Why The Expanded Universe was so Important for Star Wars

 Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Wednesday, which means it's time to talk Star Wars. Today I'm gonna be talking about why the expanded universe of Star Wars novels, comics, and video games was so important to the franchise. Let's get into it.

When Star Wars first came out in 1977, novels and comics were commissioned by George Lucas as tie-in material to the movie. While they could take place before or after the movie and expand upon things only hinted at in the movie, in the case of the novelization, these books and comics couldn't contradict anything shown in the movie, nor could they affect plotpoints in upcoming movies. They were simply there to tide people over until the next movie came out.

However, by the time Heir to the Empire was published in 1991, there was no indication that George Lucas would make anymore Star Wars movies, letalone sequels to Return of the Jedi. In fact, if he did make more Star Wars films, they'd be prequels, dealing with how Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side of the Force and became Darth Vader. So while authors couldn't write Star Wars novels dealing with the Clone Wars, the fall of the Jedi Knights, or the rise of the Galactic Empire, they could write novels that acted as sequels. The only exception to this was A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy (The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn) as George likely wouldn't include a young Han Solo in his prequel trilogy.

The comics were a whole different story. While they also couldn't cover the Clone Wars, the fall of the Jedi, or the rise of the Empire, they also weren't limited to the time period set after Return of the Jedi. In fact, Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson did an entire comic book series called Tales of the Jedi which took place thousands of years before the events of A New Hope, which is how they were allowed to tell a "prequel" story.

The early days of the Expanded Universe were rough. Despite the intention that it was to be one big Star Wars universe, Timothy Zahn ignored what Dark Horse was doing with Dark Empire and Tom Veitch ignored Zahn's novels. That's why the opening crawl in Dark Empire #1, on page 1, doesn't mention Thrawn at all, even though the story is set in 6 ABY, only a few months after the New Republic defeated Thrawn in the Battle of Bilbringi. Basically a lot of inter-company politics was at play here, which I won't get into in this blog post. 

Due to the success of both Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire, the Star Wars Expanded Universe truly became expanded as more novels and comics were published. Unlike Star Trek, which was a television series first, Star Wars is a movie franchise first, so, books and comics were the only way you could get new Star Wars stories inbetween movie releases. Especially in the late '70s and early '80s, since there were no commercial home video releases of the movies yet. In the '90s though the novels and comics were the only way we could get new adventures of the classic trilogy characters like Han, Leia, and Luke since it seemed highly unlikely that George would be making the Sequel Trilogy.

Movies are inherently meant to be self-contained stories. Oh sure, they can have sequels and prequels, but the movies themselves don't have a lot of time to explore the backstories of every single character whether they're a main character or not. And while television is better suited for that kind of long form storytelling, novels and comics were the best way to tell many of these stories since all a writer had to do was write the story, and in the case of comic books, the artist had to draw everything the writer wanted to see. They didn't have to think about how much it would cost to portray it on screen.

With Star Wars having TV shows these days, the Expanded Universe is less prevalent than it was thirty years ago, but that doesn't make it any less important. Particularly to those of us who love the novels and comics. And for me in particular, the novels are still very important, even if I don't read every single one that comes out. It gives us a look into the larger Star Wars Universe that the movies and TV shows can't necessarily give us. Especially when it would be cost prohibitive to make a show or movie about certain parts. Though, obviously, Andor proved that a show can be made out of any aspect of the Star Wars Universe. Even still there will always be Star Wars stories that need to be told as a novel or a comic book.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. Join Katie, Nat, and I tomorrow night at 9 PM (Eastern Standard Time) on the VHS Club Podcast for our discussion on Batman Forever. Then join me on Friday for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds over on The Star Trek Journal. May the Force be with you!

The Power of the Force 1995-2000 Toyline...30 Years Later

 Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Friday, which means it's time for a little trip to the Star Wars Universe to talk about toys. Specifically the 1995 Power of the Force toyline that ended in 2000. So let's get into it.

