The Phantom Menace is on the precipice ofturning 20 class former . The lasting bequest of what it total ( forbetter and high-risk ) to Star Wars ’ rich tapestry is still being debated today , but the recent release of another bit of prequel storytelling has had me thinking about something : Why are n’t we getting more stories setting up the strange new humanity The Phantom Menace re - infix the wandflower far , far aside with ?
Dooku : Jedi Lost is a funny beast for Star Wars . write by Cavan Scott , in terms of format it ’s unlike any of the railroad tie - in mediawe’ve been seeing lately , a hybrid between an audiobook and a full - castaudio dramarather than a traditional novel or amusing . But also peculiar for this picky era of Star Wars is that it ’s mostly set in a time period that ’s been largely left alone in the wake of Disney ’s purchase of Lucasfilm , and the death - and - rebirth of Star Wars canyon that came with it .
go down around a framing gadget that follows Asaaj Ventress in her earliest days in the employment of Count Dooku as she glimpses flashes of her new master ’s past , Jedi Lost is actually mostly set well before the time Dooku had become the Count of his homeworld , Serenno — or before he ’d slipped into the clutch bag of the Dark Side of the Force under Palpatine ’s counsel . It covers different period of his life history — across puerility and his teenage years to a young world and finally a respected Jedi Master , with a unseasoned Qui - Gon Jinn at his side .
Dooku before his fall, as seen in the artwork for Jedi Lost.Image: Random House Audio
Yes , Jedi Lost finally tells us the full story of Dooku ’s time in the Jedi Order . But most importantly beyond that , it introduces us to a worthful time chassis well before the events of his cinematic unveiling in Attack of the Clones , or even before the events of The Phantom Menace — a time frame where the gap in both the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic were beginning to sincerely unfold up , exposing a moribund core in the moral center of the galaxy .
In revealing to us the shady political maneuverings and fringe anarchy of a Republic stretched too thin to accommodate its expansive membership , as well as a Jedi Council that ’s blindly reluctant to know the wearisome resurgence of the Dark Side , Jedi Lost does n’t just paint a convincing story for its titulary character ’s determination to become one of the rarified Jedi to turn on the order . It gives insight into the United States Department of State of the galaxy before we achieve the earliest stages of the Skywalker Saga in The Phantom Menace .
Over the course of the roughly six hr or so Jedi Lost learn to tell its report , Dooku ’s slow evolution is a grip one to see . Dooku change from a young Jedi who strives to constantly hone and meliorate himself , to see that same desire for self - melioration transform into a growing resentment of the Jedi Council ’s custody - off approaching to Republic affaire ( or discord in its own ranks ) , to at long last deciding to leave alone the Order when a conflict around his homeworld Serenno is left to aggravate by Republic and Jedi to the point of a planetal civil warfare .
Yoda stages a mock duel with his former Padawan in a flashback to Dooku’s time as a Jedi in the Age of Republic comic series.Image: Luke Ross, Travis Lanham, and Java Tartaglia (Marvel Comics)
But it ’s made so compelling because it crucially divide his disillusion with the Jedi from his path to the Dark Side , in such a way that it produce the Star Wars galaxy much more interesting to consider than if it had simply been “ Oh , he fell to the Dark Side and that ’s why he left . ” It becomes more of an indictment of the state of the Republic and the Jedi than it does the state of Dooku ’s morality . And that ’s something I wish we got a lot more of in this new era of Star Wars storytelling .
Back in the previous expand universe , the pre - Phantom earned run average became a entrancing hotbed of exploration into the office of the Jedi before the Clone Wars just turned them into fancy superior general . Dark Horse Comics ’ old Star Wars books explored the adventure of character like Ki - Adi Mundi and A’Sharad Hett ( a Tusken Jedi who would eventually fall to the saturnine side and even re - come forth in the EU ’s far - flung time to come as Darth Krayt ) wander the out flange like ronin , pilot brief sparks of conflict in a galaxy that was mostly at peace .
And when there were larger conflicts , like the Stark Hyperspace War ? They were n’t monumental battles for the fate of the galaxy , but contravention over plagiarist plunderer or hyperspace deal road . And , above all , they were uncommon , meaning you got to see moments where Jedi and Padawans who ’d known nothing but a life of diplomacy and tabernacle bureaucratism confront have to in reality put their fighting training into activity — and how that impacted them as people . And not just Jedi , but the valet de chambre and women of the Republic too , at a time before potential disputes could be solved by flinging a battalion of conflict - quick ringer at a satellite .
The Stark Hyperspace War broke out over, well, as the name implies, Hyperspace routes.Image: Davidé Fabbri, Christian Dalla Vecchia, and Dave McCaig (Dark Horse Comics)
Beyond that , story like these gave readers a much more superimposed scene of how the Republic at large really came to be in the declining state it was by the meter the Naboo crisis really started crusade it over the edge , standardized to what Jedi Lost does . Between putrefaction within the Senate , disillusioned leadership , and a Jedi Order that became increasingly more inward - looking and shelter from the realities of galactic political relation , these stories made the political situation blast at you in The Phantom Menace feel less like it was coming out of nowhere and more like the slow , but steady crumbling of an institute that had been around for thousands of years it was think to be . One that not only would be easy to see turncoat like Dooku grow disillusion with for not going far enough , but also one that would be fabulously easy to exploit for someonelike Sheev Palpatine .
Basically , it made a line like “ Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic . The tax income of trade routes to outlying star topology systems is in dispute” … actually kind of interesting ? Sacrilege , I know . But that ’s part of why it felt so valuable at the time — it added a setting to the worldbuilding of The Phantom Menace the pic itself never really could contain up to explain . It helped set down parallels that would not just be picked up across late prequels , but then be mirrored in the cyclic nature of Star Wars — interesting from a symbolic , thematic point of sentiment , even if it does have in mind there’sa sort of storytelling samenessthat sink in — as the material now setbetween the eventsof Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens paint us a impression of a New Republic fall into sometime habits .
Star Wars has the chance to do that sort of exploration again with this revitalized canon — specially as we ’re now on the precipice ofa three year “ hiatus”for the dealership as it direct a falling out between December ’s launch of The Rise of Skywalker and whatwe now knowis the first ofa series of moviesfrom Game of Thrones ’ David Benioff and D.B. Weissin 2022 .
Ol’ sneaky Sheev.Image: Lucasfilm
And that ’s not to say it has n’t been doing it already , albeit in tantrum and start compared to other ERA of the Skywalker Saga . From the tone ending of Jedi Lost and Master and Apprentice last month , to tales in the comedian like the Age of Republic one - shots , to Darth Maul’sstandalone miniseries , to even in playscript like therecent Padmé Amidala novelQueen ’s Shadow — sure , it ’s not before Phantom , but put in the similarly prolific background that is the 10 class crack between that movie and Attack of the ringer — this early timeframe around the scuttle of the Skywalker plot line has slowly but surely been chipped away at .
And as we draw ever closer to the 20th anniversary of us being draw back to that time in the galaxy far , far away , stories as enceinte as Jedi Lost prove that there is so much potential in Star Wars research a little further back into even its earliest cinematic past .
For more , verify you ’re follow us on our fresh Instagram @io9dotcom .
Audio DramaBooksComicsdisneyLUCASFILMStar Warsthe phantom menace
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the hereafter , drive home to your present tense .
You May Also Like
