Star Wars: Andor review

    Disney's stewardship of the Star Wars brand has been somewhat spotty in its handling. I'm going to spare you my opinion on the subject because we would be here all day but I was a Legends fanboy and religiously cultivated my love of the Expanded Universe for a good ten to twelve years of my life. Suffice to say, my opinion of the sequels was less than stellar and I feel like with the exception of Lost Stars, the novels have been nothing of particular note either. Thankfully, Disney has been doing somewhat better with the television shows as both The Mandalorian and Kenobi were pretty good. I'd even go so far as to say that Kenobi should have been a movie in theaters rather than on Disney+.

    Andor, by contrast, is it's own beast and I honestly think it may be among the best Star Wars media ever created. I bring up all of my above Star Wars experience because I'm putting that into context. I've read everything from The Lost City of the Jedi to the New Jedi Order. I've watched Droids, Ewoks, Clone Wars, and Resistance. I can tell you the difference between a Quarren and a Klantooine. What I'm saying is I know shit. 

    I don't know if Andor justifies the existence of Disney's Star Wars but it is a compelling argument by itself. The Mandalorian is what I wanted from a Boba Fett series since I was eight years old but Andor does something different. Andor is actually of artistic merit. That's a bit of a loaded pair of buzzwords but it's the best way to describe what this show does for me. There's nothing wrong with entertainment that exists to entertain but Andor manages to do that while also actually having something to say. A lot of things to say actually. All of which it does with imagery, storytelling, and strong characters.

    The funny thing is that I was going to give this one a pass. I mean, who the Nine Corellian Hells cares about Cassian Andor? He was okay in Rogue One but it's not like he was a particularly important character that I was dying to learn more of. If I had to choose any character from the Disney movies I would want to watch a series about, I'd probably choose Jyn Erso, Rey, Finn, Rose, Q'ra or Tobias Beckett. Hell, I'd watch an office comedy starring Admiral Krennic. Not that I was dying for any of these movies but Cassian didn't leave much of an impression. Here, he does.

    Getting into the actual review, Andor is ostensibly the story about the titular character. It's not quite twenty years into the reign of the Empire and he's a petty thief working on the planet Ferrix as he's struggling to find his lost sister. Cassian is an indigenous native of a planet that got separated from his family due to the Clone Wars and thinks he can track her down. The different kind of story this show is can be summarized by the fact he looks for her in a brothel and ends up murdering two cops, one of them begging for his life, in the first five minutes.

    Now that might give you the impression this is a grimdark show or ridiculously gritty but this is definitely a far more grounded show than the typical Star Wars universe. This is not Luke Skywalker or even Han Solo's Star Wars. This is maybe not even Wedge Antilles' Star Wars, this is Uncle Owen and Rebel Soldier 271#'s Star Wars. There are many people who have 9-5 jobs under the Empire, Stormtroopers are terrifying, and you can have your life ruined by an Imperial beach cop sending you away for six years for loitering. 

    This is the first Star Wars work to really give us an idea of what "normal" life in a galaxy far far away is like. The oppression of the Empire is everywhere but it's just close enough to what we experience in our day to day life to be disquieting. The Empire has put the squeeze on everyone but Cassian, like many others, is determined to keep his head down until events actively prevent him from being able to do so. We get to see what life is like on worlds occupied by the Empire, how the upper crust live, the inside of a minimum security prison, and more. 

    Strangely, my favorite part of the story is Mon Mothma's part. They somehow got Genevieve O'Reilly back twenty years later after only a walk on cameo for Revenge of the Sith with most of her story removed from it to reprise the character. The founder of the Rebellion isn't doing much founding, though. Instead, she's doing the infinitely less glamorous role of financing petty rebel cells while hoping to be able to do more. Her husband and child don't know what she's up to and they're put in danger with every act she does.

    This is a Star Wars show that reckons with the politics of fascism and how it is an insidious and not always overly visible force. It's not about Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine but the petty prison wardens and smug rent a cops who revel in the power their positions grant them. Resistance to tyranny is something that goes beyond simply shooting up baddies and it is sobering how easy it is to believe things aren't "that bad."

9/10

Star Wars: Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed review

    BATTLE FRONT: TWILIGHT COMPANY by Alexander Freed is a Star Wars novel following the adventures of a team of Rebel Mobile Infantry soldiers from after the Battle of Yavin to after the Battle of Hoth. It is a darker and edgier sort of book than the usual Star Wars fair, though still fundamentally idealistic at its core. Basically, it's a book dedicated to all those rebels gunned down on the Tantive IV and who were getting blasted in Hoth's trenches by AT-ATs. In the steak dinner of the Rebel Alliance, they are the diced carrots on the side.

    The book primarily follows the perspective of Hazram Namir. Namir comes from a primitive war-torn world where he has served in the causes of numerous warlords just shy of Immorten Joe in terms of morality. Seeing a chance to get off his planet, he signs up with the Rebel Alliance and they put him with Twilight Company. Namir is the absolute worst sort of person to work with an idealistic band of do-gooders in the fact he's an incredibly cynical misanthrope who only works with the Rebels because they were the only game in town when he wanted to leave his planet.

    Twilight Company is in the process of retreating from the Mid Rim when our story picks up. The Rebel Alliance overestimated just how badly the Empire was hurt by the Death Star's destruction and believed the galaxy was ripe for mass uprising. Instead, after some initial successes, the Empire has struck back (tee he) and they're in full retreat. Along the way, they pick up the locals who want to continue fighting the Empire offworld as well as capture the planetary governor that is trying to defect.

    Everi Chalis is more than just the governor of a no-nothing planet that the Rebel Alliance can't hold against the Empire's might. She's a former student of A New Dawn villain, Count Vidian, as well as the Empire's former chief efficiency expert. Chalis has an immensely bloated ego about her importance to both the Empire and Rebellion but genuinely knows what makes the mag trams run on time. The Rebel Alliance is full of plucky young heroes and heroines but someone who can actually say, "yes, this is a good military target. Go blow up this thing" is more valuable than her weight in corusca stones. Mind you, she's kind of an ex-slaver and mass murderer but even the reader forgets this in her energetic perkiness. I have her played by Reese Witherspoon in my head.

