WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower and Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #1-12, on sale now.

Throughout Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, there have been hints that Lula Talisola and Zeen Mrala’s feelings for each other have been romantic in addition to platonic, and the latest issue confirmed that the pair were in love, even if they have not confessed their feelings to each other yet. Like Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala before them, only Lula is a Jedi; however, Zeen also is Force sensitive and training with the Jedi to control her powers. While the Jedi's rules about attachments ultimately played a large role in Anakin and Padmé's downfall, these rules were more lax in the High Republic era. The overarching thesis of the Star Wars: The High Republic subseries is that people are stronger working together, and Lula and Zeen's romance might ultimately save them.

Anakin and Padmé's romance could be seen as either a slow burn or a whirlwind, depending upon your point of view. While they did meet years before they got together, they ultimately had been reunited for a brief period of time before they decided to marry. For Anakin, his attachments, and, more specifically, his inability to trust in the people he cared about, were his downfall.

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In contrast, while Lula and Zeen formed a strong bond at their first meeting, their romance has been a steady slow burn. Their friendship started with them forming a strong connection in the Force in order to save the other Padawans and Younglings from debris in Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #1 by Daniel José Older, Harvey Tolibao, Rebecca Nalty, Jake M. Wood, Riley Farmer and Elizabeth Brei. To represent their dyad, many issues of the series have been from Lula and Zeen's split points of view, with Lula's thoughts represented in blue and Zeen's thoughts represented in pink. This color coding has been consistent throughout the series even in issues when only one of them is a point of view character. When their dyad was strongest and their purposes most united, their narration of their thoughts have been illustrated as a pink and blue gradient. Thus, in the Force at least, Lula and Zeen have been strongly connected from first sight.

However, their friendship and subsequent romance have grown at a far more steady pace. Lula helped welcome Zeen to the Jedi with open arms, and they both were training with Jedi Master Kantam Sy, even though Lula would not be allowed to become a Jedi due to her age. Throughout the Star Wars: The High Republic subseries, Lula worried about her attachments and whether they would cloud her vision, but her worries always circled back to her connection to Zeen. In Daniel José Older's Star Wars: The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower, Lula reflected, "Zeen seemed to understand Lula better than anyone else, even though they'd led entirely different lives up to this point. Opposite lives. She would do anything for her friend." This reflection highlights the strength of Lula and Zeen's bond, even if Lula was not ready to acknowledge her crush yet.

This trust enabled Lula and Zeen to work together to capture Krix Kamerat, Marchion Ro's protégé and Zeen's former friend, in Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #12 by Daniel José Older, Harvey Tolibao of Magnus Art, Pow Rodrix, Rebecca Nalty, Jake M. Wood, Riley Farmer and Heather Antos. Throughout the issue, both Lula and Zeen pined over each other, both implicitly and explicitly. Lula was on the cusp of becoming knighted, her former life goal, but all she could think about was Zeen. Similarly, Zeen angsted over Lula's upcoming promotion to Jedi Knight because she believed that Lula's life as a Jedi "won't have any room for [Zeen] in it." Still, they both attempted to balance their feelings with the mission at hand.

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Lula and Zeen reflect on their bond as they prepare to capture Krix Kamerat in Star Wars The High Republic Adventures

When capturing Krix, Lula and Zeen ignite their dyad once more, but the language that they used surrounding that connection confirmed both of their romantic feelings. Before they connected, Zeen reflected that she needed to "trust in the Force. Trust in love. In Lula." Afterwards, Lula reflected that "If we hold too tight, everything falls apart. But we can't wall off our hearts from the world or pretend that we don't have feelings." Anakin held too tightly, but because Lula and Zeen are able to balance their romance with their trust in each other, they strengthened their connection with the light side of the Force.

Lula and Zeen currently seem to be on the right track to avoid Anakin and Padmé’s fate. With the Nihil on the rise and other enemies such as the Drengir and the Great Leveler still lurking in the shadows, they will need to lean on each other even more in order to survive. However, their romance has been proven to make them stronger and may give them the tools to handle whatever the galaxy throws at them next.

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