5000 – 4999 BBY: The Golden Age of the Sith #0-5

I managed to finish reading this book before the end of the month.  I got the Omnibus version so that I had all of the issues in one place but I accidently read to far into it.  I didn't realize that it also contained the fall of the Sith empire, which will be in my next post.  I really enjoyed reading these issues because of the action and adventure that I found around every corner.

This series starts out with with Jedi Knight Odan-Urr, who is a Jedi scholar.  He is in the middle of his studies when his master informs him that he must go to the Koros system to help Empress Teta finish the civil war her system is currently waging.  In that same system, Jori and Gav who are brother and sister await the return of their parents from a supplies run to one of the war zones off planet.  Unfortunately,  their ship is shot out of the sky and they perish along with it. Odan-Urr meets up with a fellow Jedi and informs him that he has learned a new Force technique that could help end the struggle.  This technique is called Jedi battle meditation. This technique allows the Jedi to change the mid of their enemies and surrender.

In the next part, Jori and Gav become hyperspace adventures, which seems pretty cool.  They get to put random co-ordinates into the computer and see where it takes them.  But this time, their co-ordinates took them somewhere that was thought to be destroyed long ago.  They landed on the doorstep of the Sith Empire.  Of course, Gav and Jori had no clue that they were on Korriban so they acted as representatives of the republic wishing to set up a trade route with the Sith people.  Just before the pair land, the Sith are mourning the lose of the Dark Lord of the Sith.  Ludo Kressh is leading the procession as his nemesis, Naga Sadow, approaches.  The two get into a heated fight but Gav and Jori land on the planet to offer them a distraction.  Gav and Jori are captured by the Sith and held in two different locations.  Sadow starts to teach Gav the ways of being a sith.  Later, Ludo Kressh attacks Naga Sadows decoy base and Sadow urges Jori to flee back to the Republic.  But little does Jori know that he has put a tracking beacon on the hull of her ship.

   I liked how this story was told.  I was able to finish all the novels in under a week without missing out on some important details.  The authors of these issues did an incredible job of making sure that everything was authentic.  What I mean by this is that they didn't have lightsabers that have a portable battery pack like in the Clone Wars or the original trilogy do.  These lightsabers needed to be attached to the belt of the user be a chord in order to receive power.  Also, the ships didn't look modern.  Some of them had sails.  I also got to see the ways a Sith manipulate people up close.  It was very interesting to see Naga Sadow being kind and understanding with Gav and Jori but in the end, all he wanted to do was cripple the Republic and let the Sith Empire reign victorious.  He also did a very good job of turning the Sith people against Ludo Kressh so that he could guarantee his new title.

I'm going to use this last paragraph to talk about the decision that was made to cancel The Clone Wars.  I really love this show and I (and many others) feel that a huge mistake is being made by Disney and Lucasarts.  I have heard some rumors that bonus content will be released, but even that may (or will) leave some important points to the story out.  For example, what will happen to Ahsoka?  I really don't think that this "Bonus Content" will leave me satisfied.  I'm not even sure if Captain Rex was in Order 66 or if he gets killed before hand.  I need to know!!!!!  I was OK with season 6 being the last one but now that it's canceled, I don't know.  I have found this website that is dedicated to trying to save The Clone Wars.  I am going to write to Disney and Lucasarts to show my support of The Clone Wars and if your reading this and like The Clone Wars, I hope that you will show your support to.  It's not right for the series to end like this after all of the success it's had over the past 5 seasons.  

My next post will be on The Fall of the Sith Empire #1-3.  Till then, may the Force be with you.........

7000 – 6900 BBY: The Hundred Year Darkness and The Conquest of Sith Space

Sorry for the delay in my posting.  I had the first half
of this written but with the complications of daily life I wasn't able to get back to it until now.

I'm going to be talking about The Hundred Year Darkness and The Conquest of Sith Space in this post.  These two story's are taken out of Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide To The Force by Ryder Windam.  The book is one of my all time favorites because of the vast amount of information inside of it.

