Lit A Chronological Journey Through the EU: Currently Disc. Interference

So, anyway, a brief introduction since this is a little new. I do want to continue working through the 111 Star Wars Stories You Can’t Live Without list, just because it is a fun list (mainly because it’s so often totally wrong-headed). But the creation of the new “real” canon is intriguing to me, so I’ve decided to kind of start exploring that as well. Even as I continue focusing on the “Legends” stuff and building my own personal canon out of it, I thought it would be fun to slip in reviews of the new “Canon” material. So, I’m starting on the timeline of Canon Media on Wookieepedia and every ten reviews (or so; depending on what I figure out for that 111 Stories list) I want to look at an entry on that list as a way of kind of grappling with what Star Wars is becoming currently.

I don’t know if this makes sense. Mainly it’s a way for me to be able to go ahead and jump into some of the later entries on the timeline (the 111 Stories list is kind of the same thing) and talk about them with you guys without having to wait years and years to actually get to them in the chronological journey. Anyway, I hope it’ll be fun and spark some interesting discussion.

So, this is a repost/edit of a review I wrote previously about the first entry on the list, Episode I. This was, interestingly enough, one of the, if not the very most, controversial reviews from the original thread. Some prequel defenders even argued I shouldn’t have reviewed the movie at all since it’s an actual Star Wars movie and not part of the EU. I mean, that’s just dumb, but a lot of prequel defenders really disliked this review and understandably so, since I hate Episode I. But anyway, it’s the first entry in the True Canon or whatever it’s getting called these days. So here it is. Enjoy (or not).

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace



32 BBY

*So, yeah, I saw this movie twice back in 1999; didn't like it at all and haven't really seen it since. So, it'll be interesting to revisit.

*So, here’s an Editor’s Note: when this review was originally posted, I had actually reached The Phantom Menace chronologically, so I’d been spending a lot of time building up to it. So, I talk in this review at great length about how reading all the pre-TPM EU improved the movie in a lot of ways and really brought home just what a big moment TPM is in the GFFA chronology. Since I’m jumping ahead and reposting this review early, we, of course, haven’t spent all that time talking about the build-up. But all that stuff I say is such a big part of the review that I really just have to leave it. So, this review, unfortunately, references a lot of stuff we haven’t talked about at all in this thread. Probably, you’ve read a lot of it though so you should be able to follow along. Okay, back to the original review.

*But here’s a profoundly mythic moment. To date we've had really four major plot threads: Anakin on Tatooine; Naboo's political upheaval; the Jedi; the Sith dealing with the Trade Fed.

*Over the past few months (timeline), we've seen King Veruna and Sate Pestage meet for clandestine reasons; we've seen Veruna indicted for treason and then die; we've seen the rise of a new queen. And we've seen Ric Olie state the obvious.

*We've seen the Sith make deals with the trade fed. We've been following Sidious and Maul for twelve years now, from their first meeting in Hate Leads to Lollipops to the various training exercises of stories like Marked and Nameless. We've begun to see a final overarching plan: Saboteur had Sidious and Maul doing their part for the Trade Fed. The Trade Fed is firmly in their pocket, in the person of Nute Gunray, who was suddenly and shockingly elevated to a position of greater power and influence in Cloak of Deception. And then we saw Maul chase down a traitorous Trade Fed member in Darth Maul and Shadow Hunter. Finally, we saw the Trade Fed and Sidious and Maul working toward a shipment of battle droid spaceships in the Episode I Adventures.

*The Jedi of course we've followed for millennia, but pertinently, we've followed Qui and Obi for eleven years of oil and water relationship.

*And now suddenly, all these things are colliding; Qui and Obi are on a collision course with the Trade Fed and, where else, it's over the skies of Naboo.

*So, yeah, the EU helps; it actually makes this feel rather mythic.

*I'm reminded of the humorous version that involved a line approximate to: "I sense an awful lot of fear surrounding something so boring to this movie's eight year old audience as a Trade Federation Blockade."

*I'm sorry, the Neimodians just look stupid.

*Well, that's about as blatant a steal from Forbidden Planet as you can get . . .

*Damn. Jar Jar's still annoying.

*Seriously, two minutes he's on screen and I'm grinding my teeth.

*"Ye Gods, what is mesa sayin'?" The first of several moments that made me literally feel like crying and screaming at the same time.

*I'd forgotten how hilarious Ric Olie actually is. "There's the blockade."

*Go watch the 1997 Ivanhoe miniseries; Ralph Brown is a fantastic Prince John, utterly chilling. Wish he'd had a better part here.

*Humorous version: "Captain, what is this droid's number and be sure and read it as though you've never heard it before."

*Wow, Portman just isn't even trying in that scene with Jar Jar. "You're a Gungan, aren't you?" just comes out of her like she’s a pull string doll.

*And now we enter the realm of Jake Lloyd, worst child actor ever.

*"I'm a person and my name is Anakin." There's that 'wanting to cry and scream at the same time' feeling again . . .

*Best scene in the movie: "Republic Credits will do fine." "No, they won't." "Republic Credits will do fine." "No, they won't."

*How bad of an actor do you have to be to be eight years old and still make "Yippee" sound fake?

