Category Archives: SWEU

The Expanded Universe Should Only Expand, Not Change

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I love the Expanded Universe. I love that it exists. I love that there are books and comics and even video games to fill up my Star Wars obsessiveness in the absence of film and TV shows. I love that Heir to the Empire jump-started the fandom way back in 1991. I love that the barrage of books and comics kept the fandom going strong during the 1990s. I love that the EU always drove the Star Wars story forward, no matter what was happening onscreen. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: without the EU I would not have become a Star Wars fan.

I don’t always like the way people treat the Expanded Universe. I hate that people look down upon it. But I also dislike when fans treat it as just as important as what’s onscreen. This might seem odd, coming from an EU fan like me, but it’s true. I hate when people take something that happened in a book and assume it will have huge consequences for the Sequel Trilogy. Yes, everything is canon now, but that doesn’t mean every story holds the same weight.

Nor should they.

(spoilers for Star Wars #6 and #8 under the cut)

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Del Rey Updates: Rise of the Empire and Battlefront Descriptions Announced

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mill__cvr_all_r1.inddAmong all the Monarchy Discussions and The Force Awakens news drops this week, we’ve also gotten some updates from Del Rey regarding upcoming novel releases.

First, blurbs for the three new short stories in the Rise of the Empire novel bundle have been released.

MERCY MISSION by Melissa Scott
Years before she led the crew of the Ghost, Hera Syndulla was a young pilot looking to make a difference in the galaxy. Hera sets out with Goll — a close ally of her father, Cham Syndulla — on a dangerous mission to help the citizens of her homeworld, Ryloth, now languishing under the might of the Empire.

BOTTLENECK by John Jackson Miller
When Grand Moff Tarkin is tasked by Emperor Palpatine to investigate a dispute slowing Imperial production on a backwater planet, he expects an easy mission. Instead, Tarkin must forge a tense alliance with Count Vidian, the Empire’s newest rising star and a most capable rival. Matching wits and risking betrayal at every turn, the two powerful Imperials duel to gain the upper hand…and elude, at all costs, the price of failure.

THE LEVERS OF POWER by Jason Fry
As Imperial and Rebel forces clash on and above the Forest Moon of Endor, Admiral Rae Sloane commands from the bridge of the Star Destroyer Vigilance. At a time where the stakes could not be higher, Sloane works to protect the Death Star and ensure Imperial victory, all too aware of the uncertain future for the Empire that may lie in the aftermath of the battle.

Young Hera? When Tarkin Met Vidian? ADMIRAL RAE SLOANE AT THE BATTLE OF ENDOR? Sign me up!

Second, Random House released a blurb for Battlefront: Twilight Company, the upcoming video game tie-in from Alexander Freed.

Among the stars and across the vast expanses of space, the Galactic Civil War rages. On the battlefields of multiple worlds in the Mid Rim, legions of ruthless stormtroopers—bent on crushing resistance to the Empire wherever it arises—are waging close and brutal combat against an armada of freedom fighters. In the streets and alleys of ravaged cities, the front-line forces of the Rebel Alliance are taking the fight to the enemy, pushing deeper into Imperial territory and grappling with the savage flesh-and-blood realities of war on the ground.

Leading the charge are the soldiers—men and women, human and nonhuman—of the sixty-first mobile infantry, better known as Twilight Company. Hard-bitten, war-weary, and ferociously loyal to one another, the members of this renegade outfit doggedly survive where others perish, and defiance is their most powerful weapon against the deadliest odds. When orders come down for the Rebels to fall back in the face of superior opposition numbers and firepower, Twilight reluctantly complies. Then an unlikely ally radically changes the strategic equation—and gives the Alliance’s hardest-fighting warriors a crucial chance to turn retreat into resurgence.

Orders or not, alone and outgunned but unbowed, Twilight Company locks, loads, and prepares to make its boldest maneuver—trading down-and-dirty battle in the trenches for a game-changing strike at the ultimate target: the very heart of the Empire’s military machine.

Chuck Wendig to write Aftermath Trilogy

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AftermathEntertainment Weekly has confirmed our suspicions: Chuck Wendig is writing the entire Aftermath Trilogy. No word yet on the other book titles or when they’ll be out, but it’s very nice to see a single author handling a series in the post-RotJ timeline again.

Also revealed earlier today is the Chewbacca comics miniseries, written by Gerry Duggan with art by the awesome Phil Noto.

