Books Star Wars: Catalyst (A Rogue One Story): (spoilers)

A light smile is something that's infinitely less frightening a HEAVY smile. Seriously, you look like Reverend Kane when you try to do that...

 

A heavy smile would look something like this:

 

Darth Plagueis had some typos as well.

 

2 questions about the Separatists, specifically Mr. Poggles:

Spoiler

Ok, first off I gotta say I absolutely love Poggle's role in this. But I'm confused about Anakin and the Seps. Poggle is working on the Death Star, at home, hosting Moore/Dangor/Pestage et al for months if not years, and then gets called to Mustafar at the stroke of 12 to get killed by Anakin. So:

1) Don't the other Seps think it's odd Poggle and some Geonosians randomly show up at Mustafar after disappearing for so long in Republic custody? Did he just tell them he was in jail the whole time?

2) Anakin kills him, then shortly after is overseeing the Death Star project. We already know there were Geonosian guts all over the thing, Geonosians continued to work on it for a few years with the new archduke, and it was stationed at Geonosis. Isn't Anakin-now-Vader going to immediately ask himself where did this Geonosian-built machine come from? There were so many Republic-now-Empire folks working on it that certainly they can't keep it a secret from him that Poggle was there until right up to Mustafar. Unless Palpatine kills all those people. But he didn't kill Krennic. So.... I'm confused.

I guess Palpatine thinks Anakin is dumb and mopey and won't ask these questions.

 

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That sounds about right. I'd guess that he probably wouldn't be too anxious to tell the rest of the Separatist Council that he'd been helping the enemy build a superwearpon. Or maybe he did tell them, with the caveat that he did he best to sabotage it before escaping.

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I'm not sure I see a problem here. Would Vader really care that the Republic had employed Poggle to work on it but Poggle had betrayed them and run back to the Confederacy?

 

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Not so sure about that. In Darth Vader # 4, while investigating the remains of Geonosis, Dr. Aphra comments. "Well, it should be quieter since the planet was sterilized. No queens, no hives... Wonder what weapon they used?" When Aphra and Vader find a surviving Geonosian queen, the latter demands: "Why are you here? Has the Empire not taken enough from the Geonosians with your bombs?" (According to Vader, the answer is "no.") Also, the artwork of the destruction of the world matches a bombing of some kind, not internal warfare.

So, while internal Geonosian violence may have dented the population, the Empire did wipe them out (whether to tie up loose ends or for something else).

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I did like the unique dynamic that was set up between the Ersos, but why is it a bigger deal that Lyra asked Galen out first?

Agreed.

 

DP

 

DP

 

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I did like the unique dynamic that was set up between the Ersos, but why is it a bigger deal that Lyra asked Galen out first?

[/quote]

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How often, in popular stories, do you see the woman make the first move in a relationship? In this respect stories tend to reflect society, where the idea is that the man should be the one to ask a woman out, indeed women are to be 'pursued'. I like that it broke with that completely.

 

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The issue is the timing -- the DS was a top-secret assignment so Anakin couldn't have known about the Geonosians' involvement until he showed up on the scene shortly after as Vader, and at that time they were probably still working on the machine (since the book says they were doing it at least 5 years later). So they must have told him that the Republic had hired the Geonosians, despite what they did to him and Padme in AOTC and what they did to him, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Rex in TCW. It was a secret alliance against some of his greatest enemies he didn't know about. And they can't hide the fact that Poggle ran directly to Mustafar on some sudden call immediately before Anakin arrived -- Krennic made a big dramafest over it. Wouldn't Anakin be suspicious of the timing?

 

The newest promo of Rogue One just makes the ending of the this book so much sadder ..

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Galen got kidnapped 15 years prior to Rogue one (15 BBY) which means that they only got 3 years together as a family on Lah'Mu before Krennic found them

 

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Doesn't he get sent to Utapau first, or is that being retconned?

 

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Right -- so it would have been that meeting Poggle must have referred to when he went to hyperspace. But the series of events must have been wicked fast, because those scenes were juxtaposed with Galen and Lyra running for their lives on Lokori up until the droids get shut off. The very scene of Poggle engaging in hyperdrive to escape the DS was before the droids shut down.

 

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So I guess the deal is that Poggle is captured on Geonosis in the middle of TCW season 2, spends the rest of that season and all of seasons 3, 4, and 5 (if not 6) in prison on Coruscant, and then cuts a deal with Krennic that allows him to go home and play act at building the Death Star until, let's say, a few months (at most) before ROTS, when he beats it on out of there to join the rest of the Separatist Leadership Council on, first, Utapau, and then on Mustafar, where he dies. That about it?

 

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Some iterations of Spider-Man also broke the mold; both the original movie trilogy and the Ultimate comics had Mary Jane Watson making the first move when trying to start a relationship with Peter Parker (Kitty Pryde did the same in the latter). The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon did the same with Gwen Stacy.

 

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I figure Palpy could explain away the timing easily enough. With Dooku dead, the Seps wanted as much of their leadership in place as they could get, so they helped Poggle escape when they did. And I can't see Vader caring too much that the Republic employed the Geonosians --- he might even find it a fitting punishment for them that they were forced to work for their enemies.

Then again --- how much does Vader actually know about Sidious having been in control of both sides of the war? It's been a decade since I read Dark Lord, but surely the old canon had him figuring it out. Has the new canon had anything to say on the subject?

 

Finished it a couple of days ago. Fantastic book. This was only the second Luceno Star Wars book I have read (the other being Cloak of Deception way back in '02), although I was highly familiar with his writing with Brian Daley of the Robotech series. The book was rich and detailed with all of the Death Star stuff, and I felt like Krennic, Galen and Lyra were written so well, I could almost see and hear them and know those characters inside and out, even a month before seeing Rogue One.

I'm sure this has been pointed out, but based on various ages and story points, Catalyst spans from 21 to 17 BBY. There are references to various battles from the Clone Wars TV series, and I'm left wondering if those match with other dates people have postulated over the years.

 

"Send a message to the ships of the Trade Federation. All droid units must shut down immediately."

 

Ah, right. And Nute Gunray calls him "Lord Vader," too. In which case, Coffee's question...

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Isn't a problem at all? If Vader knows that Sidious was in control of everything, then there's no reason for him to be suspicious that Poggle was being used by both sides, is there?

 

I got the Kindle edition for faster delivery since I'm in Mexico (started reading the minute Amazon's email arrived)...

Can anyone explain me the differences in the interior design? I've been puzzled...

Thanks in advance!

 

Aside from a couple of clunky expressions at the beginning when Luceno was writing from Lyra's perspective, this book is really, really good. I meant to read only a couple of chapters before bed last night and ended up staying up until 2am finishing it. I can't wait for the movie.

 

did someone on the last page say this book is boring... yeah if your an adhd action head. This was a GREAT novel that gave us critical backstory of history on a few of our characters and Jyn's parents. I loved it.

 

Well, as I'm only reading the print edition I don't know what you're seeing(or not) but main points are:

• Black starfield pages with white font for Part titles
• Images of the Death Star plans as chapter breaks

Little points to be sure but they make the book stand out.

 

I flipped through a copy of the print edition in a store yesterday, those are the only real differences. The Death Star plan pages look so good!