u/EzraLikesLothcats

A few months ago, I got Shatterpoint (audiobook) because Windu is a character I'm interested in and I've heard lots of great things about this book so I decided to give it a go. First off, the narrator is awesome. He does a really good Mace and it enhances the whole experience.

The premise for this book is really interesting to me. Windu has to go to this jungle planet (which I have forgotten that was his home planet, more on this) to save his padawan who he fears has fallen to the dark side.

I enjoy the premise, seeing how Windu interacts with people and situations and especially hearing his thoughts. It adds so much to his character. But here's my problem: After 4 chapters in (which is like 3 and a half hours of listening), I ended up being completely lost on all the characters around Windu and like the smaller level stories happening. Because of this, I ended up taking a break from the book.

A while later, I picked it up again and whenever I listen to it, it feels cool learning more about Mace, his Shatterpoint ability and his general thoughts and attitude towards things but at this point I have no clue who any of the characters around him are or what his progress is. I know he's still looking for Depa but I don't remember what his current situation is.

I think a reason for this is because I'm finding that the author is really detailed with everything (which I suspect a lot of people enjoy) but for me, it makes me feel a bit lost. So I'm not sure what to do at this point, whether to push on and hope I will somehow make sense of everything as it goes or just start over. The problem with starting over is that I might end up running into the same thing again.

Has anyone had a similar experience with Shatterpoint?

I know a lot of people will say just do it in release order since that's how it was written but I enjoy experiencing how characters got to where they were first. I have already read (listened) to the Thrawn novel up to the point of when he >!joins the Imperial academy,!< but I really want to know how he ended up >!exiled!< in the first place. I feel like I will enjoy the Imperial Era Thrawn trilogy more knowing everything he went through to get to that point. I guess it's also not surprising I enjoy watching SW shows and movies in chronological order for the same reasons.

If you've read the Ascendancy trilogy first, how was it for you?

Basically The Acolyte season 2
The Acolyte ended with loose threads which we should have gotten explored in a season 2. I feel like we need a book to see those through.

Obi-Wan and Satine's relationship
Obi-Wan said he would be willing to leave the Jedi Order for Satine if she said so and those few episodes of Clone Wars were basically the only times this relationship was mentioned as far as I'm aware which is crazy. I feel like this needs to be a book.

Ezra and Thrawn after landing in Peridea (Ezra POV)
We don't really know how Thrawn and Ezra dealt with things right after landing there and whether or not Thrawn tried going after Ezra during that time. This book could show us a bit more of that setting. Since we already have 6 canon Thrawn books, I would like this one to be showing Ezra's POV to find out how he saw everything that happened up to that point.

Ahsoka during the OT
We still have no clue what Ahsoka was up to during the OT and because she's a major character who simply didn't show up in an important time period I feel like it we need an explanation. My headcanon is that she spent those years looking for Thrawn in the Unknown Regions.

Boba Fett after BOBF
Boba Fett became a Daimyo in Tatooine and then we simply never heard of him since for some reason. I would like us to know what happened next and what he's been up to.

I only started getting into SW books a few months ago and this is my experience with it:

Dark Disciple - 9/10 (Finished)
This was my first ever SW book and genuinely the first book I've ever finished in my life. I absolutely loved it. The Prequel Era is probably my favourite so following characters such as Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress was awesome and I really enjoyed the dynamic between them.

Shatterpoint - 6/10 (Did not finish)
After Dark Disciple, I ended up getting Shatterpoint since Mace Windu is a character that interests me. Unfortunately, I just could not get myself to finish it, even though I've heard how good this book is. The premise was interesting to me but I felt like there was just too much action and I ended up leaving it.

Heir to the Empire - Couldn't get into
I think everyone knows how well received this book is so I wanted to give Legends another go by reading what's considered by many to be one of the greatest legends books. Sadly, as a big fan of Rebels and the Ahsoka series, I just could not get myself to ignore everything that happened there and because of that I just couldn't get into this book. I'm sure it's amazing but I find Legends books easier to get into when they don't conflict in a major way with Canon.

Ahsoka - 6/10 (Did not finish)
Ahsoka is one of my favourite characters, so I figured it would be a safe bet to read this novel but I expected there to be a stronger story here. I read through most of it but for half of that time I was waiting for her to get her lightsabers and Tales of the Jedi already scratched the itch of what Ahsoka was up to at this point for me.

A New Dawn - 4/10 (Did not finish)
As a huge Rebels fan, I got this book purely because of Kanan and Hera so I was left disappointed when it felt like half the book (that i've read at that point) were about other characters that I just didn't really want to spend time with. If this book was only about the Rebels, I'm sure I would have loved it.

Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void - 5/10 (Did not finish)
Because of my earlier experience with Heir to the Empire, I figured that Dawn of the Jedi would have no problems conflicting with canon considering it's set 25,000 years in the past. I read through most of this book but it just didn't leave a strong impression on me. I'm not a fan of flashbacks in stories and this book had plenty of them, it felt like every other chapter was a flashback. I was curious about how the story would resolve but not super excited about it so the flashbacks just made it feel a bit of a slog for me.

