Books A/V The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark (Anthology)

https://ew.com/books/read-the-exclu...ars-the-clone-wars-stories-of-light-and-dark/

Spoiler

Dark Vengeance

The True Story of Darth Maul and His Revenge Against the Jedi Known as Obi-Wan Kenobi
By Rebecca Roanhorse

Tell me, child, do you know who I am? Do they whisper my name in the classrooms of your academy, down the winding halls of your space station, in the hollows and fields of your farming planet, or across the dunes of your desert home? If they do, what do they say of me? That I was once a great Sith Lord, apprenticed to the most powerful being in the galaxy? That I killed the legendary Jedi named Qui-Gon Jinn at the Battle of Naboo? Do they remember my glory? My distinctive black-and-red skin and horns? My unmatched skill with the double-bladed lightsaber? Or do they just remember how I died?

Ah, I can see your confusion. Dead? If I am dead, then how am I here, telling you this tale? You are perceptive, a good listener. You would have made a promising Sith apprentice.

You are right, of course. I am not dead. I did not die that day when, after I had defeated Qui-Gon Jinn, his selfish and murderous apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, struck me down. Kenobi was maddened with rage, and in his rage he severed me in half, cut my legs from under me!

I know it is a gruesome image to contemplate, young friend, and I apologize if you are squeamish. But it is best you understand now what the Jedi are capable of. You have likely been lied to all your life about their nature, their goodness, but the truth is that . . . No, no, not yet. I get ahead of myself. We will come to the true nature of the Jedi soon enough. All you need to know is that I lived. I prefer to say only that I survived because it was not much of a life. I survived in darkness, lost to madness, discarded and forgotten . . . until my brother found me and set me on my path of revenge.

I do not remember how I came to be on the junk planet Lotho Minor. I must assume that after the Battle of Naboo my body was dumped there like so much trash. Through sheer will and driven by my hate of Obi-Wan Kenobi, I survived down in the darkest depths of the planet. I fashioned for myself out of discarded metal a lower body that resembled the abdomen and legs of a spider. It suited my circumstances. Creeping, creeping, small and broken, always waiting, I was. Until the most unlikely day.

I found someone else in my cave. A man, as I used to be. With markings like mine and horns, bearing a lightsaber. At first I thought him a vision, a symptom of my madness, but then he called me brother!

What could it mean? A . . . brother? Come to find me, to save me? You must understand that my mind was very broken. I had lived alone in the darkness for so long, years and years I could not remember, lost in my pain and grief, thinking only of what had been taken from me. And now to be found? To be given another chance at life? Well, I am ashamed to say that at first I could not comprehend it. I fought him. Tried to kill him. But he was too strong and drove me back. He said his name was Savage Opress, but his name meant nothing to me. I could not even remember my own.

Only one name did I remember between my mutterings and rantings and screaming howls, and I said it then to him.

Kenobi, Kenobi, Kenobi.

Savage Opress did not recognize the Jedi’s name, but he knew I needed help. So he lured me to his ship and took me back to our home planet Dathomir. Again, I do not remember much of our journey. My mind, so broken. So lost . . .

But I remember what came next.

Mother Talzin was a witch, the most powerful of the Nightsisters. She wielded great magicks and all the Dathomirians respected her as our leader. She was there to greet our ship and take me to her altar. There, she commanded me to sleep. I lay back on the cold stone and let her work.

First came the green smoke. It enveloped me, entering my eyes and ears and mouth, filling my senses. At the same time, she drew out the darkness that had infested my brain, a black miasma of pain and confusion. And slowly, as she worked her magicks on me, my mind began to return. First my name. And then my brother’s name. Then my planet, and my past as a Sith Lord, and all the details of my life came rushing back. Especially Kenobi.

I was whole in mind but was still attached to my spider body. I can see now that it was a grotesquerie, but it had served me well on Lotho Minor. Nevertheless, Mother Talzin knew it would not do. She tore it from my flesh and fashioned me powerful mechanical legs from the wreckage of droids, and armored bracers for my arms, and a plated collar for my neck. It was agony and I screamed out, but I had suffered so much already, had known suffering like you will never know, my young friend, and I endured.

