What was great about back then was the number of eras to choose from, which took risks which had long-term consequences. Now, besides for the High Republic storyline, all we have is the milking of the period from the Clone Wars to some years past the Battle of Endor for all it’s worth. Mainly, spin-offs of spin-offs of the Clone Wars CGI series. And they are seemingly afraid to take chances, down to the sparse dialogue in the shows. Maybe if they didn’t spend the majority of their budget on the shows, we could have more.
When I read Light of the Jedi, it was really apparent to me that this was just set in the wrong time. They needed to go back further. I'd have gone back to 8,000 BBY. That was just one of the issues I had with it. I was in the largest chain book store near me yesterday. They now have zero Star Wars books on shelf. It had been getting smaller and smaller for some time, but now nothing.
I didn't mind that. I got so fed up with their new saying that was so incredibly dumb; " _We, are all of the Republic._ " It's like they had to bite their tongue to not say " _May the Force be with you_ " because of how they keep spitting that line out so they had to make up a new one, that somehow is even worse when said 5 times in 2 pages. And then the other most glaring mistep of the book: Yoda is described as being _already old_ . Why? It makes no sense. It's like the writer ( _Charles Soule_ ) just lacked the creative mind to picture Yoda as being young. Aside from that, _Light of the Jedi_ was pretty interesting, until we found out who the villain was... Then it was just... Meh.
I heard a piece of writing advice somewhere that goes something like "Is this the most interesting thing your characters can be doing right now? If not, is there a reason you aren't showing us that?" The golden age of the New Republic just doesn't sound as interesting as the Old Republic vs the Sith Empire.
To be honest I never had an issue with the High Republic era being 200 years before the movies despite some people think it a bit short but in real-life Rome fought in the Punic wars from (264 and 146) BC and then one hundred to two hundred years later Rome was literally fighting itself in it’s civil wars such as Sulla, Marius, and Caesar. As for Yoda in this period there is concept of Yoda with a topknot in the Art of the High Republic book where according to Kristin Baver at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022 they were considering making Yoda younger. The reason why they abandoned topknot Yoda and keep Yoda the same was because since he was 900 years old in Return of the Jedi which is set 4 ABY when he died so from the perspective of Lucasfilm artists that involved within the High Republic creative team. he probably not going to change so drastically in 200 years between The High Republic and the Phantom Menace. Also Yoda was born around 896 BBY and by the time of Phase 1 he would be around 664 years old with Phase 2 being set 150 years earlier he would be 514 years old so i could see why they didn't use topknot Yoda as imagined that concept would be set either at the age of 100s-200s or 300s-400s? given Grogu is 50 years old in the Mandalorian? it is worth noting that the artist points out this in his commet ''For a younger Yoda, I was keeping those elements of his bone structure and chaseland them out a little bet, smoothing some areas, but leaving those timeless wrinkles on the forehead.''
@@MrWill9002What exactly was the issue then, because relative to other species, Yoda is ancient. I'm going to re-skim the passage to be fair, however I don't exactly understand your criticism.
Yeah, my biggest complaint about Disney era Star Wars is that they are really bad at showing galactic scale conflict and scale in general. TLJ had the fate of an entire galaxy of trillions upon trillions of beings whittled down to three transport ships on one side and maybe two dozen capital ships on the other. Too bad this trend seems to extend to the books.
It’s so confusing. The first time I saw TLJ I legitimately thought that was the entire First Order and Republic since the Republic planets and Starkiller base blew up, and they never established the size of either. That was never an issue in either previous trilogy, as both presented the scale of each side and how they fought. The Rebel alliance felt like a massive organization compared to the Galactic Republic which should not be the case.
I agree Disney Star Wars feels tiny. They are Terrible at scale. Even the giant battle at the end of RoS felt tiny, because it was poorly presented, and because of the tiny feeling mess of the rest of Disney Star Wars made it feel like there weren’t real stakes.
The battle of Coruscant is such a breath of fresh air, it was a big return to form after the prior two movies, and now that the sequels are done and the closest thing we have to that is still the battle over Scarif, it makes you put everything into perspective. Is this where the fun has to end?
I really want a series post-ROTJ when the New Republic and Empire are fully at war, huge-scale battles with dozens of star destroyers and star hawks and crap. I feel like it's a great time period for massive strategic battles, which we seem to almost never see now.
The Old Republic Era is the equivalent of Classical Antiquity. While the High Republic era is essentially the Galactic renaissance and the equivalent of the Renaissance anti-age of exploration. Also it is the equivalent of the Arthurian legends and the Age of Heroes for the Jedi order of this period.
Which is essentially what the High Republic Era is. You have heroes like Stellan Gios, Avar Kriss, and Porter Engle being legendary Jedi in their own right willing to sacrifice themselves against the Nihil within this time period. Also to be fair legends never explored this 1,000 year time period between Darth Bane and Darth Plagueis so maybe if it did explored back when legends were around I could see the legend version being similar albeit with some differences like maybe you could tell some planetary conflicts that the Jedi had to solve or something like that. Plus was piracy a big problem as well for this time period in legends (that contributed to the republic decline plus you have the stark hyperspace war.) especially for the Judicial Forces?
Wait... that whole plot point actually sounds incredibly similiar to the Dark Imperium series from Warhammer 40k, post the Fall of Cadia - a significant event which split off Imperium Nihilus from the rest of the Imperium with a great warp-rift spreadying from the Eye of Terror. It might just be surface level in its similarities, but that is rather strange.
I was just thinking this, especially with the way the villain group is described. It sounds like if someone who didn't really get WH40k tried to convert it to SW.
Makes sense as the Disney brand of Star Wars hasn't had a single good idea except doing a movie that leads in to the first scene of a new hope and that film took reshoots and rewrites. Since Disney killed Star Wars (maybe someone will rescue it one day) I have been getting in to 40k way more, I would say Disneys loss is GWs gain for sure despite being very different IPs and I really should look in to the Dark Imperium series but theres sooooo muuuchhh looorreee
@@notwhatitwasbefore Lmao. Gotta love people like you saying Star Wars is dead every day. You're always wrong. Andor was great. Rogue One. Star Wars Squadrons, The Bad Batch, Rebels, Jedi game series, and on and on. Also, GWs gain? lmfao. They've been fucking up almost non-stop for a decade. Gotta love people like you trying to claim Star Wars is dead and defending one of the most horribly run properties in the world.
Also, you can't copy an idea that has been used ad nauseum for thousands of years. You're basically describing a galactic version of West and East Rome. Rome and the Byzantine Empire. It's no different than any other outside context story trope. It wasn't original to 40k, either.
@@nkosig4995 Well if you played Halo Reach the Covenant had their fleets carrying cruisers as well. Plus that the point of this period the republic is not militarized until 200 years hence why you planetary forces like the RDC and the judicial forces. Once we reach the prequel era that when capital ships become important again.
The Stormwall sounds exactly like that weirdo path to Exegol that everyone needs a special Force compass to navigate (except Lando & Friends, he presumably was granted passage for his winning smile).
Because yall dont read or understand this video he clearly is missing a fuckton of information to know why it all works, the books explain it all lmao @@MrChickennugget360
@@MrChickennugget360they have republic senators in their pocket, the scientist who specialised in hyperspace gravity also worked for the nihil. They're not actually an anarchist group, the leader, marchion ro, is extremely organised and prepared
I've never really enjoyed the concept of the High Republic era taken at face value. It's suppost to be over a thousand years of galactic history in which near zero major conflict takes place. And a pack of laser sword carrying PACIFISTS can keep everything in line. That in itself is really hard to believe and seems to imply that the only thing dangerous enough to actually pose any amount of world altering threat is the sith, which does a disservice to everyone else in the setting. Are there not pirates or slavers? Are there not internal divisions and power struggles? Are you telling me that hundreds of intellegent races simply get along perfectly fine because republic? No plagues or disasters worth mentioning occurr in over a THOUSAND years?
I agree with most of what you said but at no point can the jedi be called pacifist conflict averse absolutely but not pacifist, pacifist dont chop your arms of if you dont surrender.
Was thinking the same. Anyone, with an even passing knowledge of history would know this state of affairs is utterly hilarious and nonsensical. No possible way an area this large, containing this main diverse species would always get along. Nor would the governing body not have an active military force to protect it.
Never understood the appeal of the era you would with an enemy attacking republic space they would have an army or personal militia to defend them self.
If games are your thing, there's a High Republic open-world game in-development that has a character creator. I have such high hopes for iiiit!!! Like, can we play as a Nihil, or an ex-Jedi who left The Jedi Order or was kicked out, or a Jedi Wayseeker (my favourite Jedi type)? And there's so many cool species in that era! I can hardly wait!
Honestly this whole thing feels like it would probably work better as a Star Trek plot. Then I remember Lower Decks actually did do something similar to this, just on a smaller scale.
I can see surface level similarities but this seems way too wacky. In DS9, the mines not only took a while to set up, but they only covered a relatively tiny area of space rather than the entire quadrant. They were also disabled with relative ease (ableit taking a while) rather than practically doubling its size.
@@justice9539 This. The mines simply made it so the wormhole was worthless to the Dominion, preventing them from bringing in external fleets to bolster their massive fleet already present.
Wouldn't surprise me. Star Wars came to life stealing from Star Trek (Doomsday Machine was stolen and made the Death Star) so I suppose it's only fitting that it continues to steal from Star Trek even though both franchises are now dead.
This era should have been the Jedi trying to hold a republic together that was collapsing under its own weight. It should have highlighted the flaws of huge governments, the failing of a Jedi order becoming more and more political, and occasionally Jedi coming up against sith plots.
It says a lot that at my local Barnes & Noble you can still find wave 1 High Republic first editions while they have difficulty keeping legends books in stock.
You realize they restock right , like bro lol and the legends books only get reprints sometimes , literally yall use your eyes and still act like face value with no critical thought is fact
@@GazingTrandoshan Of course they get restocked, but not first editions, especially not two years later. Also, legends reprints are always available, at least online.
Wait, what happened to the creature the Sith sealed away only for the Jedi to undo the seal and get screwed over it at the start of the High Republic in the comics Eckharts Ladder?
Something you do actually see in the high republic comics for this phase is the militarization of the Jedi order and how they go from these really cool lightsaber designs to the ones we get in the prequels - and considering one of the main characters is one of the Jedi that have statues - the ones that left I'm hoping we see why
Me too and thank you for bringing that up we are literally seeing the seeds of the downfall for not just the Jedi Order but also the Galactic Republic.
I honestly thought that bit was a little silly. The Prequel Jedi all build their own Lightsabers and it was implied this was a tried and true method they'd done for centuries, but apparently back then the Order has a whole workshop of Jedi building Lightsabers en masse, or even just for simple pleasure. Like the one woman who was sculpting a single blade for ages. When was it ever previously established that Jedi just constructed a bunch of cookie-cutter Lightsabers during a crisis? And why don't they seem to do it during the Prequels, when a galaxy-wide war has broken out?
If they wanted to set a series of stories in the 1000-years between the last Sith Wars and the Prequels they could have done it. They just would have had to make them smaller, more "self-contained" stories. Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest did that very well.
Been watching your videos for years man, and I love the pre-Disney EU... I've tried to get into the High Republic, but there is just like... Too much. So when I see you doing book life, often I get to go... Hey I remember that! Would love a deep dive on Hapes if you ain't done one yet!
I read the first three books. The middle one was good enough to make me read the third. All in all it was pretty meh. I lost interest completely when they changed the era completely. They almost have to put a cap on how dangerous the enemy can be because its not like the Republic can fight them in an actual full on conflict so close to the prequels.
lol, a Senator leaves their cushy perfectly decadent life in the letteral center of the galaxy to go live with some space barbarians and somehow internally justifies it as somehow having more authority, power and importance? Sounds to me like a rich kid coming into their midlife crisis.
