Canon Novel review. TARKIN. James Luceno

Hello

In this article I would like to talk about the book TARKIN by James Luceno 2014.

The author is a well know StarWars EU novel writter. "Darth Plagueis" among them.

The scenario takes place between episode 3 and 4 during the assembly on the Death Star.
Of course the Main character is the Moff TARKIN that is not yet Gran Moff...
The story is really detailed and brings us to know the  back story of the officer that died too soon in the original trilogy.
We will understand his fillosophy, his approach to law and order and his rise to the upper levels of the    empire. We will finally understand why even Darth Vader can accept to follow his command.

This brings me to the second very important character of the novel: Darth Vader. We can see him in action and also his interaction to the Emperor. he is off course impressive... Most impressive...

The plot is interesting. Lot of travels in the outer and mid rim. The first sparks of rebellion. The structure of the Empire. TARKIN acting with no mercy.

Here bellow positive points and negative points.

POSITIVE

The duo Vader / Tarkin. Seems to see them back in the Citadel rescue during the clone wars.
Description of the Empire Board of command and the interactions between the factions.
Several references to the Clone Wars and how it has forged the Galaxy, the populations and the Empire structure.
A lot of details on the Emperor and several references to his Master: Darth Plagueis
Some insights of the true plan of Darth Sidious besides the Empire.
Revelations of atrocities committed by the Empire.

NEGATIVE

The plot is too short. The end of the plot leaves us with a taste of missed climax.
The Death Star stays a side element that could have be more directly involved.



Overall it is a great novel providing a lot of info on the Empire, the history and the Leaders.
From the evil point of view.

I really recommend it.



Quote : "The sooner the battle station is completed, the sooner you and I can devote ourselves to more pressing matters..." - Emperor Darth Sidious

Star wars the clone wars ! Awesome video for 100th episode celebration

Hello guys

Personally I love the clone wars animated serie.

I found by case this old video from 2013 for the celebration of the 100th episode.

Awesome overview.
If you do not know the serie. just watch it ! you will learn so much about the universe !

May the force be with you .

Hero's Journey 1: Luke Skywalker - Original trilogy & hypothetic journey to episode 7 to 9

In this series of articles, I would like to study the Hero's journey. It is known that Joseph Campbell was a mentor of George Lucas and the Hero's Journey is a base for the build of the characters and the plot.

My plan is to try to describe the hero's journey of the main characters of StarWars : Luke, Anakin, Ezra, Ashoka, Rey and also counter heroes like Darth Maul and Kylo Ren.
This way I will be able to check if the model is still applied in the newer films and try to extrapolate the model in order to make some thought of what might come in the futures movies or shows.

Indeed, Dysney is also a well known user of this model in every  animated film or other films (like Hook for examples). So I expect that for the future production they will stick to this model that is demonstrated to bring the most  attachment from the public to our hero's.

The first one of my article is probably the easiest. LUKE SKYWALKER. But I will look at it over the whole original trilogy episodes (4 to 6) and even 7. (on the net you can find the journey of Episode 4 only that is indeed already a cycle on his own).

After documenting myself a bit, I actually choose not the Campbell model but the Christopher Vogler (2007) 12 steps. (at the end of the article you can find some background explanations of each steps and some links.

1. THE ORDINARY WORLD.	Home : Luke is a farmer on Tatooine. Learning to fly with goal to enter the academy.
2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.	The call : The arrival of the droids: C3PO talks about the rebels. The message from Leia inside R2D2. Searching Obiwan Kenoby. Then : bring R2D2 to Alderaan, learn Force ways.
3. REFUSAL OF THE CALL.	Luke cannot leave. His uncle needs him for work. Threshold guardians : Uncle Ben
4. MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.	Luke meets Ben Kenoby : he learns about the force and his father. Artifact : His father's Lightsaber
5. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.	Event: Uncle and Tant are killed by the Empire. Luke : "there is nothing left for me here".
6. TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.	Tests: the Death of Obiwan, the Death Star search and princess rescue, the destruction of the Death Star 1, the escape from the Monster on Hoth. Allies : Han, Chewbecca, Leia, Obiwan (force ghost). Enemies: troopers, Vader, Empereur
7. APPROACH.	The approach is made with Yoda on Dagobah. Luke has to learn the ways of the Force in order to be prepared for the confrontation with Vader and Emperor. Training for becoming a Jedi.
8. THE ORDEAL.	This is the confrontation with Vader on Cloud city: Luke faces the power of the Dark Side, the fear of death, the fear caused by revelation that his father is Vader. The jump into the Cloud city core represents the death and rebirth of Luke after this episode.
9. THE REWARD.	Luke gets the knowledge that his true quest is to turn Vader back to the Light Side. He also discovers that Leia is his sister. So the Reward is hope, and FAMILY.
10. THE ROAD BACK.	Luke returns to his friends to prepare the Endor battle with the knowledge of the bound of the family.  Then he chooses to surrender to Vader in order to try to turn him to the light Side
11. THE RESURRECTION.	After having nearly killed Darth Vader, Luke stops , move away from hate and throws away his weapon. All the up and down we have seen during the film due to his uncontrolled emotions are now over. He is now committed to the light and he truly divide good light and darkness , compassion and greed. Luke nearly died for his quest to redeem his father. The balance in the Force is restored after the Emperor death and Vader redemption. Luke reborns has a powerful Jedi that survived the temptation of the dark Side.
12. RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.	The elixir is the proof of redemption of Anakin Skywalker + the knowledge of the Force to bring to other people.