*Jira, the underground railroad lady!

*Threepio and Artoo meet. A suitably iconic moment.

*Kudos to Liam Neeson for making his lines better than they should be: "No one can kill a Jedi." "I wish that were so."

*Right, midi-chlorians. I don't feel like getting into it, but, still, a stupid, stupid idea.

*Best line of the film: "Patience, my blue friend." I laugh every time. What a great line.

*More Liam Neeson greatness. When Shmi asks if Anakin's nervous, Neeson could have been sympathetic, but instead he snaps, "He's fine," like he was telling a dog to get the hell out of the way. Great work.

*Well, the podrace bores me stiff, I have to say.

*Those Sand People are hitting the pods . . . right. Stormtrooper template should have been one of them, obviously.

*"Many things will change when we reach Coruscant. My caring for you is not one of them." WHAT a terrible script.

*"Look, the Chancellor's shuttle. And there's Senator Palpatine, waiting for us." I'm dying over here.

*Can we all just agree that Ian McDiarmid is a God among men?

*The Lisa Kudrow MTV Movie Awards spoof of the Jedi Council scene is way better than the actual scene: "He's like really old, like eight hundred."

*God. Jake Lloyd. Just flat sucks.

*That look of 'surprise' Lloyd has when he discovers Padme is the queen actually looks more like disgust. I don’t even want to know what that might mean.

*That first scene of Maul with Gunray and Haako makes Ray Park look like a midget.

*In what universe would these comedy antics during a big climactic battle actually work?

*The battle of Grassy Plain (hey, it has a name?!) looks pretty fake, really.

*Williams' score is more or less wallpaper music here, but Duel of the Fates is a knock out piece of music.

*And the Qui/Obi/Maul duel is absolutely stupendous.

*Note that, in the EU, this is a clash of epic proportions. We've been with Qui since he was a padawan, with Obi for eleven years, with Maul for twelve. This is a disaster; the big showdown and we should really be on the edge of our seat, frankly.

*Why the hell doesn't Panaka just go out the window right behind him?

*This is so stupid; why wouldn't they have sent Anakin up in the first place, since he is the best pilot in the galaxy, demonstrably? Instead we get this ludicrous coincidental thing.

*"No ship could get through our shields." Except you left the HANGER BAY WIDE FREAKING OPEN.

*Man. Qui-Gon's death is still a stunner.

*Qui-Gon's been in something like thirty-six stories to date, in all of them a major player. Maul has been in about eight. We were first introduced to Qui-Gon forty-three timeline years ago. To this point, if the saga had a main character (at least since the fall of the Sith Order under Bane), we would have said it was him. We've had a lot of ensemble pieces and a lot of pieces that focused on characters as varied as Jango Fett, Mace Windu, Ki Adi Mundi, Micah Giett, Aurra Sing, etc. But we keep coming back to Qui-Gon.

*Get me; we just killed off the MAIN CHARACTER.

*And in Maul, what I would call the main villain.

*From a chronological standpoint, this is staggering stuff, a moment of real climax.

*And now, oh, joy, we get to look at all twenty-one adaptations of this movie . . .

*No, literally, twenty-one adaptations.

*Neeson, MacGregor and MacDiarmid notwithstanding, this is quite a bad movie. Lloyd sinks it worse than Jar Jar, frankly.

*CANONICAL STATUS: Despite recent attempts to canonize this as a serious historical text, this is best viewed as a mostly fabricated retelling of true events. Featuring completely fabricated characters, rearranged chronology, outright distortions and numerous factual errors, this work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Warned against 1 ½ stars.

George Lucas

*Okay, well, next time, we’ll hop back into our regular chronology (assuming the thread hasn’t been burned to the ground by prequel defenders). It’s our second solo RPG: Jedi Protector!

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Jedi Protector



3,996 BBY

*So, this appears in an issue of the now defunct Star Wars Galaxy magazine, specifically issue thirteen. It can still be purchased on line for the relatively cheap price of around 4 dollars, not that I’d recommend doing so, at least not for this.

*So, Jedi Protector is a three page (or four, if you count the page entirely taken up with an image of the titular character by someone named Durfee) solo RPG. You may recall The Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh (spelling not guaranteed) from the TotJ Companion.

*Now, the last time I wrote about one of these solo RPGs, someone mentioned that they sounded more like choose your own adventures than RPGs. That’s pretty well true; they really are, by virtue of being intended to be played solo, more like choose your own adventures. They do away with the idea of a game-master and the idea of a group of players and also with the idea that you have your own custom character that you have personally brought to the game.

*About all they have from the RPG, in addition to the ol’ choose your own adventure style choices, is the stat card on the character you’re playing and the action of rolling the dice to see if you succeed or fail at various moments in the game.

*I think the way to think about these is as tutorials. It’s a quick way to teach you the basic mechanics of RPGing: how to read a stat card, how to use the dice, etc.

*Okay, so let’s get to Jedi Protector. I’m playing as Shalavaa, a Jedi Knight on my first assignment. My master, Ortraag, has just completed my training and dumped me on a backwater planet to be the Jedi Protector to ‘an outlying colony of fenti bean farmers and nerf herders.’

