#The High Republic Phase One

[bluntblade]

Trying to wrap my head around what bugged me about Midnight Horizon, and I think it's a mix of stylistic issues (a lot of very short chapters often feeling incomplete to me, so the story feels like it's lurching into sprints pretty often) but also because I don't feel like Older really had a lock on Reath at any point in this story.

On a conceptual level alone, Reath speaks to me a lot as the Jedi embodiment of "skill not talent". He's not singled out by the Force for greatness and would really rather be curled up with a pile of books, but he comes to embrace the challenges of the frontier.

In Midnight Horizon, that... kind of gets lost. Reath is paired with Ram but they don't really conflict, not does he with Crash. Instead we settle into Crash bringing them into some drama, Ram reacting in a big way and then Reath being naive or a little wry. In a story where he is meant to reach the point where he can stand on his own feet as a Jedi Knight, he doesn't feel like he's driving the narrative (if anything, his sidecar is steering).

It's also there in the big battle. Nan is elsewhere, but there's no attempt to build a conflict between Reath (and his fellow Jedi) and the antagonists of this book. His part in the fight isn't really about his wits, but instead throwing himself into physical danger. Which... is physical courage something he needs to work on now? Maybe it was before now, but Reath has tangled in lightsaber duels and pitched battles against the Drengir. It comes off a bit like Finn's moment in TRoS where it's meant to feel big and stirring but doesn't connect to much about the character.

As a result, compared to Keeve Trennis' road to fitting a Knight's boots, Reath being Knighted feels like it's dictated by being that stage in the plot, rather than marking a progression point along his own path. It feels all the odder when his relationship with Cohmac is largely absent too, with the pair apart for most of the book.

[jewishcissiekj]

Have you seen them?

Now you have:)

[i-will-always-love-the-jedi]

doomed by the narrative :´(

Bonus Elzar realizing that he can protect her all he wants but he will never be able to save Avar from herself

…

[milkmanviii]

Reath's my favourite character from the high republic so of course I had to make his lightsaber hilt. Made with birch, tulip, panga panga, and xylia. This is only the second hilt I've made and there's some parts that don't quite fit together but I'm still pretty proud of it.

[rainbow-needs-help]

good people of the star wars high republic fandom i come to you with a question: how does one get into the high republic? like i know there’s phase one and phase two, and i know there’s comics and books, but other than that i don’t really know where to begin so any recs would be so greatly appreciated!!

[tremendouskoalachild]

big fan of phase 3 graduating the previous middle grade protagonists to YA characters. it's been 3 years both in- and out-of-universe. love me a well-planned and executed collaborative project.

[alitherandom]

I've been reading a lot of canon star wars books recently and I genuinely think Phase 2 of the high republic has had some of the best

[countessofravenclaw]

I will never gonna recover from this book!!!!

Give me my forbbidden Jedi Master love affair!!! And Bell and Burry will be joining them!! This will be interesthing.

Bell, who is aur tramatized but yet still kind of innocent baby will maybe be seeing things... the boy is 21 (if i have done my math right)...

Also, don't they just look hot?

[asteroids-and-tractorbeams]

Alright here’s my High Republic theory: Phase 2 of the High Republic is going or be structured just like Phase 1. Halfway through something terrible is going to happen that reveals the bad guys to our protagonists (and I would bet anything that’s going to be on Jedha) and then to finish off the era there’s going to be something even worse that happens (and I would bet anything that’s going to be on Dalna)

[thehighrepublicbrainrot]

So...

Tey Sirrek is a Sephi.

In legends, Sephi live to be over 200 years.

The High Republic Phase 3 is set about 250 years after the time we first meet Tey.

Could we see him again in Phase 3?

[jewishcissiekj]

ok ok writing that down. we can now differentiate between them. Terec - head implants, cybernetic arm, white eyes. Ceret - Distorted voice, cybernetic leg, yellow bionic eyes. (from Tales of Light and Life)

[i-will-always-love-the-jedi]

Welcome to „The High Republic“, where everybody is traumatized :D

I couldn’t put everyone on that chart, but we all can clearly see the average trauma

Also if someone has suggestions/ criticism, I’ll gladly take it :)

…

[vergencescatter]

[hurricanek8art]

I had to start trying to explain to my mom (strictly a movie/tv fan) why the Jedi are like this at this point in time, and it finally clicked in my head. The perfect way to explain how they're so rigid and strict and have such huge sticks up their butts at this point in time.

