A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Cover art by Two Dots. Cover Design by Scott Biel. (C) 2018 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Star Wars book fans, rejoice. Timothy Zahn is back with a new canonical novel set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," a novel that features Emperor Palpatine's most feared servants: Lord Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn. On Tuesday, July 24, Random House's science fiction/fantasy imprint Del Rey Books published the U.S. edition of Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances, the sequel to Zahn's New York Times bestselling novel from last year, Star Wars: Thrawn, which reintroduced a long-time fan favorite character from the former Expanded Universe and placed him in the "official" timeline to coincide with Thrawn's appearance as the main antagonist in Season Three of the  Star Wars Rebels animated series .  “I have sensed a disturbance in the Force.” Ominous words under any circumstances, but all the more so when uttered by Emperor Palpatine.

(C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Did the fact that "vader" means "father" in Dutch give any clues to the identity of Darth Vader when Star Wars was originally released in 1977? According to George Lucas’s post-1999 revisionist history of how he created the   Star Wars   saga, the story was always going to be about the conflict between Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and his twin offspring, Luke and Leia. In every interview or audio commentary track related to the   Star Wars   movies - especially the prequels - that was the Gospel According to George. That’s the “official version” in 2018. But just because that’s what Lucas said between 1999 and 2012 doesn’t mean it’s true. According to most authoritative accounts of the genesis of the original   Star Wars   trilogy (the saga’s Holiest of Holies, as it were), Lucas originally thought of “Darth Vader” as a supporting character and not as   The Star Wars ’ Big Bad. Tha

Cover art by Steven D. Anderson. (C) 2005 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  One of the more challenging aspects Star Wars fans face when they read any of the “expanded universe” novels set in the Prequel Era is dealing with the fact that the characters from the films have their destinies set in stone. Most of them, especially those that have followed George Lucas’ space-fantasy saga since the first Episode premiered in 1977, are keenly aware that the Galactic Republic depicted in the Prequel years is being transformed into the Galactic Empire, that the once-unassuming and politically unassailable Palpatine of Naboo is the mysterious Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious, and that the brash and headstrong Anakin Skywalker will turn his back on his fellow Jedi Knights and every good thing he stands for and become the infamous Darth Vader. These broad strokes on this huge celluloid and literary canvas have, of course, been visible for over 40 years, but there are still plenty of littl

Although Darth Vader would perish without his body armor's life support system, he remains a powerful and imposing figure. His black suit and the dark side of the Force protect him from numerous opponents until he loses his cybernetic right hand in a fateful lightsaber duel with Luke Skywalker on the second Death Star.  - Jedi Fact File, Darth Vader (Emperor's Wrath) figure Released in 2001 by Hasbro as part of its post- Episode I  "Power of the Jedi" product line, Darth Vader (Emperor's Wrath) is yet another scene-specific action figure based on the central character of George Lucas' six-Episode Star Wars saga set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."  This almost spectral figure depicts Anakin Skywalker's Sith alter ego as he appears in the climactic "redemption" scene in which "Darth Vader" sacrifices his life by picking up his long-time Master Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine and enduring an onslaught of Fo

(C) 1994 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) When Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premiered five months ago, many Star Wars fans - especially those who grew up with the Prequel Trilogy - were ecstatic. In this stand-alone Anthology prequel to 1977's Star Wars (aka Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, John Knoll (who pitched the story to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy), Gary Whitta, Chris Weitz, and Tony Gilroy tell the "untold" story of how the Rebel Alliance obtained the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star.  Older fans of George Lucas's space-fantasy series set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," including Your Humble Correspondent, enjoy Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It is a gritty and exciting war story with a The Guns of Navarone- meets- A New Hope vibe and makes a great first half of a double feature billing that includes the original 1977 Star Wars.  Yet, Rogue One was not the

There are several explanations for Palpatine’s non-inclusion in  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. First, George Lucas hadn’t quite fleshed out the Original Trilogy that early in the history of the franchise. In 1976, when Lucas completed the fourth revised draft of  Star Wars,  he had already created the Emperor as a Nixon-like politician who was, to some extent, controlled by his henchmen. But since there was no  logical  way to include him in the film without putting him in mortal danger, Lucas decided to make Grand Moff Tarkin  A New Hope’s  main villain and saving the introduction of the Emperor for the sequel…assuming that  Star Wars  would at least be successful enough for Lucasfilm to produce one. “There is a great disturbance in the Force……” Second, by not introducing Palpatine in  A New Hope,  Lucas was hoping to create an aura of mystery around the one being who could truly command Darth Vader. While it is true that Tarkin runs the show aboard the

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an evil legacy long believed dead is stirring. Now the dark side of the Force threatens to overwhelm the light, and only an ancient Jedi prophecy stands between hope and doom for the entire galaxy. On the green, unspoiled world of Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, arrive to protect the realm’s young queen as she seeks a diplomatic solution to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. At the same time, on desert-swept Tatooine, a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who possesses a strange ability for understanding the “rightness” of things, toils by day and dreams by night—of becoming  a Jedi Knight and finding a way to win freedom for himself and his beloved mother. It will be the unexpected meeting of Jedi, Queen, and a gifted boy that will mark the start of a drama that will become legend. - Jacket blurb, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace For nearly 40 years, Ballantine-ow