Lit Books Comics The High Republic (aka "Project Luminous")

Elzar Mann got a lot of development in the books Xander read. But he was the character that pretty much got his entire story told in the Del Rey novels. Most of the other characters you needed to read other material to get their complete story.

Them choosing to tell the story through several different outlets isn't a fault. Infact those that enjoy reading the various different kinds of material would often consider it a plus. Those that choose not to is their choice.

 

You can keep calling it a choice and wilfully ignore the sheer cost of doing so if you want.

 

I don't know what your financial situation is but getting the High Republic comic series wouldn't have been a huge additional cost. A few extra dollars a month. The High Republic ongoing and the three Del Rey novels would have covered the vast majority of the development for the main characters.

 

I'm not even talking specifically for myself though, just the rather tone deaf insistence that people should just go out and buy more content because if they aren't then they aren't 'doing it right' by not getting the full picture. Just doesn't really sit right. As Ben pointed out, particularly with the Cost of Living crisis all over the world now.

Anyway this is getting rather off track, the point was that the project's intent - having a diverse range of mediums in which to read - is also its big achilles heel as it becomes hard for people to keep up/keep track, or jump in halfway through and know where to start. I hope with this second Phase they address this somewhat and make it at least a little more contained with themes/events crossing over rather than characters necessarily.

 

There isn't anything wrong with not wanting to read everything. I don't have any issue with that at all. What I have said is that people that want to debate how good the character development in the series was probably should try to read as much as they can (especially when they are trying to debate with people who have read everything).

I wouldn't argue with you at all if you simply said that you didn't like how the material was released to the public (infact I would probably agree with you). But I'm not going to agree with your point of view that the characters were two dimensional and didn't receive proper development when I know you have only read about half as much as there is to read about many of these characters.

In any case it's probably better for us to just say agree to disagree at this point.

 

Excellently put.

 

A thought I had recently is, the High Republic is a new era, one they flesh out in all detail and all levels there can be galaxywide, but what if the true story this era is about to tell is yet untold and after this plethora of characters and settings, we get another High Republic storyline with a tight core cast from beginning to end telling the true story that all this is only backdrop for and all will cameo in it, but the new focal cast will be the missing throughline that is added later on thus.

Kinda like you got the SW OT era EU before you have the movies as a mainline through it! Like some Essential Guides made sense and connective tissue for disconnected early EU works into a cohesive connected storyline.

IF said mainline applied later on only involves Sith, who knows. But Acolyte or the upcoming game may be closer tied to such even if set at the eras end, rather than the Comic/Book-Verse they set up as Era-Opener. With the current Media of the era focussing on the Rim part of the stories and only lately drifting coreward with Corellia and Coruscant briefly, the rest of the galaxy may have lots of other stories running in paralell that we do not know yet and will later on only connect. Especially given the Phase 2 set up as a Prequel, what if Phase 3 will not only continue where Phase 1 left off but also re-tell some in paralell to it with a new point of view and knowledge from Phase 2 putting things in a very different light?

 

I had a random thought a while ago while comparing THR to NJO, being that they’re both “firsts” for major publishing initiatives in their own eras.

The thought was that NJO was a series masquerading as a setting, whereas THR is a setting masquerading as a series. While it’s advertised that you can read NJO’s hardcovers and get the full story, I don’t believe that’s really true and I think it’s reflected in how little later material revisited the period. It’s a really dense, 19-book story with few gaps in the narrative where new stories can be inserted unless they’re about new characters.

THR on the other hand, we’re being told that you must read everything to get the full picture… and I’m not really sure that’s true either! There’s so much new stuff and opportunities to build on for the future that to me, it feels more like the era is being built as a platform to draw in future storytellers—hence why most characters and events have only just been dabbled in.

So I agree with @ColeFardreamer, it does indeed seem like the lack of cohesion or through line might be by design.

 

It's generally true that the big events which the subsequent few books respond to in NJO were the hardbacks. But this doesn't mean nothing happens in the paperbacks, as there tended to be significant developments.

In both the case of NJO and THR they wanted to say you didn't have to buy everything, when the material more pointed to the contrary. NJO was more cost effective with a book every couple of months.

 

I do think it would make more sense to have characters be specific to the particular age groups they are publishing for.

Then you can crossover comic characters into their respective reading levels from there. I'm not convinced that it even makes sense to have knighted most of the cast of THRA, for instance. That entire comic publishing level would seem to better align with middle grade than YA. Lula and Zeen crossed over into the second middle grade with Ram's debut, which made some sense. Then there seemed to have been a rapid aging of those characters that seemed to have started the series at around 13-14 to 16-17, and BAM their are knighted.

Aside from not thinking it makes any sense to elevate that many young Padawans knighthood at any stage, it makes even less sense given that Vernestra is a very rare exception as a knight at 16.

