25,200 BBY: The Pirate Prince (Xim week)

Greetings, I'm back with a look at The Pirate Prince. This story was part of Xim week on the Star Wars website when they still had the Hyperspace section (thank you to MKB for making these files available to me).  It has been a couple of weeks since I published my last post, but I'm ready to jump back into the Star Wars universe.

I'm not to sure on how I should report on this piece, but let me give you a brief summary and then I will do a character analysis of Xim.  The reason I'm unsure on how to report on this piece is because it's essentially a play about the life of Prince Xim.

This play is said to be written by Xim's court poet, Lyechusas, at the request of Xim himself.  Lyechusas exposed Xim and showed all the "ruthlessness and arrogance later dramatists caricature to staggering exaggeration"(Xim, Intro) that Xim possessed.   Some say that the way Lyechusas portrayed Xim is a strike at Hutt propoganda.

The play starts out with a chorus of Xim's war robots singing about how the people of mortal blood will eventually turn on one another.  "Calculate we try, to crunch the numbers, the anger, the hate, the ever pressing need to annihilate, one's master, one's maker, one's father.  Never does it compute"(Xim, Act 1).   The robots are confused as to why the mortals start war with their own kind.  The robots are brothers in steel and will not crush themselves like the mortals do.  After this song by the robots takes place, the attention of the play then goes to Oziaf who is a loyal servant to Xim.  He releases Xim from being imprisoned by a carbonite slumber.  Xim awakes in a flurry of confusion.  He then immediately wants to confront his father.  Xim returns to his fathers palace.  Xim's father, Xer, enters the scene with a woman that Oziaf described as being like a poisonous snake.  Xim believed that he was an only child but his father reveals that he has more siblings.  Out of rage, Xim exits the scene to slay his siblings then returns to the scene and kills his father.  Xim becomes the new ruler of his worlds and the play ends.

First,  let me start of by saying that this was a good story.  However, I'm not a huge fan of plays so I think that because of this I wasn't able to fully enjoy the Star Wars history and story telling and I think it also has had an effect on the way I'm writing this post.  There were a few things that I was able to pick up on though.  One of these things being the character of Xim and the way that he acts towards the people around him.

Xim has been exposed to many things throughout his short life which is the reason why he has become so ruthless and arrogant.  Xim tries to please his father often by bringing back various treasures that he has plundered during his travels, but with no luck.  Xer keeps the secret of Xim's siblings from him and when the truth really comes out,  Xim acts only as he knows how and slays these unknown siblings then drives a sword through Xer's chest.  All Xim has known throughout his life is betrayal and treachery through the actions of his father.  He is the son of a pirate king and has had to go through many horrible things in his life to serve his father.  I believe that if Xim wasn't exposed to these things as a child, his reaction to the truth may have been different and all the blood spilled would have been avoided.  This was not the case and at the end of this play Xim is still a murderous tyrant and it seems like that his path of destruction is only getting started.

I'm curious to find out if later on in Xim's life, he realizes what he is doing wrong and corrects himself, or if he continues on until the time of his death.

I'm still not sure if I am looking forward to reading the rest of the Xim week plays.  My next post will be on the First Dark Legion which is in the Jedi vs Sith book.  Until then, may the Force be with you.....
     

26,000 BBY: Dark Jedi

Hello again! I'm back with an analysis of Star Wars Jedi vs Sith part three: Dark Jedi.  I ordered this book off of amazon.ca and received it within two days of ordering it.  This book will be a great resource for this project because of its seemingly infinite history of the Force and other topics.

This article was written by Jedi Master Tionne Solusar.  In the article, a Dark Jedi is described as differing from the Sith.  In the Old Republic, a Dark Jedi is a Jedi who was part of the order but they abandoned it to pursue their own selfish and malicious agenda.

Master Solusar goes on to play a Holocron that was made by Jedi Master Sar Agorn who is a strange, blob like being.  The story on this Holocron is that of a young boy named Cope Shykrill who is a Force sensitive that lived on the graveyard moon Sarcophagus.  Master Agorn and many other Jedi found him on this planet and offered to take him to the Jedi temple so he may focus his skills of the Force and train to become a Jedi.

The next part of this story I found to be a little creepy.  Another Jedi Master had expressed his concerns to Master Agorn that there was something different about Cope, but he swiftly discounted him by saying that Cope is one of their most "promising Jedi".  One night Master Agorn discovered Cope telling a story to three other young Jedi in training.  Sometime after this exchange he heard screams coming from were he had seen the younglings talking only to discover the three young Jedi dead on the ground and Cope unconscious.  Later Cope reveals that he is able to communicate with shadows and they tell him to do terrible things.  These shadows tell Cope to kill Master Agorn but as he attempts to do so, Cope is killed by another Master.

