****The Official NEW ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CHARACTERS by Dan Wallace Thread****

I agree, RF, but that damn Skywalker name always opens doors, even if it is for an infant.

 

I realized another fairly important they left out, Bail Organa;I think he's an important important character; well, maybe you didn't want to divulge too much into AOTC, I think you still could have included a pre-AOTC bio of him.

 

Ah HA! I realize now why I thought the new EGtC said Rogue Planet came before Deceptions: Check out Obi-Wan's entry.

But then, in Anakin's entry, it says RP happened after Deceptions...oh well.

 

Tahiri and Tenel Ka are included in the appendix, so they do have a paragraph dedicated to them. I wish there would've been more, but at least with Tenel Ka, she was in Andy Mangel's Essential Guide (I'm sure I'm right on this though for the life of me I can't find my copy ). It would've been nice to have had a full page on Tahiri, especially since that would've been (to the best of my knowledge at least) the first American picture of her. I could've gone for Muuugrh, but at least he was included in Ann Lewis' Essential Guide to Aliens.

I guess what I'm saying is more characters would've been great, but I love what we did get. Worth every penny I paid for it (and the trip to more than one bookstore to find it on Tuesday).

~*~Bria

 

Hi everybody. Catching up on comments!

Valiento wrote:
The article of IG-88 quoted the TOS site almost word for word.

I supplied the Official Site with my IG-88 info from the Guide some time back, for the purposes of streamlining continuity. This probably accounts for any similarity in writing styles.

Sturm wrote:
Lando's entry confirms that he is 31 as of ANH.

This book is the first to pin down Lando's age. Which, by the way, was based simply on the fact that Billy Dee Williams is two years older than Harrison Ford.

General Dodonna modified existing R-22 Spearheads to make the first A-wings. Unfortunately, that still doesn't jive with my thought that was was seen in Droids were A-wings, since that is how the old toy is listed, of course. But, I realize that this had to be sacraficed...

For the uninitiated, this refers to a fix to the fact that A-wings were officially invented after ANH, yet appear frequently in sources set before ANH. At the time I wrote the above, I had forgotten that the ships in the Droids cartoon are referred to specifically as "A-wings," making their pedigree as R-22 Spearheads suspect. My fix for the fix (retconning the retcon!) is that the early R-22 Spearheads were referred to informally as A-wings. Eventually Dodonna purchased a bunch for Alliance service prior to ANH, and based on these field trials he eventually produced the first true Rebel Alliance A-wing (similar on the outside but with new guts) shortly after ANH. These were pure Dodonna/Blissex A-wings, not R-22 Spearheads in any way.

For the truly trivia-obsessed, the R-22 Spearhead is meant to be from the same family of ship as the R-41 Starchaser, a vaguely A-wing looking vessel from the TIE Fighter computer game.

- Qui-Gon's first Padawan was Xanatos. What happened to the other one, and who was it? ( See the TPM Visual Dictionary )

For the Ultimate Guide to Episode I, Haden Blackman and I had planned to address the issue of Qui-Gon's "first Padawan." Haden developed a female Cathar (panther-like alien) Jedi, but it was eventually decided by Lucasfilm that the Visual Dictionary is mistaken on the point that Qui-Gon had two Padawans prior to Obi-Wan. So Xanatos is Qui-Gon's first and only Padawan prior to Kenobi.

- After 22 years, we finally get Piett's first name and homeworld.

Derived from Latin, Piett's first name was designed to evoke an image of reliability, loyalty, and dedication to duty. (I'm a big Piett fan.)

- A lot more timeline placements are locked down, including the Outbound Flight Project at 31 BBY. ( One problem though...It lists the formation of the Corporate Sector at 490 BBY, yet it is mentioned in the Tales of the Jedi audio drama. )

It is? Wow, how is it that I've never heard of that? That reference must have been floating around for a good seven-eight years at least, right?

Anyway, my date for the formation of the Corporate Sector came from the Essential Guide to Alien Species. I'd love to hear the Tales of the jedi audio drama reference if anyone has it.

Valiento wrote:
"A lot more timeline placements are locked down, including the Outbound Flight Project at 31 BBY. ( One problem though..."
Which still leaves the problem of how did c-baoth still fight the dark jedi uprising during the clone wars?

Well, the databank records in Dark Force Rising list the Dark Jedi uprising as taking place a good ten years prior to the Outbound Flight Project, meaning that if the uprising is also supposed to be simultaneous with the Clone Wars, there's something screwy going on with those dates.

I figured that if the databank was wrong on so many other dates (it also lists C'baoth as participating in an event several years after he's already dead), it could be wrong about the timing, detail, and participants in the Dark Jedi uprising.

More later...

Dan

 

More comments! Keep 'em coming!

Balance_Point wrote:
Not only that, but Kyp's hair is blond. Blond! Jag's too (as I recall). And Jacen's. This puzzles me...

