The Mandalorian: Episodes 4-7 REVIEW

I’ve been on holiday the past couple of weeks and I didn’t want to watch The Mandalorian on my phone, so I fell behind quite a bit on the show. I’ve arrived back in Australia now, and had a marathon viewing of episodes five through seven (I watched four the week before I left but wasn’t able to type up a review). Below are my spoiler thoughts, episode-by-episode. None of these is as thorough as a full review, just a stream-of-consciousness rundown of my opinions on each episode.

s1e4: ‘Sanctuary’

This episode felt like filler. Enjoyable filler, but filler nonetheless. I guess I should have expected a Star Wars show to get around to doing a Seven Samurai episode at one point (The Clone Wars did one too), but that doesn’t make watching a story structure everyone’s seen a million times any less lame. The episode was also very dark, and I don’t mean tonally. I couldn’t see a damn thing in some scenes. Hilariously, the episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, actress and daughter of Ron, who directed Solo: A Star Wars Story, another thing that is hugely underlit. I guess she was copying her dad’s directing style…? Anyway, I don’t want to completely trash the episode – there were some cool things. One of these things was Cara Dune, an ex-Rebel shocktrooper who is introduced in this episode. I’ll admit that I didn’t immediately like her, but I definitely warmed up to her over the episode and episode seven, when she comes back. She’s a cool character and it’s great that she’s back later in the season. Another thing I liked was the melancholy Mando has in the episode, being completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy and forced to live a life of few attachments. It adds a lot of credence to his relationship with Baby Yoda. If the Prequels had had this sort of emotion with Anakin, his fall to the Dark Side would have been much more believable. A mixed bag of an episode overall.

Score: 5/10

s1e5: ‘The Gunslinger’

I’d heard going in that this was the most divisive episode of the show thus far, so I was expecting something like The Last Jedi, but no? It was just a normal episode with none of the crazy stuff I was expecting. It takes place on Tatooine, which I definitely wasn’t expecting, but the script (by Dave Filoni) barely touches the lore surrounding the planet. Mando visits the Mos Eisley cantina and that’s about it. There are some fan service-y moments that are maybe a little much (I liked how they recreated the opening shot of the original film but things like ‘she’s no use to us dead’ was a bit far in terms of winking to the Star Wars-loving audience). It’s an alright episode. Although episode four felt unnecessary while watching it, the show later justifies it’s existence – this episode felt completely pointless to the overall plot. Unless some of the aspects of this episode come back in the finale, I can only assume that this episode was only here to visit Tatooine. There are some cool bits such as the climax when Mando kills his bounty hunter friend (can’t remember his name, sorry) and the character of Fennec Shand, a very intriguing assassin I wish we could have seen more of. One of the more forgettable episodes of the season.

Score: 5/10

s1e6: ‘The Prisoner’

After a couple of lacklustre episodes, ‘The Prisoner’ went a long way in restoring my faith in The Mandalorian. It’s a fun prison break episode with some interesting new characters and great action. Mando is developed further as he argues against killing the New Republic guard. It also added to the lore of the period post-Jedi, pre-Awakens by showing us a New Republic prison and it’s inhabitants and introducing us to some cool new droids. This is probably the most canon-heavy episode so far, dropping references to Gungans and Canto Bight. To top it all off, Mando directors Filoni, Rick Fumuyiwa and Deborah Chow appear as X-Wing pilots! They’re not actors so the scene was a little stiff but it was still really fun to see them on screen. I’m not going to make out like this was a masterpiece of television storytelling; it isn’t. It’s just a fun forty minutes in the Star Wars universe and that”s really all I wanted from this episode.

Score: 7/10

s1e7: ‘the reckoning’

Deborah Chow is the directorial MVP of this season, and she returned to direct this episode with great results. This is the penultimate installment, which surprised me because I thought the season was meant to be ten episodes long, not eight. Quick side note: the episode also has a short sneak peek at The Rise of Skywalker at the end. I’m not going to speculate on the clip because at the time of writing I’ve already seen Episode IX. I know I said I was prioritising the film over The Mandalorian but I realised that I have a lot to say about the former and I’ll never get this post done in time if I review the movie first, hence why it’s coming out first. Anyway, this was a really good episode. It was really fun to see the team coming together and their chemistry with each other. Carl Weathers gets a lot of good moments and I enjoyed the fake-out – where you think Werner Herzog is going to be the main villain but then he gets killed immediately – with an asterisk. The asterisk is that it’s a little concerning that Jon Favreau now has to set up the more-or-less main villain for the season, Moff Gideon, in a single episode. But all the episodes thus far have been more or less self-contained short films set in the Star Wars galaxy so the show might be able to pull it off. On a different note, I’m sad that they killed Kuiil! The way that it was revealed (by showing his corpse rather than actually showing him getting killed) was very effective for tension. To end the review on a very minor thing – it was so cool to see Death Troopers again. I love Death Troopers.

