Buy Tales of the Jedi Companion: Jedi
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*So, here’s chapter two of the Tales of the Jedi Companion. Ood Bnar decides it might be of some encouragement if he tells us about some previous Jedi and their struggles with the Dark Side.
*So we get a lot of back story on these Jedi characters.
*Particularly, I found one bit in Andur Sunrider’s back story somewhat moving. It’s when he’s twelve and he has a vision of his recently deceased Jedi grandfather. His grandfather tells him, “You will play a part in the coming war. But do not resist the role the Force wishes you to play.”
*I actually rather liked that. Because of course his role is to die ignominiously in a skirmish with some punks. But because this happens to him, his wife becomes the Jedi who . . .
*Well, she becomes the Jedi who makes bad decision after bad decision and indirectly causes the death of billions . . . but . . . well . . . yeah . . .
*You see what I mean about how you can’t really have a good back story if your front story is total crap?
*So, there’s a story about Arca Jeth leading an assault on a pirate base or something when he was younger too.
*So then there’s this whole back story thing on this dude named Chamma who, best as I can recall, doesn’t even appear in the comics. But he was Andur Sunrider’s master prior to Andur’s being sent to Master Thon.
*It’s a pretty good story, actually, about an encounter he has with a Dark Side minion on a deserted planet as a young Jedi and how he is so shaken by it that he sort of hermits himself away on the planet for over a hundred years until finally another Jedi comes looking for him and brings him back into the fold.
*It’s actually kind of creepy, during the middle passage.
*Dace Diath is from Tatooine. I didn’t know that. I also don’t really care, but you may.
*So, we get a fairly long section on Kith Kark too, but the story is just so idiotic that I can’t even bring myself to talk about it.
*So, it’s all about how Kith wants to be a Jedi, but he can’t get any masters to take him, but he tries and tries and tries and ultimately realizes that he is but a servant of the Force and he surrenders himself to destiny and then he gets taken as a Jedi.
*Which is all very nice and sweet except the section then ends with a note detailing his horrible death in The Freedon Nadd Uprising. So, yes, that was a real feel good story there. Very inspiring. Just think, you too can die in horrible Dark Side agony. If you try really hard. Great. Wonderful.
*So, Ood Bnar is from Myrkr. And he lived even before Naga Sadow.
*So, you might have thought Oss Wilum was kind of dumb before (remember when he fell to the Dark Side because he cut his hand on a piece of Sith glass or something?), but you will really have no respect at all for him after you read his stupid back story.
*So, some of these sections, like the ones on Cay, Shoaneb Culu, Nomi, etc, really give no new information at all really.
*So, they write quite a long section about Master Thon, which is really impressive when you consider that they tell you absolutely nothing about him.
* “The Republic’s Bureau of Xenology has arbitrarily chosen to name Thon’s species Wharl for lack of any other meaningful designation.”
*Uh, what? I don’t think that’s how it works.
*Also Wharl is nothing like Whill, so don’t even say it.
*So, we find out that Tott Doneeta was a slave that was liberated by Master Arca.
*The section about Ulic really should have just consisted of the words, “will fall to the Dark Side soon,” so blatant is the foreshadowing.
*Well, anyway, that’s chapter two, Jedi. A fair amount of new material here in the back stories. But the only really interesting one was Chamma. Perhaps that’s because, unlike the others, he wasn’t so hideously butchered as a character in the actual comics that I was unable to care.
*CANONICAL STATUS: These attempts to give backstories to many of the participants in the Sith War are to be considered mostly fabricated. Small amounts of factual material can be found here, but taken as a whole this work is NOT RECOMMENDED as a historical resource.
*Strongly recommended against. 1 ½ stars.
George R. Strayton
*Next time, we’ll hit up the Chronicles of the Old Republic again. I wonder if this story will be any better in the condensed version. We’ll find out next time with Attack of the Krath!