Up Next
I already own The Old Republic: Revan, The Old Republic: Deceived and Padawan. I really enjoyed KOTOR and have been playing KOTOR II so I feel like there's a good chance I might at least like the Old Republic ones somewhat. I love the prequel era and Obi-Wan so Padawan feels like a safer bet but beyond these two I'm not sure what to try.

The High Republic interests me but considering there are so many books to go through it feels intimidating and I'm not sure if I'll even like it since I don't know what to expect from the era itself.

Dark Disciple was my first SW book and as of yet the only book I've loved and finished and I'm wondering if any of the books will resonate with me in the same way. If I can't finish or like any of the books I already own then I'm afraid SW books just aren't for me.

I haven't really read many SW books yet but in the movies and shows you rarely see blood since a lot of the main characters use lightsabers which would cauterise wounds and considering the main character of this book is using a normal sword it would make sense that there would be blood but I just didn't expect how much of it to be here.

I'm listening to the audiobook and I think I've heard the word "blood" used at least 3 times so far which might not seem like a lot but that's 3 times more than like almost all of SW media I've interacted with.

Is this an EU thing or something specific to this book?

I got into audiobooks because there are a lot of books out there that I'm interested in but I'm not someone that can really sit down and read through a whole book so I figured that audiobooks would be a lot easier to get through and they are, but not as much as I would like!

I've tried multiple audiobooks now and it's always the same: The first few chapters are easy to follow but then I end up getting zoned out more frequently and lose details because of that. Down the line things happen in the story and I'm like "wait, who's this character again?" or "what are they doing here in the first place?" and it makes it more tricky to follow.

It might sound like the books I'm reading are just things I'm not interested in but I am. I'm very curious about what happens next in the story and how it all resolves but getting there is the issue.

Any tips or suggestions on how one could tackle this?

A big part of this beautiful universe is the power of inspiration and hope and there are countless of characters out there that we can look to and relate our experiences with. Which character do you feel that way the most with?

For me, it's Ahsoka and more specifically her during the New Republic era. Her having to leave the Order needing to go on her own path is something that really resonates with me.

If you could have any studio work on a Star Wars game in any genre, what would you pick?

Mine would be a Star Wars game made by Santa Monica Studio the same way they did the latest God of War games!

So, the steam sale just started and here are the list of games I'm considering:

Mass Effect: Andromeda (-92%)
Steelrising (-90%)
A Plague Tale: Innocence (-90%)
Greedfall (-90%)
Far Cry 4 (-90%)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (-89%)
Devil May Cry HD Collection (-85%)
The Banner Saga (-85%)
Spirit of the North (-85%)
Shenmue I & II (-80%)
Prey (-80%)
Pyre (-80%)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (-80%)
The Pathless (-75%)
Solar Ash (-75%)
Tchia (-75%)
Sable (-75%)
Raji: An Ancient Epic (-75%)
Call of the Sea (-75%)
Jade Empire (-75%)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (-70%)
Showgunners (-70%)
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (-65%)
Jusant (-60%)
The Gardens Between (-56%)

I'm planning to only get 1 or 2 from these so if you have any experience with any of these games I would love to hear it.

I really like WRPGs along the likes of The Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate 3, so it goes without saying that I would also want to get into JRPGs. However, for whatever reason, I just cannot get into the JRPGs I've tried. I think it's because the JRPGs I've tried were either difficult, had mechanics that seemed complex or were filled with UI on the screen which gets in the way of my immersion (something I value in an RPG).

So, I'm looking for a JRPG that isn't difficult, isn't really a hardcore RPG (as in you won't get screwed if you don't level your character correctly for example.) and isn't filled with HUD elements (and if it is, you can turn it off). Basically a game that someone that likes WRPGs would like.

As a big Star Wars fan, I'm really interested in Star Wars: Zero Company so I definitely wanna play that, however, I've never experienced a game like that before so I wanna get used to the style before it drops.

After looking up games similar to X-COM I realised that a lot of them are set on Earth and for whatever reason it I'm just not drawn into them so I'm looking for games with a similar gameplay but they're set in either alien planets, fantasy worlds, or if it is based on Earth the setting is a lot different like medieval fantasy.

So, after the events of God of War: Valhalla, Kratos seems to just be chilling on his throne and helping the people of the Nine Realms wherever he can. Because of this, I feel like there needs to be a good reason for him to want to leave the Nine Realms and do something else.

At the beginning of Laufey, nobody seemingly knows Faye's identity and I feel like she will cause trouble in the Everywhen and potentially slay some people. I do feel like there will definitely be a point where people find out who her husband is. Perhaps this game spans both the events of 2018 and Ragnarok and someone like Baldur, Heimdall or Thor will show up after fighting Kratos and gods from the other pantheons will realise who her husband really is.

After they find out, maybe they will try to communicate to their fellow gods who are still alive (we saw Faye was able to reach out to Kratos during Ragnarok) and let them know that Kratos is a danger to everyone. That's when those gods try to take out Kratos before he takes them out (because they don't know his motivations, they will believe that's what he intends to do) and will invade the Nine Realms leading to Kratos having to defend it by going into their realms to deal with the threat.

What do you think if this is the case? It might not happen this way but I feel like whatever happens in this game will set something up!