The Fallen Star

That’s where we differ. You still think the Jedi Order and the Force are the same thing.

This is what hope is. It isn’t pretending that nothing will go wrong if only we try hard enough. It’s looking squarely at all the obstacles in the way – knowing the limits of our own power, and the possibility of failure – and moving ahead anyway. That is how we must proceed. With hope.

The Nihil were bad, sure, but try managing a roomful of toddlers who’ve missed their nap and just figured out they can basically do magic. It was not a task for the weak.

How much energy do I waste, trying to reconcile that which can never be reconciled?

Everything you’ve said is true. It’s hard, and it’s awful, and it’s how things happened. The past is no longer in motion. There’s nothing for you to do but accept it. Only now did Bell realize that, to him, acceptance had meant something too close to “surrender.” That wasn’t it at all. Acceptance was strength. It was being able to carry the weight of what had been, and what had not, through all the many days, months, years, and decades to follow.

To acknowledge the darkness is to know the darkness. To know the darkness is to begin to control it.

So few people realize what a gift it is to be underestimated.

You're not as funny as you think you are." "Probably not," Regald agreed. "Because I think I'm hilarious, and nobody's that funny.

This is what hope is. It isn't pretending that nothing will go wrong if only we try hard enough. It's looking squarely at all the obstacles in the way—knowing the limits of our own power, and the possibility of failure—and moving ahead anyway. That is how we must proceed. With hope.

like this? To join the Nihil, visit infinite pain and destruction upon innocents throughout several systems, and for what? Life on a dark, dank ship creeping along the edges of space, with only the dim spark of potential future riches to provide any light—something that was no life at all. Bell’s wonderings only took up one small part of his consciousness, musings he’d examine later. The present moment was for completing his mission. Green gas filled the corridors with toxic haze, to which the Jedi remained impervious thanks to their breathers. However, the gases meant that Bell felt the door ahead of them before he saw it. Master Indeera and Burryaga must have as well, because they all skidded to a halt at the same moment. “Should we knock?” Bell asked. Burryaga groaned at the terrible joke. Master Indeera simply plunged her lightsaber into the door’s locking mechanism. The heated glow of melting metal illuminated all their faces in pale-orange light for the instants it took for the door to give way. It stuttered open to reveal only a skeleton crew, most of them young and unarmed, and all too willing to surrender. It helped Bell, knowing that he wouldn’t have to take additional lives. What had to be done, had to be done—but the pain he felt

On that mark, Burryaga sprang the doors on the new ship and let them slide open. For one split second, nobody—and nothing—moved. Then Bell said, “Okay, so these are rathtars.” Which was when the rathtars woke up, and all hell broke loose.

We're just payin' some rent on our time in the universe, Little Bit.

You know, like a grove of Wookiees or a tinker of droids?