Chat corner 123: High Republic

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

This is current-canon week, so lets come back to High Republic, the multimedia project set roughly two centuries before the Prequels. We’ve already talked about it in 2021, but I figure that after nearly two years there might be a new thing or three to talk about.

Bonus question, since comics tend to be the less known topic on this comm: if you could choose any era of the Galaxy Far Far Away to set the next TV show or movie in, what would it be, and why? Or for the fic writers among us, if you had to write a story in an era you’ve never written about before, which one would you pick?

 

Comments

[extrapenguin]

I am going to be thoroughly swamped at work for the entire rest of the year, but is there some reading order for that all that isn't just "all of it"? If it matters, I like female characters, same-sex relationships, and Jedi written by people who agree with Lucas's vision that they are good people. I do not enjoy M/F in any form and am the one person who dislikes Stover's prose for being excessively florid.

On the bonus topic, I would set anything audiovisual in the Old Republic era. It doesn't have to be SWTOR era, but definitely before the extinction of the Sith. This is because one of the big draws of Star Wars is lightsaber duels, and the lack of opponents for such climactic occasions was an issue the sequels tripped over. (The throne room fight in TLJ especially.) Having an active Sith Empire full of Sith to fight against lets one's Jedi protagonists cross blades acrobatically regularly without it devolving into a "Curses! He escaped again in an even more contrived fashion!" situation: nemeses can be defeated (death, capture) or convinced to quit the Sith, and Darth Bigger-Bad can send another new acolyte to fight, this one either stronger in the Force, stronger physically, or someone who is at the edge of a realization so that it pains our Jedi to strike them down before they can turn away from the dark. And it's set ~1000+ years before the movies, so there's room to do stuff without severely breaking continuity.

[colls]

We've been reading a few of the Phase 1 High Republic books (Adult and YA only) over at swbookclub and so far they do build on each other. That said, I think you could read a synopsis - wookiepedia is pretty good for that - and get the gist if you wanted to skip books. I've liked all the ones I've read so far, but agree that it can be a lot.

The one we just read 'Out of the Shadows' by Justina Ireland features at least two female protagonists - a young Jedi named Vernestra and a pilot named Sylvestri. There are several other female characters that play important roles as well. It also features a f/f relationship. It is a YA novel though.

I enjoyed 'Light of the Jedi' by Charles Soule - it sort of kicked off the entire thing.

I'm enjoying the way the Jedi are portrayed in the High Republic Era books. They're earnest and not quite as jaded as they seem to have become (YMMV).

[extrapenguin]

How YA-y are the YA novels? I jumped straight into adult novels at age 10 and have bounced off every YA novel I've ever tried. Glad to hear that Wookieepedia will have my back if need be.

[colls]

Oh, that's such a hard thing to judge because it depends on so many subjective things. But I will try to answer.

One of the reasons I don't care much for YA novels is they tend to be coming-of-age stories and I'm far from that time in my life.
But Star Wars tends to have a lot of coming-of-age stories and I love Star Wars.

So it's a conundrum.

I think the Star Wars YA novels vary insomuch as YA books in general vary. Overall the pacing is quicker with YA novels, so they tend to be quicker reads. The characters are young in the Star Wars ones but don't seem overly as juvenile as some YA (again, YMMV)

[astromech1138]

I'd love a live action show set in the Old Republic, too. It would be so interesting for all the reasons you mentioned, and it would be, like, REALLY nice to get away from treading the same Skywalker ground.