If you thought the modern Star Wars franchise had been hard on Leia and Han, the sad truth is that the old Expanded Universe was just as bad – if not worse. In the EU (now branded non-canon, or “Legends”), the couple had three children. One, Anakin Solo, died during the Yuuzhan Vong war, while his older brother Jacen was subjected to horrific torture at their hands. But Jacen’s darkest story was years later, when Lucasfilm took him down a shocking road that was arguably adapted by canon into Kylo Ren’s story.
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In the “Legacy of the Force” series, Jacen Solo became an actual Sith Lord. Lucasfilm retconned the last few years’ worth of stories, revealing he had been twisted and manipulated by a secret Sith Lord named Vergere, who had been seducing him towards the dark side. Jacen embraced them, taking his dead brother’s greatest love Tahiri Veila on as an apprentice, and eventually died at the hands of his own sister. It was a horrific twist, and weirdly… it even involved a fan competition.
Jacen Solo’s Sith Name Was Decided by the Fans
In 2006, Lucasfilm officially announced a “Darth Who” competition to name a new Sith Lord. American subscribers to the Star Wars official site were able to submit one name, and authors Troy Denning, Aaron Allston, and Karen Traviss chose the top five entries. These were posted on January 23, 2007, and fans could vote for the next month. The top five options were:
- Darth Archeron – named after the river over which Charon ferries the dead to Hades
- Darth Caedus – from a Latin word meaning cutting down, killing, or slaughter
- Darth Judicar – derived from the word Adjudicator
- Darth Paxis – a variant of pax, referencing a Sith Lord who believes he is bringing an imperial peace
- Darth Taral – a variant of tare, “in chemistry, an empty vessel similar to one being used in an experiment and placed beside it to show or counter balance any change in its weight”
It’s worth noting the fans did not actually know whose Sith name they were choosing. At the time, the Star Wars: Legacy comics had introduced a distant future timeline, and many believed Jacen’s sister Jaina was destined to become the Sith Lord Darth Krayt. That theory was debunked as soon as the competition was announced; it turned out the fans had been focused on the wrong Solo sibling.
The winner was Darth Caedus, a name now woven into Star Wars history. “Legacy of the Force” may be considered non-canon, but this story came to dominate the publishing line for years, and it set up lasting consequences for that timeline. It was also, sadly, one of the grimmest stories in the franchise’s history.
Jacen’s Fall to the Dark Side Was a Sad End for a Solo
You’ll sometimes see old-school Star Wars fans who loved the old Expanded Universe praise Legends for its consistent narrative throughlines. The truth is, that’s something of an exaggeration; like any franchise, there were countless course-corrections over the course of the EU. Jacen had been at the heart of a major shift in the Jedi philosophy, with the Jedi moving away from the traditional light-dark philosophy. Troy Denning’s Dark Nest trilogy saw this as the Jedi believing the dark side could be used as well as the light, which is something of a misreading of those earlier stories, and “Legacy of the Force” doubled down on this.
According to the “Legacy of the Force” story, the Jedi had abandoned this and returned to a more traditional approach – with the exception of Jacen, who still believed the dark side could be used. This was because he had been secretly manipulated by a Sith Lord named Vergere, prepared for the day he too would become a Sith. It was probably one of the biggest retcons in the EU, frustrating because it rewrites Matt Stover’s Traitor on a fundamental level, and that’s one of the best Star Wars books of all time. It also led to the heartbreaking ending, in which Jaina Solo killed her own twin. If you thought the end of The Rise of Skywalker felt a little bleak after Ben Solo’s death, this was so much worse.
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