By [ad_1]
In Star Wars: The High Republic #11, one Jedi’s bond with their twin could save them from the Great Leveler’s attacks, or it could doom them both.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic #11, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
In wave two of the Star Wars: The High Republic subseries, the Great Leveler has emerged as one of the greatest threats to the Jedi. When the creature first attacked in Cavan Scott’s Star Wars: The High Republic: The Rising Storm, it turned Loden Greatstorm to stone which then crumbled to dust. While this attack in and of itself was horrific, the Star Wars: The High Republic comic series has been expanding the reader’s knowledge of the true scope of the Great Leveler’s horrific powers. In Star Wars: The High Republic #11, the effects of the Great Leveler’s attacks on Terec and by extension Ceret show that the creature might have some limits, and those limits ultimately could save the twins from Loden’s fate.
Lourna Dee sets the Great Leveler loose on Terec and Keeve Trennis after their undercover mission with the Nihil failed in Star Wars: The High Republic #10 by Cavan Scott, Georges Jeanty, Carlos Lopez, Karl Story, Victor Olazaba, and VC’s Travis Lanham. Terec is a Kotabi, and they share a strong psychic bond with their twin, Ceret. Therefore, when Ceret attempts to reach out to Terec with the Force, Ceret also suffers the effects of the Great Leveler’s attacks even though they are systems away on board the Ataraxia, one of the Jedi’s flagships. Like Terec, Ceret begins to calcify as they inform their fellow Jedi that “there is no balance. No peace… There is only pain.” Ceret’s symptoms show that the Great Leveler’s attacks are mainly psychic rather than physical, and because of this, the Great Leveler can attack Ceret as well through the twin’s bond.
Both Terec and Ceret continue to calcify In Star Wars: The High Republic #11 by Cavan Scott, Georges Jeanty, Carlos Lopez, Jesus Aburtov, Karl Story, Victor Olazaba, Mark Morales, VC’s Travis Lanham. However, Ceret is able to steer the Jedi to their twin’s location before they lose consciousness. Surprisingly, despite their partial calcification, Ceret is technically neither dead nor alive after the attack, having placed themselves into a hibernation state. Although Avar Kriss, who specializes in connecting with Jedi through their song, senses that they seem to be “missing” from their bodies.
Meanwhile, the audience mainly gets the attack on Terec from the point of view of Keeve Trennis. She knows that the “creature in the box” is attacking, and she perceives this attack as turning Terec “inside out.” In Georges Jeanty’s art for the attack, Terec appears to be melting as spindly legs grab onto them from behind. Carlos Lopez and Jesus Aburtov use psychedelic colors to further emphasize the psychic nature of the attack and Keeve’s own affected perceptions. The overall effect is appropriately horrifying while still showing that Keeve’s perceptions are skewed by the Great Leveler’s powers.
The effects of their attack give more clues to how the Great Leveler works. The Leveler seems to be only able to mainly target one person at a time. For instance, when it first attacked Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm in Cavan Scott’s Star Wars: The High Republic: The Rising Storm, Loden bore the brunt of the attack and turned to ash while Bell was physically unharmed but psychically scarred. Elzar Mann, who was further away still crashed his vector due in part to the Leveler’s attacks, showing that the creature has a longer range for its secondary damage, but the main damage still seems to center on one victim.
The same seems to have occurred with the twins and Keeve Trennis. Terec was the main target, and Keeve is psychologically scarred from the ordeal but bears no physical marks from the attack. When the Jedi find Terec, Terec’s body seems mostly intact aside from the partial calcification. This fact shows that Keeve’s perception of Terec melting and turning inside out was her brain trying to make sense of the Great Leveler’s psychic attack. It is unclear if Terec is truly dead or if they too have entered into a similar hibernation state to Ceret to protect them from the Great Leveler.
Therefore, Terec’s survival could hinge on the fact that they are connected to their twin because they shared the effects of the attack, softening the blow. Ceret and possibly Terec could still be saved, and their bond could be the only thing that kept them alive. If so, their survival could provide the Jedi with crucial information on the Great Leveler itself and how the Jedi might be able to protect themselves from the creature in the future.
About The Author
[ad_2]
