Since its initial announcement, The High Republic initiative has garnered comparisons to The New Jedi Order series from Legends. Charles Soule’s conclusion to the main High Republic story in Trials of the Jedi makes the connections between the two publishing ventures undeniable.
Both finales rely on the Force as an ultimate deus ex machina to make everything work when the odds are impossible. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it’s a bedrock factor in Star Wars storytelling and themes—but where its use in the New Jedi Order feels like a cop-out to wrap things up, Trials of the Jedi’s ending is a poignant culmination of all that came before.
Why does one feel satisfying, while the other doesn’t?
It’s Like Poetry…
On the surface, the similarities between The High Republic and New Jedi Order are hard to ignore. From conception to marketing, Lucasfilm touted both as a giant shake-up of the Star Wars story we know; promising a defining new era, telling a singular story across multiple novels by various authors. While the New Jedi Order did not spread over multiple different mediums like The High Republic has been, its 19 full novels are nothing to sneeze at.
At a glance, the Yuuzhan Vong and Nihil are very different villains. One is an extragalactic species with a culture built around the idea of pain and war. The other is an anarchist gang within the known galaxy, looking to spread their lawlessness and keep the good times rolling.
Dig deeper, however, and they’re thematic peas in a pod:
Changing the Status Quo
The Vong and Nihil are designed as disruptive forces. An altogether new kind of threat to the characters (specifically the Jedi) and audience.
New Challenges
Having eschewed all things technological, the Vong’s bio-engineered everything poses unique problems for the Jedi. Similarly, the Nihil’s advanced Path Engines, Stormwall technology, and frenetic/unpredictable approach to fighting put the Jedi on their back feet.
Extreme Perspectives
The Vong are religious zealots. They see the Jedi/New Republic as heretical and needing eradication. The High Republic Phase II reveals the Nihil’s origins stem from the Path of the Open Hand. A religious cult who believes no one should use the Force and the Jedi as the worst perpetrators.
The Force
Both villains featured strange relationships with the Force. The Vong are disconnected from the Force—stripped if we’re getting technical—making them invisible to the Jedi and practically immune to their effects. While the Nihil employ the Force-eating Nameless to render the Jedi all but helpless.
These last two elements are possibly the most important factors for these villains. Their views/relationship with the Force makes the crux of the struggle in these stories go beyond the mere Light and Dark side as we know it. Instead, they present a tangible threat to the concept of the Force itself.
Wrapping Things Up
Both stories made it clear from the outset these factions would upend the galaxy in ways we couldn’t imagine. The most important similarity, however, is how they conclude. Without diving into specifics, The High Republic and New Jedi Order both rely on the mystical, esoteric nature of the Force to save the day. The threats in both stories had become insurmountable. The only way to resolve things was through a higher power in a way we’ve never seen before.
In The Unifying Force, Jacen Solo’s battle against Onimi sees him attain “Oneness” with the Force where he becomes a glowing—literally—avatar of the cosmic Force. Following Onimi’s defeat, the Vong surrendered all at once. They hop onto the living planet, Zonama Sekot, vowing to give up their warlike ways in order to rediscover their connection to the Force. Apart from a few stragglers left behind to help with rebuilding efforts, the Vong disappear from the galaxy.
In Trials of the Jedi, the truth of the Nameless—Shrikarai—and their connection to the Blight fully reveal themselves. Elzar Mann and Avar Kriss learn the Shrikarai homeworld, Sophros, sits at a nexus point where the Light and Dark side work in tandem to hold back the Blight.
In order to bring the world back into balance and eliminate the Blight caused by Marchion’s careless use of the creatures, Elzar and Avar remain on Sophros, using their connection to the Force, and each other, to hold both the Dark and Light in equilibrium. The Blight is beaten back entirely, even reversing its debilitating effects. Since Marchion Ro put all his eggs in the Nameless basket, the Nihil fall into disarray and quickly surrender at the Battle of Eriadu.
Obviously, we’re skipping over details for the sake of expediency. Regardless, both endings rely on the supreme, unknowable powers of the Force to wrap things up rather neatly.
One of These Things is Not Like the Other
Without mincing words, The High Republic feels like a natural endpoint for the story they were telling/setting up, while the New Jedi Order’s ending feels…convenient. The reasoning goes beyond the execution of these finale events.
The High Republic went to great lengths to expand on what audiences know about the Force in general. From showing how different Jedi personally experience the Force to showing them perform incredible feats (e.g. saving Hetzal during Light of the Jedi), THR established early on that it would delve deeply into the nature of the Force.All three Phases added to this notion as it presented readers with new concepts on the Force (e.g. the numerous new Force sects and extremist views within the Path of the Open Hand) and how it regularly introduced new lore/artifacts which pushed the boundaries of what we thought possible.
Thus, when the finale came and massive things happened (are Elzar and Avar essentially some form of gods now?), they didn’t feel like convenient plot devices. Instead, it was a natural culmination of everything leading up to it.
The same can be said with how quickly the Nihil fell apart. Marchion isn’t a complicated character. Time and time again, we see Marchion Ro only cares about one thing: himself. Seeing him choose to sabotage the Stormwall and leave the Nihil hanging is completely within character. There were also numerous instances showing the Republic and Jedi working together to achieve military victories over the Nihil forces. While the Stormwall and Nameless were massive threats, our heroes weren’t losing the entire time either.
The New Jedi Order struggled with this aspect immensely. By and large, the Vong repeatedly beat the New Republic. Each novel featured a galaxy map showing the lightyears of territory the Vong had conquered during the stories! As such, the Vong’s defeat in Unifying Force feels like the only real victory New Republic forces had. The Vong renouncing their ways and leaving the galaxy they’d technically won was hard to swallow.
Moreso, the NJO kept introducing new stuff right up to the end. Zonama Sekot isn’t even mentioned as a factor until Destiny’s Way; just five books out from the finale. The reveal of Onimi being the real leader of the Vong, comes in the back half of Unifying Force with little foreshadowing to make that reveal more palatable. With new elements introduced even as the series reached its conclusion, the story had a very “thrown together” vibe. Resulting in and ending that felt similarly slapdash.
Aftermath
The Unifying Force set an almost unshakeable precedent, where every subsequent threat could “magically” resolve in the most frustrating ways. The Jedi have always worked as wizards in storytelling terms, but how their abilities—specifically with Luke Skywalker—expanded in order to fit the needs of each story became a tad ridiculous.
From Lomi Plo in the Dark Nest crisis, to handling Jacen/Darth Caedus, and all the weirdness introduced with Abeloth (though, arguably, Fate of the Jedi handled it better), Luke miraculously manages to outdo the villains by mastering their own unique—and often heretofore unkown—powers. Suffice it to say, the endings to many post-New Jedi Order stories felt too handy.
Conversely, The High Republic had a unique problem to deal with in its ending. Serving as a prequel to other Star Wars stories, its ending not only had to work for the story at hand, but couldn’t feel out of place for the major stories following it. Thankfully, the story/ending was so brilliant in execution it manages to slot into the existing tales quite well. More importantly, it enhances pre-existing stories in ways that allow us to view certain aspects in a new light.
Owing a Debt
It’s been fascinating to revisit the New Jedi Order since The High Republic started (more so seeing how it ends). It’s impossible not to see the influence the former had on the latter. It proves the NJO continues to shape the way we get new tales in the galaxy far, far away. For all its faults, the New Jedi Order walked so The High Republic could run. It laid the groundwork for a massive, coordinated storytelling undertaking that future authors were able to learn from.