed the Force away from themselves, creating a bubble in which the Force did not exist. He said it was like suddenly going blind and deaf. Han thought of it as leveling the playing field. In the Force bubble, a Jedi Knight had no more powers than a normal person.

She leaned against the wall. “Do you know how many people have died in the last few weeks, Solo?”

“Enough,” he said, thinking of the Run.

“More than enough,” she said. “Too many. Kueller’s using them to build strength. He’s absorbing the dark side like a droid hooked up to a power cable. If this continues, he may be unbeatable.”

“You don’t believe that,” Han said.

She raised her head. She was stunning, he had to give her that, with her bright green eyes, and red, almost auburn, hair. A woman to respect. A woman that no one ever should tamper with. “I haven’t felt power like this since Palpatine in the early days. If this continues, Han, Kueller will be stronger than the Emperor ever was, and he’ll do it quicker.”

“So you’re not here for Luke after all.”

She swallowed. “It may be too late for Luke. I’m here for the rest of us.”

YOU GO, MY GIRL, determined to save the galaxy from yet another Force-using megalomaniac! But also, you're not fooling me about your feelings for Luke.

Later:

Han was seated in the cockpit, Chewbacca beside him, and Mara Jade in the seat behind. She was still pale and weak. She claimed that the ysalamiri were affecting her Force sense even though they were as far from her as they could be.

You can believe that if you want to, but my shipper heart knows what's what here, and you can pry that theory out of my cold, dead hands. 

Anyway, there's a space battle and Mara shoots the guns on the Falcon while they rush to rescue Leia with their ysalamiri cargo.

"Chewie?” Han shouted.

Chewbacca growled something about losing a deflector shield.

“Chewie, that was more than a shield!”

Chewie growled again. He nearly had the shield fixed but he didn’t have time to say any more. It was Mara who finally reported.

“That was my cannon,” she said.

“You okay?”

“If you call third-degree burns okay,” she said. “My hands’ll live.”

So they arrive on planet and Han uses Mara to locate Leia, or tries to, anyway.

Mara had kept her distance. Both Han and Chewie had agreed to allow her to stay far behind them—far enough so that she wasn’t caught in the ysalamiri’s anti-Force bubble.

But Han wished she were closer. He should have known better than to rely on her Force abilities when she had been so close to ysalamiri. Obviously she had been wrong. Leia couldn’t be nearby. This place was deserted.

All this is GREAT... and then Rusch has a giant-but-harmless-murderbeast eat the ysalamiri and waltz over to the Final Battle between Luke and the Big Bad, just as Luke is about to pull the Obi-Wan Kenobi Sacrificing Yourself Stunt (to Leia's horror).... and that's it for Han and Mara for the rest of the book. Except for this one line at the end:

"Mara, Luke, and I were stuck in the Falcon, playing holographic games while Han and Chewie argued about who would repair the damage.”

“They must have fixed it.”

Leia grinned. “They did. After Mara threatened to shoot them both.”

While this is a hilarious image - and totally in character - I'm so not okay with Rusch abandoning Mara right at the most dramatic possible moment and not having her play a larger role in the story. And having set up so much shipper potential with Luke... it just feels like such a waste.

What was Mara's reaction to seeing Luke? What was Luke's reaction to seeing Mara? And we don't get any of that at all. Even if you argue there was all kinds of stuff behind the scenes and Luke and Mara's relationship not being official yet, it still seems like she could have had a greater role than a fancy way of ferrying Han and the ysalamiri from Point A to Point B. As it is... it's such a letdown.

But that's what fic is for, right?