Welcome to the March 2015 Canon Update!
This month was a big one.
Rebels Season One had its season finale, Heir to the Jedi came out, and we got four new
comic issues!
I’m going to start with Heir to the Jedi, move on to Rebels, then comics, and finish
up with some major news that was announced this month.
Just a heads up, there will be some spoilers ahead.
I’ve already done a short review of the book, but in short, I enjoyed the book, and
think it’s worth reading.
It’s successful in showing Luke begin training himself prior to the Empire Strikes Back.
We get to see his thoughts on the deaths of his Uncle, Aunt, Obi-Wan, and Biggs, which
I enjoyed.
That sounds kind of sadistic to say, but events happen so quickly in the film, he never really
gets time to grieve, and it’s nice to see how deeply he was affected by losing his family
and friends.
Another interesting development is that Luke receives a second lightsaber from the relative
of a fallen Jedi.
I’ll be very interested to see if that sticks around in the coming books and comics, and
what impact it will have on Luke’s future training.
Will he dual wield lightsabers at some point?
How does he lose it by the time of the Empire Strikes Back?
Will it help him build his second lightsaber?
I hope to see some answers.
Again, I did a short, spoiler-free review earlier this month for the entire first season
of Rebels.
But this episode was big, and I’m about to spoil everything about it, so click here
if you want to skip ahead to comics.
In the season one finale, the crew of the Ghost rescue Kanan from Tarkin’s star destroyer
in orbit above Mustafar.
The mission doesn’t go according to plan, and results with a fantastic lightsaber battle
between Kanan and the Inquisitor.
The fight is creative, exciting, and ends in the Inquisitor’s probable death.
I’ll be sad to see him go, but his death spurs on the appearance of Darth Vader to
hunt down Kanan and Ezra.
The episode ends by revealing the identity of the mysterious Fulcrum as Ahsoka.
This could lead to a showdown between her and her former Master.
While I’m all for introducing Ahsoka back into the story, I fear this will cause some
problems down the line.
The Rebellion now has two very capable Force-users and one in training.
The writers need to make sure they provide a satisfying reason for their absence in the
films and future stories.
For example, Luke spends quite a bit of Heir to the Jedi wishing he had someone to help
train him.
It seems like someone would think to get ahold of Kanan.
So why don’t they?
I can think of a number of directions they could take to solve that problem, I just hope
whatever they choose makes for a good story.
The Princess Leia comic picks up literally seconds after A New Hope ends.
As the Rebellion is searching to find a new place in the Galaxy, Leia is searching to
find her place in the Rebellion.
She is basically told to grieve the loss of Alderaan and do nothing.
But after hearing that the Empire is hunting down surviving Alderaanians, she teams up
with a pilot named Evaan to find and protect as many of her people as she can.
In the second issue, she arrives on Naboo to pick up a prominent Alderaanian band performing
there.
A sizeable bounty on her head causes trouble, but she and Evaan are able to fight their
way out of it, and save the Alderaanians there.
However, one of them contacts her sister, who is revealed to be working for the Empire.
So far, Princess Leia is my least favorite comic series of the three.
But it’s only got a planned five issues, so it’s not a big deal.
It does have some nice character moments for Leia, and as a huge Battlestar Galactica fan,
I like the story of a group of people who have lost their home and are on the run.
I’m interested to see more of the Imperial Alderaanian.
Has she been brainwashed?
And if so would the story team consider reintroducing an Imperial Intelligence Agent by the name
of Ysanne Isard?
I doubt it, but hey I can dream!
Okay, this was my favorite issue of this series so far.
Vader continues to be brutal and unstoppably awesome.
Han and Leia have some nice banter that just feels like their movie counterparts.
The dialogue was often quite funny.
But most of all, I’m really loving how connected the entire expanded universe feels right now.
This issue directly relates to Darth Vader #1, and I got some very strong Heir to the
Jedi vibes as both Luke and Vader comment on how Luke has no one to guide him in his
training at the moment.
Luke’s really struggling with his path to becoming a Jedi, and I think I will really
like seeing him grow more confident as we approach the Empire Strikes Back.
This issue doesn’t affect the universe a whole lot, but I did enjoy the appearance
of the Star Destroyer Adjudicator, which was created in Legends.
It’s inconsequential, but I’m glad to see that the writers are taking inspiration
from Legends material, and I hope the trend continues.
In Darth Vader #3, Vader is hunting down Luke as well as a mole in the Imperial Army.
For this purpose, he wants his own private army, so he enlists the help of Dr. Aphra,
whose hobby is reactivating old droid weapons.
We do get to meet two new assassin droid characters, Triple Zero and BT-1.
They’re basically the evil versions of Threepio and Artoo.
I like that parallel, and Triple Zero has some funny dialogue reminiscent of HK-47.
I have to make a special mention about the opening scene of the issue, which is just
one big homage to Indiana Jones, which happens to be my other great film love.
Part of me rolled my eyes at some of the forced references.
But I also smiled like a goon.
That’s it for the March update!
I’ve put up another video today covering some of the announcements that came out in
March regarding future Star Wars material such as the novel Aftermath and the film Rogue
One.
Click on the annotation to check that out.
And make sure to tune in tomorrow as Star Wars Minute returns, and I may or may not
have something stupid planned for April Fool’s.