Monday, April 30, 2012

When Did They Get Married?

First, sorry for the lengthy absence.  All I can really say is that life sometimes gets in the way of the fun, silly stuff you often enjoy purely for your own amusement.  I hope that you haven't given up and please don't hesitate to comment on anything as of course it's always good to keep the discussions coming and keep people interested.  That was the whole point of the blog, to pull together the fans so we know we're not alone and to keep people coming back for more.  So hopefully that will still be accomplished. 

In the mean time, while we don't have any particularly interesting new posts I'll use an idea I believe Claire gave us, which is to throw up a hot topic and let people discuss it.  And since it makes things easy, I'll go with the current poll question.  When do you think they got married?  Or did they?  Although I think everyone who has voted so far agrees that they did.  I know I've read the rumors that there was a scene shot but never used that they got married at the end of ROTJ.  First of all, I don't believe that rumor.  Second of all, as ideally romantic and cute as that all sounds, I don't think it makes any sense.  I of course think they got married, but come on, they haven't even been on a real date yet.  I think they'd wait at least a little bit before jumping into marriage. 

So what are all of your thoughts on the subject?  And you can disregard the EU completely if you want, or even say that you think how it happened there is how it should've gone.  Even if that book sucked.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Lesser-Known EU: Infinities: Return of the Jedi

This is another guest post by Amara Z who was nice enough to do yet another review of the last of the Star Wars: Infinities comics

Star Wars Infinities – The Return of the Jedi



The last version of this series is The Return of the Jedi. This was probably my least favorite of the three. The comic didn’t vary that much from the movie to make it very interesting, the art was pretty bad if not awful, there was so much going on at times it was occasionally hard to follow, and some of the things that happened are just too bizarre for words. I actually debated how to organize the review. I thought about listing just the differences from the movie (it would be a very short list), but I’ll go through it like I did the others. I will probably go a little out of order of the events, though, since they sometimes did a lot of switching back and forth between storylines.



* SPOILER ALERT * – this contains spoilers. So if you were planning to read these for yourself, then nothing to see here. Move along; move along.

The big change, if you can call it that, is that the plan to rescue Han from Jabba’s palace fails miserably.  The comic opens with Leia dressed as Boushh and she is negotiating the price for her “captive” Chewbacca. Unfortunately, Threepio is incapacitated while she is talking with Jabba and negotiations stall. Leia eventually reveals herself and threatens Jabba with the thermal detonator, but she’s shot in the arm, and drops it while it’s activated. Everyone has to run for it and Jabba and Threepio are the only two that don’t make it out in time. Even Han, still in carbonite, is removed from the palace before it blows up, but unfortunately, Boba Fett has him. Leia tries to rescue Han from Fett, but when she fires, she misses and hits the controls of the carbonite instead. Definitely cringe worthy and it will play into later events.

At least we get a nice pic of Leia in this particular sequence. I just kind of liked it. She looks ready to kick some butt.


The others regroup with Luke and decide to split up to search for Han – Luke by himself and Lando, Leia, and Chewie. From here, we end up with two different story threads.  I’ll start with Luke. While Luke searches for Han, Yoda and the Force ghost of Obi-Wan have been wondering why Luke has not returned to Dagobah yet. Apparently Yoda is dying and time is running out. Luke feels Yoda die through the Force and abandons his search for Han to go to Dagobah.

By the time Luke gets there, it’s too late and Yoda is gone. It doesn’t seem to matter much as Luke is able to commune with the Yoda’s Force ghost and still finds out about his parentage and family and that he needs to face Vader. The only real difference from the movie is that the Emperor feels Yoda die in the Force as well and dispatches Vader to capture Luke on Dagobah. Vader manages to do so and Luke is taken to the second Death Star to meet with the Emperor. Yeah, real different from the movie. On the upside, Luke sends a couple of messages to the Alliance for Leia before he’s captured.

Meanwhile, Leia, Lando, and Chewie have been searching for Fett and finally find him. He’s going to sell Han to the Imperials. The comic says they are “on a forest world on the edge of the galaxy,” but it looks a lot like Endor to me. You be the judge.


That's just one several odd things in this comic. Leia gets to play sniper, though, which I thought was cool.

 Leia and crew get Han back, but of course it takes a major fire fight to do so. At least Fett kills himself with his own detonator. (Ha!)

They get Han back to the Rebel fleet and he is thawed out by a doctor there. It’s actually kind of sad at first because the doctor talks about the damage to the carbonite unit and everyone is looking so guilty. At least Lando gets a funny line in about Han.



I’ll have to admit I saw the page of the doctor wanting to see Leia alone as a preview page on the web. And it’s what interested me in this version of the series. I wanted to see if it would go in the direction I thought it would and it did. The doctor informs Leia due to the length of time in carbonite and the damage to the unit, there’s little hope Han will regain his sight. That’s a total bummer, but not unexpected. We’ve seen it before in fanfic.

They end up needing to go to a briefing and, interestingly, Mon Mothma isn’t mad that Leia has been gone or that she’s late. It’s not pertinent to the story, but it caught my attention. We find out at this point the Rebellion is going to make a move against the Death Star and there is already a strike team on Endor. Unknown to the Rebellion, the whole thing is a trap.

Leia and the rest of the group are in some down time when the Alliance receives the transmission from Luke. In one of the stranger moments, the message is played in front of all of them, including Ackbar and Mon, and poor Leia has to find out that Luke is her brother and Vader is her father in front of basically everyone. Wow. That really kind of sucks and I’m feeling for the girl about that one. Yikes. In one of the sweeter moments, though, Han asks to be taken over to Leia.


The second message is about Luke being captured and he instructs them not to come after him. Of course, does Leia listen? Nope. She had confiscated Fett’s ship, Slave I, and uses it to go after Luke. Lando, Han and Chewie go after her and there is a cute scene where Han is more of himself and trying to convince Lando to let him go with them after Leia. Lando agrees cause he’s going to need someone to talk some sense into Leia.

I kind of felt like this next section seemed very much like the movie. The only thing that differed is who did what. The shield generator on Endor is destroyed with some help from Han, Chewie, and Lando (including a blind Han on the Falcon’s guns). In a very odd twist, the Ewoks attack both the Imperials and the Rebels during the battle. I think they were upset that some of their own tribe were collateral damage, but it’s only mentioned in a panel or two. It struck me as so random.

Leia makes it onto the Death Star and she is brought before the Emperor. He orders Vader to kill Leia, but Luke intervenes and it ends up in a fight mostly between Vader and Luke. In the end, Vader is told Luke and Leia are both his children and he decides that he can’t kill them.

While this was going on, the Rebels destroy the Death Star’s reactor and Luke and Leia realize they need to get off the station. Leia decides to save Vader, but in a variation from the movie, Palpatine is not killed and he escapes. Fortunately for Luke and Leia, the Falcon comes after them and gets them off the Death Star in time. There is a funny scene where Han hears someone being brought on board.

 They all regroup back at the fleet and vow to find the Emperor. This scene is a good example of the artwork in this comic.

 That’s supposed to be Leia, Mon Mothma, and Luke in the top photo. And check out Han in the second pic. I didn’t know Cyclops from X-Men was going to be in this. Cool!

 As it turns out, they have some extra help to search for the Emperor.

Yep, that is a redeemed Vader in white. So if you’ve seen it on the web, now you know where it’s from. It has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen and was a definite “what the…” moment for me.

Not sure how this review ended up longer than the other two, especially since I didn’t enjoy this one nearly as much. I think there was so much more going on to describe, but not necessarily in a good way. And the differences from the movie are more in the fine details. In my opinion, if there’s one comic in this series to skip, this is it.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this review, Amara!

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Dangers of Re-Reading Your Own Published Fanfic

There will be another book review.  I promise.  As soon as someone writes one.  For now, let's go with this that has been running through my head.  For those of us who write, we can often have a love/hate relationship going on with our stories.  The ratio of love to hate differs from story to story or even from day to day as to how you view them, but I think it's rare that we are just going to look at our stuff and think, "This is so amazing and it's the greatest thing ever and I love it and so will everyone else!"  I think it's just in our nature to be incredibly self critical. 

