Hello friends! A few new Star Wars things to talk about and a movie, so let’s get to it!

(SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

The Acolyte, Episodes 1-5. I’ve been really enjoying this latest Star Wars offering, despite the haters and all their ridiculous criticisms. Let them complain; they’re missing out on some cool Star Wars. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it a new flavor of Star Wars that is intriguing, fun, and tragic all at the same time? Heck yes!

The only real problem I’ve had with it is the pacing, but it’s a minor grumble. As a reader of the High Republic books, I’m a bit sad that Vernestra has become so entrenched in politics and keeping things from the Council, but maybe that’s part of her character arc and that might change (people tend to change after a hundred years, I guess, lol). We’ll see.

I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you’ve been watching, so I’m not going to recap anything; let’s just talk about that awesome Episode 5. Holy lightsaber fights! This episode was full of not only the kind of Jedi action that we love, but some plot twists, shocking deaths, and on-point dialogue that had me glued to the screen.

I assumed that all the unnamed Jedi were goners, but Jecki’s death really hurt, and #YordHorde is mourning deeply. I’m a little shocked that Sol just left them there in the jungle, but I guess he couldn’t very well carry them both out, or any of the many Jedi that died that night; besides, they were in a hurry to get back to the ship and didn’t have time to bury them.

I was kind of surprised/not surprised that “The Stranger” turned out to be Qimir. I mean, it was obvious, but I figured it was a little too obvious. I’m still glad it was him, because Qimir–or whatever his name is– whether he’s the bumbling smuggler or the badass darksider, is very entertaining. Whether or not he’s an actual Sith has been up for debate in the fandom (some people think he might be an early Knight of Ren), but I’m going with yes, he is a Sith. The fact that he quotes part of the Sith code in an earlier episode (“Peace is a lie”) and he mentions the very word “Sith” makes it clear, at least to me. At any rate, he believes he’s a Sith. The whole Ki Adi Mundi outrage seems silly to me. I really don’t care when Legends said he was born; and clearly, his words about the Sith in the prequels shows he either a) doesn’t know about this guy because it was covered up, b) is lying, or c) is in deep denial over the whole thing, which is quite indicative of prequel Jedi in general.

Mae’s twin-swap, and the swapping of Masters, is something I was not expecting. I don’t like to predict anything about this show, precisely because it’s unpredictable and surprising, but I’m thinking Osha may become the Acolyte this guy’s looking for. I hope not, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m not sure about Mae’s fate, but I can’t wait to find out, as well as what actually happened on Brendock. Sol is the only one left who knows the truth and he’s going to have to confront that painful truth, whatever it is.

This show is keeping me on my toes, and I’m loving every minute of it!

Temptation of the Force, by Tessa Gratton. This is the second adult novel for Phase 3 of the High Republic (The Eye of Darkness by George Mann being the first, along with the YA offering Defy the Storm by Justina Ireland and middle grade book Escape from Valo by Daniel Jose Older and Alyssa Wong). This one came out the first week of June, so I’m only halfway through it, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

This one focuses on the Republic and the Jedi crossing the Nihil’s Stormwall for rescue and relief missions, trying to help those still stuck in the Occlusion Zone. With the help of Xylan Graf and Avon Starros, they find a way to bring down the Stormwall and launch an attack against the vicious General Viess, who has taken over the planet Naboo.

Meanwhile, Marchion Ro is investigating an intriguing but terrifying blight that is spreading across some worlds, hoping to use it to his advantage.

The book centers on a few personal relationships, the most obvious being the one between Jedi Masters Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann, as the cover would suggest. Close since their time as Padawans together, Elzar has always struggled with his feelings for Avar throughout the series, while Avar had maintained a boundary that she refused to cross. After many brushes with mistakes and the dark side, Elzar had been finally coming to terms with who he needed to be as a Jedi. Now, however, after escaping the Occlusion Zone in The Eye of Darkness and being away from Elzar for a year, Avar realizes she’s in love with him and has been slowly introducing the idea to him that they can be together and that their love is a good thing, without being possessive or selfish in that love. Hmm, I don’t know Avar, I don’t think you understand romantic love, or at least, the tendency of romantic love to go that way, lol. I’m totally shipping them, but I also am convinced that this relationship does not bode well for them, the Jedi, or the future of this story.

