The Force Awakens

The Force Awakens

   I did not know what to expect with this movie. Disney was making a gamble on this. The prequels were hated by so many. (not by me) It's not like Star Wars fans will love anything labeled Star Wars.
   To me I have read 40+ EU novels so now the future of those become uncertain. Jaina, Jacen, Mara Jade... what will happen to these beloved Old EU characters? (I'll call it OEU for short)
    I know this review comes late. I saw TFA when it was still in theaters but now I have watched it a number of times and have noticed a number of details I missed at first. Looking at it through the eyes of an OEU fan...
    In TFA the New Republic apparently didn't rise like it did in the OEU. In the OEU Coruscant once again becomes the Capital of the Republic. Mon Mothma it's leader and eventually Leia takes her place. The fall of the New Republic comes with the Yuuzhan Vong. This would take place before TFA so I guess you could use that to explain why Coruscant is no where to be seen in TFA but what I got from the movie was the New Republic never took hold and this First Order is what rises from the fall of the Empire.
    As in the OEU Luke Skywalker starts a Jedi school where he does teach his niece and two nephews. Jacen and Jaina (twins) and Anakin. In TFA so far we know he has a nephew named Ben not Jacen but clearly the actor was cast to look a bit like Jacen who also ends up falling to the Dark Side. There is a Ben in the OEU but it's Luke's son whom he has with Mara Jade who is one of the most beloved character's in the OEU.
    That brings us to Rey. A girl left on a planet that is quite reminiscent of Tatooine but it is not. So what happened to Tatooine? Anyway... I love when they show she lives in an AT- AT walker and made a doll that looks like a rebel solder! So who is Rey? We know she is force sensitive and is waiting for someone to come for her. Later Leia tells her they won't come but she should seek out Luke... well, that crosses Luke off the list of who was coming back for her. Also at one point she states "Thought Luke Skywalker was a myth" this is puzzling if she had been in his Jedi school and doesn't know he is even real. So I cross Luke off the list. Is she Han and Leia's daughter? Ben's sister like with Jacen and Jaina? This is puzzling too cause wouldn't Leia and Han have known this was their daughter and told her? Leia just simply says that Rey knows who was coming back for her wasn't coming back... which makes me wonder... who can not come back? Yeah, Han. So is this their daughter? Leia nor Han seem as emotionally connected with her then with Ben. I really believe she is either a Skywalker or a Solo but not sure which.
    Just a personal tidbit: Rey looks so much like my mother at that age it is CREEPY! Since I look a bit like my mom I guess I found my Star Wars look a like :-) Rey costume in the works!
    Sticking with Luke Skywalker it seems in TFA his school failed and he split. This is very typical for Luke in the OEU as well. He constantly battled the idea of what if one of his students fell. He also ran off for this reason in the OEU. He does so in one of my favorite trilogy The Dark Fleet Crisis. He also has students fall, one being his nephew Jacen Solo. But is Luke running here or more looking for something? Could he be searching for information about the Jedi? In the OEU he had little to go on but his short time with Yoda and Obwan. In one series there was a holocron with the secrets of the Jedi. Could he be searching for something like that?
    OK, here's the thing... I've been into Star Wars for years and have read many books (I've even played KOTOR)... who on earth are The Knights of Ryn!?! I missed this somewhere... I see people talk about them like they are old news and I've never heard of them nor heard of any knights in Star Wars other then Jedi Knights, so you got me on that one....
    Snoke. I've heard this and that on who Snoke could be. First I cross Darth Vader off the list. "Why?" Well, think about it. In Return of the Jedi we she Anakin as a force ghost showing he was indeed saved. As may times as the first trilogy was messed with I don't think they are going to mess with that. I will admit I've heard some interesting theory but I just don't think they are going to go in that direction. Let's look at the OEU. Who does come back? Emperor Palpatine. In the comic series Dark Empire Emperor Palpatine returns using cloned bodies to live in. His gole is to take over the body of Leia's unborn child Anakin. Also Luke gets pulled under by the dark side and is really never the same in the future because of it. But my point is, I would lean to this being Emperor Palpatine. In the Rogue One movie coming in Dec. Someone pointed out the Emperor kneeling at a bakta tank in one of the clips... interesting... could this be his old master... or maybe a body he has cloned to move into like with the OEU Dark Empire. Mara Jade later on doubts the Emperor ever returned being she would have felt him if was alive but that may have been just to cover up and inconsistency.
    Speaking of inconsistencies. In the OEU Jedi could not read your thoughts. Only feel your emotions. Vader was able to discover Leia was Luke's sister not by reading his mind but reading how he felt about her. So Kylo Ryn seeing the map in Rey's head would not be possible.
    Another thing is with the release of TFA they started using the term "the light side" in fact that was not a real term before. There was only the "Dark side"
    Random notes. Starkiller sound a lot like Star Crusher which destroyed stars. In the OEU a student of Luke's, Kyp Durron turns to the Darkside and runs off with this weapon.
    Anyone ever wonder if Finn was related to Lando? And come on, Fin likes Rey. Fin is not gay. I think they threw that out there just to get people talking knowing people would.
    Who is Poe anyway? I don't know what part he really plays in all this...
    Captian Phazma... no. Why? Just trying to get another female in the cast? Yeah, everyone was just dieing to see a female storm trouper finally, weren't you? They can lose her if you ask me. I don't see the point. She's just annoying.
    One thing had me puzzled, why did Kylo Ryn keep hitting his blaster woud? Was there a meaning to that? Coolist effect in the movie... the frozen blaster bolt! I'm not kidding, I though that was really cool!