It's been quite a while since I've actually written anything, so I'll try and remember how the process goes.  Usually I'll just start writing and get it all down and leave it alone.  Sometimes I'll re-read it pretty quick and edit and sometimes I can't bring myself to look at it again for a while.  Seriously, especially if I'm writing a sexy time scene I quite often won't be able to bring myself to read it for days or even weeks for fear that I'll just immediately chicken out and delete the whole thing. 

Sometimes, I might go back and re-read something I wrote and actually think, "Wow, that's pretty good."  It's rare, but it does happen.  Let's talk about one story in particular, which would be "Culmination."  If you haven't read it, it follows through some missing moments in ROTJ through to the infamous first time.  Or at least my version of it.  The idea of writing their first time intimidated me so much that I spent years thinking I'd never write it, not even with the intention of never showing it to anyone.  And then one day, for some reason, I decided to just give it a shot.  I remember writing it and then walking away from it for a few days, and then I finally went back to polish it up to send it to my trusty editor (Push) and I actually thought to myself that I was surprised that I wasn't cringing as I read it.  I took that as a good sign.

Then, just yesterday I decided to revisit that story for no reason other than total boredom and the thought that maybe if I read something I had written and liked it I might remember why I wrote and it might give me some inspiration.  Except instead, when I read it, I hated it.  Not just the sex scene, but most of the rest leading up to it.  It hasn't been that long since I wrote it, my standards can't have changed that much.  But for whatever reason, at the moment I'm seeing it all in a much more negative light. 

I wrote a post once about how every story you write doesn't have to be amazing, and I still believe that to be true.  There are certainly some stories I'm far more proud of than others.  And there are a couple I feel like I never even want to click on again for fear that I'll reflexively unpublish as fast as I can.  I haven't done that yet but I've certainly thought about it.  What is it that makes us like our stories one day and think they're corny crap the next?  I have no idea.  I'm just telling you this in the hopes that some of you can relate and maybe you won't be quite so upset when you realize that other people think the same thing.  If I'm wrong though then I probably have a lot of stories to delete. 

It's funny though because I don't feel this way when reading other people's stories.  I don't read one and think it's great and then a couple of weeks later read it again and think it sucks.  My opinions there remain constant.  So just be careful about getting overly critical of your writing or making rash decisions based on one bad feeling.  Or just avoid the issue all together by publishing your stories and then leaving them alone!  Am I the only one who every few months goes back and reads them?  Maybe not start to finish, and certainly not everything, but I do sort of check up on myself from time to time.  "Oh, was I really any good?  No, not really.  Okay, moving on..."  That kind of thing.

I should stop now because I think I've rambled enough and I'm just going to become self critical of my writing in this post ;)

Friday, April 20, 2012

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

It shouldn’t have been particularly surprising to Han that Leia was still furious. There were a few different ways in which Leia expressed anger. First, and most obvious, was when she enjoyed yelling at whomever it was that had made her angry. This could entail frustrated annoyance or near-screaming, depending on the severity of the infraction. Han rather enjoyed riling her up to different degrees of irate behavior; he later realized not so much because he liked making her mad, but rather he just liked seeing evidence that she could actually feel anything. He sure as hell couldn’t get her to admit she liked him at all, or anyone else for that matter, so he might as well irritate her if that was the only way to garner some sort of reaction.

The second way, which was being demonstrated now, was total silence. Han had been around her enough to be able to notice the tension on her face while she no-doubt seethed below the surface of that icy exterior. Her teeth had been clenched so hard her jaw probably hurt. He’d somehow managed to pry the datacard out of her iron grip as she balled her fists tightly, likely digging her fingernails deeply into the palms of her hands.

To be fair, Han wasn’t thrilled about the idea of a marriage counseling retreat either, but he had been on all kinds of planets and they all had their own sets of rules and in his experience you were always better off to just do what they said if you were to get what you wanted. He could think of worse things they’d make them do if they were to banish this ‘marriage’ from their records. He knew of one or two planets where the husband was put to death. Knowing Leia, she probably would’ve preferred that option. It would’ve been much less painful… for her.

Leia marched her short legs determinedly back to the Falcon and Han actually had a hard time catching up while he tried to read the specifics of what this counseling would entail. Gods, why didn’t the woman have a sense of humor about this? He could think of dozens of things he wanted to say to rile her up even further. Unfortunately, he could tell that she was so close to the boiling point that one wrong remark and she’d be widowed a lot quicker than she’d have to wait to be divorced.

So for now, he had to be practical. “All right, Leia, this isn’t so bad. It’s a pretty lengthy session but I’m sure in that amount of time we can convince them that we can’t stand each other and shouldn’t be married.”

She stopped on the sidewalk, pretending to look in the window of a local shop. “Good. How long will it take?”

“Uh… a month.”

“A month?!?!”

Han could’ve sworn that anyone within a kilometer radius jumped at her startled reply. “Yeah, that’s what it says. Would you rather we stayed together for a year? Don’t forget, we had that option, we can walk right on over there and change our minds.”

She looked beyond frustrated, and Han knew the feeling – though for different reasons. “Fine. Let’s just get this thing over with and never speak of it again. Wait, how are we going to stay here for a month? They’re expecting us back in a few days.”

“Good question.” At least she was starting to talk rationally. “Maybe we can convince ‘em that we’re working on some other credits we might be able to get our hands on but it’s going to take some extensive intel work.”

Leia heaved a sigh. “Maybe. But I don’t want to lie to them.”

“Forgive me for being the one to bring this up, sweetheart, but you’re already lying to them.”

“That’s different. We’re actually going to do what we said we were going to do, we just happened to have some personal business to attend to while we were here.”

“I don’t see a lot of difference. Actually, the bigger problem now is that I think we’re gonna have to tell Chewie.”

Her eyes got wide and he was once again more than slightly insulted at how horrified she was at the fact that they were married and that someone might actually find out about it. “Come on, sweetheart. You know he’s just gonna keep asking questions. And he’s the most loyal being you’re ever gonna meet in your life. We can trust him with anything.” Can’t trust him not to make jokes and find the whole thing incredibly amusing, though…

She gave him that annoyed look that told him she knew he was right, and she hated that. “Fine. But I swear, Solo, if anyone else finds out…”

“Hey, will you stop it? You’ve been angry with me since this happened and I haven’t made any of the kinds of remarks you would’ve expected, have I? I’m gettin’ a little tired of tiptoeing around you like you can’t handle a slightly uncomfortable situation. If you don’t stop acting like this then I’m actually going to give you a reason to be mad at me.”

She snatched the data card out of his hand and said tightly, “Fine. So when does this nonsense start?”

Han swallowed, slightly relieved that she had backed down but not quite ready to believe she had calmed down completely. “Tomorrow.”

“How convenient,” she said sarcastically. “So we go talk to these therapists all day and see if they can save our marriage?”

“That seems to be the gist, yeah. There’s some group stuff with other couples, it looks like.”

“Oh, that will be fun. We can see if we can win the least likely to stay together award.”

Han thought he saw a hint of a smile on her face at her almost-humorous remark. “I think we’ve got that one locked, Princess.”

“No problem,” she agreed as her brown eyes finally met his. Yes, she was definitely starting to come around. “I’ll just tell them how you constantly tease and berate me, and you never call me by my real name.”

“Well, maybe I can tell ‘em, Your Worshipfulness, how you call me names and talk down to me like some sort of subordinate.”

“Well, maybe if you acted like a respectable human being I’d treat you like one.”

“Oh, yeah? Well-“

She cut him off. “I think we should save our arguments for when we have an audience.”

He hated when she got the last word. At least this would give him some time to come up with a few more suitable insults. Maybe this therapy thing would be kind of fun. Might give him a chance to say all the things he’d wanted to say and have a professional confirm his innate belief that the woman was completely out of her mind.

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Han said, signaling for her to follow as he started walking again. “We’ve got to break the news to Chewie.”

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Missing Moment by Elivigar

Thanks for Elivigar for contributing this awesome oneshot.  She didn't give a timeframe, but I imagine this could happen most anywhere when Han and Leia are needlessly separated throughout the EU...

**

She could look up to find a pretentiously high ceiling, or turn to gaze out into the perfectly framed light scape of Coruscant, all from the luxury of silken sheets beneath her. Instead, she lay belly down, facing the headboard of her oversized bed. Her fingers traced the intricate carvings before her, but her mind was elsewhere. While the room pleaded mercilessly for her attention, she fixated on the weathered comlink resting loosely in her palm.

