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Welcome
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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 ::
FAQs
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| July 2020 |
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Latest scheduling for live-action movies
31st July 2020 |
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Due to the global impact of Covid-19, Disney has officially revealed that the release dates for the next batch of theatrically-released Star Wars movies will shift from the Decembers of 2022, 2024, and 2026 to December 22, 2023, December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027.
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A rumour has surfaced regarding a young Lando Calrissian live-action (Disney+) show, with Donald Glover reprising his fan-favourite performance. The source confirms its authenticity, but we will have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, a flurry of internet activity shows more interest in a 'SOLO 2' movie, with lead actor Alden Ehrenreich aware of chatter (though one doesn't necessarily know if that's in-trade or hopeful internet gossip !!). He says depending on the story proposal(s), he'd be interested in returning to the character and building further on what we had seen. Interestingly, the director, Ron Howard, maintains he is unaware of any sequel development.
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It has been revealed that revered chronicler, JW Rinzler, has returned to the Star Wars galaxy with a new reference book. The tome, this time, will include interviews with original Lucasfilm producer Howard Kazanjian, Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas, and others. Rinzler said Marcia Lucas was very candid about the early days of Lucasfilm and her work as an editor of Star Wars where she was in charge of editing and shaping the original film. She also talked about what they wanted to create at Skywalker Ranch in terms of employees and the culture of the company. Rinzler said of Marcia, "She had nice things to say about George Lucas and she talked to me about the prequels a little bit and also the new Star Wars films which she had seen, up to that point I think she had seen them all, and had interesting things to say, and it’s all in the book."
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On the 31st of July, the Official Site provided more details and four page scans of the forthcoming book 'The Lightsaber Collection'. This appears to be similar in style and format to the 'Harry Potter Wands Collection', and I confess I fear that the accompanying text is sparse to say the least ! I believe much more in-lore and production material is available elsewhere, as are detailed and varied views of the sword hilts. I can't help but feel that this could have been so much better....
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The illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom continues, and, following on from the scene where the droids See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo have discovered the huge machining factory, they are now intercepted by two worker droids, who demand to know who the newcomers are and why they are not being processed on the conveyor below....
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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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My prose writing for virtual edition Episode X 'The Riddle of the Pirates' has continued, and I have been able to begin the aftermath of the pirates' attack on Luke. Alana, and their students ; I have also sketched an outline of the main scenes that remain.
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The story as a work-in-progress can be found via the left hand side bar or directly here..... and a sample of the aforementioned scene can be found below....
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I have also found my thoughts turning more and more to the origins of the Force and those who first studied it, and those who went on to define themselves as Jedi and Sith (which, in my mind, is what defines and validates the entity we call 'Star Wars') ; likewise, how emotions and urges could encourage a Force-wielder towards a light path or a dark path, possibly with 'medieval' magickal alchemical sorcery, and ultimately into an identity that we would now recognise as 'Jedi' or 'Sith' - how did that first 'Sith Lord' become a Sith if there was no other precedent before him ? Likewise, for that first Jedi ? And, how might the Whills - my developing interpretation of the concept of the Whills for the purposes of my VE story - might influence and direct a Force-wielder down a particular path ?
Before the 'Jedi' and the 'Sith' there was the Force. We understand from George Lucas himself that the Force is a living energy field penetrating and binding all things. Every living thing has molecular midichlorians that whisper with the Force, and those sentient and strongly attuned to these cells can be guided by the Force as well as instruct the Force. As per Master Yoda's teachings, fear, anger, hatred, selfishness, jealousy, envy, greed.... all attract the Dark Side of the Force, and a quicker and easier path to your goal is laid before you ; the opposite promote the altruistic Light Side, a path that requires discipline and control and clarity. So, for that very first individual - whatever their species - how did they divine the Force ? Was it simply through 'everyday' meditation and subsequent inspired intuition ? Was it, instead, that it was noticed (by the individual or by others) that dark emotional urges such as selfishness and greed - those that came quickly and easily, and would empower a fight - brought about an advantage of prescience or speed of hand or body ? Did the thief or murderer 'get away with it' because they were 'always one step ahead' of the law enforcement ? In turn, did the charitable individual study these traits and exerted mental and emotional discipline to bend them to the Light ? Using the analogy of humans on Earth today, how could it play out that we could discover the Force and all its insights and advantages ?
