Another Monday, another set of notes from Jason Fry’s brilliant Essential Guide to Warfare.

The Academy System: Another fun section to tear into, and a place where I definitely wanted to roll up my sleeves and get dirty in hopes of straightening out some continuity snarls. I hope that the account of the Academy system here amounts to a “good” retcon. Yes, the nebulous nature of the intake system and repeated transfers is designed to paper over various contradictions. But it’s also meant to be interesting in its own right – you can imagine cadets lying awake agonizing over where they’ll be sent next, exchanging baroque conspiracy theories that purport to explain everything, and grumbling about undeserving recipients of direct appointments. The Imperial Exploration Academy is new, as is the Merchant Galactic. (Though the latter has real-world antecedents.)

We’ll get another look into the Academy system when we come to Han Solo’s career.

There’s a whole bunch of early Empire notes in this latest batch, so if that’s your thing, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Rejoice, fans of Mandalorian culture. Jason Fry’s fourth batch of Essential Guide to Warfare endnotes dishes the Mando love.

War and the Mandalorians:Dan Wallace and I were almost finished with the Essential Atlas when we learned the Clone Wars TV show would shake up everything we thought we’d known about the spur-jangling warriors and nomads of the galaxy far, far away. Working quickly, I consulted with Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee at LFL to adapt the existing backstory to accommodate Satine and the New Mandalorians, and explain (at least for the most part) how swathes of the planet were turned into wastelands of fine white sand.

Dan and I wanted to do more: Originally, the Atlas was going to include a “Closer Look” at Mandalorian Space, with a local map and write-ups for its major systems. With Mandalorians taking center stage for a number of Lucasfilm projects, that idea was discarded — until Warfare gave me a chance to fill in a gap or two.

It’s understandable that with the uncertainty caused by The Clone Wars, Fry would want to avoid going into too much depth about Mandalorian culture and space. Now that things appear to be more settled, it’s quite a bit safer to flesh out more about them.

For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Yesterday, Jason Fry posted a series of end notes from EG to Warfare. Today he drops more!

Blasters: The mechanics of blasters have been explained rather differently in a couple of Star Wars sources, and Paul Urquhart did a lot of heavy lifting helping me sort through the differences. My question about how a stun setting would work led to some breathtakingly geeky emails between myself, Leland Chee, Pablo Hidalgo, Dave Filoni, Tony Rowe and Robert Clarke. Yes, my job kicks ass.

For even more bits of awesomeness, check out the rest of the notes he’s posted on his Tumblr.