Being a kid of the '90s I had a lot of action figures, including a bunch of the classic Kenner Star Wars figures that one of my nurses at the hospital passed down to me after her son didn't want them anymore. However, there hadn't been brand new Star Wars toys on shelves since 1985, when the original Power of the Force line ended. But, with the surge in popularity that Star Wars gained between the announcement of the Prequel Trilogy being produced, the novels that were selling extremely well, the Special Editions coming out in 1997, and the re-release of the trilogy on home video in 1995, which I talked about last week, Hasbro, using the Kenner name, began producing a brand new line of Star Wars toys under the same label as what Kenner had used in 1985, The Power of the Force.

These figures, a few of which I own today, were musclebound figures, which was typical for toys marketed for boys at the time (just look at the original Ranger figures from Bandai's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toyline). Even the new Leia figure looked like she was on steroids or a really heavy workout regime. While this was toned down as the late '90s went along, the look of these original figures is what people came to associate with the The Power of the Force name. 

As I said earlier, as a kid in the '90s, I had a lot of action figures, including the classic Star Wars figures from Kenner. However, I was still excited to get new Star Wars figures, especially after I saw the movies in late 1995/early 1996. And I did. Let's take a look at the ones I got when I was a kid, as well as the one I got a few years ago.

The coolest toy I got from the Power of the Force line was the Millennium Falcon. It was an update of the original Falcon toy that Kenner released in 1978-1979, so not only could it hold the new figures coming out, but it could also hold my original figures from the late '70s and early '80s. Which is probably why my parents and grandparents ever looked for the original Falcon toy for me at garage sales and flea markets because we had the new one and whenever my siblings and I played with the Star Wars toys, the Falcon and the classic AT-AT Walker always came out as well.

To go along with the Millennium Falcon, we got the Han Solo figure as well. I don't remember if we got the Han Solo figure at the same time as we got the Millennium Falcon, or if we got him after we got the ship. I just remember having both. I kept the Han Solo figure with his DL-44 Blaster Pistol. 

A little bit later on, we got the Electronic FX R2-D2 figure that came with a stand in which, using magnets in its 'feet', you could make Artoo move around on, as if it was the scene from A New Hope. Jawas weren't included though. Also, when you pressed spot where the two vents are in the center of Artoo's torso, he makes the Artoo warbling sounds and his center 'eye' lit up. I actually still have this figure in my collection.

The last Power of the Force figure I got when I was a kid was the Greedo that came with the Commtech chip. Since we didn't have the Commtech Chip Reader (which was designed to look like a Commlink from The Phantom Menace) we couldn't stand Greedo on it and hear it say whatever line from A New Hope that was programmed into the chip. Still though, it was interesting to have Greedo.

A few years ago, I picked up the original Power of the Force Darth Vader figure from 1995 at my local comic book store. I was looking for this figure specifically to go with my Power of the Jedi Emperor's Wrath Vader figure that I got at Ottawa Comiccon back in 2017. I gave my Millennium Falcon to my friend, Jonathan, back in 2015 because my parents and I were getting ready to move and I didn't think I'd have enough space for it in whatever house we were going to be moving to. And I was right because I don't have enough room for it. As for the figures, the only one I don't have anymore is Greedo. I got rid of it in either 2015 or 2016 before we moved.

My siblings and I played with my Star Wars toys a lot. Not as much as my Star Trek toys, but we still played with them a lot. Especially when the Special Editions were coming out and Star Wars was at the height of its popularity in the '90s. At that point in time there wasn't a lot of Star Trek stuff that I didn't already have and the toys had become scarce after the Star Trek Generations toyline had come out in 1994. Luckily Star Wars was there to pick up the slack a little bit, along with Gargoyles, Batman, and Power Rangers. I also remember seeing the commercials for all of the Power of the Force toys and of course, Galoob's Micro Machines Star Wars toys as well. 