And at the other end of this transceiver's signal, the object of her affections.

Swept away on an extravagant business excursion, she gladly accepted the offered finery that came with it. It was something she had even looked forward to, until the little hitch in her plans. The one that left her to indulge in it all alone. Without that... Roommate with Diverse Benefits.

But that was the Universe. Always conspiring to keep them apart in anyway it could.

So here she lay as one where there could generously accommodate two, in an intermittent silence that could be filled with loud, wordless exclamation.

But she didn't sulk.

She found herself delighting in his simple presence provided through the comm, between conversation listening for his shuffles and murmurs. In her mind's eye, she could imagine him rustling about their small apartment, hunched over the kitchen counter as he did while waiting for a reheated meal, or making a show of sighing loudly as he flopped onto the couch to relax after a long day.

To observe him like this from afar was something novel and she couldn't help the spreading grin. Despite living beside him for a comfortable year, she still managed a thrill out of each small discovery, even his most subtle of nuances.

They continued on into the late hours, yawns became more frequent, and before she knew it, they were both climbing beneath their respective bedsheets. Their conversation took on an intimate tone, voices settling into hushed whispers, and eventually for her companion, deep, even breathing.

When her lids became too weak, they would close as well, her mind briefly grasping the image of his sleeping form as it would be beside her. Warm and solid and hers...

But the morning would come all too soon, with its cold sheets and white static noise.

**

Awesome Job and Thanks Again, Elivigar. 

You know...when Zyra and I are at a loss for posts, it sure is nice to get some guest contributions...hint...hint...hint...

Friday, April 13, 2012

Secret Marriage

Chapter 8
After an interminably long wait in line, Han and Leia made it to the courthouse clerk.  As they waited, Leia reminded Han that he should let her do the talking.  For once, her request didn’t earn them an argument but only because she let his comment about bureaucrats and red tape slide by un-protested. 
The woman behind the counter was middle-aged with a plump face and seasoned eyes.  She wore too much makeup and gaudy jewelry and sparkly things adorned nearly every centim of her.  The clerks were lined up like bank tellers with what looked like blaster-proof glass between them and those who waited to see them.  A small part of Leia understood why, because if someone didn’t undo this thing, she was ready to shoot them herself. 
Leia pushed the datacard under the slot in the window.  “I want to take care of this,” she said abruptly.  So much for her years of diplomacy training.
The woman looked at Han and Leia from beneath her lashes as she entered the proffered datacard into her system and studied the display.  “You do, huh?”  She asked with what Leia was sure was a hint of amusement.
“Yes, as quickly as possible,” Leia replied.
“When you say take care of…,” the woman trailed off, the datacard forgotten and her eyes suddenly transfixed on Han.
“I mean dissolve it.  End it.  Erase it from our records, if at all possible,” Leia replied hotly.
The woman’s eyes meandered over toward Leia as she leaned forward, elbows on the counter, her face nearly pressed to the glass that separated her from them and every other miscreant that filled the crowded waiting room.  “You sure about that, sweety?” She asked and then as her head hitched toward Han she added, “He don’t look like the kind I’d throw back, if you know what I mean.”
Leia’s face burned with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.  Han, for his part, did not say a word.  Just as she had instructed.  But the expression on his face was one Leia would not soon forget.
The woman seemed pleased with the reaction she had coaxed out of Leia.  Leaning back in her chair an air of professionalism glided over her as she recited a well-worn speech about the sanctity of marriage and the planet Azterri’s stand on it.
“I fully agree on the sanctity of the institution, but…,” Leia fumbled for the right words.  “We weren’t…ourselves,” she finally supplied under a mumbled breath.
The woman shed her professional persona and let a wicked grin slide across her face.  “Who were you, then, missy?  I wonder.”
“Look,” Leia started, leaning against the glass as if she might punch her way through it.  And then Han was in front of her, his arm leaning up against the counter, his best roguish grin plastered across his face and she heard that low octave note to his voice that did things that even Leia couldn’t deny.
“Dontcha think you could flip a few switches and punch a few buttons and get this all taken care of for us?” He asked sweetly as he waved his finger through the air.
Leia watched the clerk melt in front of her eyes and had to control the violent urge she had to vomit all over her.
“Wellll,” the clerk drawled.  “I could swap my name for hers and no one would be the wiser.”
Leia suppressed a guffaw as she watched Han’s face turn three different colors.  “Well,” he started backpedaling as he drew away from the window.
“Other than that,” the woman replied lightly but then grew deadly serious, “You’ll have to go through the proper channels like everybody else.”
“And just what are the proper channels?” Leia asked with a heavy sigh.  Something told her this wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“A one year separation, verified by at least three witnesses after said year, in person, at this courthouse,” the clerk retorted.
Leia felt her jaw, her heart, her stomach and many other parts of her anatomy drop down to the floor.
Or,” the clerk continued. 
Oh, thank the goddess there’s an ‘or’!
“You can attend our marital counseling seminar and if you still wish to absolve your marriage after successfully, or unsuccessfully as it were, completing the course, you can obtain immediate expungency of said marriage.”
“Great!” Leia said, relieved.  “We want that one.”  And with that the clerk began to punch a few buttons on her terminal.
“Not so fast,” Han replied, grabbing Leia’s arm.  Then he looked at the clerk, “Just what does this seminar entail?”
The last of Leia’s patience was quickly dissolving away and she had a hard time imagining just what Han could be so worried about.  They were getting this divorce if it killed her, or if she killed him.  Either way, she was leaving Azterri a single woman.
“You and your betrothed,” the clerk said the word as if it were dirty and looked at Leia as if she would just as soon run her over with a hover car, “attend a series of appointments and exercises with our various counselors to try and salvage your marriage.”
“What sort of exercises?” Han and Leia asked in unison and then glanced at each other uncomfortably.
“We’re not that kind of planet,” the woman replied flatly as she removed their datacard from her system.  “The exercises are meant to build or repair the trust and communication now absent in your relationship.”
“But there’s nothing to repair.  That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.  Are you sure there’s no way around this?”  Leia asked desperately.
“Positive,” the woman spat and then pushing the datacard back under the window added, “Details are on your datacard.  Have a nice day.”

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Most Tragically Unfinished Han and Leia Fanfics

We've all come across them. Stories that suck you in and keep you up way too late at night because you simply can't stop reading. You need to know what happens and you can't rest until you do. Then, you get this sickening feeling deep down in your gut when you reach the final chapter and find things unresolved, only to realize in horror that the story hasn't been updated in five years and the author has been missing for almost just as long. Sometimes there is an excuse listed and sometimes the story is simply abandoned without reason. You've just been duped into reading an unfinished fanfic.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. One of my pet peeves is also even using the term pet peeves, but it really does apply here. If you are going to post a story, finish it! Now, admittedly there are some unfinished stories out there that I don't really care weren't finished because they weren't that good. But there are some that while incomplete, are so great that I'd read them again even knowing in advance I'm going to be left hanging. I also will hold onto some shred of hope that maybe, somehow the author will come back and finish it for us to finally give us the closure we've been waiting for for years.

Here are a few examples off the top of my head: "While You Were Gone" by Stonedrose. I might even say that this is the most tragic of the tragically unfinished. If you haven't read it, the idea is that they didn't find Han when he was frozen in carbonite. At least not until seven years later when I think it was Lando who finally found him and thawed him out and he has no idea what's been happening or that he was gone for so long. If you haven't read it, I am going to cautiously recommend it because you already know it's not finished, but what is there is just so, so good. So if you plan on reading, skip some of this because here are some spoilers: Han finds out Leia has a son and she's with this other guy named Simon. Han eventually finds out that the boy is his and Leia has been trying to move on but of course it's difficult. Simon turns out to be not such a great guy and he wants to take Han out and Han is stabbed and left bleeding to death... and that is where we are left. This story has been abandoned since something like 2004. It is painful that it hasn't been finished. The author apparently is still around though either not writing fanfic or is off in another genre. The excuse is that the computer died and the files were destroyed and she lost the motivation to finish it. It is, as I said, tragic. Seriously, even just tell someone what you were going to do with it and let someone else write it, but please finish this story!

