Star Wars Essential Reading List

Written by Admin | posted in Read, Tatooine Press | 1 Comment |

Because it was requested of us at Ossus Academy many times, we’ve put together a timeline of Star Wars novels and comics for all of you. Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list of every book or comic ever published. Instead, it’s our list of things that we feel are essential for fans to read. The following pieces of literature listed are either very important lore-wise, or we felt that they were really awesome and people should definitely read them.

Note: Dates are listed as either BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or ABY (After).

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36,453 – 25,793 BBY	Dawn of the Jedi
5,000 – 4,975 BBY	Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith
	Tales of the Jedi: Fall of the Sith Empire
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Precipice
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Skyborn
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Paragon
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Savior
4,000 – 3,986 BBY	Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic
	Tales of the Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising
	Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith
	Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
	Tales of the Jedi: Redemption
3,964 -3,963 BBY	Knights of the Old Republic
3,962 BBY	Knights of the Old Republic: War
3,960 BBY	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Purgatory
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sentinel
3,954 -3,950 BBY	The Old Republic: Revan
3,953 BBY	The Old Republic: Deceived
3,000 BBY	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Pantheon
	Lost Tribe of the Sith: Secrets
1,032 BBY	Knight Errant (comics and novel)
1,003 -1,000 BBY	Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
1,000 BBY	Jedi vs. Sith
1,000 – 980 BBY	Darth Bane: Rule of Two
	Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil
67 -19 BBY	Republic
27 BBY	Outbound Flight
22 BBY	Republic Commando: Hard Contact
21 BBY	Republic Commando: Triple Zero
	Republic Commando: True Colors
19 BBY	Labyrinth of Evil
	Republic Commando: Order 66
	Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
	Imperial Commando: 501st
	Dark Times
10 BBY	The Paradise Snare
5 BBY	The Hutt Gambit
2 BBY	Rebel Dawn
1 – 0 BBY	Empire
0.5 ABY	Allegiance
	Choices of One
0 ABY	Rebellion
0 ABY – 4 ABY	Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
3.5 ABY	Shadows of the Empire (comics and novel)
5 ABY	Boba Fett: Twin Engines of Destruction
6.5 – 7.5 ABY	X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
	X-Wing: Wedge’s Gamble
	X-Wing: The Krytos Trap
	X-Wing: The Bacta War
	X-Wing: Wraith Squadron
	X-Wing: Iron Fist
	X-Wing: Solo Command
8 ABY	The Courtship of Princess Leia
9 ABY	Heir to the Empire
	Dark Force Rising
	The Last Command
	X-Wing: Isard’s Revenge
10 ABY	Dark Empire
	Dark Empire II
11 ABY	Empire’s End
	Crimson Empire
	Crimson Empire II
	Jedi Search
	Dark Apprentice
	Champions of the Force
	I, Jedi
13 ABY	X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar
18 ABY	Ambush at Corellia
	Assault at Selonia
	Showdown at Centerpoint
19 ABY	Specter of the Past
	Vision of the Future
	Union
22 ABY	Survivor’s Quest
23 -24 ABY	Young Jedi Knights Series
25-29 ABY	Vector Prime (The start of the New Jedi Order series)
	Dark Tide I: Onslaught
	Dark Tide II: Ruin
	Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial
	Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
	Balance Point
	Edge of Victory I: Conquest
	Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
	Star by Star
	Dark Journey
	Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
	Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
	Traitor
	Destiny’s Way
	Force Heretic I: Remnant
	Force Heretic II: Refugee
	Force Heretic III: Reunion
	The Final Prophecy
	The Unifying Force (End of the NJO)
35 – 36 ABY	The Joiner King
	The Unseen Queen
	The Swarm War
40 – 41 ABY	Betrayal (Start of Legacy of the Force)
	Bloodlines
	Tempest
	Exile
	Sacrifice
	Inferno
	Fury
	Revelation
	Invincible (End of LotF)
41 ABY	Crosscurrent
	Riptide
43 – 44 ABY	Outcast (Start of Fate of the Jedi)
	Omen
	Abyss
	Backlash
	Allies
	Vortex
	Conviction
	Ascension
	Apocalypse (End of FotJ)
130 – 138 ABY	Legacy
138 ABY	Legacy: War
Non-canon	Star Wars: Tales
	Tag and Bink comics
	Infinities comics

Digital Disappointment

Written by Admin | posted in Read, Tatooine Press | 13 Comments |

The wait is over. The Old Republic is finally out and we can all enjoy playing the game that we’ve been waiting so long for. But for some of us, the wait has beem for more than just the game. For those of us who ordered the Collector’s Edition, we’ve been waiting for a long time to get our hands on our extra goodies that come as part of the package. When I was finally able to open up my box, I was extremely satisfied with all the physical items I got. The Gnost-Dural journal, in particular, was more impressive than I was expecting. The digital items, on the other hand, were quite disappointing.

