New Star Wars History Book Adopts Factual Approach to Iconic Saga
Freakin' Sweet Re-write:
Time and time again, every Star Wars tale launches with "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...". This line serves as a reminder of something we, and even the wider Star Wars ecosystem, often tend to overlook: watching Star Wars is like watching history unfold, a mix of mythos and past retellings. Yet, only a handful of Star Wars stuff engages with this idea—except for one recent release that does an exceptional job of inviting us to question Star Wars' narrative and the perspectives we encounter through it.
Enter: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Dr. Chris Kempshall. Released not too long ago, this book adopts the perspective of historian Beaumont Kin (played by Dominic Monaghan in The Rise of Skywalker), penned shortly after the events of the Battle of Exegol. It isn't a dramatic retelling of Star Wars history or a detailed fact dump for fan wikis. Instead, it examines the fictional systems that enabled the Galactic Empire, placing them within the Star Wars movies timeline and the narrative transition from the Republic's decline to the Empire's heyday.
Occasionally, it breaks the action with stills from various Star Wars movies and shows, but they're treated as genuine in-universe documentation, with sources attributed like in-universe biographies or archival records. It also references other historians in the field, some new and make-believe, others familiar faces from the films or even nods to other real-world Star Wars authors.
Of course, none of this is real—it's Star Wars, with its magic, wizards, laser sword-wielding beings, and instant space-skimming starships. However, Rise and Fall treats the entire Star Wars universe as a world to study and analyze, not merely compiling raw information about it, but in a manner that encourages us to reevaluate its narrative and the perspectives we catch glimpses of through it.
Take, for example, the moments where it dumps a bunch of images from Star Wars movies and shows. These aren't mere pop-cultural references; they're treated as genuine documentation within the universe itself. Each picture is credited, much like the various footnotes throughout the book. An image of Palpatine addressing the Senate to announce the Empire's founding in Revenge of the Sith comes from "preserved and rebroadcast by Imperial Authorities." An iconic Endor Battle still hails from the gun camera of an Imperial Navy lieutenant's TIE Interceptor. Even promotional concept art for the 2015 Star Wars: Battlefront Jakku map is described as being a commemorative art made for a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the battle.
This isn't just fanboy fun; it encourages readers to consider the source and context of the images we're re-examining, leading us to delve into questions about perspective and bias.
What does it mean that this shot of Star Destroyers crashing due to Rebel action was recorded by a Y-Wing pilot's ship cameras? What does it mean to disseminate that image throughout the Star Wars galaxy through Alliance sources? What's the delivery system and context of that information, what's the intent we're meant to infer from its presentation, and by whom? What does it mean that everything in this book is wrapped up in the persona of Beaumont Kin, a historian turned resistance fighter who grew up amid one galactic war and participated in another by the time he was a young man?
These are not questions often raised in Star Wars fiction, but they align with how we examine our own history, art, and culture in the real world. Rarely do we compose fact-sheets about the past. Instead, we examine varying historical interpretations of the facts, cross-examining different sources, and questioning their viewpoints and biases. You can't really do that with Star Wars because, of course, Star Wars is not real. Yet, Rise and Fall provides an intriguing model for approaching Star Wars as an audience—one that goes beyond mere consumption of a canonical truth about its universe and characters.
We can view any piece of Star Wars media as we do art in general—to sift through the writers', directors', artists' perspectives and how it informs the work. But Rise and Fall encourages us to consider the in-universe perspective of what information we're given, implying that we should not accept it as an unequivocally true recollection of its events.
Take, for instance, the latest entry, The Acolyte, and its flashbacks to the night Osha and Mae Aniseya's lives took a drastic turn after a cadre of Jedi encountered their mothers' coven on Brendok. While the series may not be entirely successful in this endeavor across its two flashback episodes, it's still a rare gem of Star Wars* media that, in real-time as the series unfolded, questions the in-universe perspective we receive, implying that the audience should not accept it as a definitive, unchanging retelling of its events.
For over a decade now, Star Wars, in its contemporary form, has been about delivering information about its world and characters to be consumed and interpreted. It's about establishing fixed, definitive truths about the saga and its events at a time when the details around that saga were being reimagined and refined. Now, approaching the end of that era again, Star Wars continuity appears to be teetering on the brink of daunting, intricate, and overly complex amounts of fact as it once did at the peak of the old expanded universe.
All along this journey, the audience has been trained to treat Star Wars as both a source for new information about its world and characters and as a canvas for mining a singular canonical interpretation. Rise and Fall's reinterpretation of Star Wars' own history offers an alternative, teaching its readers, through real-world critical techniques, to regard Star Wars' narrative not as necessarily a canonical truth, but a story told with perspective and bias. As a result, it, and stories like The Acolyte or The Last Jedi, foster the notion that Star Wars can tell stories that are more open to interpretation, reshaped by new contexts, and challenged within the fiction of its world.
While this idea might face resistance at times, especially in a fanbase trained to accept information as cut-and-dried, it cultivates Star Wars to take risks with its storytelling, to be bold and confident enough to challenge its audience with new perspectives on its world. And that makes Star Wars stronger, fresher, and more captivating than it has been for a long time.
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- Historians, such as Beaumont Kin from the book Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, could potentially examine the future of technology in the Star Wars universe, offering a unique perspective on how advancements could shape the narrative.
- Imagine if a future historian, an acolyte of the scholarly world, were to analyze The Acolyte series, questioning its in-universe perspectives and biases, much like contemporary historians assess real-world art and culture.
- In light of Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, our future understanding of the Star Wars universe might not be fixed or unchanging but, instead, a dynamic history subject to multiple interpretations and reevaluations, similar to how we perceive history in our own world.
- As Star Wars continues to evolve and push the boundaries of storytelling, Io9, with its coverage of Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, DC Universe, and Doctor Who, offers an invaluable resource for those seeking to stay informed about the latest developments in these beloved universes and the ways they challenge our perspectives on their narratives.
