Jaina Solo

"I name you the Sword of the Jedi. You are like tempered steel, purposeful and razor-keen. Always you shall be in the front rank, a burning brand to your enemies, a brilliant fire to your friends. Yours is a restless life, and never shall you know peace, though you shall be blessed for the peace that you bring to others. Take comfort in the fact that, though you stand tall and alone, others take shelter in the shadow that you cast."

- Luke Skywalker, on Jaina

Jaina Solo was a major protagonist in the New Jedi Order series, the Dark Nest trilogy, the Legacy of the Force series, and the Fate of the Jedi series. The Sword of the Jedi, Jaina was responsible for the deaths of Warmaster Tsavong Lah and Chief of State Darth Caedus. As of the Fate of the Jedi series, Jaina is a Jedi Master and the wife of Imperial Head of State Jagged Fel.

History
The daughter of Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo, Jaina was older than her brother Jacen by five minutes. Like him, she was strong in the Force. She, too, had the dark hair and dark brown eyes of her mother and shared most of Jacen's adventures.



Jaina took after her father. From an early age, she was a mechanical whiz who seemed always to be dismantling droids and equipment. By the time she was nine, she was helping her father repair the Millennium Falcon. She was also capable of cobbling together mechanical devices for just about any purpose, and like Han Solo, her impulsiveness, spirit, and self-confidence sometimes got her into trouble.

When Jaina was fourteen and a student at her Uncle Luke's Jedi Praxeum on Yavin IV, she, Jacen, and their friends Lowbacca and Tenel Ka found an Imperial TIE fighter that had crashed in the jungle years before. They kept returning to the site, and Jaina not only repaired the ship but also added a hyperdrive module that her father had given her as a gift. Little did the youngsters realize that the TIE fighter pilot, Qorl, had survived and was hiding nearby. When Jaina's repairs were nearly finished, he captured the teenager and her brother, and left them to die in the jungle as he took off. They were rescued, but Qorl escaped thanks to the new hyperdrive. His information led to the twins being kidnapped several weeks later, along with their friend Lowbacca.

The three were taken to the Shadow Academy where attempts were made to turn them to the dark side, but eventually they escaped. Later, when the cloaked Shadow Academy space station moved into orbit around Coruscant and began destroying New Republic ships, Jaina figured out how to disarm the cloaking mechanisms, forcing the station to flee. She later created her own lightsaber, which glowed with violet light.



After her time at the academy, Solo trained with her aunt Mara Jade Skywalker. A true student of the Force, Solo sometimes found it hard to be around her mother, who had never seriously developed her own Jedi potential.

Yuuzhan Vong War
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Solo put her Force skills to work as a member of Rogue Squadron, flying an X-wing into battle against the enemy. She ejected from her fighter during the Battle of Kalarba, suffering temporary blindness. She recuperated on Duro, helping her mother resettle war refugees. Over time, her eyesight returned and she longed to get back into the cockpit.



Solo agreed to be part of the Myrkr strike team to kill the voxyn queen, watching Anakin die and Jacen become a prisoner of the enemy. In her anger, she briefly turned to the dark side, wielding Force lightning to eliminate an alien attacker. Solo vowed to rescue Jacen, stealing a Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper that she renamed Trickster. At Hapes, she became caught up in the political intrigue, nearly becoming the heir of Queen Mother Ta'a Chume. However, she was rescued by Jedi Knight Kyp Durron, who she briefly apprenticed herself to.

New Republic strategists urged Solo to play on her "trickster" reputation within the Yuuzhan Vong ranks and act as if she were an incarnation of the goddess Yun-Harla. It was during that time that Solo also admitted her feelings for fellow pilot Jagged Fel, who flew with a Chiss squadron. Solo received the rank of major for her work at Hapes and Borleias. During this time, rumors emerged that Jaina's captive brother was still alive. When Jedi Knight Ganner Rhysode suggested they follow up on them, Solo grew angry and threatened the elder Jedi.

To Solo's shock, the rumors turned out to be true. While stationed at Kashyyyk with Fel and Durron, Solo felt Jacen reach out to her in the Force. She expressed guilt to Durron for shutting herself off from her family during her bout with the dark side. She hated the thought that she might have put Jacen through the same grief she had been in those last few months, while he was a captive of the Yuuzhan Vong.