I was also mixed on phase one and currently trying to get into phase 3, but i will say that i really enjoyed phase 2 a lot. Yes, it felt largely separate from phase 1 and 3, but i found the characters and storytelling much more focused and engaging, not to mention the actual books were better written. I understand i may be in the minority about this, but I'd personally recommend phase 2 over 1 or 3.
#AskEck Could we get a video on how to pronounce certain names in Star Wars? Joruus C'baoth (Is it Saa-bai-yoth, Sa-bo-ath, or Se-baoth?); Darth Caedus (Kay-dus, or Cai-dus?); AT-AT(Rhymes with "Hat-Hat", or say each individual letter?); and other infamous examples of confused pronunciations in Star Wars?
@@WSFM_Rex But at least it would clear up the controversy with a canon source on how to pronounce AT-AT. Plus, all the other names that are hard to pronounce in the lore would get a canon pronunciation to go by, as well.
I bought nearly every SW novel that came out from the second Rogue Squadron book up until Disney declared Legends to be non-canon. I haven't bought one since then. While I know I've missed some good stuff, I'm not too bothered by it and am glad I was able to make such a clean break.
@@AshanBhatoadisney continuity is quite awful. So I see why they want nothing to do with it there are way better books out there than current star wars canon.
The High Republic novels don't just show the entire Republic as the ultimate good. They also go out of their way to show that some the senate and well off Core worlds don't really care. The YA book Out Of The Shadows (2021) by Justina Ireland features members of the Coruscant elite and senate members actually joining forces with the Nihil as power plays that also expand the Nihil's reach. Out Of The Shadows also does most of the setup for the Stormwall later with the characters gaining an understanding of how the path engines work as well as one of the villains doing work on the manipulation of gravity funded by those elites. The Stormwall itself was set off in Phase 1 too in the comic miniseries Eye Of The Storm (2021) by Charles Soule which is included in the Marvel The High Republic (2021) Volume 3.
"The YA book Out Of The Shadows (2021) by Justina Ireland features members of the Coruscant elite and senate members actually joining forces with the Nihil as power plays that also expand the Nihil's reach." Why though, why do members of the Coruscant elite and Senate join with the Nihil? The Nihil are so cartoonishly evil that they simply aren't compelling, they have no connection to the various amoral motivations that we as humans feel, motivations that for example the Sith act on. It's difficult as a reader to approach them as anything but mindless monsters because that's all they really act like. Also, once again we've entered a situation for like the fortieth time in Disney Canon where they've added something to the setting that's completely ridiculous and technologically illogical with the Stormwall, which is funny because one of the key criticisms against Legends by Disney defenders is that Legends had too many superweapons and contrived plot devices yet Canon has repeated almost all of Legends worst mistakes (Bringing back Palpatine, except in a way somehow way worse than Dark Empire) while exceeding those idiotic plot devices with their own ridiculousness (Stormwall). At least Legends had dozens of compelling stories and characters that fit in the Star Wars Universe, Disney Canon has only a couple at this point.
Literally what they are doing?? The point of the phases is time periods , its set like the OT/PT/ST not some deep marvel thing calm down @@martinjrgensen8234
I read through the first two phases of High Republic and it just didn't do it for me. The world building is good, but the stories themselves are mid to poor and the characters are down right bad and there's far to many of them. It would have been better to do trilogies of set characters instead of so many anthologies. Seems like they're trying to tell the story of the whole universe, but they really need to follow a finite set of compelling characters. All of the characters they introduced are just collections of tropes or trying to be edgy for the sake of edginess. And most are in one book and then just background characters in other books. It really prevents the reader from submersing in the world at all.
I think the idea is to use the first three phases to built up the era and a wide cast of characters, so once the ground work for the era has been established they can start focusing more on character heavy stories and plot lines. I can see the writers logic as it makes it easier to world-build when you have a largest and more spread out cast.
Those in Legends were walking tropes, Cade emo, the characters of the High Republic feel alive, with emotional problems, they even have to go to the psychologist after the Valo massacre, with motivations and beings of Light, not like the annoying idiots of the Old Republic that made you wish they would die
@@matt.1504 And yet, which is more popular? Say what you like about the masses, but if it sells, then you'd be a fool not to copy whatever works and make bank, rather than something niche that may flop.
They Old Republic is just so much better. The interplay with the Sith Empire and thousands of Jedi and Sith, organized warfare, and courting various factions (Hutts, corporations, etc) was so much more interesting. Frankly, Disney doesn’t actually know how to write good antagonists, which is why they dug Palpatine out of his grave. They certainly can’t write compelling antagonists during a period where the “good guys” mostly stand unopposed. It’s just got no believable stakes.
When they do try to write a villain, their take is so shallow because they try to force “nuance” into it instead of developing their characters properly.
@@thedarkestfateful I don’t think nuance is a problem, necessarily. Every character is a mix of traits. I think it is more difficult to write nuanced motivations, but that is the expectation now.
general viess was her own faction btw she has a whole ass fleet and capital ship and tanks and firepower before she even joined the nihil. also i dont know if the map is super accurate, alot of hyperspace lanes and planets werent really discovered at this moment. shes a merc btw the nihil have like 5 generations of saved funds
Yea its weird, hes never covered the content but then is proclaiming things all of a sudden without much thought into hey there is literal lore established to explain every single thing @@AshanBhatoa
I've enjoyed the aspects of believing in the High Republics "Grand Works" and that the Nihil couldn't possibly destroy something so massive in scale, just to see failure from the Jedi and Republic. Seeing the consequences has been interesting. In the eye on darkness, it really seemed like they had reached their storyline on the Nihils motivations. It's questioned throughout the entire book. The Path of the Open Hand was a bit more intriguing for me and the way they first introduced the Leveler had me extremely interested for a bit. Sorry, just a bunch of random thoughts
#askeck #AskThreepio Asides from Mon Cala, what other planets successfully, openly rebelled against the Empire/openly allied with the Rebels before Endor? I know that there were many attempts at this during Operation Domino which were mostly crushed, but there were a few asides from Mon Cala Lore ship Versus video request: Resurgent vs. Starhawk Tie Striker vs. New Republic V-Wing World Devastator vs. Vong Worldship Tie Silencer vs. X-83 Twintail Tie Silencer vs. Tie Defender (legends version) Keldabe vs. ISD II MC90 vs. Nebula class star destroyer Nebula class vs. Pellaeon class Majestic class vs. Bothan Assault Cruiser EAWX: FOTR’s Mandator II portrayal vs. Subjugator Praetor vs. Subjugator EAWX: TR’s Mediator portrayal vs. Resurgent Starhawk vs. Bulwark MK III Gargantua/Aratech 520 Battle Platform vs. A6 Juggernaut
Alderaan (Which was Destroyed); Sullust; and maybe The Roche Asteroids (Officially, they were neutral, but they provided Starfighters to The Rebel Alliance, like The B-Wing bombers). Edit: I think Sullust is the best choice.
@@gehrigstory6674 Alderaan didn’t openly rebel against the Empire. That’s why in Episode IV Leia claimed they were a peaceful planet. Sullust, while it had a resistance movement, didn’t openly switch sides till after Endor. It was the endpoint for the Sanctuary Pipeline that was created by the Empire to supply the Death Star II constructed site
@@lightspeedvictory Honestly, I'm not sure what known planets did openly rebel against The Empire before Endor. The Empire would fully subjugate any planet that dared to overthrow their Imperial Overlords. At least, in Legends I don't know of any planets in particular. Chandrila (Mon Mothma's homeworld) was a Core World heavily under Imperial Control. Corellia (Homeworld of Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, and Garm Bel Iblis) was another Core World under the heavy, controlling eye of Imperial rule. Hutt Space, and Hapan Space were neutral before Endor. Kashyyyk was deeply under Imperial Control until after Endor, with Wookiee slaves playing a major role in building The Death Stars. Maybe Onderon was a rebel world before Endor, due to Saw Gerrera's Partisans, but after he died, I'm not so sure. Manaan (Homeworld of The Selkath, and their Kolto healing agent) might've rebelled successfully, but again, I don't know enough of the lore behind that to be sure. So, in Legends, I don't know of any worlds that openly rebelled against The Empire before Endor, and were successful. As for Disney Canon, I do know that Lothal was one such planet that successfully overthrew The Empire before Endor, as shown in The Star Wars: Rebels finale. So, there's one such planet, at least.
I certainly can agree with a lot of the criticisms. I did find that even as an adult I found some of the YA books to be much more enjoyable. Felt like there were less random characters thrown in for the sake of it and it followed a more traditional plot-line.
I read the phase one books and man, the quality is just BAD. Thankfully I never bought said books (I have a VERY good library), because they really feel like mass-produced "product" books meant to sell you something and not tell you a good story. Disney is so keyed up to make this the 'greatest' era of the franchise that they didn't bother HOW to do that. I see it as another case of quantity over quality, as Kennedy and Iger simply have no idea how to make good stories.
I think that's a fair take for the books, etc. It's pretty clear that their reason-for-being is to set up the background lore for bigger projects like the Acolyte, which I really hope is good
How do chaos barbarians teach advanced engineering well enough to invent, construct and maintain a galactic force field ? That requires incredible coordination, organization, sophistication and cooperation which seems nonexistent.
I think part of the problem is the setting. The High Republic is supposed to be a time of relative peace. It means it should be a time where threats do not effect whole sectors. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be threats, but they should be relatively small ones. We should be watching how the Republic and Jedi become complacent, even apathetic, because of the lack of big threats. Of course, that would require nuanced and subtle writing. It doesn't help when the threat is comically evil for evil's sake, a society that would have killed itself off long before they reached space.
Sorry to hear you ultimately couldn’t get invested in it. I’ve found The High Republic titles to be that fresh new line of books and comics that the series had been in need of for sometime, which Legends provided more of true, and found the world and character building to be very well done to.
My only exposure to the High Republic so far has been through Jedi Survivor, and it has promise but we need to SEE more. not books, we need more games and even better a show or movie.
The acolyte takes place at the end of the High Republic era. Takes place between 50 to 100 years before phantom menace and is set to introduce the Sith emergence.
I understand the idea that Star Wars has always been supreme good vs outright evil. This is a trope as old as time itself, however Star Wars made it interesting because it gave us a new universe setting in which this idea is represented. That in it of itself is cool. Lord of the Rings is about good vs evil and just that. But that also gave us an amazing setting for it, which made everything worth it. Furthermore, apart from the setting, the story in which we got the representation of good vs evil was also amazing. In Lord of the Rings it was phenomenal, and in Star Wars , while at times a bit clunky, was also really good. So we had an amazing setting for this good vs evil old trope, combined with great story. The problem is that after decades of it, people now what to see something more, and I agree with them. Good vs evil is old and bland, but we did have an amazing setting for it which made us enjoy the cliché of it. The story made us want to see even more of it. But now, I think people want to see nuances of gray as well, because we already have dozens of great moments of pure evil vs pure good in Star Wars. Now, we need more aspects, characters that define these absolutes. That is why a character like Baylan Skoll was so appealing to people. Why people enjoy Revan so much. The examples of characters and stories can continue, but you get my gist.
I fully agree with you on the Nihil. I tried getting into the High Republic books, but the Nihil just aren't interesting villains and logically shouldn't be able to work as a big threat at all. They're just "always chaotic evil" "generic doomsday villains" with no depth to them at all from what I can tell(*). The worst thing is that, as you said, the Sith and Palpatine have shown that irredeemable evil CAN work as a compelling antagonist. The Nihil just don't. (*)And apparently, Marchion Ro's entire species is _genetically evolved_ to be *compelled to backstab* whenever they can. How that can even work is beyond me...