    Much of the book's entertainment value is in how entertainingly wrong Namir is about everything. He's under the impression he's in a gritty morally ambiguous universe where the Rebellion intends to seize power by force out of selfish ambition. He's continually off put by the fact that even when he reaches the officers, all of them are just another layer of would be heroes. It actually makes Chalis the only person in Twilight Company who he understands as she is totally motivated by selfish ambition. Similarly, Chalis believes Darth Vader is attacking Hoth for the explicit purpose of hunting down her because she believes she's a vital resource versus a high ranking accountant.

    One of the best moments in the story is when Chalis and Namir are arguing over whether to use Twilight Company to liberate a planet where innocent people are endangered versus taking a strike against the Empire's most important shipyards. There's no obvious answer to which is right but their innate distrust of each other prevents them from doing both. Certainly, Twilight Company could have refurbished itself after liberating the planet and then gone to do its next mission. Neither of them are willing to budge and that makes the story all the better.

    The only weakness of the book is the villains, who are incredibly one-dimensional. Prelate Verge is a character that is so immature and whiny that I literally thought he was a twelve-year-old for much of the book versus a spoiled twenty-year-old. I don't buy that some of the Imperial Ruling Council are going to be embarrassing fops (that's inevitable in any royal court). It's just the guy is an imbecile and I don't think those kind of people ever rose above the rank of emissary to a Imperial Advisor. Because at the end of the day, those guys were a dangerous bunch of schemers. Unless Verge is Palpatine's literal son, I don't think he'd have been tolerated. His assistant isn't bad so much as boring, just sullenly fuming about Verge's idiocy the entire time.

    In conclusion, this is a really solid book and entertaining throughout. I also liked the canonization of female Stormtroopers with Thara Nyende. While I knew the First Order had Captain Phasma and that meant that the Empire probably did too. It's nice to be see it canonized in print. Either way, if you're looking to have Rebel Alliance idealism tested but triumphant then this is the book to read. It's one of my favorite of the new canon.

9/10

Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order

    STAR WAS: JEDI: FALLEN ORDER is a game that I have been hesitant to play because of how burned I felt on BATTLEFRONT II. I enjoyed the single player campaign of that guy but felt cheated for the short duration of it as well as the attempt to nickle and dime all of its players. Still, I'd heard good things about this game so I finally picked it up and when I hit a Star Wars mood, decided to play through it. I'm very glad that I did. Despite not being the most original story, it is a solid and entertaining game throughout.

    The premise is Cal Kestis is a Jedi Padawan who managed to survive Order 66 while his master did not. As such, he has been junking space ships the entire time. Unfortunately, in order to save his best friend, he has to use the Force and brings down the wrath of the Empire on his head. Barely escaping with his life, he teams up with a Jedi Master that has lost the Force and a professional gambler to try to rebuild the Jedi Order. The key to this is finding the list of all the remaining Force sensitives in the galaxy.

Mark Hamill went from Jedi to Joker.

Cameron Monaghan went from Joker to Jedi.

    The game is a weird combination of Dark Souls, Uncharted, and Metroid Prime that amounts to being an exploratory platformer and lightsaber game. I was expecting something like The Force Unleashed but it is much more about running along walls, jumping on things, and exploring every little corner in the game. Cal is constantly swinging over things and doubling back to expand his map by knocking down rocks or solving puzzles that he couldn't until he learned the right Force power.

    Generally, the game is very fun and while it can be daunting to explore the huge maps and it is very easy to get lost, I managed to get my money's worth many times over. Throwing stormtroopers over the sides of cliffs never gets old. I felt like the parries of the game were a little less than awesome but I had the difficulty turned down very low so I have only myself to blame. Still, I loved it when Cal fought AT-STs, bounty hunters, and the occassional giant monster. Indeed, I wish I'd fought more Imperials because killing the local wildlife made me feel guilty. Jedi are connected to all living things, Yoda-darnit!

I like the Purge Troopers as mini-bosses.

    When the game is good, it is very good. The opening section on Bracca is fantastic with some fantastic set pieces, a truly amazing train ride section, and the feel of the Star Wars universe down pat. When the game is bad, it feels like you're playing a Jedi themed Sonic the Hedgehog with the only thing missing being a bunch of rings you need to catch. It can get exhausting trying to find your way to the next part of the map when I really just want to fight some Dark Jedi.

    The characters are a somewhat mixed bag as Cal, Shera, Greez, and (later) Merrin are all awesome but we don't get enough of them. The Second Sister is a decent villain but I feel like we could have rounded this story out by including an Imperial General or something. We get a theatrical crime lord at one point but he's barely in it. The storytelling is good but could have been expanded, which is to say it's "mostly good."

I HATE wall-running. Parkour is not the Jedi way!

    There's also the not dismissable point that this feels like a plot that has already been done to death I can't count the number of times a survivor of Order 66 or the Jedi Purge in general has popped up out of nowhere to have their own adventures before Vader either kills them or they survive past Endor, Yoda be damned. The fact they're going after a list of children to train to be Jedi also is something that we know is doomed to failure.

    The game hints at something more interesting with the Zeffo, a race that seem to be like the Rakata in they were a pre-Republic force sensitive culture that fell to the Dark Side. However, they're just background dressing and I feel that's a missed opportunity. While it wouldn't be terribly original either, maybe looking for an ancient Zeffo superweapon to use against the Empire (or for the Empire in the Second Sister's case) would have been better. Basically, there's a very "been there, done that" feel to the game.

Sith officially have Goth girls. I'm in.

    I will give props to the game for being very integrated into the Disney Star Wars timeline. We get references and homages to just about every bit of Star Wars EU up until this point ranging from a Lasat Jedi Master (Star Wars: Rebels), Saw Gerrera (criminally underused), the Prequels, the OT, The Clone Wars cartoons, and even characters from the comics. There's even a call forward to Starkiller Base as we discover just what planet they used to create the First Order's ominous superweapon.

    In any case, I played the video game until the end and that is its own endorsement. It corrected one of the big issues of The Force Unleashed with its handling of Vader. Cal never feels too powerful compared to the universe as a whole and is grossly overmatched by a true Dark Lord of the Sith. Also, when he faces an actual Jedi Master fallen to the Dark Side, he only wins because he has the help of another force user. I recommend playing this but with the caveat that there are some long boring sections. I hope in the next game it's not 90% exploration, 10% lightsaber combat but something closer to 50-50.