First we’ll start with the item that everyone got for pre-ordering any edition of the game; the color stone. There have been many complaints about the color of this stone and many people feel that it is quite ugly. I’m not one of those guys. But what does bother me is the relatively low stats on the stone. At +7 Endurance, the stone didn’t last me past my late-20s. I would have liked to seen a graduated set of stones. You know, maybe at level 20 I can then buy a new color stone with something like +10 Endurance on it. Something to let me keep my pre-order colors through to the level cap if that was my wish.

Next are the holodancer, holocam, STAP, training droid and flare gun; the items that both the Collector’s Edition and Digital Deluxe buyers were given. The holocam is complete waste. So I click a button instead of hitting “Print Screen” to take a screenshot. Who cares? The holodancer is kinda entertaining, but quickly becomes annoying. The holodancer only last for 30 seconds, but the cooldown on the item is 60 seconds.. It’s totally ruining my dance parties. The flare gun is cool, but it shoots the flare so absurdly high that even in huge caverns the flare usually will disappear into the ceiling. Only use this gun outdoors, and even then the flare will be up so high that no one is likely to even see it going off. The training droid has absolutely no use other than wasting inventory space. In the end, the STAP is the only item really worth having. It’s a kind of neat looking vehicle and it saves you from having to spend the money to purchase one once you hit level 25.

Finally come the two things exclusive to Collector’s Edition owners, the mouse droid and access to a special vendor. The mouse droid is pretty neat. He follows you about, like any vanity pet, and that’s about it. I was pretty happy with my mouse droid for a couple days, until I took a look at the vendor that people who use security keys have access to. It turns out that he sells a mouse droid. A real mouse droid that actually looks like the mouse droids from the films. I want that instead of the ugly green Rhoomba that BioWare gave me. But the thing that I am most disappointed in is the vendor. Who cares if we have an exclusive vendor if it’s full of things that nobody wants to buy. You can choose from another vanity pet, a couple companion customizations, or a really ugly uniform. The VIP vendor that anyone can get access to sells a cool looking speeder and even the Security Key vendor has more and better items than the Collector’s Edition vendor. However, BioWare has said that they plan to occasionally update the vendor’s inventory with new items. I sure hope it happens soon, because right now I’m feeling kind of cheated.

TOR Lore 102: The Mandalorians

Written by Admin | posted in Read, Tatooine Press | 1 Comment |

Who and what were the Mandalorians? Everyone knows about Boba Fett and Jango Fett, but what about the culture that spawned these two iconic warriors? Very little information is given in the films about who they were or their motivations. Once again, Leo and Evan join forces to discuss this topic and share their knowledge with the rest of you.

Mando Culture

Evan: If there was only one thing that I wish I could rip out of George Lucas or Ralph McQuarie’s notebooks from 1980, it’s the original concept notes and sketches of the Imperial Super-Commando that eventually became Boba Fett. I think these Super Commandos were meant to be the ones storming Echo Base instead of Snowtroopers, but I could be wrong. Regardless of where he came from, the unnamed bounty hunter from Empire Strikes Back with three whole lines somehow managed to generate this whole separate sub-fanbase. Back then all we knew was that this guy who liked to disintegrate people had something called “Mandalorian Battle Armor.” Even if you don’t know everything about them you know they’ve really become the third pillar of the Star Wars universe and, consequently, a major source of contention between the fans, EU writers, and GL himself.

Leo: Yes, today we know a lot more about Mandalorians then just that they wear badass looking armor. The entire Mando culture is one based on a dichotomy, conflict with non-Mandos but unity amongst each other. Kad Ha’rangir was the Mandalorian god of war and destruction and engaging in warfare was how Mandos worshiped him. Because of all the war and conflict and because Mandalorian society is comprised of beings from many, many different species, their culture also had many different rules intended to unify these disparate species. Foremost amongst these was the Resol’nare, or the “Six Actions.” All Mandalorians are expected to live by these tenets and they are: wear beskar’gam (armor), speak Mando’a, defend yourself and your family, contribute to your clan, rally to the Mand’alor when summoned, and raise your children in the Mandalorian ways.