Score: 8/10

Well, there you go. We’re up to date on The Mandalorian. My next priority is The Rise of Skywalker (woo boy I have some thoughts), followed by next week’s Mandalorian finale, so look forward to those two!

Star Wars: Allegiance REVIEW

Spoiler Free Section

The Story: Star Wars: Allegiance is a four-part Marvel Comics miniseries set in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and (presumably) leading directly into the latter. It follows two main storylines – Leia, Rey, Rose and Chewbacca go to Mon Cala to foster an alliance with the Mon Calamari people, while Poe and Finn (the shipping name of which is apparently Stormpilot – I have no idea why) intercept a batch of weapons that used to belong to the New Republic.

Spoiler-Free Thoughts: Yeah, this was really good. I’ve mostly steered clear of the new Marvel Star Wars stuff because some of those initial issues were rough. But coming back to them, this was awesome. Part of it may have been where Allegiance takes place in the timeline. Some of the places that Jason Aaron took the story of the Star Wars main series really felt wrong for me given the Original Trilogy. I love the idea that their duel in The Empire Strikes Back was Luke and Vader’s first meeting, but according to the main Marvel series – which is stone-cold canon – they have a fight very soon after the original film. What? But Allegiance doesn’t have this problem because canonically it’s literally the latest we’ve seen on the timeline. We have not seen anything set after this comic in any medium. So it can kind of do what it wants and it’s much easier to swallow (and the stakes feel higher). But anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The miniseries was written by Ethan Sacks (Galaxy’s Edge, which I’ve yet to read), and he does a really good job. The character’s voices are all captured well (not always a guarantee when it comes to comics) and the story overall has a good sense of pacing, with several setpieces and transitions that would feel at home in a feature film. The art is by Luke Ross (Cullen Bunn’s Darth Maul miniseries, the comic adaptations of the novel Thrawn and The Force Awakens, and a few Age of Republic one-shots) and it has a very nice style that captures the majority of the characters pretty well. Rose looked a bit off in some bits, as did Leia, but overall it didn’t bother me too much. I doubt this comic is essential reading for The Rise of Skywalker, but if you want an appetizer, a bit of context or even just another adventure with the Sequel Trilogy gang, I highly recommend it. I have my own theories about how it’ll lead into Episode IX, which I’ll get into in the spoiler section, and the immediate connection is pretty huge.

SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!

Rey: The Rey we see in this comic is a little different to the one we’re used to from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. She’s more determined for a start, a bit more competent and a bit more independent. She also seems to resort to violence or threatening violence pretty quickly, which you could take as a sign that she’s leaning pretty close to the Dark Side at the moment. We don’t get any hints as to her current relationships with Finn or Poe as they are on a seperate planet from her for the entire series.

The Clone Wars Connections: This comic is almost something of a spiritual sequel to the episode arc from The Clone Wars Season Four, ‘Water War’, which aired in 2012. I wasn’t expecting this but probably should have expected it given pretty much the main location of the miniseries is Mon Cala, where that arc took place.

Lee-Char, one of the main supporting characters in those episodes, gets a mention, and a Separatist droid makes an appearance, repurposed to be a kind-of gladiator. The conflict between the Mon Calamari and Quarren peoples is also revisited and built upon.

