Books Star Wars: Join the Resistance book series

The latest episode of the podcast I Was There Too has a discussion with the authors of the series (starts around the 25:45 mark, the first half of the podcast is an interview with the guy who was George McFly in the Back to the Future sequels). Not a super ton of info but they talk a bit about the Story Group and what it's like to work with them, and how they got hired to write the book.

Basically people at Lucasfilm wanted a YA series that was like the Thrilling Adventure Hour "Sparks Nevada" segment, and so it was decided to just approach the guys who did that. Greg Rucka helped, given they knew each other from when they were all working on Batman (which made me laugh - for all Marvel Star Wars is hot now, it was a DC connection). The Lucasfilm people approached them with the concept (pitched as "Goonies in space") and a general outline, they came up with more of the specifics from there.

Notably they wanted to have a settlement named "Mos Gourley" but were told that canonically "Mos" is only used as the prefix for towns on Tatooine. A few other bits of info, nothing major but will spoil it just in case:

Spoiler

About half the novel is set on the Resistance base. The first chapter is on Durkteel - they wanted to do Trandosha but weren't allowed to by the story group. Vodran also appears in it. Ackbar is in it, but Leia is not. Timeline wise, it's set just before TFA. A lot of comedians the authors know get name dropped in the book.

They also mentioned that there's going to be a launch event for the book at Largo in LA on March 8. Weird Al and Ahmed Best will be performing.

 

I really wonder why

Spoiler

they can't use Trandosha. Also, if Durkteel is in there, I hope we'll see Saurins.

 

I feel this series will be terrible

 

so what's the connection between Jo Jerjerrod and Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod?

 

If the writer wasn't allowed to use Trandosha in this book that must mean LF have plans for in it in the future.

Maybe it's Snoke's homeplanet? Maybe Smug the hunter is Snoke?

"Orders from the supreme leader, he...needs...a sp-ee-der to pick him up"

 

I've been seeing a number of positive reactions to this - enough that I may well buy it for reasons besides tweaking the SRS BSNS people.

 

GrandAdmiralJello:

Spoiler

is Durkteel confirmed as the Saurin homeworld? Because Mattis, a human, seems to have been born there--from what I've heard.

 

Yeah, okay, I'm legitimately excited now.

 

I'll get these books soon but I still havn't even finished servents of the empire yet so it might be awhile before I would start reading.

 

Read book one (next one coming out in Nov.). A lot of setup, but I think it's needed to get the characters locked down. Liked the characters and am curious what happens next.

I'm a little confused how Mattis and the Force works. He thinks he's slightly Force-sensitive, but is that just his imagination or is he correct? I took it to be wishful thinking (the book brings it up when we're told how he's rationalized what happened to his parents and he only seems to feel it when he's around the girl he's apparently developing a crush on, like he's mistaking it for butterflies or something).

Will be interesting to find out about Jo and the plot twists that he was a part of given the spoilers for the sequel:

Spoiler

he betrays his friends after being captured, raising the question if he was a traitor all along (which would explain a few things in book one) or if his plan was to pretend to defect to get into a better position for a breakout or something.

Found it kind of funny that the first Zeltron they brought into canon was a Type-A personality instead of a party animal, like the species was in Legends. Wonder if that indicates that the species is getting reimagined for canon. Also a funny discrepancy; Lorica is described as having blue hair in the book, but is drawn with purple hair on the cover.

 

Just because she's the first Zeltron we've seen doesn't mean all Zeltrons are like her. That would be like if Greedo and Bossk being bounty hunters meant that the authors decided all Rodians and Trandoshans should be bount- oh.

 

Nothing wrong with the difference (I actually like when the franchise avoids pegging all the aliens as one personality, like they did here); I thought it was just a funny contrast comparing the character to previous ones. And that's kind of what I'm wondering; will canon Zeltron culture remain the same as Legends or take a new course?

I do like that new canon seems to be avoiding the trap of making the aliens too homogeneous (all Rodians and Trandoshans want to be bounty hunters, all Corellian humans are reckless risk takers, all female Twileks are going to be slaves, etc.). There are some stereotypes, but it feels like a more realistic balance between what a culture may value (and so create the stereotype in the first place), and accounting for individual personalities. For example, while hunting is still held in high esteem on Rodia, we see plenty of Rodians that don't seem interested in centering their lives around it or share Greedo's tetchy nature.

 

COUGH. COUGH.

 

Although I appreciate the fact that they're getting away from stereotype, I still hope the classic Zeltrons will be back some day. And more male Zeltrons, if possible.
(I once included one in some sort of collaborative fanfic. It revolved around a Rebel stafighter team called "Pink Squadron". All the pilots had a crush on Han Solo. An that included Tia and Ghia from SW Demolition! xD)

 

I don't recognize that character.

 

It was an entirely forgettable series. To be sure.

Where are my Kleenex.

 

I found that confusing too. He fervently believes he has it, but doesn't seem to have the slightest idea of what it is, to the point of mistaking infatuation for it. There aren't any events in the book to suggest he actually he is either. If this book was anything but teenage wish fulfillment, I'd be pretty sure it's just his desire to be a hero. Since it is that kind of book, I'm not so sure.

 

On the other hand, he could very well have it, but have no idea how to use it (or be too weak in it to do much beyond feeling things). Since the book is from his point-of-view, I guess it makes some sense that there's no clear answer. I don't think it's a big deal overall, but its a question that should probably be answered before the series' end. (If he did have it, you'd think he'd have done something already, given that most Force-sensitives can do some simple tricks with no training. If he doesn't, it could be an interesting story arc to have him come to terms with it.)

 

My understanding from Canon is unaware Force sensitive individuals rarely make any conscious use of the Force, but tend to perform beyond what should be possible for their species in a variety of areas. They also tend to exhibit preternatural intuition. So far I haven't seen any of that, but I do find it odd it's just been presented as an internal belief that he's never told anyone.

 

Sure. (Phantom Menace, Force Awakens, the first couple Rebels episode, and scenes from the novels Heir to the Jedi and Ahsoka were where I was getting information about newbie Force users doing some tricks and things untrained and with little control.)

If he's wrong, I think we're supposed to chalk it up to wishful thinking (the tagline on the cover is: "They want to be heroes. The Galaxy has other plans."). A point of his character is that he wants to be a great hero like the leads of the movies (although unlike a glory hound, he does seem to be motivated by altruism), so he might've convinced himself that he's got it.

As far as why he never told anyone, he did regret telling a fellow orphan what he thought happened to his parents, and it's insinuated that he doesn't want to be mocked for what he believes regarding himself and the Force.

 

Right, his belief just seems a bit superfluous if he's wrong since it hasn't affected anything in the plot . He hasn't done anything he wouldn't have otherwise done and it's had no impact on character interaction. So yeah, we'll see, but they need to do something with it one way or another.