"The Not Quite Love Letters" by limelight. This is just such a fun story to read. It is mostly told through messages sent between Han and Leia starting from very early on in their relationship up until they are together. Think of it like reading e-mails or instant messages. It's great. And it is unfinished. This one isn't quite as painful to see unfinished only because honestly when I first started reading it I wasn't really under the impression that there was ever supposed to be an "end" of the story, but written just as glimpses of what they might say to each other. And given the timeframe, we already kind of know the end of the story. But it still isn't any fun when someone just leaves a story untouched for a good five years! The author has said once or twice that she will someday finish it, but it's getting a little tough to believe. Regardless of its status, if you haven't read it, please go do so.

"In Name Only" by ladypadme. This one I think you can only read on theforce.net message boards. It starts with a not uncommon scenario where Han and Leia have to pose as a married couple. I think in this case they even have to be legally married. Things progress as you might imagine they would but it is definitely a story that sucks you in and makes you want to know what happened. And then it just stops. The author said something about how she had submitted it to some archive on the forum there and it was turned down and that made her not really feel like finishing it. That's just cruel and spiteful. Seriously, write the story for yourself and don't let anyone stop you from finishing it. Don't string people along and then not finish.

These are just three examples of stories that have been seemingly abandoned indefinitely. I can't stand it when stories are left unfinished. And I always hold out this naive hope that someday the person might come back but I don't think that's actually going to happen. I know there are others out there. What other stories have you read and then just felt your heart fall into your stomach when you realized you weren't going to get to find out how it ended?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Lesser-Known EU: Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back


This is another guest post from amara z on the Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back comic. Enjoy!

And now we are on to the Infinities version of probably my favorite movie The Empire Strikes Back. I really liked this one as well, but for different reasons than the version for A New Hope. The art is just about as good and since this is Empire, we actually do get some nice Han and Leia goodness in this one. Evidently a lot more than I originally thought because I ended up scanning quite a bit for this one. Unfortunately, this is probably the saddest of all three of the Infinities series and there a couple of moments that just really get you.

* SPOILER ALERT * – this contains spoilers. So if you were planning to read these for yourself, then nothing to see here. Move along; move along.

The big twist from the movie is that Luke dies on Hoth. It is really sad. The comic starts out like the movie. The Rebellion is on Hoth, Luke is out on patrol, and meets up with the wampa. He does manage to escape, but he dies just as Han finds him. Before he passes on, he mumbles about going to Dagobah and training as a Jedi. For some reason, Han believes it’s a message is for him.

Here's the page from Luke's burial.

And here’s an image of one the covers from the individual comics that composed this version of the series. I just thought it was cool.

I do like the fact that Han comforts Leia. Very sweet. And before all of this goes down, we do get just a taste of Han and Leia’s fight in the south corridor about him leaving. That was kind of nice.

The rebels barely get Luke buried before the Imps attack.

I dunno about anyone else, but seeing TIEs flying over Hoth just seems wrong to me. It just looked so odd that I did a double take.

From here, things progress like the movie. The Imperials get the upper hand, start overrunning the base, and Han has to drag Leia out of the command center. Han, Leia, Chewie and Threepio make it off the planet in the Falcon, but have trouble outrunning Imperial ships. And in a totally hilarious jab at the movie, we get the following scene.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

At this point, Han attaches to the side of the Destroyer's bridge, they drift off with the garbage, and make their way to Bespin with Fett following them. Unlike the movie, though, they get a friendlier welcome on Bespin and the Empire is not laying in wait for them. Han does tell Lando that he is with the Rebellion and that seems to smooth things between them. He also tells Lando about becoming a Jedi. Lando laughs at that and Leia comes to Han's defense. Awwww.

Boba Fett also makes it to Bespin and informs Lando that he is there for Solo and that Fett's employer is on his way to collect him. Lando sets Fett up, there is a huge fight between just about everybody, and Fett is knocked unconscious. This time someone else ends up as a carbonite decoration.

Yep, that's Boba Fett in carbonite and being used as Lando's desk. Another good one.

Han, Leia, and Chewie take off for Dagobah once the hyperdrive is fixed. But, unfortunately, everyone assumed that Boba Fett was working for Jabba. He was really working for Vader. Angered when Lando can't produce Fett, Vader destroys the city.

That page actually choked me up to see the city going down and Lando's cape fluttering by. Way harsh.

They eventually make it to Dagobah and when they find Yoda, it comes out that Leia is the one that's supposed to be trained as a Jedi. Han got protective of her once they landed and here's one of the sweeter moments after they find out she's the one to be trained.

We get another cute moment when Han leaves to settle his debt.

This was after Yoda ribbed Han for being a “death-marked scoundrel.” Funny.

Months later (it's not clear if it's many months or just three months), Leia is almost a Jedi. To me, she looks a lot like Jedi Leia from the books (or at least what I've seen on wookiepedia). Looks like she can kick some butt too.


Meanwhile, Han has made enough to pay off Jabba and arranges for someone to deliver the money. But they double cross Han and he and Chewie end up prisoners of Jabba and are forced to fight nexus. Sounds an awful lot like ROTJ, right? They even take a poke at ROTJ. Han and Chewie escape, but so do the nexus. After the creatures tear up his palace, Jabba says that he needs something more controllable like a rancor.

Vader, unaware that Luke has died, has been looking for Luke this whole time and traces him to Dagobah using Threepio. Leia no sooner leaves Yoda to retrieve the crystal to build her lightsaber that Vader shows up and confronts Yoda. Yoda invades his mind and in one of the cooler series of scenes, Vader fights every major Jedi he knew when he was Anakin. Yoda also tells him that Luke is dead. Eventually, Vader is reduced to the small child he used to be but with a twist.

Wow, that is one creepy Anakin. But I thought the whole thing was a neat metaphor for fighting his personal demons. Vader and Yoda start dueling and Leia returns to see Yoda struck down. He eventually dies. Leia fights Vader herself and he gets the upper hand. He tries to convince her to turn to the dark side, but Leia's having none of it. Two laser blasts come out of nowhere and kill Vader. It's Han. He came back to get her and because he misses her. Again, awwww. And it's very obvious in the end they are going to be together.

I did find this one fairly enjoyable even though it was much sadder than the first comic. I really liked all the sweet moments between Han and Leia. Glad they didn't deviate from them caring for one another. And there were some really nice wow moments like Boba Fett in carbonite that easily kept my attention.

Thank you, amara for the in depth review and for taking the time to scan these pictures for us!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Before the Storm: The Review

This is the first book in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. I recalled liking this series enough to read it more than once. And upon my most recent read it occurred to me that the fact that Han and Leia have literally about five scenes in bed probably had something to do with it.

The book begins with a bit of a flashback to the battle of Endor where we learn of Nil Spaar, a Yevetha who led his people in a little rebellion of their own against their Imperial masters at the Koornacht Cluster. This is the guy who is about to cause Leia a lot of headaches and a lot less sleep.

But before any of that happens, we learn that things have actually been pretty peaceful around the New Republic lately. This being the first book that follows after the children had been kidnapped and subsequently reunited with their parents, we learn that Han has basically been relegated to stay-at-home dad. It's a bit more "official" than that though as Han tried to resign so he could make sure he was always home to protect his family, but instead of accepting said resignation, Admiral Ackbar assigned Han to the president of the Senate - that would be Leia - as liaison for domestic defense. "You are to assist her in whatever way she sees fit. Do you understand?" I think both Han and Leia would be happy to hear that.

I think it is quite in character for Han to take matters like this into his own hands when it comes to his kids. It is quite obvious that nobody else can be trusted to protect them. Although it is kind of difficult to believe that he would be content in this sort of position for long, it does seem like a sacrifice he'd be willing to make. The book alludes to the decision:

There was nothing to be done about it now except to try not to compound the mistake. On the first night the family was reunited, with Leia crying tears of relief as they held each other, Han had silently vowed never to leave the children without the care and protection of a parent again.

There was no disentangling Leia from the business of the government, but Han saw his own position differently.


