Loose Ends and Dead KinKin

Ikrit's Prophecy:  Bunny died, but before that he said something that some people claimed was a prophecy.  He said this: "...I've said enough."

Oookay, right?  Except it seemed like his prophecy was supposed to remain unsaid.  And I'm assuming the prophecy had something to do with the fact that Anakin would go poof.  Ikrit warned Anakin that he was going down a suicidal path.  Then he stopped with the lecture and started with the cryptic.  So maybe Anakin was...

Anakin was Meant to Die: People say that Killing Anakin was DelRey's WORST DECISION EVER.  I 100% DISAGREE!!!  Killing Anakin was great for the plot.  It kicked Han out of his stupor, developed Leia, kicked Luke out of his stupor, developed Jacen, threw Jaina into the dark side, developed Tahiri, and made Mara look bad.  For those reasons alone, it was a great stimulus.  It remains to be seen if his death was a simple plot device or actually part of the plot.  There is enough residual Anakin left to tweak things in the New Jedi Order and I hope they exploit that.  Still, many wonder why he had to die.  Wouldn't it have been more effective if they had...

Seriously Injured Him Instead?: Without seeming like a mean, green sadist, I would like to reiterate my belief that DelRey could have just gravely injured Anakin.  They could have made him Force blind or destroyed another one of his five senses.  Or they could have chopped off his legs or something.  Something that would have radically changed they way he approached the war, something that could have forced him to barf out his hubris.  This would have developed his character, but I guess it would not have had such a huge impact on the surrounding characters.  Besides, I'm sure DelRey explored a ton of other options before they decided on what to do with Anakin's future and decided that...

Death was the Best Thing for Him and Everyone Else:  Which is highly disputable.  It did up the realism of the New Jedi Order, preparing everyone for Traitor.  It should have pleased the blasted whiners who felt like Anakin, Jacen, and Jaina were taking the spotlight away from Luke, Han, and Leia.  But his character was doomed from the beginning.  He, like all tragic heroes, had...

One Fatal Flaw: Anakin had huge amounts of guilt heaped up on his shoulders.  First he had guilt from carrying Darth Vader's name.  Then he had guilt for killing Chewbacca, for losing Daeshar'acor, etc, etc.  He blamed himself for everything.  His guilt drove him to his gallant final sacrifice.  I bet he even blames himself for dying and depressing the fans.  This stems from Anakin's unconscious empathy with the Force...

A Different Kind of Empathy: An empathy entirely different from Jacen.  Anakin thrived on the living Force.  He sang for the moment while Jacen fretted about the consequences.  According to Lucas, the Living Force makes Jedi sensitive to other living things (intuition, mind reading, etc) while the Unifying Force has to do with following destiny.  While Jacen also lived off of the Living Force, he embraced the Unifying Force in Traitor.  Anakin's relationship with other people--and his love for them...linked him to the Living Force.  And that's what killed him.  Jacen's conversion to the Unifying Force (willingness to sacrifice Ganner in accordance to fate) was what saved him, Anakin's adherence to the Living Force (unwillingness to sacrifice others) was what killed him.  He was too "mindful of the Living Force."

Anakin had always enjoyed solving problems and solving puzzles...but when confronted with death...he couldn't deal.

Death was one problem he was unable to solve...yet.  Does that not remind you...

Of Anakin?  Yeah, the other one: I'm talking Skywalker, the beefcake who fell to the dark side, an opposite of Solo, the beefcake who fell to the light side.  Anakin Solo fell to the light side of the Force and died in a completely self-sacrificial way.  Interesting, isn't it?  Now he needs to be redeemed, which is...

Kind of Ironic:  Anakin denied his dark side.  He tried to pretend it didn't exist.  Because of that imbalance, he was emotionally pooped.  His niceness was another fatal flaw.  But how can you redeem someone for being overly nice?  Anakin Skywalker was selfish and didn't want anyone around him to die.  Anakin Solo was selfless and died so everyone else could live.  I'm not making sense.  Maybe I'm rambling and Anakin's...

A Total Goner:  Which would just be lousy storytelling because of Anakin's legacy.  He'll be back one way or another...either him or his influence.  Maybe not a completely resurrection, but a ghost or a manifestation in Tahiri or a legend among legends...Or maybe he is gone.  If so, then...

What About Tahiri?: His girlfriend is convinced that "Anakin is trying to kill me!" although she has expressed in past books that she has no idea who "me" is.  Some part of him is alive and well in her.  And no, I don't think she's pregnant.  That's just sick.  And then of course there's the lightsaber...

One of the More Interesting Legacies: Anakin's lightsaber is weird.  It's speh-shul.  We weren't told his lightsaber color until Onslaught.  Greg Keyes was not allowed to change the lightsaber color in Ruin.  On the Destiny Way's cover, Jacen is holding a purple saber--many people thought it was Anakin's saber until Traitor came out and we discovered that it was buried under a pile of corpses on Coruscant.  There has to be a good reason why the authors gave Anakin's saber to Ganner and not Jacen.  They left it on Coruscant...where it might become a relic for shamed ones.  Although it could come back.  Some say that Anakin's enteched in the lambent.  I'm not so sure about that, but I'd say at least some part of him is, seeing that some part of Jacen is in the Coruscant dhuryam.  Speaking of Jacen...

What About the Trinity?:  Sure, Jacen and Jaina have that Yin-Yang thing going on, but anyone who's ever played Zelda knows that it's all about the trios.  Anakin is the third part of a trinity...seemingly insignificant, but not.  The Yuuzhan Vong wanted Yun-Harla and Yun-Yammka to fight in the forms of Jacen and Jaina.  They tried to brainwash Jacen into Yun-Yammka, and Jaina ironically assumed the mantle of Yun-Harla on her own accord.  But Anakin has this whole cosmic creator and destroyer thing going...or so the fans would like to think.  Who knows.  It's kind of unbelievable that the authors would so willingly scrap the Solo kid trinity.  Remember in Vector Prime ANAKIN, not Jacen, was the one who thought of the Jedi Meld...he unified his brother and sister.  In order to complete the trinity, Anakin, or someone like Anakin, has to be active.  Not necessarily alive, but active.  Although there is someone alive who looks a lot like Anakin...

His name is Dab Hantaq, aka Tarc: Okay, if Anakin possesses this poor kid's body, I'll have an aneurysm.  That said, Tarc's uncanny resemblance to Anakin might shake up the Yuuzhan Vong ranks a tad.  Interesting enough, the DR directorate asked Troy Denning to stick this kid into Star By Star.  Two books later he was unceremoniously evicted from the series by Aaron Allston.  Now Tarc is off to become the next Barbara Walters.  But imagine Tarc, or even the real Anakin, showing up in front of the...

Shamed Ones:  Anakin's REAL friends.  They're cuddly and happy and borderline sappy they're Shamed Ones.  We love them so much especially when they're the blamed ones.  And isn't it nice that they already tell stories of him too?  (I'm singing this aloud while I type this, by the way)  And if that's the case wouldn't it be base if the great Solo guy came back down from the sky and freaked everyone out with his...

Unrealistic Resurrection: Bring him back believably or not at all.  Please.