*I hope this doesn’t end with my liver being eaten with some fenti beans and a nice nerf.

*You laugh, but that’s about how The Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh ended.

*Anyway, this seems a pretty plum assignment given that the Sith War is apparently raging throughout the galaxy, killing billions. This story, and the last one, comes after the Sith War comics on the timeline, but before some other retellings of the war, so I’m kind of lumping these in as happening concurrently with the war. Since both this one and Light & Shadow are so self-contained, both taking place on tiny, isolated planets that are barely inhabited, I think this works really well.

*So, a nerf herder disappears and you have to investigate. You find a strange ravine near where he was last seen and decide to enter it.

*Okay, so The Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh had a similar setup: numbered paragraphs that you jumped around through. But Kabus-Dabeh had eighty paragraphs. This one has seven. So this is a lot more rudimentary than Kabus-Dabeh. Which hopefully means I’ll actually succeed at this one.

*So, immediately on entering the ravine, you have to roll a perception or magnify senses or whatever. I succeeded and thus noticed some strange vines above me. Then, they attacked! I rolled a dexterity or lightsaber skill or something and killed it. Master Ortraag appeared out of the shadows and said I had done well. Since I had passed this final test, it was time for me to leave this planet and join him in a fight against a greater evil.

*Oh, great! I get to go fight in the Sith War after all. Some timelines place this one a few years later than this placement, but this ending makes it really work with it being concurrent with the Sith War. No word on whether Shanana or whoever gets killed in the Sith War. He very nearly got kacked by some vines, so probably.

*Oh, wait, so what about the nerf herder?

*Anyway, this is incredibly simple and easy. It’s like the very, very first tiny step into RPGing. It is possible to fail. If you miss the magnify senses roll, then the vine attacks before you notice it. This isn’t fatal as it just sets you back to the section where you have to fight the vine. If you fail the lightsaber roll, Master Ortraag has to save your pathetic behind and he kind of gripes you out for not being ready for the larger galaxy yet.

*Which would be the better outcome, frankly.

*So, I’d say that a solitaire adventure, since that’s what Schweighofer calls it in the articles, in a magazine like this is aimed at the general fanbase and is an incredibly simple entry piece. The Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh is a lot more complicated by virtue of actually being in a roleplaying source book; it’s aimed at people who have been intrigued enough to pick up the source book and thus already have some interest in role playing games. They’re both entry pieces, but this one was far simpler and less interesting (and less fun) than The Ruins of Kabus-Dabeh.

*Warned against. 1 star.

*CANONICAL STATUS: This odd story exists in a very fragmentary form and features no details or individuals that can be tied to any other historical records. It is most likely a rudimentary Jedi legend that was passed down orally and eventually recorded in text. It is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

Peter Schweighofer

*Okay, next time, we’ll hit one of those Sith War retellings and you may recall me reacting very favorably to the first entry in this series and even giving it canonical status even though I hate the story it’s based on. I wonder if this one will fare the same. Join me next time to find out as we discuss Timeline 10: The Exar Kun War.

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Timeline 10: The Exar Kun War



3,996 BBY

*So, before we leave the Sith War behind, we’ve got a couple of short summaries to go through. Here’s the first. It’s the next in the series of Timeline videos from the team behind the Old Republic MMORPG.

*You may recall that I actually gave the previous video, the one about the Great Hyperspace War, canonical status, as in giving it a recommended.

*By the by, this is reminding me that I need to just go ahead and post my recommended list. It’s a way to get through the EU (to this point) and get a fairly good picture of the larger story, while also avoiding all the really stupid stuff. I’ve got several items already on it and I’ll be expanding it as I go, of course.

*But anyway the Great Hyperspace War vid is on that list because it’s a quick and fairly painless way to get a really short version of the Great Hyperspace War without having to put up with a lot of the stupidity that’s in the comics and such. I mean, I feel like you should know who Naga Sadow is and what the Great Hyperspace War is as you go through the EU, but I’d recommend just watching a five minute video instead of reading all that comic material. We’ll see if this one gets the same. I don’t know. The Sith War storyline really is so dumb, I’m not even sure if this video format will be able to make it bearable.

*So, anyway, these are all tie-ins to TOR, the MMO. They are in the form of historical holo-records, recorded by a Jedi master named Gnost-Dural. They are made up of still images manipulated and such . . . anyway, with music and narration by Gnost-Dural, voiced awesomely by Lance Henriksen.

*By the way, now that we’re getting new movies, I think we need a petition to get Lance Henricksen to play a Jedi. He would kick ass. I’ve actually always kind of pictured him as Kenth Hamner.

*Huh, so Gnost-Dural mentions Revan and Malek which is the first chronological mention they get, I think.

*Things I never knew I wanted to hear: Lance Henriksen solemnly intoning “Freedon Nadd.”

*Seriously, what do you think he was thinking as he was recording this stuff? I know I’d be thinking, “This is some seriously nutty stuff.”

*He does kind of save the video, to the extent it can be saved. He sounds utterly serious even when he’s saying things like, “And offered him as a sacrifice to an ancient Sith worm.”

*The worm sequence, by the way, is pretty awful; the animation of the worm dying is really cheesy.

*Great music, however.