And in the end. I was whole.

“Brother,” Savage said, and this time I could answer him.

I sat up, grabbing his jaw. I pulled his face to mine to stare into his eyes. The same golden eyes as mine. The eyes of the man who had saved me.

“Brother,” I growled.

 

Ah, good old middle-grade writing. I feel like I'm reading a Jude Watson book.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-...-light-and-dark-authors-reveal-their-chapters

Spoiler

Lou Anders (“Dooku Captured” and “The Gungan General,” based on the episodes of the same name): I love The Clone Wars for expanding the story of Anakin’s fall from grace. Skywalker really shines in the series, and we see what he truly was, and what he could have been, and by giving him so many opportunities to excel in the early season, his ultimate fate is that much more tragic. I also love the series for gifting us my all-time favorite Star Wars character, and one of my favorite characters from any universe — Hondo Ohnaka!

My chapter is a retelling of the first season story arc that plays out across the episodes “Dooku Captured” and “The Gungan General.” I wanted to explore this storyline because I find Count Dooku a fascinating character. Sometimes pure, mustache-twirling, mwa-ha-ha evil can actually be boring to write, but a villain who feels they are justified, either because of perceived slights or intellectual superiority or the failure of their rivals or birthright are much more interesting, and Dooku is a bit of all of this. For research, I obviously watched tons of Clone Wars. But I also read up on everything about Dooku I could find, and I listened to Christopher Lee and Corey Burton’s interpretation of the character over and over, trying to internalize their speech patterns. Dooku is so gorgeously supercilious. It was just a blast to get in his head and see the world from his perspective. (And the fact that the storyline gave me another chance to write for my beloved Hondo Ohnaka was an added bonus!)

Tom Angleberger (“Bane’s Story,” based on the episodes “Deception,” “Friends and Enemies,” “The Box,” and “Crisis on Naboo”): There’s a lot to love in The Clone Wars, but I think it’s Ahsoka’s arc that really stands out the most. Ventress’s arc does, too, and the way that these arcs cross at the just the right moment is really great Star Wars!

My chapter is based on the “Crisis on Naboo” story arc. It’s basically a Space Western. The baddest bounty hunter of them all, Cad Bane, is hired to kidnap the Chancellor. What he doesn’t know is that almost everyone is lying to him, especially a fellow bounty hunter who is really Obi-Wan in disguise. In the TV version, we see it all from Obi-Wan’s point of view, so we know that Bane is getting played. In this retelling, we see it all from Bane’s point of view and, boy, is he going to be mad! To prepare I watched both The Clone Wars AND old spaghetti Westerns starring Bane’s inspiration: Lee Van Cleef.

Preeti Chhibber (“Hostage Crisis,” based on the episode of the same name): I love the story that the prequels tell, but because of the nature of what they were trying to do — tell a decade and a half worth of story in three films — we’re missing major moments in what the war really means to the galaxy at large, and in the Skywalker saga itself. The Clone Wars tells us that part of the narrative, it gives us the shape of what entire populations of people had to go through because of this war manufactured by the ultimate evil. And within that scope gives us the hope and love and beautiful tragedy we associate with Star Wars on a larger scale. (Also, Ahsoka Tano — The Clone Wars gave us Ahsoka Tano and for that I will be ever grateful.)

I’m writing Anakin’s story during “Hostage Crisis” — an episode in the first season of The Clone Wars. I decided to write the story entirely from Anakin’s perspective, which meant being inside his head before the fall, but where we are starting to see more of the warning signs. And then there’s also the romance of this episode! Anakin’s love for Padmé is real and all-consuming and, as we eventually find out, unhealthy. So, this is a romantic episode, but one that shows us Anakin is ruled by his heart. And that that’s a dangerous thing for a Jedi. In order to best wrap my own head around what was going on, I watched the episode itself several times, and read the script, and then I watched the chronological episodes of Anakin’s run-ins with Cad Bane, so I could get a real feel for where he was with his understanding of Bane’s character.

