Books Imperial Handbook - A Commander's Guide

I just thought of the same thing which was why I thought of this thread again...

It's certainly going to be interesting -- even moreso than whatever JJM or Luceno can fit into a novel -- as this is a reference book, so... what are they going to reference? I know the point's been made already that even if they do mention a guy called Sate Pestage, maybe he won't turn out to come from Ciutric, or maybe he'll be a young man, and maybe an imbecile that works as Palpatine's head chef, who knows. Though I'm inclined to not be that cynical when they do throw in a name drop as, in the end, for all its complaints, TCW was more respectful than it wasn't when it cameoed somebody -- sure, it walked over continuity and stuff didn't quite reflect what people wanted, but it's not like Quinlan Vos turned out to be a female Wookiee bounty hunter.

So... maybe this the Imperial Handbook will end up being even more of a renaissance than we thought, and enshrine all that good stuff all over again?

What I could see changing though: I mentioned a few pages back how I was wondering how they could include stuff about the Inquisitors or Starkiller or all the other openly "Sith" stuff that the Empire gets stamped with nowadays...? Well, previously we had that problem of how an ordinary commander's handbook would know any of that... but now I'm not going to be at all surprised if suddenly we discover that the whole Sith thing wasn't as secretive as the EU had made it out to be, and that Rebels and NuEU now makes Darth Sidious a lot more, well, Darth Sidiousey.

 

Somehow doubt Motti would risk such a big lip if it where.

 

Honestly, I always half expected Lucas to cut Motti's line in the blu-ray edition or something.

In the context of the OT, it certainly made sense, but ever since Lucas moved the PT closer? I've always largely just dismissed it as something nobody apart from we canonphiles even thinks about that much.

Right now, I'm fully expecting this Inquisitor character in Rebels to be waving his lightsaber and Sith powers around everywhere. I also am now afraid my joke about the Jedi Temple being the Imperial Palace might turn out to be more than just a really bad mix up and could turn out to be the case in Rebels (it'd be an iconic image for TV audiences, after all...).

Yeah, Jerjerrod was what went through my mind when I thought of it. They could very easily change it so we're meant to think he was actually scared of Palpatine frying him with lightning.

 

Help us Dan, you're our only hope!

 

Well, actually, that would be referencing... something else.

 

Sorry for the sort of off-topic question, but TCW mentioned "fall of the old Republic" once or twice. The Death Watch mentioned looting that black lightsaber from the Jedi Temple, I forget which Jedi but it was one in a starfighter mentioned there haven't been battles like this since the "old" Republic, so just wondering if this book could classify what counts as "old Republic" means. In the old EU, pre-Ruusan from 1000 BBY would be the easiest to separate between old and modern Galactic Republics, but... yeah, no more Ruusan (except as a place for a Separatist listening post).

Just thought it was odd, as before TCW it was always just "the Republic", then TCW starting throwing old Republic around, when TOR has that term already, and then during the New Republic-era books Old Republic meant the one that Palpatine corrupted. Though now there's no more New Republic either. Oh well, guess it depends on how much old canon they'll allow in the Commander's Guide. Sometimes they don't pay attention, sometimes they quibble over tiny details, its hard to tell, especially with the new continuity starting up.

 

How did I miss this news?

DO WANT.

 

... hmm. Let's hope this preserves the best of the old while setting up the new in a positive fashion.The price tag is off-putting, though.

(The mention of a foreword by Luke is ... promising. Still, I'd like it to end with a chapter by Pellaeon, confirming that the Remnant still exists, even if it's belligerent.)

 

On top of the Imperial political structure, I am curious to see how ship lengths and total ship numbers will shake out of this new continuity. I assume this book would present some technical data in there, and be the first one to do so.

I can't imagine the length of an ISD changing. Wonder if they will work in the production run of 25,000 as well. I think they will stick with that or sadly go even lower. As I mentioned before since its the same authors from the DS manual I assume they will keep those diameters for the DS1 and micro-machine DSII

I would be shocked if the Star Dreadnought Dreadnought Super Star Destroyer Executor will still come in at 19,000 meters. Maybe fall back to 17.6 km, though from all of the past controversy and model lengths I wouldn't be surprised if it went lower.

 

Oh sure. I mean, I've got the CSWE, which has the entry printed in it verbatim, so that's good enough for me. That and a fairly robust in Darth Plagueis. Even if it's not canon, it's a published work, I'm happy to have contributed.

Oh, who am I kidding. I won't be satisfied until Greejatus is in a Rebels scene that emulates this:

 

Oh my, oh my, you've definitely hit on something now.

That silly Mouse, they really didn't think through the comsequences of throwing everything out did they?

Let the SSD length war live once more! We shall bury the Imperial Jedi Temple Palace beneath an avalanche of measurements!!!

 

Now that the issue has been brought up, I'm suddenly ecstatic at the possibility of everything Curtis Saxton canonized during his "running the asylum" period getting thrown out.

 

I'm not. I will be glad to see the 8Km Super-class nonsense go away though.

 

I can imagine someone saying "Reference books? That just reference the movies and nothing else? They carry through."

 

Hmph. My biggest gripe is how much damage this is likely to do to TEGTW. People - untold numbers of people - worked hard on that book. They deserve respect.

And, for the love of Notron, can we please not reopen the gates of Chaos that contain the ship length arguments?

 

The awesomeness of the EGTW (and the other recent stuff like Atlas) are one of my biggest fears at the moment too...

I mean, just last week I was recommending those to the new posters who said they were just getting into the books... now I feel kinda bad if they went out and bought them, as at least they could still enjoy stuff like TTT as a story, even if its rebooted, but the reference books do kinda seem a bit more pointless.

At the very least, at least stuff like TEGTW and Atlas or Book of Sith are still more "story-ish" in their in-universe approach, so can still be enjoyable. But the Essential Reader's Companion, or any of the other pure reference books....

It could be worse...

We could be debating whether the Endor Holocaust now happened after all.

 

I don't actually care about the ship lengths, I just detest Saxton.

 

How about ones like the Visual Dictionary, or the newer ones, that focus only on the movies?

I'm wondering what their status will be.

 

If they do keep in any of the existing stuff on the Imperial advisors, a guy named Sate Pestage who's Grand Vizier is probably most likely to stay, given that that originated from the cut ESB scenes.

On the other hand, I am willing to bet that the Coruscant uprising at the end of the ROTJ special editions will be taken to show that the Empire is immediately dissolved after Endor.

 

What about the book this thread's about? Is the Imperial Handbook now a Legend or is it 'cannon' as it's not even out yet? (I think?)

 

That reminds me about the old canon/cannon gag except this time, it's canon that has gone boom!