I rolled myu eyes and passed on the high republic the moment it started. But dude i'm glad you gave it a try. I was kinda hoping i was wrong and it'd turn out to be good.
@@singletona082 How can you enjoy/not enjoy something on something you’ve passed on? It’s like when a child refuses food before they’ve tasted it for the first time.
If they managed to twist it into a form of the sith that were in hiding manipulating these otherwise normal people into barbarians, maybe it could work as a previous attempt of gaining ultimate power, but it just seems so mid right now.
I’m going to have to majorly disagree with pretty much everything. I’ve just finished the HR first trilogy and I loved every second of it. The characters, the world building, the ships, the politics. IMO people are too obsessed with lightsaber battles and Jedi vs sith. That’s in literally almost every SW project with very few exceptions, and it’s getting old. This new era is really interesting to me. The nihil are very interesting to me, as they are brutal and brash, but to the main antagonist, marcheon, it’s just a tool for his end goal. It’s interesting to see the Jedi, who have always been explained as peacekeepers and NOT soldiers, face something so evil and terrifying that they end up breaking their moral codes to end the threat. I think people are just opposed with legends (even though so much of it was garbage in my opinion), that they just automatically discount the stories of this era because it is under Disney. As much as I don’t like Disney’s influence over Star Wars, this is one of the few projects that I’ve loved so much. Lastly, I can almost guarantee that 60-70+ percent of people trashing this era hasn’t even read or listened to any of these stories themselves, and just basing their opinions on reviewers.
I totally disagree, I am a 70s child so Star Wars has been in my life all my life, I've read countless comics and books over the decade, from the EU to many other small works of fiction and I will state that THR project is the MOST consistent Star Wars lore we have had in years. The Sequels are an absolute disgrace, inconsistencies of a whole new level and utter garbage storytelling and huge wasted opportunities. I have read everything of the THR so far, with the novels and comics together you get the full picture. Lots of great new characters to love and hate and multiple crossovers of said characters throughout all the mediums with no continuity issues. Some of the stories told are truly terrifying with Marchion Ro's malevolent Nihil and nameless creatures wrecking havoc. Its not perfect by any means, but the quality of writing outdoes even the live action shows(I loved Ahsoka in TCW but the live show was pathetic, no real stakes at all, and Kenobi was a joke with the Leia storyline retconning ANH). We only have few decent SW things this year, but the conclusion of phase 3 looming that will lead into The Acolyte is very exciting and the most stoked I've been for a while. And lets not forget, nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans 😝🤣
Interesting the whole barrier thing is the sort of idea that should never be inserted in to a prequel because it sounds like something Palpy boi would of used, Sealing off a massive chunk of galaxy would be great for many of his plans. Why wouldn't you use this tech or an improved version of it to stop those pesky rebels from well doing anything really but certainly attacking the DS2, I mean maybe let the fleet jump in then activate it and boom Imperial final victory over the organised rebellion easy. I appreciate you spending the time to wade through the larger body of SW works because had it been good I would never of known as I had zero interest in it for the moment they announced it. Going back before a set story era is really tricky and even GL had issues with doing it but I can't think of any other IP (I'm sure theres something) that has even manged to do that well besides I am completely convinced the idea at Disney was to overwrite the original movies and lore with their own, theres clearly no love or even like for what Star Wars was and its just a name to make piles of money from.
Even though the space wall thing is really dumb in my opinion… it maybe could make more sense if it was set a few thousand years earlier, which would make it easier to buy as lost technology. But you can’t tell me palpatine hasnt heard of the big SPACE WALL that sectioned off an entire part of the galaxy that was around only a couple hundred years ago.
@@d3thkn1ghtmcgee74 Even when Palpatine has a Galaxy Gun that shoots indestructible missiles across the galaxy through hyperspace that could one-shot The Chimera, killing Thrawn, and Pelleon, instantly? Though, Thrawn might figure out a way to deal with that problem.
@@gehrigstory6674 he probably would find a way to defeat it lol. But at the end of the day theyd probably be working together if thrawn knew the emperor was still alive hiding on byss lol
YES! I totally agree that this was a missed opportunity. The High Republic for me has so much potential to expand the scope of SW and give us new stories. I honestly thought after reading the first book the Nihil were just a front for a much greater threat, not Sith, but some shadowy force using the Nihil as a distraction and as cannon fodder. However with each book that hope died. I still think there is some pretty good stuff in the High Republic but it really has become such a mixed bag and a missed opportunity
The High Republic is probably my favourite Disney era project after Andor. I really like it. But I totally get why some people don’t. I love how interconnected all the books are. People compare it to the Old Republic, and I don’t really think that’s fair. It is it’s own era. It’s not trying to be the Old Republic
I’m not going to bother with the main story this initiative is telling, but I like its integration into Jedi: Survivor and I’m looking forward to The Acolyte, which seems poised to actually explore the interesting narrative opportunities this time period presents
Took me till the end of the First Phase to realize how much of a shallow endeavor this was. It's quite troubling how much of Disney Canon lacks in depth.
You're missing the point of the Nihil, Eck. They exist BECAUSE this era in Star Wars is so boring and stagnant. The Nihil are a reaction to, and a rebellion against, that very aspect. Life in the High Republic is life in a bird cage. It's dressed up by the cage keepers to look pretty and keep people happy, but there's no real variety, no challenge, no competition, nothing but a procedural drone of rule-following and mundane day-to-day activity. And the keepers of the cage (Jedi, Senate) don't want you to leave the cage, so they tell you to simply enjoy your boring little cage-life. "There's nothing good out there. Why would you want to leave, when all you need is right here?" Hear that mantra enough, and you'll either believe it, or you'll go out of your mind. The Nihil are the ones outside the cage, and those who have escaped the cage. They see life in the cage as worse than death, and their goal is to break the cage. The High Republic is boredom personified; the Nihil see themselves as the cure to that. Joining the Nihil has the same draw factor that internet trolling has: you can do whatever you want, say whatever you want, hurt whoever you want, and no one really has the power to stop you. You are a force of chaos, disrupting the boring old "order," and you're doing it all for yourself, unlike those poor saps in the Republic who live only to help others. The Nihil are freedom. It's wild, untamed, and terrifying outside the cage, but you are FREE. And they know others must want to leave the cage, too, so why shouldn't they rattle and break the cage? Shouldn't everyone be free?
I think part of the problem is how they’re telling it. With the Old Republic, it was simpler. They started with the legendary video games, and THEN expanded the era with various books and the excellent John Jackson Miller comic run. But with the High Republic, it’s been books and comics right off the bat. Besides Jedi Survivor, all the other major media with this era is still in limbo. If they’d released The Last Acolyte and Star Wars: Eclipse first, then they could have expanded the era with the books and comics.
Pretty sure Tales of the Jedi came before the video games. Yeah, 1993 vs 2003. That's a 10 year gap. How do you make this comment and not even bother looking up when the comics came out vs when the game came out? You must be under 30 years old.
Personally I’m just very very happy to have the Nihil as a new group of antagonists m that don’t ape off of Sith, Empire, and/or the CIS. I kinda hope they don’t have any connection to the Sith
Agreed, while I loved the idea of the Rule of two secretly in the background plotting everything especially the way they operated according to the Darth Plagueis. I’m just glad that they didn’t have any involvement of the Nihil or at least the Ro family in general.
They will be. Don't forget the High Republic main focus is to be the Prequel of the Prequel Trilogy, and that one was about the Sith coming back from the Shadows. Phase II already show us how all the galaxy was tainted by Sith actions from the past. Now we're going right to discover Darth Plagueis chessboard and how the Sith worked in the shadow (The Acolyte) during their Darth Bane's rule of two era
@@WyattDucar An idea I just had that could be interesting is some other group (besides the Sith) are behind groups like the Nihil, using them to take over the galaxy. And the current Sith are against that because it would ruin their own plans. So they have to find a way to help the Republic win without exposing themselves in the process. Galactic conquest can't really be exclusive to the Sith; there's got to be other people who really want to rule everything. And it could show that it wasn't just 1,000 years of the Sith waiting and biding their time while everything went their way. They had to deal with curveballs that'd scupper their plans without realising they even exist.
What upset me about the book was basically nothing at all was accomplished. At the end of all of those chapters the only things of significance that happened were someone escaped the zone for the first time, and the area of the wall grows. That's it. Almost everything about the story is the same at the start as it is at the end.
I am so glad you brought up the goody-two-shoes aspect of the Jedi Order in this era and the lack of logic in the Nihil's overly-edgy, downright nonsensical motives. The Jedi here feel like they're meant to throw shade at the Jedi from the Prequels, like they're pointing and going "See? See? These Jedi are the real Jedi. Those Jedi from the Prequels were flawed and corrupt." In my opinion it feels kinda meanspirited to trash an entire era that fans have grown to love. Personally I've also grown bored with how often these Jedi wax on about how "we are all the Republic" and how Jedi must defend the innocent and hold all life sacred. We know this already, you don't need to continually hammer it in with every line of dialogue or inner thought these characters have. The Nihil on the other hand are just not sustainable as a threat. They were marginally interesting in Phase 1 as a bunch of aimless marauders and Spiceheads that would kamikaze and recklessly attack like a bunch of wild animals. But at some point the other side should've gotten wise to their tricks.
It feels like they're copying Mandalorians... Doesn't this give you dejavu of Revan's story where a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters just attack the Republic?
Something that's come up in expanded universe stuff is that Jedi always fall, whether due to how the Jedi are trained or simply the nature of people. Even if they never really became Sith, there must've been a few Dark Jedi during this era; Dooku couldn't have been the first in 1,000 years. Otherwise it basically does come down to the writers saying 'our Jedi are totally superior to any other era of Jedi'.
“If you like space combat, the High Republic has nothing for you” is a wild take. There are several adult novels with heavy space combat filling many chapters. Genuinely confused at what this take is based on.
I can appreciate High Republic at least for being something new. Most of the stuff Disney has done is either heavily connected to the OT or a bad copy of the OT, while they brag about their 25000 years of lore.
I tend to LIKE it when heroes are "goody-two-shoes" in a manner of speaking, but I whole-heartedly agree that when you make EVERY one of the characters from that group that exact same way, it actually seems kind of monolithic and culty. And yeah, pure evil villains are pretty boring and simplistic in my opinion.
No because it makes money, rage is the algorythm , hes making a video on stuff he didnt read and thinks he has teeth to actually talk about it ? Is that not bad faith ? Literally youtubers out there get no views when they actually cover the lore properly @@BaithNa
Overall, I'm pretty lukewarm on this era. I don't hate it, and there actually are some stories and characters I love, but all in all, I'm just not as invested as I am with, let's say, the EU Old Republic
I'm thinking about getting back into the High Republic and I didn't know that phase 2 was a...prequel? So, that's good to know. It is a bit odd, but I'm not gonna worry too much about it. Also, for some reason, I smiled when Eck said he watched Star Wars Explained's HR videos! Also also, I never got the whole "Oh, you just read the wiki!" thing. A lot of fan wikis are good sources, and I don't see the problem with using them for videos. I mean, sometimes you don't have the time or money to sort through dozens of books or movies for info to put into your video.
Huge fan of the THR, I agree with a few of your comments. (SPOILERS) 1. THR taking place at least one thousand years before the prequals. I was just so excited to read something new that wasn't Skywalker or sequel era. 2. Eye of Darkness is a HUGE let down. Majority of book wasting on mental masturbation and farts - tbh they could've just covered that stuff in the comics. There are a few good chapters with Porter and Avar. 3. Lastly the Nihl could've been so much more, maybe? The only thing that separates them from other reavers are jump drives. That being said the late game of them being tied to a territory takes away the constant threat of raids. Overall they can't do anything TOO damaging to the galaxy; because then it'll add more continuity errors. Good things about Phase II (force cults in details, mentions of Sith, more history about Jedha).