So Han is taking a very active role in the raising of his children - finally. He's sitting back and worrying mostly over his now seven-year old twins and five-year old youngest child. The first we see of him in the book he is worrying about much simpler things than the kids getting kidnapped. No, instead he's concerned because apparently Jacen is getting a little pudgy because he's too busy trying and failing to move things with his mind rather than just trying to move. And apparently he is always happier to be playing alone, though Han blames himself and Leia since the children must be sheltered to ensure their safety. He also recalls his own childhood and days of "rough and tumble play" although this might be a bit contradictory given that a couple of years later some other books were written to tell us that Han had anything but a normal childhood of playing outside. But he certainly wouldn't have been a chubby kid.

So Han's days were now spent at the president's residence, which he shared with Leia, trying to make up for lost time. But he was discovering that children made the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive look dependable and predictable by comparison. Little Anakin was Han's loyal ally, but the twins tested him early and often.

I guess I had forgotten that there was at least a decent stretch of time where Han and Leia did take care of their kids. Remember when we were talking about peaceful times between the books that weren't exactly worthy of stories? Well, looks like this book alludes to some of that. Here comes a long quote to just tell you about the more normal "routine" that has taken over at the Solo household:

"But, Dad, Winter let us-"

"But, Dad, Chewie always-"

"But, Dad Threepio never" Sentences beginning with those constructions were banned from the household by the end of the first month. "It's not fair! " followed soon thereafter. With Leia backing up his edicts down the line (discreetly negotiating her dissents with him in private), all three children eventually acknowledged Dad as boss of the house.

But he worried about the day he thought must inevitably come-the day a disagreement would turn into a fight he would lose. Raising Jedi children, he decided, was like raising Ralltiir tigers-cute as they were when young and much as they might love you, they still grew long, deadly claws. Han would never forget the afternoon Anakin had an hourlong, Force-assisted tantrum. Every object in the playroom was shoved or thrown against the wall, leaving the youngster alone in the middle of a bare floor, kicking his heels and pounding his fists.

One mercy was that all the three children were basically good-hearted.
Another was that playing with the Force seemed to make them sleep longer and more deeply. Unfortunately, Anakin and Jacen both had their mother's stubbornness-neither could be readily compelled to do anything they didn't want to. And Jaina and Jacen both had a streak of irrepressible mischief, which Leia blamed on Han-both could be regularly counted on to do something you didn't want them to.

They had established a new family ritual that seemed to please everyone. When Leia came home, they would all climb into the vortex pool in the garden and spend half an hour or more being carried around by its currents. The kids could play-Anakin had suddenly begun to love the water so much that Ackbar proudly called him "my little fish"-or just cling to Mom and Dad, while for Leia and Han it was therapy, a sigh of relief at the end of a long day.

Then, while the children were off with the valet droid, dressing for dinner, Han and Leia retreated to their own bedroom for what they jokingly called "the daily briefing." It was as much a part of the ritual as the pool-a chance for them to rail, complain, or simply entertain while swapping stories about their day.


Okay, that big, long stretch there gives us some very valid proof that at least for a good stretch of time, the Solos were sort of like a normal family. I love the idea of their little end of the day routine, the whole family swimming together and then Han and Leia going off to talk about their day before dinner. This is a very nice little picture and I must say I can't really complain about it. It's nice to see that the kids think of Dad as the boss, as opposed to say a few books ago when it was like they had no idea how to take care of their own kids. And you certainly feel for Han trying to figure out how to take care of Force sensitive children. And I also love the discussions of which traits the kids got from which parent.

This sets up a scene of Han and Leia in their bedroom discussing normal parent stuff, like Han wanting Jacen to be more active and Leia, being the mom, defending him.

"He said, 'Why do I have to be strong? Someday I'll be able to go anywhere I want, or get anything I want, just by thinking about it--like Uncle Luke.'" Han shook his head. "He doesn't seem to have noticed that Uncle Luke doesn't look a bit like Jabba the Hutt."

"Neither does Jacen!" Leia said defensively.

"Give him time."

"You're exaggerating."


Then Leia brings up the fact that Luke has gone off on some quest and neither one of them has heard from him in months. I think not hearing from Luke for months might be a bit of a stretch, but hey, Han and Leia are just hanging out in their bedroom talking at this point in the book so I'm not going to complain too much. Leia is worried, of course Han knows Luke can take care of himself. By the end of this conversation they are both just lying on their backs, exhausted on the bed, while Han tells Leia about some fight Jaina and Jacen had earlier that day. Silly, I know, but I really do like reading about them being pretty normal like that.

We briefly cut back to Luke who is quietly landing on Coruscant in the middle of the night, but then we immediately go back to Leia sitting up in bed in the middle of the night after she and Han had been asleep. Obviously they were exhausted after some good sexy time. She senses that Luke is there but she can tell he doesn't really want to be found. Han being Han, just wants her to relax.

"He'll tell us when he's ready," Han said, drawing Leia down into the comforting circle of his arms.

"Sleep, my princess. Mornings always come too soon."


End of chapter. I told you they are in bed a lot in this book. Anyway, Leia spends her working time trying to figure out what is going on with this Nil Spaar guy, planning some negotiations and such. Han goes to see the Falcon because he finally took it in to have it seriously restored. This is something he would've done himself but with his family and everything he just doesn't have the time. She's faster and quieter and lighter and totally fully functional and Han pretty quickly misses all of her creaks and quirks. Han isn't so happy at first as he feels like her history has been erased, but his attitude changes quickly when he learns that she's twenty percent faster.

They take her out for a spin and Chewie tells Han that she's perfect, to which Han replies, "I hate perfect." This definitely sounds like Han to me:

"That's right-hardly a sound. She's as tight as a new boot, " Han said, stopping and turning on his friend. "Listen, buddy, I hate new boots. I like my boots covered with scuffs, worn just this side of falling apart, with room for my toes and a little roll in the heels. All those noises they took out, that's how I used to know when I was pushing her. How am I gonna know how hard we're hit next time we're in a scrap?"

Chewbacca shook his head and growled his disgust.

"I thought you'd understand," Han said plaintively. "Chewie, they replaced the cushions on the acceleration couches." His tone was rich with indignation. "Don't they understand why people keep old furniture around the house? That's not my
Falcon. It feels like I'm sitting in somebody else's ship. I tell you, I'm gonna have to take a whole day to go around with a wrench and start loosening things-" Somewhere in the middle of Han's tirade, Chewbacca stopped listening to him.

Aw, poor Han. Someone made his ship all shiny and new and not like he remembers her. Because of his little test drive, Han is a bit late coming home and he finds Leia in the back yard with the kids who are all lying on their backs in the grass.

"I thought you'd be back long before this, " Leia said, with a hint of impatience in her voice. "I had to postpone an appointment with Senator Noimm."

Han looked down, embarrassed. "Sorry, honey," he said, sitting beside her and reaching for her hand. "There were problems at the yard."

"And I'll bet you caused most of 'em," she said, leaning over to kiss his cheek. "Right, Chewie?"

The bronze-furred Wookiee looked away, shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and scratched his head distractedly.

"It's okay, Chewie," Han said. "I'll rat on myself, so you don't have to." He nodded toward the children, who had neither moved nor made a sound since he and Chewbacca had arrived. "What did you do to them, kill them?"

Jaina giggled at that, spoiling the effect.

"It's an exercise," Leia said.

"What, to see who can levitate the longest?"


Again, I like these little family moments in this book. First of all, Leia is watching the kids and she couldn't leave for her meeting because Han wasn't home yet. You know, like a normal family instead of one who passes their kids off to a nanny or, even better, a protocol droid. And I like that she's sort of irritated but at the same time she very quickly lapses into some humor. And okay, one more cute line from Han from this scene: "The best discipline I know is the sentence 'Wait till your mother gets home.'"

The kids go off to swim in the pool and Chewie stays behind, telling Leia how crazy Han is being about his ship and Leia asks if Chewie is as upset as Han about someone else working on his "jalopy." Han gets defensive.

"Oh, right, fine, you're the practical one, and I'm the hot-tempered one," Han said. "Have you ever heard such character assassination?"

"Don't worry, dear, " Leia said, patting his hand." I won't let him change how I feel about you."


Chewie asks if he can go back home to Kashyyyk for a visit. Remember how he has his own wife and kid that he totally ignores? I guess we shouldn't feel too bad for how Han and Leia are treated in these books given the fact that Chewie almost never sees his family. Han is reluctant to let him go and even more reluctant to let him take the Falcon, but Leia finally gets him to relent. Then Han and Leia are left alone.

