Star Wars: A New Hope - The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (Star Wars Enters into a new Universe)

 If you have read some of my reviews of EU Star Wars you will know I like when I see a female author writing in the universe.

   I first saw the new Star Wars EU books back in 2015 in a Walmart in Mohegan Lake NY which I recorded in this POST HERE

   I normally don't buy books until they a 2nd hand or greatly reduced. I simply could not afford to read them otherwise! Most of my book are from Ebay or surprising hauls at Goodwill where someone clearly donated a number of them at once. I did buy paperbacks of Catching Fire and Mockingjay from a store as it was the only way I could get them at the time, I did later acquire hardbacks of both second hand later on because I loved the series so much! I have yet to find the 1st book in hardback... maybe one day when we are no longer in a pandemic, and we can go to stores normally again...

   It was unknown at the time I saw these how the EU would be handled in the new movies and at this point I had read quite a few EUs by then.... So, my plan was to finish the old EU and then start on the new whatever way it went. I started reading the EU back in 2011 (first book I read was the Clone Wars in 2010 which I took to NY with me when I moved) because I wanted Star Wars to continue to live not knowing it was going to be bigger than I have ever seen it in my lifetime very very soon! Star Wars was NOT a thing in 2011... but I got the news in 2012 things were going to change!

   But yes, I was around for the sequels when they came out, but I don't remember it being as big of a hype as these movies became plus finally, we reached a time where it was at last acknowledged there are FEMALE lovers of Star Wars and item were put on the market for them. And as I said in the beginning... having women involved was something I wanted to see because I was a girl fan since I was a child and kept it on the down low because it wasn't looked at as a girl thing.

   There were several women author in the old EU such as writing Tatooine Ghost & The Planet of Twilight  

   But as I said I don't normally buy books new... however I found this one and several others at the Dollar General for $2! Not too long after I found a couple at Dollar Tree, meaning I only paid ONE DOLLAR for them! I'm not sure what that says about the books but glad to get my hands on them to find out!

   Now for thoughts about this particular book.

   It is basically a retelling of A New Hope. Each section focuses on a different character, The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy... It talks of adding new incite to the story, but I just wasn't too excited with the added content. It's a fine retelling but not a great read if you are already very familiar with the story.

The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy
by Alexandra Bracken

  Here's what got me though... the Author's note part that talks about Star Wars has been in much of her life... you learn the author started out with writing fan fiction... now I don't have anything against fan fiction... but when did Disney start hiring fan fiction writers? I mean Fan Fiction is kind of legally questionable... I'm sure many good writers have done Fan Fiction but who actually talks about it in their bio in a legit book??? It's just weird! Anyway...

   This is the first book in a series of 3. I have not gotten my hand on books 2 & 3 nor really motivated to do so. I would read it if I found it cheap somewhere but still... not a must read. If you have a young fan just starting out in reading Star Wars this might be a good start but not so much for a more established fan.

   There are illustration in this book.
They look to be concept art.
As you can see, Leia is a blond here?
... and who is the person walking with Luke and Han?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

SPOILERS AHEAD -  It's been a while since I blogged here. A bunch of reasons I won't go into here but after seeing the first trailer for what they are billing as the last episode of "The Skywalker Saga". I thought it might be a good time to return....

    First off, I am one of the ones who disliked The Last Jedi. I find a lack of good editing and pointless plot twists to be at fault. In defence of Disney, if you have been around long enough how could you have missed the fact that George Lucas' original plan for Luke was to become a hermit like Obi Wan in A New Hope... but I'm not here to tear into what went wrong with that movie either. The question now is can Episode 9 get it's act together and be what the fans hunger for?

    A few days before the release of the first trailer and the title reveal I saw on Instagram a poster claiming to be leaked from the new film. I was skeptical. What a lot noticed was CP3O carrying weapons… yes, this is a poster for the new Star Wars film Revenge of the Droids!

    Ok, more serous though, I did notice what Rey is wearing in this. I had never seen it before which I thought was strange coming from a fan made poster. Where did that outfit come from? Well, we get to see a lot more of this outfit in this trailer! In fact at least the photo of Rey in this poster must have been leaked. The thing I noticed about her first outfit on Jakku in The Force Awakens is it is clearly made to resemble Jedi robes. So that begs the question, why is she wearing Jedi robes unless at some point in her life she was with a Jedi. That does not add up with Kylo's, you are nobody pitch. Also while remarking on her outfit the color tells you something if they are playing the same game as with the original trilogy. In that Luke's clothing symbolizes where he was in the story. You will notice in The Return of the Jedi Luke wears black until the very end when his shirt opens to reveal white. This symbolizes Luke's decision to not turn to the dark side. In The Last Jedi you will notice Rey's clothing darkens from her original Jakku outfit and like Luke is tested, tempted to the Dark Side but she as well chooses the light. We now see Rey dressed in all white. I don't know if that can give us info on the story line of The Rise of Skywalker but I feel it's an interesting detail.