That my friends, is it for this week. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing next week. The two episode season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds drops on Thursday and I'll be watching both episodes on Friday evening, so you'll get a post on The Star Trek Journal on Monday, some sort of post on Josh's Geek Cave on Wednesday, a post here at The Star Wars Journal on Friday, and then my review of Strange New Worlds season 3 episodes 1 and 2 on Saturday over at The Star Trek Journal. That's the plan. Until then have a great weekend and may the Force be with you! 

Legends Novels That Don't Have the Legends Banner on Them

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. So today I'm going to be talking about some Legends novels that haven't been published with the Legends banner across the top. This is going to be in their original publication order. Let's get into it.

Originally published on February 2nd, 1995, Ambush at Corellia was the first book in the Corellian Trilogy, written by Roger MacBride Allen. While the second and third books in the trilogy, Assault at Selonia and Showdown at Centerpoint, both got reprints in the mid 2010s that included the Legends banner across the top of the front cover and the spine, for whatever reason, Ambush at Corellia didn't. There's not really an answer as to why all the novels I'm talking about today haven't gotten a Legends banner edition. They just didn't. I also don't really know how well the Corellian Trilogy is regarded by Star Wars fans in general, but, unlike with the Essential Legends Collection, the fan reaction to the books didn't seem to play a factor into what books were published with the banner and which ones weren't. As I'll mention again a little bit later. I also remember enjoying this book when I first read it sometime in the 2000s, though obviously not enough to get the rest of the trilogy, and not enough to keep this book in the collection in 2015 and 2016.

Originally published on May 1st, 1995 in hardcover, and then published in June 1996 in paperback, Children of the Jedi was written by Barbara Hambly as part of the unofficial Callista Trilogy, named after a Jedi character that appears in the book. Again, there's no actual reason as to why this book didn't get a Legends banner reprint. Especially because its follow up novels, Darksaber (by Kevin J. Anderson) and Planet of Twilight (also by Barbara Hambly) each got one. I honestly don't really know why Children of the Jedi didn't get a Legends banner reprint. I know it isn't as well regarded as other Star Wars novels are, but it's not hated like The Crystal Star is. In fact, even if it was, it still would've gotten a Legends banner reprint because The Crystal Star did, and that book is probably the most hated novel to come out of the Bantam era. I also don't remember if I've read Children of the Jedi or not. I know I owned the original hardcover sometime in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but I don't remember if I read it then, or if Garrett lent the paperback edition to me when we were in the same grade 5/grade 6 split class in 1998 and I read it then

Tales from Jabba's Palace is a weird one to me for a book to not get a Legends banner edition. The reason being that the rest of the Tales anthology books all got one, including Tales from the Empire (1997), and Tales from the New Republic (1999). Tales from Jabba's Palace is another book that I don't remember if I've read or not. I'm pretty sure I did either because I borrowed it from the public library or because Brad lent it to me when we were in high school, but I don't remember for sure.

While the second book in the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Shield of Lies received a Legends banner edition, for whatever reason the other two books in the trilogy, Before the Storm and Tyrant's Test, haven't. Now, I'm a fan of these three books, and they're some of the ones I kept in my collection during the Great Collection Purge of 2015 and 2016 that I performed before we moved and while I was unpacking my things after the move. So, it baffles me that Shield of Lies got a Legends banner reprint, but Before the Storm and Tyrant's Test didn't. Especially because Shield of Lies is the weirdest book in the entire trilogy because of the way the author structured the story in that book.

 

Medstar II: Jedi Healer by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry was published in 2004 as part of the Clone Wars Multimedia Project, but for whatever reason, didn't get a Legends banner reprint. Its predecessor, Medstar I: Battle Surgeons did, but this book didn't. I didn't read either book until 2005 or early 2006 when I borrowed them from the branch of the Ottawa Public Library that was right next door to my high school, and I wasn't connected to the Star Wars fanbase back then as I didn't have regular access to the internet, wasn't on fan forums, and didn't have regular access to Star Wars Insider. So, I had no idea how well either of these books were received. But, again, how well received a Star Wars Legends novel was has nothing to do with the book getting reprinted with the Legends banner on it. So it confuses me as to why half of a duology of novels gets the banner and the other half doesn't, like in the case of the Medstar Duology.