You claim to have read these books yet you get so many names and terms wrong in this video alone.. skipping more than half the books in the series probably wasn’t a smart move if you’re planning to criticize it on TH-cam. What you want is for these books to contradict the events of the prequels. I think you just misunderstand what they’re going for with these books. The entirety of phase 2 is about how a normal person can get sucked into a dangerous cult and become radicalized. Skipping 10 books that go into the backstory and then saying “It’s just not believable and the nihil just aren’t interesting” when you have literally no idea what’s going on is so insane man. You do you I guess, enjoy those wookiepedia articles!
#askeck What is a topic that you were either very interested in or wanted to talk about on your podcast or youtube channels that you feel like people within your audience would not very be interested in?
@@davidordaz5251Yeah, that's just a falsehood, though. I'm starting to wonder what novels have you read, since several aspects of importance happens. It's not static. Unless you just cannot be bothered to actually delve into any canonical media.
They literally have thousands of years to play with ffs! Why is everything set within walking distance from the Skywalker saga?! We want total separation in general! How cool would it be to see a totally new saga set 2000 years before the Skywalker storyline?! Sith Empire maybe? Or something before the rule of 2? It’s so frustrating.
I think these problems are basically an exacerbation of worldbuilding issues Star Wars has had for a long, long time. For example you talk about the Sith and the Empire, the reality is that so often they're just as nonsensical and ridiculous as the Nihil. Especially in Disneycanon, the Empire is just so absurdly evil so often that it beggars belief that anybody would join it or follow it's orders, just look at Operation Cinder for example. The opposite is true for the Republic/Jedi as well, they're supposed to be this shining beacon of goodness and so end up completely boring. At least in the movies the only obviously twisted Imperials were Vader and the Emperor, and Tarkin I guess. All the lower level captains or admirals you see really just come off as normal people in a military, Even in the deleted scenes of RotJ you have Jerjerrod having an inner conflict over the order to fire on Endor. Similarly with the prequels the CIS are often so goofy or pathetic that when Anakin is cutting them down on Mustafar you're led to feel that they're hardly the real bad guys. I think the issue is that in trying to "be Star Wars" authors just keep dumbing down conflicts to the most two-dimensional levels imaginable. Some of the best EU books are the ones with the Sith as protagonists, because they're actually allowed to be active characters and do and say things you wouldn't expect. This was part of the draw for Thrawn too, as being an antagonist with good features to him who can inspire people, but now he's just leading a literal army of zombies powered by dark magic. At this point there's less moral depth to Star Wars than with the conflict in LoTR.
I bought the coffee table reference book for the series, but instead of having a 'new essential chronology' to the series, which explains what happens in each book and how they all fit together seamlessly, it was a more an encyclopedia of how things were prior to the first book. After finishing all of the first phase of books, including junior novels and young adult novels, I couldn't bring myself to continue. For me Disney canon is pretty much dead. I haven't enjoyed a comic for years (in spite of reading them all) have only enjoyed a few novels (the Zhan stuff and Lost Stars, and somewhat the Ahsoka and Luke books). One of the problems I have had is that there is no consistency with the setting, even their technology is inconsistent (every Disney movie has changed the way Hyperspace Physics work for instance, whether it is the Holdo Maneuver, Hyperspace Skipping, or using Hypercoms while in Hyperspace.) I am SOO happy to have the Legends doing their unabridged books again, since many I haven't read since they first were released.
Absolutely should not have skipped Phase ll, Path of Deceit is genuinely phenomenal and sets up so much subtext for phase lll. If you’re a prequel trilogy fan the jump back in time makes complete sense and should be something you’re used to as a narrative decision. I don’t think just watching some vids is enough to simulate actually taking the time to read through the novels.
I think you're wrong. The only important thing that Phase 2 establishes is the Marchion's family tree and it's desire to screw with the Jedi Order. And it doesn't matter where the Nameless came from because they should be exterminated ot returned to their home planet in Phase 3, which requires having a hyperspace path again, which will be explained all over again
@@gohu11 The Nameless are tied with the Ro family, so learning where they originated and how they came to being with the Ro line is a tethered story. Also, learning about the motivations behind your era’s primary antagonist is enough reason by its lonesome to justify reading Phase ll. Nevermind again, that it just has some of the strongest YA novels in the series up to this point. You definitely *can* skip over phase ll, but you won’t have that narrative subtext and it would result in an overly surface level view of the larger story that’s being built. Marchion works perfectly fine without phase ll, but imo knowing more about the evolution of his species and his family’s history makes him a much more interesting character and foil to the HR era Jedi.
The High Republic series exposes the early hubris of the Jedi Order, and how their arrogance and dark-side blindness aided the downfall of the Republic. The series is exhausting at times as it delves into the weaknesses and fragile natures of the members of the order. Random question: Did Yoda sabotage the order on purpose? It seems that dark entities received a free pass while he was on the council. Furthermore, it seems the direction of the franchise is decided in boardrooms, rather than inspired direction that Lucas brought to everything. I am a Gen Xer, so I imagine younger readers have a completely different experience. Dave Filoni has a monumental task ahead of him trying to please a fan-base that spans from pre-school to nursing homes.
I haven't read these books, but the way that the Stormwall is described makes me wonder why the Empire wouldn't employ this all over the galaxy in the Age of Rebellion. Furthermore, when blocking trade, why wouldn't the CIS use it during the Clone Wars? This makes it seem like it would be impossible to take territory from one government to another. Was the technology lost? Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.
I think the real issue is that the project lacks a compelling core metaphor or message. There is no threat that you can conceptualize in the modern world that is just a bunch of random barbarians, no place that is a perfect functional democracy. The empire represents a power-hungry central government attempting to use overwhelming military force, the late republic represents a state backsliding from a long stable democracy into a fascist dictatorship, even the separatists represent a controlled opposition group held together by vague ideas and corporate profits. Compared to that a lot of modern Star Wars factions from the high republic to even the sequels don’t really have any real world parallels or core ideas that hold them together
I think there is enough material for the High Republic to flesh out a great history of the galaxy. They need better writers. I think skipping phase two is a mistake because there are some interesting elements that make for a better experience. Just my two cents. Mtfbwy always.
He is a bit of a shill, i remember him pushing andor really hard in the past, have nor seen the channel for a bit but it seems he has given up on it now but doesn't want to admit it
I saw the High Republic as Disney trying to not pay royalties for the legends content. The sequals replaced New Jedi Order era and the High Republic was to replace the Old Republic content. It just sadly fell flat. Had they put the High Republic before the New Sith wars I can see it work better. The shining beacon of the Republic before the Sith bring the Galaxy into a dark age. Then the Ruusan reformations happen and we have a new Republic formed and this leads to the Skywalker era later on.
@@chromesucks5299 This is all made up rage bait when literally there is a new book coming out with a old eu author helming it from the clone wars 2003 era lol , there has been a few who have made new books , this was not deep, just new era to try out stuff multimedia wise nothing more
"This character, who has had a brush with the dark side, still is ready to uphold the values of Democracy. It's just lame..." You could not have shown your hand so hard even if you threw your cards at us.
Inconsistent is the word I would use. Each project could either be fantastic or a complete waste of time, and nobody cares enough anymore to find out which
![ทุกครั้งที่หลับตา (Lucid Dream) - AYLA's [ Official MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4i1OBAQyv58/mqdefault.jpg)
i miss the the 1990-2000s years of mass paper back sci fi books
Big same
What was great about back then was the number of eras to choose from, which took risks which had long-term consequences.
Now, besides for the High Republic storyline, all we have is the milking of the period from the Clone Wars to some years past the Battle of Endor for all it’s worth. Mainly, spin-offs of spin-offs of the Clone Wars CGI series. And they are seemingly afraid to take chances, down to the sparse dialogue in the shows. Maybe if they didn’t spend the majority of their budget on the shows, we could have more.
@eds1942 Andor was really the only recent piece of Star Wars that took a different route and was unique. And even that was still in a milked Era.
@@Ketol1510 Andor and Rogue One.
I still stand by the Clone Wars Multimedia Project being peak Star Wars Expanded Universe. They've never topped that, and they never will.
When I read Light of the Jedi, it was really apparent to me that this was just set in the wrong time. They needed to go back further. I'd have gone back to 8,000 BBY. That was just one of the issues I had with it. I was in the largest chain book store near me yesterday. They now have zero Star Wars books on shelf. It had been getting smaller and smaller for some time, but now nothing.
I didn't mind that. I got so fed up with their new saying that was so incredibly dumb;
" _We, are all of the Republic._ "
It's like they had to bite their tongue to not say " _May the Force be with you_ " because of how they keep spitting that line out so they had to make up a new one, that somehow is even worse when said 5 times in 2 pages.
And then the other most glaring mistep of the book: Yoda is described as being _already old_ . Why?
It makes no sense. It's like the writer ( _Charles Soule_ ) just lacked the creative mind to picture Yoda as being young.
Aside from that, _Light of the Jedi_ was pretty interesting, until we found out who the villain was... Then it was just... Meh.
I heard a piece of writing advice somewhere that goes something like "Is this the most interesting thing your characters can be doing right now? If not, is there a reason you aren't showing us that?" The golden age of the New Republic just doesn't sound as interesting as the Old Republic vs the Sith Empire.
To be honest I never had an issue with the High Republic era being 200 years before the movies despite some people think it a bit short but in real-life Rome fought in the Punic wars from (264 and 146) BC and then one hundred to two hundred years later Rome was literally fighting itself in it’s civil wars such as Sulla, Marius, and Caesar.
As for Yoda in this period there is concept of Yoda with a topknot in the Art of the High Republic book where according to Kristin Baver at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022 they were considering making Yoda younger.
The reason why they abandoned topknot Yoda and keep Yoda the same was because since he was 900 years old in Return of the Jedi which is set 4 ABY when he died so from the perspective of Lucasfilm artists that involved within the High Republic creative team. he probably not going to change so drastically in 200 years between The High Republic and the Phantom Menace.
Also Yoda was born around 896 BBY and by the time of Phase 1 he would be around 664 years old with Phase 2 being set 150 years earlier he would be 514 years old so i could see why they didn't use topknot Yoda as imagined that concept would be set either at the age of 100s-200s or 300s-400s? given Grogu is 50 years old in the Mandalorian?
it is worth noting that the artist points out this in his commet ''For a younger Yoda, I was keeping those elements of his bone structure and chaseland them out a little bet, smoothing some areas, but leaving those timeless wrinkles on the forehead.''
Light of the Jedi is one of my favourite books
@@MrWill9002What exactly was the issue then, because relative to other species, Yoda is ancient.
I'm going to re-skim the passage to be fair, however I don't exactly understand your criticism.
Yeah, my biggest complaint about Disney era Star Wars is that they are really bad at showing galactic scale conflict and scale in general. TLJ had the fate of an entire galaxy of trillions upon trillions of beings whittled down to three transport ships on one side and maybe two dozen capital ships on the other. Too bad this trend seems to extend to the books.
actually very insightful comment
It’s so confusing. The first time I saw TLJ I legitimately thought that was the entire First Order and Republic since the Republic planets and Starkiller base blew up, and they never established the size of either. That was never an issue in either previous trilogy, as both presented the scale of each side and how they fought.
The Rebel alliance felt like a massive organization compared to the Galactic Republic which should not be the case.
