There is some structure to their operations, however. These masked pirates (of various species, among them a Gungan known as Wet Bub) follow few rules as they plunder whatever they want in the lawless Outer Rim. While there’s no Empire/First Order-scale Big Bad in the High Republic (at least, not yet…), villain duties in Light of the Jedi fall to the Nihil. There have always been different levels of wrong ’uns in the Star Wars universe, ranging from galaxy-ruling empires to smaller gangster cartels. The debris subsequently emerges from hyperspace at close-to-light speed, creating a dangerous barrage of high-velocity projectiles that threaten to destroy any star system in their path.Īs the Jedi mobilize to save millions of live, this “great emergence” leads to the closure of hyperspace lanes throughout the Outer Rim, as the Republic tries to work out how the disaster came about. The Legacy Run, a transport vessel carrying settlers to the Outer Rim, collides with an object in hyperspace – previously thought to be impossible – and is destroyed. The High Republic stories kick off with a great disasterĪt the start of Light of the Jedi, the first novel set in the High Republic era, a major accident takes place in hyperspace. Even bacta, the miracle drug that cures every imaginable ailment in the Star Wars movies is in its formative stages – its miraculous properties have been discovered, but not turned into a mass-produced drug. The new Starlight Beacon space station has been built to act as the Republic’s outpost in the Outer Rim – though the fact that the Republic has no presence on, say, Tatooine in The Phantom Menace suggests they weren’t entirely successful.įaster-than-light travel is also much more complicated than in the movies, with navigation limited to the few mapped hyperspace lanes. The galaxy’s Outer Rim (home to key Star Wars worlds Tatooine, Yavin 4 and Hoth) is still largely unsettled, and thousands of people are travelling from the core worlds to explore opportunities in these new territories – just as Americans headed west in the 19th century.Ĭhancellor Elina Soh is the main advocate of the Republic’s expansion, looking to spread her peaceful ideals throughout the galaxy. Many of the things that we’ve come to take for granted in the Skywalker Saga are in their formative stages in The High Republic. For example, Twi’lek Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm believes in learning by doing, so has a habit of pushing his apprentice off cliffs to force him to get to grips with Force-propelled flight. They come from vastly different backgrounds – Padawan Burryaga Agaburry is a Wookiee who carries a wooden lightsaber, for example – and have very different approaches to life and the Force. Like the brilliant Clone Wars series, the High Republic shows that Jedi aren’t just a group of identikit cosmic monks running around with laser swords. With the Republic having no military to speak of, the Jedi are a low-touch, galactic police force, with plenty of time to philosophize about the nature of the Force as they mediate disputes around the galaxy. This is long before the cracks that led to the Clone Wars started to form. With no Sith issues to worry about, and the Republic trying to spread its utopian vision across the galaxy, it must have been like living in Star Trek’s Federation. While these stories take place years before he was born, these halcyon days were arguably the greatest time to be a Jedi. When Obi-Wan Kenobi got all nostalgic in A New Hope, he may have been thinking about the glories of the High Republic era. “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic…” The Jedi are at the height of their powers That means that the famous galaxy far, far away looks rather different. The stories of the High Republic era dive into an entirely new time period, some 200 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |