Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 162

About two thirds through Aftermath. It's fine, I like that it's re-canonized a lot of stuff, but damn it, I want to know what the hell our heroes are up to. I saw a spoiler somewhere that Han and Chewie show up briefly so I'm burning through it to get to that, but I really wish them or Leia or Luke played some sort of actual role instead of just dropping in (well, not really Luke, I've made peace with the secrecy surrounding him).

EDIT: just hit the Han and Chewie chapter. I'd rather be reading a book about just that.

joefavs said:

I like that it's re-canonized a lot of stuff

 Could you elaborate on this?

^There are more than a few planets, species, tech, etc. from the old EU that either appear or are referenced. Without going back and combing through the book, the planet Taris and the Carrack cruiser are the ones that jumped out at me the most. There's also vague hints about the Unknown Regions, although no one has actually used that name. I wouldn't be surprised if come December we find out that that's where the First Order is based, not unlike the Chiss Ascendency.

All right, I just finished it and things got very interesting at the very end. Not sure if the TFA thread is the place for full-blown Aftermath spoilers, but suffice it to say that someone shows up in the epilogue that I'm extremely interested to learn more about.

Tobar said:

Hopefully if they do reintroduce the Unknown Regions it is significantly reduced in size. Instead of being on the border of Coruscant it could be one of the spiral arms of the galaxy.

I'd rather they do the opposite -- expand the Unknown Regions and make the familiar regions of the galaxy smaller.

Doubt it will ever happen, though.

joefavs said:

All right, I just finished it and things got very interesting at the very end. Not sure if the TFA thread is the place for full-blown Aftermath spoilers, but suffice it to say that someone shows up in the epilogue that I'm extremely interested to learn more about.

As you can see by my continued replies, I'm fascinated enough to want to know more.

My vote would just be to spoil it here and maybe put spoiler tags at the top and bottom if people really want to avoid them. Aftermath is specifically part of the lead-up to TFA anyway so I'd say it's relevant to this thread, unlike some other recent stuff in the NuEU unless I'm mistaken.

On a partially related note, there's a recent article on /Film about how the official databank (remember that?!) was queitly updated recently with a bunch of new entries pertaining to TFA.

All I have to say is that JJ must've been determined to get a Beastie Boys reference into the GFFA because Ello Asty? Really?

All right, we'll do it that way.

---SPOILERS FOR AFTERMATH---

Over the course of the book, there are passing references to a recently deceased fleet admiral that Rae Sloane had previously served under and has now sort of taken over for. In one of the final chapters, she reveals to a Moff character she'd been butting heads with the whole time that she lied and the old admiral is still alive. The epilogue is her reporting to this fleet admiral on the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer. He's never named or described physically, but when we see him he's humming along with a symphony and won't let Sloane speak until it finishes. Sloane questions him about the events that have just happened and he implies that he orchestrated the entire thing, down to leaking info to Ackbar. He tells her this whole thing was a test to see who among the Imperial top brass was worthy/useful, and that she alone passed. The art appreciation, the elaborate gambits, the quasi-legendary status of this guy among the other characters, the hints about the Unknown Regions, even the way his dialogue is worded has all got me thinking this has to be Thrawn. I seriously doubted it at first, but if that's not where they're going with this why lay it on so thick? I think it would be a huge mistake to create a new character as a Thrawn analogue because he'd be destined to only ever be unfavorably compared to Thrawn. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. So yeah. We might have our first survivor of the canon purge.

---END OF SPOILERS---

Interesting....

Full disclosure, I never actually finished the Thrawn trilogy. Got about halfway through book 2 IIRC. Last Command sits unread along with more books than I'd like to admit from the old EU, including the Hand of Thrawn duology.

I tried reading Outbound Flight after checking it out from the library almost a decade ago but never finished that either.

So my memory of Thrawn is fuzzy but this reference to artwork probably would've tipped me off as well.

Funny how they're (evidently) making reference to a character from the very first novel of the old post-Jedi EU in the very first novel of the new post-Jedi EU.

I am correct that this is the very first thing released so far to take place between episodes 6 and 7 in the new canon, yes?

Also, if this takes place the day after RotJ is there any reference made to Luke? One of the earlier Ep7 spoiler reports mentioned something about him not having been seen at all in the 30 years since Endor.

One more question, and I'm pretty sure the answer is no. If this is set immediately after RotJ and it follows a new group of characters, is there any chance the events of Truce at Bakura could still be taking place? Until your mention of a possible Thrawn reference I would've said the answer is definitely no, but now I'm starting to wonder if they're not wiping clean but simply "ignoring" some of the old timeline like Zahn first theorized.

It doesn't seem like there's much room for Bakura. Aftermath is set a few months after ROTJ, so the timeline would certainly work, but I got the impression that there hadn't been a battle that big since Endor (I can't remember if this was explicitly stated, though). If it happened, no one's talking about it.

This is indeed the first canon work set after ROTJ, but originally the Shattered Empire comic was supposed to be released a couple days before. That got pushed back to this Wednesday. As far as I know, that actually begins as the Battle of Endor is ending, so that's where we're likely to see the immediate immediate aftermath of Jedi.

Luke is referenced in both Wedge's and Han's POV sections, but they don't get into what he's actually doing. It just kind of confirms that he's still around at this point. Other characters also refer to him, but really only because he's famous. Probably the most noteworthy instance of this is when one of the Imperial big-wigs (who was previously an advisor to Palpatine and is versed in dark side lore in spite of not being Force-sensitive) laments that the Sith are extinct and that the last Jedi has an "untouchable soul . . . at least for now" or something like that.

EDIT: I also read the Luke YA book today. Largely unremarkable. Covered a lot of the same "figuring out the rudiments of the Force on your own" ground that Heir to the Jedi did. It was mercifully much shorter, though; I think I got through it in under two hours. Overall it felt like a Monster of the Week episode of a TV series, if that makes any sense. There were really only two things that I think will have any bearing at all on TFA:

1. The Sarco Plank character that we've seen teased got a hell of a lot of screen time, which makes me think he'll have at least a little more to do in TFA than standing in the background like the Vanity Fair spread seemed to imply. He reminded me a lot of Boba Fett in the Holiday Special cartoon.

2. The book opens and closes with scenes set in the TFA era, where there's a frame story of a Resistance pilot asking C-3PO for a story about Luke. During the actual ANH-era story, Luke and the droids go to Devaron and meet a young girl who ends up helping them. They also find some Jedi ruins, and Luke promises he's going to come back when he's a Jedi and try to restore the place. Back in the TFA era, the Resistance pilot asks 3PO if they ever saw the girl again. He says yes, they saw her years later when Luke made good on his promise and went back, by which point she was a young woman. So that seems to suggest that Luke sticks around doing Jedi stuff for at least a few years after ROTJ.

Since the YA books are s'damn short, I expect I'll be through all the Journey to TFA stuff by the end of the week. I'll keep posting about them here if there aren't any objections.

Ah, I need a jump to conclusions mat, remembering now that the initial description simply said not long after Endor but not when exactly.

Very curious what Shattered Empire brings.

One more development i forgot to mention. TFA-era C-3PO has updated his operating system, and now he's fluent in over seven million forms of communication.

^Talk about a pointless development ...

http://www.ibtimes.com/star-wars-force-awakens-next-trailer-may-be-released-next-week-new-posters-surface-2080839

Story is already several days old, but apparently the BBFC has passed a new trailer with a running time of 1 minute and 39 seconds. That would make it about twelve seconds shorter than the one from April.

Fang Zei said:

http://www.ibtimes.com/star-wars-force-awakens-next-trailer-may-be-released-next-week-new-posters-surface-2080839

Story is already several days old, but apparently the BBFC has passed a new trailer with a running time of 1 minute and 39 seconds. That would make it about twelve seconds shorter than the one from April.

 I believe that actually IS the trailer from April, which is being packaged in the Avengers blu ray.

Mrebo said:

I was flipping through Aftermath in Barnes and Noble. The author is fond of colons (the punctuation mark) and sentence fragments. A couple pages back someone said the writing is terrible, how would you rate it?

 I didn't love the writing by any means, but it was much easier to acclimate to than I expected it would be after reading the excerpt a couple months back. Before the halfway point I barely noticed it.

Mrebo said:

I was flipping through Aftermath in Barnes and Noble. The author is fond of colons (the punctuation mark) and sentence fragments.

 So the author is on Team Negative1?

I'd say he's negative1 himself.

SilverWook said:

Looks like they aren't quite done shooting yet?

http://www.u.tv/Entertainment/2015/09/08/Star-Wars-to-return-to-Irish-island-44570

This may be for Episode VIII.  There are some reports that Rian Johnson is going to shoot some night scenes and that they will be there for less than a week.