8/10

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review

     STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is a movie that I don't want to hate on but I struggle to say something positive about. I had extremely strong feelings about THE LAST OF THE JEDI but it actually was a movie that had something to say. For all of the disagreements I had about its treatment of Luke Skywalker and other subjects, it had an emotional heart. This film is something that just feels like empty spectacle. It has some beautiful scenes and quite a lot of ideas but they jump around so much that I can't really say I'm affected by any of them. It is, in simple terms, a movie that I don't feel much about at all.

    I'm not going to spend the entire review dumping on the movie because that's a waste of good typing but will try to articulate why I think this feels like a mess. I will also talk about what I felt were the positive elements of the movie. Unfortunately, my overall impression of the film is that it felt very much like this: "What? Huh? How? Huh? Who? How did he do that? What? No wait, stop, I want to know more about this. No, hold on. Huh? Why are you doing this? How? Huh? Who are you? What? It's over?'

    The premise is that Emperor Palpatine has come back from the dead. This is something I think was a very good idea because Kylo Ren can't serve as the central bad guy for the new trilogy. Despite murdering Han Solo and his uncle Luke, Kylo Ren has been too successfully woobie-fied and shown to be a poor tortured soul to have any real emotional gravitas. There's also the fact we have yet to get a real reason why he has defected to the First Order and Dark Side other than he really liked the uniform. I don't blame Kylo Ren fangirls, like my wife, but he's also basically the Star Was equivalent of a vampire with Rey as his version of Bella.

    I don't actually need an explanation for why Palpatine has returned and this is a complaint I'm not behind but it could have been a bit more than what we're presented. The sequels lack of explanation for what the hell is going is one of its largest weaknesses. Who are the First Order? What happened to the New Republic? Why did Kylo Ren fall? How did Palpatine come back from the dead? These are things that would have made the movie better even if they're just a few lines. I'm actually satisfied with the fact, "Snoke was a clone created by Palpatine." That's about the only explanation we get, though.

   Anyway, Kylo Ren submits to the Emperor in exchange for a fleet of star destroyers and the First Order becomes the Final Order. Meanwhile, the Resistance spends a good deal of time trying to find a trail of breadcrumbs that will lead them to the Emperor's hideout of Exegol. Rey is training under Leia to be a Jedi Knight (okay, that's cool but when did she train?) while Finn as well as Poe are running around the galaxy to fight evil. There's some tension over this as Poe thinks Rey would be an asset as an agent but nothing comes of it.    

 

   Essentially, the rest of the movie consists of the heroes tracking down the thing that needs to be gotten to get the thing that needs to get the other thing. It feels a lot like Knights of the Old Republic's search for the Star Forge but less coherent. We find a party planet, a planet where the First Order stole everyone's children, and a planet which I thought was Endor but turned out not to be Endor. Then everyone eventually goes to the planet Exegol that is basically Space Mordor for the final confrontation with Palpatine.

    There's some decent moments spread throughout the movie that I wish had been expanded on. I was interested in Kylo Ren's decision to serve Palpatine versus being his own man. I liked Finn's brief encounter with another defecting stormtrooper. I liked Lando's appearance and wanted more (Lando for Supreme Chancellor!). Hell, I was really interested in the plotline where General Hux turns out to be a traitor to the First Order even if I felt that it was an unnecessary plot twist and all of General Pryde's scenes could have been given to him.

    However, the movie moves at a lightning pace with no time to dwell on character beats or revelations. At one point. Poe Damoren is revealed to have been a former spice smuggler. When the hell did this happen? There's nothing about him in the movies or the EU that implies he's not a Republic/Resistance lifer. Finn wants to proclaim his love for Rey but never gets a chance to and immediately backs out. The relationship between Rose and Finn is also abandoned, which just makes the entire film's worth of development for them feel pointless.

    The movie feels like it's gone through multiple rewrites. For example, the characters of Chewbacca and 3PO both have death scenes. Chewbacca dies due to Rey's dark side lightning and 3PO sacrifices his life to translate a Sith artifact's inscription. Both of these get reversed, though, and I can't help but think this is Disney knowing that both of them are characters that have a shelf-life over the living actors. After all, you can get anyone to wear the Chewbacca suit and 3PO could theoretically be dubbed by someone other than Anthony Daniels (blasphemy as that may be).

    The death of Carrie Fisher hangs over the movie and there's not really much that could have been done with that. There are some genuinely touching moments but it's easy to see what they originally planned for the movie from the novelization. Kudos to Billie Lourd for her willingness to help make a tribute to her mother. I also believe General Organa being Rey's Jedi Master is as important a thing for the reviving of the Jedi as Luke. It makes her, "There is another" in a way she wasn't in the Legends universe.

    In conclusion, this movie was not very good. There were a few bits that I truly appreciated like when the entirety of the galaxy threw their starfighters, capital ships, and presumably armed space freighters against the First Order. If you're going to say that democracy and the people are enemies of fascism (and why wouldn't you?) then this is the best visual way to show it. However, the majority of the movie seems just lacking in any real plot coherence. At one point Rey and the others find the thing they're looking for by going into quicksand that our heroes could get out of easily (because one of them has telekinesis). Yeesh.

5/10

Star Wars: Shadow Fall by Alexander Freed review

      SHADOW FALL by Alexander Freed is the sequel to ALPHABET SQUADRON. Alexander Freed has a history of writing Star Wars novels in the new canon that take a remarkably unglamorous look at the Galactic Civil War. His heroes are frequently cynical, full of trauma, and often confused at meeting people who really believe it is a battle of Good vs. Evil. Alexander Freed also tends to right very sympathetic Imperial characters with one of his books being a prequel to Inferno Squad.

    The premise of Alphabet Squadron as a series is Yrica (pronounced "Erica" in Jacen Solo fashion) Quell is a defecting Imperial starfighter pilot who has been sent to head up a ragtag band of misfits with varying starfighter types. Their goal is to bring down Shadow Wing, an elite Imperial combat unit that has been reigning hell on various groups during the Imperial retreat after Endor. It is something of a quixotic quest as the war effort is far bigger than the hunt for any individual group of Imperials, even as dangerous as Shadow Squadron.

    In a perhaps deliberate deconstruction of the original Rogue Squadron and Wraith Squadron novels, Alphabet Squadron is not a group that comes together as a family. Indeed, its members become even more divided and shaken up by getting to know one another. Worse, their effectiveness is frequently questionable as they are carrying around enough baggage that they never know if the other members have their backs (or even if they want them).