Connections to The Rise of Skywalker?: The biggest talking point from this comic is, in my opinion, the ending. The gang have just about sorted things out on Mon Cala when the First Order’s fleet shows up. Aided by the Mon Calamari, the Resistance takes to the atmosphere to defend the planet— and then the comic ends. My reaction to this was ‘wha…?’ Admittedly, this was partially because I thought there were five issues in the miniseries for some reason, but also because they were setting up this big battle and I thought it was definitely going to be the climax of the series. But no, it ends there, with a caption promising a conclusion to the story in The Rise of Skywalker. This means that Allegiance is much more closely tied to the film than I ever could have guessed going in, which leads to my theory about the opening scene of Episode IX. I reckon the Battle over Mon Cala will be the opening scene! In the trailer, we see Kylo and Rey duelling on a water planet. I’m pretty sure this was confirmed to be a moon that we haven’t seen before, not Mon Cala, but I don’t see why Mon Cala couldn’t have a moon that’s similar to it in terms of… wetness. Which leads me to the theory that Kylo and Rey will have a duel on one of Mon Cala’s moons right at the start of the movie. The duel will be non-conclusive as Rey and the rest of the Resistance escape. A lot of people have speculated that the scene in a recent TV spot in which Kylo meets Palpatine will be the opening scene, and while it’s more than possible I feel more confident in suggesting that that will be the second or third scene – maybe at the end of the opening battle Kylo feels a pull to whatever planet Palps is on? This is all speculation but I like to get it out there to be like ‘I told you so’ (by the way, Dark Rey is definitely a clone).

A Stolen Fleet: I wasn’t sure if I was going to address this in this review because I don’t have all the details, but I thought I better mention it, at least. Apparently, a bunch of starships seen in this miniseries are blatantly copies of fan art, as evidenced by poses and the presence of small details that are not seen in any official Lucasfilm pictures of those ships. I’ve watched a couple of EckhaftsLadder YouTube videos on the subject and the case is definitely convincing. I just wanted to mention it to let people know that I’m aware of the issue – I haven’t deducted any points from my final score because the stolen art did not actively affect my enjoyment of the comic, but it’s definitely a problem that isn’t acceptable and fan artists should definitely speak out about it, regardless of whether it’s a copyright infringement on Marvel’s part or not.

Verdict: Allegiance is a very entertaining comic book miniseries that does a great job of staying true to both the characters of the Sequel Trilogy and the arc of The Clone Wars that it frequently references while building on those concepts to create a tantalising appetiser for The Rise of Skywalker.

Score: 8/10

The Mandalorian: ‘Chapter Three: The Sin’ REVIEW

Spoiler-Free Thoughts: I’m so happy that Deborah Chow is directing all of the Obi-Wan series, because this episode (which she directed) was fantastic! Like the other two, you could almost watch it on it’s own and be presented with a complete story, and what a story this is, with the completion of the first part of the Mando’s character arc and some great action. I feel this episode will be a little difficult to talk about without spoilers so let’s just say that it was excellent and Jon Favreau continues to hit it out of the park.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Mando Lore: What a pun. Anyway, we got to see tons of Mandalorians in this episode, a lot more in one scene than I thought we’d see in the entirety of the series. We get lots of different variations of the Mandalorian armour and weaponry, which I love, including that one guy who had a bloody minigun. Speaking of armour, Mando also gets his full set of Beskar Steel, and it looks really cool – perhaps the best Mando armour we’ve ever seen, with respect to Jango and Boba Fett.

The Action: After a couple of fairly calm episodes, we get a burst of cathartic blaster action as the Mando goes up against the Client and his stormtroopers. It’s a very satisfying sequence and we get to see that stormtroopers still can’t shoot for shit.

The Writing: This is just a solidly written episode all up, with a bunch of really effective set-ups and pay-offs, especially the little knob that Baby Yoda played with at the beginning and the end. Stuff like this makes it feel like a solid standalone story as well as a great chapter in a larger story.

Verdict: The best episode of the show so far, and the one that’s transformed this show from a really good corner of the SW saga to a great one. I can fully buy into the relationship between the Mando and Baby Yoda and the politics of the underworld and the Mandalorians, thanks to the show’s rich lore and the excellently written characters. Jon Favreau continues to hit it out of the park, and the Obi-Wan show is in good hands.

Score: 9/10

The Mandalorian: ‘Chapter Two: The Child’ REVIEW

On Having To Write Two Episode Reviews in One Week: We’re back at it again with more Mando, only a few days after the last one! This week, we were gifted with two episodes of the show, which was great for the Star Wars fan side of me but pretty irritating for the blogger side. In retrospect I should have waited and then lumped the first two episodes together but what the hell. I think each episode deserves it’s own post anyway.