Blond??? We must have totally contradictory definitions of blond...

To me, Jacen's hair looks brown and Jag's looks black.

Genghis wrote:
"...Jason Fry, Christopher McElroy, Michael Potts, Nathan Butler, Chaz LiBretto, and Bob Vitas for the Star Wars resources they have written; and Abel Pena, Enrique Guerro, and Mike Kogge for their valuable suggestions."
Good job all around!
EDIT: And if I'm not mistaken, there's a misspelled name there - seems to be the hallmark of JC member acknowledgements?

Oh no, did I spell somebody's name wrong? Speak up if you're the injured party, so I can apologize.

TalonCard wrote:
So if Deceptions comes *after* Rouge Planet, then Anakin would already have had his first mission! There is no reason to put Rouge Planet before Deceptions, but Wallace does it anyway.

No wait a sec, here's how I've got it. This came from Lucasfilm, because I had to ask them specifically to clear this up (apparently this was a pretty busy year in Anakin's life!)
#1 Deceptions
#2 Rogue Planet
#3 Jedi Quest

Does that jibe with the in-book references and how you fan timeliners have it?

Dan

 

Which Clone War, though? Surely the Great Clone War isn't the first of them...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Hmmm. Well, Jedi Quest # 0 seems to be under the impression that Anakin is 13...placing it at 4 years after Naboo...although, to be fair, the back cover does say AlMOST 13.

 

#1 Deceptions
#2 Rogue Planet
#3 Jedi Quest

Where does The Followers go?

 

Well, Anakin's 13 in "The Followers" So either before JQ or after...I have it before on my timeline, as Anakin never uses a lightsaber.

 

With regard to Dan's question, both the Obi-Wan and Anakin narratives talk about events in the three books in the same order:

1) Deceptions
2) Rogue Planet
3) Jedi Quest: Path to Truth

However, in Obi-Wan's bio, after a brief description of the events of Deceptions, the text continues with...

"EARLIER the same year..."

...(or something very close to that) and then talks about Obi-Wan's and Anakin's trip to Zonoma Sekot. Anakin's bio leaves no doubt that the events of Deceptions precede the events of Rogue Planet.

Simply replacing the word "earlier" with "later" in Obi-Wan's bio would fix the problem. Moreover, Obi-Wan's bio would flow more naturally, with the "earlier" events of Deceptions mentioned before the "later" events of Rogue Planet.

 

"Anakin is 14 in The Followers, so it would go after JQ: Path to Truth."

Nope, he's 13 in it. Check out page 85.


Never mind: you edited your thread skysolo.

 

Dan,

To me, Jacen's hair looks brown and Jag's looks black.

Fair enough. I'll admit I was wrong about Jag; I didn't have the book there with me, and by the time I realized I'd made a mistake it was too late to edit the post. Jacen's hair, though, appears to be the exact same shade as my sister's: golden blond. Not as much so as, say, Brakiss or Danni Quee, but his hair color is definitely closer to Luke's and Anakin Skywalker's than it is to Han's or Leia's. But don't mind me, I'm just a nitpicky fan.

What about Kyp and Face, though? In these cases, the profiles clearly contradict the pictures; whether you call it blond or light brown, their hair is definitely lighter than it should be.

 

Oh yes. Piett's first name.

I'm way more into Rebels than I am Imperials, with a few exceptions, and Piett is one of them. I about flipped when I saw Firmus. Finally! Very cool to know where (Axxila) is from now too.

As readers who took the Star Wars insiders poll for top 20 characters said:

"At the end of TESB we look at Piett (after the Falcon had escaped) and think 'dead man walking.' But Vader let him live and we see him in Jedi. Vader has an almost 'kind' tone towards Piett. The part of Vader that was still Anakin Skywalker felt for Piett."

~*~Bria

 

I guess that works. I always had the feeling Rogue Planet came first though. Maybe its just the way I like it. I wish Jude Watson would make some referance to RP at some point in the JQ series or something.

 

There was only one piece of false information in the book, it says that Xecr Nist was captured on Onderon by Luke Skywalker and died in prison, he was captured on Vjun, it says nothing about the 3 Dark Jedi killed by Vaders statue crash and it says nothing about the fate of Tiaz who lost his hand or the dark side adept with oracle stone on the emperors shuttle.

 

Dan, just a question in regards to Ackbar's entry: How long before A New Hope would you say Ackbar got freed during the assasination attempt on Tarkin? A few months?

 

Dan -- Ah, thanks for the comments on my comments.