    There was a good scene in the previous novel where Hera Syndulla (Star Wars: Rebels) decides to mentor Yrica because she doesn't trust Intelligence officer Adal. This proves to be wasted effort because Yrica is a spectacularly awful leader and has no real loyalty to the Rebellion. Indeed, her Imperial war crimes are severe but she can't really seem to recant of them either and just wants to pretend she wasn't involved in them.

    Opposing Alphabet Squadron is the forces of Shadow Squadron. The Empire is in full retreat and scrambling for supplies, reinforcements, and equipment. They have since been taken over by Soran Keize, a pilot dedicated to protecting them as well as giving them purpose. Soran knows the war is lost and pointless but has a passionate devotion to the people he leads, even if it gets countless innocent people killed.

    The novel follows Alphabet Squadron as they are stationed over a Deep Core world called Cerberon. Ceberon is a planet with remaining Imperial sympathies that is mostly pacified by the time events spiral out of control for both sides. Both sides wish to destroy the other for morale purposes and indirectly cause massive collateral damage. Friendships are destroyed, lives lost, and perspectives changed in a surprisingly dark as well as deep storyline.

    So why the comparatively low score? Well, honestly, almost every character in this book is deeply unlikable. Yrica is a war criminal, Nath is a corrupt glory hound, Chass' harsh cruel exterior hides a harsh cruel interior, and Wyl--okay Wyl is nice. There's even a lengthy section of the book where Chass spends it hating on the religious commune that rescued her from certain death. It may be interesting but it's not exactly fun to read.

    In conclusion, I recommend this book but I have to say its not the kind of read that I really go to Star Wars for. Given the awful things on in the world today, I'm pretty much for a book that reinforces that the shooting of Space Nazis in the face is a good thing. No one here really seems to have any ideological commitment to the shooting of Space Nazis. If not for Wyl, I wouldn't want any of these people on my team.

Available here

Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron review

    ALPHABET SQUADRON by Alexander Freed is a book that I was very eager to get into because it struck me as just up my alley. I've always been a huge fan of the Star Wars starfighter stories with Rogue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, the old TIE Fighter video game, and the recent Star Wars: Resistance. I also enjoyed the previously written Twilight Company by the author. Freed has a somewhat unromantic view of war as well as the Rebel Alliance's fight against the Empire. It's unsurprising he also wrote the adaptation of Rogue One where the cause is just but the people are flawed.

    Those who prefer a slightly more adult take on Star Wars will probably enjoy Alphabet Squadron. The Empire is still evil and the Rebellion (now New Republic) is still good but things are a bit more gray with the protagonists. Individual rebels don't necessarily care about the greater politics at work, may be personally reprehensible, or are flawed in realistic ways like wanting the credit for a big propaganda victory over just winning the war (now that the war is "won"). The Imperials are similarly humanized in a way that almost makes them worse. They engage in some of the worst atrocities of both Legends and NuCanon with no real consideration of the billions they're wiping out. It's just another day at the office for them.

    The premise is Yrica Quell (pronounced "Erica Quell"), is a former Imperial TIE fighter pilot. An elite, she was an ace in the service of Shadow Wing, that seems to have been one of the Empire's best and brightest. After Operation: Cinder, she defects to the New Republic because even she can't stand the slaughter anymore--or so she said. After an ugly stay in a prison camp, Yrica is recruited as an informant on her former squadmates. Yrica eagerly cooperates because she can't stand the thought of not flying anymore and does her best to adjust to the free-wheeling individualist New Republic's military.

    Yrica is an interesting character because she's a subversion of a lot of common Star Wars archetypes. Bluntly, she's not particularly likable and not even in a bombastic Imperial villain way. Yrica is a socially awkward reserved woman with questionable leadership skills and almost no real interest in politics. She joined the Empire in hopes of defecting to the Rebellion, only to find herself deciding just to fit in instead. Even after Operation: Cinder, she can't really wrap her head around the greater struggle but just wishes her life was more structured like it had been in the Empire.

    I'm neuroatypical myself and while it's unlikely that Star Wars has the same sort of categories for mental health as we do here, I wouldn't be surprised if she was written with the idea she's on the spectrum. Yrica is also one of Star Wars many new queer heroines (Doctor Aphra, Sana, Tolven, Lana Beniko, and others joining her) w/ references to both boyfriends as well as girlfriends. It's interesting to see fan favorite Hera Syndulla take Yrica under her wing, fully supporting her, and have the reader question whether this is wrong. Yrica is not a good leader and may actually belong in prison for her actions rather than receive forgiveness but that's just part of the book's deconstructive charm.

    The rest of Alphabet Squadron is composed of a similar band of misfits as Wraith Squadron: Nath Tensent (criminal Rebel), Wyl Lark (heroic farmboy), Kairos the mysterious, and Chass na Chadic (suicide martyr). The difference is that all of them are, well, terrible at coming together. They hate each other and their personality disorders make them less effective soldiers rather than a lovable band of rogues.

    It doesn't help that Yrica really misses the quiet professionalism of the Empire. You know, where individuality was stamped out and every pilot was disposable parts that could be easily replaced. As Hera says to her, her team doesn't know she'd fight for them and she doesn't know if they'd fight for her. They also have a floating ball torture droid as their therapist (I assume Wes Janson must have put this squadron together).

The book's deconstruction of traditional Star Wars stories of A-team like oddballs coming together as a family then blowing up the Empire is both its strength as well as its weakness. It's a story that goes in surprising directions but also you kind of miss when Star Wars was about the glorious victories of the good guys over the bad. Yrica just can't wrap her head emotionally around the wrongness of the Empire even when she intellectually knows they're monsters. She's a soldier because that's her job, not because she's ever wanted to protect people.

    I also feel like this book suffered for the fact we don't have much perspective on the Imperial soldiers in the book. Shakara Nuress is the central antagonist of the book but barely appears, though those few scenes where she does are some of the best in the book. This isn't the kind of book for scene-chewing evil but I would have appreciated some more perspective from those still fighting the good fight against the Republic. Perhaps the author felt Yrica provided all the perspective they needed since she remains Imperial in mindset throughout.

    There's a lot of great starfighter action, impressive set pieces, and genuinely moving meditations on war as well as what people fight for. One of my favorite parts of the book is the encounter of the team with the Jedi Temple. Few of the pilots even know what a Jedi is but have started to become inspired by Luke Skywalker's legend (another is already inspired--in all the wrong ways--by Jyn Erso's). Its simple beauty and loveliness shakes Yrika's faith in the Empire even as she wonders if the Rebellion/New Republic is going to become a theocracy (because she does not understand them at all).

