I'd like to keep this thread as much on topic as possible. We can certainly have discussions in it, but I really want people to post what they predict will happen in Invincible so that when the book comes out in a few months, we can go back and all rub it in each others faces as to who was right and wrong.
Anyway, I've changed drastically on one issue that I had been holding fast to for most of the series, and that's Jacen's fate. After reading Revelation, I think I'm going to have to predict that Jacen is going to die in Invincible. I was a hardcore believer in Jacen surviving and being redeemed somehow, but the last chapter in Revelation really swayed me.
"...You're going to kill your brother because he's a power-hungry, murdering dictator, no one else in your Jedi circle has the moral courage to do it, and you stand the best chance of stopping him..." [...] It wasn't the kind of revelation that left you feeling enlightened... It was the sort that said there was only one way out of the burning building if you wanted to live, and you would have to pass through fire. [...] "Then, Bard'ika, I'll do it for them, so they have a galaxy to grow up in." Her heart broke, and not for the first time. She thought of the strill, desperate and unhappy, biting those who loved it, and knew the burden of being Sword of the Jedi. [...] And Jaina was illuminated too, and saw that the only way out of her dilemma was an agonizing but necessary passage through flame.
Those last few pages had my heart breaking. I could literally feel Jaina's pain, and the understanding that she was really trapped and there was no where to go, no alternative, but forward. I think that Jaina will face Jacen with every intention to kill him. Whether the opportunity arises to redeem him, well, I hope that happens, but it might not come about until it's too late to save his physical self (like Vader). Fett explained to Jaina that a lightsaber cauterizes a would so effectively that a severed head has enough oxygen to keep the brain conscious for two minutes. Might that be an eerie prediction as to how Jaina kills Jacen?
Also, I predict there to be some resolution between Jaina and Jag. I don't expect them to loudly declare their love for each other, but I think there were enough references to Jag in Revelation that Jaina is going to at least spend one scene talking to him and resolving what they mean to each other.
P.S. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I will say hearing people say that Jaina can't take Jacen on irritates the heck out of me. Yes, Jacen had five years of whatever training he learned. I don't see anywhere how it made him a better Jedi. The skills he's learned that Jaina doesn't know--Force phantoms, disguising his presence in the Force--won't help him in a fight against Jaina. It barely helped him in his fight against Mara. I don't think Jaina will fall for his tricks, especially since she's a little more prepared than Mara was.


