I am also struck by the canonical presence of the Force-empowered Nightsister witches of Dathomir, and of any 'talisman' devices that focus and augment a particular skill or strength.
The former imply a connection to the Force and a ritualistic discipline akin to the Jedi and the Sith, but who are neither Jedi nor Sith. The implication is that their homeworld of Dathomir may even be entirely a Force vergence, for "green ichor" flows from the ground and the trees, and powers the "magick" of the witches. Another interesting facet with this scion is that they seem to be able to create physical and tangible objects from this ichor, something that the Jedi and the Sith, as far as we can tell, cannot do - they 'nudge' the Force to do their bidding, and they listen to the Force for insight. Assuming the magick ichor is indeed a variant of the Force - the mystical galactic energy that binds all life together - are there other sentient beings who tap into the Force in their own unique way ?
A 'talisman' is a device, usually found in myth and fantasy fiction, sometimes in science-fiction, that stores a great power and imbues the wielder with that augmented power. The Star Wars stories don't really rely on this narrative device, though there may be secondary characters or plots that involve these ; or tie-in reference material might expound on certain objects. During production for Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker the 'Sith Dagger' was rumoured to act like such a talisman, possibly having some sort of memory of its victims or its victims' strengths. What with Kylo Ren's infatuation with Darth Vader's broken helmet (and another rumour pre-release that it might have been a conduit for Darth Sidious' insidious voice), and the Sith Wayfinders, it seems that the writers of the Official Sequel Trilogy were prepared to entertain the notion of introducing the talisman concept..... which may or may not have been in keeping with the Star Wars as envisioned by George Lucas ; his close involvement in the long-running animated Clone Wars series implies certain narrative devices had become 'allowable'.
Perhaps the 'Star Wars' talisman, in one sense, is the lightsabre, the galaxy's 'Excalibur', or 'Mjollnir', or 'One Ring'. It is more a compact weapon than a fantastical magical item, but one could argue that the kyber crystal inside aligns with the wielder individually. The kyber crystals are rare and sing with the Force. What if there were other items - weapons, armour, protection trinkets - that were made from kyber, would they take on a specialised power and become a magical talisman ? A shield or a helmet or a cloak ? Would the in-lore rules mean that such items were only made from or with kyber ? How widespread is kyber ? Until the new movie Rogue One, the understanding was that the crystals could only be found on the moon of Illum, possibly divinable by those attuned to the Force ; but that entry into the Star Wars canon implied crystals could be found more widely, if not in naturally-occurring lodes but in re-located stores (the Jedha Temple, for example) - certainly, enough crystals to power two Death Star super-lasers.
A further thought, then, is the origins and genesis of the lightsabre, that mesmerising iconic weapon, a short cylindrical handle emitting a coloured energy blade of such power that it can cut through almost anything and deflect projectiles. It is powered by at least one kyber crystal, and aligned to the Force or to the user or both. What if, historically, like our own Earth history, the blade was a solid shaft of kyber ? I alluded to this - ignorantly presciently ! - in the VE Sequel Episode VIII The Darkness Within, when Leia defends herself from Kayos' red lightsabre with a spike of raw kyber crystal. What if, over time, engineers - scientists or Jedi or both (and, in fact, in our Episode VIII The Darkness Within, we named them Bomerwrights, a name from Lucas' old story drafts) - developed the weapon to such a degree that it compacted to a device that would project the essence of the crystal within outward to a fixed length of glowing energy ? The early sabre was, in effect, a magical sword of crystal that could invincibly pierce, while its descendent then became the lightsabre, the physical crystal now 'reduced' simply to a source for the energy beam that performed like a proxy to what lay inside the handle, and what used to exist as the tangible cutting blade.
Tied in with the talisman concept is Sith alchemy, seen primarily in the canonical Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows. For me, this is difficult to correlate with what is seen in the populist movies, for it slides too far perhaps towards the fantasy genre. In trying to understand its place and its origins, is it that the Jedi (and the Sith) have no need for such magical theatre, whereas other Force-attuned but less accomplished - the Nightsisters, for example - perhaps require the support of the magic and the amulets to help focus their control ? Alternatively, is it that this alchemy was used by Sith, or even by Jedi, in the early days of their evolution, but have since discovered they need it no more ? But why would Master Sidious resort to such magick in the recent animated shows... if not to focus his powers even more precisely, or to call on help from the dead ancestors ? Is reliance on such alchemy and amulets a sign of the ultimate weakness of the Sith, a doctrine fuelled by fear and anger and hatred ?