E: That’s a significant point to make: being Mandalorian isn’t about species at all. In fact, the armor speaks more to their society than what’s underneath. From a certain point of view, the Mandos might be a more equal society than some in the Republic.

Also worth noting is that although they are, by definition, a warrior culture, they are not ruthless monsters. As you’d already mentioned, they are a very tightly-knit society, having their own families within their larger clans. Because they recognize that not every society they face may be warriors, they may choose to not engage them. After all, there is no honor to be found in killing those too weak to even try to defend themselves.

L: Mandalorians as a whole, however, eventually become much less warlike after the Old Republic era. After a devastating war with the Republic about 700 years before the films, several Mandos break off from the general Mandalorian population and form a peaceful pacifist society known as the New Mandalorians. But they were totally lame and no one wants to hear about them. The rest of the Mandos continued on as always until they nearly exterminated the Ithullan race. This started a movement amongst the Mandalorians to reform their culture. Instead of spreading warfare across the entire galaxy, they instead became the highly skilled mercenaries and bounty hunters of the modern era. Rather than act as a marauding army, they began to follow what was known as the “Supercommando Codex.”

Mandolorian Battle Armor

E: Of course, it’s the armor that really captivates even the most casual of fans. You’d mentioned that they are meant to wear beskar armor, but what we see Boba and Jango wear really just looks like any old plasteel you might take off a dead stormtrooper, just with a different paint job and some mods. Beskar’gam, however, is made from the mineral beskar which is one of those very few materials capable of standing up to a lightsaber. Looking at the game for a moment, I don’t think we’ll be too likely to even SEE any beskar armor until we’re at least level 50. Actually, the use of beskar was not limited solely to armor, but extended to weapons, as well. A Mando wearing beskar’gam and carrying the traditional beskade warblade was more than a match for any Trooper attacking with a rifle.

L: I think armor is captivating even for us non-casual fans. Personally, it’s what I find most fascinating about the Mandalorians. Each Mando’s armor is their most prized possession. Everyone’s armor (usually) is different and all the customization means something to them. Even different colors on the armor can have different meanings. Really the beskar’gam is a good metaphor for the whole Mando culture. Each set of armor is highly personal and individual, yet they are alike enough show unity among the various clans and species that make up the Mandalorians.

E: The helmet is also one of those things that grabs you immediately. Masks and helmets are a very prominent theme in the Star Wars universe. Aside from the droids and rebel troopers, the masked Stormtroopers and Darth Vader are the very first characters we met in the films! In Empire, Boba’s mask bore somewhat of a resemblence to the stormtroopers’, of course, being taken from the super commando sketches, but it held another level of mystery and menace for the viewers. The most important mask amongst Mandalorians is that belonging to The Mandalore, the supreme leader that can unite all the disparate clans. The Revan novel really drove home what that helmet means to the Mandalorian people and why Canderous claiming it was such a significant event in Knights of the Old Republic II. Fans of the Saga era don’t really get that backstory to any degree, although the second season of the Clone Wars peripherally touches on it and the Legacy of the Force books, especially those by Karen Traviss, do bring it back to the forefront.

L: And the gadgets. Don’t forget the gadgets. All the stuff hidden in this armor can put Batman’s utility belt to shame. Exactly what accessories a set of armor will have varies greatly from one individual to the next. Common accoutrements include grappling hooks, flamethrowers, crush gauntlets, jet packs, rocket launchers, and dart guns. The suit can even contain water and nutrients that can be ingested through the use of a straw inside the helmet.

For Mandalore!

As much as we’ve just finished talking about, there are volumes more that could be gone over. From the origin of the Mandalorian species and their evolution into a multi-species culture to the first time they served the Sith and all the way up to Boba Fett becoming The Mandalore, it would take more time than most people have in a day. However, having just scratched the surface, we hope you’ll be inspired to look into these fascinating characters further than a Wookieepedia entry. With that, even if you are a Republic loyalist, do yourself a favor and roll a Bounty Hunter on the side. I think every variation of “Boba” has been taken by now, though.