Similarly, Avar isn't even the star of the main comic series. She's a supporting character. The star is Keeve. Nothing was stopping them from including Avar more in the novels, and she deserves to be in that mix more. Instead, she's just someone Elzar pines over constantly while Stellan comes off as a third wheel in that friendship. The tension that developed between Stellan and Avar isn't particularly earned, because we don't actually get to see much of Avar. So it seems to come largely out of nowhere. Especially because the publishing of the final comic arc was delayed from the release of The Fallen Star.

The comic itself has weird skips, like there should have been more stories about the Drengir and the pursuit of the Nihil that got cut back. There's a lot of major story arcs in Phase 1 that feel like they were cut short.

 

An even better way of putting it. It's not just a financial choice for many but a literal reading ability barrier.

And this is what I was trying to get at with AAESIAT that despite him insisting I'm not entitled to discuss character development because I haven't read the comics - it seems there actually isn't that much character development in the comics for Avar and others? It just feels like because of the nature of the project and the skipping around mediums, no medium actually takes the time to breathe and develop the characters because they all assume someone else will do it.

 

Another missing ingredient is the Fans, long waiting time between releases and fandebates about their favourite characters full of speculations earned the Legends EU a lot. Authors engaged in debates with fans, or listened in only, and without the fan discourse there would be no big Legends stars like Pellaeon and other sidecharacters that got recurring roles because of the fans, not some marketing plan.

How many characters these days are stereotypically designed to be fanfavourites before fans even know about them? For some it worked, others surprised the makers that fans loved them more than others they tried to throw at them repeteadly. There are twitter accounts that jump on a new character to impersonate in every new work kinda... more living with the shortlived hype rather than longstanding character devotion of fans grown on to characters. One can easily see which accounts are less about the love for SW or the characters and only pretend that by leeching on to some hype-names the makers promote to get clicks and likes. That is sad. (And especially so as the way Disney/LFL is ignoring Legends characters and their outspoken nonviolent fans who just want to celebrate their characters online and offline as they used to. Including with authors and officials at cons or online. But anybody involved with new stuff acts as if gospel is to promote the new and not talk about "Bruno" aka the forgotten child of Legends characters)

That is why I liked the High Republic Adventures cast more as you could see them grow, even if rushed till Knighting. Had they started the High Rep Era with a Young Adult line about the youth of Avar, Elzar and Stellan and then after it kicked off their adult time, fans would be attached way more to them and fear for their life.

In general that is why the younger characters worked better than the adults in the High Republic so far. Be that Bell Zettifar, Raeth Silas, Ram etc. or the IDW comic cast around Zeen and Lula. They had still some growing to do in their brief appearances and cameos and did so well more than the ever stereotypical adults around them.

 

I will say, one of the strengths is that at every level there are Padawans to follow through Phase 1 and into Phase 3.

There's more Burry in the adult novels, but I like that he's such a central character for the toddler to kindergarten crowd in the picture books. It especially works because of gentle and kind he is to that one kid from the Legacy Run disaster in LOTJ.

Aside from Elzar, Bell is our main protagonist in the adult novels. YA has Reath. Mid grade had Vern(though a knight, she's of a similar age).

There's still opportunity to go back to doing Elzar, Avar and Stellan stories at all those levels. They just won't be about the Nihil. I'd love to eventually see that. Could be kind of like the old Jedi Apprentice books for their youngling and Padawan eras. Late apprenticeship to knighthood for adult novels.

Those would be side stories though, because the saga of this era revolves around the Nihil and the Ro family.

 

The Monster of Temple Peak TPB from Panini UK became available today. US folks can get it via Amazon (though Amazon's not the seller, so expect a shipping charge).

 

Now that's weird as I got an email a short while ago that it had been bumped to 20 Nov. And this was from a UK seller!

Still, they do send stuff out ahead of official release dates - hopefully that happens here.

Edit - it's out in the UK too! Must have misread something. For UK posters after it, nab it here, currently at £10.17:
https://www.booksetc.co.uk/books/view/-9781804910580

 

Sorry, but can you please care to explain. I don’t get it!!


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The Mother's surname is the same as a young Jedi on Jedha introduced in the first issue of the phase 2 run of The High Republic comic.

 

Hope that they are sisters, a third evil mum is a little bit too much.

 

Spoiler

Path of Deceit gave strong indications that Elecia had the force to some degree. I thought the end of the book was going to outright say where she came from but obviously that will likely be something left until the end of the phase.

Wouldn't surprise me if the two end up being sisters.

 

Well, with a name like "the Mother" actually being a mother rather than a sister would make more sense, though honestly she doesn't really look old enough to have a daughter Oliviah's age, but I suppose comics can tricky about such things (and some people age really well).

 

I can see her being a "spiritual predecessor" of Ghirra Starros and Chancey Yarrow - charismatic women that think that they can use a member of the Ro family for their own benefit (and been wrong about it) - but still it seems to be too repetitive.

 

Thank you for clarifying that for me, much appreciated mate!!


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