    In conclusion, this is a pretty good for a harder and grittier Star Wars novel. The protagonists are not trying to blow up the Death Star but simply remove a elite fighter wing (the twist there is impressive--no spoilers). They make mistakes, they don't always succeed, and they kind of do need to get their bantha poodoo together. Not everyone will learn the right lessons and some will get better than worse. It's a great insight into the year following the Battle of Endor but before the Battle of Jakku. I'm actively looking forward to the other two books set to be released in this years despite my few (minor) issues.

Star Wars essay: How the First Order came to be

     I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, whether it is the classic Legends or the new canon version. I bought my first adult novel when I was twelve in Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn and eventually read literally hundreds of the books. I'm not against the reboot because I think they covered literally everything they possibly could with the classic trio up to Crucible by Troy Denning. 

    However, there are some issues with world-building as we don't know much about the new villains in The First Order or how they came to be. At least on screen. Thankfully, the Expanded Universe is always there to fill in the gaps as long as you're willing to shell out the money necessary to fill in the gaps.

    We're still learning a lot of things about the First Order, their methods, and their origins but I think we can build a rough timeline of events from the Battle of Endor to the destruction of Hosnian Prime that ticks off the Second Galactic Civil War. This is a very nerdy series of speculations but I am, in fact, a huge nerd. I hope you guys enjoy.

Sources for this:

* Shattered Empire
* Battlefront II
* Alphabet Squadron
* The Aftermath Trilogy
* Uprising
* The Mandalorian
* Bloodline

* Before the Awakening* Resistance (series)
* The Force Awakens
* The Last Jedi novelization

THE RISE OF THE FIRST ORDER (4 After the Battle of Yavin to 34 After the Battle of Yavin)

    The death of Emperor Sheev Palpatine was part of a one-two punch that caused the rapid disintegration of the Galactic Empire. The other part being the destruction of the Second Death Star and all of the resources that had been devoted to it. The Empire's aura of invincibility had been punctured by the events of the Battle of Yavin but it was utterly destroyed by the Battle of Endor. The Empire, much like in Legends, was not meant to survive Palpatine's death and the only person who could save it, Darth Vader, was redeemed by the love of his son.

Trust these guys when they say your world has to die.

    Emperor Palpatine had some sort of plan to follow-up his death. The details of which remain nebulous. This was called the Contingency and was implemented by a mixture of droids and hand-picked agents. Originally, I was of the view that it was just meant to be a "kark you" to the galaxy and presumably Darth Vader since I'm inclined to think that Palpatine assumed if he was ever killed then it would be at the hands of his apprentice. Since then, it has been shown to be a much-more complicated and intricate plan involving the creation of the First Order. It's possible, depending on the events of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker that it may include Palpatine's resurrection but we'll have to see about that when it comes.

    Phase One of the Contingency was was Operation: Cinder with red robed Sentinel droids seeking out the most die-hard fanatics of the Empire to implement the Contingency. These include Admiral Versio, Moff Raythe, and so on. Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, a defacto Emperor's Hand if there ever was one, had a different role in this. Operation: Cinder involved weather-altering satellites to be placed in the orbit of thousands of worlds that would eventually cook the population of the planets' alive. Planets targeted included Naboo, Vardos, Burnin Konn, Candovant, Abednedo, Commenor, Nacronis, and other worlds. No attempt was made to differentiate the loyal from the treasonous: both were equally guilty in the eyes of the Emperor.

Take that, Imperial loyalists! How dare you be loyal!

    The Contingency was carried out with the purpose of making sure the Empire is destroyed as punishment for its failure to protect Palpatine and to make sure no one else takes over the Empire after his death. The perpetrators of the attack don't believe they're destroying the galaxy for no reason but accept on blind faith that this is all part of a cunning master plan to restore the Empire. They're delusional fanatics but that's why they're chosen. The perpetrators, however, generally accepted that there was a greater plan at work and the atrocities were necessary to intimidate the public into submission. It was meant to be a show of strength that forced the galaxy to its knees but had the opposite effect of making it clear there was no redeeming the Empire. If loyalty and submission earned the same death as treason then treason was the only rational path.

The mother of the First Order.

    Operation: Cinder backfired tremendously to the delusional fanatics' goal. As we see with the events of Alphabet Squadron, the twin punches of Alderaan's destruction and the Battle of Endor heavily hurt the Empire but it wasn't until this that all but the most fanatical Imperials saw the true horrific face of the regime. The Rebellion also helped save many worlds, winning a lot of badly needed publicity. This is exactly as Palpatine planned. This also has the effect of rapidly increasing the size of the New Republic military as millions of defectors are put to work against their former comrades. The rapid re-stablishment of the Republic Senate on Chandrilla also lent the New Republic a legitimacy it did not possess in Legends until the fall of Coruscant.

    The Empire's regent during this time was Mas Amedda but he was swiftly put under house arrest by the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB). The ISB was secretly under the control of Gallius Rax who used his assassins, codes, connections, and more to eliminate potential successors to Palpatine. Rax also used Admiral Sloane as a figurehead Grand Admiral to rally the military's remnants around. Contrary to some people's statements, was hardly a puppet as she does a lot of diplomacy and gathering of Imperial forces as we see in Aftermath.

    Galliux Rax prevented the NR and Empire's remnant making peace with a terrorist bombing plan aimed at the New Republic Senate under a flag of truce.He also covertly seized control over the entire Empire under the title of Counselor. He gathered the bulk of the Imperial fleet at the backwater planet of Jakku, his home planet, while planning to destroy the world in a cataclysmic explosion that would eradicate both the Empire as well as New Republic. Instead, he was assassinated by Grand Admiral Sloane and the New Republic eradicated the Empire's forces in a lengthy battle. Grand Admiral Sloane escaped on the Emperor's yacht with Brendol Hux, a handful of child soldiers, and the coordinates for the Emperor's flagship the Eclipse. Palpatine had the plan to "purge" the Empire of all weakness and have only the most diehard fanatics gather at the Eclipse flagship in the Unknown Regions.

Shouldn't the Republic remove that?

    Sloane's intentions were to build a bigger, better, and stronger empire. While her Grand Admiral status is questionable, she certainly was a senior officer and in a good position to found the First Order. My inclination was that she did so and, being a fascist, immediately doubled down on all the Empire's worst qualities with child soldiers replacing clonetroopers as well as Stormtroopers. It may have been Palpatine's will to create the First Order but it was Sloane's insights as well as decisions that created the military junta that would become the basis for Star Wars' version of HYDRA. 

