Having spent a while over at TF.N reading over the Invincible discussion board, I realize that I am annoyed. This is tough to do, as I am generally a very easily pleased fangirl. YAY, new product! = me pleased. Seriously. Pretty much slap the Star Wars logo on it and I'm almost guaranteed to squeal like a little girl.
HOWEVER..the path that the twins have taken (not only in the LOTF, but for a while now) is starting to bug me. So... back in YJK, Jacen and Jaina were shown to be pretty well equal, right? Jaina was the pilot, Jacen looooooved animals. Yayz. By NJO Jacen was a hippie Jedi peacenik, while Jaina went to war (an oversimplification, but I'm making a point here). GL didn't want Anakin Solo to be the hero, so they killed the poor kid, instead, making Jacen Hero By Default. Which has always bugged me, since Jacen was presumed dead for the last bit of NJO, before showing up and becoming SAVIOR OF THE FUCKING UNIVERSE. And Jaina (who yeah, I'll admit I totally adore & identify with just a wee bit) was shoved back in to the background so Jacen the Magnificent could single-handedly destroy the Yuuzhan Vong. Didn't bug me so much at the time, but looking back I'm a bit annoyed.
Then Dark Nest comes along (which I didn't even read all the way through because I loathed the first book--unhappy fangirl), and Jacen is this Force God who's now even taken away Jaina's one AWESOME SKILL--piloting. And so Jaina became a Joiner with Zekk, and Jacen banged Tenel Ka, and started pulling Dark Side shit that somehow no one picked up on. Jaina? Shoved in to the background.
Which brings us to Legacy of the Force, in which Jacen Solo is OMG AWESOME FORCE GOD FTW!1!!! Jaina is SO INSULTINGLY portrayed as dithering over WHICH BOY TO CHOOSE, ignored for half the series, and now is supposed to step up and defeat her brother. It's being pointed out on TF.N that this doesn't seem possible. And I have to agree, with the characterization that we've been presented, Jaina shouldn't be able to beat her brother. But she probably will, or The Force will do something that makes it possible or WHATEVER, because it's the end of the series and Good will probably triumph. But they've not made the character live up to the title of Sword of the Jedi or even the promise that existed in Jaina Solo from the get-go, and that BUGS ME.
That being said...is it May 13 yet?