I agree Disney Star Wars feels tiny. They are Terrible at scale. Even the giant battle at the end of RoS felt tiny, because it was poorly presented, and because of the tiny feeling mess of the rest of Disney Star Wars made it feel like there weren’t real stakes.
The battle of Coruscant is such a breath of fresh air, it was a big return to form after the prior two movies, and now that the sequels are done and the closest thing we have to that is still the battle over Scarif, it makes you put everything into perspective. Is this where the fun has to end?
I really want a series post-ROTJ when the New Republic and Empire are fully at war, huge-scale battles with dozens of star destroyers and star hawks and crap. I feel like it's a great time period for massive strategic battles, which we seem to almost never see now.
the old republic will always be a thousand times more interesting than high republic
The High Republic is too high for anyone.
The Old Republic Era is the equivalent of Classical Antiquity. While the High Republic era is essentially the Galactic renaissance and the equivalent of the Renaissance anti-age of exploration. Also it is the equivalent of the Arthurian legends and the Age of Heroes for the Jedi order of this period.
@@WyattDucar Basically a Legends version of the High Republic would've been the stuff of legends and heroes.
Which is essentially what the High Republic Era is. You have heroes like Stellan Gios, Avar Kriss, and Porter Engle being legendary Jedi in their own right willing to sacrifice themselves against the Nihil within this time period.
Also to be fair legends never explored this 1,000 year time period between Darth Bane and Darth Plagueis so maybe if it did explored back when legends were around I could see the legend version being similar albeit with some differences like maybe you could tell some planetary conflicts that the Jedi had to solve or something like that. Plus was piracy a big problem as well for this time period in legends (that contributed to the republic decline plus you have the stark hyperspace war.) especially for the Judicial Forces?
Took the words right out of my mouth
Wait... that whole plot point actually sounds incredibly similiar to the Dark Imperium series from Warhammer 40k, post the Fall of Cadia - a significant event which split off Imperium Nihilus from the rest of the Imperium with a great warp-rift spreadying from the Eye of Terror. It might just be surface level in its similarities, but that is rather strange.
Good observation
I was just thinking this, especially with the way the villain group is described. It sounds like if someone who didn't really get WH40k tried to convert it to SW.
Makes sense as the Disney brand of Star Wars hasn't had a single good idea except doing a movie that leads in to the first scene of a new hope and that film took reshoots and rewrites.
Since Disney killed Star Wars (maybe someone will rescue it one day) I have been getting in to 40k way more, I would say Disneys loss is GWs gain for sure despite being very different IPs and I really should look in to the Dark Imperium series but theres sooooo muuuchhh looorreee
@@notwhatitwasbefore Lmao. Gotta love people like you saying Star Wars is dead every day. You're always wrong. Andor was great. Rogue One. Star Wars Squadrons, The Bad Batch, Rebels, Jedi game series, and on and on.
Also, GWs gain? lmfao. They've been fucking up almost non-stop for a decade. Gotta love people like you trying to claim Star Wars is dead and defending one of the most horribly run properties in the world.
Also, you can't copy an idea that has been used ad nauseum for thousands of years. You're basically describing a galactic version of West and East Rome. Rome and the Byzantine Empire. It's no different than any other outside context story trope. It wasn't original to 40k, either.
Totally unrelated, But we need a Clone wars Version of "Star Wars Squadrons".
Completely agreed, fantastic era to storytell in if done right
the lack of capital ships in this era is
just
depressing
the longbeams are so CURSED
also teh spidership
To be honest I thought the ships in the High Republic looked very cool.
And the *sentient fucking rock.*
@@WyattDucar because they do its just cursed like longbeams are like smaller than the falcon how tf are they carrying multiple starfighters
@@nkosig4995 Well if you played Halo Reach the Covenant had their fleets carrying cruisers as well. Plus that the point of this period the republic is not militarized until 200 years hence why you planetary forces like the RDC and the judicial forces. Once we reach the prequel era that when capital ships become important again.
@@WyattDucar no I mean like...
Physically
The Stormwall sounds exactly like that weirdo path to Exegol that everyone needs a special Force compass to navigate (except Lando & Friends, he presumably was granted passage for his winning smile).
i find it amusing that the writers think a bunch of disorganized anarchists would be able to build technology to take over part of the galaxy.
Because yall dont read or understand this video he clearly is missing a fuckton of information to know why it all works, the books explain it all lmao @@MrChickennugget360
@@GazingTrandoshan then explain it. How do a bunch of anarchists build all that tech and take over the galaxy?
@@MrChickennugget360they have republic senators in their pocket, the scientist who specialised in hyperspace gravity also worked for the nihil. They're not actually an anarchist group, the leader, marchion ro, is extremely organised and prepared
@@rooracleaf561that explains nothing
I've never really enjoyed the concept of the High Republic era taken at face value. It's suppost to be over a thousand years of galactic history in which near zero major conflict takes place. And a pack of laser sword carrying PACIFISTS can keep everything in line.
That in itself is really hard to believe and seems to imply that the only thing dangerous enough to actually pose any amount of world altering threat is the sith, which does a disservice to everyone else in the setting.
Are there not pirates or slavers? Are there not internal divisions and power struggles? Are you telling me that hundreds of intellegent races simply get along perfectly fine because republic? No plagues or disasters worth mentioning occurr in over a THOUSAND years?
I agree with most of what you said but at no point can the jedi be called pacifist conflict averse absolutely but not pacifist, pacifist dont chop your arms of if you dont surrender.
Was thinking the same. Anyone, with an even passing knowledge of history would know this state of affairs is utterly hilarious and nonsensical. No possible way an area this large, containing this main diverse species would always get along. Nor would the governing body not have an active military force to protect it.
But there was slavers and piracy, there were small scale conflicts. The judicials largely handled it.
Exactly!
Never understood the appeal of the era you would with an enemy attacking republic space they would have an army or personal militia to defend them self.
Jedi Survivor did more to make me interested in the high republic then any other promotional material or book
LMFAO How ? Because of a whiny Sephiroth rip-off ?
@@yrooxrksvi7142 TANALOR IS MINE!
I honestly was never more put off by the High Republic era than after Jedi Survivor.
If games are your thing, there's a High Republic open-world game in-development that has a character creator. I have such high hopes for iiiit!!! Like, can we play as a Nihil, or an ex-Jedi who left The Jedi Order or was kicked out, or a Jedi Wayseeker (my favourite Jedi type)? And there's so many cool species in that era! I can hardly wait!
@@IllisiaAdams It's been cancelled, Quantic Dream is a dead studio and David Cage killed it.
Isn't this the plot arc of the self-repairing minefield from Deep Space 9?
Honestly this whole thing feels like it would probably work better as a Star Trek plot. Then I remember Lower Decks actually did do something similar to this, just on a smaller scale.
I can see surface level similarities but this seems way too wacky.
In DS9, the mines not only took a while to set up, but they only covered a relatively tiny area of space rather than the entire quadrant. They were also disabled with relative ease (ableit taking a while) rather than practically doubling its size.
@@justice9539 This. The mines simply made it so the wormhole was worthless to the Dominion, preventing them from bringing in external fleets to bolster their massive fleet already present.
Wouldn't surprise me.
Star Wars came to life stealing from Star Trek (Doomsday Machine was stolen and made the Death Star) so I suppose it's only fitting that it continues to steal from Star Trek even though both franchises are now dead.
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 Weapons that can affect planets have always been a thing in scifi.
This era should have been the Jedi trying to hold a republic together that was collapsing under its own weight. It should have highlighted the flaws of huge governments, the failing of a Jedi order becoming more and more political, and occasionally Jedi coming up against sith plots.
You are describing the Last 2 centuries of the new sith wars
@@Ale-dd3ek history rhymes.
@Ale-dd3ek Honestly I wish we had more material set during the New Sith Wars Era in Legends.
It says a lot that at my local Barnes & Noble you can still find wave 1 High Republic first editions while they have difficulty keeping legends books in stock.
You realize they restock right , like bro lol and the legends books only get reprints sometimes , literally yall use your eyes and still act like face value with no critical thought is fact
@@GazingTrandoshan Of course they get restocked, but not first editions, especially not two years later. Also, legends reprints are always available, at least online.
Wait, what happened to the creature the Sith sealed away only for the Jedi to undo the seal and get screwed over it at the start of the High Republic in the comics Eckharts Ladder?
The teamed up with the hutts and killed the hive mind leader or something like that. They are called the Drengir btw.
Got wasted.
It was resolved in like 5 minutes
@@scottwerner279 It was actually near the course of a galactic year.
@johnathanmarlin3994 so they wasted that concept and enemy in favour of pirates? Explains a lot....
Thanks a lot for the shoutout for my map, that really made my day!
They go from being in hiding to controlling a large portion of the galaxy almost overnight, boy where have I heard that before?
Something you do actually see in the high republic comics for this phase is the militarization of the Jedi order and how they go from these really cool lightsaber designs to the ones we get in the prequels - and considering one of the main characters is one of the Jedi that have statues - the ones that left I'm hoping we see why
I’m not gunna read them- what’s the TLDR on the lightsaber (de)evolution?
@@MaxSDSFlol
Me too and thank you for bringing that up we are literally seeing the seeds of the downfall for not just the Jedi Order but also the Galactic Republic.
@MaxSDSF Post Ruusan where the Galaxy is rebuilding. The Jedi are going from demilitarized warrior priests to more a reclusive order of monks.
I honestly thought that bit was a little silly. The Prequel Jedi all build their own Lightsabers and it was implied this was a tried and true method they'd done for centuries, but apparently back then the Order has a whole workshop of Jedi building Lightsabers en masse, or even just for simple pleasure. Like the one woman who was sculpting a single blade for ages. When was it ever previously established that Jedi just constructed a bunch of cookie-cutter Lightsabers during a crisis? And why don't they seem to do it during the Prequels, when a galaxy-wide war has broken out?
The nihil themselves may not be crazy compelling but the jedi-devouring cthulhu monsters they control are pretty great imo
If they wanted to set a series of stories in the 1000-years between the last Sith Wars and the Prequels they could have done it. They just would have had to make them smaller, more "self-contained" stories. Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest did that very well.
Been watching your videos for years man, and I love the pre-Disney EU... I've tried to get into the High Republic, but there is just like... Too much.
So when I see you doing book life, often I get to go... Hey I remember that! Would love a deep dive on Hapes if you ain't done one yet!
I read the first three books. The middle one was good enough to make me read the third. All in all it was pretty meh. I lost interest completely when they changed the era completely. They almost have to put a cap on how dangerous the enemy can be because its not like the Republic can fight them in an actual full on conflict so close to the prequels.
Agree, but the third book and that phase 2 being a flashback made me just not care. Plus book third killed one of the only characters I liked.
lol, a Senator leaves their cushy perfectly decadent life in the letteral center of the galaxy to go live with some space barbarians and somehow internally justifies it as somehow having more authority, power and importance? Sounds to me like a rich kid coming into their midlife crisis.
I was also mixed on phase one and currently trying to get into phase 3, but i will say that i really enjoyed phase 2 a lot. Yes, it felt largely separate from phase 1 and 3, but i found the characters and storytelling much more focused and engaging, not to mention the actual books were better written. I understand i may be in the minority about this, but I'd personally recommend phase 2 over 1 or 3.
Porter Engle was 🔥
#AskEck Could we get a video on how to pronounce certain names in Star Wars? Joruus C'baoth (Is it Saa-bai-yoth, Sa-bo-ath, or Se-baoth?); Darth Caedus (Kay-dus, or Cai-dus?); AT-AT(Rhymes with "Hat-Hat", or say each individual letter?); and other infamous examples of confused pronunciations in Star Wars?
saa-bai-oth and cai-dus.