Still Waiting for X-Wing 2

Written by Admin | posted in Read, Tatooine Press | 3 Comments |

When I think back throughout my long history of Star Wars gaming, no experience was more amazing than the first time I sat down and played X-Wing. This game was followed up by TIE Fighter, a game which I played even more than X-Wing, and to a lesser extent I also enjoyed X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. Then there was X-Wing: Alliance, but the less said about that game the better. The point is, ever since TIE Fighter, I’ve been waiting for another Star Wars flight sim game to come along and blow me away. The inclusion of space combat is always the number one thing on my wishlist every time a new Star Wars video game is announced. So I was obviously excited when space missions were announced for The Old Republic. It was the number one thing I wanted to try out and eventually I got into the beta and was able to try my hand at space combat. And now that the NDA is down, I can finally share my experience with the rest of you.

I knew going into this that I wasn’t getting the free-flying X-Wing-style space combat that I really wanted. No, those hopes were quickly dashed by the words, “rail shooter.” For those unaware, rail shooters are those where your ship follows a predetermined path (as if it was riding on a set of rails) and you really only have control over targeting and firing your weapons. Despite my disappointment, I have been so starved for Star Wars based space combat that I didn’t really care.

When you first get your spaceship, there are three missions available to you. These three missions are fairly easy to complete and and are intended as training and introduction to the whole space mission mechanic. However, they are so easy that I found them to be somewhat boring, particularly the escort mission. Eventually, you do unlock missions with a higher difficulty and things do improve from there. The ability to upgrade your ship is also a welcome addition and really helps complete those higher level missions. And as a rule I enjoy whenever MMOs add “twitchy” elements to their gameplay.

The environments look really beautiful as well. Even if you play with your graphics on the lowest settings, it’s really something to see. And buzzing along the surface of an Imperial cruiser blasting away at its shield generators and turbolaser turrets is pretty damned awesome. Completing space missions give very nice experience awards and can be a really good way to level up.

Sadly, this enjoyment can quickly turn to tedium. Thanks to the rail shooter style of gameplay, every time you play the space mission it’s exactly the same as the last. The replay value of these missions is essentially zero. Still, they do offer a nice diversion from questing and another for people to level their characters up. And as long as you play each mission only once, you’ll never notice the repetitiveness. So, no, I didn’t really get what I wanted out of the space combat in SWTOR, but it at least gives me some way to pass the time while I wait for Lucasarts to release X-Wing 2.

TOR Lore 101: The Hutts

Written by Admin | posted in Read, Tatooine Press | 3 Comments |

The Hutts have often played a major role in Star Wars lore, and seem to poised to do the same in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yet, for many of our listeners, Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi is their only exposure to this race.To remedy this, Mos Eisley Radio’s two local lore hounds, Evan and Leo, discuss the Hutts, their homeworld, and what to expect once we are all in the game.

“I know that laugh…”

Evan: If we’re gonna talk Hutts, we have to start with Jabba and where he came from creatively. Originally, the character was said to have been greatly inspired by the characters played by film actor Sydney Greenstreet, particularly in movies like The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. Although this might have been the case with regards to the deleted, and later re-done, Docking Bay 94 scene, for those seeing Jabba’s first official on-screen incarntion, I think the Jabba we all know and love owes more to Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone in The Godfather. This wouldn’t be surprising given the friendship between Lucas and Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola

Leo: Everybody knows that gangsters gotta be fat, and Lucas came up with the name “Hutt” as a derivation from the Arabic word for “whale.” Jabba, however, isn’t really the best representative of his race as a whole. Most people remember him as the big fat slug who had a thing for half naked Humans and Twi’leks. His love of alien women was considered a bit of a strange and sick fetish amongst other Hutts. Not all Hutts are as fat or immobile as Jabba either. Those among the lower castes can’t afford to have a repulsor platform to carry them around everywhere and have to move under their own power instead. For this reason size is considered a measure of one’s status in Hutt society. Of course, a small Hutt is still pretty damned big by our standards.

E: Wasn’t there even a bizarre story from Tales From Jabba’s Palace about him and, who was it, Ephant Mon beating up Stormtroopers? In any case, for some the only other Hutt they might know is Ziro the Hutt from The Clone Wars. Whether or not you like the show, they at least took this Hutt in a different direction and didn’t just make him a clone (insert joke) of Jabba. His character was based on Truman Capote and it shines through in the accent. Unlike other Hutts, Ziro speaks mostly basic, though that may have had more to do with making it more TV-accessible than anything else. His episodes in the third season give us more Hutts than I think we’ve ever gotten before.