*This smack-down between Ulic and Exar takes place in a pouring rainstorm and in the middle of a huge battle between the Krath forces and Exar’s Massassi. I seem to remember that it was just the two of them in the comic and they were inside, right? This is a lot better. I mean the presentation here in the video.

*This also shows some sort of a ground battle on Yavin 4 between the Massassi and the Republic forces & a face to face confrontation between Exar Kun and the Jedi who have pursued him to Yavin 4. I like this better than the comic which seemed to kind of indicate that the Republic just cruised up over Yavin and was like *CAST FORCE SEAL* and then flew off.

*So, Gnost-Dural says that Exar Kun imprisoned his spirit in the temples there. And, “From what we know, it remains there to this day.”

*Maybe a couple of Keep Out signs would have been nice then.

*So, Gnost-Dural says that Exar Kun was not allied with the Sith Emperor then on exile on . . . some planet or other. I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. He then says that since the Sith spirits supported Exar Kun, perhaps they do not support the Sith Emperor of ‘today.’ I still don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. I presume this is MMO stuff.

*Hmm, well, it’s interesting, I think. I enjoyed it. The video is nearly six minutes long. The animation style isn’t great, but the music is great and Henriksen does a great read of the narration. It’s a nice change of pace to have a video to watch instead of a book or comic to read and just for the novelty, I’ll be looking forward to my next one of these.

*CANONICAL STATUS: While even this record of the Sith War contains factual errors and exaggerations, it remains one of the most accurate documents related to the Sith War. For this reason, it should be considered RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Conditionally recommended. 3 stars.

*All right, next time we’ll do a little more summarizing as we jump back to the Chronicles of the Old Republic and take a look at Corruption of the Jedi.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

So, what EU material are you actually referencing as pre-TPM? Obviously Cloak of Deception, Shadow Hunter, and Jedi Apprentice and some comics, but you seem like you mean more than those?

 

I'd love to hear Henricksen narrate the events of the movies. Imagine him narrating Palpatine's rise to power, the Battle of Yavin, etc.

 

The Episode I Adventures are the main ones, I'd say, outside of the ones you name. They give some backstory to Anakin on Tatooine and Maul and Palpatine as well. And then there are the ones about the Gungans, but those aren't anything you'll want to explore, trust me.

 

This is a really cool thread, and I'll be following it... with great interest
I've never touched anything from the KOTOR era other than the first game, so it's kinda cool to get an overview of it. Though I do plan on checking out some of the comics eventually.

 

Chronicles of the Old Republic: Corruption of the Jedi

3,996 BBY

*All right, next one in the series; free; go read; etc.

*So, this one begins with Ulic getting hooked up with the Krath. It then moves, in three paragraphs through the whole bit about Nomi and her non-rescue and then Exar’s alliance with Ulic.

*Hmm, so I thought this was going to be about The Sith War, but this particular section of the Chronicles should actually, I guess, be read after Dark Lords of the Sith, or in conjunction with Part IV, Attack of the Krath.

*If, after all, it should be read at all.

*I have nothing to say here. How dull is this?

*CANONICAL STATUS: This fragmentary document is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Absolutely forbidden. 0 stars.

*Next time, it’s . . . part VI of The Chronicles of the Old Republic: The War of the Sith. I grow weary of these.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

I feel like I'm getting mixed messages.

 

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

 

Chronicles of the Old Republic: The War of the Sith

3,996 BBY

*Blah blah blah etc. etc.

*It begins: “Two dark powers have joined forces and begin to corrupt and sway weak minds across the galaxy.” So, it’s Kevin J. Anderson and . . . wait, who’s the other one? Tom Veitch?

*So, there’s a typo in this one where they call Exar Kun ‘Kur.’ That’s some great proofreading there.

*So, this one starts at the beginning of The Sith War and it gets to about the half point of the story. Crado and Aleema perish activating the weapon and starting the storm that will obliterate Ossus and then this section ends.

*Do I need to rate this one? I don’t think so.

*CANONICAL STATUS: NOT RECOMMENDED.

*Absolutely forbidden. 0 stars.

*Anyway, next time, it’s our last look at the Chronicles of the Old Republic, for a while at least, and we’ll finally leave this benighted timeline section behind. Join me for The Seal of Yavin 4.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Chronicles of the Old Republic: The Seal of Yavin 4

3,996 BBY

*All right, one last Chronicles before we thankfully leave them behind for a while.

*So, this one finishes up The Sith War and, as the title indicates, includes some deleted material about Exar Kun’s original Sith ritual which allowed him to, briefly, possess, not the buildings of Yavin 4, but the seal of Yavin 4.



*The weakness of this plan quickly become evident.



*So, anyway, after that whole kerfuffle with the clubs and stuff, Exar decides it might be better to inhabit the buildings.

*Seriously, this does finish The Sith War up. It is three paragraphs long and begins with the destruction of Ossus.

*It’s three paragraphs long and it spends one of those paragraphs, fully a third of its length, telling us about frigging Ood Bnar and his awesome ‘become tree’ powers.

*This sentence is a riot: “Too late to save their friend, Nomi used the Force to blind Ulic to the Force.”

