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This will be addressing the appearance of Corran from Chapter 31 to the end of Onslaught. Many of you reading this will already know exactly what I'm talking about. If you are one of these people, skip the next two paragraphs. If you don't already know where I'm going with this, read on. Chapter 31 is where Corran battles the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors. At the end of the chapter, the reader is led to believe that Corran dies. Or course, the reader soon finds out that he is alive and that Ganner pulled him out and dunked him into a bacta tank.
From reading various Star Wars newsgroups and bulletin boards, there seems to be a mixed reaction to this scene. Some people have said they had thought he was dead, and were very surprised to see him alive later. Those people either think he should have stayed dead or were relieved to see him alive. Others knew right away that Corran was not dead, either because Corran was described as floating at the end and they inferred that Ganner had rescued him, or because they had seen the back blurb for Dark Tide: Ruin that has been posted at various places and knew he'd be in that book.
Into which group do I fall? To make it short, both and neither. I think he should've died, yet I knew he was going to survive Onslaught. What do I mean by this? And how can I even say he should've died?
First, I need to say that I am one of those people who had read the back blurb to Dark Tide: Ruin before reading Onslaught. Therefore, I knew that Corran would make it through this book. This in no way conflicts with my sentiment that he should've died.
I should explain something here. When I read a book, I try to pick a character and see the book as much as I can through his or her eyes. With Stackpole's Star Wars books, I spend a lot of my time in Corran's head. This has been made much easier since reading I, Jedi. Corran is just one of those characters I feel I know very well. So, when it came to reading this scene in Onslaught, yes, I knew that he would live, but that knowledge was secondary. I was intent on seeing things through his eyes.
When I got to the end of the chapter, I knew he wasn't going to die, yet I felt that that was one of the best written death scenes I've ever read anywhere. I was totally blown away by the thoughts he'd had throughout the final battle, and even before, when he's talking to Dr. Pace about her spacing him if necessary. The thought about his family, how calm he was about his death, even though he was also a little bit afraid, yet willing to sacrifice himself without hardly a second thought, then being ready to die happily, with the reassurance that he had done all that he could, hoping only that he would dissolve upon death as his grandfather had done before him. What a beautiful, eloquently written scene, perfect in every way.
Then, a few chapters later, he is alive! What a letdown! I was both relieved and disappointed to see him alive. My relief was partly because I knew he'd be around anyway, and partly because I wouldn't have to let him go. But the thing of it is, I could have let him go after that scene!
Having him survive just feels wrong to me. The whole time he's talking to Luke and Mirax at the end of the book, I kept having to tell myself that he was really alive. I was still reminding myself of this fact a few days later.
I still can't shake the feeling that Corran's character may have been short-changed. He had just had the most wonderful death scene written for him, then he was yanked away from his just reward. My hope is that he wasn't permitted to survive only to die at the hands of Shedao Shai. Killing him in Ruin would be anti-climactic. Of course, if he were to die in Ruin, Stackpole would probably find a way to kill him that would not be anti-climactic, but since I haven't read Ruin yet, my statement stands.
So, yes, although I knew he'd survive, I also felt he should've died. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to wait until Ruin to see if his survival was warranted. Here's to hoping that it is!
Copyright April 24, 2000 by Kelly M. Grosskreutz.
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