My sparking mind has also wondered about the origin of hyperspace travel and galaxy-wide communicable navigation. Taking one's cue from the semi-mythical inter-stellar cetacean purrgil that were introduced in the Rebels show, and loosely tying in to the Force-empowered seer-journeying that I am allowing for Leia in my extended VE Sequel Saga, my musings are leading me to speculate if the origins of hyperspace travel were actually a 'lost' aspect of the Force. If the Force is created by Life and Life is nurtured by the Force, and the Force - for a Jedi or Sith - enables them to experience informed visions of the past and the future, and - in my VE Saga - Leia will come to communicate with the Whills who are an emotionally sentient 'oversight body' and who are omniscient, then perhaps it is an aspect of the midichlorians within the living purrgil that enables them to naturally travel faster than light.
In turn, one could propose that the early interstellar maritime navigators utilised purrgil matter in a bio-technical manner to not only travel between in-system worlds quickly and safely, but to also journey across those greater distances between stars. It may be that those navigators - or their accomplices - were the early Philosophers of the Force, those who would discern and communicate with the mystical energy through deep meditation, and who may have become sufficiently attuned empathetically with the giant purrgil themselves to ride them ; it may even have been the case - inspired here by Frank Herbert's Dune series (which Lucas had stated was one of his many influences) - that these Jedi initially guarded their hyperspace travel secrets carefully if not jealously.... akin to how the early Catholic Church based in the Vatican would restrict the sharing of their worldly knowledge. In time, of course, and just like our own Earth histories, scientists and technicians would find a mechanical solution (with or without purrgil cellular material) to the conundrum of hyperspace with the development of lightspeed engine thrusters. Ultimately, a wholly synthetic approach - utilising refined coaxiom as the booster fuel - would be invented, and the remaining corners of the galaxy could be explored.
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The silence was what marked the devastation more than the debris. No birds sang, no animals scurried. No pollinators flitted, no insects crawled.
Anything only loosely fixed to the ground or free-standing had been blown nearly a klom back towards the city’s suburbs. Even the solidly built more robust buildings of the storage silos and the warehouses now showed signs of stripped cladding and torn roofs.
This industrial quarter was deserted. Everything susceptible to the unnatural gale of wind that had gusted through the canyons of commerce had been blown away. Crates, tools, equipment, vehicles. Temporary buildings, utility and maintenance equipment. Dust. Leaves. People. Jedi.
Luke Skywalker lay sprawled over rubble heaped up against the side of a building, a sheet metal panel resting over his legs. A little distance away, Alana Skywalker was spread-eagled amongst timber and bricks and piping. Further across, the Jedi students were similarly strewn over and amongst the piles of debris. Jannee, Jared, Kerrule, Benito, Cerdy, and all the others. Also, the security guards who had first responded to the attack, the innocent workers, even the droids, always unseen, lay scattered like disregarded children’s toys.
Now the slip of grit and smaller stones sliced through the stillness. The swish of a floor-length thread-bare skirt dragged over the rubble. The frayed woollen cardigan was held tight. The figure was hunched in a stoop, and beneath a thin head scarf, a glimpse of face could be seen : wrinkles on wrinkles, a sharp chin and nose, sunken cheeks ; a small tight mouth that had seen it all before. If there had been a spectator, puzzled for sure by the sight, they would recognise this figure as a great-grandmother, and in a sense they would not have been wrong.
Although the old crone shuffled back and forth finding a safe and stable path over the rubble, she was steadily making her way towards the inert body of the Grand Master Jedi.
After what seemed like an interminable age, the figure had arrived beside Luke. Tremulously, the grandmother bent at the knees, her left hand, a walnut-hued gnarl of a hand, reached out to a broken slab to support herself, and she gingerly squatted down. Her right hand briefly took the man’s wrist and squeezed for a pulse. Satisfied, she stretched forward and laid it gently over his forehead. Her own head, still obscured by the scarf, bowed as she focused. A lock of silvered hair fell forward.
A moment later, the head was raised, and her eyes were glimpsed : completely white, chalky cataracts eclipsing her sight. The right hand broke contact from Luke’s head and withdrew into the cardigan. The old woman glanced around her and regarded the motionless bodies that had been caught in the tsunami of gravitational physics....
.... moans began to emanate from those regaining consciousness....