    How many Imperials joined Grand Admiral Sloane and Brendol Hux in the Unknown Regions at the Eclipse is unclear. However, in Legends, the Dark Empire was founded by Palpatine gathering massive numbers of ships in the Deep Core. Here, it seems to be an answer of, "enough to conquer and construct a new Empire capable of challenging the New Republic." Star Wars: Rebels stated that Grand Admiral Thrawn had helped the Emperor chart and conquer the Unknown Regions, so that means that he'd been building a military reserve here for some time.

    Mas Amedda was then used by the New Republic to formally surrender the Empire under the terms of the Galactic Concordact. With most of the Empire's soldiers having defectors, the surviving officers are declared war criminals, conditional pardons are made for non-combatants, and higher ranked members are put on trial. While Grand Moff Randd escapes Jakku with his fleet and there are insane events like a pirate fleet with a Super Star Destroyer, the Galactic Civil War is for all intents and purposes over.

    Mon Mothma promptly demobilized the New Republic military. Given the New Republic military was now mostly ex-Imperials, this made more sense than perhaps was initially apparent. The Military Disarmament Act was implemented a month after the final victory in Jakku, dramatically reducing the New Republic military's size. Princess Leia opposed this act but finds herself overruled. The New Republic then settled into a period of military stability but political instability as the conflict over whether a strong federal government (headed by the Centrist party) vs. a weak one (Populists) began.

A heroic effort to protect our children's future.

    Meanwhile, in the First Order, the organization began its rebuilding of the Empire's might under a new name. They made extensive contact with fringe slavers and begin purchasing massive numbers of human children for training as operatives. Protectorate Gleb oversees this as well as the mass looting of Unknown Region worlds of resources. This is referred to as Operation: Resurrection and goes largely unseen by the rest of the galaxy. Given that Protectorate Gleb was recruited by Inferno Squad during Operation: Cinder, that means the Contingency always included a plan to educate a new generation of fanatics. They also loot whole planets of resources. At some point Snoke, perhaps working for the real Palpatine, seized power in the First Order and became its Supreme Leader.

    The First Order trained its armies of children before turning them into Stormtroopers, Naval officers, and spies. They proceed to start sending out their agents into the galaxy as a whole. These people like Lady Carise start contacting Imperial Remnants and recruiting some while positioning others. They also begin infiltrating the Centrists and subverting them to their own purposes with moderates like Senator Casterfo eventually purged.

    The First Order conquered numerous planets in the Unknown Regions and hollows out planets as well as exterminates whole resources in preparation to create Starkiller Base. Most of what we've seen is less interested in holding planetary populations than gathering resources to build up their fleet to conquer the New Republic. We do see mining facilities and other signs there's a civilian population of the First Order. Not many signs of them but enough to know they exist.

But what about her e-mails?

     Rather than use the Eclipse, Snoke constructed the Supremacy to be the FO's mobile capital. They also use kyber crystals in their star destroyers, possibly from a hollowed-out Illum, that makes their weapons almost unstoppable. Kyber crystal-based weapons are put into many of their new and improved brands of Star Destroyers that would violate any treaties the Republic had with the former Empire, were they aware of the First Order's existence.

    The Centrists successfully seceded from the New Republic with their new laws. However, it's not actually a very large secession. Maybe about eight or nine Sectors worth, enough that it's a big deal but not the end of the New Republic or beginning of the end. Leia's actions may have prevented that from happening. The "public" First Order is presumably swiftly conquered by the actual First Order. Previously, the Republic was unaware of the First Order as it is a "secret" organization as of Bloodline. This is 28 ABY and fairly close to the timeline of The Force Awakens, meaning the public First Order is a fairly recent creation.

    Despite not being Imperials, the First Order is forced to sign the Galactic Concordact. We get some hints in the short stories the First Order has a lot of credits to spend and use them to buy new technology, buy Senators' allegiance, and keep up with the advance of galactic technology. Snoke made a move to recruit Ben Solo and successfully seduced him to the Dark Side with Luke debating killing him only for Ben to interpret it as an actual assassination attempt.

    Princess Leia, disgraced as a politician by the revelation of her parentage, formed the Resistance against the First Order. She has no idea how large or how dangerous the First Order is, only that it is extremely dangerous. The New Republic covertly supports it as both the opening crawl and General Hux both state it. Many NR forces are allowed to join up without losing their ranks. As a deniable asset, though, it fails because the First Order plans to conquer the galaxy. They even begin covert operations to take fueling depots like the Colossus and invade independent worlds. It is only the possible arrival of Luke Skywalker that triggers their final plan, though.

====

Whew! I hope you enjoyed this write-up guys and are as excited as me about Episode IX!

Star Wars: Resistance Season One review

    So, I didn't expect to like STAR WARS: RESISTANCE. It took me a while to warm up to the concept of STAR WARS: REBELS and that was based around a lot of concepts that I enjoyed, feeling very much like a West End Games STAR WARS: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME campaign. It included things like Inquisitors, Sith Holocrons, Darth Maul, and eventually Grand Admiral Thrawn. It took awhile to peculate, though. The first season's first half wasn't very good, IMHO, and it wasn't until Grand Moff Tarkin showed up that I felt moved. How was I going to feel about a show with no Jedi whatsoever? The answer is, in fact, pretty good.

Beautiful vibrant colors for a time of peace and justice.

    Mind you, I think part of why I like Resistance is that I've seen this show's basic premise before and liked it then. The TV show TRON: UPRISING was about fighting against the oppressive local tyranny by a group of mechanics located in a single city off the main campaign of the greater universe. This show is it's own thing and a bit goofier but I think it's easily the same quality as Tron: Uprising and I am going to continue to praise the work from beginning to end. I have some complaints but this is going to be an overall positive review.

    The premise is that Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaacs) recruits a New Republic pilot Kazuda Xiono (Christopher Sean) to become a spy for the Resistance. The Resistance is short handed, though, so he's assigned to be a spy rather than a pilot since they have enough of those. Placed on the strategically significant but not too-significant Colossus refueling station, he must attempt to find out what the First Order's plans are in the preceding six months to THE FORCE AWAKENS.

I believe BB8 is the real spy. Kaz is just his cover.

