Tai

During the New Republic Era, Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master, endeavored to reestablish the Jedi Order by training a fresh group of individuals in the ways of the Force. Tai was among Skywalker's apprentices, alongside Hennix, Voe, and Ben Solo. On one particular occasion, the four Jedi were observed levitating rocks under Master Skywalker's guidance within the Jedi temple grounds, their training location.

Around 24 ABY, Tai and Solo discussed Solo's inclination to conceal aspects of himself. When Ben explained his actions were due to the burden of living up to his family's reputation, Tai reassured him that he needed to embrace his true self and that he was not as flawed as he perceived. Encouraged, Solo sought confirmation, prompting Tai to reiterate that he should disregard others' opinions and simply be himself, confident that everything else would fall into place.

In 28 ABY, Tai, Voe, and Hennix were engaged in a mission beyond their home planet. Upon their return to Ossus, they discovered the Jedi temple had suffered destruction. Amidst the burning remains of the temple, they confronted Solo, sensing only his presence in the Force. Solo, believing their master had attempted to murder him in his sleep, claimed he had killed Skywalker in self-defense. Tai urged caution, hoping to gain insight from Solo's perspective, but the others ignited their lightsabers and attempted to forcibly restrain him.

After Solo used the Force to overpower them, Tai included, the three Jedi returned to their starship, the Verity, to prevent Solo's departure. Tai cautioned Voe against pursuing Solo, aware of his family's reputation for producing some of the most skilled pilots in the galaxy. Solo ultimately escaped, finding refuge with Snoke after disabling the Verity with his own vessel, the Grimtaash. While the three Jedi agreed to continue their pursuit, Tai suggested informing Solo's mother, Leia Organa, about the situation. However, his colleagues overruled him, believing they needed to gather all the facts before involving anyone else. They journeyed to the Jedi outpost on Elphrona, where they found Solo donning a mask previously belonging to Ren, the leader of the Knights of Ren. Tai, Voe, and Hennix approached him, lightsabers drawn, warning him that he had nowhere left to run.

Left with no alternative, Solo engaged in combat against Tai, Voe, and Hennix. During the confrontation, Solo used the Force to push Tai against rocks before fleeing. Tai, regaining his composure, witnessed Voe and Hennix pursuing Solo to a cliff, where Solo pushed Voe off the edge, freezing her in mid-air. However, Hennix threw his lightsaber from behind in an attempt to kill Solo, leading the conflicted apprentice to release Voe and redirect Hennix's weapon back at him. Tai tried to slow Voe's fall, but Hennix was already dead. Before they could react, Solo ordered them to enter the Jedi outpost. Tai attempted to inquire about Hennix's fate, but Solo dismissed it and forced them into the outpost, sealing the entrance with rocks.

Long after Solo departed Elphrona for Varnak, Tai and Voe cleared the rocks from their path. After retrieving his lightsaber and Hennix's, Tai told Voe that he had sensed Solo's plans to meet the Knights of Ren in order to find his true path. When Voe assured him that she didn't care where Ben's path took him but how it would end, Tai agreed with her and declared that he considered their former friend to be lost.

Tai and Voe traveled to the Minemoon, where the Knights were attacking a group of Mimbanese miners to steal the Mindsplinter, a powerful Force artifact. Tai called out to his former colleague, but Solo was determined to prove his worth to Ren and his Knights. While Voe went to aid the Mimbaneses miners, Tai attempted to use his special bond with Solo to reason with him. However, Ben charged at him with his lightsaber.

Tai told Solo that he found him through the Force and chastised him for turning his back on the light side, prompting Solo to reply that he was carving his new path. Tai responded that it was not yet too late for Solo to turn around, saying that every path goes in two directions. When Tai argued about the ability to chose, Ben replied that both the light and dark sides of the Force prevented him from controlling his destiny. As the dueling progressed, the two moved over a bridge.

Unwilling to give up on Solo, Tai said it was not too late to turn on the light side and invited him to help defeat the Knights of Ren. Seeking to reach out to Solo, Tai laid down his lightsaber and urged Ben to choose between killing and sparing him. Before Solo could respond, the Knights of Ren's leader Ren used the Force to break Tai's neck, killing him. Enraged by his friend's death, Solo wielded Tai's lightsaber in conjunction with his own and used it to attacked and killed Ren, falling to the dark side of the Force. Solo then killed Voe and became the Knight's new leader, taking on the name "Kylo Ren" and bleeding his kyber crystal.

Tai, a human male, possessed fair skin and blue eyes. His eyebrows were dark, and his head was bald. He typically wore the brown Jedi robes associated with members of the Jedi Order.

As a Jedi apprentice, Tai held strong faith in Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, believing him incapable of malicious intent. He was also a friend to Ben Solo, his master's nephew and the Jedi temple's most promising student. Unlike Voe and Hennix, Tai could discuss Ben's insecurities and encouraged him to embrace his true self rather than conforming to expectations based on his family's legacy.

Tai trusted Ben Solo and did not believe he would willingly harm his uncle or fellow Jedi. Even when others sought to subdue Solo through force, he attempted to reason with him and empathize with his struggles. However, after Hennix's accidental death at Solo's hands, Tai concluded that his former friend was beyond redemption and agreed with Voe to hunt him down and end his life.

Despite Hennix's death, Tai attempted to reason with Solo and bring him back to the light side, appealing to their former friendship. Tai even attempted to convince Solo to choose between killing or sparing him, which he equated to the tension between the light and dark side. Though Solo had rejected the Jedi Order, he respected Tai enough that he could not bring himself to kill his former classmate.

As a Jedi, Tai was sensitive to the Force, although not as gifted as Ben Solo. Through the Force, he had the ability to sense the presence of other sentient beings on the surface of a planet from space.

He was a highly skilled telepath, allowing him to sense the emotions of others as well as reach into the minds of other individuals to search for information. He would come to sense Ben Solo's emotional distress throughout their childhood and, during their second encounter after the young fallen Jedi fled Skywalker's temple, was strong enough to penetrate Ben's mind for a brief time and learned of his next location, which allowed him and Voe to track him.

He also knew how to use a type of Force healing where he would take on the pain of an injured being so that they would not feel it themselves, although he could not do it successfully when emotionally distracted. Tai was also a competent lightsaber duelist who was able to fight Ben Solo in combat. However, he was no match for the darksider Ren's powers.

Tai wore tan Jedi robes with a brown cloak. He possessed a blue-bladed lightsaber with a metallic silver hilt with two stacked sphere-like shapes near the emitter.

Tai first appeared in the 2019 comic The Rise of Kylo Ren 1 written by Charles Soule, the first issue of Marvel's Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren mini-series.

Although Tai had blue eyes throughout The Rise of Kylo Ren 1, in one panel they appeared brown.