If you're interested in hearing the Corporate Sector reference in the Tales of the Jedi audio drama, listen closely to the part where Aleema and Satal Keto are watching the holo-news. After the reporter mentions the conflicts between the Naddists and the Republic, turn up the volume and listen to the background dialogue that continues. That is when the Corporate Sector is mentioned in some kind of stock report. ( Yes, I do listen, watch and read things closely. )

All in all, this is really minor, and I don't think that your reference in the new book ruins anything. This TotJ mention could have just been a literal "corporate sector"...a prelude of what the Corporate Sector and Expansion Region became later on.

Chas -- I'm personally guessing that Ackbar was freed a good 6 months before ANH, as he's leading the Calamari Cruisers at Turkana in X-wing. One could look closely at Tarkin's journal in the Death Star Technical Companion and find some more dating information, I would imagine, just based on the time between his entries. He mentions Ackbar's escape in one.

 

The Battle of Turkana hd to take place at least 7 months after Yavin.

According to the godwin comics,the Empire is unaware that the Mon Calamari are allied with the rebellion during the time that the Battle of yavin tok place . They remain unaware for the next six months after the battle.

Also,how do you know the Mon Cal leaing the fleet at turkana was a Ackbar. Maybe he was some other mon cal.

 

So Firmus is Piett's first name? Fitting. Dan, did you come up with the name, or did you have to search through Skywalker ranch files? Does Lucus have a huge file on all these characters profiles?

 

As I recall the manual and credits said it was ackbar. Farlander papers and strategy guide as well I think(though It's been a while since I read those).

 

Oh, sorry I just realized that Bail Organa IS in the back of the book, sorry...yah, this book is extremely useful; I was able to figure out what place each of the podracers came in...
1.Anakin
2.Gasgano
3.Aldar Beedo
4.Ebe Endocott
5.Elan Mak
6.Boles Roor
...If any of you were wondering...


Also I had a question...
For siths Darth Sidious, Palpatine, Darth Bane, etc., etc. it says that their species is human, but for Naga Sadow it says his species is Sith, am I missing something here, and Naga Sadow is some sort of different sith, or is it a simple error?

Or am I asking a stupid question?

 

Like I said earlier naga sadow is conundrum. Some sources say he is near-pure human. While other sources say he is near-pure of the sith race. It's cuased by the fact that things from that far back in time are lost in mists, and historians each have different views on naga sadow.

Modern jedi are based off of the belief systems started by the ancient sith race, many of them are human.

"For the Ultimate Guide to Episode I, Haden Blackman and I had planned to address the issue of Qui-Gon's "first Padawan." Haden developed a female Cathar (panther-like alien) Jedi, but it was eventually decided by Lucasfilm that the Visual Dictionary is mistaken on the point that Qui-Gon had two Padawans prior to Obi-Wan. So Xanatos is Qui-Gon's first and only Padawan prior to Kenobi."

Dan that doesn't make sense, abel pena in his qui-gon databanks entry linked in the xanatos as being second apparentice of qui-gon's on the official site:

"Qui-Gon Jinn was long hesitant to take on a Padawan learner, given his failure with his second student. Xanatos was the son of Crion, the wealthiest man on the planet Telos. He had a very high midi-chlorian count in his bloodstream, prompting Jinn to take him as an apprentice. Crion reluctantly agreed to let his son leave for Jedi training.

Although Xanatos' talents were undeniable, his high birth and attitude often led to clashes with his fellow students. For Xanatos' final test, Jedi Master Yoda sent him and Qui-Gon back to Telos, where a civil war was brewing. Xanatos' father implored his son to join his forces in a bid to control the planet. Xanatos agreed and Qui-Gon found himself at war with his own student. Jinn was forced to kill Crion in battle, and an enraged Xanatos battled his mentor. Though Qui-Gon defeated Xanatos, he could not bear to kill his own Padawan. The defeated student fled and Qui-Gon obsessed over his failure for years, dismissing his earlier successes as a teacher and often referring to Xanatos as his "first" apprentice.

Although he vowed to never again train a Padawan, Qui-Gon eventually formed a connection with an adolescent Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to Bandomeer. Yoda wished for Obi-Wan to become Qui-Gon's third apprentice. Eventually, Qui-Gon was able to overcome his grief, and took Kenobi as his Padawan. The path was by no means smooth, as their relationship suffered when Obi-Wan briefly abandoned the Jedi Order to help end a civil war on Melida/Daan. Eventually, and uneasily, the two reunited. They would grow to become a formidable team."

I've heard that it was abel pena or pablo hidalgo was behind that article that linked all 3 apprentices into qui-gon's life. Whoever it was even made an excellent fix to the issue:

"The defeated student fled and Qui-Gon obsessed over his failure for years, dismissing his earlier successes as a teacher and often referring to Xanatos as his "first" apprentice"

Why ignore that?

 

Black_Hole: Dave said this about Firmus:

Derived from Latin, Piett's first name was designed to evoke an image of reliability, loyalty, and dedication to duty. (I'm a big Piett fan.)

~*~Bria