The Beginner's Guide to The High Republic (2024)

[@thestormwar]

The High Republic is so large at this point. It's kinda crazy this era has grown so big without any major movie basis beforehand.

[@Youtini]

It's pretty inspiring to see how much passion there's been from the community - and it's still growing!

[@gealeigh66]

The High Republic is what got me into comics. I never really read them before it, and now I love them. Great breakdown of THR!

[@Youtini]

Thank you!! It's amazing how much Star Wars can open our minds isn't it??

[@DanTheMeek]

The Acolyte got me and my wife to give the high republic a second chance, and so far we're really glad we did. I feel like Light of the Jedi is a terrible entry point for the series, its like if the MCU had started with the Avengers instead of the 5 movies that came before it. It's an epic story that I feel like if I knew who any of the characters were I probably would have quite enjoyed, but because its full of sooo many characters, all brand new, and doesn't take the time to let us get to know basically ANY of them, except maybe Bell, its hard to care bout any of them, they all just felt like faceless names in a void. After that book put me and my wife off the series, I asked around if the later adult books finally started letting us get to know the characters and the answer I got (at the time) was no, they're all story focused, not character focused, so we just gave up on the high republic and moved on. HOWEVER, because of the Acolyte, we decided we'd give the YA novels a shot, and so far, 2/3rds of the way through Into the Dark, we're so glad we did. That book is sooo good, and such a better entry point for the series. You could say it spoils some things from Light of the Jedi, but I could just as easily spin it as adding intrigue, you know some of what happened, but not how it happened or why it happened. Regardless, Into the Dark is actually letting us get to know and love characters from this era, which makes reading so much more enjoyable. My only worry is that I don't recall ANY of these character being in Light of the Jedi, so even if I were to reread Light of the Jedi, I still wouldn't know who any of the characters were, I'd just know some of the Into the Dark characters connections to them. Long comment short, I'm curious, are there any books which let us actually get to know the characters from the adult books in the same way Into the dark is letting me get to know the YA characters? To use the Avengers analogy again, I enjoyed Avengers the first time I saw it because I knew those characters already, and the core story of Light of the Jedi is good such that I think if I did get to know its characters, I could very much enjoy the adult novels too. But if the adult characters are always just blank faceless nothings whose adventures we see, but who as characters we never get to actually know, that would be very disappointing. At the very least, though, Into the Dark is making me interested in reading more of the YA books, and any adult book that features them prominently. The enjoyment of a story really is night and day when you get to watch Iron Man and Captain America before the Avengers.

[@Youtini]

What a fascinating trajectory! Light of the Jedi was the reason I fell in love with the characters, but every reader is different, for sure! It sounds like you may enjoy the comic series a bit more than the books even. Because of their sequential nature, they take a bit more time with a smaller cast, and actually seeing their individual struggles issue by issue may create that sense of connection you're describing.

[@gealeigh66]

The Phase 2 YA novels take deeper dives into the characters, especially Marda Ro.

[@DanTheMeek]

@@gealeigh66 Would you recommend we just from Into the Dark directly to the phase 2 YA novels so we can get to know the adult book characters from phase 1, then go back to phase 1 and read starting from phase 2 following the normally recommended progression? (adult book 2, ya book 2, adult book 3, ya book 3 or something like that)

[@CavanScottWriter]

Thanks for the great overview!

[@Youtini]

Of course! Any way to help people discover your amazing work! And I suppose some of those other writers too.

[@RobertRodriguezMusic]

I just started reading Light of the Jedi and have been trying to find videos on entering this entire High Republic era! This is by far one of the best videos I’ve seen that makes me actually excited to meet these characters! Plus the reading order that you offer is exactly what I was looking for 🙌🏼

[@gealeigh66]

The Phase 2 YA novels take deeper dives into the characters, especially Marda Ro.