Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton

While the High Republic Publishing Initiative Project Luminous includes two early novels which feature a Romeo & Juliet pair of star-crossed lovers in Convergence and Cataclysm, the ideas seeded in the first two waves of the imitative come to full fruition in Temptation of the Force, as explored through the relationship of two prominent Jedi: Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann. As a reminder, I discussed the initiative and highlights of the era to-date in a run-down of the ways in which the High Republic's examination of love in its myriad forms emulates Arthurian knighthood. This is a continuation, picking up a year after the Starlight Beacon was destroyed and an impenetrable storm-wall erected by the Republic's enemy, Marchion Ro.

While reading earlier entries in the chronology would only enhance and possibly deepen your relationship to these characters, I think you can pick up here with the understanding that these are characters all trying desperately to recover from a massive trauma, figure out how to help the myriads that need saving, and, importantly, determine what to do next.

Publisher Summary

For over a year, Jedi Masters Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann were kept apart by the Nihil’s Stormwall. After Avar makes a daring escape from inside the Occlusion Zone, the star-crossed Jedi are reunited. But while the physical distance between them has evaporated, their shared grief over their failure to protect the galaxy from the Nihil threat remains.
 
To rally the Jedi Order and the Republic, Avar and Elzar cling to their belief in serving Light and Life. Together, they lead a daring mission into Nihil space to liberate the planet of Naboo and show those trapped behind the Stormwall that the Jedi will never abandon them. Now back within close orbit of each other, the two Jedi Masters can no longer deny the bond that has always drawn them back together and made them stronger.
 
After finally embracing their true desires and imbued with renewed purpose, Avar and Elzar devise a plan to turn the tide of the conflict with the Nihil once and for all. Accompanied by Jedi Knights Bell Zettifar, Burryaga, and Vernestra Rwoh, the Jedi begin their hunt for Marchion Ro. But to seek out the Nihil’s dangerous leader, the Jedi will have to survive the Nameless terrors that thus far they have been powerless to stop.

Review

This novel picks up about a year after Starlight Beacon falls, and mostly follows two Jedi as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives, the Order, and the galaxy. It is also, inherently about two Jedi who are deeply in love with each other and are considered excellent Jedi. While we could talk about the 'Nameless terrors,' which refer to an actual creature known as The Nameless and can be read as a confrontation of fear, I am much more fascinated by the treatment of Avar and Elzar's relationship throughout.

Avar Kriss, hero of the High Republic and the cover art for Light of the Jedi, among others, is a badass Jedi. While her doubts and fears have, in the past, led to what she perceives as catastrophic mistakes, her trust in the Force has kept her in the Light as she seeks to help those caught in the fringes of a dispute which could easily turn to war.

Avar realizes her love for Elzar Mann extends beyond the love and compassion all Jedi should feel for others when she feels 'a fathomless, rolling faith. In herself. In the Force. In hope.' She is, to me, the example of a Jedi set by Qui-Gon Jinn in TPM—not interested in serving on the Council, rather, Avar spends her time on the frontier, placing compassion ahead of dogma. She also has some really cool Force abilities, including a connection to ship systems, allowing her to connect to a network of ships and fighters to coordinate battle; she views the Force as a song, and she can access the harmonies of others.

She is, however, missing during the events which precipitate the High Republic's main actions; she leaves her post on Starlight Beacon and her replacement, a close friend since childhood, loses his life protecting others when the Beacon falls. It is her relationship with Elzar Mann which proves to be a saving grace for both Jedi as they struggle with their regrets and doubts; the ability to talk through their fears removes the power those fears hold.

Elzar Mann, on the other hand, is the kind of Jedi I think I understand on a more personal level. He has struggled with the dark side, survived disaster, been separated from his closest friend, and is increasingly drawn into the politics of the galaxy over the call of the Force.