After being reunited with Jacen, Solo returned to the fight. She was shortly joined by her brother. During their time on Mon Calamari, every Myrkr survivor was promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight, among them Jaina and Jacen. Jaina, in particular, was proclaimed the Sword of the Jedi by Luke Skywalker. Later, during the Battle of Ebaq, Solo dueled Warmaster Tsavong Lah and killed him. Because of this, Major Solo was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

While her brother was with their aunt and uncle searching for Zonama Sekot, Solo continued to serve with Fel and Twin Suns Squadron. During this time, she helped fellow Jedi Tahiri Veila come to terms with Anakin's death and her torture at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong. With Solo's help, Veila was able to merge her Riina Kwaad personality with her own. Shortly before the recapture of Coruscant, Solo was reunited with Jacen on Zonama Sekot, where each Jedi built their own Sekotan vessels.

During the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, Solo journeyed with her brother and uncle to the citadel of Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane. While Skywalker dueled Jamaane, Solo was taken captive by the true power of the throne, the court jester Onimi. She rescued by her brother Jacen, who reached a oneness with the Force and effectively destroyed Onimi. Following the Yuuzhan Vong's subsequent surrender and redemption, Solo broke off her relationship with Fel, as she was not looking for love right now.



Dark Times
Five years after the Sekot Accords, Solo became one of the key players in the Swarm War between the Chiss and the Killik Colony. She also realized that her bond with fellow Jedi Zekk had become too powerful to resist. Solo and Zekk became mind-mates, forever linked to each other through the Force and the hive-mind extended to all Killik Joiners. This also placed her on opposite sides from Fel, a Chiss commander. It would be some time before Solo and Fel were able to repair their relationship.



During the Second Galactic Civil War, Solo confronted the fact that her twin brother was falling to the dark side when he usurped her leadership of Rogue Squadron during the blockade of the Corellian system. Jacen removed her from active duty when she refused to fire on a retreating civilian starship.

Solo returned to the Jedi Order and took on the role of a reconnaissance fighter pilot, working with Zekk to gather intelligence on the Corellian shipyards. Upon returning to Coruscant, Solo found herself assigned by Grand Master Skywalker to the task force hunting down Alema Rar. Solo learned that the task-force leader was none other than Fel, but agreed to join since she would be working directly with Zekk.

Their mission took them to Ossus, where they were caught up in a kidnapping of the Jedi younglings there orchestrated by Darth Caedus. Solo and Fel were apprehended inside the facility, while Zekk remained hidden in his ship. They dispatched Major Serpa, the leader of the mission, and then lent what aid they could to Kam and Tionne Solusar. Solo rushed to Kashyyyk to bring word of the attack to Master Skywalker.

At Kashyyyk, Solo filled Veila's place in the Night Blades Squadron and defended the planet against her brother's savage assault. She served as Skywalker's wingmate, mistakenly believing that the Grand Master had died in the fireflight but later learning that he had used the cover to infiltrate Caedus's flagship. When Skywalker was unable to defeat the Sith Lord, Solo became convinced that her role as the Sword of the Jedi was to defeat her brother and restore peace to the galaxy.

Solo began studying Mandalorian combat techniques under Manda'lor Boba Fett. The bounty hunter saw the training as a means of settling the score with Caedus, who had murdered his daughter Ailyn Vel during a brutal interrogation session. Solo was part of a Mandalorian mission to the Nickel One asteroid to protect the Verpine munitions factories there. In the wake of the Imperial Remnant attack on the asteroid, Solo finally parted ways with Fett and set off to confront her twin brother. The Jedi Council and her parents supported her grim task.



Solo infiltrated the asteroid's main complex and confronted the Sith Lord. Caedus was unaware that he was fighting his sister since the Force was being used to alter Caedus's perceptions. This, coupled with Solo's new fighting skills, gave her an edge of unpredictability that helped her gain the early advantage. With one savage blow, she cleaved off her brother's arm but was so surprised she was flung against the far wall by Caedus's Force lightning. In that instant, Solo's pain forced her to drop her Force control, and Caedus realized that he had been fighting his sister all along.

Caedus escaped, but the two soon fought again aboard the Anakin Solo. Solo gained the upper hand when she severed the tendons in her brother's leg, and then drove her lightsaber into his chest, killing him. As the civil war wound down outside this intensely personal arena, Solo could do little more than cradle her brother's dead body, letting go only when her parents arrived.

Aftermath
Following Caedus's death, the Jedi Order was placed under strict restrictions by his successor Natasi Daala. Solo was present when her uncle and cousin were sentenced to a ten-year exile. Together with Fel, Solo formed Darkmeld, an organization to secretly oppose Daala's rule. During this time, Solo also helped Veila come to terms with her reign as Caedus's apprentice. Following the destruction of Abeloth, Solo was promoted to Jedi Master and married Fel.