Now if we think about episode 7 , we find Luke in Exile after, obviously, a great disappointment that happened after episode 6.
If we look at the Campbell description of the RETURN phase, it looks that Luke failed the last part that is called "master of the 2 worlds": Luke has not managed to live both normal life and life within the Force as a master. Probably the failed teaching of the ways of the force to Ben Solo forced him to exile in order to avoid seek revenge or anger (we do not know yet what happened) that are the ways of the dark side that have been rejected by Luke in the confrontation with the Emperor.

Now at the end of Episode 7, Luke will start a new Journey, a new cycle. Rey finds him and begins back his saber and ask for knowledge : it is the new CALL TO ADVENTURE.
For sure Luke will first REFUSE REY's CALL because it will fear to return and have to face back what caused his exil.

So what will make him CROSS THE THRESHOLD again ? 
My hypothesis : The distress call of his sister Leia to try to bring Ben back to the Light side - The redemption scheme is repeating.
Off course, if Rey is his daughter, that he protected by sending her alone on Jakku, now that she is involved it is no threshold to his return !

Will he have a mentor? 
My hypothesis : YES, His father (as a force ghost) could push him to go again a help of the galaxy. Something like "Save Ben liked you saved me"

The reward (for Luke ) would be then the redemption of Ben. (and as a consequence the fall of Snoke)

Some simple explanations of the Heros Journey.

1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.

3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.

6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life.

9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

source :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey
http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/the-hero-journey-mythic-structure-of-joseph-campbell-monomyth.html

The Mythology of STAR WARS - A George Lucas interview

I just found by chance this video of an interview of George Lucas in 1999.

This is a very interesting discussion about the mythology the Hero's Journey and the Religius part that shape the StarWars episodes.



Interesting quotes from G. Lucas:



Star Wars "recreates myth and classic mythological motifs"

"if it is a tool to make old stories new and relate to younger people, that's what the all point was"

Lego Star Wars the Freemaker Adventures. Episode 4 to 6. Connexions to Cannon world

Hello Freemakers !!

Let me continue our journey through the episodes of the freemaker familiy !

In this series of posts, I will give you some of the nice recalls to the cannon. Hopefully this will give you further motivations to watch this very cool show.

Here you can see the post reviewing episodes 1 to 3. 

The recalls to Cannon:

Episode 4:

The episode takes place mostly on Cloud CIty of Bespin.
There 2 events that are nice recalls : 

 First we see Lego Lando doing the exact same announcement to the people of the city after the take over of the Empire.

Empire Strikes back

Freemaker Adventures S01E04

Secondly we go back to the carbon-freezing chamber and they actually repair the tube cut by Vader during the fight against Luke. 

Empire Strikes Back : Darth Vader cuts the tube

Rowan finds it and tries to repair it

Characters: Lobot, Lando, Chewbecca

Creatures: no creatures on this episode
Ships and vehicles:

Pod racers of various types

Millenium Falcon

Episode 5:

This episode brings us on Kashyyyk in the middle of the never ending conflict between Dosha Trandoshas and the Wookies.

Characters: No special know characters

Creatures: no creatures on this episode
Ships and vehicles:

Luxury 2800 Yacht : That is interesting because a similar yacht (the 3000) was owned by Mara Jade.... what if ??? Imperial Lambda-shuttle
Auzituck anti-slaver gunship: the Wookie Gunship that we had first appearance on Rebels season 1.

Episode 6:

This is a very nice episode with Luke and Leia on the run. The opening sequence of them in a Y-wing chased by tie fighters is awesome.

Characters: Luke, Leia,

Ben Kenoby, Yoda (just a voice quote)
Sorry but why Luke does not have a black hand? This episode should be after cloud city events so Luke should have an artificial hand. 

