Lit GENERAL QUESTION THREAD (What to read? Where to start? What's canon? What's not? Duros, etc.)

In the Republic Commando novels, do we know what colors the ARC Troopers wear in the latter half of the war (after rank colors became mostly irrelevant)? Do any of them explicitly adopt phase 2 armor? All I remember was Ordo continued to wear red.

 

Question regarding Imperial military ranks: as established in Thrawn, the rank of captain is lower than that of commander. Why would that be? Especially since Captain Piett was Admiral Ozzel's first officer (basically if not officially). Going by these ranks, Piett was promoted two ranks thanks to Ozzel's execution by Vader.

 

They have a census of Force sensitive children, compiled in the Kyber crystal (separate from their lightsaber powering crystals of the same name), that can be read via a holocron interface. Eno Cordova also contained a holocron with similar information that he stored in the vault on Bogano.

As for how this information was gathered, presumably babies born in the Repblic simply had a blood test. As Qui-Gon says in TPM, he's testing Anakin's blood for infections. This is most likely just a cover so he can covertly scan Ani's midi count, but it would make sense if citizens born in the Republic also had a quick test done at birth to ascertain Force potential. Presumably once that ability starts to manifest in Force powers or precognitive abilities, the Jedi visit and pick up the child, parents willing.

In Children of the Force, Bane plays the fake role of a visiting Jedi 'inspector'. Of the babies he kidnaps (or attempts to), only one actually shows any Force powers, so the others may simple be 'potential' Force wielders, not having developed any latent talent to use the Force. So it would seem that the list of future Jedi was compiled before any actual demonstrative use of the Force.

 

I remember reading a book, which I believe was one of the WEG sourcebooks, that outlined the different stormtrooper ID prefixes. IIRC, stomtroopers = TK, "sandtroopers" = TD, scout troopers = TS and the Emperor's Guard had their own prefix that I can't remember. Does anyone remember which book this could be?

 

While it may very well have originated in a WEG sourcebook, I know that that info appears on page 97 of the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Saga Edition book Galaxy at War.

 

Almost certain this was the info I was thinking of. Wasn't totally sure if it was WEG or not . Thanks! It's a shame these designations are so often contradicted, while the Clone Trooper equivalents are much more solidly established.

 

There has to be a canon Star Wars equivalent of an MF bomb. Maybe Moofmilker is totally the SW MF bomb? That'd be awesome. (especially now casually people seem to drop it, like Han or Zeb does).

Basically if Samuel L. Jackson as Mace ever comes back he can sub in "Moofmilker!" whenever he wants hahahah

 

"I have had it with these moofmilking droids on this moofmilking starship!"

 

Do we know if the Empire had a minimum age for military service?

 

Definiteeeely at least 14,as ezra was that old when he posed as a cadet in the academy.

 

So how do people consider the canonicity of RPG sourcebooks. Personally if it doesn't appear in a story driven media then I don't count it.

I ask cuz I was talking to a friend about the Taung being canon but I checked and it's only in a RPG sourcebook that says that.

 

My understanding is that no RPG sourcebooks are canon.

The books produced by West End Games and Wizards of the Coast were "canon" for Legends, although only in the "fluff" text and not the game mechanics. It's not, say, canon that Luke Skywalker has an Int score of 14.

However, the books created by Fantasy Flight games are canon compliant but not canon themselves. That is, they fit with canon, but are not taken into consideration when future works are created.

 

Are the Hapes canon?

 

It does not appear so. Wookieepedia does have a canon page for Hapes and the Hapan Consortium. But that's just because they appear on a galaxy map in some of the FFG RPG books.

I don't consider those books canon, but even if you do it's just a name on a map, we don't have any details about them.

 

Nice avatar btw.

Love the Duro.

On a more on-topic note: anyone know where to start with the High Republic series? I have the money and time to spare.

 

In legends, when and why was the switch from Kolto to Bacta?

 

Wookieepedia just says bacta was cheaper...and at some point between KotOR and the OT everyone switched over to bacta.

 

The first three books are being released on January 5th, The Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland, and The Great Jedi Rescue by Cavan Scott. Cavan Scott's book is for young children. Then on February 2nd, Into the Dark by Claudia Gray will be released. There are also two ongoing that don't yet have release dates, The High Republic, written by Cavan Scott and published by Marvel, and The High Republic Adventures, written by Daniel Jose Older and published by IDW. Hopefully you still have that money and time in January and February!

 

I'll probably be in another country around that point, so... Yeah, I'll probably have the time as well as the money.

 

I don't remember that info ever showing up in a WEG book. The 501st uses those designations; I wonder if they originated there and were adopted for the sourcebook? (Or did the sourcebook come up with them, and the 501st adopt them after?)

 

According to the Internet Archive, the 501st were using the designation codes before Galaxy at War was published. Certainly possible the designations originated in the 501st, but I'd have no way of knowing.

 

It almost sounds like the kind of "fanon" lore that tended to pop up in documents on Usenet, in FTP sites, etc. back in the days of the early-90s, pre-Web internet. Poked around a little bit more and found two possible contenders - "stormtrooper_origins.txt" and "trooper.txt," from a list of such documents (not going to link to the list here out of an abundance of caution as there are references to pirated material, but it's easy enough to find). Unfortunately, all links leading to the files themselves seem to have gone dead, which is kind of sad as I bet there are some gems in there. In fact, I know there are, as I wrote at least one of those documents back in the day...

 

I wonder if there were any fanon elements that were accidentally made canon (in either continuity) because it was just a common held fact that the writer didn't realize fans made it up.

To take one from another Star franchise. In Star Trek there's a myth that Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet Academy, even though no episode/movie ever started that, nor is there any BTS info that states that was ever intended by the writers, but It somehow has ended being mention on Spock's profile on the official website. Now under the Star Trek canon 'rules', info on the website isn't canon, but still, it's the official website.

 

It could also be fanon that was intentionally canonized. The 501st itself is a perfect example of such an occurrence.

 

I can't prove it and have no evidence for it, but I've long suspected Tarkin's first name "Wilhuff" represents something like that - some obscure fanon element that ended up canonized more or less by accident. Wookieepedia attributes the first usage of the name to "Star Wars Screen Entertainment," screen saver software from 1994 - a weird place for something like that to emerge, I would think.