Lit Abel G. Peña's "Skyewalkers" and "Lone Wolf"

Is it possible they will do this with the other unreleased books?

 

Details on stuff after Crucible! Or whatever they can give us.

 

Can somebody give a rundown on what this actually is?

 

Clone Wars story with Anakin and Obi-Wan and then Obi-Wan on Nar Shadaa after leaving Polis Masa but before getting to Tatooine.

 

The weirdest thing about this release is that the article presents the novella as though it were just another short, obscure Hyperspace piece that had actually been released instead of, you know, a long-awaited Legends tale that most of us had no idea was going to be told, let alone one that was already written and held back for four years.

By the way

Spoiler

the way Abel reconciles Obi-Wan's claim that Owen Lars is his brother in the Return of the Jedi novel with the revelation in Attack of the Clones that Owen is actually Anakin's half-brother and Obi-Wan's memories of a visit with Owen as a child in Jedi Apprentice and his belief that he has no memories of his family in the Phantom Menace novel, all the while using the retcon to support the story's theme of brotherhood while also maintaining the thematic intent of every single one of those other stories is retcon judo on a level I've never seen before. And that's saying something. Bravo.

TC

 

Yeah, I suggested a few less obvious acronyms. Abel wasn't having it. ;-)

I don't think all the references CAN be caught. There are a few references to obscurities beyond my ken, to paths not taken that never even made it into continuity, and even to notorious bits of fanon (see, for instance, at least one of Magnus's aliases). Abel is a wizard. A wizard! wizard.

Unlikely, and if so, not many. Remember, this was a novella commissioned for Hyperspace, not a book meant for publication through regular channels. I imagine contracts for books meant to be sold individually, with royalties based on sales figures and whatnot, are legally much more difficult to turn around and publish as freebies, assuming they would even want to.

It's actually MAGIC.

Also, it's a 250+ page ebook containing the novella "Skywalkers: A Clone Wars Story," which tells the tale of Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Halagad Ventor on the planet Skye, working to capture the abominable genetic terrorist Zeta Magnus; and "Lone Wolf," a story of Obi-Wan's detour with newborn Luke through Nar Shaddaa en route to Tatooine.

 

Well then, time for the collective intelligence of the Lit board to come up with a list of all references, no matter how obscure...

Very interesting is that the midichlorians "protest [the] use" of memory wipes, seemingly because they are, according to Qui-Gon, an artifice of the dark side, rather than it being something specific to the memory rub ability. Very Plagueis. Could go some ways to explaining dark side corruption.

 

Spoiler

Just the sheer volume of Easter eggs regarding Abel's previous attempts at introducing Atha Prime into canon would fill a few pages in their own right.

I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but this was honest to Cronal one of the single best Star Wars stories that I've ever read. The sheer volume of EU tie-ins, references, and Easter eggs to cut material was reaching Luceno-levels of epic, to say nothing of Abel's perpetually evocative style of writing. While I may have missed some earlier works, I think that this is the first work of Abel's that was strictly a fictional piece, as opposed to a "non-fiction fiction" style of his that I'm accustomed to a la the Star Wars Blog and sourcebook type material, to say nothing of the full novella length work of his. After reading this, I would be absolutely delighted if he got contracted to do full-length novels in the new canon. This was nothing short of a masterpiece.

 

Amen to that! Let's hope the guys in charge will know this.

 

I'm going to go ahead and second this.

What Atha Prime references were in here, besides the fact that Zeta Magnus is clearly inspired by Prime? I didn't know about Atha Prime until after I read this, so I didn't know to look for references.

 

For one thing, Zeta Magnus was the first of all Accelerated Transgenic Heuristic Abhorers. Get it? A(ccelerated) T(ransgenic) H(euristic) A(bhorers) Prime. But that's only the name. As far as I can tell, nearly everything that was ever said about Atha Prime in the prequel era is now part of Magnus' backstory.

 

Other references: Magnus rules the Dark Worlds, which Atha Prime ruled. Stover referenced the Kenner brief for Atha Prime in Shadows of Mindor, substituting Atha Prime for Shadowspawn/Cronal, and here Pena has the Dark Worlds being influenced by the "Rhandite nihilists," of which Cronal was one.

References to RL science in Magnus' thoughts were a treat to read. Quantum immortality, timeless identity theory, and Dawkinsian 'immortal genes' straight out of The Selfish Gene. Interesting detail provided on cloning; it would seem flash dumps can be of sufficiently high fidelity that mentally identical copies can be created. If only the Sith had advanced beyond naive Aristotelian metaphysics in their approach to science (and that being the understanding of their most rationally inclined, Darth Plagueis), they would have realised there was thus no need to learn essence transfer to assure immortality! Indeed, since RAID is not a good backup solution, forking your identity a million times through creating such mind state copies via cloning and complete flash dumping is actually a much better way of ensuring the perpetuation of the self.

Interesting as well that there seems to be some harmful resonance between Anakin and Obi-Wan and their clones, hypothesised by Obi-Wan to be due to a shared "midichlorian signature." Could make sense of the problems with cloning Force-sensitives.

 

Unfortunately I must go to work today, so this will have to wait, but HOT DAMN.

