The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: December 15, 2024
Like Andor Season 2, better late than never
Hello there
What’s this, the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter on a Sunday night? No, you’re not stuck in the World Between Worlds where time has no meaning. It is actually a Sunday and I’m sending this out. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, life finds a way to get in the way. Putting it mildly, it’s been a week. So I figured better late than never for this week’s Death Star HR.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
This one hits a little close to home. For their last meeting of the year, the Dallas City Council does an ugly sweater meeting. And every year Tim Rogers at DMagazine does a “who wore it best?” This year, we had a surprise appearance from one of our favorite bounty hunters. Not only did Councilman Omar Narvaez rock a Mando-wearing-a-Santa-hat sweater, he brought a Mandalorian helmet with him to the horseshoe as well.
As Rogers notes, “Narvaez plopped his helmet down at the horseshoe such that when Councilmember Arnold was trying to make a serious point, it looked like she was arguing with a short Councilmember Mandalorian.”
Oh Dallas, never change.
Neel Nation Will Have a Moment
Only 48 hours from Episode 4 of Skeleton Crew and there’s a lot to look forward to:
We can all agree Neel must be protected at all costs, right?
The Skeleton Crew Goes to Hogwarts
I can’t be the only one who immediately thought that Kh'ymm looked like something out of the Harry Potter universe. Kh’ymm’s species hasn’t been revealed yet, but she looks like some kind of owl-cat hybrid. You could easily see her teaching some class at Hogwarts that only gets showed once in a movie.
Skeleton Crew has been going wild with aliens to add on the Cute Little Guys list. In the first two episodes we had Neel and the rat thing that lives inside SM-33. Yes, it’s getting added to the list. Now we’ve got Kh'ymm, the astronomer owl-cat with a heart of gold who just wants to help the kids get home. And maybe get a little revenge on Captain Silvo/Jod Na Nawood/Crimson Jack in the process. Like the random dancer on Borgo Prime, Kh'ymm really does seem concerned about the rest of the kids and that they’re running around with a scoundrel like Crimson Jack. Which is what we should be calling him from here on out because that’s a way better name than Jod Na Nawood, especially for a pirate.
I’ve really like how the show has slow-rolled the mysteries of both Crimson Jack and At-Attin. As opposed to say, season 3 of The Mandalorian where Mando basically completes his redemption quest and Bo-Katan sees the Mythosaur in the first two episodes. Let’s start with Crimson Jack. He’s got 3 names. He knows how to use the Force. A good friend of mine, known only as the crazy old hermit who lives beyond the Dune Sea, aka Fort Worth, suggested he could either be a Padawan that survived Order 66 as a Youngling, or a Force sensitive that just picked up some Force tricks along the way while trying to get by in the Outer Rim. My response is that the latter would be more interesting, but given how Star Wars story telling usually goes, the former seems more likely. At this point it almost feels like more Jedi survived Order 66 than were actually killed during it. Although after thinking about it for a bit, I feel like this show would be OK with making Crimson Jack just a rando who learned to use the Force as a way to survive. Maybe it depends on how much input Dave Filoni has on the show. This is not a shot at Filoni, but it always feels like he wants to make everything into a Cinematic Universe when some stories are best left small.
Crimson Jack also brings back someone we haven’t seen for quite a while in the Star Wars universe, the lovable rogue who ultimately has a heart of gold. Obviously Han Solo is the O.G. of this type of character. Have there been any others in the Disney TV shows? I’ve been racking my brain here and nobody comes to mind. Which probably means there’s a really obvious one that I’m forgetting. Leading up to Skeleton Crew, I posted a few times all I really wanted out of the series was for it to be fun. I didn’t want the creeping fascism of Andor or the darkness of The Acolyte. I just wanted a fun space adventure. And if you’re going to have some fun, it helps to have a lovable rogue type. Crimson Jack fits the bill. He’s got a questionable relationship with telling the truth and probably always has an excuse for when things to wrong. He didn’t lie and tell the kids he’s a Jedi. But he certainly didn’t correct Wim until his hand was forced. However he’s also going to do the right thing and try to get the kids home, even if it might not be for the right reasons. I feel like eventually he’s going to have to choose between helping the kids or helping himself to whatever the treasure of At-Attin is, and he’ll have learned that the real treasure is the friends you make along the way.
