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- Today we're discussing "The Legends of Luke Skywalker"
by Ken Liu.
And stay tuned until the end when the author will join
us to answer some of your questions
about the collected stories.
The Star Wars Show Book Club is a series
where we gather friends and fans to read Star Wars books,
examining how they relate to all of the Star
Wars films, live action shows, animated series, comics,
and games.
Through these stories, we enrich our understanding
of the galaxy far, far away.
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Hello, friends, Kristin Baver here.
And this week we're discussing one
of my all-time favorite Star Wars
books, "Legends of Luke Skywalker,"
with a couple of new friends.
Our story begins aboard a cargo ship headed to Canto Bight,
the same dazzling coastal city we glimpsed
in "Star Wars The Last Jedi."
Along the way, the deckhands pass the time swapping
six stories about Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker
as he faces Jabba the Hutt, explores a space slug,
and rescues R2-D2 from certain doom,
all while collecting information on the Jedi Order.
Larger than life and more myth than man,
the far-flung tales share a theme with the film.
The Legends of Luke, the Force, and the Resistance
are more than just mere tall tales.
They exist to give a whole new generation
hope and belief in themselves.
Now let's meet our book club crew.
First off we have Jenny, Associate Project
Manager for ILMxLAB.
Fun fact, R2-D2 was her ring bearer.
We also have Cavan, who has written several Star Wars
stories including a new ongoing Marvel comic that's
part of Star Wars The High Republic publishing project,
and Christopher, a big Luke Skywalker fan
and the voice of pilot turned spy Kazuda Xiono
on "Star Wars Resistance."
We also have a special guest.
Endor the dog is joining us with this conversation,
so I'm sure he'll have lots of opinions too,
big Luke fan over there.
If everyone can just go around and talk
about their favorite story from the book to get us started--
- I thought the first one where they're in the cantina
and the woman's talking about what she saw as Luke Skywalker
and the O'Kenoby gang, which I laughed out loud so
many times during that story--
this whole, like, propaganda story
that had been concocted from the Empire or just, like,
had been spread out through Empire supporters or whatever,
it was just so cool to hear this story from the perspective
of people who don't know these characters as heroes the way
that we do.
- I really enjoyed stories four and five.
Getting stuck in a space slug, an exogorth-- awesome.
But story four was really beautiful
because it did reminded me of when Luke was being trained
with Yoda and their path of Luke being so challenging
and asking why, why this and why that, and asking
everything like an infant.
And at the very end, he understands the why.
- I love the way you go from the out
and out Star Wars is weird and is
always quite a lot better when it's weird with the story
of the flea.
Because let's face it.
Who doesn't love a story about a sentient flea
in Jabba's palace?
And the other story for me was I, Droid just because, again,
seeing the universe from the droids' point of view
is always interesting.
Because we don't usually see it.
The droids are our windows to the Star Wars universe so much,
but we never really hear what they're thinking.
- One of the things I love with Star Wars
is when it doesn't take itself too seriously.
So, you know, first off, if we can talk a little bit about--
a little bit more about The Myth Buster, you know,
we get this unofficial story of Luke Clodhopper.
And he's lazy, and he's shiftless.
And he's flying around on the Century Turkey.
And it just felt like the perfect introductory story
to me because it pokes so much fun at itself.
What did you guys think about this opener?
- I agree.
I think it was the perfect opener.
As Star Wars fans, we are always looking
for that connective tissue.
We live for Easter eggs, you know?
Like, every time we watch a trailer
or read a book, we're diving into, what does that mean?
Have I seen that character before?
And this one, it was so easy to just sit back
and just let it wash over you.
Like, you didn't have to dig for any of that.
It was all just bare, ready for you to take on and absorb.
- Yeah, I think I actually guffawed when I got to the part
2 where they said, did you know Jar Jar
and Lord Vader were the same person?
- [INAUDIBLE]?
Did we lose Cav?
- I think Cav dropped out.
- We lost Cav, OK.
Christopher, if you just want to keep talking maybe,
and then we'll see if Cav returns.
- Yeah.
- We're just going to replace his screen with Endor.
Like, Endor now gets his own camera.
Cav's out.
Endor's in.
- I think we have an Ackbar situation here.
Is he real?
- I know.
[GASP] Oh, no, Cavan Scott, not a real author.
He's just been a puppet this whole time.
- It's a trap.
- Throughout the intro I remember
reading and being like, who is this cloaked figure?