    OK. Now the BIGGIE! Before they decided to do this last trilogy it was common knowledge that Harrison Ford would not be in another Star Wars film unless they killed him off. They were going to kill him in The Empire Strikes Back but didnt. So yeah, I even told my friends this when they asked me about what did I think might happen in the new movie. I don't know what was wrong with me. I sort of forgot that fact when I started watching it. He was so good in the part! When it happened I was kind of shocked! They really killed him! They REALLY killed him! Wow... that was a little hard and I was never even that big of a Han Solo fan though he was winning me over a little.

    Last but not least. The whole silent Luke deal is Epic! Top billing, no lines, and a couple of minutes of film time... how much did he get paid for this? You know it's funny after Star Wars Mark Hammel became a voice actor... back to Star Wars, no lines....

( I came across this on Wookiepedia. I wondered why they only gave Luke a minute of screen time in TFA. I liked the fact it made Han more of the Star and Luke gets the next film but here is what they say...
'"Luke's minimal screentime in The Force Awakens was decided by screenwriter Michael Arndt, who felt whenever the character entered his draft of the script, he would upstage Rey and the audience would cease caring about her. Ultimately, he, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan agreed Luke would have to withdraw from the story and become a plot device instead.[42] Hamill still attended the cast's script reading, thereby concealing Luke's role, and was assigned to read the stage directions. "It was a way of having [him] be part of every scene, every moment, not just spiritually or thematically or narratively, but actually," Abrams said. "Having his voice in it made the read through a better experience for everyone.")

Dark Tide I: Onslaught

  This is the first book of two. This is just a continuation of Vector Prime by another author as I am guessing most of The New Jedi Order series will be. This one is written by Michael A. Stackpole author of I, Jedi. Stackpole has this knack of picking scenes in which he stops and describes in great detail that I don't understand why! This happened a lot in I, Jedi and I noticed it in this one as well but it was better then I, Jedi.
  For some reason they changed up the style of artwork on the cover. Very impressionistic.

  Not much I can say without giving much away from here... fair warning.




Battle of Dantooine

Spoiler Notes;

After killing Chewy in the last book, they did their trick. I really thought they were going to kill another one off in this one with Corran Horn! I was pretty convinced they had by the end of that chapter.

Jacen dropped quite a bombshell on Luke. I did not see that coming either, an interesting twist though it's pretty obvious he will continue on as a Jedi, partially after he up and runs out on his uncle after thinking he had a vision.

  How Anakin got the Alien on Dantooine to understand the bargain to bring them firewood is beyond me cause I read that scene over and over again and I could not figure out what he was telling him! And speaking of that tribe, what happened to them? Anakin sent them away but did they make it? Did the Vong find them? They were dropped from the story after that... maybe they will show up later.

“I placed quite a burden on Anakin, didn't I, by giving him that name." –Leia Organa Solo

  Anakin was given his name against Han's wishes for a Han Jr. in the graphic novel series Dark Empire which is the first Expanded Universe book I got my hands on. I have wondered since why Leia named him Anakin! Other then in Dark Empire does she do anything that shows she truly embraces who her father was or forgives him in anyway. Tatooine Ghost is as close as she gets to seeing her father as anything close to being human. And now at last it is questioned why Leia named Anakin after his grandfather! I'm surprised it took this long! I wish there had been a book where it gave the reaction of everyone when they found out about the Skywalker twins and who Darth Vader were! Cause you know, that would have been interesting. In the Truce of Bakura Leia is struggling with the fact that Vader was her father and at that point in time only Luke and Han knew.
  So her reasoning is that she is trying to redeem her father's name... I guess that's a fair explanation but I think it would have been better had they brought this up way before now! You hate your father but you name your child after him... well, I'm glad someone finally tried to give a good reason for this at least.


  Great, I don't have the next book! So... until I can fix that little problem I think I'll backtrack again by reading Slinter of the Mind's Eye I found a copy of not long ago with Survivor's Quest.
 

Before the Storm

  This is book #1 in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. It's got a lot in it! Much more story and detail then The Crystal Star but again it was published before Planet of Twilight so again Calista never happened again. Anyway, you could retitle this, Luke and Leia Lose Their Minds, lol. The story got so complicated with new characters popping up that I was starting to feel like I was reading the Star Wars version of War and Peace! (actualy I've never read War and Peace but I hear it's hard to follow) I will have to say some things seemed a little out of character for Leia and Luke but some of that may play in the story line later so I won't put it down too quickly but I will say it annoys me no end when they have Luke speaking some sort of Shakespearean (for lack of better to call it) I am sensitive to speech patterns and it throws me when people are way off, come on, Luke is a farm boy from Tatooine, why is he speaking to his students like a collage professor? Makes you wonder, do Jedi have lessons in grammar?

A painting of a young Padmé Amidala hanging in the
 Imperial Palace during the Thrawn campaign

  I do like the depth the author is putting into emotions. There is also a lot of politics and war stratagies but not done in a way that is boring.
  One problem I see coming is, how much in 1996 was known about Padme'? In this book Luke is met by someone knowing about who his mother was. This was getting close to the making of the second set of movies but so far I'm not sure how much was revealed to this author... so far it is being done in a way to not give a lot of details to conflict with later stories yet it does still conflict! I guess we will see how it turns out...

Tatooine Ghost

This was a calm relief from “The Courtship of Princess Leia” (Ugh! I think the poor author of this book was trying to help out making since out of that one!) Written after Attack of the Clones was released the author was able to let Leia be able to learn about her father’s past. If you like Tatooine you’ll love this book, haha… just saying that there is a lot about Tatooine in this book… not much of Luke though, this is a story mostly circling around Leia and Han.