Spoiler-Free Thoughts: Yeah, so Jon Favreau’s continuing his hot streak with another really good episode. If he keeps this level of quality up we’ve got a great season on our hands. Without spoiling anything, everything that worked in the first episode still works here, from the cinematography to the writing. This actually surpasses the first in a couple of ways – it feels much more focused and better paced. Pedro Pascal continues making his mark on the Star Wars galaxy and (spoilers for the first episode) Baby Yoda is still very entertaining to watch, and we learn some more about him/her (can we have a gender reveal please so I don’t have to keep being vague). That’s about all I can say without spoiling anything- just go watch it.

SPOILERS BELOW…

The Jawas: In this episode we get to catch up with a species we haven’t seen in live action since 2002 – Jawas! They steal a bunch of parts of the Mando’s ship, leading to a very fun chase that reminded me a lot of the tank scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Looking online, it seems like I’m not alone in making this comparison. My favourite part of the chase is near the end when the Mando finally reaches the top of the sandcrawler and it looks like he’s about fry some Jawa but in a hilarious shot all of the diminutive creatures pull out their guns and zap him. It was cool to see a recognisable species (other than Mandalorians, Ugnaughts, Blurggs and whatever the hell Yoda is) in The Mandalorian.

Yes Disintegrations: In this episode we finally got to see what Darth Vader told Boba Fett not to do in The Empire Strikes Back. When confronted with the Jawas stripping his ship for parts, the Mando wastes no time in pulling out a rifle and vaporising a few of the little bastards. It was a really cool effect and I’m sure we’ll see it more as we go along.

Baby Yoda’s Corner: Two episodes in I’d now really like a Baby Yoda plush toy. I’m way too old for this. In this episode we get a better look at it and we get to see it demonstrate it’s considerable sensitivity to the Force. It lifts a space rhino into the air! A space rhino! I like that this develops the relationship between Baby Yoda and the Mando as BY is seeing Mando as a friend/father and is attempting to protect him.

I Have Spoken: Kuiil gets a lot more screentime this episode and builds up a lot of chemistry with the Mando. When the latter offered him a place on the Razor Crest, I thought he was going to take it, but he turned him down. I have a feeling he’ll be back later, though, so I wouldn’t worry too much.

Where Are We Going?: The Mandalorian has been content with taking the slow burn route so far, which I really like. Some fans have been a little irritated that we’ve only gotten an hour of content (each episode being half an hour long) so far when we all expected we’d have gotten two hours (hour-long episodes) at this point. This doesn’t bother me so much (I’d rather spend smaller chunks of time on [REDACTED PIRACY WEBSITE] anyway to avoid viruses) as I’d rather have episodes that have the right length to fit the story they’re trying to tell rather than padding it with filler to meet a 50-minute quota. I would’ve been a lot more harsh on this episode if we’d had to watch an hour of the Mando doing a side quest for Jawas. My predictions for the next episode? The Mando will regroup with Herzog’s character and probably betray him to protect Baby Yoda, OR they’ll get sidetracked on the way there.

Verdict: An episode 2 that matches and improves on the first in many ways with better pacing and more developed characters. The show is quickly becoming one of the most intriguing and consistently fun sides of the Star Wars galaxy and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Score: 8/10

The Mandalorian: ‘Chapter One’ REVIEW

A Note on Disney+: Disney+ is not out yet in most countries. Technically it’s not out in mine either but I pulled some shady stuff to get a look at the first episode, which seemed semi-appropriate (though still illegal) for a show about a bounty hunter. I live in Australia so we get it on the nineteenth anyway, which weirdly makes us lucky given the release dates for the streaming service in other countries. The UK doesn’t get it until next year, which seems odd to me, especially if Disney are planning on making as much money as possible on this (which they are). I don’t really understand what the purpose of having a slow worldwide rollout is but it did give me something to think about as to whether to make a spoiler review given that most Star Wars will not have been able to see it yet. Ultimately, I decided that, yes, I will, so you’ve been warned. Here is a quick spoiler-free rundown:

Spoiler-Free Quick Review: Yes, it’s good. I’d probably say it’s the best live-action SW we’ve gotten since Rogue One. It has a similar feel to that film in both tone and visual style in that it makes the Star Wars galaxy feel very lived-in and real. The most obvious non-Wars comparison is Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy; the main character of The Mandalorian (who isn’t named in the episode) has a similar demeanour (and badassery) to Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name and the musical score for the episode has several cues that reminded me of Ennio Morricone’s iconic score for that trilogy. Pedro Pascal is insanely badass as the titular character and he does a great job of scratching that Boba/Jango Fett itch. We also get introduced to some other intriguing characters, including Werner Herzog’s (yes, that Werner Herzog)’s unnamed client, Carl Weathers’ Greef Carga and Taika Waititi’s IG-11. It’s very well-shot and the set design is fantastic. The action is well-choreographed and easy to follow – The Mandalorian feels cool but not invincible. The episode was definitely a set-up so it jumped between a lot of locations and characters in a way that occasionally felt a bit haphazard, but I won’t knock it too much for that as it is the pilot and there’s lots of worldbuilding to establish. There are some great nods to Wars lore for fans and although it wasn’t essential this Western-in-the-Star-Wars-Galaxy has tons of potential and I think it will build up a special place in both the hearts of Star Wars fans and people who just want a badass good time.

We’re about to enter spoiler territory – you have been warned.

Holiday Special Nods: THEY MENTIONED LIFE DAY!!!!!!

AND THE MANDALORIAN’S RIFLE IS BASED ON BOBA’S FROM THE SPECIAL!!!!

…now that I’ve got that out of my system…

The Cliffhanger: So at the end it’s revealed that the person The Mando has been paid to hunt is in fact a baby. But not just any baby – a child of the same species as Yoda!

(and Yaddle)

It’s just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m really intrigued as to why it is so coveted by both the mountains of people trying to protect it and Herzog’s character. My guess is that the species is inherently powerful in the Force and probably endangered or pretty much extinct at this point in the timeline. This cute little thing could be one of the galaxy’s only hopes in creating a new Jedi Order, making it a thing to be protected for many and a thing to be killed for others, such as Herzog’s character, who appears to be leading some segment of the Imperial Remnant given his stormtrooper entourage.

Backstory/Motivation of the Mandalorian: I feel like some people may take issue with how quickly the Mando comes to the decision to betray IG-11 and rescue Baby Yoda (what a sentence). I did not have this problem, here’s why: earlier on in the episode, we get some very brief flashbacks to The Mando’s childhood. We also learn that he was a ‘foundling’, meaning he was orphaned/abandoned at a young age and was taken in by who I can only assume are Mandalorians (which leans into a theory I have that the Mando is in fact not from Mandalore, just someone who has adopted Mandalorian customs. This is backed up by how he goes silent whenever someone mentions his culture). He sees himself in Baby Yoda and therefore stops IG-11 from killing it. On that note, it did confuse me a little that Herzog told the Mando to bring it in alive if possible but IG-11 acted as if he was told to kill it on sight. Were they working under orders from different people? I’m confused. While we’re on the subject…

IG-11: IG-11 disappointed me a little, to be honest.  It was a cool design, the VFX was pretty cool, the whole self-destruct gag was funny, but it was kind of a let-down for a character I was really excited to see.  Taika Waititi is one of my favourite actor/director/writers working today but sadly his unique personality was lost under the need to be droid-like. It was kind of an example of bad casting. And then they just went and killed him off straight away! To be fair, there’s a good chance he’ll be back, perhaps repaired by the Mando to be an ally, but Waititi’s only listed as a voice actor for one episode. If this is it, that’s very disappointing.

The Star Wars Intro: The last thing I want to touch on is a very minor point but one that I found interesting. The traditional Star Wars logo is not present in the episode’s title card. I guess Disney might have been worried that people wouldn’t get that this was a Star Wars show (somehow) so they’ve introduced a new intro that plays in front of the episode as a sort of title sequence for the overall Star Wars brand (in a similar way to how Marvel Studios has their opening, though that represents the specific studio more than the Marvel brand). I wasn’t sure about this idea when I first heard about it but actually it’s pretty cool. Take a look:

The characters featured, if you didn’t catch them all, were Darth Vader, BB-8, C-3PO, Kylo Ren, R2-D2, some sort of pilot (may be Luke), what looks like a Scout Trooper, Captain Phasma, and finally The Mandalorian himself.