L: Pfft. Much like everything else on that show, I hate the Hutts on Clone Wars. Although I do remember reading an article somewhere speculating that Ziro was the first openly gay Star Wars character. An amusing proposition when you consider the fact that all Hutts are, in fact, hermaphrodites. They possess both sets of sexual organs, and so whatever gender an individual Hutt associates themselves with is a matter of their own choice. So some Hutts always think of themselves as male or female, while some switch gender roles throughout their lifespan. For example, it is quite common for “male” Hutts to consider themselves “female” while pregnant and raising a child.

E: *Sigh* Yes, exactly. Ziro can’t be gay in terms of how we use the term since they’re all hermaphroditic. But having purple body paint and talking like Truman Capote certainly does make you wonder what direction they were going. Though there is a third season episode where we learn “he” had a romantic relationship with Sy Snoodles.

But we’re getting WAY off track here. Point is, we haven’t seen too many Hutts that were not anything more than Jabba clones. The Han Solo Trilogy gave us a small look at how they’re organized as their own crime entity within and yet separate from the Black Sun organization, run during The Saga by Prince Xizor. We also get a taste of that in both KOTOR games where the Hutts you deal with (and even dance for, depending on your character design) enlist your help to get a leg up on The Exchange.

The Glorious Jewel and the Smuggler’s Moon

L: Hutta and its moon, Nar Shadda, are two areas that are relatively unexplored in much of Star Wars lore. There are several comic books that give us a view of Nar Shadda but very few novels have ever visited these two places. The novel Fatal Alliance, despite it’s many many many flaws, was nice simply because it’s gave us a look at Hutta and it’s culture.

A little known fact is that the Hutts are not actually native to their “home planet” of Hutta. Hutts originally evolved on the world of Varl which was destroyed at some point in ancient history. One story (the one commonly accepted by the galaxy at large) is that they fought a massive war across the planet which utterly devastated the ecosystem. The Hutts, however, tell a tale of their two suns, whom the Hutts worshiped as gods, being destroyed in a cataclysm involving a black hole. Since the Hutts survived when their gods did not, many Hutt feel that this has elevated their race to god-like status and has certainly led to the Hutts feelings of superiority regarding all other races. After this, the Hutts claimed the world of Evocar as their own, enslaved the native Evocii, and renamed the planet Nal Hutta.

E: The relationship between the Hutt overlords of Nal Hutta and the enslaved Evocii is actually brought up very early on in the stories for those classes which start on Nal Hutta, the Bounty Hunter and Imperial Agent. I really did not know much about Nal Hutta apart from what little they told us in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords while you roam around Nar Shadda. I guess I am glad that we’re seeing more Nal Hutta than perhaps we will see of Nar Shadda, at first at least, since the latter has already been used in two well-known SW games, the aforementioned KOTOR 2 and Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight.

I’m not sure which would be a more interesting place to explore, actually. In Hutta, we have a swamp world gone industrial; kind of like as if someone went to Naboo and turned all the bog regions into dumping plants (though I don’t think anyone would mind the locals being forcibly removed). For Nar Shadda we’re looking at almost a REALLY dirty version of Coruscant. We’d mentioned how Corellia is a slightly-less-polished version of the Galactic Capitol, but this city world (moon), sometimes referred to as the “Vertical City,” is likewise huge, but also just plain nasty.

L: So little has been seen of Hutta that it will be cool to see, but I’m more partial to the cityscapes that Nar Shadda will offer us. The city moon of Nar Shadda will be a really cool contrast to Coruscant’s city. I’m looking forward to seeing how Bioware differentiates the two worlds that at first glance seem so similar, but are really quite different. The moon should have quite a few Evocii, since that is where the Hutts exiled them to after taking over their homeworld. I’m particularly excited to explore the undercity of Nar Shadda, which is full of mutated, violent Evocii.

E: Alright, well, we obviously have lots of ground to cover with just these two worlds. Hopefully, as the Bounty Hunters and Imperial Agents are running around Nal Hutta and while everyone gathers on Nar Shadda for Huttball, they’ll stop and smell… wait. No. They really shouldn’t smell ANYTHING on either of these planets. If they learn one things from this, it’s this: Hutts are gross. Also, don’t go anywhere with one of them, even if they offer you candy. I’m sure metal bikinis chafe.