I've heard that George Lucas made this area off-limits to EU writers pre-1999 because he was planning on doing the prequels. There were mentions here and there of Clone Wars details but not so much full stories. But apparently there were some exceptions that seeped through, like Silent Drifting in the late 70s Marvel comics, featuring Obi Wan fighting Merson pirates. Were there any other exceptions, i.e. stories set in the prequel era, but released before 1999? (Also ignore my username. I came up with it years ago when I was young and foolish )
I can guarantee I'm not the only one who clicked on this thread with fingers poised over the keyboard ready to tell you about that Marvel comic starring a young Obi-Wan. Oh boy, were we ready. Otherwise... uh... the zeroth and first issues of Republic were actually published in December '98. That technically counts, right? 1995's Mist Encounter takes place very early in the Imperial era and was eventually dated to 19 BBY by the Reader's Companion, not long after Episode Three. And... that's all, folks?
Interesting. Lucasfilm must've enforced that "prequel era off-limits" rule reallll thorough if only like 2 prequel-era stories slipped through the cracks pre-1998.
I love this image of Obi-Wan. It could easily be him having down time with the Jedi tunic and most of his armor taken off his early TCW costume. Doesnt necessarily make sense in context(isnt he on a commercial passenger starliner?) but it jives well with a canon look. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
I got nothing. There could be some really obscure WEG stuff we're not remembering, I suppose, but even then they'd probably be just vignettes rather than a full story. I think Jeff's list is pretty much it.
While there were very few works set near the prequel era I'm pretty sure there were many references to that era, though usually vague enough to be retconned at a later date. I got an old omnibus like five or six years back where Luke and crew go to a planet of flying people (Called Sky something? Don't recall off the top of my head), and he learns Obi-Wan was there once, with two of his apprentices. One "good" and one "bad". Clearly it was written before ESB. In the strictest sense of the term "prequel" I'm pretty sure there were at least a few comics set in the lead up to ANH around this time too.
It depends what your definition of "prequel" is. My initial thought seeing this was also Mist Encounter, which the story itself told us was set immediately after the creation of the Empire... but then again, at the time we didn't know whether the creation of the Empire was technically in the prequel era or what its relation to the Clone Wars' chronology was. Since ROTS it seems like "prequel era" has been stretched a bit to include a few years post-ROTS, and so in that context, maybe the story from the Dark Empire Sourcebook about Mako Spince getting drummed out of the Imperial Academy? A few of the other early WEG works also had vignettes specifically set during the Old Republic but mainly little details about the Senate.
I was wondering about short stories/vignettes from West End Games too --- sometimes they would include a few paragraphs of an in-universe story in the middle of a character bio and not even give it a title. Like there could realistically be three IU paragraphs of a character opening a box, set thirty years earlier, in the middle of some WEG guide. Ya never know. How about flashbacks? This picture from Marvel SW #100 has Han as a kid, probably younger than ten. Spoiler And #68 had a flashback to Fenn Shysa fighting in the Clone Wars. Spoiler
I was actually upset that Bey didn't make it into any of the Solo tie-in materials, given how liberally they used other Marvel stuff. He would have fit in well as one of the Corellian street gang kids.
I take it you haven’t read Skyewalkers then? Abel G Pena made it all make sense. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Haven't read it, though I knew it had be retconned because I looked it up on Wookiepedia a few years back.
Now technically, the reason the Marvel star wars comics got away with prequel-era flashbacks was because they came out pre-1991, before the EU really became an organized concise "thing", and George stepped in and said "no you can't show that era".
He seemed to be the one element of Han's youth that Crispin didn't include in her trilogy, too. I guess the Marvels had only just started to slowly creep back into continuity in the late nineties (a few references in the first Essential Guide to Characters, but none of its characters had really popped back up in new fiction yet). Any other prequel-era flashbacks in the Marvels I'm missing? A young Bail Organa or anything?
So apparently when I mentioned WEG earlier, the thing my subconscious mind was trying to get me to consciously remember was the vignette "The Fall of a Jedi" from the Domain of Evil module (circa 1991). Basically an overview of the life of Jedi Halagad Ventor, it describes his early efforts to become a Jedi, his service in the Clone Wars, and his subsequent capture by Vader. He is tortured into revealing the locations of hidden Jedi, which enables the Purge, and allows the guilt of his actions to turn him to the Dark Side. It's a one-pager, but manages to squeeze in quite a bit of that fun "what we thought the prequel era would be like" flavor - Palpatine rises to power after the Clone Wars and does so by going straight from Senator to Emperor, etc.