And speaking of At-Attin, that’s the second mystery. We got a few more clues this week.
Kh'ymm tells the kids that there were other planets like At-Attin, but they’re all gone now. It’s clear at least the kids are cut off from the rest of the galaxy and they have no idea about the Galactic Civil War. In their mind, Alderaan hasn’t been vaporized. The adults talk about contacting the Republic, not the New Republic. It’s like a planet time forgot. My theory for now is that At-Attin was some kind of Fort Knox planet, it held the treasure and the valuables of the Old Republic. I almost wonder if we’re in a little bit of an upside down planet where the droids are in charge. I’m sure we’ll get just a little more information this week. Not enough to figure it out, but enough to make me completely rethink my theories. As a fun side note, the kids first interaction with the New Republic is some X-Wings trying to shoot them down. That’s not the way to get the people on your side, no wonder the First Order succeeded.
Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising
I guess this has been out for a long time, but had never seen it before. Do you like pizza? I would hope so. But have you ever found normal pizza cutters to be boring and lacking a certain panache of a galaxy far, far away? If that’s the case the Star Wars Lightsaber pizza cutter is for you.
OK, it’s a cool looking pizza cutter. Honestly, as the executive chef here at Death Star HR HQ, I prefer a rocking style pizza cutter than a roller one. If only there was some way to up this one over the top. Like lightsaber noises…
I’m not saying this is a must have…but it is pretty cool and a great way to liven up dinner.
The Death Star Human Resources Department Book Club: New Jedi Order #10
I don’t think I’m going to finish the New Jedi Order series by the end of the year, but I’m going to make an effort. I’m hoping to have books 11 and 12 read for next week. We’ll see. The 300ish page books like the one I’m going to talk about today I can generally get through pretty quickly. It’s the 600 page tent-pole books that can take a while.
Ten books down. Still have 9 more to go. Over half way!
Title: Dark Journey
Series: New Jedi Order. Book #10
Author: Elaine Cunningham
Date published: January 29, 2002
Pages: 301
Status: Legends
Summary in less than 20 words: Jaina Solo is working through her trauma in some not very healthy ways.
I’ve mentioned before I like when the “filler” books focus on one character and with maybe one or two smaller plots. Trying to do 5 or 6 plot lines in a 300 page book is difficult enough if all you’re doing is a self-contained story that you can wrap up at the end. Actually, as I type this, maybe it’s easier to do it as part of series since you don’t have to wrap everything and any loose ends are the problem for whoever is writing the next book. All that to say, this was the Jaina Solo book, and I liked it.
Jaina Solo is, in no particular order, daughter of Han and Leia, twin sister of emo-kid Jacen Solo, older sister to the recently deceased Anakin Solo, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron pilot, and potential romantic interest of a variety of suitors. All while being 18 at the time of the book. Each of the Solo twins was pretty clearly coded as one of their parents. Jacen is Leia. The thoughtful one, who considers all sides and thinks before he acts, maybe to his own detriment. Jaina is pretty clearly Han’s daughter. The ace pilot who’d rather shoot first and offer a smart remark while doing it.
The book starts almost immediately where Star By Star left off. The Jedi have killed the Voxyn queen but at a high cost. Anakin is dead. Jacen is captured by the Yuuzhan Vong. Oh, and the Vong have captured Coruscant. In short, it’s not great out there.
Jaina and the remaining Jedi have managed to recover Anakin’s body and stolen a Vong starship to get the hell off of Myrkr as fast as possible, only to find out when they get back to Coruscant that there’s a war going on, the seat of the New Republic has fallen, Borsk Fey'lya has exploded himself and 25,000 Vong warriors into star dust, and things are quite dire. Jaina and friends take off to the Hapes Cluster. The Hapes Cluster is basically if you let the British Monarchy have a planet. There’s Queens and Princes and plots against each other. The Hapes Cluster are not huge fans of the Jedi. Partly because way back in The Courtship of Princess Leia, the Queen Mother Ta'a Chume tried to get Leia to marry Prince Isolder. More recently, the Hapans weren’t thrilled at the rest of the New Republic after Thrackan Sal-Solo destroying most of the Hapan Fleet in the process of blowing up a bunch of Vong ships with the Centerpoint Station superlaser.