E. Anne Convery (“Bug,” based on the episode “Massacre”): I love it because I think it’s a story that manages, while still being a satisfying adventure, to not glorify war. It does this mainly by following through on the arcs of wonderful, terrifying, funny, fallible, and diverse characters. From the personal to the political, The Clone Warsredefines the ways, big and small, that we can be heroes.

My chapter is the “original” tale, though it still touches on The Clone Wars Season Four episode “Massacre,” with brief appearances by Mother Talzin and Old Daka. If I had to boil it down, I’d say that it’s a story about mothers and daughters. Honestly, it felt a little like cheating, because writing new characters meant I got to be creative in the Star Wars universe somewhat unencumbered by what’s come before. I did, however, have several long text chats with Sam Witwer because I was interested in Talzin’s motivations. We talked about stuff like her capacity (or lack thereof) for love. I think I came away thinking she was more a creature driven by issues of power, control, and the desire for revenge, whereas Sam was a little kinder to her. I mean, he is her “son,” so you can’t really blame him for wanting to think better of her! I always love a story within a story, and I was interested in the space where the high mythology of Star Wars and the home-spun mythology of fairy tales could intersect. I drew on my own background in mythology, psychology, and the language of fairy tales, plus I did my Star Wars research. Re-watching the Nightsisters episodes was just plain fun.

Zoraida Córdova (“The Lost Nightsister,” based on the episode “Bounty”): The Clone Wars deepens the characters we already love. It gives us the opportunity to explore the galaxy over a longer period of time and see the fight between the light and the dark side. Star Wars is about family, love, and hope. It’s also incredibly funny and that’s something that The Clone Wars does spectacularly. We also get to spend more time with characters we only see for a little bit in the movies like Boba Fett, Bossk, Darth Maul!

My chapter follows Ventress after she’s experienced a brutal defeat. Spoiler alert: she’s witnessed the death of her sisters. Now she’s on Tatooine and in a rut. She gets mixed up with a bounty hunter crew led by Boba Fett. Ventress’s story is about how she goes from being lost to remembering how badass she is. I watched several episodes with her in it, but I watched “Bounty” about 50 times.

Sarah Beth Durst (“Almost a Jedi,” based on the episode “A Necessary Bond”): I spent a large chunk of my childhood pretending I was training to become a Jedi Knight, even though I’d never seen a girl with a lightsaber before. And then The Clone Wars came along and gave me Ahsoka with not one but TWO lightsabers, as well as a role in the story that broadened and deepened the tale of Anakin’s fall and the fall of the Jedi. So I jumped at the chance to write about her for this anthology.

In my story, I wrote about Ahsoka Tano from the point of view of Katooni, one of the Jedi younglings who Ahsoka escorts on a quest to assemble their first lightsabers, and it was one of the most fun writing experiences I’ve ever had! I watched the episode, “A Necessary Bond,” over and over, frame by frame, studying the characters and trying to imagine the world, the events, and Ahsoka herself through Katooni’s eyes. The episode shows you the story; I wanted to show you what it feels like to be inside the story.

Greg van Eekhout (“Kenobi’s Shadow,” based on the episode “The Lawless”): What I most love about Clone Wars is how we really get to know the characters deeply and see them grow and change.

I enjoyed writing a couple of short scenes between Obi-Wan and Anakin that weren’t in the episode. I wanted to highlight their closeness as friends and show that Anakin’s not the only Jedi who struggles with the dark side. There’s a crucial moment in my story when Obi-Wan is close to giving into his anger and has to make a choice: Strike out in violence or rise above it. It’s always fun to push characters to extremes and see how they react.

Jason Fry (“Sharing the Same Face,” based on the episode “Ambush”): I love The Clone Wars because it made already beloved characters even richer and deepened the fascinating lore around the Jedi and the Force.
I chose Yoda and the clones because the moment where Yoda rejects the idea that they’re all identical was one of the first moments in the show where I sat upright and said to myself, “Something amazing is happening here.” You get the entire tragedy of the Clone Wars right in that one quick exchange — the unwise bargain the Jedi have struck, Yoda’s compassion for the soldiers and insistence that they have worth, the clones’ gratitude for that, and how that gratitude is undercut by their powerlessness to avoid the fate that’s been literally hard-wired into them. Plus, though I’ve written a lot of Star Wars tales, I’d never had the chance to get inside Yoda’s head. That had been on my bucket list!

