Is there any canon or legends Star Wars novel that is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi?

Because I really need to know how Luke went from “Noooo, that’s not true, that’s impossible, Darth Vader can’t be my father” to “there is still good in him, I have to try and save him”.

I’ve added two new designs to my redbubble shop:

Ampersand Alliance

Ampersand Empire

Get em on lots of things!

redrascal1:

Okay….now we all know that TLJ received a very mixed reception, despite it being the most critically acclaimed of the sequels….strangely apparently so did ESB, since hailed as the greatest SW film of all, but…..back to the ST.

On the surface, the furore created by RJ’s masterpiece appears to mostly be because old time fans ‘didn’t like’ how Luke was depicted. They saw their ‘god’ so to speak, with feet of clay. But it wasn’t just ‘old fanboys’….a lot of posters on the JCF didn’t like it either, so do a number of youtube commentators…..and these ones in particular were also Kylo haters.

And I am pretty sure that their contempt….was because RJ wanted us to feel for Kylo.

He presented him not as an arrogant, privileged ‘rich boy’, which his haters choose to see him as, but a broken, tormented young man struggling to cope with mental illness and the PTSD caused by years of psychological and physical abuse at the hands of Snoke. He showed the ‘physical abuse’ very cleverly in TLJ. Notice how Kylo reacted when Snoke used Force lightning on him? 

It’sagonising. Remember how Luke screamed when the Emperor used it on him in ROTJ? Luke wasn’t a coward, but boy, did he squeal. Yet Kylo….didn’t make a sound. Which can only be because he had experienced it before - and had learned to keep silent. 

Notice how when Snoke uses the Force to pull Anakin’s lightsabre to him - he neatly rapped Rey on the head, but although most of us were watching Rey….behind her, Kylo wasn’t even looking at the sabre, he was staring at the floor, but he still ducked, because he was so used to Snoke hurting him. Little touches which nevertheless add up to an interesting concept.

Then, as the posters below so rightly point out….there is the way Kylo’s ‘tantrums’ are presented. In TFA, they are a source of humour. I actually laughed myself….until it struck me that he acts very much like I do in an autistic meltdown. 

And, in TLJ….RJ made sure there was NOTHING ‘funny’ about Kylo’s behaviour. He wasn’t making us laugh ….he was showing us that this young man was ill, not a whiny, sulky brat. He allowed Adam to show us just how ‘human’ Kylo was, how much he loathed himself…that sad little ‘yes, I am’ to Rey’s accusation that he was a ‘monster’.

He committed a terrible deed, that of patricide, because he was so tormented and the creature that had influenced him all his life had brainwashed him into thinking killing his father would end that torment. End the misery, end the pain….but it only caused more pain. Because as Luke so rightly pointed out, he would never truly get over the horror of what he’d done. Luke’s actions at the end of TLJ were completely in character. Luke fought with love, not weapons. Love for his father, whom he saved, by throwing away his lightsabre at the end.

Love for the nephew he’d failed, again with a simply human mistake, which drove him to sacrifice himself for said nephew, so he could release his pain and fury on a facsimile, therefore not having the death of another family member on his conscience.

I know a lot of people here disagree with me, especially Rey stans, and I respect their views, but for me, post the throne room scene, I actually disliked Rey. And it was entirely due to Adam’s acting. Yes, what he said to her was cold and cruel…but it was a pathetic attempt by a young man who had no idea of how to handle people (especially women) to get her to stay with him. That heartfelt ‘please’ at the end just about finished me off. I was actually hoping she’d stay - the complete opposite of the end of ESB when Vader attempts to sway Luke to his side. It was TLJ that truly made me a ‘Ben stan’….and it’s down to two things, RJ’s script…and Adam Driver’s phenomenal performance.

I was blown away by them. In the moments where I should have been cheering on the hero…I was cheering on the villain. And that is why Kylo haters dislike TLJ. They disliked Rian, and Adam, for showing them Kylo as a human being - not a ‘Darth Maul’, but the unhappy Ben Solo hiding behind the mask of Kylo Ren.

They wanted a monster. Rian and Adam gave us a human being. 

I absolutely agree with you but would like to add a few points.

I find it ironic that Luke stans pretended that TLJ Luke was “out of character” because “he left his friends in the dumps”, while the same fans were out of their minds with joy on seeing Luke again in The Book of Boba Fett.

In TLJ, Luke had messed up and went into exile driven by his shame, and the fear of doing worse if he took action again. In The Book of Boba Fett he is a legendary hero and as of yet, he has done nothing to be ashamed of. Yet he is in exile and it seems he is trying to cut himself off from all attachments. The New Republic is living trying times and he makes frogs float through the air. He is doing exactlywhat TLJ haters accused him of doing in TLJ, but fans don’t see it.

I wrote a long meta about it years ago: the problem with action movies is that most people who watch them expecting their heroes to look cool. It doesn’t matter that much what they do or why, it has to look good. In TBoBF Luke looks cool although he does nothing useful and has no reason to hide. In TLJ he’s an elderly man who drinks green milk and fans are embarrassed.

The problem with the Star Wars saga always was that action movie fans have a certain idea of how a “real man” is supposed to be: cool. They dislike Anakin Skywalker being emotional, Luke throwing away his weapon, Kylo Ren being a victim of abuse.

It hits too closely home. Action fans want to escape reality when they watch a movie, not to be confronted with their own inner and often painful realities. They dislike young Anakin, elderly Luke and TLJ Kylo because they’re not the kind of heroes (or villains) you could put on a pedestal. They’re so much like them that it frightens them to death.

TLJ, Reylo and Ben Solo fans are not that afraid of their inner darkness. Which is why we can appreciate these themes instead of running away screaming when the mirror is placed before our eyes.

Carrie Fisher would wholeheartedly approve of young Leia. I can just imagine pictures of Carrie hugging her!