    Now lets look at the title...
    When The Last Jedi was revealed it told a lot about where the story was going. Again another strike against The Last Jedi. At this title unveiling I expected something final like "Balance of the Force".But no, we get "The Rise of Skywalker"! I had a, are you kidding moment when I saw it the first time! It was obviously not what I was expecting. After it sat in my brain a minute. I started to get excited...what on earth does that title mean?!?!

    So, I'm going to throw a few ideas out there for you. Who is Skywalker? Well, at this point the one that we know of as "Skywalker" is Luke... who died in The Last Jedi. Luke is also speaking in the trailer telling Rey that she has been given all the knowledge and the fight is now hers. Luke is a force ghost at this point and I greatly doubt he is the rising "Skywalker".

    Who is Skywalker?
    Well, there is no one living that actually can go by that name that we know of... and my mind goes to Rey. Is she somehow Luke's daughter? I can argue more against this theory then for it. I'm going to have to force myself to sit down and watch The Last Jedi again to look for more clues but I think in one scene Luke flat out asks her "Who are you?" If he had a daughter out there somewhere he sure didn't look like he knew about it. There is that one scene where Anakin's lightsaber calls to her like she had some connection with it's past owners like possibly a blood connection but who knows what they were getting at there. It's possible she has an original Star Wars character parent but going on what we know so far it's unlikely it's Luke. Quite honestly Han Solo seems like a better candidate. We know he had a girlfriend who could be force sensitive going by her connection with Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Up to this date Rey is up in the air but unlikely a "Skywalker" more like a Solo.
    Lets look at Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo. Well, that speaks for it's self. Ben is a Solo not a Skywalker though he has Skywalker Blood in him. Can he come and claim the name "Skywalker" to spite his uncle? Guess it's possible but a stretch to title it, The Rise of Skywalker. One possibility that crossed my mind was if the Jedi end perhaps a new force wilding group could call themselves "Skywalker" in honor of Luke. Who knows... But it is a compelling title unlike "The Last Jedi".

    Now lets get to the meat of the story. Where are they going with this?
    Watching the trailer the first time I almost did it with the sound turned down! I did not see that coming! I'm going to give you my theories as to what is going on. Some people find this plot twist silly and I bet some fans are not aware of it (I missed it for YEARS!) Apparently some fans hate it so much they want to pretend it is not there... but it is and it is a huge plot twist.
    In the Prequels Anakin is said by his mother that he did not have a father which fit with a Jedi prophecy that such would bring "balance to the force". However in Revenge of the Sith it is made fairly clear that Anakin may indeed have a father, from a curtain point of view... Darth Sidious's master Darth Plagueis had found a way to create life. Anakin is the creation of Darth Plagueis and is why Darth Sidious is so interested in him from the very beginning. In the same conversation it is noted that only one had ever gained the ability to cheat death. But it is un clear who that was...
    But back to Anakin. He is thought by several Jedi like Obi Wan to be the one who brings balance... it is assumed by many fans that is Anakin's roll as well... but what if that is not what is going on at all? What if Anakin and his descendants are just the results of a Sith science experiment with the force and Anakin was never the one they think he is?

    What if it's really Rey?

    I do believe Rey has been around Jedi due to her clothing and the fact she seems to be hidden here on a remote planet with the Millennium Falcon. So frustrating. So many variables! We do know many of Luke's students were murdered and some went to the dark side. In Rey's vision in The Force Awakens it looks as if Rey is being hidden from The Knights of Ren. 

Who hid her?
    I'm pretty convinced again that is wasn't Luke. Leia, Kylo, and Maz seemed to be the only one who has much of a clue as who she is and Kylo seems to be the only one who knows exactly who she is. Here's my thought, what if Kylo is the one who hid her? For some reason his relationship with her is so strong he wanted to spare her life? The only other he felt that way about was his mother. This is also shown when he turns on Snoke and saves Rey. This does not fit into my theory of her being the one from the prophesy but this would show a much closer connection to Rey then a fellow student in Jedi school. I would say it is more like they are siblings. That goes back to Han and Qi'ra. We don't know what went on in Han and Leia's marriage. Is there any chance he and Qira got back together? Maybe Ben's half sister? I believe if Han and Leia had another child together they would both realize it was Rey. However had it been a short affair Qi'ra could have never let him know... Rey belongs to someone even if it is the force or Disney messed this up good. I'll leave it at that.