Creatures: Acklay

Ships and vehicles:

Y-wing

Rogue one Latest trailer : My analysis

Hello everybody.
I am pretty pleased by the official Rogue One trailer. Click here to see it. There is frankly not much new to talk about respect to the previous trailer and the clip shared at SWCE16 but the sequences shown are anyway amazing.

Some insights :

1. JEDHA world 

We learned from The movie Director Gareth Edwards that the Jedha Planet is a spiritual location for the force. A sacred place for Force users. 

In the Trailer we can now see a fortified city with a main tower (looking like a temple) on top of a rock made of steep cliffs.

Jedha Fortified Hill City

Jedha Fortified Hill City

It indicates that the cities had a long history of conflicts (... Like the Mecca ...) and it probably a mix of monks, spiritual peoples and warriors.
This looks perfect to me for a Holy place. It recall me some existing fortress :

Mehrangarh Fort, India

Palmira, Syria

We got informations that the planet features Kyber Cristals that are used to make Light Sabers but also super weapons like the Death Star laser or the latests cannon we saw on First Order Star-destroyer.

Jedha is a desert planet so the battle scene with the Jungle and lagoon landscape is probably on an other location ==> planet Scarif.

In the trailer we see the death star directly over Jedha with a nice Eclipse effect. 

2. Characters. 

We have the same informations than previously

Some infos on Jynn Erso
Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe are Jedha fighter. More specifically Chirrut Imwe is blind monk and sees through the force.
K-2SO might be an assassination droid (ex-Imperial)
Cassian Andor will help Jynn but he was not asked to follow by Mon Mothma but it is on his own will. (he seems also quite interested by Jynn...)
Bodhi Rook not more details, he is a former Imperial pilot.
Saw Gerrera is interesting because the hair cut is not the same as the previous trailer. Different time ? Before and after the mission ?

Bail Organa is confirmed but we cannot see him yet.

3. Ships 

We see a lot of these 4 wings Imperial shuttles (same than the one destroyed on the beach)
We see clearly the announced U-wing as a troop transport.
Several X-wings are also involved.
Walkers AT-ACT are again presented.

4. Imperials. 

We still not see death troopers in action. Only normal storm troopers and the tanks.
Orson Krennic is inside the death star but we get just a shot of him and nothing more. I am still wandering about this white uniform and cap that is pretty unusual for Imperials (even of also Admiral Thrawn is dressed white). It recalls me the Royal Guard of Game of Throne !

Is he a special officer directly responding to the Emperor for supervising the Death Star completion ? It sounds strange to me as I thought it was the task of Grand Moff Tarkin.

5. Others

Really a lot of action : street fight, war on the shore, night strike with air support and inside the death star ?

The scene of Jynn facing a Tie Fighter on a platform on planet Scarif looks awesome ! Let see what happens.

6. Darth Vader 

Ok, we can see him only 1 second for just 1 breath. Personally I do not expect that we will see him acting a lot in the movie. The main reason for that is rather simple : He cannot be ALSO responsible for the stolen plans of the death star. He will be taken for responsible for the battle station DESTRUCTION. (Read the Darth Vader comic book to understand the consequence of that and how the Emperor nearly reject him after this event. see here). 

So if Vader is directly involved it means that he is again letting escaping rebels... if you add to that the events of Hoth, Bespin and even the Rebels season 2 final,  this is making him the most inefficient Villain of Star wars.... Personally, as a fan I do not want to see Vader fail again and again.

Overall I cannot wait to see it in december !

Previous Rogue One related Post :

• Trailer
• Saw Gerrera
• First trailer Analysis

Rogue one Latest trailer

Here is the trailer revealed on swce16 finally visible to everybody.

This is amazing. This will be a fantastic movie!!!

My analysis later today. ==> DONE . see here 

Lego Star Wars the Freemaker Adventures. Episode 1 to 3. Connexions to Cannon world

Hello Freemakers !!

During SWCE16, the creators of Lego Star Wars the Freemaker Adventures said that the TV show is not cannon but it must be in the cannon. So that means that no reference to that story will be done in the future but the story could have happened in term of timeline, characters, places... ...
The Show plot takes place between EP V and VI.

I really like that concept because the can recall huge amount of existing characters, planets, events, vehicles and transport them in this Lego World.

In this series of posts, I will give you some of the nice recalls to the cannon. Hopefully this will give you further motivations to watch this very cool show.

Episode 1:

The first Episode set the plot and the "CALL TO ADVENTURE" of our cool mini-figure family.

The recalls to Cannon:

Characters: Darth Vader, The Emperor, Wedge

 
(Wedge is quite popular these last days : see here that he will appear in rebels season 3)

Creatures: Dianoga

 
This the creature that attacks Luke inside the trash compactor of the death star.