Who is this guy that's, like, kind of asking
questions and chuckling?
And I was like, no, it's got to be Luke.
It's got to be Luke.
And as I continued reading, I was like, no, it is Luke!
And I loved how they introduced Luke into little bits
of every story.
But in this one especially, Redy was just poking holes and
making fun of every character.
- It kind of makes you think about any story you've ever
heard in your life, like any historical story, anything
that your grandma told you.
It kind of makes you think about those stories
in a different way because you're
like, how skewed is this?
They don't make it ambiguous what the moral of the story is.
They say it, you know?
It's important to listen to other people's stories
even if you don't agree with them
so you know what's out there.
- Cav, I'm sorry we lost you.
Everything's working so well.
- Don't tempt fate.
- I know.
- As soon as I started to say that, I thought, why?
Why would you do that?
Luke Clodhopper certainly is a little bit on the lighter side.
But The Starship Graveyard, the second story, I thought
gave us a really interesting view
of Luke Skywalker and Jakku through Imperial eyes.
But also, I think this is the story where
we first hear the phrase, we are all
Luke Skywalker, in the book.
What does that mean to you?
And what do you think it means to the characters
who are sharing the story?
- Well, I think that this was the only story for me
in the book where I thought that there was
some question about whether or not
it actually was Luke Skywalker.
I don't know that this was Luke.
I think it's maybe someone who has been inspired by Luke
Skywalker and also tries to do the right thing
and then uses, invokes the name of Luke Skywalker
to get people to follow him by saying, yes, this is who I am.
This is who we all are.
We can all be like this.
- Because it's being seen through an Imperial's eyes.
The only frame of reference an Imperial has is Darth Vader.
And so when you see Luke in space pulling spaceships down
from the sky with the Force, for me,
that's the Imperial mind of what the Force actually is.
Because that's all they've ever known.
The only sorcerer they know is clad in black.
And then you get the real Luke, who's the one who sees someone
in pain and wants to save them and wants
to keep them out of danger.
[INAUDIBLE]
- Can anybody translate binary?
- [LAUGHS]
- R2?
R2, please.
[BEEPS]
- I'm so sorry you're having such technical issues, Cav.
- By the way, Cav, I absolutely love your storytelling.
I can listen to you talk all day,
just a beautiful resonance and a European accent.
I'm like, [SIGH] go on.
- Read us a cereal box, Cav.
Just [INAUDIBLE].
- I can do that, hang on.
- Gonna move us right along to Fishing in the Deluge.
The whole book does this really well, but this story
in particular I thought just did an exquisite job
of showcasing how different people might interpret
something like the Force.
So I thought that was a really cool way to take that idea
and put it into Star Wars.
- It's interesting, like you said,
exactly what you said, to see people
who see the Force differently.
I mean, you know, it's like we--
people all over the Star Wars universe or whatever universe
wouldn't know the same terminology for everything
that they see, especially if they're isolated.
So clearly, civilization or people
that are very water-based and their whole life
has to do with the sea, the tide is
going to be what they would refer
to as an all-powerful thing that unites everyone.
- I did like how her and her brother,
they had a competition.
And because she allowed her ego to get the best of her,
they saw the storm coming, but she was like,
no, this is the biggest catch, and I'm going to hold onto it.
Rather than just separating herself from her ego
and knowing that she had won, she stayed with it.
And that's where the punishment kind of happened,
going against the tide.
So it was foreshadowing when Luke
himself goes through the trials and he catches the largest
golden fish there is.
But he's like, I don't need it.
- It's also a balance to Obi-Wan as well and, you know,
what we hear repeatedly through the book about his master,
his teacher, and Obi-Wan losing so everyone could win.
And then later on we find out that Luke
does exactly the same.
So I thought that was a really good balance there.
The one thing I loved in this story
was the fact he was called the seeker,
because I can't think of a better name for Luke Skywalker.
Because he spends the entire film series seeking things.
- So I loved I, Droid.
I thought it was really powerful because there
were so many layers to it.
What do you think you would do in Luke's position?
- I mean, it's really easy to say what
you would do in a situation.
But I think that I would have done the same thing,
and I'll tell you why.
Because droids have always been my favorite characters
in Star Wars.
I mean, clearly, you know, I had a deep love for R2-D2
since I was a kid.
I wouldn't have been able to leave anything
behind that reminded me of him.
Just like if I went in to rescue Endor, my dog, from somewhere
and there were other dogs that needed to be taken out--
- You would just be like, get all in the bag, come on.