I'm still having trouble deciding about how I should right my posts so I may do something's different for this post.  As always,  I will give a brief summary of this section to start out.

The Hundred Year Darkness speaks of the great schisms between the Jedi and the Dark Jedi.  The Dark Jedi discovered that they were able to use the Force to turn creatures into deadly warriors and because of this, the Jedi and Dark Jedi waged war against each other.  And this left many worlds in turmoil.  This time became known as The Hundred Year Darkness.  The Jedi won the war and the remaining Dark Jedi were banished into the far reaches of space.  There they discovered the world Korriban which is the home world of the Sith species.  After conquering the Sith species, the Dark Jedi proclaimed themselves Sith lords.

This section goes on to talk about a Dark Jedi who was present during all of these events.  This Dark Jedi was Ajunta Pall.  It was said that he slew more than a dozen Jedi during these battles.  His tomb has been confirmed to be on Korriban.  It was among the fist burial sites on the planet.

This story has the discovery of the ancient Sith world Korriban.  Now this is where things really start to get good.  With these Dark Jedi starting the process of creating the Sith order, this opens the doorway for new events.  I find it interesting that the Force guided the shuttle that held the exiles to the planet of Korriban.  By doing this, it's setting up the age long conflict between the Jedi and Sith.  I'm also thinking that the Force intended for this to happen on purpose.  Maybe the galaxy needs this conflict in order to prevent a greater evil than the Sith from rising.  Maybe there's a worse enemy out there.  I will be talking more about this in the paragraphs below.

Next is The Conquest of Sith Space.  This is the story told by Ajunta Pall of how the Dark Jedi found themselves on Korriban and how they became the Dark Lords of the Sith.  He recounts all the events of The Hundred Year war but he also talks about how they conquered the Sith Species.  Like me, he also thinks that it was by the will of the Force that they landed on Korriban.  With the help of the Sith, they were able to build new star ships and weapons so that they may one day return to the galaxy and exact revenge on the Jedi.

I'm going to try and expand on the thought of the Force wanting this rivalry to happen for a very long time.  Before the Dark Jedi were banished, they did still have a conflict with the Jedi.  But maybe the Force foresaw this conflict ending sooner than expected (due to the weakness of the Dark Jedi compared to the Jedi) and it needed to do something so that the battle would continue.  So it helped the Dark Jedi find Korriban and the Sith species.  By doing this, the Dark Jedi become Dark Lords of the Sith and their numbers began to grow.  They are becoming more powerful so that they can challenge the Jedi.  Like I said before, I think that the Force is trying to prevent something worse than war than happening to the galaxy.

I'm starting to get angry with myself because I'm having difficulty with what I want to do in my post and every time I think of something new,  I revert to my old ways.  Maybe I need talk more about what I thought of the piece than try and relate different topics to it.  I guess it will take some more practice for it to happen but I'll keep trying.

For my next post, I will be looking at Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith.  I just got the Omnibus version of this graphic novel which includes issues #0-5 so hopefully I will be able to post it by the end of the month.  But until that time, may the Force be with you.....

15,762 – 15,609 BBY: Xim at Vontor

 I am finally able to report back on the latest piece I read.  This piece was Xim at Vontor.  As I have said in my previous posts, I find it hard to read plays.  I don't know why but there is something in my brain that attempts to deter any effort of reading them.  But this time I made it!

As I started to read, I felt like I was loathing every word.  But then I realized it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Before I go into more detail as to why, let me give a brief summary of the story so that you know what I'm talking about.