This story was very interesting to me.  One thing that I found interesting was that Cope Shykrill was known to be a dark person since he was little boy.  Others were afraid of him because of his telekinetic power.  As Master Agorn reflected back on the events, he started to piece together the clues on why his parents were so willing to let him go.  I don't know if this seems far fetched or anything but I think that since he was an unknowing Force sensitive due to the fact that he was just a young boy who knew nothing about the Force (and he grew up on a moon that was filled with burial sites), maybe he was a little more at risk of being tainted by the Dark Side.  Maybe there was a Dark spirit on this moon that managed to taint him and that's why he was listening to shadows.  Perhaps we will find out in the future.  I'm curious to know what you think.

I can't wait to read more sections in this book as I try to achieve my goal.  I would highly recommend this book to any Star Wars fan.  It's full of amazing art and other cool things from the Star Wars universe.  My next post will be on The Pirate Prince which was featured on the Star Wars website when they still had the Hyperspace section.

But until then,  May the Force be with you...........    

36,453 BBY: Star Wars Dawn of the Jedi Force Storm

Dawn of the Jedi:

Happy New Year!!  I am finally able to start up Star Wars: Beginning to End.  It took a couple of weeks to obtain my copy of Star Wars Dawn of the Jedi but as soon as I got it I dove right in.  It didn't take very long to finish but I was having trouble on deciding how to start my first post.  Also I will be adding Wookiepedia links to different words in order to save time on explaining what they are.

Let me start out by saying that this graphic novel was amazing!  It was chalked full of information about how the Jedi first arrived on Tython and how the battle between the light and dark side of the force began.  I will start out with a brief summary of what this piece is about and some of the key points that I think are important then go straight to an analysis of one of the main characters.

The novel starts out with beings of different species being called to the Tho Yor by the Force.  These beings entered the Tho Yor and found enlightenment.  Instantly the Tho Yor took off and brought the beings to the planet Tython.  It was on Tython that the beings became known as the Je'daii (which I am assuming will later become what we know as the Jedi).  The novel describes the Je'daii as being heroic protectors to the worlds that were in the Tython system but it says that they also became "Mysterious, Even feared figures of legend".  This may be because of the incredible power that they posses through being wielders of the Force.  The main part of this story is three Je'daii (Shae Koda, Tasha, and Sek'Nos)  all receive visions through the Force that a great evil is coming to Tython.  This evil is in the form of a Force Hound named Xesh.  He brings with him so much evil and hatred that a massive Force storm brews on the surface of Tython.  The three Je'daii are called together to defeat Xesh and stop the Force Storm that is ripping Tython apart.  As Xesh lands on Tython he instantly is engaged in battle with three Je'daii.  He is badly wounded in the end but it was because he saved the three Je'daii from being killed by a monsterous beast.

This was a very well done graphic novel as I said before. I would like to look at the character of Sek'Nos.  The first thing that I found interesting was that he is a Sith.  Not like a Darth Vadar kind of Sith but the Sith species.  When we are first introduced to him, he is showing of his abilities to a group of Je'daii females.  At first I thought that it was nothing special but after some further thought I started to make some connections between what he was doing and what makes someone a Sith.  What made me stop to think about this was when Sek'Nos was creating a ball of force lightning to show to the group of Jed'daii.  That's when he saw the Force vision but what he and his grandmother talked about after stood out to me.  His grandmother warns him that Force lightning calls upon dark emotions only, nothing light.  She later questions him on why he always want to test the boundaries to satisfy his own pride.  But Sek'Nos treats it as if he did nothing wrong.  His grandmother goes on to say "You act without ever considering the repercussions".  The illustration in the novel shows Sek'Nos laughing down at his grandmother as she says this.  Maybe the Sith species were born to become evil.  I think that this shows that Sek'Nos is already down the path to the dark side of the Force because he is arrogant, he acts blindly, and he figured out how to create a ball of Force lightning by himself for crying out loud!

I would also like to briefly go over the character of Xesh and what I think of him.  Xesh has always known the dark side of the force, nothing else.  But when he saved the three Je'daii, it was because of a strange feeling that came to him as he watched them battle the beast.  I believe that this feeling was compassion for Shae Koda.  I believe this because as the battle progresses and it looks like the beast will win, Xesh starts to leave them to fight for themselves.  But he turns back and see's what they are trying to accomplish and he glimpses Shae Koda and I think he feels that he can't let them be killed.  This might be the start of Xesh coming over to the light side.  He's only known darkness his whole life, maybe he will find something in the light side that strongly appeals to him.  I look forward to finding out.     

I feel that these Star Wars history stories effectively bridge a gap that to me previously was unknown.  I found the artwork in this novel to be very appealing to the eye and I look forward to reading more Star Wars Graphic novels in the future.  The next piece I will be reading is Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force (Part Three: Dark Jedi).  Since this was my first post, I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how I can improve in my writing or if I got something wrong please let me know and I'll take a look.

Until my next post, may the Force be with you.....