3,996 BBY
*So, before we leave the Sith War behind, we’ve got a couple of short summaries to go through. Here’s the first. It’s the next in the series of Timeline videos from the team behind the Old Republic MMORPG.
*You may recall that I actually gave the previous video, the one about the Great Hyperspace War, canonical status, as in giving it a recommended.
*By the by, this is reminding me that I need to just go ahead and post my recommended list. It’s a way to get through the EU (to this point) and get a fairly good picture of the larger story, while also avoiding all the really stupid stuff. I’ve got several items already on it and I’ll be expanding it as I go, of course.
*But anyway the Great Hyperspace War vid is on that list because it’s a quick and fairly painless way to get a really short version of the Great Hyperspace War without having to put up with a lot of the stupidity that’s in the comics and such. I mean, I feel like you should know who Naga Sadow is and what the Great Hyperspace War is as you go through the EU, but I’d recommend just watching a five minute video instead of reading all that comic material. We’ll see if this one gets the same. I don’t know. The Sith War storyline really is so dumb, I’m not even sure if this video format will be able to make it bearable.
*So, anyway, these are all tie-ins to TOR, the MMO. They are in the form of historical holo-records, recorded by a Jedi master named Gnost-Dural. They are made up of still images manipulated and such . . . anyway, with music and narration by Gnost-Dural, voiced awesomely by Lance Henriksen.
*By the way, now that we’re getting new movies, I think we need a petition to get Lance Henricksen to play a Jedi. He would kick ass. I’ve actually always kind of pictured him as Kenth Hamner.
*Huh, so Gnost-Dural mentions Revan and Malek which is the first chronological mention they get, I think.
*Things I never knew I wanted to hear: Lance Henriksen solemnly intoning “Freedon Nadd.”
*Seriously, what do you think he was thinking as he was recording this stuff? I know I’d be thinking, “This is some seriously nutty stuff.”
*He does kind of save the video, to the extent it can be saved. He sounds utterly serious even when he’s saying things like, “And offered him as a sacrifice to an ancient Sith worm.”
*The worm sequence, by the way, is pretty awful; the animation of the worm dying is really cheesy.
*Great music, however.
*This smack-down between Ulic and Exar takes place in a pouring rainstorm and in the middle of a huge battle between the Krath forces and Exar’s Massassi. I seem to remember that it was just the two of them in the comic and they were inside, right? This is a lot better. I mean the presentation here in the video.
*This also shows some sort of a ground battle on Yavin 4 between the Massassi and the Republic forces & a face to face confrontation between Exar Kun and the Jedi who have pursued him to Yavin 4. I like this better than the comic which seemed to kind of indicate that the Republic just cruised up over Yavin and was like *CAST FORCE SEAL* and then flew off.
*So, Gnost-Dural says that Exar Kun imprisoned his spirit in the temples there. And, “From what we know, it remains there to this day.”
*Maybe a couple of Keep Out signs would have been nice then.
*So, Gnost-Dural says that Exar Kun was not allied with the Sith Emperor then on exile on . . . some planet or other. I don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. He then says that since the Sith spirits supported Exar Kun, perhaps they do not support the Sith Emperor of ‘today.’ I still don’t know what the heck he’s talking about. I presume this is MMO stuff.
*Hmm, well, it’s interesting, I think. I enjoyed it. The video is nearly six minutes long. The animation style isn’t great, but the music is great and Henriksen does a great read of the narration. It’s a nice change of pace to have a video to watch instead of a book or comic to read and just for the novelty, I’ll be looking forward to my next one of these.
*CANONICAL STATUS: While even this record of the Sith War contains factual errors and exaggerations, it remains one of the most accurate documents related to the Sith War. For this reason, it should be considered RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.
*Conditionally recommended. 3 stars.
*All right, next time we’ll do a little more summarizing as we jump back to the Chronicles of the Old Republic and take a look at Corruption of the Jedi.