As The High Republic publishing program comes to an end, Kelly Knox writing at StarWars.com, has spoken to the architects of The High Republic about building a new era of Star Wars, their favourite characters, and which book they’d take to a desert island.
Twenty-five novels, 139 comic book issues, 22 short stories, six original manga graphic novels, and five audio originals. All released in just four years.
This is The High Republic, the most ambitious initiative in Star Wars publishing history.
With the release of the final novel, Trials of the Jedi, the High Republic authors recently gathered around a virtual roundtable to chat with StarWars.com. (Daniel José Older was unavailable and sorely missed.) They reflected on the journey the story and characters have taken through the height of the Jedi Order, and the fans who went along on the adventure with them through the end. But is it the end of an era?
StarWars.com: The first time this team gathered to talk to us was in 2019! In that discussion, Claudia Gray mentioned that while you created the general direction of the story, you knew you’d need to adjust along the way. Can you think of examples of when that ended up happening?
Michael Siglain: Stellan Gios was created to die at the end of the initiative, and then we shifted that to the end of Phase I to have more impact there — to give the Nihil a bigger win and hand the Jedi a loss. But he was a character that when we created him, we knew from the beginning, this guy’s not surviving.
Claudia Gray: I feel like the overall arc maintained itself, but I think a lot of us wound up becoming attached to a character or a development in a way that maybe we didn’t anticipate. I didn’t anticipate really being into the Vessel crew. I don’t think we realized how big Lourna Dee was going to be when she first emerged. It was more about the characters developing in more ways than we thought.
Cavan Scott: I obviously had no idea Lourna was going to be such a big part of my storytelling. Keeve’s story was pretty much written out. The reasons for her leaving shifted depending on what was going on with the wider universe, although they’re pretty much the same, but Lourna’s part in it all has been quite major. And that’s absolutely because people loved her after Light of the Jedi and The Rising Storm, and she sort of fell into my hands. She’s been there ever since.
StarWars.com: Which other characters did you grow attached to?
Tessa Gratton: I really was surprised how attached I got to Burryaga. It was in Charles’s short story for Tales of Light and Life where I suddenly got obsessed with what Burry did to survive. And I was like, oh, my God, that’s just so badass and raw and real. I’m going to write Burry and give myself this opportunity to get to know him better as a character.
George Mann: I loved Reath Silas from the first moment I read Claudia’s first book. I think I identified with him because he’s a geeky librarian guy. It was a very different sort of Jedi than we’d seen before. [He ends up] coming out of his shell and becoming the Jedi he always should have been — and put through the wringer a little bit. I think you always see a bit of yourself in the characters you write. Reath was kind of my way into the project both as a reader and as a writer.
Lydia Kang: I really enjoyed writing Amadeo Azzazzo in the short story anthology. And then being able to see somebody cosplaying him in Japan, that was really cool. I was like, I’m meeting my character for the first time! Writing the chancellors in Phase II was really fun. I get really into the politics of stuff. I love exploring that kind of drama. As for the entire initiative, Geode is always going to be my favorite. I just adore him.
Claudia Gray: I did go to a con once and somebody had what to the uninitiated would look like a rectangular gray throw pillow, but it was a Geode plushie.
Alyssa Wong: Did you see the [Star Wars Celebration] cosplayer who showed up as Geode and then vanished?
Lydia Kang: He was probably going to karaoke.
Cavan Scott: Vintians love karaoke. It’s well known.
Charles Soule: They love rock music.
[laughter and groans]
Alyssa Wong: The character I didn’t realize I was going to fall in love with, but did, was Driggit Parse, who shows up in Escape from Valo. She wasn’t really supposed to be a big part of that book, but she grew with each iteration. And I love writing stories about people whose faith shatters, and it’s usually their faith in other people. I love writing sad and angry girls. She ended up making it out of Escape from Valo, and she’s been going through the comics and short fiction, and she plays a huge part in the Battle of Eriadu one-shot. She’s my girl. She represents all the kids who are that age in real life who are faced with impossible choices.
