Hello friends!
I’m done with my reread of The Rising Storm, by Cavan Scott, and as I mentioned last week, I enjoyed it more the second time around. The crux of the story revolves around the Republic Fair on the planet Valo, which is attacked by the villainous Nihil. Jedi Masters Stellan Gios and Elzar Mann lead the Jedi in defending against the attack, along with Padawan Bell Zettifar and his devoted charhound, Ember.
I easily finished the book before The Fallen Star arrives at my door. The next High Republic book by Claudia Gray was released January 4th, but delivery being what it is these days, I’m not expecting it for a few more days. Waiting is hard….but while I’m waiting, I’ll start the middle-grade book Race to Crashpoint Tower, by Justine Ireland. It also takes place during the attack at the Republic Fair, but from the point of view of young Jedi Knight Ram Jamoram (that just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?). It was only 99 cents on Kindle, so why not? 🙂
Meanwhile, I’ve finished my rewatch of the sequel trilogy, with The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. One of the most interesting aspects of the sequels for me, personally, is my flip-flopping of how I feel about Kylo Ren. After hating him in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi delves a little more into his history and your feelings soften for him a little bit. You feel a little sorry for him, lol. But then at the beginning of TROS, he’s hardened again, and you think maybe he’s lost for good and there’s no hope for him. Right up until his and Rey’s last duel on the wrecked Death Star, he’s implacable.
And then, suddenly, his mother reaches out to him, and something answers. Rey deals him the death blow, and then heals him. And then the incredibly emotional scene with Han Solo happens, and he throws his wobbly lightsaber into the sea, and you know Ben’s back. It did seem really quick, but then again, throughout the sequels he’d been as wobbly as that lightsaber, feeling the pull of the light, struggling, torn, miserable. I really didn’t know which way he’d go until the very end. He’s one of the most interesting characters in Star Wars, in my opinion, and it helps that Adam Driver is such a great actor.
So, onto the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett, The Tribes of Tatooine. This was a great episode, and a lot happened, with a lot to take in. Hutts! A terrifying Wookiee named Black Krrsantan! Pykes and spice! A dream-inducing lizard up the nose! So many cool things. I like how we’re getting more cultural stuff about the Tuskens–we got a little bit in The Mandalorian, and there’s some interesting stuff in the book Kenobi that I recently read (although it’s Legends). They’re more than just savage brutes. I’m just learning that the warrior that teaches Boba how to fight with the gaffi stick is a female, which is awesome. (She’s played by stuntwoman Joanna Bennett).
But besides all that, I think it’s important that we see Boba’s spiritual journey in these flashback scenes. Once he climbed out of that Sarlacc, he was reborn, and now he has to face trials, both physical and spiritual, to figure out who he really is and what he wants now. He needs to become more than his father’s clone, more than a bounty hunter. In Legends, Boba also escapes the Sarlacc, but he remains a bounty hunter for the rest of his life, for the most part. As a main character now, he needs to be more than that, and I think this show is doing a great job telling that story. I love the soundtrack, by the way.
So with this new year, I’m going to be doing more blog posts, and I’ll write briefly about that in my Monday post. Stay tuned.
That’s it for now; what’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!
Star Wars and Other Obsessions 
Your review has really amped me up for writing my review of the second episode of TBoBF because I thought it was simply incredible! But I’ll leave my comments for that review 🙂 and maybe come back later lol. Regarding Kylo Ren – YES, your points all make perfect sense because that is how he appeared to me too (well, I adored him towards the end lol and I still hold onto the hope that maybe Ben Solo will reappear in some form in another story or film or show). I think some people honestly give Kylo a bad rap which is partially deserved – Adam Driver wanted people to misunderstand him because Kylo didn’t understand who he was or what he was doing for most of his life. He was lost to everyone for a long time, but most of all, he was lost to himself. I don’t believe we see the real him until the very end of TRoS which of course, is when he dies so that kinda sucked. But I get a little annoyed when people are all like “oh he’s just this emo little brat squealing and crying because he doesn’t get his way blah blah”. If you were a kid and you were pushed away by someone you loved and made to feel like you had betrayed them, you would probably turn to the dark side too lol. I guess some of it depends on the expanded comics as well because we know some of Kylo’s story is written in those comics by Charles Soule (which are really good by the way). I am glad you’ve decided to blog more. My big thing is reading this year but for me, reading and writing have always gone hand-in-hand so I will most likely be writing a lot more too 🙂 It’s going to be exciting! Can’t wait to read more of your reviews 😀
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A lot of people, including myself, didn’t understand Kylo until The Last Jedi. We’re not given much to go on in the first movie, just his actions, which were deplorable. But behind every villain is pain and suffering, which we saw more of in TLJ. I do have Charles Soule’s comic The Rise of Kylo Ren, but it’s on my Kindle, and it’s so hard to read comics on Kindle, as I’ve found out, lol. Oh well, I think I can read it on Amazon on the Cloud or whatever. Anyway, here’s to more blogging this year, for both of us!
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I thought about getting an e-reader for the longest time but l got a new tablet instead for Xmas last year and I am just reading everything on that now. The good thing about a tablet is that you can use any e-reader you like to read with so you’re not restricted I guess. But heaps of people I know use Kindles and I came so close to buying one myself 🙂 And I didn’t know that about Kindles but it makes sense – so it can read .cbr files too (comic book files). That is pretty cool but yeah, .cbr files are formatted differently I think which could be why they’re too hard to read on Kindles. If you have to convert them from a .cbr to whatever the kindle reads, it might distort the media (just guessing, I have no clue as I’ve never used a Kindle before) 😀 But the comics expand his story really well I thought – fills in some gaps that make him more “whole” I guess.
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Yeah, I’m going to try to read it on Amazon, which I think I can do with all my Kindle ebooks if I want to. Might be a bit easier to read and actually see the illustrations, lol.
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Sounds like a plan 🙂 Let me know what you think of them if you do 😀
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Will do!
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