Like with the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, the Coruscant Nights Trilogy only got one book reprinted with the Legends banner on the cover. And that was the first book in the trilogy, Jedi Twilight. I realize I'm sounding like a broken record here, but it absolutely baffles me that one book in a trilogy would get the Legends banner treatment, but the other two books in the trilogy wouldn't. The Coruscant Nights Trilogy was published in 2008 and 2009, similar to how the first two books in the Han Solo Adventures trilogy were published in 1979 and the final book was published in 1980. Now, I've never read any of the books in this trilogy, so I have no idea whether they're any good or not. When these books were originally published, I was busy with college and barely had any time to read for pleasure. And when I did have time to read, I was catching up on the books I'd missed in The New Jedi Order when that series was coming out between 1999 and 2003.

This last one, Knight Errant by John Jackson Miller, is probably the weirdest one to not have a Legends banner reprint. Originally published in 2011, Knight Errant was a tie-in to the Knight Errant comic book series being published by Dark Horse Comics around the same time. So while it was slightly less high profile than Darth Plagueis or X-Wing: Mercy Kill, both of which came out in 2012, due to the tie-in to the comic, Knight Errant should've gotten a Legends banner reprint.

What's funny is that even though it didn't get a Legends banner reprint, in 2024 Knight Errant got a reprint which was a part of the Essential Legends Collection. So far this is the only book in that collection to not already have a Legends banner reprint. Which is interesting because the rest of the books in the collection are the most popular Star Wars novels to have come out in the last 46 years and have all had mid to late 2010s reprints with the Legends banner on them.

That's all I wanted to talk about today here on the Star Wars Journal. I'll be back next week with more posts on both blogs. So until then have a great weekend. May the Force be with you!

The Star Wars Trilogy 1995 VHS Box Set Discussion

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So I had originally planned on doing my discussion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story today, but, I ended up starting to watch The Expanse on Blu-ray last night instead of watching the movie. Instead, I'm gonna be talking about the 1995 VHS box set of the Original Trilogy, which had its 30th anniversary almost two weeks ago. And while I didn't see the movies until six months later, I decided today would still be the perfect day to talk about this box set. So, let's get into it.

"For those who remember. For those who will never forget. And for a whole new generation who will experience it for the very first time. The Star Wars Trilogy!". That quote appeared at the beginning of the trailer for this box set that appeared on all three tapes included in this box set. The three movies could also be bought individually, but, let's face it, I don't think there were very many Star Wars fans who bought the movies individually when they could have all three in one set like this, unless they could afford the box set. This box set was probably under a lot of Christmas trees that Christmas. I know it was under ours as someone bought it for my dad for Christmas that year, which is how I saw Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, as they were referred to as on the front covers of each tape, as well as on the outer box itself, for the first time when I was 9 years old.

Aside from the movies themselves, what I love most about this box set is the interview with George Lucas that was conducted by film historian, Leonard Maltin, and then split into three parts, one part for each tape. It's fascinating to see George talk about Star Wars as it was back in 1995. I don't think the interview was done earlier than sometime in late 1994, because George talks about the Special Editions, and writing the Prequel Trilogy, which he'd just started to write in November, 1994. There was no Disney+, no Andor, no Ahsoka, not even the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Just a handful of novels, comics and the three original movies. It's fascinating because George talked about writing all three prequel movies at once, and then filming each back to back, similar to how Peter Jackson would make the Lord of the Rings movies in the early 2000s. This was before he realized just how much ILM had to develop the technology that would allow characters like Jar Jar Binks to believably exist in Episode I.

1995 was also the year that Hasbro began producing the Star Wars: The Power of the Force toyline under the Kenner name. The novels, Children of the Jedi and Darksaber, were published in hardcover by Bantam Spectra, and we were introduced to Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Em-Teedee in the first book of the Young Jedi Knights series of paperbacks, Heirs of the Force, which was published by Boulevard Books and Berkley Jam Books. We also had comics like Tales of the Jedi being published by Dark Horse. So this was an awesome time to be a Star Wars fan, no matter how old you were in 1995. 

