Tahiri Veila: What a long strange trip it's been..

This week's new Star Wars novel, Fate of the Jedi: Conviction, features a very special cover girl, Tahiri Veila.

Tahiri is one of my favorite characters in the Expanded Universe.  I must confess that I did not read the Junior Jedi Knights series that saw the debut of Tahiri and the beginning of her friendship with Anakin Solo at the Jedi Academy.

My introduction to Tahiri was in the New Jedi Order series, the capture and shaping of Tahiri at the hands of the Vong and her rescue at the hands of Anakin was one of the absolute highlights of the series.  Her relationship with Anakin added poignancy and drama to the sacrifice that Anakin made during the Jedi strike team mission to Myrkr.

The post-NJO Tahiri has gone through a bit of a roller coaster ride from living on Zonoma Sekot, to becoming a Killik joiner during the Dark Nest Crisis, to being banished by Grand Master Skywalker to Dagobah.

When next we see Tahiri in the Legacy of the Force series she is a deeply troubled young girl, still not over the death of her best friend and her true love Anakin Solo.  Only to see Anakin's brother Jacen use her love and pain and the Force technique of flow walking to hook Tahiri like a drug addict to flow walking and catching glimpses of her lost love.

Tahiri had a pretty crazy end of the Legacy of the Force series, killing Grand Admiral Pellaeon, a creepy seduction/corruption attempt of Ben Skywalker, to surrender and potential redemption at Ben's hands. 

The Fate of the Jedi series, see a more mature and more self confident Tahiri.  In spite of all she has done and experienced, she is coming into her own as a person.  Unfortunately she is now on trial for Pellaeon's murder and if the title of the next novel and the cover featuring her in a prison jumpsuit gives us a hint of how that trial is going to go, things aren't looking up for Tahiri. The highlight of the series was the prison visit of Han and Leia to Tahiri and the message that they had to pass along from Luke and Ben's interaction with Anakin while flow-walking.  This was a terrific scene.

Tahiri has the potential to be a very complex and compelling character going forward and I certainly hope she survives the Fate of the Jedi series.  What will Tahiri's fate be?  Pick up Fate of the Jedi: Conviction by Aaron Allston tomorrow (Tues. 5/24/11) and learn what happens next...