*Oh, so those are the two options? It’s like you have to either save him or blind him to the Force? You couldn’t possibly ‘arrest’ him? ‘Kill’ him? ‘Subdue’ him? ‘Parley’ with him? It’s either ‘save’ or ‘blind to Force?’

*Also, why exactly is it too late to save him? Ulic frigging surrenders and throws down his weapon and is all like, “Nomi, help me” and she’s like, “Hmm, obviously, can’t help this guy *FORCE BLIND*”

*No, in case you wonder, I haven’t gotten over how infuriating The Sith War is.

*Was it also ‘too late to save their friend,’ when they did that whole massive rescue operation and then just walked away? That would explain a lot. Or perhaps not.

*Anyway, Kun possesses buildings: “The Sith War was at an end.” Thank God.

*CANONICAL STATUS: NOT RECOMMENDED.

*Absolute forbidden. 0 stars.

*All right, we’re finally leaving this year behind and we’re actually jumping a few years into the future. Join me as we catch up with the Jedi three years after the Sith War for Tales: Shadows & Light.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

But seriously, what did they actually mean here?

Edit: Never mind, I get it, it's talking about the Jedi "sealing" Kun there.

Also, to be fair, couldn't the "their friend" bit be referring to Cay, who, y'know, got killed?

 

Hmm, it could be talking about Cay. Actually, I just went and read the line in context (yay for free stuff online!) and, yeah, they are talking about Cay as the one it's too late to save.

 

Shadows & Light



3,993 BBY

*Okay, so this story originally appeared in issue 23 of the Star Wars Tales series, which was next to last if memory serves. It
was republished in the Star Wars Tales, Vol. 6 trade.

*So, the opening text box says this takes place three years after the Exar Kun War.

*DURON Qel-Droma?! Oh, what the heck is this crap?

*This is interesting . . . the Jedi are dispatched to kill some sort of Dark side creatures.

*Hmm, two of the Jedi are in love. This is NOT interesting.

*Master Ood. Great. I’m always up for more tree.

*Well, here’s a bizarre twist to the Jedi Code and its rules against love. It is apparently, at this point, considered A-OK for Jedi to have one night stands, as we see the righteous one, Guun Han, sleeping with a girl he picked up in a bar.

*And then Han says that he was just using her for information. “Do you think I enjoy this? I am carrying out the wishes of the council.” Reminds me of that great line from Thunderball: “What I did last night, I did for Queen and Country. You can’t imagine I got any pleasure from it.”

*Not that I believe any of that.

*I still like the image of a Jedi using a bow and arrow.

*Blah blah. They all die.

*There is one absolutely stunning image of the two Jedi in the darkness, their sabers the only light, illuminating a massive creature fading in from the shadows. Brilliant.

*So, my understanding is that this is kind of a prequel to KOTOR, the video game that is, not the comic series. Having not played it, though I do plan to rectify that, this story is essentially meaningless to me.

*In the end, this is unimaginatively drawn, predictably played out and uninterestingly characterized. Utterly bland and utterly inoffensive.

*CANONICAL STATUS: This short tale is probably mostly fabricated. This work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Average. 2 stars.

Josh Ortega

*All right, only the one story in this year. Next time, we’ll take another leap, this time of about seven years, as we travel to 3,986 BBY. Join me next time for Tales of the Jedi: Redemption.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Tales of the Jedi: Redemption


3,986 BBY

*Editor’s Note: This is a really, really old review, one of the first I wrote in the original thread and so it’s a lot less plot heavy than a lot of my summaries are now. So much so that I seriously considered trying to heavily rework this one and include a lot of plot summary and such. But I don’t think I’m going to do so. For one thing, this is one that I highly recommend; if you haven’t read it yet, you really need to do so. For another, the plot is fairly simple. Anyway, I still feel somewhat guilty about not walking through the plot in some detail, the way I do with my reviews now. I’ve posted other old reviews without doing much except cleaning up grammar and flow and that kind of thing, but this is by far the one that I just gloss over the most. I don’t think I really talk about a single actual event in this story. But I think I’ll let it stand. It’s different, but nothing wrong with that.

*A few words about redemption. It’s at the heart of a lot of great, great literature. It’s a wonderful, beautiful word and I think to some degree, we’re all searching for redemption, the idea of atoning for our mistakes and reaching some sort of a feeling of purity and success. The idea of coming back from our failures and our wounds and doing something worthwhile and powerful is a strong and an evocative one. One that, frankly, I’ve failed to even begin to do justice here.

*I said at the beginning of this series that I’d discuss how the works of EU relate to other works of art. This one’s just too big to even begin to discuss. The idea of redemption is a truly permeating one. And it never fails to move me. Maybe it’s the Christian idea of Jesus redeeming the world, Scrooge whispering “Back payments, back payments,” Royal Tenenbaum staring over the table and saying, “Can’t a guy be a **** his whole life and then just try to make up for it?” Maybe it’s Lord Jim taking that long walk into the village, a dead man’s ring in his hand. Maybe it’s Mitya Karamazov consigning himself to a life of suffering, knowing he doesn’t have to. Sometimes it’s a big thing, a show stopper like a dying soldier telling another, “Earn this.” Sometimes it’s a small thing that seems barely worth mentioning, like a father tossing the game ball his son just gave him up in the air. Regardless, it’s redemption. Redemption, as Caedmon’s Call said it, is a road and its one we’re all walking at varying speeds and with varying stories. But redemption is the name of the game.