They were also introducing THX sound to movies. Of course, THX was way more impressive in 1995 than it is today, but still, seeing that original logo before the movie, as well as the original green Lucasfilm logo still excites me to this day. 

You also can't forget about the box art. Star Wars had Darth Vader's face (half of it) with an X-Wing shooting a TIE Fighter near the Death Star, The Empire Strikes Back has a Stormtrooper with the Imperial attack on Hoth underneath, and Return of the Jedi has Yoda with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker locked in a lightsaber duel with the Emperor watching. 

I managed to find an intact copy of this VHS box set in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. This was back when I was just starting to collect VHS again, and because this is the set that introduced me to the Star Wars franchise all those years ago, I grabbed it because it was one of the main VHS sets that I watched a lot when I was a kid, even after I got the 2000 VHS box set of the Special Editions, I still borrowed this set from my dad.

I still can't believe it's been thirty years since this box set was released. The world is different now, and indeed, Star Wars is very different today than it was 30 years ago. We've had so many more movies and TV shows given to us by the good people at Lucasfilm. Not to mention all of the books, comics, video games, and toys we've gotten since then too. And yet, as Andor showed us, the essence of Star Wars has stayed the same even though the people making the shows and movies are different than they were 30 years ago. To me Star Wars is about people. Not just the characters that we see on our screens, but the people behind the cameras, who worked extremely hard to bring those characters to life. From George Lucas to Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck to Tony Gilroy. 

That's it for me for this week my friends. I've got a few fun blog posts for you next week both here at The Star Wars Journal and at Josh's Geek Cave. So until then have a wonderful weekend and May the Force be with you.  

Andor Season 2 (2025) Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well on this hot and humid Thursday afternoon. I finished season 2 of Andor last night, so I'm here to talk about the season. Let's get into it.

I'm not even sure where to start. Andor is such an incredible show that I don't know where to start talking about the second season. It was unique because there was a time jump of a year after each block of three episodes. That came from the fact that the original concept for the show that creator Tony Gilroy had in mind was for a five season show, with each season taking place over the span of one year, with the fifth and final season being the final year leading into Rogue One. However, when Gilroy saw how long it would take them to get five seasons out, and Diego Luna aging over the course of that time, Gilroy and Luna decided that only season 2 would get made and the story they wanted to tell over the course of seasons two through five would get condensed into the second season.

As a fan of television that frustrates me, but as a Star Wars fan it makes me happy, because it means there's room for novels and comics to further the stories of these characters and to fill in the blanks between season 1 and season 2, and between the four story arcs of season 2. Especially when it comes to Bix, who doesn't have as big of a role this season as she did in season 1. She's there and she has some great moments, but she's gone after episode 9, "Welcome to the Rebellion", with a quick little scene in the finale. Because Cassian is the main character and the ultimate goal of this season is to get him to where we're introduced to him in Rogue One, the characters who were created specifically for this show have to be written out somehow before Cassian and K2-SO leave Yavin IV for Jedha. Luckily Gilroy chose to leave Bix alive and just have her return to Mina-Rau, the planet that Cassian, Brasso, Bix, and Wilmon fled to with B2EMO when they left Ferrix at the end of the first season.

Dedra's story this season was interesting. She started out being in a romantic relationship with Syril Karn, the former Deputy Inspector of Preox-Morlana, and even managed to put his mother, Eedy, in her place, which is kind of frightening if she can make Eedy get into line. The Ghorman Massacre, where Syril was killed, also tarnished Dedra's reputation at the ISB and she was eventually arrested for treason by Supervisor Heert as the ISB discovered the files she had on the Death Star were leaked to Luthen, by Lonni Jung, the Rebellion spy inside the ISB.