Yoon Ha Lee (“The Shadow of Umbara,” based on the episodes “Darkness on Umbara,” “The General,” “Plan of Dissent,” and “Carnage of Krell”): I remember the first time I watched the “Umbara arc” — I was shocked that a war story this emotionally devastating was aired on a kids’ show. But then, kids deserve heartfelt, emotionally devastating stories, too. It was a pleasure to revisit the episodes and figure out how to retell them from Rex’s viewpoint in a compact way. I have so much respect for the original episodes’ writer, Matt Michnovetz — I felt like a butcher myself taking apart the work like this!

Rebecca Roanhorse (“Dark Vengeance,” based on the episode “Brothers”): I always love a backstory and Clone Wars was the backstory that then became a rich and exciting story all its own. The writing and character development is outstanding and really sucks you into the world.

I chose to write the two chapters that reintroduce Darth Maul to the world. We find him broken and mentally unstable, not knowing his own name but obsessed with revenge against Obi-Wan and we get to see him rebuild himself into a cruel, calculating, and brilliant villain. It was so much fun to write and I hope readers enjoy it.

Anne Ursu (“Pursuit of Peace,” based on the episode “Heroes on Both Sides”): The Clone Wars creates a space for terrific character development. The attention paid to the relationships between Anakin and Obi-Wan, and Anakin and Ahsoka make for really wonderful and resonant stories, and give so much depth to the whole universe.

I was at first a little scared to write Padmé, as her character felt pretty two dimensional to me. But the more I watched her episodes in Clone Wars, the more dimension she took on. She’s such an interesting character — she’s both idealistic and realistic, so when corruption runs rampant in the Senate she doesn’t get disillusioned, she just fights harder. She has an ability to deal with nuance in a way that is rare in the Republic — and it means she’s not afraid to bend a few laws to make things right. In this chapter, the Senate is about to deregulate the banks in order to fund more troops, and Padmé decides to take matters into her own hand and sneak into Separatist territory in order to start peace negotiations. Of course, neither Dooku nor the corrupt clans of the Republic are going to allow for this to happen, so the threats to the peace process, the Republic, and Padmé’s life only grow. This arc is the perfect distillation of Padmé’s character, and it made getting into her head for it fairly simple. But I did watch all the Padmé Clone Wars episodes and read E.K. Johnston’s book about her, as well as Thrawn: Alliances, in which she has a major storyline. I really loved writing her.

 

Weird that Pursuit of Peace is supposedly based on Heroes on Both Sides, and not the following episode, Pursuit of Peace.

 

What is also interesting is that Ahsoka is the only main character whose story will be told from another character's POV.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Dooku Captured story reveals that Dooku allowed Hondo to take him prisoner for some arbitrary reason

 

I'd be totally down with that. The whole situation makes even less sense now than it did back then, following Dooku going godmode in Jedi Lost and Hondo becoming an old geezer in pijama socks bumming rides off ugnaughts and street kids.

 

'Dooku looked around him, he was unarmed against at least fifty weequans. This would be too easy. Instead of letting the full power of the sith fire from his fingertips he instead lowered them in a feigned display of 'surrender'. An animal like Maul would no doubt have torn into these filthy pirates the second he'd laid eyes on them them. Dooku however, was a more civilised Sith. He would let events play out a little further. Let this Hondo, think him submissive and captured. Dooku knew the truth, he was the one in control.'

 

Helps to explain why Dooku surrendered.

 

Hey now, Maul can be very Sidous.

 

https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/2...short-story-stories-of-light-and-dark-excerpt

Spoiler

TheThe Clone Wars is so good. Watching new episodes back in the day, it really felt like a weekly gift someone was giving us. So much imagination, so much artistry, so much care went into those story arcs.