Ships and vehicles:

Clone Wars AT-TE

X-wings, Tie Fighters

We can see X wings and Tie-Fighter, Imperial troop transport and even a Droid STAP.




























Episode 2:

Characters: Jabba, Max Rebo, IG-88 (just mentioned), Dengar

Max Rebo

Dengar in the Punishing One

Creatures: "Smiley" the Nexu

Ships and vehicles: The Punishing One is the ship of Dengar but it is a "Legend", so that it is interesting. This bring a new idea to the Cannon. Dengar is part also of the Aftermath Book (details here) so it can be that we will read about his ship in the following book.

Punishing One

Hutt starship and HH87 star-fighters

Episode 3:

Characters: Young Anakin

Ships and vehicles: N1 Naboo Starfighter, A-wings, Star-destroyer

Creatures: Exogorth

Did I miss something ? Tell me in the comments. 

See for Review of the next episodes....

 

Quiz

Can you name these 40 characters

http://epicstream.com/triviaquizresult/Can-You-Name-These-Star-Wars-Characters

9 things we learn from the Interludes in Aftermath book

In this article I would like to summarized the content of the "interludes" chapter of the Starwars Aftermath book form Chuck Wending. Some details general here

The lines hereafter are no true spoiler but some side informations of the story of Aftermath. Anyway read them at your peril.

1

Chandrila

The new senate is set up at that time on Chandrila. Home world of Mon Mothma. She is the supreme chancellor.

2

In the middle of a destroyed village of Nalool, MonMothma explains that she wants to renounce to the special rights that she has in time of war. She will propose to convert the army to a 90% reduced peacemaker force. This despite the fact that the empire is not yet completely defeated.

Interesting quote : "we do not fight the Empire in order to become an other Empire" Mon Mothma

This is explaining why, years after, the republic is weak against the New Order

3

There are a lot of good and bad effects of the fall of the empire: 

Orphans and young people supposed to enter the emperial academy have no new alternatives and are let alone.

Several salvaged people are now free but without a defined future.

Crime syndicates are taken the lead of planets that are now in chaos after fall of the empire.

Food , water ... supplies are down.

All the items will have to be addressed and solved by the rebuild senate if they want to gain trust from systems. The task is huge.

4

Dengar. The BobaFet friend with the band around the head is old but still alive (we saw him first time in clone wars tv serie and then in Episode V). He fears that now neither the Empire nor the rebels will need them anymore and he beleives they will turn against the bounty hunters. He wants to create an organization with others hunters in order to be stronger and face this new future. A guy called Mercurial Swift does not share the idea....

5

2 men and a women that call themselves the Acolytes of the Beyond  are buying from a Kubaz a red light saber that his supposed to be the one of Dark Vader. They announce though that they want to destroy it.

I do not understand because first of all the light saber should have been destroyed in the DeathStar2 disaster. So who took the time to get it back from the reactor before the explosion?? moreover it is no link to EP7 that shows an other light saber: the one of Anakin lost by Luke on Cloud city.

Finally, Is this some kind of introduction of some people that could put some base for the Knights of Ren?. Please comment to help me. Who are these people ? What are they bringing to the story ?

6 
A young boy called Jak, whose father was killed by Empire on Coruscant Monument Plaza during the festivity after the Emperor Death, is dealing with Crime syndicate in order to organize an attack against the Emperial forces still present in the city. Will this boy be a key character in the future ?

7
We learn more about the Tatooine planet after the death of the Crime Boss Jabba the Hutt. Several new cirminal organizations are trying to take the control of the planet. A "sherrif" called Cobb Vanth is trying to keep situation under control.
The action takes place inside a Jawa vehicle. There Vanth meets Adwin Charu (a non local criminal) and they contend the aquisition from the Jawa of a old and damaged Mandalorian Armor.

In the vehicle there are several elements that are re-calling the Sarlac disastor and of course we tend to think that the armor is the one of Bobba Fet! How can this be ? did it go out of the Sarlac ? Is Bobba Fet really escaped the beast as wished by fans? Anyway, now Vanth has the armor now.

8

The interlude on Cloud City is well... cloudy... Interesting to know that at that time Lando and Lobot are still there. There are people still believing the Emperor is alive and the death is only propaganda from the Rebels. The scene describe a quite brutal approach to recover some credits from Empire people... Not really understood....

9
Jakku is introduced has a one of the most in-hospital planet of the Galaxy. Corwin Ballast arrived there in order to espcape war that destroyed his family. He is sure that war will never arrive here..


Frankly speaking this is not a lot of information, but probably new pieces of the puzzle will come with the tome 2 of the Aftermath trilogy : Life Debt