My favourite part of this season was Mon Mothma's storyline, which included the speech that she said in the Senate, which led her to flee Coruscant, leading to the episode of Rebels where the crew of the Ghost took her to the Rebel fleet, which led to the formation of the Rebel Alliance. The Ghorman Massacre and Mon Mothma's opposition of the Empire as a result of the devastation of the Ghorman people have been pieces of Star Wars lore that I knew about ever since I read about them in the 2000 reference book, The Essential Chronology when I was in high school. Though it had first been referenced in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, one of the supplementary materials for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game back in 1990, a year before Heir to the Empire was published. What's cool about that is that the version of the Ghorman Massacre in those reference books was mentioned in season 2 of Andor as something that had happened several years prior to the Massacre shown in episode 8, "Who Are You?". So I like that Gilroy and his writers were able to preserve the Legends version of the event, while creating their own version for the show.

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I don't want to turn this blog into a indepth review blog. Otherwise I could be here for hours writing about every little detail about this show, because it was so good. If you haven't given this show a chance and you loved Rogue One I highly recommend this show. May the Force be with you.

Reign of the Empire: The Mask of Fear (2025) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back for my review of the first book in the Reign of the Empire trilogy, The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed, which takes place in the early days of the Galactic Empire following the events of Revenge of the Sith. Let's get into it!

I haven't been really keeping up with Star Wars novels much since the new canon books started coming out all the way back in 2014. Mostly because I had so much going on in my life beginning in 2014 and also because I didn't have the space for more books as I had a lot of them spread out over two bookcases at the time. Plus I wasn't interested in many of them as I felt that anything that wasn't connected to Rebels or The Force Awakens would be retreading what the novels had been doing since 1991. And even when I did finally get Aftermath and read it in 2015, I still wasn't convinced that there really seemed to be a plan for the novels since film and television looked like the places where Star Wars was really going to shine. But, when I saw the cover for The Mask of Fear and saw that Mon Mothma was going to be the main focus of the book, I knew I had to pick the book up, even if I didn't get it on Day 1.

I haven't read a lot of Alexander Freed's work outside of the short stories he wrote for Star Wars Insider in 2014 and 2016, but you've heard me talk about Alphabet Squadron, which he wrote, so when I heard he was writing the first book in this new novel trilogy, I knew I'd have a good time with it. I was right because I really enjoyed this book.

In my review of season 1 of Andor I noted how thrilled I was that Mon Mothma was getting more of a focus in books and TV shows, and once again, this book did a fantastic job of focusing on her. I also appreciate how connected this book is to season 1 of Andor, as Mon's husband, Perrin, is included in the novel. He's not a major character in the book, nor is he a major character in Andor, but the book shows us where their relationship was in the period after Revenge of the Sith and I find that fascinating. 

Bail Organa is so different in this book than I've seen him in the movies and TV shows he's appeared in. Here, his only goal is to restore the Jedi's good name and reveal Palpatine for the evil, tyrannic, Sith Lord that he is. But, as he discovers, even if he succeeded in presenting his evidence to the Senate, nobody would care because they were already angry with the Jedi for allowing the Clone Wars to happen in the first place, AND Palpatine ended the war just as he promised. So it didn't matter whether the Jedi were innocent of the crimes that Palpatine accused them of, or that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, the people didn't want to return to war and Palpatine was the Emperor. And not just the rich people of the Core Worlds felt this way either. People from the Inner Rim, the Outer Rim Territories, the Expansion Region and Mid-Rim Territories felt that way because they'd all been affected by the Clone Wars and they were horrified by it. Bail also had to realize that exposing the Emperor wasn't going to bring the Jedi back, and it wasn't going to bring Yoda and Obi-Wan out of their self-imposed exile on Dagobah and Tatooine respectively. 

I also find it interesting that Queen Breha is the ruler of Alderaan, while Bail is her husband and the senator from Alderaan. Past Star Wars material, including the movies, TV shows, and Legends novels (the few he appears in) has always painted it as Bail was the senator AND the Viceroy of Alderaan. Which made no sense to me because how can you lead your world, but also spend all your time on Coruscant, dealing with other galactic politicians? So, I'm glad that this book cleared that up once and for all for me. 

