thoughts on the ending (trials of the jedi)
I enjoyed the finale, even if it wasn’t perfect. I thought Avar and Elzar were extremely intriguing and unique jedi, and I thought their parallel endings and dedication to the force after struggling within themselves were perfect. I liked Bell and Burryaga, and while I did wish for a grander ending with Marchion, I did think Bell’s final battle with him was very well done. Reath was one of my favorite characters, and I do wish he had a bit more in the finale, but I hope his story with Azlin continues, because I did enjoy that storyline quite a bit, even if Azlin was slightly underdeveloped and inconsistent at times. Ty, Buck, and Terec were kinda just thrown on the team; Ty and Buck had not been developed enough previously that I cared much about them on the team, and while I did quite enjoy Terec and Ceret in the comics and Terec was important for communication, he didn’t do much else once they got to the planet. I did miss Vernestra and Keeve, maybe they were saving Vernestra for the Acolyte or something and didn’t want Keeve to stray from the comics or just focus on her being a general (which was only mentioned in this book), but Terec was present so I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a good reason, but still felt like an odd choice.
I thought the nameless and the blight were wrapped up almost perfectly. I was starting to get skeptical of them within Star Wars as a whole, because the idea of the Jedi having a weakness so strong was almost unbelievable knowing how long the Order persisted. However, writing them as being from a planet so rich in the force that when forcibly removed the force was so inbalanced that it started to consume the galaxy was near genius. We have seen such depth to the force before, such as episodes in the Clone Wars along with Legends novels such as Darth Plagueis, so I really liked this explanation. I also thought it lended an extra bit of irony to the Path of the Open Hand, who’s whole mantra was that abuse to the force causes unbalance in it, which was actually achieved by their own abductions of the first nameless.
My biggest gripes with the conclusion, however, were Marchion Ro and the Nihil. The final battle between the Nihil and the Republic on Eriadu was cool, but I felt could have been prolonged more and seen the presence of more main characters that weren’t in the Luminous Nine. I thought Porter’s final confrontation with Viess was amazing, and his ending was well-done, but other than that it was hard to become completely involved in the conflict. The Nihil were reduced to that one battle, which I guess shows they really were nothing without Marchion, but I was still hoping for more. I also thought Marchion’s conclusion was a bit anticlimactic. He was the coolest when he was mysterious and untouchable, when we were yet to see his weaknesses and his personality fully. I thought his dissatisfaction with his growing thirst for power was fine, but I didn’t like how they handled his path from there. He didn’t hatch any grand plots in phase 3, aside from the stormwall, which was pretty much already there at the beginning of the phase, the blight and what it meant kinda just fell into his lap. And while his abandonment of the Nihil was in character, I thought it was a bit boring and very short-sighted on his own part. And he didn’t do a whole lot at the end either, only made the nameless kill each other and fought with Bell. That was the only time we got to see him really fight too, aside from with Lourna briefly, and he lost. Not that he was a bad villain, he was a serious and fascinating threat, I just think he didn’t have enough development throughout the series and ultimately fell a bit flat.
Thoughts? How did anyone else feel about the finale?