The world-building in the novels is awesome, but what really makes them work is the characters, and all the numerous shades of grey they come in. I think that’s what the movies will really have to work hard to get right...

The machete order is a great idea, but there really isn’t anyone who doesn’t know about Vader at this point.

I agree with this completely. I’ve seen every episode of TOS, most more than once, but for me TNG/DS9/Voyager is where Star Trek lives. For example, TOS may have technically invented Klingons, but it is TNG that truly breathed life into them.

The look, the Padishah Emperor, the Saurdarkar, the Bene Gesserit, Spice, Fremen, the desert planet . . .

Precisely, good example.

And here I thought his next book would be about the King of Sweden ruling from some dudes couch.

Undiscovered Country is by far my favorite. It had some really great humor (Chekov with the magnetic boot and that guys weird feet, Uhura with the English to Klingon books, those still make me chuckle just thinking about them) but it also had a serious cold war era theme running through it and it’s all tied together…

I’m thinking it has something to do with the Journal of Whills and the Gray Jedi.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a subtle call-out to the “Gray Jedi” mentioned in numerous Expanded Universe novels.

I’m definitely on board with the idea that “The Last Jedi” refers to the end of the Jedi Order and its orthodoxy. So when Luke says, “It’s time for the Jedi to end,” he’s saying, based on what he’s experienced and possibly learned from Obi-Wan’s diaries (comics), from his search for the temples, and from the books we…

You hit the nail on the head imo. To me, they’re going for a very cosmic religion view of the force, like buddhism. Someone has mentioned Ahsoka, there is also Maul who still uses the force but doesn’t consider himself a Sith anymore. Also someone mentioned Bendu and what he was saying. Then there is Rogue One, where…

I think with Luke, it’s potentially even more personal than that.

Oh man I hope so! “It’s so much more” was definitely my favorite part of the trailer... the Force shouldn’t just be about forcing some balance between light and dark.  I remember Kreia talking about something like this in KOTOR 2; in that game the Force was an echo of life. From this view, to really embrace the Force…

The Bendu, specifically, brings up the balance of the force, and how that’s where he lies. This seems to be, where we are going, which is a less fatslistic way to view, a preveleant, all surrounding force.

Was just saying this exact thing to a friend. I hope that’s the case but I’m skeptical, it would be a pretty bold move as the whole light and dark side has been pretty iconic and defining of Star Wars.

When we saw Wullf Yularen again, with his white hair and moustache, I thought he was going to be Iblis or Pallaeon, I really did, especially because he was palling around with Thrawn. I was wrong. I was upset. I was satisfied with the episode overall, but still... 

My first thought was Valentine. I pictured Valentine as more of the dashing 007 type, but honestly Lang could knock it out of the park. He has the ability to play the menacing menacing type for Shrine too, so I have faith these are all good casting decisions. Very excited for this movie.

Thanks! As I recall, not every episode gives a Stardate, but most do. I’m pretty sure there are some irregularities, though I don’t know any off the top of my head. Either way, I don’t believe the irregularities were major enough for them to not air them in this order, so we aren’t talking obvious continuity errors.

Biggs was at an Academy, but never was an Imperial pilot outside of the EU. The deleted Anchorhead scene specifies he didn’t wanna wait around at his new job on the Rand Ecliptic to get drafted into the military. The EU conveniently ignored that bit of the scene so they could make him a full Imp defecting to the…

And bring back the Squats! Their exclusion is racist against space dwarfs!