Star Wars: The High Republic Brings a Legends Force Power to the Official Canon

A new era of the Star Wars universe began this week with the launch of the Lucasfilm Publishing project Star Wars: The High Republic. Through various books and comics (and eventually TV productions), The High Republic tells the connected story of a time 200 years before Anakin Skywalker was born, when the Republic had united most of the galaxy and the Jedi were at the absolute height of their power. Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi, the flagship novel that sets the stage for the entire High Republic era, has introduced Star Wars fans to dozens of new Jedi heroes, some with powers we haven’t seen in any of the franchise’s adventures to this point. Well, at least not in the official canon.

Jedi Master Avar Kriss is featured on the cover of Light of the Jedi and acts as the main character of the novel. Avar is tasked with commanding the efforts of the Jedi and Republic in saving an entire system after a massive transport ship exploded in hyperspace, causing fragments to speed out into the galaxy and destroy planets in their path. At one point, it’s revealed that a tank of highly-explosive gas is on a crash course with the system’s sun, and the certain collision would end the lives of everyone living there. This is where Avar taps into the Force and connects all of the Jedi in order to accomplish a single goal.

Star Wars fans familiar with the Legends titles (all of the books and comics published before Disney bought Lucasfilm that no longer count as official canon) will likely remember reading about the Force Meld. In some of those stories, some Jedi were able to connect all of the other Force-users around them for a single, coordinated effort. It was one of the most astonishing powers the Jedi were capbable of.

Soule doesn’t refer to what Avar Kriss does in Light of the Jedi as a Force Meld, but that’s exactly what she does. Avar reaches out into the Force and acts as a giant web, bringing together all of the Jedi at once. Together, through their connected powers in the Force, the Jedi are able to move the tank just enough to make it miss the sun.

Here’s an excerpt from Light of the Jedi that describes Avar’s ability:

“Across the system, Jedi reached out to the Force. Some closed their eyes, some lifted their arms, some stood, some sat meditating on the ground while others hovered above it. Some were in starships, others on the surface. Many were alone, but others were with members of their Order, or were surrounded by small groups of people who could sense, somehow, the import of what was happening, even if they themselves could not touch the force. Dozens of Jedi, acting as one.”

The Jedi are more powerful than we’ve ever seen them in the pages of Light of the Jedi and the other High Republic titles, so we probably haven’t even scratched the surface in terms what they’re really capable of. Hopefully we’ll see a few more connections to the old Legends stories as well.