 

It's quite a long list, so I apologise if I miss anything. I'm quite sure that Abel would forgive me if I say that he's quite the Atha Prime fan, and he's tried to bring him into canon in a number of reimagined formats, only to be rejected during the editing process. Just to list the ones that I noticed:

Spoiler

- In fleshing out his retcon of Anakin and Ventor engaging in a Condorance of Fealty, a ritual of swapping lightsabers that expalns why the comic set on Skye featured the S'kytri remembered Luke's father and the man who became Vader possessing different lightsabers despite being the same person, Abel made reference to a "genetic terrorist" experimenting on Skye. That individual was intended to be Atha Prime, although the name was cut.
- The original design of Atha Prime was based off concept art for the Imperial Royal Guard, that later got reintroduced into canon as the freakishly tall Imperial Sentinels in Dark Empire. Zeta Magnus is mentioned as looking reminiscent of Magi Sentinels, following the exact same design of his original character, right down to the large height.
- The background of Atha Prime mentioned him as being a clone master who lived in exile, ruling over a territory known as the Dark Worlds. Zeta Magnus rules over the Dark Worlds in the Unknown Regions, a fitting place for an exile from the galaxy.
- Atha Prime was attended to by a droid known as Blue-Four, the concept art of which looked vaguely similar to a tactical droid in some respects. Zeta Magnus is attended to be a tactical droid known as Blue-Tark, with Tark being the Thyrsian number for Four.
- Concept art had Atha Prime possessing a starfighter known as the Apex Invader. While Magnus' starfighter was known as the Skyriver Invader, with Skyriver being the Nagai term for the main galaxy, the ship matches the description of the concept art of the Apex Invader and at least carries the latter word over.
- Atha Prime, as a clone master, possessed an army of so-called "Clone Warriors" whose concept art looked reminscent of clone troopers. In SkyeWalkers, Magnus is shown commanding clones of Thrysian rather than Mandalorian stock, nevertheless dressed in the same armour.
- In one of Abel's attempts to introduce Atha Prime back into canon, he intended for Prime to be the source of the clone troopers used in Grand Moff Trachta's attempted coup-de-tat against the Emperor. It's hinted that Trachta may know how Magnus' clones were introduced into the Kaminoan stock and thus allowed to infiltrate the Republic ranks. Therefore, a relationship between Trachta and Magnus can be implied.
- Another abortive attempt to reintroduce Atha Prime into canon involved him being another identity of Cronal, with the profile of Shadowspawn in The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire mentioning a rumour that Shadowspawn was an alias of K'am'ir Zaarin, an Arkanian geneticist who possessed a clone of Grand Moff Tarkin. The original Kenner storyline involvng Atha Prime involved Tarkin somehow returning fro the dead to lead the Empire, with K'am'ir Zaarin being identified in SkyeWalkers as one of Magnus' aliases.
- In following in the attempt to merge Prime's character with Cronal, the Sorcerers of Rhand are mentioned as bestowing their blessing upon Magnus and his Dark Worlds, with the Rhandites being the cult that spawned Cronal.
- The original Kenner toyline also included a character called the Mongo Beefhead Tribesman, who was an ally of the Rebels. Mongo Beefhead was mentioned in the epilogue, with the implication being that Magnus was feasting on him if I read that scene right.

There were so many references involved that I'm convinced I forgot to list a few, but those are the ones that I remember off the top of my head. Hopefully that list at least helps. And that's not even including the EU events that were linked to Magnus' involvement, of which there were many because Abel is awesome.

 

The Order of the Terrible Glare?

 

Two words: Alan Moore.

 

Thank you so much!

 

This was absolutely beautiful, a smorgasbord of loving references to pretty much freaking anything you could think of and the introduction of Atha Prime Zeta Magnus into the Star Wars universe. Now all we need is for Vader's Legacy to be resurrected and the circle will be complete.

 

You know, if someone at the Story Group thoughtlessly declared this story canon, it'd bring back like half the entire freakin' EU into canon.

 

Thoughtlessly ... or not so thoughtlessly ... ?

If it were anything post-ROTJ, I think there'd be more resistance. But there's really nothing here that could derail the NEU, IMHO ...

Although, I had to laugh at the BBEG's name.

Spoiler

Zeta Magnus sounds very Cybertronian to me ...

 

I'm crying this is so beautiful.

This literally made my month.

 

"I told Hal not to have that bantha breakfast biscuit."
Bungo n Rusti FTW

 

Probably the only competitor to the Sith Order aside from the Infinite Empire for the claim of most powerful dark side organisation. Held sway over the galaxy for over a millennium in the Pius Dea Era, in which the humanocentric Pius Dea cult ruled the Galactic Republic (which had become a dictatorship under the Contispex dynasty of Chancellors). The Jedi Order split in 11,933 BBY, with fanatical loyalists forming the Order of the Terrible Glare, and the remainder severing ties with the Republic and retreating from galactic affairs on Ossus in the unprecedented Recusal. In 10,976 BBY, after 37 Pius Dea Crusades, the Renunciation occurred, an alliance of oppressed alien races, the human Alsakani who had always opposed Coruscant, and the Jedi coming together to wage war against the Pius Dea Republic and their Order of the Terrible Glare.

The Renunciates won, the Jedi overthrowing Contispex XIX and destroying the Order of the Terrible Glare, with only its High Shaman Rur surviving through immortalising himself within dark side technology on the Terrible Glare's wasteland world of Garn. Rur continued to lure Jedi and kill them over the millennia, until being finally undone by Luke Skywalker.