Zoraida Córdova: I became really attached to Churo the Hutt in Beware the Nameless. If Alyssa likes writing characters whose lives shatter, I like writing characters who know they can be heroes but something’s holding them back. I like that character journey and I think that Churo goes through that when he meets the Jedi, and the push and pull between duty to his family and what he wants to do for himself.
Cavan Scott: I think it’s Elzar Mann for me. His arc has been so incredible. He started as this alpha male, can-do-everything Jedi, and has just shown us all how to be a guy to ask for help, to get things wrong, to admit he needs people, and just to keep fighting. I would never have thought that of him when we first started discussing him, but I think he’s going to be one of the characters I’m going to miss most.
Charles Soule: [Elzar’s] like a cool Jedi with good hair, but then below that he’s got all these conflicts that make him fun to write. Whether it’s the way he’s experimental with the way he approaches the Force, to his own doubts about his connection to it, and all the things that he does and all his failures, that make him a really interesting character to write.
But for me, when it’s time to write a scene with this character in it, I get very excited and it flows effortlessly. And that’s Porter Engle. He’s not exactly a Jedi superhero, but he can really pull off some impressive things. It’s fun to come up with things that illustrate just how good he is with a lightsaber. Marchion Ro is the same way; any time you put him in a scene, it starts to sizzle. I would probably say those two, the most uplifting, lightest characters in the whole High Republic.
StarWars.com: If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take one High Republic book with you, which one would it be?
Cavan Scott: Temptation of the Force. I love that book.
Justina Ireland: I’m not taking any books. I’ve read these so many times looking for things! I’m just going to sit there and be sad with my sand.
Tessa Gratton: My instinct was to say Out of the Shadows because I really enjoyed that one, but the Stormwall starts in that one, and I hate the Stormwall so much.
Cavan Scott: Oh, the days we’ve lost to the Stormwall!
George Mann: I reckon Rising Storm, because it was the first time you get to see the Nameless and there’s some cool action in there. I might be able to model myself after some of those fight scenes in my time on the desert island. I could learn those moves.
Lydia Kang: Can I bring all the comics? Like an omnibus? I would love the actual tactile experience of flipping through them one by one slowly, with time.
Charles Soule: I would bring the audiobook of Midnight Horizon. And the reason why is because I wish Daniel were here right now and I’m thinking of him. I also feel like if I were on a desert island, I’d want to spend my time surviving. So the good thing about an audiobook is you can’t actually spend any time listening to it on a desert island.
Cavan Scott: How are you powering—
Charles Soule: That’s my point!
Justina Ireland: Like a comfort file.
Charles Soule: I would have a comfort file.
Zoraida Córdova: I would take Temptation of the Force, obviously, and we know why. Because it’s beautiful and sexy.
Alyssa Wong: My answer is also Midnight Horizon because I miss Daniel, but I’m taking the hard copy because this hair heats up a lot and I’m going to use it as a hat.
Claudia Gray: I would take Tales of Light and Life. It’s everybody’s writing, and the least amount of stress. Like, oh, God, does that thing with the Stormwall conflict with the other thing with the Stormwall? I don’t have to worry about that. I think it would just be the most nostalgic and fun and give me the most characters to visit.
Editor’s note: StarWars.com reached out to Daniel later to find out his pick.
Daniel José Older: Light of the Jedi! I remember vividly reading it for the first time and really seeing all the pieces we’d brainstormed as a team coming together on the page. Something fell into place for me, another piece of the puzzle, and I knew this was going to be something special.
StarWars.com: As we wrap up, I have to ask, is Trials of the Jedi the last time we’ll see the High Republic era?
Michael Siglain: No, it is absolutely not the last time you’ll see the High Republic era. It’s the end of this particular story, but it’s definitely not the end of the era. And we absolutely have plans for other stories. I wouldn’t say it’s Phase IV, but you could say it’s sort of Phase More.
[laughter]
I can’t say much more than that at the moment, but it’s definitely not the end. It’s the end of the beginning.
Read the interview in full here.
The post The High Republic Author Roundtable: The End of the Beginning appeared first on Jedi News.