Saw Gerrera isn't in the book a whole lot this time around, but he is in it a little bit, probably a bit more than he's in season 1 of Andor, but he's connected to Soujen's story. Soujen is a former Separatist soldier who was physically augmented to be a weapon to be turned against the Republic during the Clone Wars. Chemish and Haki are somewhat interesting, but they both got lost in the shuffle once Bail and Mon's stories started to intertwine again near the end of the book.

I could probably go on and on about this book, but I'll end this review here. It's a great companion to Andor and I'm glad I got to read it while watching season 1 of the show. The other two books in the trilogy will be out in the next couple of years, with book 2 being written by Rebecca Roanhorse, who I'm not familiar with as she's a more recent Star Wars author, who has only written one Star Wars novel and a short story prior to the next book in this trilogy. The book is coming out in the spring of 2026. Book 3 is being written by Fran Wilde, who is a brand new Star Wars author, who has only had a short story published in the 2023 anthology book, A Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. And the third book isn't coming out until 2027. So we'll see how the next two books turn out.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon over on my other blog, Josh's Geek Cave on Wednesday with a fun post over there about my favourite albums that I own on CD. Then I'll be back here with my review of Andor season 2 on Thursday. May the Force be with you.

Andor Season 1 (2022) Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well. Today on The Star Wars Journal, I'm going to be talking about season 1 of Andor. I'm so excited to be doing this review finally. I finished season 1 last night and I'm ready to talk about it. There will most likely be spoilers. In fact, on this blog assume there will be spoilers for everything I talk about because it's Star Wars and there's so much to talk about both in universe and in the real world when it comes to Star Wars that spoilers have to be spoken of. Also, any information I talk about here is coming from Wookieepedia, so if you'd like to read the page on Andor there and check out the sources it links to, please feel free to do so. So, let's get into it and talk about season 1 of Andor.

I was extremely skeptical about Andor. I hadn't enjoyed Rogue One as much as a lot of other people had when it came out back in 2016 and I thought Cassian Andor was a less interesting character than Jyn Erso was and felt she had a more interesting backstory that needed to be told due to her connection to Galen Erso, one of the scientists working on the Death Star, and her connection to Saw Gerrera, the radical leader of the Rebellion who had also fought the Separatists during the Clone Wars, as shown in the 2008 animated series of the same name. 

The interesting thing about Andor is that the show was planned as far back as when Rogue One came out, and Cassian Andor turned out to be a popular character, alongside his droid, K2-SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), before Disney started its own streaming service. Apparently Disney's original concept for the show was just Andor going on adventures with K2 prior to the events of Rogue One, and the company's CEO, Bob Iger announced the series in 2018 as one of the live action Star Wars shows Lucasfilm had planned for Disney+, alongside The Mandalorian. However, it wasn't until Tony Gilroy, who'd written Rogue One in the first place, came along and decided to make the show more nuanced than Disney's original concept seemed to have allowed it to be.

As happens with many shows, Gilroy's concept for Andor changed and shifted during the development of the first season. Initially Gilroy pitched a five season series to Lucasfilm, which would focus on Cassian's life beginning five years before Rogue One and A New Hope and leading into Rogue One, with the season five series finale leading directly into Cassian's involvement in the story of the movie. But, during production on season 1, Gilroy realized how long it took to make the first season and decided he didn't want to take fifteen years to make the show, as there would've been a two to three year gap between each season. Plus with Diego Luna physically aging during that time, and their decision not to use age reducing computer graphics to de-age Cassian so that he'd match up with how he looked in Rogue One, they decided together to reduce the number of seasons for the show from five to two. I'll talk about that more in my season 2 review, which I'll be doing on Thursday.

I love this show. Season 1 was incredible. Diego Luna, who has already aged a bit in the last ten years since he filmed Rogue One, was amazing as Cassian. I also loved Fiona Shaw, who we all know as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films, as Cassian's adopted mother, Maarva. However, my absolute favourite character in this show so far is Bix Calleen, played by Adria Arjona. 