Aftermath is released on September 4.

Aftermath gets a Synopsis, YA Novels get Covers

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AftermathThe Official Site dropped more information on Journey to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The big bombshell? We’ve finally got a synopsis for Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: 

As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance — now a fledgling New Republic — presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy’s scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. But above the remote planet Akiva, an ominous show of the enemy’s strength is unfolding. Out on a lone reconnaissance mission, pilot Wedge Antilles watches Imperial Star Destroyers gather like birds of prey circling for a kill, but is taken captive before he can report back to the New Republic leaders.

Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, former Rebel fighter Norra Wexley has returned to her native world — war weary, ready to reunite with her estranged son, and eager to build a new life in some distant place. But when Norra intercepts Wedge Antilles’s urgent distress call, she realizes her time as a freedom fighter is not yet over. What she doesn’t know is just how close the enemy is—or how decisive and dangerous her new mission will be.

Determined to preserve the Empire’s power, the surviving Imperial elite are converging on Akiva for a top-secret emergency summit — to consolidate their forces and rally for a counterstrike. But they haven’t reckoned on the Norra and her newfound allies — her technical genius son, a Zabrak bounty hunter, and a reprobate.

Wedge is the damsel in distress saved by a new female protagonist? Well this sounds incredible! Just when I thought I couldn’t get more excited about this book.

Additionally, covers for the three new YA novels were shown off. We also learned that Jason Fry co-wrote the Leia novel in addition to the Luke book. Check out the link above for more information and to see those fantastic covers.

Review: Dark Disciple

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Dark Disciple CoverThe enemy of my enemy is my assassination BFF …or at least that’s the logic of the Jedi Council when it comes to teaming Master Quinlan Vos with Asajj Ventress to try and take the nefarious Count Dooku out of the picture and hopefully end the war. (No one ever said the Jedi Council was brilliant, okay?) What could possibly go wrong with this plan? And it’ll worth it if it brings the Clone Wars to an end, right? Out today, Dark Disciple by Christie Golden asks these questions as an unlikely partnership forms to take on an impossible task.

While there were things I did and did not like about the book, it was an overall enjoyable reading experience. While readers go in knowing the outcome (the mission fails, it has to fail,) Golden does a good job of building up anticipation and making you think that just maybe Vos and Ventress will succeed and Dooku will die. This is a book that’s more about the journey than the actual end result. The story is based upon unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars but Golden takes the basis of the arc and really makes it her own so well that it’s impossible to tell what was originally in those eight scripts and what wasn’t.   (Dark Disciple may, however, may not be the most accessible book those who didn’t watch the show.)

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The Dichotomy of Revan

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darth revanOne of the easiest ways to see the divides in the Star Wars fandom is to have them vote on characters. StarWars.com is currently conducting a poll to determine what character should be Hasbro’s next 6” Black Series figure. The results, thus far, have been causing a lot of chatter.  The favorite right now is Darth Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic games. A lot of fans on Twitter, myself included, have been advocating for Sabine Wren (who is currently in second place) because she’s not only an awesome character but also the only (for sure) female character who made it into the finals. Watching the back-and-forth on Twitter has made me realize that how myself and a bunch of other fans view Revan is almost the exact opposite of how others, including many who aren’t very attached to the KOTOR games, view Revan. (Trust me: the irony of this is not lost on me.)

At his/her core, Revan is a self-insert character. Revan is exactly as cool and as dark side or light side as you choose to make him/her. That’s part of the fun of the games. Revan is played up through the first two-thirds of the game as being this incredible strategist who beat the Mandalorians and probably would’ve beaten the Republic if Malak hadn’t turned into a power hungry betrayer. In Legends, the character was declared to be canonically male for the purposes of The Old Republic game which… is what it is. (I’m already on record as saying I think everything that was post-KOTOR2 canon is dumb but that’s neither here nor there.) Regardless, it’s pushed forward this view of Revan as being this super cool and badass Sith Lord who is badass enough to survive being tortured for a few hundred years and then do… whatever that storyline in the TOR game is. It’s how a lot of those who aren’t KOTOR fans see Revan. After all, what’s all that groundbreaking about another brown haired white guy gone evil and then good and then… possibly good or evil again?

