Forgotten Class: Kyle Katarn

The next "forgotten" member of Luke's first class is Kyle Kartarn. As with Mara Jade yesterday, I don't have to recount his background because it's something EU fans are very familiar with, so I'll move on.

Similar to Luke, Kyle had a fear of falling to the Dark Side after being tempted by Jerec during his fight with him and the Dark Jedi that served under him.

Luke offered to train him soon after those events but Kyle turned him down. Yet for some unexplained reason he agreed to train Mara Jade when she asked for his guidance in the Force.

This never lined up for me in the EU because I'm not sure why Kyle thought he was seasoned enough to train Mara at this stage of his life after telling Luke he felt he wasn't ready for training himself.

Should this be interpreted as "pride" in Katarn?

Either way, once Luke began his first class on Yavin 4, he once again extended an invitation to Katarn who accepted this time.

We're told he became good friends with Corran Horn at the academy (obviously Horn appeared to be the most popular student in Luke's class that wasn't mentioned in the Jedi Academy Books, but I won't go there again today)

But when 2 of Luke's students quickly fell to the Dark Side (that being Gantoris and Kyp) Kyle was worried the Dark Side would become a problem for him as well and he quickly departed soon after.

We're never told if Exar Kun's spirit ever appeared before Katarn to tempt him during his time spent at the Academy but a story telling that would be interesting. It makes perfect sense that Kun could feel the power potential that lay within Kyle and attempt to sway him to the Dark Side as he did the other students.

Kyle would later return and assist Luke as a teacher in the years to come and to this day he's one of the most popular members of Luke's Forgotten First Class.