Young Jedi Knights

Han and Leia have kids. They're studying at Luke's Academy. Chewbacca's nephew is also there, as is the daughter of those people from The Courtship of Princess Leia. Expect many of Kevin J. Anderson's characters (Tionne, Kyp, Brakiss) to make an appearance as well. Basically X-Men with lightsabers.

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Tropes used in Young Jedi Knights include:

• An Aesop: One in every book, about drugs, racism, class, etc.
  • Broken Aesop / Aesop Amnesia: "Lighstabers" contains an Egregious example. In the story Tenel Ka loses her arm in a lightsaber training accident as a result of being too proud of her own abilities and not putting enough care into constructing her lightsaber. Afterwards, she feels ashamed that she let her pride cloud her judgement. Good lesson. However, what does she do afterwards, not only in the same book but only several hours later? Refuses to wear a synthetic arm replacement. Why? Because she's too proud and has confidence in her abilities.
    • The situation's more complicated than that, and also considering that the book takes place over a matter of weeks (if not days), having her immediately cured of all stubbornness and pride would be Epiphany Therapy instead.
• The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Czethros.
• Ass in Ambassador: Yfra.
• Author Appeal: Lusa, the perpetually topless centaur girl.
  • Also Tenel Ka, with her repeatedly-described "hard muscles".
    • Another oddly recurring theme is that of people being messily devoured by one thing or another, including wolf-men, carnivorous seaweed and giant flowers. Kevin J. Anderson is a bit of a Vore fetishist, it would seem.
• Badass Teacher: Luke plays this painfully straight at times, along with Hippie Teacher.
• Big Bad: Each of the three main plot arcs has one - the false Emperor in the "Shadow Academy" arc, Nolaa Tarkona in the "Diversity Alliance" arc, and Czethros in the "Black Sun" arc.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The insectoid assassins in Lightsabers.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Jacen and Tenel Ka in "The Emperor's Plague"
• Butt Monkey: Raynar Thul
• Catch Phrase: Ah, ah-hah, only every single kid character. From Jaina's grating "Well, what are we waiting for?" to Jacen's "Want to hear a joke?" to Tenel Ka's trademark "This is a fact."
• Character Development: All of the young Jedi progress through the series, changing and growing.
• Cool Old Guy: TIE Fighter veteran Qorl.
• Cool Teacher: Kyp.
  • Also Qorl and Brakiss for the YJK's "Imperial" opposite numbers.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Zekk.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Averted with Qorl, who though equipped with a nasty-looking (and powerful) cybernetic arm to replace the badly -mangled original appendage is inarguably the most level-headed and moral of Brakiss's group.
• Doomed Hometown: A very odd example in the case of Zekk: everything built on the surface of his homeworld, Ennth, is destroyed in a regular, seven-year cycle by the planet's moon's eliptical orbit bringing it into the planet's atmosphere and touching off seismic cataclysms that last for an entire year, after which the inhabitants return from their space station refuges and rebuild everything from scratch.
• The Dragon: Brakiss to Emperor Palpatine.
  • Co-Dragons: Qorl and Taimith Kai to Brakiss.
• Emo Teen: Lowbacca's friend Raabakyysh seems to be the Wookie equivalent.
• Evil Mentor: Brakiss.
• Evil Matriarch: Tenel Ka's grandmother Ta'a Chume, ex-Queen Mother of the (matriarchal!) Hapes Consortium.
• Face Heel Turn: Zekk
• Fantastic Racism: The Diversity Alliance, against humans.
• Fiery Redhead: Tenel Ka. Also Ta'a Chume.
• Five-Man Band: Jacen, Jaina, M-TD, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca.
• Foot Focus: In Return to Ord Mantell, there's a brief description of Jaina taking off her boots and dipping her feet into a muddy pond.
• Freudian Excuse: Among other reasons, Nolaa Tarkona has this behind her desire for slaughter and conquest of the human race—in revenge for the death of her half-sister Oola.
• G-Rated Drug: Anja Gallandro's addiction to Andris spice.
• Heel Face Turn: Luke attempts to make Brakiss do one but fails.
  • Zekk has one that reverses his earlier Face Heel Turn.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Jacen is in love with these.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Lusa walks around without a shirt on in a kids series.
• Lady of War: Tenel Ka
• Lonely Rich Kid: Raynar Thul, to a degree.
• Man Eating Plants: Appear in both Lightsabers and Darkest Knight.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: The fake Emperor Palpatine
• Mind Rape: Luke uses this on Brakiss to try to get him to make a Heel Face Turn but fails.
• No Endor Holocaust: In "Heirs of the Force" Qorl mentions that the explosion of the first Death Star must have started dozens of forest fires on Yavin 4.
• Older and Wiser: Luke.
• Old Soldier: Qorl. Overlaps with Shell Shocked Senior and Crazy Survivalist as he's the lone surviving TIE Fighter pilot from the Battle of Yavin who's spent the last twenty or so years hiding out in the Yavin jungle waiting for the Empire to retrieve him.
• Overused Running Gag: Jacen's attempts at humour.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Zekk is of the sallow type, to judge by the cover art.
• Power of Friendship: Inescapable in this series.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Jacen tries desperately to be this. Then NJO and Legacy of the Force came.
• Rebellious Princess: Tenel Ka.
• Retcon: Where's Mara? On a mission with Mirax.
  • Also Qorl being the crashed TIE Fighter pilot that Luke fought on the Yavin moon in the Marvel comics' Day After the Death Star, and the "Boba Fett" who appears in Shards of Alderaan being Ailyn Vel impersonating the bounty hunter.
• Scare'Em Straight: Luke tries to do this to Brakiss using Mind Rape to show him the evils of the Empire and do a Heel Face Turn but fails.
• Shout-Out: Qorl's Imperial service designation, "CE 3 K-1977", is a reference to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, "CE 3 K" being an acronym of the title and 1977 the year that it was released.
• Sixth Ranger: Zekk. He's even drawn to look like Jason David Frank in the cover artwork.
• Stacy's Mom: Kyp. Taken Up to Eleven in the NJO
• Stripperiffic: Tenel Ka's "lizard-hide armour" often seems to be made to be like this, particularly from Jacen's POV.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jaina and Tenel Ka
• Troubled but Cute: Zekk.
• Twin Telepathy: Jacen and Jaina
• Utopia Justifies the Means: The Diversity Alliance
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Distaff Counterpart in Lusa
• When Trees Attack: Literally. Jedi Under Siege has Stormtroopers getting ambushed by sentient Jedi trees.
• The White Prince: Raynar again.
• Will They or Won't They?: Jacen and Tenel Ka. Jaina and Zekk.
• Wrench Wench: Jaina.