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Welcome
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Nathaniel Reed's
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:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
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| March 2023 |
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Reflecting on The Mandalorian S3 so far
31st March 2023 |
Five episodes of Season 3 of The Mandalorian have now been released, and I'm sorry to say that it's only been with the fifth episode that I felt the character and plot has had any sense of purpose and structure and engagement. The previous episodes, at worse, have been somewhat distracted and slow, and I don't know if this has been deliberate on the back of the (LFL) reaction to the presentation of Andor, or if it's simply poor writing and execution. Even the latest episode seems to lose a sense of purpose now for the titular character, though, of course, one must wait and see how the story plays out. A side character from the animated Rebels show, Zeb, has now made an appearance in live-action, following Bo-Katan and Ahsoka, and the series villain, Moff Gideon, has been hinted at though as yet not been seen again.
Admittedly there has been further world-building with the likes of Mandalore and Coruscant, which is always welcome, but the accurate sense of passing time and the clarity of plotting has been weak to say the least, and the 'logic' to some of the set-pieces has been fairly confusing.
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The latest artwork for the illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom shows the gasdroids at Ondos suddenly shaking and exploding, sending plumes of purple aura gas into the air !
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| Similarly, in the Star Destroyer holds high above Kessel, the racked gasdroids also shake and explode ! Their aura gas quickly overcomes the hangar bay personnel, and is quickly sucked into the ships' ventilation systems. |
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| You can see the VE artwork in the 'Kessel' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
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| As I did with the progression of the Virtual Edition Episode X, I will post below sections of the prose for Episode XI as I draft it.... |
Space.
A twinkling of far starlight confirmed that the barren and orphaned planetoid was very much on the outskirts of the charted galaxy.
Suddenly, without any warning or fanfare to herald it’s arrival, a bright purple flame streaked across the inky expanse towards the small planet. The cold rock was briefly bathed in the soft hue, flashes of associated iridescence sparkling off its thin atmosphere, and then it returned to its minimal albedo : the flame had spluttered and petered out, burning down to a final ember before succumbing to the oppression of the eternal night.
In the galaxy far, far away lay the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the near-centrally located capital city-planet of the Pan-Alliance. Deep inside this megalithic structure, Leia Solo’s brown eyes flicked open from their meditative state, the after-image of the purple flame burning her memory.
In the vicinity of the planetoid a vessel of Imperial design drifted into view. On the ship’s bridge, the captain turned to regard his companions who had just witnessed the heavenly spectacle.
“Well ? The Governor will expect no less than a very good reason for the failure this time...”
The scientists shuffled nervously and shot glances to each other. One, however, lifted his chin and cleared his throat.
“Captain, we await the test results and footage, but I think it’s clear for me to say that any fault lay in the hyper-drone’s temporal relay of the plasma net. The plasma, as we all saw, was successfully delivered through hyperspace in its packet.”
The scientist’s colleagues nodded vigorously.
“Yes, yes,” agreed another. “I would propose a new test with the net’s retaining strength enhanced sufficiently for it to endure hyperspatial reversion.”
“Indeed,” answered the captain drily. “Let us hope that Governor Tagge shares your optimism enough to afford you the time and resources to complete this project ! We are on a tight schedule, and the Governor cannot afford any more delays.”
The captain turned to address his crew.
“Retrieve any parts remaining of the drone, and ensure that the footage and test results are encrypted and sent on to Governor Tagge ! Then set a course for Bastion !”
In the cool calm ochres of one of the Temple’s meditation chambers Leia Solo readjusted her cross-legged pose, and gestured expansively with her hands.
Before her white-robed figure a shimmering map of the galactic plane appeared. This was no hologram, but an image drawn from the Cosmic Energy of the Force.
She moved her hands languidly above and below the ghostly vision and the spiral galaxy spun softly. White dots glowed brightly here and there across the speckled surface. Her eyes narrowed in focused concentration as a new ember began to shine.
Another gentle gesture of her hands and the galactic plane rotated, bringing that sector with the new addition closer to her face. This was no navi-comp hyper-route map, either, but an ethereal map of Force vergences and synergystic events.
“Temple,” she called out softly.
“Mistress Solo ?” answered the disembodied voice of the academy’s integral functionality.
“Record the location of this dot here,” she pointed with her slender index finger, “and identify as closely as possible it’s navi-coordinates.”
“Affirmative, Mistress Solo.”
A blue beam of light shone down from an upper corner of the chamber, and scanned across the celestial map.
“Processing now, the cross-referenced calibrations will take a while to calculate...”
“That’s okay,” Leia responded with a smile.
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| Nathaniel Reed, 31st March 2023 |
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