Maybe but you can also check essential character guide.
@@EckhartsLadder Essential Character Guide tells you how to pronounce names?
@@gehrigstory6674 it does have a pronunciation guide yeah
Bruh please no. We don’t need someone telling us how to say AT-AT…
@@WSFM_Rex But at least it would clear up the controversy with a canon source on how to pronounce AT-AT. Plus, all the other names that are hard to pronounce in the lore would get a canon pronunciation to go by, as well.
The way you say "Nye-hill" and not "Nile" hurts my brain, lol
I bought nearly every SW novel that came out from the second Rogue Squadron book up until Disney declared Legends to be non-canon. I haven't bought one since then.
While I know I've missed some good stuff, I'm not too bothered by it and am glad I was able to make such a clean break.
Jesus, that's hundreds of books! You got a few favs?
I’m in the same exact boat- I’ve got pretty much every single legends book
Eh, I'd say that's your loss. I just read from both continuities and segment them.
@@AshanBhatoadisney continuity is quite awful.
So I see why they want nothing to do with it there are way better books out there than current star wars canon.
The High Republic novels don't just show the entire Republic as the ultimate good. They also go out of their way to show that some the senate and well off Core worlds don't really care.
The YA book Out Of The Shadows (2021) by Justina Ireland features members of the Coruscant elite and senate members actually joining forces with the Nihil as power plays that also expand the Nihil's reach.
Out Of The Shadows also does most of the setup for the Stormwall later with the characters gaining an understanding of how the path engines work as well as one of the villains doing work on the manipulation of gravity funded by those elites.
The Stormwall itself was set off in Phase 1 too in the comic miniseries Eye Of The Storm (2021) by Charles Soule which is included in the Marvel The High Republic (2021) Volume 3.
"The YA book Out Of The Shadows (2021) by Justina Ireland features members of the Coruscant elite and senate members actually joining forces with the Nihil as power plays that also expand the Nihil's reach."
Why though, why do members of the Coruscant elite and Senate join with the Nihil? The Nihil are so cartoonishly evil that they simply aren't compelling, they have no connection to the various amoral motivations that we as humans feel, motivations that for example the Sith act on. It's difficult as a reader to approach them as anything but mindless monsters because that's all they really act like.
Also, once again we've entered a situation for like the fortieth time in Disney Canon where they've added something to the setting that's completely ridiculous and technologically illogical with the Stormwall, which is funny because one of the key criticisms against Legends by Disney defenders is that Legends had too many superweapons and contrived plot devices yet Canon has repeated almost all of Legends worst mistakes (Bringing back Palpatine, except in a way somehow way worse than Dark Empire) while exceeding those idiotic plot devices with their own ridiculousness (Stormwall). At least Legends had dozens of compelling stories and characters that fit in the Star Wars Universe, Disney Canon has only a couple at this point.
"You're either a dumb grunt with a death wish or you're not into it" killed me
I like the books and the setting but I hate what they did with the phases.
They have phases… stop trying to be the mcu. Just write books and comics ffs.
Literally what they are doing?? The point of the phases is time periods , its set like the OT/PT/ST not some deep marvel thing calm down @@martinjrgensen8234
I read through the first two phases of High Republic and it just didn't do it for me. The world building is good, but the stories themselves are mid to poor and the characters are down right bad and there's far to many of them. It would have been better to do trilogies of set characters instead of so many anthologies. Seems like they're trying to tell the story of the whole universe, but they really need to follow a finite set of compelling characters. All of the characters they introduced are just collections of tropes or trying to be edgy for the sake of edginess. And most are in one book and then just background characters in other books. It really prevents the reader from submersing in the world at all.
I think the idea is to use the first three phases to built up the era and a wide cast of characters, so once the ground work for the era has been established they can start focusing more on character heavy stories and plot lines. I can see the writers logic as it makes it easier to world-build when you have a largest and more spread out cast.
Almost sounds like a bunch of self inserts, with every writer wanting to be the main character.....
Those in Legends were walking tropes, Cade emo, the characters of the High Republic feel alive, with emotional problems, they even have to go to the psychologist after the Valo massacre, with motivations and beings of Light, not like the annoying idiots of the Old Republic that made you wish they would die
@@matt.1504 And yet, which is more popular? Say what you like about the masses, but if it sells, then you'd be a fool not to copy whatever works and make bank, rather than something niche that may flop.
@@mattevans4377 Wow, you and this mrd channel made me remember why I left the Fandom, they are hateful.
They Old Republic is just so much better. The interplay with the Sith Empire and thousands of Jedi and Sith, organized warfare, and courting various factions (Hutts, corporations, etc) was so much more interesting.
Frankly, Disney doesn’t actually know how to write good antagonists, which is why they dug Palpatine out of his grave. They certainly can’t write compelling antagonists during a period where the “good guys” mostly stand unopposed. It’s just got no believable stakes.
Marchion Ro is a 10/10 villain, what're ya talking about?
When they do try to write a villain, their take is so shallow because they try to force “nuance” into it instead of developing their characters properly.
@@thedarkestfateful I don’t think nuance is a problem, necessarily. Every character is a mix of traits. I think it is more difficult to write nuanced motivations, but that is the expectation now.
general viess was her own faction btw
she has a whole ass fleet and capital ship and tanks and firepower before she even joined the nihil. also i dont know if the map is super accurate, alot of hyperspace lanes and planets werent really discovered at this moment.
shes a merc btw the nihil have like 5 generations of saved funds
I don't believe Eck is remotely conveying any nuance here, honestly.
Yea its weird, hes never covered the content but then is proclaiming things all of a sudden without much thought into hey there is literal lore established to explain every single thing @@AshanBhatoa
I've enjoyed the aspects of believing in the High Republics "Grand Works" and that the Nihil couldn't possibly destroy something so massive in scale, just to see failure from the Jedi and Republic. Seeing the consequences has been interesting. In the eye on darkness, it really seemed like they had reached their storyline on the Nihils motivations. It's questioned throughout the entire book. The Path of the Open Hand was a bit more intriguing for me and the way they first introduced the Leveler had me extremely interested for a bit. Sorry, just a bunch of random thoughts
#askeck #AskThreepio Asides from Mon Cala, what other planets successfully, openly rebelled against the Empire/openly allied with the Rebels before Endor? I know that there were many attempts at this during Operation Domino which were mostly crushed, but there were a few asides from Mon Cala
Lore ship Versus video request:
Resurgent vs. Starhawk
Tie Striker vs. New Republic V-Wing
World Devastator vs. Vong Worldship
Tie Silencer vs. X-83 Twintail
Tie Silencer vs. Tie Defender (legends version)
Keldabe vs. ISD II
MC90 vs. Nebula class star destroyer
Nebula class vs. Pellaeon class
Majestic class vs. Bothan Assault Cruiser
EAWX: FOTR’s Mandator II portrayal vs. Subjugator
Praetor vs. Subjugator
EAWX: TR’s Mediator portrayal vs. Resurgent
Starhawk vs. Bulwark MK III
Gargantua/Aratech 520 Battle Platform vs. A6 Juggernaut
Alderaan (Which was Destroyed); Sullust; and maybe The Roche Asteroids (Officially, they were neutral, but they provided Starfighters to The Rebel Alliance, like The B-Wing bombers).
Edit: I think Sullust is the best choice.
@@gehrigstory6674 Alderaan didn’t openly rebel against the Empire. That’s why in Episode IV Leia claimed they were a peaceful planet. Sullust, while it had a resistance movement, didn’t openly switch sides till after Endor. It was the endpoint for the Sanctuary Pipeline that was created by the Empire to supply the Death Star II constructed site
@@lightspeedvictory Honestly, I'm not sure what known planets did openly rebel against The Empire before Endor. The Empire would fully subjugate any planet that dared to overthrow their Imperial Overlords. At least, in Legends I don't know of any planets in particular. Chandrila (Mon Mothma's homeworld) was a Core World heavily under Imperial Control. Corellia (Homeworld of Han Solo, Wedge Antilles, and Garm Bel Iblis) was another Core World under the heavy, controlling eye of Imperial rule. Hutt Space, and Hapan Space were neutral before Endor. Kashyyyk was deeply under Imperial Control until after Endor, with Wookiee slaves playing a major role in building The Death Stars. Maybe Onderon was a rebel world before Endor, due to Saw Gerrera's Partisans, but after he died, I'm not so sure. Manaan (Homeworld of The Selkath, and their Kolto healing agent) might've rebelled successfully, but again, I don't know enough of the lore behind that to be sure. So, in Legends, I don't know of any worlds that openly rebelled against The Empire before Endor, and were successful.
As for Disney Canon, I do know that Lothal was one such planet that successfully overthrew The Empire before Endor, as shown in The Star Wars: Rebels finale. So, there's one such planet, at least.
I certainly can agree with a lot of the criticisms. I did find that even as an adult I found some of the YA books to be much more enjoyable. Felt like there were less random characters thrown in for the sake of it and it followed a more traditional plot-line.
I read the phase one books and man, the quality is just BAD. Thankfully I never bought said books (I have a VERY good library), because they really feel like mass-produced "product" books meant to sell you something and not tell you a good story. Disney is so keyed up to make this the 'greatest' era of the franchise that they didn't bother HOW to do that. I see it as another case of quantity over quality, as Kennedy and Iger simply have no idea how to make good stories.
Your problem.
I think that's a fair take for the books, etc. It's pretty clear that their reason-for-being is to set up the background lore for bigger projects like the Acolyte, which I really hope is good
They overly relied on the books for that end, and neglected plot and character strength
How do chaos barbarians teach advanced engineering well enough to invent, construct and maintain a galactic force field ? That requires incredible coordination, organization, sophistication and cooperation which seems nonexistent.
I think part of the problem is the setting. The High Republic is supposed to be a time of relative peace. It means it should be a time where threats do not effect whole sectors. That doesn't mean there shouldn't be threats, but they should be relatively small ones. We should be watching how the Republic and Jedi become complacent, even apathetic, because of the lack of big threats. Of course, that would require nuanced and subtle writing. It doesn't help when the threat is comically evil for evil's sake, a society that would have killed itself off long before they reached space.
Underrated comment. I would actually give the HR era a real shot if it was written like this.
I just want another Timothy Zahn novel 😢
Feels bad, I have loved the High Republic from the beginning.
The dark side also makes sense because it literally makes you extremely powerful, the more evil and badass you are the more powerful you become
Sorry to hear you ultimately couldn’t get invested in it. I’ve found The High Republic titles to be that fresh new line of books and comics that the series had been in need of for sometime, which Legends provided more of true, and found the world and character building to be very well done to.
My only exposure to the High Republic so far has been through Jedi Survivor, and it has promise but we need to SEE more.
not books, we need more games and even better a show or movie.
The acolyte takes place at the end of the High Republic era. Takes place between 50 to 100 years before phantom menace and is set to introduce the Sith emergence.
Funny, because that's the one aspect Survivor absolutely showed how TRASH it is. Dagan Gera was a pathetic villain.
That's akin to how the novels are.
@@AshanBhatoa Therefore, shallow trash
I understand the idea that Star Wars has always been supreme good vs outright evil. This is a trope as old as time itself, however Star Wars made it interesting because it gave us a new universe setting in which this idea is represented. That in it of itself is cool. Lord of the Rings is about good vs evil and just that. But that also gave us an amazing setting for it, which made everything worth it. Furthermore, apart from the setting, the story in which we got the representation of good vs evil was also amazing. In Lord of the Rings it was phenomenal, and in Star Wars , while at times a bit clunky, was also really good. So we had an amazing setting for this good vs evil old trope, combined with great story. The problem is that after decades of it, people now what to see something more, and I agree with them. Good vs evil is old and bland, but we did have an amazing setting for it which made us enjoy the cliché of it. The story made us want to see even more of it. But now, I think people want to see nuances of gray as well, because we already have dozens of great moments of pure evil vs pure good in Star Wars. Now, we need more aspects, characters that define these absolutes. That is why a character like Baylan Skoll was so appealing to people. Why people enjoy Revan so much. The examples of characters and stories can continue, but you get my gist.