- But using the metaphor, Jenny, that you said,
like, R2 being kind of like a pet,
thinking about that, if I were to come in and see R2 there,
I'd be like, oh, my baby.
But then the female droid who's got that chip implanted
to be the enforcer kind of like a rabid dog coming at me,
I don't know if I would have the patience.
I'd be like, whoa, what the-- and protect myself.
But Luke was so calm and understood,
no, there's kindness.
- That's what sums up these characters so well
and why they're heroes because they
do what we hope we would do.
And we perhaps know that we wouldn't all the time,
you know?
And yeah, Luke, Leia, they see the good in people.
And that's what we want to be.
- Also, he sliced off her limbs, just
wanted to throw that out there.
- Well, yeah, that's true.
That's true.
There were-- I mean, it's Star Wars.
There's always-- somebody's losing a limb.
- Everyone needs a hobby at the end of the day.
- Thank you guys so much for joining me.
This was super fun, and I'm so glad that we
could all get together and chat about The Legends
of Luke Skywalker.
- Like, subscribe to this channel below.
Hit the like button.
Hit the subscribe button.
Do it for Kristin.
- Thank you.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, today we're joined by Ken Lui.
Hey, Ken. - Hi, Kristen.
How are you?
- Good, how are you?
- Doing well.
- All right, excellent and grammatically correct,
which we appreciate here.
This one's just hands down my favorite handle, I think,
@FranklinInSpace.
What message do you hope that readers
will take with them to apply in their own life
after reading the book?
- You know, it's actually explicitly
spelled out in the book.
We're all Luke Skywalker.
I wrote the book because, you know, I love Luke.
I think a lot about what Luke means to the folks in the Star
Wars universe and to the fandom in general
and to old fans as well as new fans.
One of the things about Luke that I think is particularly
interesting is, you really do see his journey
throughout the saga from when he was just a little boy all
the way up through ultimately to this amazing figure
that we all really admire.
And that journey reflects all of us
in different stages of our lives.
- You mentioned you've always been a Luke fan.
Can you talk about what made you a Luke fan long before you
ever wrote a story about Luke?
- My particular experience was one
time there was an exam the next day, a final exam for a class.
And I had not studied much for that class.
So my usual practice is to cram the night before.
And then I thought, you know, I need
to motivate myself somehow.
I went to the bookstore right around the corner
and bought the latest Star Wars Expanded Universe trilogy.
And I was like, this will be my reward.
I'm going to study one chapter and read a chapter.
I read one chapter.
And then I was like, oh, this is too good.
I have to read another one.
Well, this is the sort of thing Luke would have done,
so, you know, I had no regrets.
I will use the Force.
- You know, that brings me to another question I actually
had for you, which is The Tale of Lugubrious
Mote in particular was a little unexpected.
Did you have a lot of stories or elements in this book
that you were writing them in and thinking,
I don't know if they're going to let me get away with this,
but I'm going to try?
And was that one of them?
- That was not one of them.
There were others.
I mean, I put the Konami Code in there, specialty
in the lugubrious mote story that I was not sure I
was going to get away with it.
But I did, and people have noticed it,
so that's pretty funny.
- Star Wars Book Club super fan Kanji Chris,
who I hope never changes her name, wants to know,
which story about Luke was your favorite to write and why?
- The Tale of Lugubrious Mote actually has a special place
in my heart because it's the very first story I wrote when
I was writing this collection.
And there are times where I think
about The Starship Graveyard.
We're not even sure Luke actually
appears in that story at all.
There's a certain way to read the story that says
that that actually is Luke.
But another reading was saying, no, that's not Luke at all.
It's just somebody who really took to heart the message
that we're all Luke Skywalker and is using
Luke Skywalker as a symbol.
And I love that instability.
I love the way that story allows you to really tell the story
that that place right on the edge of whether this is canon
or not.
- Wonderful, well, thank you so much for joining us today.
And this was illuminating.
I could listen to you talk all day long
about writing and storytelling and these characters
in particular.
- This was really fun, thank you.
- Thank you so much for joining us, Ken.
And thanks to all of you who joined us from home,
sent in your questions, and watched along.
Come back in two weeks when the Star Wars Show Book Club
returns to dig in to The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear
by Tom Angleberger.
And don't forget to tweet your questions
using the hashtag #SWSBCCHEWIE, and we'll ask them on the show.
Until then, may the Force be with you.
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