When Chewbacca was gone, Leia drew Han into a gentler and more agreeable embrace. "I'm proud of you," she said. "He'd never say anything to either of us, but he still hasn't stopped feeling awful inside about the kidnapping of the kids."

Han did not have to ask Leia how she knew about Chewbacca's private pain. "It wasn't his fault."

"You'll never convince him of that. He feels guilty for failing us. And he feels guilty for neglecting his own. He really needs to go home and get his confidence back." She drew back and smiled up at her husband.

"And from what I hear, looking after Wookiee children is good practice for looking after Jedi children."

"Maybe I should go with him."

"You don't need to," she said, and kissed him.

"Yeah, well, fine," Han said. "I'll tell you this much, though. Luke'd better come teach the kids how to flap their arms and fly. Because I'm never giving Jacen the codes to the
Falcon. Not in my lifetime, anyway."

"Why? Didn't you start piloting everything in sight as soon as you could?"

"Of course I did," Han said indignantly. "Why do you think I'm worried?"


I'm coming close to Push already on over-quoting from the book but when there are a lot of cute moments, I think they should be highlighted. I mean, we only get to read so many kisses, right? And I can definitely see Han being reluctant to give his kids reign of his ship. It's only too bad Jacen doesn't turn out to be anything like his dad.

Luke contacts Han to talk to him but he tells him he doesn't want to talk to Leia. Leia really wants Luke's help with the kids and teaching them about the Force but Luke is busy with his own thing. He seems to have some sort of notion that he's going to find out some stuff about his real mother. It should be noted that this book came out a few years before Episode I and anything he "learns" in this book has absolutely nothing to do with Padme. So we're sort of left wondering if there was some other plan in place or if this was meant to be a facade.

Anyway, Luke only wants to talk to Han because he knows Han won't pester him about coming to help with the kids and Leia would be too stubborn to accept whatever answers he has about what he's doing. Something about going into hiding like Obi Wan did, or Yoda when he was on Dagobah. Han is used to Luke being a bit nuts so he just listens and promises to pass on the information, after he asks Luke if he'll put off his mysterious excursion and come help with the kids for a bit. Of course Luke says no and they part ways.

It is finally time for Leia's first meeting with Nil Spaar, but she is completely exhausted. From yet another tidbit of them in bed:

Anakin had awakened from a terrifying nightmare in the small hours, and Leia had allowed him to climb into bed between her and Han in the hope that it would help him sleep. But the unfamiliar presence of a third little body had forced her into unnatural sleeping postures. Worse, Anakin had become a restive sleeper, and she had found herself aware of his every move, coming fully awake time and again as he turned and squirmed beside her.

Han, Leia had been annoyed to discover, slept through it all, including his own snoring.


I know, I am ridiculous for enjoying such a simple little bit of Anakin going into Mom and Dad's room when he has a nightmare and getting into bed with them. Really, I'm pretty easy to please.

Anyway, Leia is kind of a mess before her meeting with Nil Spaar since she is basically completely exhausted and overwhelmed and it has been requested that she meet with him alone. He is a bit tough to read and says that he isn't really there to join, nor is he there to oppose them, but he wants an agreement between equals. Leia goes back to confer with her people, all the while trying to remain the diplomat and gain Nil Spaar's trust even though the others are a bit more suspicious. They don't come to an agreement, and Nil Spaar leaves and later cleans himself thoroughly and refers to Leia and the New Republic as "vermin." You pretty quickly know that he is up to no good.

Luke is off in the middle of nowhere meditating. Man, that guy is weird. No wonder his only girlfriend to date was Callista, who he originally found in a computer. Anyway, he is interrupted by this mysterious woman named Akanah who claims to know something of Luke's mother. She says his mother is one of their people. She even claims that it is possible that his mother is still alive. "Who saw her fall? Where is her grave?" She even tells him her name, or one of the names she was known by, was Nashira.

Okay, I know this is not the author's fault because they obviously didn't know what was going to happen in the prequels, but again, given all of the technology and such it seems odd that it would be so incredibly difficult to figure out who Luke and Leia's mother is. Yeah, remember that elaborate funeral with thousands and thousands of people as Padme's body was paraded through the streets? But apparently we can't find her grave...

Anyway, Akanah is going to bring Luke to learn more things about Nashira and Luke decides he needs to tell Leia before he goes because she deserves to know and she has some memories of their mother that he does not. Again, contradictions here. Once again, Leia senses Luke's presence as he gets closer and we get another scene of Han and Leia in bed, but it's kind of irritating:

Without warning Leia sat bolt upright in her bed, breaking Han's embrace.

"What is it now?" he asked plaintively.

"He's coming here tonight."

"Who is?"

"Luke. " She threw back the soft coppery sheet and climbed out of bed. "He's coming to see us."

"How do you know?"

"I heard his voice. You know, what you fondly refer to as that semi-mystical twin thing?"

"Well-he's not ringing the doorbell yet," Han said hopefully. "It'll take him a while to get here."

Leia seemed not to hear him. "It's about time. All I have to do is tell him about the way the kids were today-that'll give him the whole catalog of problems."


So they were in bed fooling around a little bit and Leia realizes Luke is coming and immediately runs off. Aw, come on, like Han said, it's not like he's right there!

As she was speaking, she moved toward the bedroom door. When she reached it, she stopped and turned back toward Han, still sitting bare-chested on the bed in a jumble of sheets. "No, I'm sure you're wrong. That's not why Luke's coming here. He seemed--excited. Almost happy."

Han surrendered. "All right. Whatever you say. Where are you going?"

"I've been keeping notes on the children. I want to bring them up to date before Luke arrives." She threw him a quick smile and disappeared through the doorway.

"I guess we're done here, then," he said to himself.

Sighing, he climbed out of bed. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Oh, yes, I do."


Can you imagine Leia leaving Han in bed like that? I can't. To make it more tolerable I'm going to tell myself that they'd already done it twice that night so it's not really that bad.

Luke shows up a bit later, in the middle of the night, and Leia still assumes he's there to help with the kids but he quickly tells her that he's found out some new information on their mother. Leia is not at all happy about this news and basically tells Luke to just leave. Han is trying to keep everyone calm and after Leia storms off he tells Luke that Leia has been having a rough time with these negotiations that have apparently been going on for a month now and the twins have been giving her trouble and for the millionth time Luke tells Han that she'd do so much better if she drew on the Force. Shut up about the Force already, Luke!

We learn that Leia's mind has been probed to see if they can unlock the mysteries of their mother, and Leia has accepted that it's the past and her children are the future. Then she tells Luke that apparently on a constant basis their are random women - sometimes not even human - who come to her and claim to be her mother. She has never told Luke this and I can imagine that would be quite upsetting. And here comes a long quote, some of which you've probably read here already:

"Listen to me-we're never going to have a tidy family tree," Leia snapped. "Why can't you realize? We're never going to know our parents better than we do right now. We're never going to have fond stories of our grandparents to tell our children. We're better off telling them about Owen and Beru, about Bail-the real people who cared for us, protected us, loved us like we were their own. You make too much of blood."

"It's more than blood-" Luke began.

"I don't care," Leia said, slapping the top of the bar with the flat of her right hand. The noise was so sudden and loud that it made Han jump. "You can't invent a normal childhood for us, no matter how much you turn up about Mother and Father. And if you do find the truth, as you call it, you just might find you don't like it very much. You might end up wishing you'd let them stay dead."

"Could anything be worse than what we already know?"

"I'd rather not know the answer to that question," Leia said curtly, pushing herself back from the bar so violently that her stool toppled to the floor as she slipped off it. "You and I are foundlings, Luke. That's how it is, like it or not. Our family tree starts here-with this family, and these children. And they're going to know their parents, and their uncle, and all our wonderful friends."

Leia's face and voice filled with a rising fury as she spoke, fury at the world, the past, at Luke, at all who stood as obstacles to her vision of what should be.

"My children are going to have normal family stories to tell their children, little funny stories about everyday nothings, stories where no one dies too young or has to carry a burden of shame. I'm going to see to that, with your help or without it-"

Han approached from the doorway. "Leia-"

"Nothing matters more to me, do you understand?" she demanded, jabbing a finger in Luke's face. "Nothing. So you do what you think you have to, brother-go wherever you have to with whoever you want to, chasing whatever shadow of a hint of a promise of a clue you like. I don't care about any of it. Don't ask for my help again. And don't bring the past into this house. It's all just pain and death. You wallow in it if you want to. I've had enough of it for ten lifetimes."


