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".

Star by Star

   One of the longest Star Wars books I have read! over 600 pages in the hard cover. I think the one that comes close is I, Jedi. I read that one in a paper back. I seem to remember it was around 600 pages as well but being paper back I don't know if it would be more or less in hardback.
   One thing I do not like in The New Jedi Order series is the intense gore. After a while I really feel uncomfortable reading the sadistic rituals of the Yuuzhan Vong. Really I feel this is an attempt to make The Black Fleet Crisis into a whole series. When I first read The Black Fleet Crisis I felt it should have been longer then just three books. The Black Fleet Crisis remains one of my favorites. The Yuuzhan Vong feels like a knock off of the Yevetha... I mean the names are similar! The Yevetha were disturbingly blood thirsty as well but the Yuuzhan Vong has topped them. Ugh...
   But I knew something happened in this book cause I thought I had heard a spoiler before I stared reading it... I didn't get it quite right so, well I guess I was somewhat taken off guard and confused when things were not going as I thought...



Anakin and Tahiri

Spoiler ALERT right here...

______________________________________

   The death of Anakin! Some how I thought he turned to the darkside before his death and his death would take place in Star by Star. Got it half way right! I knew he died at some point in the series but I didn't know which book. I tried not to find out but I accidentally did.
   I'm really going to miss Anakin! He was one of my favorites.

Fey'lya's last stand.
( Isn't his fur white in the book?)

   Another thing I didn't see coming was the fall of Coruscant and the death of Chief of State Fey'lya!!! As surprising as these deaths and events are I think it is a smart move because it does add an extra edge for the reader cause you know they will go as far as killing someone! Someone who's a pretty important person! Hate to say I'm glad they knocked him off! I don't know how many books Fey'lya has been in but he's been annoying the Solos & Skywalkers for YEARS! An irritating character! But he did sort of die as a hero so I can give him that. In the end he truly did care about the New Republic and not his own hide.
   One thing I greatly disliked about this book was how long it was!!! I love long books... but there was just too much of unneeded information that was boring! Less battles and more depth! I mean with a 600+ page novel you'd think they would have plenty of room for both...

Assault at Selonia

 When I first saw this trilogy I feared it would be boring cause Han is just not my favorite character but turns out that was not the case. The thing that gets me is the story isn’t boring nor do I dislike the author… but something about this one is just not incredibly exciting or compelling. There are things that seem rather silly and far-fetched. I mean while having Anakin have a special talent in electronics I feel like it’s a quality being totally taken overboard just to keep the story going…

Han Solo fighting a Selonian
Art by Joe Jusko

 And then putting a shadow of a doubt on Mara Jade doesn’t seem quite right as well! She has been around too long to be the first person looked at when something is amiss! Han may have had some doubts about her in the past but not Leia!

 And then we have a war where nobody seems to know who is behind it or really who is fighting who! And I mean, a ragtag group made to look like 2nd rate Nazis led by Han's evil cousin...

 I’m just at a loss at figuring out what is lacking and basicly going on in this trilogy… It's a bit all over the place! Well, let’s see if it picks up in book 3... then I can make my final statement on this!

 At least there were not nearly as many typos in this one as there was in Ambush at Corellia!

Ring in the New Year!

Happy New Year 2013!

 It’s been a crazy year! Hard to comprehend I’ve been reading the Star Wars Novels for over a year now!

Ringing in the New Year

 I had a pretty good Christmas. Spending it with family for the first time in several years! Family in both blood and made. I didn’t realized how much I missed some of them! But I miss NY as well as in some ways I’m just not a southern girl... in many ways really. It's funny though that I left NY/NJ getting away from Sandy and Christmas day in AL greeted us with Tornados! Such a wild year!

  But, I wanted to share my prize of the season. :-) I saw these first on a blog about black Friday and thought that’s neat… I’ll never see them as I don’t often do black Friday. I think it’s silly after trying my hand at it a couple of times.

 I did go to the store later that day and found these! BUT I did not buy them as I just still thought they were overpriced for me. Christmas came and went and I was looking over the clearance and came across toys half price! I started looking for these as I had been watching them for a while… YES! HALF PRICE!

  One set is classic prequel characters and the other is Clone Wars characters which I started watching in Oct. on my trip to NY. What bugs me in nether have an adult Anakin Skywalker in it! There is a child Anakin and a Darth Vader but not a young adult Anakin... oh well, maybe I'll get one later... Oh, and I did go back later and find a cute R2D2 candy dispenser!

 Here's to 2013! May it be as crazy as 2012 but in a much better way!

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

The New Rebellion

  3/4 of this one was pretty mediocre. Probably didn't help that it was following such an intence trilogy, The Black Fleet Crisis. It bugged me at first that this author ignored things that had happened in past books that should have continued the growth of the characters. And then half way through the book she started mentioning stuff from past books! It was odd, like she'd just read the others half way into writing her's... :-/




Han helps Leia out of the bombed Senate building

   I found the part with the bombing of the Senate building interesting cause this was written pre 9/11 unlike another I have read, (I think it was Labyrinth of Evil) which used 9/11 as the obvious inspiration. Since this was pre 9/11 it was interesting to see a terrorist like attack portrayed when at the time main land America had never been through one. And unlike Laberath of Evil it was not used as a political statement in the story. As Labyrinth of Evil was.

