Hello moof-milkers,
Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts kept us from recording an episode this week. We do plan on recording next week, but in the meantime, I’ve fielded a few questions from Twitter from some friends and fans. My responses are below.
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Austin asks: Are you worried at all about Colin Trevorrow directing Episode IX?
A qualified “No.” It’s qualified, because I am of the belief that it will be nearly impossible to meet fan expectations by the time IX rolls around anyway. My prediction is that VIII is going to be the weird, somewhat inaccessible critical darling, and then IX will bring more mainstream audiences back. Colin Trevorrow is a decent, safe choice. If IX is the Return of the Jedi of the sequel trilogy, then so be it. Frankly, my excitement is more focused on Rogue One at the moment, while my dread is saved for the Han Solo spin-off.
I saw Jurassic World, and had no strong feelings about it beyond some sequel fatigue. IX may sink or float depending on the strength of the dialogue and the performances, just as its predecessors.
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Dan asks: Who is your favorite character from The Force Awakens and why is it captain Sidon Ithano?
Ah, Sidon Ithano, alias ‘The Crimson Corsair.’ His name is almost as fun as his concept. I’ll admit he’s not my favorite character from TFA, but he is definitely my favorite background character. (I still can’t choose which of the new Power Trio is my favorite.) You guys might recognize Ithano as the red-masked dude who Finn signs up with in Maz’s castle in The Force Awakens before he has his change of heart.
This Mask of the Red Death has a catchy nom de guerre, an awesome peg-legged first mate named Quiggold, and a devil-may-care attitude. His mask is Delphinian -- comparable to the one worn by noted prequel monster General Grievous.
But the real reason I have so much fondness for the guy is the excellent short story by Landry Q. Walker: “The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku." Go check it out. You won’t regret it.
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Evin asks: How much pre-OT EU Jedi business was there before the prequels existed? How deeply canon was the council? Coruscant? The temples? All that rigamarole and hierarchy?
Coruscant
The name “Coruscant” comes from the 1991 Legends novel Heir to the Empire. Lucas liked the name and kept it in the prequels. (We’re lucky he didn’t go with the 1976-era name for the Imperial Capital, Had Abaddon.)
The Jedi
A few weeks back, an old West End Games writing guide was making the rounds. West End Games used to publish the d6 Star Wars roleplaying system, and in the days before the Thrawn trilogy, it and the Marvel Star Wars comics were basically the big games in town as far as the Expanded Universe. The reason I mention this writing guide is because it contains a prohibition on discussing anything that preceded the Original Trilogy. And for the longest time, people followed this rule, which made finding sources about the Old Republic Jedi difficult. http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-secrets-of-writing-good-star-wars-according-to-wes-1765739282
As far as hierarchy goes -- though the word “Padawan” never appeared in the original trilogy, George Lucas used it in the original story treatments for what would become A New Hope.
One example of pre-prequel Jedi history is from the 1979 Marvel Star Wars #24 -- it depicts Obi-Wan during the Clone Wars. Keep in mind this preceded even The Empire Strikes Back! (Obi-Wan isn’t wearing anything remotely like his Tatooine robes. Back then, no one assumed he’d be “in hiding” dressed like all the other Jedi. Return of the Jedi depicted Anakin Skywalker in similar robes to Old Obi-Wan, and then the prequels showed all the Jedi in variations of the same.)
http://starwars77-80.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-ones-interesting-issue.html
As we may have mentioned, The Courtship of Princess Leia (1994) version of Yoda used to tool around in a Jedi training ship in his younger days, and he was a huge flirt. It doesn’t tell us a lot about the Council, other than that Jedi used to cruise around in Academy ships.
The 1995 novel I, Jedi got around the problem of what the deal was with the Jedi Council by simply saying the Corellian Jedi were special snowflakes anyway, and rarely listened to the Council. All that being said, I, Jedi showed Knights are more autonomous agents in general.
In the 1995 Children of the Jedi, Luke meets an Old-Republic era Jedi whose ghost is trapped in the computer of a starship. She mentions that she had a boyfriend when she was a flesh-and-blood Jedi, which is weird in and of itself. A future Clone Wars era novel retcons this by explaining that they were an offshoot Jedi sect.
I considered including the 1995/1997 Jedi Knight / Jedi Knight II games in this response, but I kind of want to talk about those in future episode, so I’ll leave it alone for now. (This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive. I have a day job, and this is mostly just what came to mind.)
That should hopefully start answering your question of how much info there was about the Jedi pre-1999? Overall, the answer is “not much.”
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Livi asks: Have any of you read the first issue of the poe dameron comic and if so what did you think?
I read it. Oscar Isaac is a comically handsome man, even in print. (That pun was accidental, I swear.)
I’m a fan of Charles Soule’s other Star Wars work, and this has some nice callbacks to other new canon material, like Aftermath and Before the Awakening. If you like fighter-jock action, I’d say it’s worth picking up.
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Clint O. asks: I've been rereading the xwing books, so I was wondering which books made you tear up while reading? (Phanan, nooo)
There are moments in nearly every Wraith Squadron book that cause feelings to happen inside me. The whole Lara Notsil saga, Piggy, Runt, Phanan, and even Chulku get me. Those books are amazing. But I think Mercy Kill is the most emotional.
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Michael Ben Silva asks: Is Anakin the only character played by more than one actor on film? Aging is bananas in SW, but 4 actors is too many actors. I thought about Obi-Wan already FYI but that doesn't feel like the same issue I guess?
Off the top of my head, Luke and Leia were played by babies in Revenge of the Sith, Artoo and Chewie were different people for some scenes in TFA (and Artoo had a few operators over time), Mon Mothma was played by Genevieve O’Reilly in a deleted scene of Revenge of the Sith (and now in Rogue One), and Wedge changes actors between scenes in A New Hope. In the original cut of The Empire Strikes Back, the Emperor was played by a woman with a chimpanzee’s eyes superimposed on top of the shot.
There are probably a few more I’ve overlooked.
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Karen Joseph asks: Was there ever 2+ post-Bane Sith pairs at a given time? Like they were all so secretive that neither knew the other was there?
If your question is about whether there were two Sith pairs (Master and Apprentice) that coexisted secretly, the answer is no.
However, depending on how you count Maul + Opress, Dooku + Ventress, and Dooku + Sidious, there were multiple Sith pairs existing during the Clone Wars.
Legends also featured an entire lost tribe of Sith that remained unknown to the galaxy for thousands of years.
This is a tough question to answer, because it's unclear what "counts" as a legitimate Sith pair.