u/Niccon_Art_Guy

I just think this guy is neat! I love his design and his brief appearance in the game. I think he'd have a delightfully plush figure, so that's what I'm drawing.

I’m 25. My father was always into these books, and collected many of them over the years. When I was younger he got me into the series, though I’m more of an audiobook guy myself.

I was obsessed for a while and read everything they put out up until Blue Labyrinth. That’s when I stopped for some reason I can’t recall and just never picked up the series again. But now I’m on a tear of listening to them all over again. Really giving me nostalgia and memories of my late father who got me into the series.

I’m not sure if I’ll read any of the Gideon books? Are they important past the point where I stopped reading? My dad read them and said they were trash (his words not mine), so I just never bothered to get the audiobooks.

I've been trying to get into making custom portraits for GBA ROM Hacking, and these are what I've come up with so far! How do they look? Feel free to steal if you feel inclined, I don't mind, lol

Seen some posts floating around about the new male characters in Fortune’s Weave, and decided to make a small list of the men I enjoy the most in the series. Design, mostly, but character also plays a large part

In the final few months of the clone wars, Original Character Aleksi Dawnstrider is taken as the Padawan learner of Luminara Unduli. He failed his last Master and was sent back to the temple in shame, and she failed her Padawan and sent her down a dark path. Perhaps they can find some kind of redemption together as they fight against the vile CIS!

This has been a small passion project that I've worked on for maybe the past 4 years. From rough drafts to character designing and making all the art for the story by hand, it's been a long time coming! The story is by no means done, but the first sort of "episode" (around 140 pages) is now done and dusted! I'm super excited to keep writing and to keep making more art for my fan fiction, and I just wanted to share it with my fellow clone wars fans.

If anyone is interested in getting a link to the story, or has any questions that I can answer, I'd love to share more. :D

I know this is a sub about staying positive, so I’ll try to focus on the parts of these two books that I enjoyed.

I really enjoyed some of the introspective moments across both books. Like looking into the deeper, more emotional lives of the clone troopers, and even if some droids. And of the nature of war, and defying unjust rules to do the right thing. All of that was fascinating.

I loved Den Dhur and I-Five a ton in both of these books. I think they’re both super funny and interesting, and I’m glad they apparently have future appearances in Coruscant Nights. I also thought that what few times Barriss Offee took center focus in the book was interesting.

But man, I cannot help but think these two books (and short story) which are a combined 630 something pages could have been trimmed down to one singular book. Not enough events of actual substance happen across these two books to justify just how long it takes to get through them.

But more than anything, I was just so disappointed that Barriss is such a non-entity in both of these books. She’s on the cover of both, but plays second fiddle to nearly everyone else in the main cast and I cannot fathom why. I understood she had a very dedicated fan base, and while I enjoyed her a lot in The Approaching Storm and in her brief bouts of focus here, these books just do NOT give her anything substantive to do. Her big emotional breakthrough at the end of BOTH MedStar books is to simply do nothing and walk away from the situation.

So far I’ve read 10 or so Star Wars books. Not a lot, I know, but even still I’d have to rank these ones firmly at the bottom. They aren’t bad by any means, just not as great as the others I’ve read.

I’ll start by saying that I like the book. It wasn’t amazing or anything, and it had a dire lack of real stakes or conflict, but I assume those threads will be further explored down the road in the second book. I really loved getting to see Barriss in a staring role after reading her first book appearance in “The Approaching Storm”, but I feel like without Luminara, or big personalities like Anakin or Obi-Wan to bounce off of, Barriss gets pretty lost in the events of the book, often times not appearing for multiple chapters, only to show up and act as support for one of the story’s other characters. Which, again, I assume will be less of an issue in the second MedStar Book.

The characters are, on the whole, very well written and interesting. I just wish this Author didn’t make such a habit of having his main male lead start ogling the main female lead who’s half his age on frame one of them meeting. It was an issue both here and in Maul: Shadow Hunter. Jos Vondar is not a fun character to be in the headspace of, and I get that the book was written over 20 years ago, but some of this inner voice comes off as borderline incel-speak. And I’m not sure it was the author’s intention for him to be unlikeable.

This book gave me some conflicting feelings at the end of it. One the one hand, I feel like it had a lot of very interesting things to say and debate in regards to war, the Clones, the motivations behind conflict and why it happens, the Light and the Dark Side, etc etc.

But on the other hand the general slow pacing and lack of stakes until everything goes to hell in the final half dozen chapters makes this a book I’m not sure I’d ever read again. I’ve only heard good things about the second book, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends.