Another relationship it explores is that between Jedi Master Porter Engle and his nemesis General Viess. Their long history began many decades ago and was explored in a comic that I didn’t read, but I do know it resulted in Porter’s sister taking a vow that was ultimately named after her: the Barash Vow, in which a Jedi abstains from taking action from the Order and isolates oneself to listen only to the Force, as a kind of penance for some wrong-doing (this is seen in The Acolyte with Master Torbin, who had taken the Barash Vow sometime after the events on Brendock). At any rate, the two hate each other, but also respect each other; Viess has shown considerable skill in holding her own against a Jedi and the Force (having a beskar sword helps). Viess nearly killed Porter in the last book; now, he is determined to end her life and pursues her throughout this book relentlessly. Porter is clearly on a revenge mission, operating outside the Order, but he’s accepted that. Maybe he feels that if he survives, he’ll take the Barash Vow himself, but I don’t think he expects to live. It’s interesting because Porter has not fallen to the dark side at all. He just decided that he’s going to kill this woman or die trying, and that’s that, lol.

It’s these personal relationships and thorny Jedi choices that make these High Republic books so great to read, at least for me. We’re seeing the beginning of the end of the High Republic, events that lead to The Acolyte a hundred years on (which clearly shows the Jedi have become more political), which of course leads to the Prequel Jedi and their downfall. Good stuff! I’ll write more about this book next month after I’ve finished it.

Medstar I: Battle Surgeons and Medstar II: Jedi Healer (Legends), by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry. These two books are basically Parts 1 & 2 of one long novel, focusing on Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee, who has been sent to the planet Dongar to help the medical personnel stationed there. She suspects that her master, Luminara Unduli, has sent her there for her Jedi Trials. The planet is being contested by the Republic and the Separatists for a particular fungus that acts like bacta, but works even better. It focuses not only on Barriss, but on human chief surgeon Jos who has seen his share of clone injuries and deaths, a Sullastan reporter looking for his next big story, and an unnamed spy in their ranks, who works for both the Separatists and the Black Sun crime syndicate.

I picked these novels out mostly because of a renewed interest in Barriss considering her shorts in Tales of the Empire, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I really enjoyed these books on their own. Jos’ struggle with coming to terms with seeing clones as actual, individual human beings (and seeing droids as possibly sentient beings) while also struggling with his feelings for a woman who is not permissible according to his people’s traditions, really captured my full attention; Den Duhr, the Sullastan reporter, finds that he’s actually less cynical than he thinks and might even be a hero, though he’s loathe to admit it; and Barriss learns an important lesson about the dark side–that it can be deceptive and cloak itself in the illusion of doing the right thing. Or at least, what feels like the right thing. In fact, it doesn’t feel evil at all; it feels good. All the while, the question of who the spy is continually intrigues and makes the reader consider and eliminate various characters as the books go on.

I don’t read a lot of Legends books, but I personally loved these Medstar books.

Honor Among Thieves (Legends), by James S.A. Corey. I just started this book on my Kindle and haven’t gotten very far, but so far, it’s pretty good. It takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Leia asks Han to extract one of the Rebellion’s spies, Scarlet Hark, from the planet Cioran, deep in the heart of the Imperial-run Core. I’ll write more about it next month when I’ve gotten further or finished it, but I will say I like that it’s all Han’s point of view, which I don’t see too often.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I’ve always loved the Mad Max movies, though The Road Warrior is by far the best of the lot. When Fury Road came out a few years ago, I thought, a Mad Max movie without Mel Gibson? Pshaw! But Tom Hardy did an impressive job of filling those shoes, and anyway, Max wasn’t really the focus of that movie, Furiosa was, and I absolutely loved her! When I heard that another Furiosa movie was in the works, I got excited because I knew I’d love another go-round with Charlize Theron as the titular character. But wait–it’s not that. The filmakers go back in time and tell Furiosa’s story of how she came to the Citadel, beginning when she was taken as a child from The Green Place. And Anya Taylor-Joy would be playing young adult Furiosa. Disappointing to me, but I thought I’d give it a chance.