I can appreciate Leia's feelings on this matter but it is very upsetting to me that after all she tries to do for them her sons both die young, one after turning Sith, and, well, lots of other awful stuff happens. But let's pretend it didn't. I do think this is a natural reaction for Leia and at least she does want her children to have a normal family life and appears to be trying to give them that.

Luke leaves and we are back to this whole weird thing with the Black Fleet and Leia's negotiations. Ackbar and some of the others are still worried about this fleet that might come to attack them, even though apparently it has been missing for ten years. Leia tells them this whole thing is ridiculous but they still want to have some military force out there even though Leia thinks this will show the Yevetha that they don't trust them.

In the end they decide to send the Fifth Fleet, which was apparently going to be going out anyway, to search for this mysterious Black Fleet but Leia tells them to stay away from Koornacht so as not to make it look like they don't trust Spaar. After all of this, Han and Leia have another conversation... in bed. Leia apparently wakes Han up, so let's just assume that they totally did it a few hours earlier. Leia is talking out her issues with these negotiations and just feeling generally overwhelmed and like she really shouldn't be the president, and Han keeps reminding her that she is doing a great job and sometimes people just aren't going to like what you do. She says that it takes someone special and Han tells her, "You are something special, boss lady." And then:

"Half the time I feel like an accident of history. What happens if you and Luke don't get it into your heads to rescue me? Poof. No Princess Leia."

"I seem to remember a certain feisty young princess taking charge of her own rescue," Han said dryly. "I don't know if any of us would have gotten out of there without all of us."


I like that quote of Han's and he's probably absolutely right about that!

"The point is, I could easily have died on the Death Star," Leia said. "I don't doubt that my father was capable of killing me to get what Grand Moff Tarkin wanted."

"You never have talked about that."

"I don't like even thinking about it," she said.

"He didn't know you were his daughter."

She smiled sadly. "That says something, doesn't it? Oh, listen to me-I'm sounding more and more like Luke all the time. This is why I hate looking back. Nothing good comes from looking back."

"So why are you doing it?"

"Because you asked me why these negotiations matter to me," she said. Then she quickly amended her answer, saying, "No-that's not fair to you. It's not your doing. I've been lying here for an hour afraid to go to sleep, and I can't think of anything else but."

"Oh," said Han. "Did you dream about Alderaan again?"

"Twice in the last week," said Leia. "And that's another reason to question myself."

"Because you have bad dreams? Anyone who was there would."

"Tarkin said I had dictated the choice of targets for the Death Star's demonstration, " Leia said softly. "I haven't been able to make myself stop hearing that. I still see the explosion." She looked away. "And sometimes I can't help feeling as though they died because of me. That I survived because I betrayed them. And what kind of qualification is that?"

"Nonsense. They died because of Tarkin," Han said. "He only said that to manipulate you. I hate to see that it's still working."

"Memories have a long reach," she said, settling back against her pillows. "I just realized something else, Han. About why this matters. And it's a better answer to your question than my doubts about belonging where I am." She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes. "My father did so much to divide the galaxy. I feel as though I have to do what I can to unite it."

"You can't take all that on-"

"I can't not take it on. I have my demons, too-Luke's not the only one. That's why you can never ask me to walk away," Leia said. "I don't know if I belong in this job, and it makes me bone-tired and half crazy sometimes, but I want to be here. Here, maybe I can make a difference." She turned to her husband in the darkness. "That's all I'm trying to do in that room with Nil Spaar, Han-make a difference. Is that wrong?"

Han reached for her hand and squeezed it affectionately, forgivingly. "No. There's nothing wrong with that. But you might think about throwing in a vacation here and there, when you start to feel the walls closing in. Let someone else mind the store for a while."

"There isn't anyone else, " she said, with a hint of sadness. "They come here to see the president. So that's who I have to be."


Poor Leia, right? Dealing with being the president when she doesn't want to be, still haunted by dreams of Alderaan and the idea that it was her fault. Man, that is not good. At least she feels comfortable enough to talk about these things with Han and at least they are both there in the same place at the same time. And how many bed scenes is that now?

Back to the negotiations, Leia is still inclined to be trusting and everyone else is still very skeptical. The fleet is going out no matter what and Leia decides she needs to have someone she trusts completely go with them to make sure she knows what's going on and has someone on her side. Who do you suppose is perfect for that?

"Why me?"

"You're the only person I trust completely," said Leia. "And you have all the necessary clearances in place."

"What about the kids?"

"I've already talked to Winter. She's willing to come back and take over while you're gone."

Han glowered. "That's not the way we decided it was going to be."

"It'll be all right. I'll spend more time here."

"You know A'baht's going to hate this," said Han. "Commanders always hate feeling like they're being watched. And he's gonna take it out on me."

"You'll bear up."

"He's gonna expect me to be in full uniform. I'm gonna have to
shave every morning-"

"I know I'm asking a lot, Han. The chances are it'll be a long, boring deployment. I hope it will be."

"So why am I going?"

"Just in case I don't get my wish."

He combed his fingers through his hair, then scratched the back of his neck vigorously. "Son of a-How you get me to do these things-" Leia hugged him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you, darling."

"Yeah, that's how." He sighed. "I'm gonna need to catch a shuttle up tonight, aren't I."

"By nine or so. They're holding a Fleet four-place for you at Eastport."

"Then I'd better go in. I need to pack."

Her arms tightened around him. "I already sent the valet to pack for you," she said. "You need to stay here and hold me until the last possible second."

"Right," said Han. "That's what I was about to say."


Ugh, so Leia is being second guessed and has to send her husband away to make sure that she isn't totally blind sided by anyone completely ignoring her orders. At least she is obviously reluctant to let him go and quite obviously is going to miss him, even if it is her own fault for sending him off. And after so much time at home I can definitely see Han having trouble with the idea of a uniform and daily shaving, even if Han Solo was always remarkably clean-shaven throughout the trilogy.

So eventually Han reports for duty and he basically just wants to go to his quarters, which he does. He is not having fun.

Nothing felt right-being away from Leia and the kids, going off alone without Luke or Chewbacca, resenting Leia for asking when she knew he could not refuse her, hating his own inability to say no. Somewhere he had lost the independence he had once cherished as his most precious possession, and the worst part was that he knew he had given it up freely.

No-the worst part was that here he was, on his own, and he couldn't remember how to enjoy it. It didn't feel right to be alone.


Aw, I can definitely see Han being like this. So independent for so long but once he has a wife and a family just about the last thing he wants is to be alone. I'll briefly mention that Lando is off with Artoo, Threepio and Lobot. Remember Lobot? What the heck was that thing on his head, anyway? Is it an accessory that anyone can wear or if you take it off he'd die or something? Anyway, I'm not even going to get into what was going on there because I almost fell asleep during all of those chapters and lack the patience to look at them again and write them up here. But if you are a Lando fan, he does get some action and some substantial page time. Luke is also still of with Akanah meditating and thinking that he is sensing his mother, but again, we know whoever they're talking about isn't his mother.

Back to Leia, who is continually being naively trusting and totally manipulated by Nil Spaar while everyone who is supposed to be backing her up is questioning this trust. Now Nil Spaar is accusing Leia of having planned to hold his fleet captive and betraying him. He says that Leia has been lying this entire time and they are holding them captive on Coruscant and won't let them leave.

Leia is disgusted with the whole thing and orders that they open the shield and let them leave even though everything has simply been misinterpreted. She is just completely overwhelmed really at this point and second guessing everything. She leaves to go home and tells them she is seriously considering resigning. Leia contacts the Fifth Fleet, and General A'baht, who Han was watching, had disobeyed some of Leia's orders and sent out some spy probes. She relieves him of command, and tells Han - who is alarmed at how bad Leia looks when she calls - to bring the fleet home. Really she mostly just wants him home. Then, he finally arrives:

Leia Organa Solo waited hopefully, eagerly, behind the gate for the Fleet shuttle to land at Eastport 18. The moment the shuttle's engines were cut, she brushed past the gate supervisor's earnest cautions and ran out onto the landing pad. When the hatch hissed open and the boarding stairs unfolded, she was already waiting at the bottom.

