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As I suggested in my Outcast review thread, I'm thinking of the series as a mystery that we have to put together alongside the characters. And in Outcast alone, we're thrown upa whole bunch of plot points and things and events that, in some cases, harken back to older mysteries from across the Expanded Universe, but all seem to hinge on this Force psychosis. So, looking at Outcast, and further into the series (but only utilising officially released info), I think its time we look at these things and try and piece them all together.

1. Force Psychosis

This mysterious affliction seems to have come from nowhere and affects the Jedi it does by somehow affecting the portions of their brains that rely on recognising people they know. Seeing everyone they know as impostors, victims of the Force psychosis do however recognise their fellow victims as being real. Depending on the Jedi affected, the psychosis seems to also bring out one emotional trait. For Seff Hellin, its an extreme paranoia that has him see conspiracy theories everywhere. While this is true for all the affected, it seems more pronounced in him, given that not only does he believe the "everyone is an impostor" deal, but he also saw various other conspiracies, such as when he tried to warn the Solos about the Mandalorians being re-armed by Daala.

Valin Horn's anger seems to be brought out more. Whereas Seff more or less kept to himself, Valin more or less was enraged that everyone had been replaced and more than once went on about how he wanted to kill all the impostors.

With Jysella Horn, going off of the Omen excerpt, it seems that her fear is the predominant feeling there. Cilghal notes this herself, and it does seem to be the case, given how Jysella doesn't stay and try to murder Cilghal (like Valin did with "Not-Mirax" and "Not-Corran") but instead runs away. But she too, believes everyone has been replaced with impostors and that only Valin and Seff are real.

I think its also worth noting that it seems that the psychosis came on to Seff in stages, whereas with the Horns it was immediate, so immediate, that it seemed to overtake them mid-thought.

With Seff, though, it seemed to be much more of a slow process. Now, we could easily attribute this to Luceno and MF and the haste with which it was written, but I think in the interest of looking over every possible detail, we'd have to give it notice. Seff was into the whole conspiracy theory issue, but never once in Millennium Falcon did he ever label Han or Leia as impostors, indeed, he still referred to Leia as "Master Organa" with a title of respect. He also stated on more than one occasion, "Master Skywalker does no understand." What doesn't he understand? WHY doesn't he understand?

Is it possible that since Seff Hellin was the first infected with the psychosis (that we know of) the psychosis was weaker, and it gains momentum/strength/contagiousness as more and more Jedi succumb to it. Perhaps back in Millennium Falcon, part of Seff's being was unconsciously fighting off the disease, while part of him was trying to understand what it was even as it was infecting him, and his comments about Luke not understanding were related to that.

Its also worth noting that each of the psychosis victims are exhibiting Force-techniques and skills that they didn't know how to do before, and they are all traits that only Jacen has learned. We know that Jacen didn't teach these techniques to the infected, and they themselves didn't learn them, so just how are they able to spontaneously manifest them unconsciously? Why would the psychosis give them these abilities? And why does each Jedi have a different ability? Why do they seem to have a different emotion exacerbated (anger, fear, paranoia)? And so far we've only seen human Jedi affected. Will the symptoms be the same if a non-human Jedi became infected?

2. Force sensitive children

As others have pointed out, the only Jedi affected thus far have been, at one time or another, in the Maw Cluster for a significant period of time. Seff, Jysella and Valin all stayed there for months/years during the Yuuzhan Vong War. We know from the NJO that they seemed to cry a lot, though we could have easily passed this off for a variety of reasons: close proximity to a series of black holes, with black holes, as we know, warping the effects of the Force. Or they could have been crying because through the Force they were attuned to all the death and destruction of the war, and being children, may have lacked the mental/spiritual defences needed to block this emotional blowback. Or they could have been crying because they knew that their parents, etc were off fighting the war and might not come back.

But maybe they were crying for an altogether more insidious reason, that they sensed something out in the Maw that wanted to take them over, like a Force psychosis virus perhaps?

Then that begs the question as to why older Jedi who have spent time in the Maw have not been affected: Luke, Leia, Kyp, Vima-Da-Boda, the Solusars, etc, have all spent just as much or more time in or in close proximity to the Maw. So why aren't they infected? Or is it only a matter of time?

I suspect the answer is more to what I mentioned above: Force-sensitive children don't necessarily have the same mental and spiritual defences to ward off such intrusions by the Force/other Force-sensitive beings. Maybe that's the reason that all the Jedi children are now exhibiting symptoms in adulthood, because they inadvertently let it in when they were children.

It also explains why some younger Jedi, such as Ben, don't seem to be affected. We know Ben was "shut down" from the Force through most of his childhood, thus not letting the virus in means not being a victim to it. His Force immune system, so to speak, didn't let him contract the virus.