*Anyway, if redemption isn’t the most personally evocative word in the English language for me, it’s in the top ten. So I went into this book with high hopes.

*Ten years after the events of The Sith War, which is enough time for our characters to have grown.

*The art here are uniformly fantastic. The scenery is gorgeous and the characters are both recognizable and changed. Ulic, especially, is brilliant, all haggard lines and haunted eyes. Fantastic.

*Even Sylvar, a character who was so cardboard it was ridiculous in the original stories, comes across as real and breathing here. She has several truly fine and emotional moments.

*What’s so great about this story is that it’s more than just Ulic’s search for redemption. It’s about Nomi’s search as well and even more so about Sylvar’s.

*At the end of The Sith War, I blasted Nomi Sunrider quite harshly. Vima gets off a great line, speaking of Ulic: “I think my mother resented him more for leaving us than for the crimes he committed.” Bingo. Dead on target. See, when they made Nomi into that kind of a dark hearted character in The Sith War, I did not believe that they would ever actually explore that weakness. But they do so here. I thought it was unintentional by the authors. Apparently not. Apparently, it was shading. Kudos for not being afraid to look at the negative side of your “good” characters.

*And, amazingly, the authors pull of Vima’s rather rebellious and whiny character without making her the least bit annoying. Rather she seems supremely tragic and strong of heart. That’s amazing. Most of the time these kinds of characters are so annoying I can’t stand them.

*Some people said that the characters here are clichéd. And perhaps they are familiar: the wounded warrior struggling for redemption, the distant mother, the angry and grieving survivor, the disconnected teenage girl hungry for a male mentor. But to a greater degree, these characters are archetypes, not stereotypes, characters that seem so deeply ingrained in our conscious minds (and our unconscious ones) that they seem old friends.

*Toward supporting this, I’ll mention the ring that Ulic wears on a cord around his neck. I honestly cannot recall the significance of this ring. Is it something of Cay’s? Of Arca’s? Perhaps a gift from Nomi? Perhaps an intended gift FOR Nomi? Darned if I know. But I don’t need to know. I know instantly and instinctively that it means something important and, frankly, that’s all that is important.

*Another complaint levied at this series is that it’s plotless. And it certainly is meandering and methodical. Someone said nothing really happens. No, unless you count the struggles of four separate individuals to come to terms with their mistakes and rectify their lives. Other than that, nothing happens.

*I should mention that in previous books in this series, worlds have fallen, body counts have ranged into the millions, etc, etc. But it was all so much sound and fury, signifying nothing since we didn’t really care about any of the characters. This installment focuses on the much more compelling and resonant areas of struggle, the interior ones. This gets down where we live and, by doing so, manages to actually have a powerful message of forgiveness and hope.

*And the ending made me cry. Really. It’s truly beautiful and moving. Powerful and thought provoking.

*I mean, there’s so many great moments here; the snowball fight is a real classic. And I deeply, deeply love Sylvar’s line, “Of all the people to free from my hate . . . it was you.” But I mean, it all builds to that ending, which I put on my top twenty EU moments when I did that list a few years ago. I think it was in my top ten actually. Anyway, “he had the heart of a Jedi.”

*Yes, I know it’s a work by Kevin J. Anderson. I find the fact that it is moving, resonant and powerful just as bizarre as you do. I’m shocked.

*CANONICAL STATUS: While many of the tellings of the Sith War are corrupted, this story of the survivors of that conflict is considered extremely accurate. Events most likely transpired exactly or almost exactly as depicted here. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

Kevin J. Anderson

*Next time? Well, if it’s Tales of the Jedi, it must be a retelling. Join me next time for Chronicles of the Old Republic: The Redemption of Ulic Qel-Droma.

Star Wars Reviews!

 

As I said in another thread, in Redemption, Ulic remembers Massassi snipers on the temple rooftops. That would have been cool to see in The Sith War.

 

The history of the Great Sith War, OOU, is of one long, continuous effort to make it seem far cooler and more interesting than it ever was.

On Shadows and Light, it's basically illustration of a minor bit of backstory from KOTOR. One of the many bits of offhanded backstory mentioned in the game is that of the Great Hunt shortly after the war to exterminate the terentateks that spread during the war. So these dark side, Jedi-hunting creatures got slowly wiped out until the three best hunters remaining went after the last ones. Their fates were rather obliquely revealed through, of all things, loot -- at various points in the game you can pick up equipment that, in its placement and its little blurbs, plus datapad entries you can pick up, lays out the bones of their story. This comic just takes all that and puts it into a full telling of the story. It's interesting to see lore get turned into narrative like thay, but as you said, it's not that incredible a story on its own merits.

 

Chronicles of the Old Republic: The Redemption of Ulic Qel-Droma

3,986 BBY

*Okay, this is part VIII of the Chronicles. Remember, free to read at the link above.

*Basically, this just retells Redemption in three paragraphs.