    I rather like the fact that the central premise is that a spy is hanging around at a truck stop and gas station, basically a highway shopping center at most, in order to do his business. Star Wars has always thrived when doing the mundane in space. The Colossus is easily the most well-detailed of the new canon locations and a place that feels vibrantly alive.

    One of the chief issues of the sequel trilogy was the fact that we were dumped into the universe with a minimum of world-building. Star Wars fans are every bit the pedantic nerds that Star Trek fans are and it was one of the few occasions where a Senate scene would have been welcome. This series nicely illustrates the New Republic is a pleasant, beautiful, and peaceful place to live far better than any exposition.

    The First Order was treated as something of a joke in both the first and second movies, hurting their intimidation factor as villains. Yes, they blow up a planet but Starkiller Base goes boom immediately after. They manage to wipe out the Resistance in the The Last Jedi but not the central people who helped form it. A certain incredibly potent character dies but that's because he overexerted himself, not because of anything the bad guys did. We get some reversal of that with their portrayal here.

Love the First Order's chrometroopers.

    It takes a bit to get there but we get a sense of just what the First Order has been doing in the Unknown Regions and watch them destroy whole planets, civilizations, and engage in such massive construction projects as to leave systems utterly spent. It gives us an idea of what they are capable of and the characters are not played for jokes, not even General Hugs. For a kid's show, it manages to create a real sense of not only menace to when the FO start "disappearing" people but also the implications when they find starless worlds where civilizations are in ruins.

   I have to say that I like a lot of the characters in this show and wish we got more of them. Torra is my favorite character of the series and I'm kind of annoyed she turned out to be five years younger than Kaz because I really liked their interactions. I also approve of Tam, a young woman who has practical concerns about money and security that blind her to the dangers of fascist takeover. Captain Doza and Yeager are also fascinating characters, each with their own ties to the Galactic Civil War. Synara the sexy inexplicably Russian-accented spy is also a great new character, even if I initially she was a Zeltron. I would have loved a lot more material about the Aces too, which is sadly not available in the main series.

She needs her own show.

    Which does lead to the problem of Kaz being the butt of the majority of the jokes in the series. I get he's out of his depths and the Resistance put him in a job he's underqualified for because A. They don't have anyone better for it. B. It's not exactly a high priority mission. However, they really go overboard making him a goofball incompetent. He's a guy who graduated the New Republic military academy and is an officer of their Starfighter Corps--the guy should at least be ESB-Luke competent.

     The art style of the series is one that took a bit of getting used to as it combines CGI with a heavy anime-influence that brings a 3-dimensional movement to cartoon characters. I was initially rather put off by it but eventually warmed to it. The action is fluid and beautiful with the starfighter races and combat being the highlight of the series. I also appreciated the diverse use of aliens in the show as it avoids a common problem in live action scifi series of too many humans. This is written for a young audience set but I don't think it's something adults should avoid. It's definitely in that sweet spot of good for the whole family.

    In conclusion, I really enjoyed the first season of this show and would love to see more of it. I'm kind of disappointed we aren't getting a third season of it. After my severe issues with The Last Jedi, this was a nice return to form.

9/10

BATTLEFRONT 2 (2017) review

    This is an extremely late review because the game had a kind of radioactive reputation due to its controversy. For those unaware of it, basically the game was deliberately designed around monetization to spark players to spend as much real-world currency as possible on in-game items. This included on loot boxes, your favorite characters, and so on.

    Battlefront II was a game which a lot of people were looking forward to, millions in fact, and the management of the game became an international disaster. Indeed, the combination of Star Wars being a beloved franchise with the greed on display resulted in Belgium and other companies banning lootboxes as a kind of gambling.

Anakin vs. Imperials!

    Honestly, Battlefront II was going to be a train wreck from the very beginning and the fact it was a train wreck in its "Pay to play Star Wars characters in Star Wars" nature overshadows its other failings. Which, admittedly, is a bit like talking about how the sinking of the Titanic overshadowed its food sucking. Still, as everyone has examined the money issues, here's my discussion of the other elements.

    First of all, WHY is this Battlefront 2? There's already a Battlefront 2! This should be Battlefront 3! I don't understand why the fact they did it this way. I mean, when Resident Evil 2 had Code: Veronica, they at least called it by a different name. Rename it Battlefront if you want to do a reboot. It's genuinely confusing to me here. It's nitpicking, I know, but I know it's a problem when I have an issue with the title.

    The massive multiplayer element is...okay. I mean, there's not much to say about it in terms of what it's about. You play Rebels or Imperials who shoot each other with the option of becoming your favorite characters you unlock. I'm not a big fan of these games but it seems to have worked out some of its issues. Even so, I don't think this wasn't a particularly great multiplayer game.

Released in 2005.

    So, what does that leave? The Campaign content, which fills a great deal like a Demo for the multiplayer segment. You play some trooper characters as well as some of the classics like Luke Skywalker, Leia, Han, and Kylo Ren. You don't get to play Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and Palpatine--which is a shame.

    The premise of the campaign is Iden Versio and her two squadmates are Inferno Squad. They are Imperial Special Forces who fought in the Battle of Endor before participating in Operation: Cinder, a plotline from Star Wars: Aftermath. Horrified by the destruction wrought on Imperial worlds, Iden and her friend Del defect while their companion Hask chooses to continue fighting for the Empire. The ending of it is missing and gets resolved in a three mission DLC called "Resurrection" that obviously was part of the original game before being taken out. [Edit: It turns out I was right about this.]

    The campaign is entertaining but feels unambitious. A pair of Imperials defecting after witnessing an Imperial atrocitiy is a very common story in the Expanded Universe. It's also not a bad story but I can't help but think the story might have benefited from being more intricate and complex. The entire campaign lasts just a little under four hours, which is about half of what I consider to be a decent single player game's length. The fact it was written by Walt Williams (Spec Ops: The Line) also hurts it as I know he could have done a better job than this. I suspect, though, they didn't want a game longer than four hours.

Do Imperials normally command their daughters?

    Indeed, I think the biggest issue with the single player campaign is it's not that the story is bad but it feels like we're just getting the highlights of it. The campaign goes from just before the Battle of Endor to the Battle of Jakku and the DLC ends at The Force Awakens. I feel like they could have included levels on the first Death Star (possibly as Obi-Wan Kenobi or maybe the Battte of Yavin). They could have also done something during the Prequel Era if they wanted and have us play Darth Maul massacring Naboo rebels until we fight Qui Gon then switch to Obi-Wan. I mean, this campaign feels pretty underwhelming even with the mostly likable Iden Versio.

