Attack on Reading

Back in 1979, Random House School Division published a two-volume adaptation of A New Hope titled Star Wars: Attack on Reading. Interspersed with the text of the adaptation are all sorts of questions for kids about grammar, vocab, reading comprehension, etc. These are pretty hard to find anymore, at least for a reasonable price, so I've only managed to get the 2nd volume.
Anyway, the point of this post is that I finally sat down and read my copy today and noticed a few amusing/noteworthy items that I thought I'd point out.

Page 13: When Luke and Ben enter the cantina, Luke says "I need a cool drink of soda pop." Zahn's use of hot chocolate raised eyebrows, but how about this?

Page 15: Evazan (unnamed) brags that he's got the death sentence in twelve galaxies. Can Dan and Jason make sense of this?

Page 17: We've got another "Hobbie" issue here, as it says that Obi-Wan kills Ponda Baba (unnamed).

Page 19: There's an interesting comment by Han:

So, where has Han seen lightsabers used before?

Page 31: When Garindan (unnamed) sees that the Falcon is going to escape from the stormtroopers he led to Bay 94, he calls "the nearest Galactic Fighter Squadron." Has this term appeared before? If not, might Jason elaborate on it in the Essential Guide to Warfare?

Page 69: Vader's lightsaber is "hot-pink."

Page 77: On Yavin IV,

The entire fleet?

Page 95: It says that Chewie "would receive his medal later at a quieter moment." Has that been depicted anywhere?

 

Nice find! I've never even heard if this before. For preservation's sake, I do hope you find the others,I just checked ebay and got zero results...

They probably just call it Coke in other parts of the Galaxy...

Well, he was a old enough during the Clone Wars to have seen them back then. Or he might have simply seen a one the various Imperial Dark Jedi at some point. Personally, that quote reads two ways: either Han was being slightly sarcastic, or was attempting to subtly remind Kenobi that there's a Jedi Purge-sized reason that it's so uncommon to see lightsabers in the Empire (and that Kenobi shouldn't show off and possibly cause MORE trouble for him).

probably just means nearest Galactic Empire Fighter Squadron, but you never know...

Yes, and early on, too. The Day After the Death Star comic depicts it.

 

Ha, these are fun! Thanks for posting them, Plaristes!

 

As fun as it is to theoretical retcon things, I think we all know that these interesting little inconsistencies are basically just relics of an era before continuity was established in the EU.

 

A singularly unfortunate name for a young-readers' publication.

 

Han may well have just replied to swordplay, not just lightsabre fighting. After all, there' vibroswords and the like in the galaxy. As someone else said, it's most likely just the result of being very, very pre-eu, and most likely not overseen by Lucas that strictly.

The old Lando Adventures have plenty of earthisms in them (although they're really surprisingly great books).

 

While I agree worrying too much about the continuity in here is a bad idea, it occurs to me that Solo might have seen some lightfoil duelists in the Tapani Sector at some point.

 

12 GALAXIES? sweet... we got the GFFA and a couple of satelite ones, but when was Evazan visiting the Vong Galaxy and its satelites with his Abominor and Silentium friends?

 

Yup. I believe in the novel that Obi-Wan even points out to Luke that lightsabers, though rarer than blasters, are still used in certain sectors of the galaxy. It's just stuff that's leftover from earlier drafts.

 

That sounds familiar as well...

 

Here we go:

"You father's lightsaber," Kenobi told him. "At one time they were widely used. Still are, in certain galactic quarters."

 

There were probably referring to Kenobi's statements in the ANH novel about how "lightsabres were once widely used across the galaxy, and still are in certain quarters." Taken in that context, and with Han's background as an experienced smuggler who's "seen alot of strange things", it's really not that surprising.

 

It's also possible that he's encountered an Inquisitor. Or maybe even just witnessed an Inquisitor and some troopers making a raid or something. While Dark Jedi Inquisitors weren't exactly common, they were still around throughout the entire Dark Times.

I'm sure it wouldn't be too out of place to see a man in a dark robe wielding a red lightsaber leading a squad of stormtroopers into the neighbour's house. Especially when YOU (YES *points* YOU ULICUS!) were the one who called the Imperial garrison and told the Officer there that the neighbour's been bringing food to a teenage girl in a brown robe that's been living in his garage, and you suspect she might be one of those Jedis!