Ask A Jedi: The Mandalorian Mistake

If you spend any time on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums, you are sure to have seen his passion and prose regarding all things Jedi. You know him as Professor Walsh. Each week (or thereabouts,) Professor Walsh will answer a few reader-submitted questions in order to enlighten us all with the ways of the Jedi. You can submit your own question at the end of the article!

Hello everyone! Professor Walsh here…. Time for another edition of Ask A Jedi!

This week pickings were a little slim, I guess everyone else had questions regarding the dropped embargoes or something. However, I did get a nice spattering in my inbox this week, so I decided pick one of the more interesting ones.

Our first question comes from a poster at the official TOR forums, and he has asked that he remain nameless:

“Hey Professor, I’ve recently gotten into Star Wars books and I just read the “Legacy of the Force” series. I’m confused. When was it established that Boba Fett had killed more Jedi than anyone else?”

Well Anonymous, this one is actually extremely good, and I had to gather a lot of sources to answer it… Meaning I have spent a lot of time on this one question and the answer is a long one. So if you need to use the bathroom or want something to drink, you might wish to do so before you continue to read on. I’ll wait.

Are you back already?

Good, let us continue.

Now, to start with, all I can say is: “Welcome to the writing style of Karen Traviss.”

Who is Karen Traviss and what does she have to do with this? Well I am about to get to that.

Karen Traviss is a former Star Wars author who is most well known for her contributions to the Star Wars line in the form of the Republic Commando series as well as one of the three authors who worked on the Legacy of the Force series. She also has a real fascination with Mandalorians and their culture which has prompted her to create a fictional language for them. She also has never read a Star Wars book that she didn’t write.

Wait… What?

Yeah, that was about my reaction too. Karen Traviss never read Star Wars and knew very little about the canon. So she turned the Mandalorians (who were previously depicted as very blood-thirsty, honorable, space Vikings) into a group of peace-loving farmers with strong family values that only fight when they have no choice and whose only flaw is that they love their people too much.

Traviss also has a serious dislike for the Jedi and the Sith. She sees the Jedi and the Sith, (and no I am not making this up, it was actually heavily discussed by her on her own blog,) as kind of the Star Wars version of the Nazi party. She saw them as a “Master Race” group who believed that people who didn’t have their abilities were lesser beings.

In Karen’s mind Boba Fett, Jango Fett, and the Mandalorians were part of a mysterious trinity in Star Wars of the three most powerful groups: The Jedi, the Sith, and the Mandalorians. She claimed that the Mandalorians kept the Jedi and the Sith in line and were awesome because they didn’t have the Force.

Karen Traviss, in her novels, had every character (even ones who had no reason to) speak or think in Mandalorian, revere Mandalorians, and be in awe of Mandalorians. This included, but was not limited to, Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade Skywalker, Jaina Solo, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, Jacen Solo, and pretty much everyone else. She received so much criticism about this behavior that she frequently got into screaming matches with Star Wars fans and participated in flame wars on various message boards and her own personal blog. She referred to fans of the Jedi as Nazi sympathizers and dubbed them, and I quote: “Talifans”

In the Legacy of the Force series she forced in Boba Fett and the Mandalorians. They did not need to be in the series and were, from indications of the other writers, never intended to be there. She regularly took the time to show the superiority of the Mandalorians by indicating that they could easily have killed Darth Caedus and by bad mouthing the Jedi as the, again I quote: “Bathrobe Brigade”

Then the debacle you mentioned happened.

Jaina Solo, after having decided that she had to take down her brother, decided to get special training. So she went to Luke Skywalker, her uncle and the Jedi Grandmaster, who had defeated Jacen Solo in the previous book, and asked for his permission to go train with Boba Fett and the Mandalorians because, in her words, he had killed more Jedi than anyone else and she needed to learn how to defeat Jacen Solo. Luke saw her logic and agreed with her plan to learn from the Mandalorians because they were the only people who could teach her how to defeat Jacen Solo.

Note: I am not misrepresenting the above facts either, that is indeed what happened in the book.

Common sense would state that she would learn from Luke because he had just beaten Caedus. Instead he can only think that the Mandalorians are so much better at it than he is and thus he tells her to seek out the Mandalorians. That part of the book gave me a migraine at the sheer amount of mental gymnastics that were required for that to make any sense.

So Jaina packs her things and heads to Mandalore.

On Mandalore we learn a number of things that have no bearing on the main story at all. The Mandalorians have discovered a massive vein of Mandalorian Iron, super metal that can stop lightsabers (though not anymore in canon) and is better than any other metal. This will allow them to become the most powerful faction in Star Wars as it will give them the best armor, weapons, and space craft.

In fact the book spends a huge amount of time going on about Mandalorian Iron. What does this have to do with the rest of the plot to the Legacy of the Force?

… Absolutely nothing.

I’m not kidding here readers; this had nothing to do with the resolution of the series. It was simply done so that the Mandalorians can be established as one of the most influential factions in the modern day of Star Wars. It was like reading a massive batch of filler where plot should have been.

So, on Mandalore Jaina Solo is beaten silly by Mandalorians, mocked by them to the point that she literally broke down in tears, and is made to question everything about the universe including the Jedi.

Jaina is completely flabbergasted by how armor and weapons that could block lightsabers “changed the game” of combat. The Mandalorians also have a super-technique that can let them disappear from the Force. Together these two factors, armor that can stop lightsabers and the ability to not be felt in the Force, completely confounded Jaina who had no idea how to handle it.

Now, the above might make sense if the book series “New Jedi Order” had not been read.

In “New Jedi Order,” the Jedi and the Republic faced off against the Yuuzhan Vong. A race of invaders who could not be felt in the Force and who had lightsaber resisted armor and weapons. Jaina became a battle hardened Jedi fighting them and developed the techniques to deal with them.

Yes, that is correct. Jaina Solo, the Sword of the Jedi. The person who developed the techniques used to fight enemies who had lightsaber resistant armor and weapons and who could not be felt within the Force had no idea how to deal with enemies who had lightsaber resistant armor and weapons and who could not be felt within the Force. This is because Karen Traviss had not read the New Jedi Order and did not know the lore and the back story of the character she was writing.

So having all of that explained I can now get back to the original question.

When was Boba Fett established as the grand high king of Jedi killing?

Never.

Boba Fett has never been shown “on screen” (meaning in any novel, comic, game, movie, or TV show) to kill a Jedi. He claims to have done it, yes. He has a lightsaber, but that isn’t proof of anything nor does it speak of the volume or the quality of his opponents.

If we go on the evidence that we do have, such as the battle at Jabba’s sail barge in Episode VI, it is clear that Boba Fett has very little experience actually fighting Jedi. He makes every rookie mistake in the book, up to and including jumping into melee range while holding a blaster with a Jedi wielding a lightsaber. There is no reason to believe that Boba Fett has killed more Jedi than anyone else, it was just Karen Traviss not understanding the source material, continuity, or canon of Star Wars.

I’d love to hear your thoughts below, especially if you’re Karen Traviss.