Kitrin Braves

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"Kitrin has been kind enough to share some information with me regarding the entire Skywalker lineage which—as will become clear—has been of great use in my research. I can think of nobody better than her to undertake this task."
―Beaumont Kin, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire[1]

Kitrin Braves was a journalist and biographer who worked on a biography of the Skywalker family titled Skywalker: A Family At War following the Battle of Exegol in 35 ABY. She shared her research with the historian Beaumont Kin, who used information she provided on figures such as the Jedi Anakin Skywalker while writing his own book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire in which he thanked Braves. Braves' biography was then published after Kin's work.

Biography

Research

"Furthermore, the noted journalist and biographer Kitrin Braves is currently undertaking a detailed and exhaustive biography of the Skywalker dynasty."
―Beaumont Kin, The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire[1]
The cover of Skywalker: A Family at War shows the looming figure of Darth Vader with Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker posed mid-combat in front of him. The background shows space with the first Death Star directly behind Vader and flights of rebel X-wings and Imperial TIE fighters to either side of him.

Braves worked on a biography of the Skywalkers (members of the family depicted).

Kitrin Braves was a noted journalist and biographer who, following the Battle of Exegol[1] in 35 ABY,[2] worked on creating[1] Skywalker: A Family At War,[3] an exhaustive biography of the Skywalker family who were a Force-sensitive lineage that had played a significant role in shaping galactic history over the course of the previous few decades. She shared information on the entire lineage with the historian Beaumont Kin for[1] his[4] book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which proved greatly useful in his research.[1]

Kin combined her work with documents recovered in the Exegol Excavation Project to provide additional insights into how the Jedi Anakin Skywalker became the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Braves also informed Kin that any traces of information relating to when Vader became aware of the identity of his son, Luke Skywalker, had been erased from all Imperial archives and databases.[1]

Publishing

"The Skywalkers were a family thrust into war while grappling with internal strife. And in the dawn of a new era of peace, Rey Skywalker remained to bury their past, and look to the future, to the possibility of teaching a new generation of Jedi and passing on the responsibility of maintaining the balance, between the light and the dark, in the galaxy and inside each one of us. And in that way, the Skywalker legacy lives on."
―The conclusion to Skywalker: A Family at War[5]

When Kin published his book[1] in 35 ABY,[6] Braves was still exploring Ben Solo's fascination with his grandfather Darth Vader, which was a complicated part of the Skywalker legacy. In The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, Kin stated he was happy to leave the topic to her and, although Kin's work covered the portion of Anakin Skywalker's life where he served as an Imperial enforcer in detail, he recommended Braves' upcoming work for a more in-depth examination of Skywalker's time as a Jedi. Kin also credited Braves' contributions, which he considered kind, and claimed that he could think of no one better then Braves to undertake chronicling the Skywalkers.[1]

The silhouettes of Rey Skywalker and BB-8 stand staring out over the horizon of Tatooine's desert at the twin suns Tatoo I and Tatoo II.

Kitrin Braves concluded Skywalker: A Family at War with Rey Skywalker's continuation of the family's legacy.

Skywalker: A Family at War was published[5] at some point after The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire[1] and began with a brief summary of the life Anakin Skywalker's mother, Shmi Skywalker, prior to Anakin's birth. It then covered the life of Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Luke's twin sister, Princess Leia Organa, and Leia's son, Ben Solo. The book's final chapter ended with the death of Ben Solo during the Battle of Exegol, which marked the end of the Skywalker bloodline.[5]

In an epilogue, Braves discussed how Rey, Luke's student and Ben's partner in a Force dyad, took on the name of Rey Skywalker to carry on what the biographer considered to be the finest aspects of the lineage, including maintaining balance between the light and dark sides of the Force.[5]

Behind the scenes

A monochrome image of Kristin Baver at a press event.

Kitrin Braves is an anagram of Skywalker: A Family at War author Kristin Baver's name.

Kitrin Braves was mentioned in the 2024 reference book Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which was written by Dr. Chris Kempshall. "Kitrin Braves" is an anagram of[1] Star Wars author Kristin Baver, who wrote a Skywalker-focused biography in the form of the 2021 book Skywalker: A Family at War.[7] While Kempshall did not outright confirm if Braves was indeed based on Baver,[8] he heavily implied as such,[9] and Baver herself thanked Kempshall for creating the character.[10] Kempshall also noted that without A Family at War he would never have been able to write The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire.[11] A post on the StarWars.com blog on October 17, 2024, confirmed Braves' book to be the in-universe version of Skywalker: A Family at War.[3] When writing the real-life book, Baver put herself in the headspace of an in-universe historian who was researching primary sources about the Skywalker family.[12]

Sources

This article has an associated index page with page numbers and/or timestamps.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire
  2. ↑ Star Wars: Timelines
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 StarWars.com Our Star Wars Reads Picks For Every Type of Reader in Your Life on StarWars.com (backup link)
  4. ↑ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Skywalker: A Family at War
  6. ↑ Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire states that thirty years have passed since the end of the Galactic Civil War and months have passed since the Battle of Exegol. As Star Wars: Timelines dates the end of the war to 5 ABY and the Battle of Exegol to 35 ABY, the in-universe The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire must have been published in 35 ABY.
  7. ↑ Skywalker: A Family at War
  8. ↑ TwitterLogo Chris Kempshall (@ChrisKempshall) on Twitter (post): "I couldn't possibly comment! (In response to: "And just to affirm lol, "Kitrin Braves" is @KristinBaver right :P")" (backup link)
  9. ↑ TwitterLogo Chris Kempshall (@ChrisKempshall) on Twitter (post): "Who could it possibly be? (In response to: "🥹😭😭😭 It's wild that Kitrin Braves and KB-68 both exist in this galaxy thanks to the thoughtfulness of @ChrisKempshall and @ghostfinder. I love #StarWars books so much.")" (backup link)
  10. ↑ TwitterLogo Kristin Baver (@KristinBaver) on Twitter (post): "🥹😭😭😭 It's wild that Kitrin Braves and KB-68 both exist in this galaxy thanks to the thoughtfulness of @ChrisKempshall and @ghostfinder. I love #StarWars books so much." (backup link)
  11. ↑ TwitterLogo Chris Kempshall (@ChrisKempshall) on Twitter (post): "Historiography and precedent are important when planning out your work. Without 'The Baver Precedent' there is no rise and fall…" (backup link)
  12. ↑ SWInsider "Writing History" — Star Wars Insider 231