The Jedi weren't supposed to have to explain themselves in such a way. The Jedi guided themselves at the side of the Republic, not as weapons or guards for hire or wise old monks with good advice.. But at the same time, the Republic was stretched thin, dealing with all the usual local conflicts and system-wide natural disasters and labor strikes on top of the constant, imminent threat of Nihil invasion. This bureaucracy wasn't exactly what he'd been excited about growing up to do when he was a youngling. But Elzar wanted to serve. He did. And right now he needed other people, Jedi Masters with a better understanding of the goals of the Order and the Force itself, to tell him how.
-Temptation of the Force

Elzar has more doubts than Avar, his emotions come on more strongly and take more effort to work though. However, the novel emphasizes again and again that both Avar, the hero of the era, and Elzar, whom the Council wants to join them, are better together. In the face of impending darkness, in a story-world where hope is the constant refrain, it is love which inspires that hope.

The hope here was surrounded by darkness; the change was no more than a kiss, both insignificant and intrinsic.
-Temptation of the Force

When Avar decides that the love she shares with Elzar can only be to their benefit, I love she explains herself to Elzar:

In my worst moments, I've loved you. In my greatest grief and failure, I still loved you, and it didn't turn me down the wrong path — it's what got me back onto my feet. I stood back up and reached back. Loved back — people, the Force, watched hope spread and beings all over the galaxy keep fighting, keep trying. That's love. That's the purest form of light. How can a sliver of it here between us be wrong?

Attachment, possessiveness—those are hindrances because they limit a Jedi's potential. They make the galaxy smaller. But love is limitless, Elzar. Just like the Force itself is limitless. There's no end to it! If there was an end to the Force, to love, to hope, don't you think we'd have found it in the last few years? But we're black holes for love. Unending notes and bottomless seas. We make the galaxy bigger with love, with the Force bursting inside us.

You'd think this would be a problem for the Order, and perhaps it will be in the final two books of the era which will release this fall 2024 and spring 2025. But, Elzar speaks with Yoda, asking the Master if he thinks it's possible to love without attachment. Importantly, Yoda says:

Depends on what is meant by love, I believe. Some beings think love is connection. Love is recognizing you, in me. In the whole galaxy. To name a thing is to love it, some teachings say; others that love is vulnerability or a natural, bodily need. What the real answer is, I do not know. But if you find the answer for yourself, and it opens the Force to you more widely, brings you closer to the light, then wrong you cannot be.
-The Temptation of the Force

When Elzar continues to ask about this concept, this idea that maybe love, or other emotions, can overwhelm, Yoda emphasizes that this is always the struggle of being alive, that even if you choose poorly in one moment, you choose again to get up, to live within the Force.

It just reminds me, a queer person, of the myriad forms of love I experience every day. Yes, culturally we emphasize the romantic partnership, the goal of a spouse and kids and a house...but, that's not the only way to love. We love our parents, our children, our relatives. We love our friends. While we have reduced ways to describe love to a binary of 'platonic' and 'romantic' those ideals themselves come from a more expansive system.

What does it mean to love? To be loved? Is there an obligation to action if you feel love in some way, or is simply the emotion itself a sign of something? When the Jedi say throughout the franchise that they are to eschew attachments, it is possession of the romantic (read, sexual) variety which is shown to be problematic, as much about secrecy and dishonesty as the act of marriage. And yet, remember what Anakin says to Padmé as they're falling for each other in Attack of the Clones:

Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi's life. So you might say, that we are encouraged to love.

Clearly, love is a central component to the Jedi Order; the difficulty comes in the myriad ways a person experiences, relates to, and acts upon those emotions. Allow me to close with some of Tessa Gratton's acknowledgements from Temptation of the Force, where she expounds on the idea of love in Star Wars and I think encapsulates my feelings towards the High Republic:

When the powers that be told me to make Temptation of the Force like The Empire Strikes Back...it was overwhelming. So I made it about love instead. The different kinds of love in this book—galactic, familial, romantic, star-crossed, gentle, villainous, compassionate, charitable, professional—all of them grew in me because of the foundation my parents gave me.

Me: 'I love Star Wars.'

Star Wars: 'I know.'