And by and large, I enjoyed the movie. It was interesting to know Furiosa’s backstory. How she was taken by marauders from her lush, green home in the middle of the Australian desert; how her mother pursued them across the wasteland like a demon and nearly succeeded in getting her child back; and how, ultimately, she was caught, tormented, and killed. The leader of the marauders, Dementus, is played by Chris Hemsworth, who’s been given a prosthetic nose to…I don’t know, dial down the handsome? I guess, but it works, because he looks strange to me, lol. But he does a great job portraying this weird, vicious, driven, but ultimately broken man, a man that Furiosa vows to take her revenge upon.

She ends up at the Citadel, run by the horrendous-looking Immortan Joe, while Dementus takes control of Gastown, one of the three communities in the wasteland (the other being Bullet Town). She’s brought to Joe’s harem, witnesses one of his women give birth to a baby with too many limbs and resists the gross advances of one of Joe’s sons. She decides she’d rather take her chances masquerading as a boy than stay in that harem, cushy though it may be (besides, you know, having to have sex with ugly Joe and giving birth to his mutant children).

She grows up learning what she can to survive, until one day she stows aboard a big rig that regularly makes a run to one or the other communities, to trade food for gas or weapons. The rig is attacked by marauders, though, and she and the driver, Praetorian Jack, are the only ones who survive. Jack, impressed with her, offers to teach her how to be a Praetorian (basically, a driver of the big rigs).

During the course of their time together, they fall in love. Yep, I said it: there’s an actual love story in a Mad Max movie (besides the first one all those years ago). It’s not overly done or thrown in your face, but it’s sweet and actually kind of nice to see such tenderness in this awful, vicious world. But of course, it can’t survive said viciousness. Inevitably, they get attacked by Dementus and his goons on one of their runs, and it doesn’t end well: Jack is killed (and not quickly) and Furiosa loses part of her arm, explaining that prosthetic arm she sports in Fury Road.

Eventually, war breaks out between the Citadel and Dementus, and Furiosa uses this opportunity to go after the man who kidnapped her and killed her mother, as well as her lover. She pursues him relentlessly and eventually gets her revenge. But here, it gets a bit ambiguous: did she simply shoot him in the head? Make him suffer like Jack? Or…plant a tree in his guts (the seed her mother gave her) and watch him suffer as it grew out of him? The fruit of which she brings to the women in Joe’s harem, beginning a relationship of trust with them? Which leads, of course, to her helping them escape in Fury Road.

I really enjoyed this movie, though I felt it was a bit too long. Taylor-Joy does a good job of portraying younger Furiosa, but Hemsworth as Dementus was pretty entertaining. A truly horrible man, but he must have had a family at some point, as he wears his (presumably dead) child’s teddy bear on his belt. This world had chewed him up and spit him out, and he survived by becoming as violent as the world that broke him. It’s a contrast to someone like Jack, who shows kindness and love despite his losses, and later, Max, who, while distant, still has a heart in there somewhere.

Speaking of Max, I blinked and nearly missed his “cameo” in this film: a distant shot of him leaning against his instantly recognizable vehicle atop a cliff, watching a chase from afar while eating his dogfood from a can. He’s in the title of the movie, so I guess he had to be in there somewhere, lol.

For some reason, this movie didn’t do well at the box office, but I thought it was a winner.

What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!