I almost missed it. I was busy writing my own Star Wars-inspired stories. Luckily, Origami Yoda readers kept sending me pictures of their own Clone Wars origami. Before my book series had ended, The Clone Wars had infiltrated the pages and I was hooked on the show. It added so much depth to the stories of Anakin, Padme, Obi Wan, Captain Rex, Boba Fett, Darth Maul and other movie characters. But I also loved the new characters, especially Ahsoka and Ventress and the collision of their storylines.

And then there’s Cad Bane. Bane is just straight up great Star Wars: a planet-hopping bounty hunter that stepped right out of a spaghetti western. (In fact, he was inspired by The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’s Lee Van Cleef.) The story arc where Bane is hired to kidnap Palpatine is loaded with classic Western material. Dooku’s putting a gang together to pull a big job — the biggest — but first he’s got to get the gang leader, Eval, out of jail. So he hires Bane to bust him out — in coffins, no less — but a masked outlaw tags along. The outlaw says he’s Rako Hardeen, the man who killed Obi-Wan Kenobi.

But the way the show tells that story, we know all along that the masked outlaw isn’t Hardeen. It’s really the hero, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in a high-tech disguise. Seen from that point of view, it’s a very important part of Anakin’s journey to the Dark Side. He, too, is deceived by Obi-Wan, after all.

There’s some heavy stuff there, but I wanted to focus on the fun parts by telling the story from Bane’s point of view and in his own, tough-as-a-gundark, voice. He doesn’t know it’s Obi-Wan behind that mask. In fact, he doesn’t have any idea just how far the lying and deceit go … and they go way beyond Obi-Wan, who, of course, is being fooled, too, along with all of the Jedi.

That’s The Clone Wars: secrets, lies and betrayals. Who can you trust to give it to you straight?

Cad Bane. See, he never got paid for the job. So now he’s ready to tell all – from the jailbreak to the shoot-out on Naboo.

But before he can discover the truth he’s got to pass Dooku’s deadly test, known only as ... The Box.

 

Uh I had high hopes for more TCW content and so far excerpts read terrible and like mere episode retellings without much if anything at all added. Maybe this book could be skipped if all are as bad or was that just one author failing?

 

they don't really read terrible but like u said they seem like retellings

 

yep a nightsister one

 

I don't know what you were expecting. My quoted post below is from October of last year.

I mean, it's a kids book and has been advertised from the beginning as retellings (you both even used the same word!) of TCW episodes.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-...ht-and-dark-audiobook-cast-revealed-exclusive

Spoiler

Introduction…read by Catherine Taber

“Sharing the Same Face”…read by James Arnold Taylor

“Dooku Captured”…read by Corey Burton

“Hostage Crisis”…read by Matt Lanter

“Pursuit of Peace”…read by Catherine Taber

“The Shadow of Umbara”…read by James Arnold Taylor

“Bane’s Story”…read by Corey Burton

“The Lost Nightsister”…read by Nika Futterman

“Dark Vengeance”…read by Sam Witwer

“Almost a Jedi”…read by Olivia Hack

“Kenobi’s Shadow”…read by James Arnold Taylor

“Bug”…read by Catherine Taber

 

Spoiler

Bringing back the voice actors of all your favorite characters! Padme! Obi-Wan! Dooku! Anakin! Ventress! Maul! and.... Katooni?

 

Spoiler

Sarah Beth Durst (“Almost a Jedi,” based on the episode “A Necessary Bond”): I spent a large chunk of my childhood pretending I was training to become a Jedi Knight, even though I’d never seen a girl with a lightsaber before. And then The Clone Wars came along and gave me Ahsoka with not one but TWO lightsabers, as well as a role in the story that broadened and deepened the tale of Anakin’s fall and the fall of the Jedi. So I jumped at the chance to write about her for this anthology.

In my story, I wrote about Ahsoka Tano from the point of view of Katooni, one of the Jedi younglings who Ahsoka escorts on a quest to assemble their first lightsabers, and it was one of the most fun writing experiences I’ve ever had! I watched the episode, “A Necessary Bond,” over and over, frame by frame, studying the characters and trying to imagine the world, the events, and Ahsoka herself through Katooni’s eyes. The episode shows you the story; I wanted to show you what it feels like to be inside the story.