The Verdict: Well, I think that’s all I have to say. This was a pretty good series premiere to a series that looks like it has a ton of potential. It can feel a bit patchwork at times as it jumps around a lot and IG-11 was a bit of a let-down, but it makes up for it with many cool scenes, some nice fan service and a really badass main character. I can’t wait to see how this show develops.

Score: 7/10

Introduction

In December 2017, right after the release of The Last Jedi, I began a blog entitled Hyperspace, focusing on (you guessed it) Star Wars. It ended after only three posts, and I later deleted the site (for some reason). However, the posts remained on my WordPress app for months, unbeknownst to me. I later found them. So, I’ve decided to showcase the first of those three posts on this site.

Many of the ideals and ideas put forward in the following post will go into shaping this new blog. Be warned, though, this will be irregular. You might not here from me for months on end, and then get ten posts in one weekend. It’s more fun that way. Punch it!

A New Blog

First Published: 16th of December 2017

One of my favourite Star Wars fan sites (although it’s expanded far beyond that tag. Now it’s more of an online database, larger than even Lucasfilm’s Holocron) is Wookieepedia, the online encyclopaedia of all things Star Wars, Canon and Legends. They update their site in record time after each new novel, comic and especially films. But, for The Last Jedi, they’ve done things a bit slower, and waited a few days before adding information from the movie. I don’t know wether this was their idea, or Disney made them do it (that sounded more sinister than it did in my head.) as part of their blanket “No TLJ Spoilers” rule. But it must have been a massive amount of work to lock every article that is in relation to the film (I guess if you were really desperate for spoilers, you could see which articles were locked.). Of course, some slipped through. I remember being on there and seeing a Last Jedi article show up on the Recent Wiki Activity page, and instantly another edit popped up, this time by an Administrator, undoing the first one, with the simple description, “not yet.” I looked at the page, and it had become locked. The administrators must have been working day and night to prevent anything from slipping through. Now, I’ve checked this morning, and the “spoiler curfew” has been lifted, and suddenly there’s this massive influx of articles. I added my own words to it, and worked on the page for TLJ.

It’s this sort of restraint, and then unity of the fans as we jump to make sure this website is up to date, which perfectly highlights why I love the Star Wars fandom so much. Sure, we’ve had fights over Prequels and Ewoks, but we have such shining moments of fan unity that it’s hard to not want to be a part of this.

I have two Internet personas. One is older than the other, but the other gets used a lot more, so much so that, last night, I decided that I had too much of a digital footprint, and I began deleting previous blogs and fan fiction of the Internet, as if they were Kamino and I was wiping them from the Jedi Archives, until only a small amount remained, and my footprint had become barely the outline of a toe.

Having done this, I knew I wanted to begin another blog, but I had just almost completely wiped myself from the Internet, so why start another website under that persona? But, I knew I wanted to do a Star Wars blog, so I turned to my other name, the one that I only use for Wookieepedia: FNines.

Named for FN-2199 (better known as TR-8R, or the First Order stormtrooper who spawned a thousand memes when, in Episode VII, he yelled “TRAITOR!” at FN-2187, better known as Finn. His official stormtrooper designation, as well as his nickname, Nines, were revealed in the young readers novel, Before the Awakening, so I mashed the two together), this was the name I used when I joined Wookieepedia in January, 2016. That was the only thing that I have used this code name for, and now this is the second. So, with my handle worked out, it was time to figure out what this blog was to be about.

Like my name, the title of this blog, Hyperspace, is also a reference to something. Yes, obviously it has the same name as the space starships travel through when they jump to lightspeed, but I actually named the blog for two other things: first, the old official Lucasfilm fan club for Star Wars, which had ran from 2004 until 2011. Secondly, and this is much more obscure, it was the name of one of the very first Star Wars fanzines, which began in 1977, right after the release of the original film.

This blog will not be a news site, although I will likely touch on it in the case of a new trailer or something like that. Instead of that, I will be doing more personal writing, talking about experiences of Star Wars, and other people’s experiences, and theories, and, of course, reviews. I will also at some point probably try to introduce readers who haven’t been fans for a long time to the non-film heights of the franchise, like The Thrawn Trilogy and The Star Wars Holiday Special (okay, maybe that one wasn’t a high).

So, enjoy, and get ready to jump to hyperspace…