Lit Books Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson

So, yeah. I’d imagine this’ll be the book where we find out the name of Palpatine’s Gareth Edwards looking son.

 

Sheev Junior

 

Well we all know what's its not going to be: Trioculus or Triclops or Ken.

 

I hope the books address the state of the galaxy after a good guy wins.

 

Rae Carson definitely has a difficult task with all that’s going on in this film, and making sense of it all. Pretty curious to see what does with this.

 

Don't expect too much of the novelisation - it still has to work with its source material which, depending on your outlook, is either a plus or minus.

 

I’m not expecting Revenge of the Sith where the novelisation elevated a film I already liked. All I’d want from this book is for it to expand upon some of the ideas and concepts Rise of Skywalker added rather lazily. Context to all things Palpatine, basically.

 

I'm hoping for a lot of backstory stuff (Palpatine and family, Sith Eternal mainly), some more Leia stuff (the novelization is not bound by the loss of Carrie Fisher), especially her death, and maybe a bit more Zannah and Finn discussing their origins (because I want the Zannah and Finn reunite stolen children with their families story to come out in some form).

 

Most Wanted wasn't my favorite book but I am interested in this since the movie was awesome.

 

Yeah I think general context-providing is what I'd like here. I *loved* the way the TLJ novelisation integrated that movie with the broader lore (and didn't like how the TFA one didn't) and so it would be great to see more of that. And more Leia and Ben stuff especially.

 

Jannah, not Zannah.

 

Ha ha he totally does.

Oh man, for some reason I missed she had written Most Wanted. I really enjoyed that one, so I'm even more excited for this novelization now.

 

For folks expecting this, I direct you to the novelization of Return of the Jedi. There is no final scene in it where the Rebel leadership gathers on Endor and discussing re-establishing the Senate. We literally only get a quick reference to Imperial prisoners being shuttled up to the remains of the Imperial fleet under the watchful eye of the Alliance Fleet. One of the final lines is "Long Live the Alliance."

That's it. Nothing more. Which is fine and proper, IMO.

--Adm. Nick

 

The opera "Gotterdammerung" doesn't end the entire four-opera Ring Cycle by describing what happens now that there's no cursed magic ring to deal with; it ends with the surviving background characters in shock wondering what the hell just happened.

In other words, it ends as a grand-scale epic is supposed to end: with a clean slate and an implication that the rest is up to YOU...

 

Maybe they will get to expand more on Leia and Rose too, since it’s implied that they wanted more scenes with them together but the material they had of Leia couldn’t fit with the script so they cut those...

 

We will also have the deleted scenes for that too.

 

Did the novelization for Jedi ever deal with the deleted scenes with Jerjerrod and his conflict to blow up endor by the Emperor's command?

 

Darth Bane agrees

 

When given the order:

The Emperor hissed. "Your fleet is lost — and your friends on the Endor Moon will not survive..." He pushed a comlink button on the arm of his throne and spoke into it with relish. "Commander Jerjerrod, should the Rebels manage to blow up the shield generator, you will turn this battle station onto the Endor Moon and destroy it."
"Yes, Your Highness," came the voice over the receiver, "but we have several battalions stationed on—"
"You will destroy it!" The Emperor's whisper was more final than any scream.
"Yes, Your Highness".

And after the Emperor is dead (and the shield is down):

Commander Jerjerrod sat, brooding, in the control room of the Death Star, watching all about him crumble. Half of his crew were dead, wounded, or run off — where they hoped to find sanctuary was unclear, if not insane. The rest wandered ineffectually, or railed at the enemy ships, or fired their guns at all sectors, or shouted orders, or focussed desperately on a single task, as if that would save them. Or, like Jerjerrod, simply brooded.
He couldn't fathom what he'd done wrong. He'd been patient, he'd been loyal, he'd been clever. he'd been hard. He was the commander of the greatest battle station ever built. Or, at least, almost built. He hated this Rebel Alliance now, with a child's hate, untempered. He'd loved it once — it had been the small by he could bully, the enraged baby animal he could torture. But the boy had grown up now; it knew how to fight back effectively. It had broken its bonds.
Jerjerrod hated it now.
Yet there seemed to be little he could do at this point. Except, of course, destroy Endor — he could do that. It was a small act, a token really — to incinerate something green and living, gratuitously, meanly, toward no end but that of wanton destruction. A small act, but deliciously satisfying.
An aide ran up to him. "The Rebel fleet is closing, sir."
"Concentrate all fire in that sector." he answered distractedly. A console on the far wall burst into flame.
"The fighters in the superstructure are eluding our defense system, Commander. Shouldn't we—"
"Flood sectors 304 and 138. That should slow them up." He arched his eyebrows at his aide.
This made little sense to the aide, who had cause to wonder at the commander's grasp of the situation. "But sir ..."
"What is the rotation factor to firing range on the Endor Moon?"
The aide checked the compuscreen. "Point oh two to moon target, sir. Commander, the fleet-"
"Accelerate rotation until moon is in range, and then fire on my mark."
"Yes sir." The aide pulled a bank of switches. "Rotation accelerating. Point oh one to moon target. Sixty seconds to firing range. Sir, good-bye, sir." The aide saluted, put the firing switch in Jerjerrod's hand as another explosion shook the control room, and ran out of the door.
Jerjerrod smiled calmly at the view-screen. Endor was starting to come out of the Death Star's eclipse. He fondled the detonation switch in his hand. Point oh oh five to moon target. Screams erupted in the next room.
Thirty seconds to firing.


The newcanon version of Jerjerrod doesn't have this cruel streak.

 

So according to Rae carson in a new tweet:

looks like TROS expanded edition novelization is going to have everything that was deleted from the movie which is awesome.

 

I'm super curious. I dont think a whole lot could make this story better.

 

If the novelization includes everything from the Visual Guide, that will easily make it better than the movie. There were way too many things in the movie that lacked context. Well, its easier to give background details in written form than a movie but I actually kind of hope they cut out a few extraneous scenes too.

I do hope the novelization turns out better. There are hints of a bigger, better plot in the movie and the novels. I'm not expecting this novelization to save things but I hope it improves the story at least.

 

Spoiler

Be interesting if they decide to do something briefly on the Ghost since it was present at Exegol.

 

IMO, the only way it can "improve" the story is to tell us about things that happened off screen, specifically before the events of the crawl, but what is the likelihood of getting that in this novel? I think slim to none.

Sadly, the movie is a giant fetch quest for multiple macguffins, and it's hard to improve on that unless you remove the macguffins and write a completely new, better story.