....and then she faded away.
“B-Ben ?”
Luke groaned, and blinked slowly several times, allowing his eyes to adjust to the daylight. This wasn't Tatooine, it was Serreillea. He could feel dust matted in his hair and his eyelashes, clogging his nostrils, and drying his lips. His body ached, and he could tell his left arm was broken. He tried to move and found his legs held fast by the sheet that lay on top of him. He closed in his eyes and his face tightened in mental exertion as, calling on the Force, he slowly but gradually lifted the panel off his legs. It hung in the air as he readjusted his grip on it, and then it slid sideways and down to crash into the rubble beside him.
Again drawing strength from the Force, though still wincing from the pain, he caused himself to sit up. He looked around and reviewed the devastation around him.
His heart jolted as he recognised his wife lying amidst the wreckage. And like a cliff-top wind taking his breath away, emotion was torn from him as his eye settled on his padawans nearest to him.
Leaning against his right arm, he closed his eyes and let the Force explore the debris for him. He felt the rhythm of life emanating from his wife, and he gently probed and prodded it into response. Alana moaned, and began to blink, bringing her mind to the fore and centring on the moment. Luke sent a tendril of inquisitive Force to the closest motionless student, and was relieved to also feel a pulse. He pushed on, exploring the vital statistics of another padawan – life ! – and another..... but Luke’s breath and sense of hope caught in his throat as he divined that this next student – Tobyn - had sadly passed on to the Nether.
The Force tugged at his attention, and in his mind’s eye he became vaguely aware of a bright and pure light, pulsing with life and strength, out of sight a little distance away behind the nearby buildings. He recognised it as a locus of energy, benign and positive. Masters of Old would have identified it as a Force vergence, and Luke was puzzled to sense that this vergence seemed awfully familiar.
“L-Luke ?”
The Jedi Master turned his head and gazed upon his wife.
“I’m here, my love,” he whispered, his mouth and throat dry with dust. “Take it easy, don’t rush.”
Alana gave a slight smile, moved a little, and winced.
“My leg.... it’s my ankle... I think it’s broken...”
“Let me lift some of the debris off you...”
Luke closed his eyes in concentration. As if he was compartmentalising the Force – the audacity of such an idea ! – he silently asked his midichlorians to continue to support his broken arm, while calling upon the Unifying Force to explore and grasp the rubble that lay over his wife. As the Living Force was shared equally between the two of them, nourishing and cradling them, the abstract majesty of the wider cosmic energy, requested by Luke, slipped probing tendrils of inquisitiveness around the bricks, the timber, the metal.... the shards, the grit, the dust....
The debris slowly and smoothly and silently lifted, the items held in stasis as if a great all-encompassing hand of sticky gel had swept it all up in one go.
The gloop of wreckage gently drifted to one side, and then lightly settled, away from the padawans.
Alana eased herself on to her elbows, and looked down at her leg : her right ankle was twisted unnaturally. This time it was Alana who called for the mystical energy that created all living things and to which she had pledged to serve. The Life Energy wrapped itself around her ankle and leg like a thick bandage. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The Force lifted her bodily upright, allowing her to float in levitation just above the uneven rubble. Alana opened her eyes and steadied herself, then glanced back to her husband.
Luke had bent his knees and drawn his feet underneath him. Pivoting on his right hand, he rolled himself to standing.
“The children...” Alana began.
Luke nodded. “I know. We need to help them, need to find out who—“
The words choked in his throat. “--who... survived.”
Luke carefully stepped over the debris towards the nearest student, and Alana, still floating and with her right leg slightly bent, followed him. Suddenly, she gasped.
“Benji ?!”
At the same moment she uttered her son’s name, the Force revealed to her the bright vergence that Luke had sensed a little earlier. Unseeing, she turned her head to the left in the direction of the positive energy.
Her husband nodded. “Yes, that vergence in the Force. I think he’s fine... but you’d better check... all I can sense is the bright white glow...”
As Alana drifted away in the direction of the locus of energy, Luke returned his attention to the first student. Wattsrob, the long-snouted Kubaz, was stirring, his protective goggles askew. Luke leant down and gently affixed the eyewear more comfortably across the padawan’s face. He laid his hand on the bald pate, and then nodded to himself, satisfied that the Kubaz was robust.
Luke straightened and made his way to the next student.
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| Nathaniel Reed, 31st July 2020 |
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