 

 

 I guess a lot of the mediocre parts did help in building to the end. The last quarter was good and really made the book worth reading!

With that said I will now move on to some comments that are spoilers... so look away if you wish.

Where to start... uh, I'll just start somewhere...

 

Nandreeson with his fire breathers revengefully tries to execute Lando

Lando; Well, make that Lando and Han. I got confused after their smuggler friends switch sides so many times! I've yet to figure it all out! Maybe the point was that money will makes simi-good people do some bad things... but that back stabbing started getting old and confusing! And the dragon people? Come on! I don't know if that is a creation of this author or another being Lando and the dragons had history, but they were rather silly. And the way they defeated them was even worse!

Leia; The problem was it was like all she went through in The Black Fleet Crisis didn't happen. She AGAIN is being sent to a vote to the Senate to remove her. After TBFC this is really nothing new! More should have been mentioned about that because it should have naturally played into her character growth.

Luke; OK, right off I can't think of anything much to complain about. It is nice that the Super Jedi idea has finally died. It totally ruined the Luke created in the films. This author did a pretty good job with Luke. I did how ever notice a copy of Children of the Jedi on let's see how bad we can beat up Luke... It did work but it seemed more like copying another authors work then coming up with something original.

Anakin; Awe, I'm liking this kid!

R2D2 and Threepio; I like how they become heroes though I got confused a few time in the part R2D2 was waging war.

Mara Jade; What was going on with this?! She shows up much to Hans dislike to be of no help what-so-ever! She plays no part what-so-ever in saving Luke. One moment she's behind Han. Then the author totally drops her! It's like she wasn't even there :-/ and not mentioned again until they are on their ride back.

Kueller; Ok, now onto the mask. On the front cover there in a disturbing image of a skull. A realistic human skull! The book talks of how realistic it is also. Now check out illustrations of this character and notice all of them show him wearing a mask that looks more like a robot! Hu? Also I in the book it talks about how the mask holds memories but not much else is elaborated on this matter which leaves you wondering what does the mask "remember" and what is the point? How can the mask be used in the future? A lot in this book makes you wonder about things cause they just are brought up but never taken to a conclusion... which bugs me...

Revenge of the Sith

My Copy with holographic cover!

Wow... this book was pretty intense! Really love the authors approach in getting into the minds and feelings of the characters! A very important thing to me. I love depth! Long drawn out battles can be a bit boring partially when there is little depth but this author kept a fairly good pace with the action scenes adding the emotions and mind sets of the players in the scene.
Very different and dramatic writing style with a lot of insights in things there is no way you could spell out well in a movie. Too bad this author did not write a novelization of Return of the Jedi because I think he could do it justice! Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi are my favorites of the films. ROTJ being the top on my list which I have now watched it countless times. The official novel for ROTJ is not very good. I would love to see an updated one now that Darth Vader's story is known!
I haven't seen Revenge of the Sith in a number of years and not nearly as many times as I've seen ROTJ. I don't remember a quarter of this book even being in the movie... guess I'm going to have to go and watch it again now. But that was a good thing that I didn't remember a lot of the movie cause it made the book even better not quite knowing what was coming next.
The author sets a very dark mood with poetry and the book is segmented in three parts with a poem starting each one. The chapters are also named! Something I haven't seen in a book in a long time! In my own writings I have always liked to name chapters... just a personal thing maybe, I don't see it done much.
This has to go on my list of the best SW novels I've read so far!
By the way, I finished it on May 4th... May the 4th by with you! And this is being blogged on the Revenge of the 5th!

Labyrinth of Evil

This comes between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. I have mixed feelings about this book. I know James Lucendo has written other Star Wars novels but this is the first one of his I have read. Some of his way of putting down thoughts I find hard to follow, but that could just be me.
This is a post 9/11 (published in 2005) book and I was surprised at the fact that you could tell! The author clearly used current events and political topics in shapeing and telling his story. It seemed odd for a Star Wars novel and this is part of where my mixed feelings about this book start. I lived in AL in 2001 but today can walk out my front door to the end of the street and clearly see the New World Trade Center. That fact alone unnerves me, so reading something that was clearly inspired by the event brought back bad feelings as I can clearly remember the day watching it on my TV set.
As for the Star Wars Universe part of the book I would say it took reading about half of it to truly get into the story. I find this prequel era confusing as it is... so that didn't help... but in a way reading this may have helped me get some of the story better. I'm looking forward to going on to Revenge of the Sith!
The character of Anakin must be a hard one to write... as I grew up with Han, Leia, Luke... and all (as that was all there was) I have not figured out the personalitys of the prequel movies as well. I appreciated the attempt of the writer to show the soon to be Dark Vader's conflicts with himself and the Jedi way.
So like I said, I was mixed on how I felt about this one and I will leave it at that...