Асока
Обещанные приключения Асоки после Приказа 66. Когда приказ только задействовали, она, кстати, упустила шанс добить Мола, потому что была слишком занята спасением Рекса. Правильная расстановка приоритетов.
Асока, как и все выжившие джедаи (хотя сама она себя к джедаям и не причисляет, имперцам на это пофиг) скрывается. Стала механиком... Энакин бы ею гордился. Стала механиком и поселилась временно на очередной никому не нужной Луне, где жили одни фермеры. Там у нее появилось нечто вроде приемной семьи и даже намек на любовный интерес. Темнокожая девушка Кайден с Асокой откровенно флиртовала и даже сказала, что готова ее поцеловать, когда Асока явилась вызволять ее из имперского плена, словно прекрасную принцессу из лап дракона.
Для этой Кайден уже делают аэстетики, ну например:
Вот, у нашей девочки начинается переходный возраст и пора влюбленностей, а ее папы все пропускают. Конечно же Асока часто вспоминает Энакина с Оби-Ваном. Думает, что бы они делали в той или иной ситуации и просто по ним тоскует. У Бейла был шанс сказать ей, что Оби-Ван жив, но он решил им не пользоваться, раз уж Оби-Ван ото всех скрывается. Совершенно зря, я считаю, надо было сказать. Это совсем уж жестоко, лишать Асоку и Оби-Вана последней возможности почувствовать, что они не одиноки в этом новом пугающем имперском мире. Бессердечный человек с тумблера, некогда написавший
этот пост может взять с полки сразу несколько пирожков. Поскольку угадал. Оби-Ван действительно ходил на могилу к Шми. В старой РВ он не мог бы этого сделать, там могилу Шми специально оставили без опознавательных знаков, а вот новая вселенная дарит и новые возможности для болюшки.
Не могу сказать, что книга такая уж гениальная или серьезная, но мне понравились новые персонажи, понравились небольшие зарисовки перед главами про Оби-Вана и Энакина, понравился эпизодик с Бейлом и маленькой Леей, он совсем короткий, но и по нему ясно, как сильно Бейл любит приемную дочку.
Что изменили схему влияния силы владельца на цвет мечей (теперь считается, что краснеют они у ситхов "кровоточа" из-за Темной Стороны)... не знаю, нет определенного мнения по этому поводу. Меня устраивают оба варианта. Старый верибельнее, но новый более мистический, в нем есть свое очарование.
Отрывки про Энакина, Бейла и Оби-ВанаPerhaps this new Padawan that Obi-Wan had requested would help give him perspective. Anakin was reluctant to bring someone with no practical combat training this far out into the war. Christophsis was a dangerous place, even for two Jedi of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s skills, and they’d already proven that they could take the planet only to be at risk of losing control immediately afterward. At the same time, Anakin knew that there was no guarantee of safety for a Padawan anywhere anymore, and he knew from personal experience that Obi-Wan Kenobi was the best of teachers. Plus, this time around, he’d have Anakin to help him.
Or at least, he would if Obi-Wan wanted.
*
Thinking about her made Bail look at the aquarium again. Leia had pulled herself up, her hands and her nose pressed against the glass, as she watched an orange-and-purple tentacled creature move through the water like a dancer. She laughed every time it changed direction, which it did by emitting a stream of bubbles. He couldn’t imagine his life without his daughter. He couldn’t imagine not working for a better galaxy for her to grow up in. He still wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to do all that and manage to keep her safe.
*
He’d gone to Shmi Skywalker’s grave to apologize for losing her son. He had never met her, knew her only from Anakin’s stories, but Qui-Gon had made her a promise and Obi-Wan hadn’t been able to keep it. As he stood there, looking at the stone, he felt an even deeper shame. Qui-Gon had left her there a slave, and Obi-Wan had done everything in his power to prevent Anakin’s return. It was only the love of a good man, here on Tatooine, that had saved her—the kind of love the Jedi were supposed to eschew. Yet it had done something the Jedi could not.
But that was the past. What he did now, he did for an uncertain future and for hope. He had trusted in the light side of the Force for his entire life. There was no call for him to stop now. He found the center of his meditation, the quiet place where there was no emotion, no resistance, no worldly bonds. He rooted his feet in that place and reached again.
Still nothing.
Obi-Wan shook himself out of the trance, more annoyed with his failure than disappointed, and found he was still sitting on the floor of Ben Kenobi’s house. It was sparsely appointed, only the basic necessities. He hadn’t been there long, but he got the feeling that even if he stayed until Luke Skywalker had a long gray beard, he still wouldn’t accumulate many possessions. Tatooine wasn’t that sort of place.
He stood up, his knees creaking in a rather alarming fashion. Surely he wasn’t that old yet. It must be the desert climate that affected him strangely. He got a small cup, filled it with water, and then returned to his seat on the floor. Something caught his attention, one of the few pieces of his old life that he’d taken with him to his desert solitude.
Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber.
It was all that was left of the man who had been, often simultaneously, Obi-Wan’s greatest annoyance, his brother, and his closest friend. If any other part of Anakin had survived, it was lost to evil and darkness. Obi-Wan couldn’t save him any more than he could save any Jedi who was still at large in the galaxy, trying to find footing in the new order. All Obi-Wan could do was make sure the child Luke survived to adulthood, and train him if he exhibited his father’s talents.
He wondered briefly how the daughter was faring under Bail Organa’s tutelage.
Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Down he plunged, through memory and dream. There was Commander Cody, handing him back his lightsaber only to blast him off the cavern wall moments later. There was Anakin, laughing as he made some improbably difficult landing, saving all their lives again. There was Ahsoka, her hands on her hips, her endless questions challenging him at every turn. There was Palpatine, as Chancellor, his disguise so complete that Obi-Wan couldn’t detect his villainy even when he knew where to look.
He made himself pass them all by. It was easier this time. It grew easier every time. That made his heart hurt, to think he was so fickle that he could turn his back on them to achieve his own ends. When he thought it, he heard Yoda, reminding him that his work was important, that he must focus on the future alone, obscuring the past and even ignoring the present if he must. He had to break through.
He reached the bottom again, the quiet place where his doubts, loves, and fears were gone. Then he realized it wasn’t the bottom, not quite. There was another level below.
Obi-Wan let go of Ben Kenobi’s house, the last place in the galaxy where a piece of Anakin Skywalker rested, and broke through the wall between life and death.
It was dark there if he wanted to take anything with him or leave anything behind, but he wished for neither of those things, so he stood in the light. His senses were sharp. He could hear every sound at once, and also none of them. It took him a moment to focus on the voice he wanted most to hear.
Alone and connected. Aloof and hopelessly entwined. Obi-Wan had only a moment before he was wrenched back into the physical world, but it was long enough to renew his hope.
“Obi-Wan,” said Qui-Gon Jinn. He was sure the voice was stronger this time. “Let go.