Master and Apprentice Part 4

[colls]

Welcome to our third of four check-in and discussion posts for our Book of the Month.

This month’s book is Master and Apprentice by Claudia Gray
Part 4: Chapters 31-38

Master and Apprentice Part 4

1. Has this book altered your opinion about the relationship between Qui-Gon and Ob-Wan?

2. If any of the original characters were to show up in new material (books, comics, or LA show, etc), who would you most want to encounter again?

3. How satisfying did you find the ending?

4. Other thoughts?



FYI - There's no need to answer all (or any) of the questions above - they're just talking points to get us started. Informal chatter is more than welcome! In-person book clubs often veer off topic, it's okay if we do as well. :)

Comments

[kittywhite]

1. It surprised me they weren’t all that close in this new canon but there’s still enough time (8 years I think) between this book and TPM for the relationship to improve.

2. I’d be interested in seeing Pax and Rahara pop up again, I think they could fit well into other stories as side characters.

3. I really enjoyed the ending, I stayed up late to finish it! Didn’t pick the twist with Fanry and I appreciated that she wasn’t just a cute puppet (although I obviously don’t agree with her methods!)

4. I’m happy this book discusses a few things that I’ve had issues with over the years in Star Wars, namely how lax everyone seems to be about slavery and the lack of choice Jedi actually have in life. I think it’s wrong to require such self control and sacrifice from someone who can’t fully consent to what they are agreeing to as they were taken in at such a young age. I know it’s a fictional universe but it really bugs me!

[colls]

I feel like it was improving at the end of the novel (before the epilogue scene), so by the time TPM came around they'd become close.

I would LOVE to see Pax and Rahara again, they were so interesting and their career choice means they could easily slot in to all sorts of adventures. :D

Fanry was a nice twist indeed, and then there was a double twist (sort of) with Cady thrown in as a bonus.

I concur. Some authors have tried to address the slavery topic and others the Jedi 'cult-like' indoctrination topic, but I haven't found one yet that really tackles either issue satisfactorily. I appreciate that this book acknowledges the issues.

[kittywhite]

My hope is that eventually the High Republic series will get around to addressing the attachment issue. They will have to for the whole Anakin thing to make sense because the openness and willingness to discuss “taboo” issues of the High Republic Order vs the Prequel Order just doesn’t mesh. In the last two released books there’s even mention of the order giving mental health care!
(I’m aware this is probably a product of increased awareness over time having passed between instalments but it’s still jarring to know that not too long before the prequels there was help available)

[brokenmnemonic]

1. Qui-gon and Obi-wan seemed to be in a relatively good place in TPM, particularly compared to the place they were in at the start of this novel. I like the idea of them learning to work with each other and communicate over the years after the events of this novel, but it does make me curious how many answers to questions about the Jedi over the last thousand years boil down to "Yoda."

2. I know this is asking for trouble, but... I'd like a mini-series involving our two erstwhile jewel thieves having an adventure that involves Dr Aphra.

3. I enjoyed the ending more than I expected to; I liked the way the author led us to think of Fanry as someone who was merely a prop to the plots and ambitions of others, only to show that she very much had her own plan. I wonder if the author was cackling quietly during the extended conversation about crowns and tiaras? Real princesses want warships!

4. Like kittywhite, it was satisfying to see the topic of how the Republic dealt (or didn't deal with) slavery being faced squarely in this. This book still leaves me with the feeling that the Jedi position on attachment is unsustainable. Taking young people and telling them they can't form romantic attachments, while working on a master-and-padawn system that puts two people in close proximity for a long time and with no comments or restriction on the friendship or affection that forms between the two is an inherently conflicted position to take. Either the only form of attachment that leaves you vulnerable to the dark side is romantic love, which seems unlikely, or the Jedi are placing strictures in place against one form of attachment and ignoring all other forms of attachment, which means that every master who falls is likely to be able to influence one or more of their former proteges to fall as well. They'd do far better to cultivate honesty and disclosure, in my opinion - and given that people are evidently able to be force-trained to the max and then leave the order anyway (like Dooku) surely they'd do better to have celibacy (or the avoidance of attachment) be a decision made later in life, when the Jedi knights have a much surer idea of who they are and what they want. A little like welcoming people who decide that the right path for them is to join a monastic order at a later point in time to take on full Jedi Master responsibilities, rather than taking in children and expecting them to live up to the standards and requirements of a monastic calling.

[colls]

2. I'd like to subscribe to that mini-series.

4. Personally I feel the flaws inherent in the 'no attachments' rule is part of what so many Star Wars plots touch on that it's almost a tired trope at this point. I wish they'd stop dancing around the issue and just fess up to how jacked it is. I almost sense this is where things might be heading in the LA series, but am not sure.

The taking children at an early age and indoctrinating them.... I mean, training them... is a different issue to me. One that isn't addressed enough - or at least I find it's rarely addressed directly.

And yes, they're allowed to leave - Ahsoka chose to decline the invitation to become a Jedi after she'd passed her trials, so perhaps one has to "graduate" first?