1inthemiddle:Doing a deep dive into my picture folders, i had to finally finish this Jedi Apprentice comic. The feels from my childhood were too strong.
So I’ve gained a bunch of new followers over the past couple of days, and I’m excited that you’re here :) I meant to post a proper lineup after I drew something with Tahl, but here they are, Tahl included!
Their Importance: Jedi KnightTahl is a main character in the much-loved YA Star Wars series Jedi Apprentice. She’s a Noorian, a human species in the Star Wars universe who have dark skin and striped eyes. (Hers are striped green and gold.) When we first meet her, she’s recently been blinded in battle and must adjust to her disability using an assistance droid. This isn’t always easy for her, but like any Jedi she remains calm about it. At one point, she uses a metaphor about broken artwork to explain her blindness: “You see the seams of the break, but the piece is still flawless. Because it had once been broken, it becomes more valuable than before.”
Issues: (spoilers!) What with Jedi Apprentice being a prequel (heck, a prequel to a prequel) Tahl’s death is perhaps inevitable. She dies after she and Qui-Gon confess their love for each other, causing him to nearly turn to the Dark Side. Her death probably counts as a fridging to be honest, although she’s still mentioned a lot in the books after she dies. I like to think she’s who Qui-Gon was thinking of in The Phantom Menace when Anakin says “No-one can kill a Jedi” and he answers “I wish that were so.”
venting my frustrations about people forgetting Tahl is Noorian by drawing description accurate Tahl. Dark hair, dark honey colored skin, and gold eyes with green stripes. I have her the comic-book hair because I always liked her little hair deely-bob and the fact that her hair was in a bun.
I wanted to try my hand at designing a Tahl, plus a tiny Obi-Wan and a young Knight Jinn (who hasn’t changed his hairstyle in 40 years, although he probably dyed it bright green at least once)
They have the best glass workers in the galaxy there…Many have wondered why this world has advanced the art so much. Is it the golden sands, the temperature of the fires, the longs tradition? Whatever it may be, they make he most beautiful vessels in the galaxy, so highly prized that they are priceless objects. But occasionally, someone is careless, or an accident occurs, and one is broken…Just like I could break this cup. But these artisans have a greater art than the fashioning of the vessels. They remake the shattered ones. And in that remaking they find their highest art. They take the pieces of something beautiful that has been smashed and create something even more beautiful. You see the seams of the break, but the piece is still flawless. Because it had once been broken, it becomes more valuable than before.
-Tahl speaking to Qui-Gon Jinn in the Jedi Apprentice Series.
I just found these books today again. I used to read them over and over and over again. They were my favorite books out of all the Star Wars books I loved. And now I can see how expertly these authors wrote all these characters. In this paragraph, Tahl is talking about trust while using a cup that she uses (“even though it may break”) as a metaphor. But I find that right now it speaks super well to acquired disabilities.
Which I find even more fascinating, because Tahl has recently been scarred and blinded and for her, there is NEVER a miracle cure. She’s not pitiable, she’s still a jedi, later takes on a padawan learner, uses a navigation droid (a service robot!) in one book, has the closest thing to a love life you’re allowed to get in the Jedi order, and basically kicks butt.