    I like Janina Gavankar and think she did an excellent job with the character. It's nice to see the Empire have other than lily white dudes too. However, we don't really get to see why Iden was happy with the Empire after Alderaan but suddenly flips a switch when they destroy other planets. I think if I were to write this story, I would have done it with Iden Versio as part of Darth Vader's squadron and gone: 1. Tantive IV battle. 2. Battle on Tatooine against Sand People as well as Jabba's gangsters. 3. Battle of Yavin from the Empire's side. 4. Battle of Hoth. 5. Battle of Bespin. 6. The rest of the campaign. Maybe throw in some Prequel flashbacks too.

Good shooting for a stormtrooper.

    Part of my issues with the campaign are that not only is it just a snapshot of the Post-Endor world but it references a lot of the new EU but doesn't explore it. We could do a whole game about Gallius Rax, Rae Sloane, and the other characters mentioned but never met in-game. I also never got a reason to care about the Big Bad villain Admiral Versio and his henchman Hask. They were on screen too little for me to get a feel for them. Aside from the fact Hask seems to be in love with Iden as well as a fanatic, there didn't seem to be much to his character.

    Despite everything, it's a fun game for the short amount of time you get to play it (assuming you're not an addicted to okay but not spectacular multiplayer). The starfighter piloting is actually the best element and easily dwarfs the shooting segment. Admittedly, that's because I killed millions of people as a soldier in video games but done less so in a starfighter. The campaign seems aware of this and a lot of the missions are starfighter ones. In any case, the game is just not very good aside from its gorgeous artwork and all-too-short campaign.

5/10

Star Wars: Solo review

    Presently, Solo isn't looking too good at the box office. This is due to the fact it is a production with a severely overinflated budget and a lot of reshoots. Basically, the movie cost $300 million dollars to make and it probably won't get that back, making it the only Star Wars movie which might actually bomb.

Who doesn't want to be Han Solo?

    A lot of people are questioning whether this is because of The Last Jedi's divisive narrative (I'm one of the people who won't forgive it for Luke but otherwise think it was a good movie) or whether a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford was always a tougher sell than people thought. I think it's probably a combination of both, personally, but what it isn't is the movie itself. Because this movie is awesome.

    I'm one of the people who found Rogue One to be a film I didn't much care for and I am a huge fan of The Force Awakens. So, I march to the beat of my own drum in fandom. Here, I think this is the Solo movie I wanted. Mind you, I wasn't actually expecting to like it because I already thought there was a young Han Solo movie which was perfectly serviceable--it was called Guardians of the Galaxy.

    The premise is Han and his friend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) are thieves living on Corellia when Han is able to escape off-planet but not her. After a brief but unpleasant period of service in the Imperial Army, Han ends up deserting and joining a ragtag band of misfits. This leads him to reunite with Qi'ra, meet with Chewbacca, and become acquainted with Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). The group decides to steal a massive shipment of hyperspace fuel on behalf of a gangster and things promptly go to hell.

Emilia Clarke is absolutely awesome in this movie.

    The plot isn't actually that important because it's set dressing for the character interactions. Han is a romantic good-natured criminal who just so happens to surrounded by significantly less good-natured criminals. I like the contrast because it reminds me of another Han Solo prequel in Firefly. One of the main things that underscored that show was Mal Reynolds was always suffering because most criminals didn't have a code of ethics.

    Indeed, one of the consistent elements of Han Solo is the fact that he always tends to choose doing the right thing over making a profit and that is always going to be a thing that goes over like a lead balloon with the Underworld. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the colorful cast of characters assembled for this film and how they all played off against one another.

Donald Glover does an amazing Lando.

   Woody Harrelson does a great performance as Tobias Beckett, an older more established criminal who reminds me a good deal of a few characters from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Emilia Clarke does an amazing job as a person who Han used to know extremely intimately but has since developed in her own direction. Paul Bettany does a serviceable job as a upper-level-but-not-quite-top tier crime boss, intimidating but someone Han Solo is capable of dealing with.

    We get to see a lot of Han Solo's epic moments: serving the Empire, freeing Chewbacca, winning the Falcon, making the Kessel Run, and so on all happen in what amounts to a single wild weekend. This kind of story compression isn't really my cup of tea but certainly manages to hit the kind of things people would want from a Han Solo movie.

    I really enjoyed Alden Ehrenreich's performance as Han Solo even if I note I've already seen plenty of other people play variants on Han's character (Chris Pine, Nathan Fillon, Val Kilmer, and so on). Is he Harrison Ford? No, of course not, but I've got no complaints about him either. Young Han the Lovable Rogue is a character who can be recast I think a little easier than trying to do the same with Leia or Luke Skywalker. After all, I absolutely loved Sean Patrick Flannery as Young Indiana Jones.

The droid which will kill us all!

    I think my favorite part of the film is the Han Solo/Qi'ra romance as it doesn't go in the direction I think it would be. Being the other woman Han Solo loved in his life is an incredible task but she pulls it off. Qi'ra is one of those mysterious femme fatale characters that fits well into the kind of girl which Han Solo would have known. The fact she isn't the kind of wide-eyed idealist and romantic
Han Solo is makes her a good contrast to Leia.

    The issue of droid rights is briefly touched upon in this movie and played for laughs. Personally, I'm a bit offput by that as I think that's a can of worms which Star Wars doesn't need to touch on. Either droids are programmable to be happy to serve like 3PO demonstrates himself to be or they're sentient, in which case it's slavery. Personally, I'm inclined to think only a very small number of droids are sentient. I also hope R2D2 backed up 3PO's memories from the Prequels somewhere.

    There's a surprise addition to the movie in terms of a bad guy who I think will confuse most audiences rather than make them squeal. I don't know if they're going to make a sequel to this movie but if they are, it'll be interesting how they follow up on it.

    If there's any flaws with the movie, it's the fact this is thoroughly unnecessary as a prequel. Nothing of consequence happens in this film which wasn't already covered in backstory and it doesn't give us that much of an insight into Han's character. Arguably, it just doubles down on the fact he always was a Rebel sympathizer and his cynicism is a thin veneer for a big old softie. Really, that should be Chewbacca's role. Still, as shameless popcorn fiction, I've seen much-much worse. People should just go and have fun with this one.

9/10