To some fans though, she is way more. To a strong minority, Revan is the woman of color Jedi turned Sith Lord turned hero that we never otherwise get to see. Keep in mind, the first KOTOR game came out back in 2003 when there weren’t too many great female Sith villains never mind many Sith who were people of color. Revan was something different. She was an opportunity. She was a wish fulfillment character that a lot of us had never really had before. In case anyone doubts the lasting affect of Revan, one only has to go check out the KOTOR community on tumblr. We may have our own thoughts on whether she stayed on the light side or fell to the dark again or even which member of her crew she fell in love with but it’s clear that idea of this very capable woman who finds success against all odds holds strong over ten years after the game’s release. Needless to say, she still means a lot to this part of the Revan fanbase, myself included.

Does this all boil down to headcanon? Of course. Again, that was a part of the game’s charm. Does it suck for the (admitted) minority of KOTOR fans who love female Revan that the chances of Hasbro creating a female Revan toy are approximately 3720 to 1? Hell yes. However, despite what Legends canon says, the two Revans are still very much a part of the Star Wars fandom and to completely ignore one when discussing the character in broad strokes is to do part of the fandom a disservice.

Go/No-Go – Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice

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nasa-mission-control-3Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice, out July 7, is the third installment in the young reader tie-in series to Star Wars Rebels. The first book, Edge the Galaxy, introduced us to Zare Leonis, his sister Dhara, and soon-to-be girlfriend Merei Spanjak in the year before Zare entered the Imperial Academy on Lothal. Rebel in the Ranks picked up the story with Zare as a new Imperial cadet and followed him as he tried to learn the truth about what happened to his sister. In Imperial Justice, Zare has to contend with antagonistic fellow cadet and superior officer Roddance, who want to prove he’s a traitor. Meanwhile, Merei is in trouble of her own, working for a criminal boss on Lothal as payment for him helping her snoop into the Imperial network in Rebel in the Ranks. Not to mention, her security genius mother is the one assigned to investigate the breach.

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Details and an Excerpt from Disney Press’ All-New Original Trilogy Adaptation

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The Official Site gave new details of Disney Press’ effort to bring the Original Trilogy saga to young readers with an all-new adaptation of the films.

In a new series coming September 22, fans will experience the original trilogy in an entirely different way, with Star Wars: A New Hope — The Princess, The Scoundrel, and The Farm Boy by Alexandra Bracken (theDarkest Minds series), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back — So You Want to Be a Jedi by Adam Gidwitz (A Tale Dark & Grimm series), and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Beware the Power of the Dark Side! by Tom Angleberger (the Origami Yoda series).

But these are more than just mere retellings from this top talent; these are fresh interpretations — true to the films but filtered through each author’s vision. In each novel, the authors get inside the characters’ heads, tell us about the scenes between the scenes, and even teach us how to be a Jedi.

What’s more, they’ve released an excerpts from all three books. Head to the link above for more information!

Legends Recs: If You Like Rebels, You Should Read Wraith Squadron

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We’re starting a new series here at Tosche Station: Legends Recs. While we support the new Story Group era canon and are super excited for new stories like Aftermath and The Force Awakens, the old Expanded Universe holds a special place in our hearts. But we know that as long as we keep reading, these stories will never die. To that end, we’re offering recommendations for Legends stories based on what people enjoy in the new canon. Up first, we explore one of the best novel series in the EU that also paved the way for a new group of Rebels. 

rebels logoThe second season of Star Wars Rebels premieres on June 20. The series has done extraordinarily well, and has surprised a lot of viewers (myself included) with how high the stakes have grown in just 16 episodes. I loved the Ghost crew by the end of “Spark of Rebellion,” and after “Fire Across the Galaxy” the Specters felt just as familiar to me as EU characters I’d loved for over 20 years.

One of the reasons Rebels resonates with me so much is the aspect of the crew as family. They’re together, flying across the galaxy, looking for different jobs and ways to fight against the Empire. And they remind me of another group of characters who excel at creating their own special brand of chaos: Wraith Squadron.

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Moff Mors and the Importance of First Impressions

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Lords of the SithApril 28 saw the release of Paul S. Kemp’s Lords of the Sith, the fourth novel in the new story-group approved canon, of which you can read our spoiler-free reviews here and Brian’s more in-depth review here. Along with being the first of the new books to focus on Darth Vader, Lords of the Sith holds the distinction of introducing the new canon’s first LGBTQIA+ character, Moff Delian Mors.

I found Moff Mors to be an interesting character and a welcome addition to the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Unfortunately, her introduction is handled with far less care than one would hope. Continue reading →