The Jedi of this generation are the result of generational trauma.

(Spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of The Acolyte, Phase One of the High Republic books, and some barebones setting spoilers of Phase Three under the cut. Also a big wall of text because I never know when to shut up 🙃)

So I'm behind on Phase III of the High Republic books (got a few chapters into The Eye of Darkness when it came out, brain farted out on me on reading ability, haven't gotten back to it yet 🙃😖) but I know enough to know that things are really going bad. The Nihil are rampaging, the Nameless are turning people to stone, the Stormwall has cut off like a third of the galaxy from the rest of it. It's a lot! It's really bad! And we see how it's affecting our heroes. Avar and Elzar are reeling without Stellan. Vern's questioning about how the Jedi are responding to this threat throughout Phase I has led her to become a Wayseeker. Padawans like Bell, Burry and Reath have been elevated to Knighthood a lot sooner than any of them expected to be. All of them are incredibly traumatized.

But that's just the Jedi we've seen. The heroes, the big names. Imagine being a nobody at this time. An extra. A child.

Imagine being a youngling in this era. There are literal nightmares hunting you. People are dying right and left, they're being husked and turned to stone or just plain shot/stabbed/whatever. The outposts are being closed down and everyone's being recalled to Coruscant, and that's the ones who've survived so far. They knocked the Starlight Beacon out of the sky, something that was supposed to be impossible. And less than five years ago, this was a golden age of peace, of light and life and great works that were bringing the galaxy together, a united front. That's horrible, that is terrifying.

We as the readers know it's going to work out, because it has to, because this is a prequel. They don't know that. They're just kids, and the world has suddenly turned upside-down, and the galaxy is big and scary and dark.

So everything works out, the day is saved. But these kids, they have to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.

And when they grow up, and they train Padawans, those Padawans are going to carry the lessons they learned onwards. There is no lesson a Master can teach in this era that isn't going to carry the grief of the Nihil or the Nameless. There is no lesson any Master will ever teach again, from the moment Loden Greatstorm was captured by Marchion Ro all the way to Luke's temple burning to the ground, that won't somehow, in some way, be touched by this. It haunts everyone, everything. Those lessons are passed on, and on, and on.

Yord Fandar is intense about protocal and following the rules and making sure he's the perfect Jedi, because a hundred years ago maverick Elzar Mann played fast and loose with the rules while he was stationed on Valo, and then the Nihil turned the Republic Fair into a bloodbath. Sol is worried about Osha's (so far) inability to put her grief to the side and remain objective in chasing Mae because Imri Cantaros lost control and nearly murdered the Nihil who caused the death of his master during the Great Disaster. Vernestra Rwoh is refusing to charge into this without talking it over with the Council because she remembers what happened when she kept information from them a hundred years ago.

These aren't isolated incidents because they happened to the heroes, every Jedi of that era has some story like this, where the lines blurred in the fog of war and they made or nearly made horrible mistakes out of fear. And now, every Jedi is going to want to rise above that. To not make those mistakes, because that past is past. It's peaceful again. They're better now. But that trauma's lurking under the surface, just like the Sith. The Nihil won't win, but the Order isn't going to, either. Because what the Nihil did changed them, permanently.

The plot of the High Republic books is supposedly unrelated to the show, because it's a hundred years later. But the plot of the High Republic books explains everything about the Jedi in this era of the galaxy. They're carrying the trauma and grief of an entire generation that was brutalized unlike anything the Order had ever seen before.

And the Sith have watched, and waited, as that trauma has become so internalized, so central to what the Jedi are. The Jedi might not even realize that's what's happened to them. But the Sith see it.

And now it's finally time to begin the grand plan.

[gffa]

STAR WARS CONTENT CHECK IN TIME. Congratulate me, for I have officially completed all of Phases I and II's comics and books! I think Young Jedi Adventures probably falls into Phase I, but I just haven't had time to put it on in the background while doing other things, as I was on a roll with the books and comics. I'll be a little sad when I have nothing left to binge with all this stuff, but I'm also looking forward to having time and space for idk getting back to the Lockwood books, finishing the ORV novel, or hell maybe even have time to read a fic???? MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi

The High Republic: A Test of Courage

The High Republic: Into the Dark

The High Republic: The Rising Storm

The High Republic: Race To Crashpoint Tower

The High Republic: Out Of The Shadows

The High Republic: Mission to Disaster

The High Republic: The Fallen Star

The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: Path of Deceit

The High Republic: Convergence

The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City

The High Republic: Cataclysm

The High Republic: Quest for Planet X

The High Republic: Path of Vengeance

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness

The High Republic: Escape from Valo

The High Republic: Defy The Storm

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE I:

The High Republic (2021) - 15 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2021) - 13 issues

The High Republic: The Monster of Temple Peak - 4 issues

The High Republic: The Edge Of Balance - 2 manga volumes

The High Republic: Trail of Shadows - 5 issues

The High Republic: Eye of the Storm - 2 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Blade - 4 issues

The High Republic (2022) - 10 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2022) - 8 issues

The High Republic: Edge of Balance: Precedent - 1 manga volume

The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror - 4 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight - 4 issues

The High Republic (2023) - 6 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic Adventures (2023) - 5 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic - Saber for Hire (2023) - 1 issue [ONGOING]

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Tempest Runner

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE I:

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #6 - “The Gaze Electric”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2021

The High Republic Adventures Annual 2021

The High Republic Adventures: Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #14 - “A Very Nihil Interlude”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2023

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE II:

The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE III:

The High Republic Adventures: Crash Landing

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE I:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Starlight Stories

Life Day Treasury

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE II:

Star Wars Insider: The High Republic: Tales of Enlightenment

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - ALL PHASES:

The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - 25 episodes

I really enjoyed The Eye of Darkness, once again each book that starts out the era is a real banger that has a lot of impact for me, I think this is probably my favorite book for Marchion Ro so far, a character who has felt a little too inscrutable for me up to this point. He could have easily fell into the role of saying he wants to "govern" people but really wants to rule with an iron fist, but nah that guy straight up doesn't want to fit into Republic-style politics or machinations, he just wants to do what he wants to do, this whole thing is about his ego/entitlement complex, in a lot of ways. His dynamic with Ghirra Starros was one I actively looked forward to, because so much of this plot was shaped by feeling like it was a palette swap of the Republic versus the Separatists, that on the surface it was being framed as seceding from the Republic, but really it was occupation. But I felt like this book helped shake off some of that, where they went in a direction where instead this guy is just The Strong Shall Prevail And I'm Strong So I'll Do What I Want and Marchion genuinely sticks to that. It doesn't matter what Ghirra could win for him via politics, he doesn't want that. He's starting to spin out and he clearly doesn't have a real plan, he just wants to fuck things up, but I found that really refreshingly fun here. (I think the way Marc Thompson reads him contributed a lot to that, too. He nicely captures the unhinged aspect of Marchion.) I enjoyed Avar's story a lot, how conflicted she felt and how badly that was affecting her connection to the Force. I hope that this isn't where her difficulty with her internal struggle ends, because The High Republic 2021 comic really had some great moments about how she was having trouble letting go of her anger and fear, and it's not that I want her to nearly fall to the dark side, but that I want the resolution to extend a bit beyond that the Force feels clear and coherent to her again. And It was nice seeing Bell's internal thoughts again, giving him time to work through his feelings, as he stumbles a bit and eventually manages to right himself. I wish Burryaga had gotten some character development, he was just kind of there to be a prop in Bell's story, but given that I love Bell so much, I'm not really mad about that. I'm also about a fifth of the way through Escape from Valo and it's about what I expected from the authors and that it's a junior novel, but I'm enjoying it! I enjoyed the comics, "The Monster of Temple Peak" and "The Nameless Terror" (the art is SO PRETTY), they're fun adventures, but I do wonder a bit of there's bigger plans for Ty Yorrick in Phase III, given how much she's consistently been around, but hasn't yet done a ton of intersecting with the main plot. Or is she just there because she's fun to write and they're trying to make this a big clockwork puzzle tapestry by including characters who are part of the story, just not the main story? I'd love to know what other people thought of any of this! And you should all tell me what you're reading/watching/playing right now, because I want to know how your Star Wars journeys are going!

[fandom-friday]

HELLO I HAVE ANOTHER

@amikoroyaiart did this BEAUTIFUL art from phase 2 of the high republic!! amiko's art is legendary and it makes me so happy to see them doing high republic stuff!!

-- @cyarbika

AHHHHHH THIS IS SUCH A COOL PIECE! I absolutely love all of Amiko's art, and this absolutely makes me itch to get into the High Republic (IT'S ON MY TO READ LIST. THAT LIST IS JUST ALSO 3.1 MILES LONG). The backdrop is one of my favorite details on this, but it is just all PERFECTION. Thanks so much for sending it in!

Link

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