 

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/asajj-ventress-joins-boba-fett-in-star-wars-the-clone-wars-anthology

Spoiler

Star Wars: The Clone Wars might have concluded with its final thrilling season on Disney+ but its influential legacy is alive and well in a special new YA anthology coming to our planet from the folks at Disney Lucasfilm Press.

Star Wars:The Clone Wars - Stories of Light and Dark arrives on August 25 and presents the timeless struggle between the forces of good and evil, as the Galactic Republic and the Separatists clash for the fate of the galaxy. This engaging 384-page anthology contains 11 short stories each adapted from and inspired by a classic episode of the Emmy Award-winning series, all written by an international assembly of acclaimed authors.

SYFY WIRE has an exclusive chapter excerpt from Zoraida Córdova's entry, "The Lost Nightsister," starring the intimidating assassin Asajj Ventress and transformed from The Clone Wars' Season 4 installment, "Bounty."

Stories of Light and Dark showcases a sparkling constellation of The Clone Wars stars such as Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cad Bane, Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex, Darth Maul, Count Dooku and many others. The impressive roster of writing talent also includes Lou Anders, Tom Angleberger, Preeti Chhibber, E. Anne Convery, Sarah Beth Durst, Jason Fry, Yoon Ha Lee, Rebecca Roanhorse, Anne Ursu, and Greg van Eekhout.

"Ventress is my girl,” Córdova tells SYFY WIRE. “I love her as a character in Star Wars; she’s one of the first people we meet in The Clone Wars. She starts out with a very defined backstory and we see the progression of her downfall, all because of Count Dooku. That’s something I really wanted to touch on and "Bounty" is one of my favorite episodes so I was happy that story was still available and I could work on it.

“I wanted to fill in her mental state. Ventress has gone through so much trauma. She watches the massacre of the Nightsisters at the hands of Count Dooku’s droid army. Then she just hops on a ship and goes far away to hide on Tatooine. You don’t know it’s Tatooine right away, but there are small hints you’re in the cantina at Mos Eisley. I wanted to see where her mind was and what is next for her. She’s been a padawan, a Sith apprentice, and in many ways a gun for hire, and now what is she now that she doesn’t have her Nightsisters with her anymore."

Seeing more women in Star Wars was extremely important to Córdova.

"The Nightsisters is a cool part of Star Wars because it expands on the magic that exists in the universe," she explains. "We all know the Force, but what about this group of witches on Dathomir who can heal somebody that’s beyond broken, the way that they healed Maul. We see this other kind of mysticism that’s a little bit darker, but still not the dark side of the Force."

Córdova also got to write a young Boba Fett, whose bounty hunting gang Ventress hooks up with.

"Because I wasn’t writing from Boba’s perspective, I didn’t get to play around with him as much," she adds. "It’s more what Ventress saw him as, and the idea that this little boy is running this crew, Krayt'’s Claw. We got to use the name of his crew in the short story for the first time, so that was cool.

"I love Boba Fett, he’s one of my favorite characters, and a young Boba Fett is fascinating to me because he parallels a lot of Anakin’s anger, but he’s not Force sensitive. So he has a regular experience as a boy who is a clone and had to survive by any means possible by learning from some of the worst people in the galaxy. He’s not really a good guy in this episode but he’s kinda funny."

Now enjoy an exclusive excerpt from "The Lost Nightsister" from Star Wars:The Clone Wars - Stories of Light and Dark, arriving August 25 and published by Disney Lucasfilm Press.

 

Dathomir spoilers:

Spoiler

This book recanonises a lot of Legends Dathomir landscape from a lot of various sources, even obscure ones, including Galaxies MMO, YJK, Nightsaber, COPL and more... and stuff which I do love! More Dathomir diversity is always good!

 

What does they re-canonise?

That'd be awesome to know.

Also, the short story based around "Heroes on Both Sides", do we get any new cool info on the Separatist senators or even the Republic senators?

 

Note for UK folks that Amazon UK now have this in stock.