I’ve come across a ton of people who upload the Legends portrayal of the Clone Troopers as these bad ass soldiers who only exist to follow orders and didn’t have any second thoughts at all about Order 66. And that TCW TV show came in and ruined it by making them “too humanized”.

But I’m reading through the MedStar Books right now (having a great time btw), but there’s multiple instances of people in those books acting like Clones are all unfeeling/uncaring meat droids and those views get pushed back A LOT by the main character Barriss showing that the Clones DO have humanity and have complex feelings of their own.

It might sound like a dumb question, since the vast majority of the Jedi we see across the Prequel era have very similar clothing. It’s almost always a cloth or leather tunic consisting of multiple layers, loose pants, and boots, with an optional outer traveling robe over that. It’s not just the men, either, as female Jedi often wear nearly the exact same outfits, or slightly longer, more “dress-like” versions.

But then we get so many clear counter examples of characters in the order wearing completely different outfits. Barriss and Luminara seem to wear outfits that are Mirialan in origin, and not all like most of what the Jedi wear. Aayla Secura is just wearing a leather two piece swim suit. And Take your pick of Ahsoka’s outfits across the clone wars.

I’m not saying that breaking from the norm is bad or anything. I’m just asking if there’s ever been a reference to an official dress code for the Jedi Order? Like, could a Jedi go out and around the temple in a T-Shirt and sweats and that’s just cool?

I listen to Audiobooks a lot since I have ADHD and I find it hard to absorb information withouts actually *hearing* it.

I remember listening to “The Approaching Storm” as one of the many Audiobooks I have on my Audible Account, and I recalled not really liking it too much. But after listening to both “The Living Force” and “The Crystal Crown” on Audible (Great experiences, both of those), I realized that the only Audiobook version of “The Approaching Storm” on the service (and seemingly the entire internet) is the “Abridged” version. That’s what I listened to.

Of course, there’s no way to know what is cut in “Abridged” versions of books, but I was curious. So today I took it upon myself to read through the entire book, while listening to the version on Audiobook to see what I missed out on. And I’ve come to tell you; PLEASE, if you want to actually enjoy this book: do NOT go with the Audiobook version on Audible.

Past the first chapter there’s rarely even a single page that doesn’t have a few sentences, or entire paragraphs, removed. There’s entire pages missing. At least a half a dozen times there’s anywhere from five to SIXTEEN entire pages of story in a row missing from the Audiobook version. There’s entire plot lines or plot points that are just wholesale REMOVED from that version.

Beyond that, there’s also some genuinely really good characters interactions, moments of introspection, and even some jokes, that are just missing in the Audiobook version. As someone who loves the medium of Audiobooks as a way to tell stories, please take it from me: read the book version!

I’ll start by saying that I think, on the whole, this book is pretty great. I think the action, the fight scenes, the chase sequences, and Maul in particular are all standouts in this book. They really make you feel like Maul is a monster from an 80’s or 90’s slasher movie in this. He’s always stalking you, always just one step behind you and nothing and no one can put him down: at least not for long. In that regards this book does its job amazingly.

This book really does leave me with a sour taste in my mouth for one big reason, however. The Romance between the male and female lead genuinely feels incredibly forced and unearned.

It’s repeated a few times in the book, but the main male and female leads of the story know each other for maybe *A* day, at most? And by their second or third scene together the book is always sending off signals that they’re falling in love with each other. Now in most books that’d be alright, if a bit rushed: but it beggars belief when the characters falling for each other are a Jedi (Where romantic love is forbidden), and a guy who the book takes great lengths to explain viscerally HATES the Jedi and everything they stand for. Also, I’m not a prude by any means, but it also doesn’t help that the book points out how the girl in the situation is like half the guy’s age. But that fact combined with the conflict states above really makes this romance fall flat for me.

But that’s not a huge knock against the book or anything. I still had a great time with it. I’d say out of the Star Wars books I have read, it’s definitely in the top 3

It’s a good book so far, and I enjoy how fast paced and action packed the story is. But something Maul reminisces on in Chapter 19 took me by surprise so much I just laughed.

Maul claims that “before his voice had begun to lower”, he and Darth Sidious “infiltrated” the halls of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant by pretending to be tourists interested in the Jedi.

And that’s just so??? The idea of Sheev Palpatine wearing sunglasses and an “I ❤️ JEDI” T-Shirt, and bringing along this black and red demon child to the temple and just being LET IN is so hilarious to me.