I fully agree with you on the Nihil. I tried getting into the High Republic books, but the Nihil just aren't interesting villains and logically shouldn't be able to work as a big threat at all. They're just "always chaotic evil" "generic doomsday villains" with no depth to them at all from what I can tell(*). The worst thing is that, as you said, the Sith and Palpatine have shown that irredeemable evil CAN work as a compelling antagonist. The Nihil just don't.
(*)And apparently, Marchion Ro's entire species is _genetically evolved_ to be *compelled to backstab* whenever they can. How that can even work is beyond me...
I rolled myu eyes and passed on the high republic the moment it started.
But dude i'm glad you gave it a try. I was kinda hoping i was wrong and it'd turn out to be good.
Lots of people find it good. You can't make a basis just because of one content creators opinion. Form your own.
@@Stewquisitor And I'm not going to say these people shouild not enjoy that. I'm just saying *I* do not enjoy High Republic.
@@singletona082 How can you enjoy/not enjoy something on something you’ve passed on? It’s like when a child refuses food before they’ve tasted it for the first time.
Sheep mindset. Sad.
If they managed to twist it into a form of the sith that were in hiding manipulating these otherwise normal people into barbarians, maybe it could work as a previous attempt of gaining ultimate power, but it just seems so mid right now.
Uh, doesnt the Galactic Senate still exist? How have member states not openly formed standing armies and ships to defeat a threat such as that?
time for another great Eck video
I’m going to have to majorly disagree with pretty much everything. I’ve just finished the HR first trilogy and I loved every second of it. The characters, the world building, the ships, the politics. IMO people are too obsessed with lightsaber battles and Jedi vs sith. That’s in literally almost every SW project with very few exceptions, and it’s getting old.
This new era is really interesting to me. The nihil are very interesting to me, as they are brutal and brash, but to the main antagonist, marcheon, it’s just a tool for his end goal. It’s interesting to see the Jedi, who have always been explained as peacekeepers and NOT soldiers, face something so evil and terrifying that they end up breaking their moral codes to end the threat.
I think people are just opposed with legends (even though so much of it was garbage in my opinion), that they just automatically discount the stories of this era because it is under Disney. As much as I don’t like Disney’s influence over Star Wars, this is one of the few projects that I’ve loved so much.
Lastly, I can almost guarantee that 60-70+ percent of people trashing this era hasn’t even read or listened to any of these stories themselves, and just basing their opinions on reviewers.
I totally disagree, I am a 70s child so Star Wars has been in my life all my life, I've read countless comics and books over the decade, from the EU to many other small works of fiction and I will state that THR project is the MOST consistent Star Wars lore we have had in years.
The Sequels are an absolute disgrace, inconsistencies of a whole new level and utter garbage storytelling and huge wasted opportunities.
I have read everything of the THR so far, with the novels and comics together you get the full picture. Lots of great new characters to love and hate and multiple crossovers of said characters throughout all the mediums with no continuity issues.
Some of the stories told are truly terrifying with Marchion Ro's malevolent Nihil and nameless creatures wrecking havoc.
Its not perfect by any means, but the quality of writing outdoes even the live action shows(I loved Ahsoka in TCW but the live show was pathetic, no real stakes at all, and Kenobi was a joke with the Leia storyline retconning ANH).
We only have few decent SW things this year, but the conclusion of phase 3 looming that will lead into The Acolyte is very exciting and the most stoked I've been for a while.
And lets not forget, nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans 😝🤣
Interesting the whole barrier thing is the sort of idea that should never be inserted in to a prequel because it sounds like something Palpy boi would of used, Sealing off a massive chunk of galaxy would be great for many of his plans. Why wouldn't you use this tech or an improved version of it to stop those pesky rebels from well doing anything really but certainly attacking the DS2, I mean maybe let the fleet jump in then activate it and boom Imperial final victory over the organised rebellion easy.
I appreciate you spending the time to wade through the larger body of SW works because had it been good I would never of known as I had zero interest in it for the moment they announced it. Going back before a set story era is really tricky and even GL had issues with doing it but I can't think of any other IP (I'm sure theres something) that has even manged to do that well besides I am completely convinced the idea at Disney was to overwrite the original movies and lore with their own, theres clearly no love or even like for what Star Wars was and its just a name to make piles of money from.
Even though the space wall thing is really dumb in my opinion… it maybe could make more sense if it was set a few thousand years earlier, which would make it easier to buy as lost technology. But you can’t tell me palpatine hasnt heard of the big SPACE WALL that sectioned off an entire part of the galaxy that was around only a couple hundred years ago.
#AskEck Who would win? An Imperial Fleet led by Grand Admiral Thrawn, or a Dark Empire fleet with Reborn Palpatine at the helm?
Thrawn.
Palpatine
@@d3thkn1ghtmcgee74 Even when Palpatine has a Galaxy Gun that shoots indestructible missiles across the galaxy through hyperspace that could one-shot The Chimera, killing Thrawn, and Pelleon, instantly? Though, Thrawn might figure out a way to deal with that problem.
Thrawn
@@gehrigstory6674 he probably would find a way to defeat it lol.
But at the end of the day theyd probably be working together if thrawn knew the emperor was still alive hiding on byss lol
YES! I totally agree that this was a missed opportunity. The High Republic for me has so much potential to expand the scope of SW and give us new stories. I honestly thought after reading the first book the Nihil were just a front for a much greater threat, not Sith, but some shadowy force using the Nihil as a distraction and as cannon fodder. However with each book that hope died. I still think there is some pretty good stuff in the High Republic but it really has become such a mixed bag and a missed opportunity
The High Republic is probably my favourite Disney era project after Andor. I really like it. But I totally get why some people don’t. I love how interconnected all the books are.
People compare it to the Old Republic, and I don’t really think that’s fair. It is it’s own era. It’s not trying to be the Old Republic
I’m not going to bother with the main story this initiative is telling, but I like its integration into Jedi: Survivor and I’m looking forward to The Acolyte, which seems poised to actually explore the interesting narrative opportunities this time period presents
I thought the acolyte was set millenia before, or a I confusing projects against?
Took me till the end of the First Phase to realize how much of a shallow endeavor this was. It's quite troubling how much of Disney Canon lacks in depth.
You're missing the point of the Nihil, Eck. They exist BECAUSE this era in Star Wars is so boring and stagnant. The Nihil are a reaction to, and a rebellion against, that very aspect. Life in the High Republic is life in a bird cage. It's dressed up by the cage keepers to look pretty and keep people happy, but there's no real variety, no challenge, no competition, nothing but a procedural drone of rule-following and mundane day-to-day activity. And the keepers of the cage (Jedi, Senate) don't want you to leave the cage, so they tell you to simply enjoy your boring little cage-life. "There's nothing good out there. Why would you want to leave, when all you need is right here?" Hear that mantra enough, and you'll either believe it, or you'll go out of your mind.
The Nihil are the ones outside the cage, and those who have escaped the cage. They see life in the cage as worse than death, and their goal is to break the cage. The High Republic is boredom personified; the Nihil see themselves as the cure to that. Joining the Nihil has the same draw factor that internet trolling has: you can do whatever you want, say whatever you want, hurt whoever you want, and no one really has the power to stop you. You are a force of chaos, disrupting the boring old "order," and you're doing it all for yourself, unlike those poor saps in the Republic who live only to help others. The Nihil are freedom. It's wild, untamed, and terrifying outside the cage, but you are FREE. And they know others must want to leave the cage, too, so why shouldn't they rattle and break the cage? Shouldn't everyone be free?
I think part of the problem is how they’re telling it. With the Old Republic, it was simpler. They started with the legendary video games, and THEN expanded the era with various books and the excellent John Jackson Miller comic run. But with the High Republic, it’s been books and comics right off the bat. Besides Jedi Survivor, all the other major media with this era is still in limbo. If they’d released The Last Acolyte and Star Wars: Eclipse first, then they could have expanded the era with the books and comics.
Pretty sure Tales of the Jedi came before the video games. Yeah, 1993 vs 2003. That's a 10 year gap. How do you make this comment and not even bother looking up when the comics came out vs when the game came out? You must be under 30 years old.
Exar Kun was established just under a decade before KOTOR was even released. Does no one look this stuff up? @@basedstreamingatcozy-dot-t7126
Old Republic start with comics, Then in Next DECADE it move to games.
The game was literally the last bit of that era, what.
Personally I’m just very very happy to have the Nihil as a new group of antagonists m that don’t ape off of Sith, Empire, and/or the CIS.
I kinda hope they don’t have any connection to the Sith
Agreed, while I loved the idea of the Rule of two secretly in the background plotting everything especially the way they operated according to the Darth Plagueis. I’m just glad that they didn’t have any involvement of the Nihil or at least the Ro family in general.
They will be. Don't forget the High Republic main focus is to be the Prequel of the Prequel Trilogy, and that one was about the Sith coming back from the Shadows. Phase II already show us how all the galaxy was tainted by Sith actions from the past. Now we're going right to discover Darth Plagueis chessboard and how the Sith worked in the shadow (The Acolyte) during their Darth Bane's rule of two era
@@DanielDaniel-wk1up Exactly.
Sith be destroying the galaxy economically lol
@@WyattDucar An idea I just had that could be interesting is some other group (besides the Sith) are behind groups like the Nihil, using them to take over the galaxy. And the current Sith are against that because it would ruin their own plans. So they have to find a way to help the Republic win without exposing themselves in the process.
Galactic conquest can't really be exclusive to the Sith; there's got to be other people who really want to rule everything. And it could show that it wasn't just 1,000 years of the Sith waiting and biding their time while everything went their way. They had to deal with curveballs that'd scupper their plans without realising they even exist.
What upset me about the book was basically nothing at all was accomplished. At the end of all of those chapters the only things of significance that happened were someone escaped the zone for the first time, and the area of the wall grows. That's it. Almost everything about the story is the same at the start as it is at the end.
I am so glad you brought up the goody-two-shoes aspect of the Jedi Order in this era and the lack of logic in the Nihil's overly-edgy, downright nonsensical motives. The Jedi here feel like they're meant to throw shade at the Jedi from the Prequels, like they're pointing and going "See? See? These Jedi are the real Jedi. Those Jedi from the Prequels were flawed and corrupt." In my opinion it feels kinda meanspirited to trash an entire era that fans have grown to love. Personally I've also grown bored with how often these Jedi wax on about how "we are all the Republic" and how Jedi must defend the innocent and hold all life sacred. We know this already, you don't need to continually hammer it in with every line of dialogue or inner thought these characters have.
The Nihil on the other hand are just not sustainable as a threat. They were marginally interesting in Phase 1 as a bunch of aimless marauders and Spiceheads that would kamikaze and recklessly attack like a bunch of wild animals. But at some point the other side should've gotten wise to their tricks.
It feels like they're copying Mandalorians... Doesn't this give you dejavu of Revan's story where a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters just attack the Republic?
Something that's come up in expanded universe stuff is that Jedi always fall, whether due to how the Jedi are trained or simply the nature of people. Even if they never really became Sith, there must've been a few Dark Jedi during this era; Dooku couldn't have been the first in 1,000 years. Otherwise it basically does come down to the writers saying 'our Jedi are totally superior to any other era of Jedi'.