*It does end with some new material, at least for me: “While the Jedi order attempted to intercede in regional conflicts, such as the KANZ DISORDERS, the Republic remained in an uneasy period of peace until a vicious warrior race appeared to threaten the stability of the Republic twenty years later.”

*So, I have no idea what the Kanz Disorders are or why they’re worthy of the CAPSLOCK treatment. Obviously, this bit about the warrior race is foreshadowing for our next major galactic event, the Mandalorian-Republic war, which I believe will be covered in some detail during the Knights of the Old Republic comic series, yes?

*Seriously, if you know what the Kanz Disorders are and can do so without spoiling me majorly, let me know.

*CANONICAL STATUS: This work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Absolutely forbidden. 0 stars.

*Okay, well, next time . . . we take out biggest jump in quite a while as we leap from 3,986 BBY to 3,964 BBY. Yes, it’s time to enter the next major period of the timeline. Join me next time for an overview as we talk about Timeline 9: The Mandalorian Wars.

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I can't wait for you to reach the KotOR comics.

 

Timeline 9: The Mandalorian Wars



3,964 BBY

*All right, breaking new ground! As I watched this video, I knew very little about the Mandalorian Wars, or KOTOR, or Revan & Malek and all that. So, let’s go!

*It’s been about twenty-two years since Ulic Qel-Droma faded into death. Biggest jump in a while.

*This, like all the videos on this timeline, is narrated by Lance Henriksen. I enjoyed The Exar Kun War a lot and I hated that story, so let’s see if this one might be even better.

*And we begin . . . with Lance Henriksen solemnly intoning “Revan and Malek did not fall to the Dark Side in a single moment” while aching, eerie strings hum behind him and we are treated to an image of the two characters striding toward the camera, lightsabers ignited.

*I got a chill. I can’t wait to go through all this KOTOR stuff leading up to the games and then actually attempt to play them. I’m really excited. So, first actual appearance of Revan and Malek on our timeline, right? They may have been mentioned in The Exar Kun War, I forget, but they certainly didn’t appear.

*Mandalore the Ultimate seeks to defeat the Republic and the Jedi in order to rule the galaxy. Mandalore the Ultimate . . . is this the new Mandalore from the end of The Sith War?

*So, we’re introduced to this great Republic hero, Carth Onasi. But the Mandalorians turn the ti . . .

*Wait a minute. So we see the Jedi Council here. And there’s a Yoda-esque guy. There’s a tall bald black dude. There’s a guy who looks like Saesee Tinn. Does the Jedi Council go by like affirmative action quotas or whatever? Like they are required to have a member of Yoda’s species on every Council? And one Samuel L. Jackson dude?

*So, the Jedi Order decides to cut its losses and it decrees that the Jedi will no longer fight the Mandalorians. Revan and Malek lead a splinter group that links up with Onasi’s Republic group and they defy the Council by taking the war to the Mandalorians.

*So, Revan kills Mandalore the Ultimate and then ‘activated a superweapon that destroyed an entire planet . . . and everyone on it.’ Huh? What? Could I get a little context here please?

*So, he does it to destroy the Mandalorian army I guess, but in the process he also kills tons of Republic soldiers and other Jedi.

*Great music on this section of the video. Very grim and melancholy.

*So, Revan and Malek pursue the few remnants of the Mandalorians and there, Gnost Dural tells us, they found the Sith Empire and their fall to the Dark Side happened there.

*Hmm, so this was interesting. These videos are rudimentary, yes, but likable. And this one breaks some new ground for me. I know only that the Mandalorian War is the next major conflict in the Galaxy and that the story of this War will unfold at least partially in the KOTOR comic series and that the ripples of this war roll on through the two KOTOR video games.

*But I dug getting a real introduction to Revan and Malek. Onasi will probably be important too. Good stuff. And probably good to get this big picture overview before I get into the comic series. This will help keep me centered on what’s going on in the series, yeah?

*CANONICAL STATUS: While the complete accuracy of this document cannot be verified beyond a doubt, it is most likely either entirely or almost entirely accurate. This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*Very good. 3 ½ stars.

*Okay, so next time . . . whoo, boy, it’s here! Let’s get into KOTOR!!! Join me next time for Knights of the Old Republic 0: Crossroads!

Star Wars Reviews!

 

Carth's importance in the Mandalorian War seems a bit exaggerated - he will be more significant in the events of the first KOTOR game - particularly if your player character is female.

With regard to the superweapon - context would be premature at this point. How it all plays out and all the whys are plotlines in the second KOTOR game.

 

Yeah

Spoiler

This seems pretty off actually, what happened at Malachor was completely the Exile and Bao Dur's initiative while Revan was getting his **** rocked by the Mandalorians at the completely different theatre of the war. He and Carth both get too much credit here.

 

Knights of the Old Republic 0: Crossroads



3,964 BBY

*So, here we stand, at the beginning of this much beloved series. As I prepare to start the series, I have read only Commencement, which I read as it was released. It will be a blast, I sincerely hope, to move on through this series. The extreme enjoyment I got from Lost Tribe of the Sith gives me hope that I’ll get similar enjoyment from this Miller series.

*So, this issue 0 was published during the publication of Commencement, as part of a flipbook, as they’re called. It features the 0 issue of Rebellion on the flip side. But for now, we’re talking about Crossroads.