    Insert evil laugh here... Did the Emperor really survive? This would not be a new idea as in the Old EU the Emperor did return by creating clones to live in. I'll say one thing about the trailer to this new and so called last installment of the Skywalker Saga, it sparked my interest which is surprising considering how bad The Last Jedi was. So I'm still holding on to a little "Hope".

Allegiance

    How did I miss this book before now?! The reason I have a copy is that when I find a EU Novel at a good deal I'll will buy it knowing I'm going to read it eventually. This has been a good practice and saved me the time and the pain of cliffhangers due to having to track down the next book! (I'm currently dealing with a cliffhanger in the New Jedi Order! Till I get my hands on a copy I picked up this one.)

   Really I started off reading Choices of One. I had been looking forward to reading it. I knew it was about Mara Jade when she was working for the Emperor as "The Emperor's Hand". It takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. About 2 chapters into Choices of One I realized I was missing something! Something came before this book... characters I have never heard of were too well established. It didn't take me long to figure out it was Allegiance. And as I said before I already had a copy. I had not looked at it sooner being the cover of storm troopers and I had never seen anything about the book being about main core Star Wars characters. I thought it was about some pack of random storm troopers. But it was a Zhan novel so I picked it up at some point in my adventures of Star Wars book hunting.
 
  The only other novel that takes place in this time period is Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a good book. I recommend reading it if you're a Star Wars Fan but it was written as an alternative sequel had A New Hope not done well in theaters. It's a good "what if" but doesn't work with Star Wars as it later became. I have to wonder if the next movies by Disney are going to turn this EU into something similar... we shall see...

   Why is it that Zanh is the only writer that is able to capture Mara and Luke dead on. I mean yeah, Zhan created Mara Jade but other writers can not capture her spirit, fire, and strength very well. He seems to understand Mara and Luke so well. I love the super hero type character Mara is in this novel. In the Thrawn Duology a point is made that Mara believes Luke has willfully gone to the dark side in the past and therefore effected in his life up to that date. But you're thinking, she has a lot of room to talk! She was the Emperor's Hand! But she claims she never willingly went for the dark side. The explanation seem to be that she is young, idealistic, and ignorant about what is going on around her. She repays kindness with kindness... you have to wonder if Darth Sidious is aware of Mara's rebellious nature for doing good.

 And what about Vader? They went to all that trouble to destroy the Jedi but now Sidious is training this young girl. Could the plan be to use her against him to take his place or at least make him uncomfortable that Vader could be replaced. After all he used Luke against him later on... and hey, they are Sith, they like mind games. It is clear Vader does not like the girl but there is no clear answer as to exactly why.

    I wish I could recall if Mara had a light saber ever before Luke gave her his father's. In this book she does carry one. The color being magenta. An interesting color choice being she's sort of a bad guy cause it's in the red spectrum but yet it's not red either. Ah, symbolism!

Mara Jade

    One inconsistency I noticed, correct me if I'm wrong, was Mara being able to put herself into a healing trance. In the Thrawn Duology Mara is injured but she was unable to put herself into a healing trance so Luke had to put her in it. As he does so she remarks that is something she needs to learn how to do.

    There were a few other flaws in the story but hey, don't really care. That was just the one that really jumped out at me.

    So... is Disney going to do away with Mara??? She is one of the most loved EU characters in the Star Wars EU galaxy! And she is such a strong female hero... I don't know if Disney will use her but it's a sad for those of us who love her if they don't. We can only hope they can create an equally dynamic female to replace her with... let's have it Disney.... gives us what you got!

A Long Time Ago in the Near Future

Disney + Star Wars = ? 

So in the mist of going through what is now being called the worst natural disaster in US history (what is with me? I went through Katrina as well!) I received news that I last received something of the like over ten years ago! 3 NEW Star Wars movies are going to be in the making! Along with this news was a strange twist… Disney was buying Star Wars! At first it was a tad bit shocking but after I thought about it made since. Three or four years ago I came across a video on an event at Disney World called Dancing with the Star Wars Stars. At the time it kind of made me scratch my head a little at the fact Disney was hosting a Star Wars event… :-/ But I found the dance off pretty funny! I always was amused at a little icon that read “Star Wars the Musical – No, seriously. Tap Dancing Storm troopers.” Yes, very amusing yet on the other hand bazaar, but such a funny picture it created in my head. Since then I have been hearing about these “Star Wars Weekends” at Disney.