It also explains the voice talking to Allana. The Donnie Darko voice from somewhere in the Maw. As Allana noted, the voice seemed inquisitive and a little sad and inviting in a lonely sort of way. It would explain why the voice didn't speak to Leia either: bevause she has the mental defences to ward it off. I think it is telling that the voice was asking after Allana's name and identity like it wanted to steal it. Like the virus is stealing Valin, Seff's etc identity. Which is ironic given that it makes them think everyone else's identity has been stolen by impostors.

Maybe the psychosis simply needs to be "invited" in. Allana, having been trained by Tenel Ka and then, I assume, later by Leia, specifically about having strong enough mental defences to stave off invasions of the mind, may feasibly be at a level in that area that is higher than other Jedi her age. I suppose she's also used to the maxim, "Don't talk to strangers," after all, being raised for the first years of her life in the Hapan courts, she needs to keep her wits about her to forestall random assassination attempts and stuff.

3. The voice in the Maw is Abyss' "Maw beast?"

Although there's no definitive info either way, I'm operating on the assumption that the voice who spoke to Allana is the same entity referred to in the Abyss blurb, you know, the one that resides in the Maw and "has its own plans for Luke Skywalker." That thing.

I don't really know what the Maw beast could possibly be, but I am going to suggest some residual form of Cronal as one option. I know, I know, broken record. But some form of Cronal ties into another section of this thread BLACK HOLES. More on that later. But as I said, Cronal is only one option.

After reading Outcast, I'm thinking that maybe the CELESTIALS (also another topic in this thread) have something to do with this. And that got me thinking that maybe the Maw beast is a fallen/evil/left behind Celestial.

Whatever the case, I do think the Maw beast obviously has SOMETHING to do with the virus. It may not be the architect of the psychosis, but I feel it does have something to do with it. Maybe it was Patient X. Maybe it is simply the carrier and infects people with it. I feel that this beast is tied up to the psychosis and it needs some piece of surrender of self or surrender of identity to infect Force-users with it.

I just love this idea that there is this Lovecraftian entity hanging out in the Maw, which itself is rather creepy, with some nefarious purpose. The only real Lovecraftian entity Star Wars ever had was Waru, who a lot of people think was silly. Star Wars needs more sheer creepy factor Lovecraftian entities.

4. Celestials, Centerpoint Station and Kessel's bogeys

There is no way that Outcast spent all that time on the Kessel plot if it doesn't somehow tie into the larger series plotline.

The fact that Han and Leia both came to the conclusion that all that gravity-well monitoring tech was remnants of the Celestial civilisation is one that I agree with. I don't know what it ultimately means, but I agree with it.

And we're getting repercussions for the destruction of Centerpoint! YAY! I suspect that the Celestials were for, whatever reason, monitoring gravity wells and black holes maybe as some sort of entryway for some invading/evil force. We still don't know um… ANYTHING about them except that they are the most likely architects of the Maw Cluster and Centerpoint. There is still so much we don't know about CENTERPOINT, but what we do is that it was an incredibly powerful device. It could tow planets through hyperspace, cover entire solar systems in interdiction fields, destroy stars/solar systems and its destruction caused a micro-singularity. Perhaps its very presence was keeping something afraid? Perhaps its presence was keeping this thing dormant? A thing like… a Maw beast perhaps?

Then there's the bogeys, who are said to be NOT alive, yet they act with an intelligence that we can't discern. They seem to be monitoring what we assume is Celestial technology which in turn is monitoring black holes and gravity wells. They destroy this technology beginning on the day Centerpoint is destroyed. Coincidence? DUH NO. And this "observatory" sits on the doorstep of the Maw. Also not a coincidence.

I think with this portion of the story, we may get some answers on mysteries in the Star Wars galaxy that stretch back before the glory days of the Killiks, before the Rakata;s Infinite Empire, and before the lost civilisations of the Kwa and Sharu. Prepare to be bedazzled.

5. Black holes

They're creepy at the best of times. They're a scientific oddity. An astronomical marvel. Nothing can escape a black hole because of its sheer force of will and gravity, yet a black hole is an absence of everything, even light. Black holes do unpredictable things to one's connection to the Force (and you all said The Crystal Star didn't teach you anything!) and also to the Force user. There's a pair of black holes above Dorin that watch over it like a pair of creepy evil eyes. There's the Maw Cluster, a collection of dozens (hundreds??) of black holes that seem to have been artificially made/put there, as there's simply too many to be a natural occurrence.

What is the significance of black holes?

I'd also point out that Cronal's code name is black hole, and he got disassembled once before and came back. Is he mixed up in all this somehow?

And then there's these repeated visions that Skywalkers seem to get all across time about people who have either shining white eyes or bottomless black eyes that represent shining suns and bottomless black holes. Do these visions of eyes have some sort of unconscious symbolism of black holes?