Han was the first to appear on the top step, wearing his lopsided grin and carrying his flight bag over one shoulder. Taking the stairs in three long strides, he tossed the flight bag down and gathered Leia up in a hug so deep and warm that it almost began to drive away the icy chill that had invaded her spirit since the collapse of the Yevethan negotiations and her humiliation by Peramis and Nil Spaar. She hid her tears against his chest.

"It's gonna be all right," Han murmured into her hair. "You should hear about some of the bad days
I've had."

Leia laughed despite herself and hugged him fiercely. "Let's go home."

"Can't think of one good reason not to, " Han said, bending to pluck his flight bag from the ground. "Don't make too much of it, hon, but I kinda missed you."


Man, are you feeling for Leia enough in this book? She is a complete wreck. At least Han is home and they're both happy to see each other. That night, Ackbar goes into their house because apparently he has been given clearance. Literally he can walk all the way into the house and right to their bedroom:

There was no sound from the direction of the children's rooms, which was a relief-he was not ready to deal with their eager energy. Ackbar supposed that, with Han's return, the whole family had been up late.

Sleep in as long as you like, children, he thought with a melancholy tenderness. Sleep in while you can.

Ackbar followed memory and the floorboard glow strips through the darkened halls to Leia and Han's bedroom. Out of consideration for the children, the door was closed but not secured. He hoped his friends were not busy mating.

"Open," Ackbar told the housecomm. "Lights."

When the bedroom was suddenly flooded with light, Han reflexively spun over on his back and sat bolt upright. Squinting, he sighed away the rush of adrenaline when he recognized Ackbar. "You," Han said gruffly. "It's a lucky thing for you I don't sleep with a blaster anymore."

"Not luck," the Calamari said. "You told me, after the time you and Jaina scared each other half to death."


Seriously? He can just waltz right into their house and go in their room? I mean, of course it's funny to think of Ackbar hoping his friends aren't busy "mating" and of course given Han's recent return we can assume that after a good reunion with the kids, once they were in bed Han and Leia definitely had a much more intimate reunion by themselves, but why, exactly, couldn't he have like, called them? This is just crazy to me, but anyway...

Ackbar says he needs both of them to come with him right now, and we get another classic Han quote: "Let me find my pants," Han said resignedly. "Leia, tell me again why we gave the fishhead a key to the front door-" So at least we now know for sure that Han's pants were hastily removed before he got into bed ;) And like he said, why would they give him a key?!??!

They go and watch a recorded message from someone who was under attack by Imperial ships, specifically at least one to be believed as one of the missing Black Fleet, and Leia is feeling completely at fault here. She's a complete mess. Again she basically just wants to resign because she was so wrong and she feels as though she is being shown these things to show just how naive she's been and instill the severity of her wrongness, but Ackbar tells her he wants her in that position and just wanted her to see how much work still needs to be done. She is so uncharacteristically relenting that when Han stays behind with Ackbar after Leia leaves, he has to ask, "I have just one question-who was that person, and what have you done with Leia?"

Leia essentially completely withdraws from her duties and from everyone. She just wants to go home and sleep for days. We learn that Ackbar's key had been deactivated - which probably should've happened a long time ago - but Admiral Drayson knows he has to go speak with her and Han lets him in.

Jaina, in turn, quickly sensed her mother's dark mood. "Mommy, who's that? Do you want me to make him go away?"

"No-no," Leia said with a quick smile, and tousled her daughter's wet, stringy hair. "Jacen, Jaina, take Anakin inside. I want you all dry and dressed when I come in."

For once the children obeyed without argument.

Leia thought it a telling sign that the stress and chaos of the last weeks, of the last few days, was affecting them as well.


Aw, Jaina wants to make sure her mommy isn't so mentally drained. Seriously, I'm stressed just reading about Leia in this book. Apparently Han isn't even being much help to her right now.

"You know, if security is supposed to keep unwanted people out, the security around the president's residence leaves a great deal to be desired."

"Your husband admitted me, Princess Leia."

"Did he," she said. "Well, my husband leaves a bit to be desired himself lately. What do you want?"


He brings her a recording of a Yevethan ship colonizing another planet. No, not good things. Drayson leaves and Leia pulls out her commlink to call Han. "Han," she said. "You can stop hiding from me now. Where are you? Please-come talk to me."

Han goes and watches the recording and agrees that something needs to be done. Leia decides the Fifth Fleet has to go back in and Han had sensed that would happen and had left it ready to go at a moment's notice. Leia tells him he has to go and he tells her she needs to send A'baht back in, not him. She disagrees since he had disobeyed her orders and Han tells her that what he had done was the right thing to do even if it wasn't following orders, and Han himself had disobeyed some orders. Leia wonders if it is because she is a woman that nobody seems to want to listen to her anymore. It's all quite frustrating. Han reminds her that he's just as bad at taking orders from men and that it's all right if she just admits her mistake and regains the fleet's trust by sending back in their General.

"I have Bail Organa's stubborn pride," she said quietly. "It's hard for me to admit when someone else was more right than I was."

"If you weren't headstrong, you wouldn't be my Leia," Han said with a crooked, affectionate grin.


Well, that is certainly true. Leia decides to go see him personally to reinstate him to the fleet. "You're doing the right thing," Han said. "I'll hang out with the kids till you get back."

"Thanks. " She kissed him quickly and started to leave.


Sorry, I feel a sense of personal obligation to throw in every kiss I come across. Anyway, before she leaves she asks Han how she could've been so wrong about everything and that she's supposed to be perceptive because she's a Jedi, and Han reminds her that she hasn't really done much about that. Ugh, again. Why must one be a Jedi in order to be perceptive? Leia seemed to have plenty of common sense without any mystical Jedi training. I don't see why she has to be an idiot without having trained.

Han reminds her that what it probably is is that she really wants to see the good in people and maybe she was blinded by her idealism. Leia meets up with A'baht and then mentions that she had just talked things over with "my best friend in the world" who would be Han, aw... and that she is putting him back in charge. She finally admits her mistakes.

But things aren't all good yet. In fact, they are about to get worse. Nil Spaar makes an official accusation against Leia and her high crimes against his people. He orders that she be removed from office or the New Republic can prepare for war. Yikes.

And that is where book one ends. All righty, sorry, once again that was incredibly quote-heavy but if I put all of the good parts in the blog, I never have to read these books again, right? I thoroughly enjoy the idea that they have been operating as a normal family it seems for quite some time. They make time for each other, they aren't leaving the children under anyone's care but their own and they obviously lean on each other heavily when needed. But man, Leia is just getting it from all sides in this thing. It seems like maybe she's too strong to react that way, but she is so manipulated and exhausted that maybe it all just finally becomes too much and she'd really want to step back and finally let someone else deal with it.

So for all of the nice little family moments, we are left really feeling for poor Leia and how she is just continually beat down in this book and we have to wonder why she is the only one who isn't as skeptical as the others. Hasn't she been raised as a diplomat pretty much since birth? It's only too bad that most of the scenes when Han and Leia are in bed in this book - and there are plenty of them - they are mostly talking over all of these tough problems they're going through. But hey, at least for a while they are, in fact, sleeping together every night. And someone might do well to write a missing moment when Han comes home from his long stint with the fleet.

Well, this book has some boring stretches as a lot of it is spent reading about these guys discussing tactics and whether or not Nil Spaar is telling the truth and going back and forth with Leia and whether she's right about what's been going on. The whole thing with Luke and his "mother" is just irritating now that we know that it is obviously all a lie, and there are long chapters with Lando and Lobot that frankly I don't really care about.

That said, again, we do know that Han and Leia are very much together for most of the book and apparently have been for quite a while. They seem to have actually made their family a priority for once. So although I'm not sure I can forgive Leia for leaving a presumably naked Han in bed when she realizes Luke is coming, I feel like this book might actually deserve a 4 for the Han and Leia factor. Especially in the first half of the book we get to read a lot of "normal" moments for them that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. You can feel free to disagree though.

And one last note. The cover kind of makes me laugh because that particular hair style of Carrie's I believe is taken directly from the crazy, psycho ex-girlfriend she played who chases Jake and Elwood all over the place with rocket launchers and machine guns in The Blues Brothers.