*So, as it begins we’re treated to a scene of Zayne, who I do in fact recall from Commencement as the main character of the series, running a semi-sting operation on Gryph. Shortly, of course, they’ll end up on the run together, but here’s a brief glimpse of one of their previous meetings, which are, as I recall, brought up in Commencement.

*Zayne gets off to a fine start: “And now you’re under arrest . . . now where are those cuffs . . .? Blast! They’ve slipped down into the . . . hang on a minute. My robe’s stuck . . .”

*I quite enjoyed Zayne as a character in Commencement. I enjoy seeing a less than stellar Jedi. He is, of course, only a Padawan, but I enjoy the idea of a protagonist who is something of a klutz. Especially as a contrast to the seemingly ideal Jedi of Lucien; the two seemed utterly mismatched as a Master and Padawan and even more mismatched as adversaries. That is a brilliant set-up stroke.

*Gryph manages to send Zayne and his bike plummeting off of the building and he’s rescued by another Jedi who has been sent by Lucien: “He said to follow the trail of debris.” “Yeah . . . that sounds like him . . .” Zayne muses a look of disgust hilariously plastered on his face.

*Really brilliant. This Jedi apparently sees a kid falling through the sky attached to a flaming speeder bike and just goes, “Aha, this must be Zayne.”

*This new Jedi goes by the name of Squint; he’s passing through on his way to the Mandalorian Wars. I’m assuming he’ll become important as the series progresses.

*I don’t recall there being much discussion about the Mandalorian War in Commencement.

*The issue is raised here, as it was in the video on the Mandalorian Wars, of how most of the Jedi don’t think they should be involved. Squint finds it absurd that the Jedi are still worried about the Sith: “The Sith threat ended, what, 30 years ago?”

*So, Squint gives Zayne a standard issue “you may be more important than you realize” portentous speech and then ships out.

*Meanwhile, Lucien and the masters that are shortly going to be colluding to murder their Padawans share a moment. Q’anilia, the one without eyes, gets a sudden feeing: “Something has changed. Something bad. Something near. Several somethings.” Lucien vows to uncover the truth and to take action. The stage, it seems, is set for the upcoming Padawan massacre.

*And there’s a one page thing here called the Taris Holofeed. Some timelines really separate all this stuff out, but going by the Wookieepedia timeline, I’ll just be working these shorter pieces into the comics proper. That’ll speed things up considerably.

*So, the Taris Holofeed: Prime Edition is a one page text piece that appeared, along with Crossroads, in the flip book 0 issue of KOTOR. A few more of these recur throughout the series and, in a move so perverse and irritating as to be nigh onto infuriating, none of these pieces were included in the trade paperback collections. It would have been very easy to include them as supplements at the back of each respective trade, but, in an effort to screw over the completest like me, this wasn’t done.

*There are four stories included as part of the Taris Holofeed Prime Edition, which is set up to look like the front page of a newspaper or something (not that newspapers even exist anymore!)

*The headline is Stalemate on Suurja Continues. It’s a five paragraph story detailing how the Republic and the Mandalorian forces have essentially stalemated on a little planet name of Suurja. It is mentioned that the Mandalorians recently captured a “research station” called Flashpoint, which we know will be important.

*Saul Karath from the video game gets a brief mention.

*The second story is only a headline: Patrol Redoubles Hunt for Zovius Mendu. Will this be important later? No clue, which is why I mention it here.

*The third story, Investor Sought in Fishing Expedition, tells of a Baron Hieromarn, “Snivvian industrialist,” who is seeking investors for some kind of venture to do with eels or something. This is obviously one of Gryph’s scams.

*The final story, Taris Pins Hopes on New Jedi Class, discusses the five Padawans currently being trained on Taris, and how many people hope that at least some of them will stay on Taris after they become Knights.

*It ends with a brilliant paragraph that outlines some great feat accomplished by each of the padawans (Oojoh, the Ho’Din who brought down the Leverby smuggling ring, for instance), except for Zayne, who gets the brilliant line, “And Zayne Carrick, a human.” Ouch.

*Well, it gives us a brief glimpse of the major players of the series before the events of the series proper are really set into motion via the murders that end the first issue of Commencement. It feels pretty unnecessary, except for the brief introduction of Squint, who is, unless I miss my guess, going to become significant. He’s the only plot threat introduced here that hasn’t already been introduced in the first issue of Commencement. There wouldn’t have been time in that first issue to introduce Squint in with all the other introductions, so I suppose that’s the raison d’etre here. Pretty slight. Though, as always, one enjoys seeing Zayne mucking about and making an idiot of himself.

*I suppose at the end of the day, it’s not essential, but it I do love this series, so I’m going to just give it the benefit of the doubt. And why weren’t all those little one-pagers put in the trades? They’re not necessary, but they add flavor.

*CANONICAL STATUS: This work is RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.

*3 stars.

John Jackson Miller

*Well, it’s been ten reviews already. Join me next time as we delve once again into the 111 Star Wars Stories You Can’t Live Without!

Star Wars Reviews!

 

I was so annoyed the news bit weren't in the omnibus.