lj-writes:

Started listening to the audiobook version of Inferno Squad and Janina Gavankar’s voice is 👍❤️😍 It saddens me a little sad that tie-in audiobooks seem to be the only SW products where these insanely talented actresses of color are front and center.

It’s fascinating to see what a loyal and elite subject of the Empire thinks of its atrocities. The book opens with Iden being excited about the destruction of Jedha, Scarif, and Alderaan, and I don’t think I’ve been so angry at a protagonist in the opening moments of a book. If I’d had a more personal relationship with the subject of genocide I can see myself ditching the book altogether.

I thought maybe Iden was kept from knowing the full details, but no, she knew Jedha was no mining accident (the derisive way Janina reads “mining accident,” just… I love this woman), and she knew millions of innocents had died on Alderaan.

Iden could justify the Empire’s actions to herself because she interpreted the same information completely differently. To her, Jedha was a successful anti-terrorist operation and a strike against a harmful superstition from a bygone age. The deaths of innocents at Alderaan were the fault of the Rebel leadership who had put them in harm’s way. And finally, with the imminent destruction of the Rebels and the advent of peace, the Empire could direct its energies to helping people instead of restoring order.

Iden’s thought process is chillingly familiar, really. She sounds like any good patriotic American who defends their country’s actions and is a believer in the enlightenment their way of life will bring. She is frightening not because she is outlandish but because she is so prosaic and familiar.

These thoughts were running through her head during the Battle of Yavin, so let’s just say I’m thoroughly enjoying this asshole’s shock and awe at the destruction of the Death Star. How do you like that taste of your own medicine, bitch? I hate her so much right now and am looking forward to her changing sides in large part so she’ll suffer horribly from what she did.

That said, despite the fact that the opening has Iden cheering at genocide and killing Rebel pilots left and right, nothing about this character comes across as irredeemably evil. These actually are the normal actions of a soldier in wartime, an excuse often bandied about for Kylo Ren but doesn’t work because he wasn’t brought up to that way of thinking. I can see how Iden might believe the things she does and why she might change, though I’m hoping it will be a difficult process.