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Nathaniel Reed's
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:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
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February 2020 |
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Star Wars High Republic announced !
29th February 2020 |
At the end of February, the official site unveiled the project that had been formerly known as 'Project Luminous'. A multi-platform wide-reaching story project, the 'High Republic' is set about 200 years before Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, and following the "Jedi in their prime" at a time of a far-reaching galactic-wide cataclysmic event, and dealing with the new enemy, the Nihils. An article interviewing the primary authors back in 2019 describes their enthusiasm and some of their sanctioned insights into the project.
Fansite MSW has a collection of the concept artwork here.
At the moment, my immediate take on this is that, other than a galaxy-wide cataclysmic event - a supernova ? A blackhole ? - we've sort of already seen the Jedi at their prime as policing guardians in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.... though, for sure, this epoch looks to have a 'High Renaissance' culture and finesse to it that sets it apart from the peaceful Jedi Order of TPM. And we may see a greater number of them patrolling the galaxy, rather than the mere thousands that existed in the time of the PT. But why specifically "200 years before" ? Why not, say, 500 years ? Also, the 'Nihil' enemy, I fear, are too humanoid for my liking ; what attracted me (initially) to the Yuzzhan Vong of the old EU stories was their exotic other-worldliness and their own innate powers that they possessed, that matched the Jedi like-for-like. I'm not sure if we have that with these nihilists.
My other primary concern is that this is all only a publishing programme, with no movie/TV material whatsoever. This may come later, but, as Steve Sansweet said when LFL was bought by Disney and Lucas' Sequel Trilogy stories were being prepped, for LFL to survive and promote, it needs live-action format material first and foremost.
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The Final Season of the Clone Wars has now begun to be shown in America. This seventh season of twelve specially commissioned episodes will illustate the action that leads up to Revenge of the Sith.
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I've been fortunate enough to watch the new TV show The Mandalorian. Overall, it's really good, entertaining and engaging, with an over-arching story arc, and singular glimpses into the life of a Mandalorian warrior turned bounty hunter. Each episode lasts between 35 and 40 minutes. As the internet has now discovered, the major 'reveal' is the bounty, an asset currently named "The Child" (or "The Kid"), a fifty year old child-like version of Yoda's species. Although the CG / animatronics is a little clunky at times, this character is certainly endearing and scene-stealing !! Presumably, the Child is George Lucas' parting gift to LFL in only now allowing any potential insight to be given into the mysterious Yoda (and Yaddle) and his species and culture. Certainly, this is the premise given for Season 2 !
Of the titular character and his ship, the man of mystery is well-armed and skilled, but is not invulnerable, which is good ; likewise, his ship is characteristically chunky and akin to the beguiling and misleading "piece of junk" that is the Millennium Falson. My only gripe is that one episode has his ship ransacked, but it seems relatively easy with meagre resources to rebuild it to space-faring worthiness : surely a more well-equipped workshop would have been required ?!!
There are cleverly subtle ploys to imply time-passing and illustrate the state of the galaxy since Star Wars Episode VI, since this is set about 5 or so years on ; there is an Imperial villain (and heirarchy) and stormtroopers, and what is currently the top bad guy seems to sport the unique lightsabre, the Darksabre, a Mandalorian weapon introduced in the Clone Wars series by Dave Filoni (and presumably George Lucas).
Although very much on a small scale in-production and in-galaxy, this might be what the fandom needs to appreciate and enjoy and survive, following the divisively controversial Official Sequel Trilogy !
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In the illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom Han and Leia lead the surprise attack against the mine prison control centre.... and Leia disarms the troopers when Captain Prue and his guard arrive !
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You can see the VE artwork in the 'Kessel' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
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Nathaniel Reed, 29th February 2020 |
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