I also really enjoyed the characters of Dedra Meero, played by Denise Gough, and Syril Karn, played by Kyle Soller. They're both evil and true believers in what they're doing for Palpatine and the Galactic Empire, and yet they're both just people doing their jobs and navigating a system that devalues their contributions to the jobs they have, with Dedra being one of the only two women in the Imperial Security Bureau, and Karn being a bit more ambitious and Imperial for his job at the Preox-Morlana Company's law enforcement department as a deputy inspector. I'm hoping to see more of that in season 2.

Other characters that I absolutely love in this show are Mon Mothma, played by Genevieve O'Reilly, who originally played her in deleted scenes in Revenge of the Sith in 2005, and has portrayed her ever since, Vel Sartha, played by Faye Marsay, who is a member of Luthen's network of Rebels, and Mon Mothma's cousin, Cinta Kaz, played by Varada Sethu, who is Vel's girlfriend and a member of Luthen's network of Rebels, Kleya Marki, played by Elizabeth Dulau, who is Luthen's second in command, and Luthen Rael, played by Stellan Skarsgard, who is a leader of the just starting out Rebel Alliance.

As I said in a recent blog post, I am absolutely thrilled that Mon Mothma has gotten so much to do starting with Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2010. I always felt she got shafted in both her original appearance in Return of the Jedi back in 1983, and in her deleted scenes from Revenge of the Sith that I always wanted to know more about her. Especially since the Legends novels never focused on her as a character. She appeared quite often in the novels, particularly in the '90s during the Bantam Spectra era of Star Wars Publishing, but none of them focused on her. She always served as a supporting character for Princess Leia, or as a guest character in books like the X-Wing series. So I was so happy to see her have a major role in Andor.

Vel and Cinta surprised me. They were introduced as part of the team that infiltrated the Imperial garrison on the planet, Aldhani, and I thought that that was all. But then it was revealed that Vel is Mon Mothma's cousin, and that Cinta was Vel's girlfriend, and my jaw dropped. Unlike many shows and movies these days, too many in my humble opinion, Andor treats Vel and Cinta's relationship as normal. It doesn't make a big deal out of it and doesn't try to hold itself up as the first lesbian relationship in Star Wars. It just shows it as the natural thing that it is, and as it should be portrayed as. I think what surprised me the most and the thing that I didn't hear about at all from people online, was Vel being Mon Mothma's cousin. Like that astounded me, because not only does it portray this badass woman who would do whatever it took for the mission on Aldhani to succeed, but she's also related to Mon Mothma, another badass lady who would go on to lead the Rebel Alliance to victory against the Empire at Endor in Return of the Jedi. Like what?

Luthen fascinates me. In Legends there's a character named Garm Bel Iblis, who was the senator from Corellia and who joined Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in forming the Rebel Alliance. However, shortly after the destruction of Alderaan in 0 BBY, he took his Corellian faction and withdrew from the Alliance for fear that Mon would declare herself Emperor once Palpatine was disposed of, as the way she dealt with things as the head of the Alliance was very much like how Palpatine handled things, being that as a revolutionary force, the Alliance needed a single leader rather than a committee, which is why it was so difficult for the Alliance to return to politics and diplomacy once it became the New Republic in 4 ABY. 

Luthen reminds me of Senator Bel Iblis a lot in this first season. He's the one doing a lot of the legwork concerning the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, along with Saw Gerrera, which is how Bel Iblis was portrayed as doing in the 1992 novel, Dark Force Rising when he told his story to Han and Lando. So I see Luthen as serving a similar role, as he's also more militarily minded than Mon Mothma and Bail Organa are. 

Overall I love the first season of Andor. It was engaging and more character driven than I have seen any Star Wars show or movie be even after Rogue One came out. And I really enjoyed that aspect of it. If you're still on the fence about Andor, as I was, I highly recommend trying the first three episodes, which is the first story arc of the series, to see if you like it. If you don't that's fine, but definitely give it a try.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for a Star Wars book review, where I'll be reviewing the first book in the Reign of the Empire trilogy, The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed. Until then have a great evening and May the Force be with you!