This story of Xim starts out with an epic space battle in the Vontor system.  The battle is over some kind of precious metal/stone on the planet below that all pirate factions want for themselves.  But Xim's fleet has the upper hand.  They soon win the battle and all of the fleet Generals are invited to the capitol ship for a victory feast.  Some of Xim's Generals have been conspiring against him so Xim sets up a surprise.  During the meal, he orders one of his Generals to kill the other in cold blood.  However, this General is one of the lead people in the conspiracy so he takes this opportunity to attempt to kill Xim.  The General fires the shot at Xim's head.  Xim looses an eye and the traitors escape along with his beloved Queen, Indrexu, who I see as the kind of person that follows whoever is the most powerful at the time.  Xim gets outfitted with new robo eyes (which is pretty awesome) and sets out to Vontors surface to claim his prize of war and to try and find the traitors.  As this piece comes to an end, Xim realizes where the traitors must be hiding and orders all of his war bots to prepare for battle.

Now,  this part of the story of Xim was enjoyable for me.  At the beginning, I thought I would be faced with singing robots like I was in the first Xim story I read.  Instead I was picturing an awesome space battle.  For me this was a huge improvement.  The way that they were describing the battle and where and how the blaster bolts were striking helped to paint an even better picture in my head. What really made it cool for me was when Xim had his eye shot out.  At this point, Xim is starting to seems even more ruthless (and now he looks more like a pirate).

I am starting to realize that it's battles and miscellaneous violence that hook me into a story.  I'm not sure why this is but when story's have songs and musical robots, it tends to push me away.  I can only hope that the Xim story's that I read in the future will be structured as this one was.

For my next post, I'm going to be reading The Hundred Year Darkness and The Conquest of Sith Space from The Essential Guide to the Force book that I have.  This is one of my favorite books to report from.  Until my next post, may the Force be with you...........    

24,500 BBY: The First Dark Legion

Hello again, I'm back with another section from Star Wars: Jedi vs Sith.  The section of this book is in part 3 and it's titled, The First Dark Legion.  It was nice to take a break from reading the plays about Prince Xim (even though I only read one of them).  It may just be me, but I found it incredibly difficult to report my thoughts on a play.  But enough of my complaining, let me give you a summary of this section and make a character analysis.

  This section takes place in the form of a data card.  The data card had on it the voice of Jedi Apprentice, Danzigorro Potts, reporting on the aftermath of a war between the Jedi and the Dark Jedi.  He died during the first schism between these two factions.  The leader of the Dark Jedi was General Xendor.  Xendor was a powerful Force user.  The Jedi Council, outraged by his acts of disobedience,  decided to wage war against Xendor and the people who were following him.

As the data card starts to play, Danzigorro Potts is reporting on the outcome of the final battle between the Jedi and Dark Jedi.  He reports on the death of Xendor and expresses how relieved he is that the war is finally coming to an end.  He is fantasizing on what the next day will look like.  As Danzigorro lays on the ground, bleeding out, he announces that he is the soul survivor of the great battle.  He then reflects on what he had to do during the battle.  Danzigorro was forced to kill his long time friend, Blendri, and her apprentice during the battle.  The pair had turned on the Jedi order and joined General Xendor.

After Danzigorro reflects on the great battle, he starts to go on about how much he loved being a Jedi and how he would never have done anything to betray them in any way.  Danzigorro's final words were about how he thought that the Dark Side wasn't the only reason that Jedi were turning.  He believed that the Jedi order needed to have an enemy or else they would create one out of themselves and wage war against each other.

The character that I would like to quickly look at is General Xendor.  The way that Xendor is talked about in the book makes me think of people in our real world we see and have seen throughout history.  The impression that I got from the way Xendor was described is that he was a well liked person before he took control; he was confident, cool, and had the kind of personality that everyone just loved.  In the history of our planet, we have seen many people who are like that.  An example would be Hitler.  Before the events of WW2, he was gaining the trust and respect of others so he could build up his power and achieve his goal.  I make this comparison because I find both of these men to be similar in characteristics (even though the traits that Xendor posses were only briefly described).  It seems that characters like this pop up all over the Star Wars Universe.

For my next post I will be reading Xim at Vontor.  Until then my friends, may the Force be with you......

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.....