Everyone following along?
So while she’s cooling her heels in the Hapes Cluster, Jaina and Lowbacca figure how to fly the Vong ship. They also realize that the ship is a tribute to Yun-Harla, the Yuuzhan Vong trickster goddess. Jaina also decides that Dark Side be damned, she’s going to have her revenge and the ship, renamed Trickster is the perfect vessel.
The Vong attack Hapes, but thanks to Jaina, Lowbacca, Kyp Durron, and Jagged Fel the good guys are able to win. Jaina and Lowbacca have figured out how some of the Vong tech works and are able to trick the Vong into firing on their own ships. And for good measure, when Ta'a Chume tries to get her to marry Prince Isolder, Jaina says nope. In short, Jaina is kind of a bad ass in Dark Journey. Oh yeah, and the Vong start to wonder if Jaina is actually Yun-Harla herself.
The Good:
This was probably one of my favorite books so far, especially for being a “filler” book. I’ve mentioned before that I prefer the books that keep a tighter focus. There’s 19 books, you don’t have to tell every story in each one. The book largely focused on Jaina and even if she was flirting with the Dark Side, it’s a pretty fair response to seeing one brother killed and the other captured although everyone but Leia presumes Jacen is dead as well. You can’t really blame her for tapping into Dark Side powers.
The Bad:
No real complaints with this one. The story was focused, it moved along at a good pace while still advancing the overall war with the Vong story.
Wild Card:
I think the author is a fan of the band Rush.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
Next up is another Duology, Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand. Hopefully I’ll have the first one done for Friday.
This Day in Star Wars History
So I know it’s not Friday the 13th anymore but I typed this feature ahead of time and we’re sticking with it.
Oh, lucky us on Friday, December 13th that we’ve got a pretty good assortment of things that happened today in the Star Wars universe.
In 2006, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy won “best video game based on a TV show or movie” at the Spike TV video game awards. Are video game awards still a thing?
Early access for Star Wars: The Old Republic started in 2011. The MMORPG is still going strong. We could have had KOTOR III, but no…
Chapter 6: The Prisoner aired in 2019. The 6th episode from the first season of The Mandalorian, this is the one where Mando, Bill Burr, Professor Tonks, and the guy from Sons of Anarchy do the job on the prison ship. I know there were people who grumbled when this episode when it came out, viewing it as a filler episode. I’ve always enjoyed it though. It’s self-contained and gives you Alien vibes. And Bill Burr asking Mando if he was really a Gungan was a good line.
Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Omnibus was published in 2022. A giant 848 page hardcover collection of a bunch of different Marvel comics all having to do with a big bounty hunter war. I’ve mentioned before I’m not really a comic book guy, but I think I want this one.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
We’ve got one that’s right in my wheelhouse this week, Vinta Harvest Ale. This tasty brew was brewed by the Vinta Corporation on Malastare. Vinta also sponsored the Vinta Harvest Classic podracing circuit.
I’ve mentioned before that I used to be really into craft beer and homebrewing, I actually went to check the BJCP to make some kind of joke about Vinta Harvest Ale and what kind of beer it would be. Unfortunately, harvest ale isn’t actually an “official” style so you can make it whatever you want. Also, the “vinta” name sounds like they should be making Malastare Merlot. Hmmm, now I want a drink.
News From the HoloNet
Jeremy Allen White Joins ‘Star Wars’ Film ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ as Jabba the Hutt’s Son
This honestly reads like a headline from The Onion.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Creators Have A Response To The Neel-Max Rebo Controversy
Still waiting for Disney to greenlight an 8 episode Max Rebo series.
James Mangold Reveals Why He Wants To Tackle Star Wars’ Most Underexplored Era
The answer? It’s a blank slate. I like the idea.
That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.
When it comes to lovable rogues, Hondo Onaka has to be right up there in the front of the line.....and if we're creating a pirate category, Crimson Jack would have some competition from H.O. for top spot.....
Yes, protect Neel at all costs! And clearly Kh'ymm was inspired by my owlcat Bixby. I've already asked him why he hasn't shared his creative fee with the rest of the household.