“If you like space combat, the High Republic has nothing for you” is a wild take. There are several adult novels with heavy space combat filling many chapters. Genuinely confused at what this take is based on.
The High Republic seems more like the setting for a TTRPG than a good story setting.
Have you read the novels?
I can appreciate High Republic at least for being something new. Most of the stuff Disney has done is either heavily connected to the OT or a bad copy of the OT, while they brag about their 25000 years of lore.
I tend to LIKE it when heroes are "goody-two-shoes" in a manner of speaking, but I whole-heartedly agree that when you make EVERY one of the characters from that group that exact same way, it actually seems kind of monolithic and culty. And yeah, pure evil villains are pretty boring and simplistic in my opinion.
The Nihil are Sci-fi Mad Max characters but unlike Mad Max, the Galaxy isn't a wasteland of chaos.
I miss when star wars youtube wasn't just complaining
People only complain because the product is bad.
No because it makes money, rage is the algorythm , hes making a video on stuff he didnt read and thinks he has teeth to actually talk about it ? Is that not bad faith ? Literally youtubers out there get no views when they actually cover the lore properly @@BaithNa
Overall, I'm pretty lukewarm on this era. I don't hate it, and there actually are some stories and characters I love, but all in all, I'm just not as invested as I am with, let's say, the EU Old Republic
I'm thinking about getting back into the High Republic and I didn't know that phase 2 was a...prequel? So, that's good to know. It is a bit odd, but I'm not gonna worry too much about it. Also, for some reason, I smiled when Eck said he watched Star Wars Explained's HR videos! Also also, I never got the whole "Oh, you just read the wiki!" thing. A lot of fan wikis are good sources, and I don't see the problem with using them for videos. I mean, sometimes you don't have the time or money to sort through dozens of books or movies for info to put into your video.
Huge fan of the THR, I agree with a few of your comments. (SPOILERS)
1. THR taking place at least one thousand years before the prequals. I was just so excited to read something new that wasn't Skywalker or sequel era.
2. Eye of Darkness is a HUGE let down. Majority of book wasting on mental masturbation and farts - tbh they could've just covered that stuff in the comics. There are a few good chapters with Porter and Avar.
3. Lastly the Nihl could've been so much more, maybe? The only thing that separates them from other reavers are jump drives. That being said the late game of them being tied to a territory takes away the constant threat of raids. Overall they can't do anything TOO damaging to the galaxy; because then it'll add more continuity errors.
Good things about Phase II (force cults in details, mentions of Sith, more history about Jedha).
You claim to have read these books yet you get so many names and terms wrong in this video alone..
skipping more than half the books in the series probably wasn’t a smart move if you’re planning to criticize it on TH-cam.
What you want is for these books to contradict the events of the prequels. I think you just misunderstand what they’re going for with these books.
The entirety of phase 2 is about how a normal person can get sucked into a dangerous cult and become radicalized. Skipping 10 books that go into the backstory and then saying
“It’s just not believable and the nihil just aren’t interesting” when you have literally no idea what’s going on is so insane man.
You do you I guess, enjoy those wookiepedia articles!
#askeck What is a topic that you were either very interested in or wanted to talk about on your podcast or youtube channels that you feel like people within your audience would not very be interested in?
Tried to get into this new star wars stuff and just isnt for me more a old republic and legends kind of guy
While I was intrigued initially with exploring a period that even legends left void.
Agreed, I wasn't able to either.
@@StrongandStable17yeah the story and characters kept me from making me invested in the books which nothing of importance happens
@@davidordaz5251Yeah, that's just a falsehood, though. I'm starting to wonder what novels have you read, since several aspects of importance happens. It's not static. Unless you just cannot be bothered to actually delve into any canonical media.
What was the barrier?
I have read about 150 SW novels.
I’ve personally been loving everything in this series. And also you probably shouldn’t skip over content such as YA books
It's cool how it tied in with survivor though!
They literally have thousands of years to play with ffs! Why is everything set within walking distance from the Skywalker saga?! We want total separation in general! How cool would it be to see a totally new saga set 2000 years before the Skywalker storyline?! Sith Empire maybe? Or something before the rule of 2? It’s so frustrating.
The beauty of Legends is that we were able to have a universe before and after the Skywalkers came into focus.
Well dude, to be fair, you've been skipping the YA novels, where most of the meat is.
I think these problems are basically an exacerbation of worldbuilding issues Star Wars has had for a long, long time. For example you talk about the Sith and the Empire, the reality is that so often they're just as nonsensical and ridiculous as the Nihil. Especially in Disneycanon, the Empire is just so absurdly evil so often that it beggars belief that anybody would join it or follow it's orders, just look at Operation Cinder for example. The opposite is true for the Republic/Jedi as well, they're supposed to be this shining beacon of goodness and so end up completely boring.
At least in the movies the only obviously twisted Imperials were Vader and the Emperor, and Tarkin I guess. All the lower level captains or admirals you see really just come off as normal people in a military, Even in the deleted scenes of RotJ you have Jerjerrod having an inner conflict over the order to fire on Endor. Similarly with the prequels the CIS are often so goofy or pathetic that when Anakin is cutting them down on Mustafar you're led to feel that they're hardly the real bad guys.
I think the issue is that in trying to "be Star Wars" authors just keep dumbing down conflicts to the most two-dimensional levels imaginable. Some of the best EU books are the ones with the Sith as protagonists, because they're actually allowed to be active characters and do and say things you wouldn't expect. This was part of the draw for Thrawn too, as being an antagonist with good features to him who can inspire people, but now he's just leading a literal army of zombies powered by dark magic. At this point there's less moral depth to Star Wars than with the conflict in LoTR.
I could never get into the high republic
Same here
I bought the coffee table reference book for the series, but instead of having a 'new essential chronology' to the series, which explains what happens in each book and how they all fit together seamlessly, it was a more an encyclopedia of how things were prior to the first book. After finishing all of the first phase of books, including junior novels and young adult novels, I couldn't bring myself to continue. For me Disney canon is pretty much dead. I haven't enjoyed a comic for years (in spite of reading them all) have only enjoyed a few novels (the Zhan stuff and Lost Stars, and somewhat the Ahsoka and Luke books). One of the problems I have had is that there is no consistency with the setting, even their technology is inconsistent (every Disney movie has changed the way Hyperspace Physics work for instance, whether it is the Holdo Maneuver, Hyperspace Skipping, or using Hypercoms while in Hyperspace.) I am SOO happy to have the Legends doing their unabridged books again, since many I haven't read since they first were released.
Absolutely should not have skipped Phase ll, Path of Deceit is genuinely phenomenal and sets up so much subtext for phase lll. If you’re a prequel trilogy fan the jump back in time makes complete sense and should be something you’re used to as a narrative decision.
I don’t think just watching some vids is enough to simulate actually taking the time to read through the novels.
I think you're wrong. The only important thing that Phase 2 establishes is the Marchion's family tree and it's desire to screw with the Jedi Order. And it doesn't matter where the Nameless came from because they should be exterminated ot returned to their home planet in Phase 3, which requires having a hyperspace path again, which will be explained all over again
@@gohu11 The Nameless are tied with the Ro family, so learning where they originated and how they came to being with the Ro line is a tethered story. Also, learning about the motivations behind your era’s primary antagonist is enough reason by its lonesome to justify reading Phase ll. Nevermind again, that it just has some of the strongest YA novels in the series up to this point.
You definitely *can* skip over phase ll, but you won’t have that narrative subtext and it would result in an overly surface level view of the larger story that’s being built. Marchion works perfectly fine without phase ll, but imo knowing more about the evolution of his species and his family’s history makes him a much more interesting character and foil to the HR era Jedi.
The High Republic series exposes the early hubris of the Jedi Order, and how their arrogance and dark-side blindness aided the downfall of the Republic. The series is exhausting at times as it delves into the weaknesses and fragile natures of the members of the order. Random question: Did Yoda sabotage the order on purpose? It seems that dark entities received a free pass while he was on the council.
Furthermore, it seems the direction of the franchise is decided in boardrooms, rather than inspired direction that Lucas brought to everything. I am a Gen Xer, so I imagine younger readers have a completely different experience. Dave Filoni has a monumental task ahead of him trying to please a fan-base that spans from pre-school to nursing homes.
There are mountains of these books are already at the discount stores near me, along with all the Rey Palpatines, Holdosl, and Jyn Ersos.
why don't star wars governments use heavily weaponized light freighters?
I haven't read these books, but the way that the Stormwall is described makes me wonder why the Empire wouldn't employ this all over the galaxy in the Age of Rebellion. Furthermore, when blocking trade, why wouldn't the CIS use it during the Clone Wars? This makes it seem like it would be impossible to take territory from one government to another. Was the technology lost? Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.
I think the real issue is that the project lacks a compelling core metaphor or message. There is no threat that you can conceptualize in the modern world that is just a bunch of random barbarians, no place that is a perfect functional democracy. The empire represents a power-hungry central government attempting to use overwhelming military force, the late republic represents a state backsliding from a long stable democracy into a fascist dictatorship, even the separatists represent a controlled opposition group held together by vague ideas and corporate profits. Compared to that a lot of modern Star Wars factions from the high republic to even the sequels don’t really have any real world parallels or core ideas that hold them together
Villains handed a defeat and yet suddenly grabbing swathes of the galaxy despite having very few resources? Where have I seen that before....
I think there is enough material for the High Republic to flesh out a great history of the galaxy. They need better writers. I think skipping phase two is a mistake because there are some interesting elements that make for a better experience. Just my two cents. Mtfbwy always.
Im surprised you’re not over everything Disney owns at this point.
He is a bit of a shill, i remember him pushing andor really hard in the past, have nor seen the channel for a bit but it seems he has given up on it now but doesn't want to admit it
@@zeo-pe5sgPonieważ Andor jest świetny, i wiele książek z kanonu również.
@@zeo-pe5sg Andor was good, though, so evidently yes, he's pushing it.
So they created the Reavers, but without the mechanic that made the reavers go mad in the first place?
I saw the High Republic as Disney trying to not pay royalties for the legends content. The sequals replaced New Jedi Order era and the High Republic was to replace the Old Republic content. It just sadly fell flat.
Had they put the High Republic before the New Sith wars I can see it work better. The shining beacon of the Republic before the Sith bring the Galaxy into a dark age. Then the Ruusan reformations happen and we have a new Republic formed and this leads to the Skywalker era later on.
They can just do nothing... There was no need to make a new era
This was 100% a 'money' decision first, gotta not pay the royalties/what they owe.
@@chromesucks5299 This is all made up rage bait when literally there is a new book coming out with a old eu author helming it from the clone wars 2003 era lol , there has been a few who have made new books , this was not deep, just new era to try out stuff multimedia wise nothing more
Yea Disney managed to give us like 3 good pieces of Star Wars media in 11 years. Not a super good track record
I still absolutely love the High Republic. I’m just glad they’re finally exploring something brand new.
More like making up shit that never mattered…so much other lore to be explored that doesn’t completely throw fundamental lore out the window
@@seanandrews5329sean the whole thing is made up
Glad your weirdness is validated by that woke shit
@lucasa9480 no shit, consistency matters
@@seanandrews5329 😂
It could have worked. Just show Rule of Two Sith pulling the strings while in hiding.
"This character, who has had a brush with the dark side, still is ready to uphold the values of Democracy. It's just lame..." You could not have shown your hand so hard even if you threw your cards at us.
not enough spaceship lore
Modern star wars has become remarkably shallow
DSW isn't canon
Inconsistent is the word I would use. Each project could either be fantastic or a complete waste of time, and nobody cares enough anymore to find out which
@@WeaponizedAutism7
True. Very true, it's been very Hit or Miss every time