Revenge of the Sith Concept Art of Padme' and Anakin

  How do I feel about this news? I don’t know… You see, when it was announced that the prequels where coming out some younger than me might not realize that I grew up in a world where there was only A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. This means you only know of this dark large monster like creature that somehow has two kids he didn’t know about and you have no idea how any of it happened! Yeah, if you were a Star Wars fan then you wanted to see those prequels! I remember even coming up with stories in my head of how it happened. I mean, like who was their mother? I came up with some story of a young woman watching her husband going to the dark side and having to escape. She didn’t even have a name! I don’t recall if I made one up. All you had was what was in those 3 movies and at the time I got into Star Wars it was a bit of a forgotten saga that I had little hope that after like 10+ years after the last film that they would ever bother returning to it.

 I really didn’t know till recently that so many hated the prequels! I mean how can you hate it completely? It filled in so much that you didn’t know that added to the first films. I will agree that the casting/acting may not have been as perfect as the original but the story was there. But to be honest I hated Harrison Ford as Hans Solo! Only till I saw the actors that he got the part over did I first started thinking… well, maybe he wasn’t THAT bad! ;-) Since then he has grown on me.

Art by Robert Shane

 As with the first time around, I had heard that George Lucas did want to make 3 more but AGAIN it’s been about 10 years since the last one (I’m seeing a pattern here!) and he was downed so much for what he did with the prequel that I didn’t think they would try again…

  Now again… how do I feel about this… well, the thing is it’s not like before because we don’t have unanswered questions as to what happened. This movie by what I understand will be after Return of the Jedi. So unless they decide to completely ignore all the novels and get new actors to play old favorite I think that just after Return of the Jedi is out of the question. Ignoring the novels and or recasting would be HUGE mistakes.

  I did come across an interview online with the author of some of the most popular novels, Timothy Zahn. READ HERE Apparently Zahn knew something at the time about these new movies. This is interesting because that means they were being careful at the time to not block themselves in. This gives you a clue to where it could go. If they were smart they continued to watch what was written.

 

There are some real spoilers ahead that have already been spoiled for me but just warning you in case you don't want to find out what happened yet.

 

Now what has happened in the novels? Well, this is what I have gathered by what I have read thus far... I know there is a lot out there that I haven't read but this is what I have right now... in Zahn’s novel Leia and Han have twin children. A boy and a girl. Well, obviously this did not affect or counteract what George Lucas had planned since we know he talked to Zahn right before these events were written. You will also notice that Zahn said it would be about Luke’s children… That’s interesting since Zahn was the author that gave Leia children! Is Leia’s children unimportant to the movies or did George Lucas have the twins in mind for the movie as well? And what of Luke? What do the novels reveal of his future? Oddly enough a big event in Luke’s life was also written by Zahn but this time George Lukas wasn’t as crazy about the idea. George Lucas did not want Luke to marry Mara Jade… the fans won out though. Sort of. Zahn has Luke marry Mara but I was quite surprised when I found that she eventually dies! So far none of the 4 main original cast has died (Chewbaca has) in the novels though they are really getting up there in age now. This is total speculation but I wonder if they allowed Luke to marry Mara as long as they eventually kill her off as she will not play well into the sequels. Zahn said the sequels will be about Luke’s children. As of now in the novels Luke has one son that I am aware of. Now if they killed off Mara, what of Leia’s son Anakin? I just recently heard he also eventually dies! Made me sad because I like the kid, but anyway… I’m wondering if the novelists are having to kill off people to lead the stories into the right direction? We still have Ben, Luke and Mara’s son. Now will Ben be one of the children in the new movies or will he get killed off before 2015 as well and we discover Luke has other kids… one that he doesn’t know about, or his kid/kids have kids? Hmm… where was George Lucas going with this if in fact he is molding the novels towards the final sequel and how much did they let authors stray through the years? We just don't know...

 

 I’m feeling two ways at the same time with this… it could be good which makes me excited… or this could be AWFUL which makes me cringe! But one way or the other at least Lukas isn’t giving up. He created an amazing world that has kept me entertained for hours on end for YEARS!

 The fact Disney is getting involved gets me excited because my second love is Disney. I have not cared for some of their movies in the past years but they were the makers of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King… and now they will own Star Wars! Now that’s a little cool to say the least! Time will tell the outcome…

Art by James Silvani