The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook mentions the Ghorman Massacre as part of the final days of the Old Republic before it was retconned to be an event during the Empire. The WEG stuff mentions a character who was a Republic soldier that fought in the Outer Rim Wars. I assume the Outer Rim Wars was a post-Clone Wars conflict given the gap between the end of the wars and the rise of the Empire in the 90s. Maybe it was the reason for xenophobia in the Empire?
Hang on---Prelude to Rebellion was released almost six months before TPM. That means the character who set expectations for the prequel era was...Ki-Adi-Mundi? That's wild. I'd hate to be the comic fan who expected them to have a major role in the upcoming movie.
Well, he was... sort of... in that other than the main group of Jedi characters (Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Yoda, Anakin, Mace) I think he's the only speaking Jedi in the prequels. Well, except for Jocasta Nu and the younglings, I guess. And he gets lines in all three movies, too. Combined with his appearance that kind of elevates him above the other Jedi.
- I know that WEG implied that there heavy tensions between species in the years leading up to the rise of Palpatine. This was intended to resemble the role that anti-semitism played in the years leading up to the rise of Hitler. - Raith Sienar and Tarkin were implied to have been big players in the rise of Palpatine. - The fact that Palpatine has clones on Wayland yet the clones are said to have fought against the Republic in the Clone Wars makes me wonder if Zahn was aware that the Clone Wars were a false flag conflict engineered by Palpatine.
Yeah, a character straight out of SNL's "Coneheads" fighting against Ephant Mon and a swoop gang of teenagers (also with coneheads) must have been a... strange... introduction to the prequels. But Ki-Adi went on to kinda be the protagonist of Republic (at the time simply called "Star Wars") for a few more story arcs, until Quin phased him out. I guess he must have a special place in the hearts of fans who read those early arcs, instead of just being that guy on the council whom Mace and Yoda randomly let speak. (Seriously, in Ep. 3 they take a vote on sending Obi-Wan to fight Grievous and only those three say "Aye" before they're like "Then it's settled!" Yarael Poof was right and you know he was.)
As someone who staked out my local Toys R Us on the midnight release party for Episode I action figures, I clearly remember Ki Adi Mundi being on top of my list. He was the lead out Jedi Council character for me.
That figure was important for me to get too. Not sure why. I didnt read Prelude to Rebellion until years later. I think he just looks cool. What an interesting time. Jedi were not yet limited to green and blue. So, the TPM Adi Gallia figure had a red saber, Ki-Adi has purple, Mace has blue. Pretty sure both Plo Koon and Yoda had orange. The Jedi Council: Acts of War comic had a full rainbow of lightsabers. I prefer the limitation, but it's interesting that George didnt flex that standard before AOTC. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
Interesting on Adi Galia. I'd prefer the Jedi to have many different color options. Before Phantom Menace, the Jedi character actions figures were too few in number: Luke, Ben, Yoda, and Dark Empire Leia. Anyone else? Ki Adi Mundi heralded the new era of Jedi being introduced and their action figure being produced. This reminds me: I want to finally round up all of those Comm Tech Chips after all these years. Ebay has them.
Yet Crispin's trilogy also included Rik Duel and Katya M'Buele from the Marvels. So Crispin was picking up stuff from the Marvels, just not Bey. For some reason. Anyway, actual stories set during the prequel era were not common before the PT . . . but details about the prequel era were. WEG is chock-full of Clone Wars veterans whose service is described, or former Old Republic officials given fifty-year backstories describing how they reacted when the Empire came to power, or references to reforms or doctrines promulgated by Senator Palpatine when he became Emperor, or Jedi Purge survivors. You also get stuff like Planet of Twilight referencing Seti Ashgad as an old rival of Palpatine's who was exiled, a lot of stories with backstory elements that touch on the last days of the Old Republic. A surprising amount of information (some of it, especially anything that ill-advisedly gave a timeline, contradictory) about the prequel era was established in advance. This could have been quite profitably incorporated into the prequel EU we did get, but unfortunately very little of it was. Still, it would be very interesting to try to collect all the pre-1999 facts about the prequel era together and see what exactly we get.
I feel like Cloak of Deception was the first book that truly incorporated aspects of pre-1999 prequel lore with the actual prequel setting, not surprising given the author. The HoloNet News website was also really good about doing that. Republic did it here and there, depending on the writer. Cloak is actually interesting in that of all the prequel media, it's one of the only that brings in the pre-1999 Old Republic stuff without focusing on the pre-1999 Clone Wars stuff that popped up in the Clone Wars media run. I actually did once try to catalogue all of the pre-1999 prequel era info, but this was like a decade ago and not sure where those notes are now. The same with an effort to gather all the Lucas comments about the sequels, which if I had known about the oncoming Disney purchase I would have put more effort into.
