Of Sith Holocrons and Naivety

As you may know, I'm not a fan of the new Disney's take of Star Wars. Likewise, I try to avoid it's....'creations'. With that said, and the afore biases toward the EU and the Star Wars stories of Lucas laid bare, please take this perception as merely a perception of mine. I simply wish to compare and contrast what I'm seeing and why it could have been better. This is all my opinion and I am not super well-informed (especially with the downfall of Star Wars databases). Most of what I will be discussing are inferences from books. Please fact-check and investigate these as you likely know better information databases. :)

  This is a review of the trailer for Star Wars Rebels: Season 3. A brief summary of the part I am analyzing, regarding the Sith and Jedi holocrons: We see Ezra (a young Force-wielder) holding a Sith holocron, we see Maul, Ezra, and Kanan watching Sith and Jedi holocrons unlocking, and we see the Sith and Jedi holocrons somehow combining(?).

  Now for the analysis: Just watching what was happening onscreen, I admit I was confused as to what was actually occurring. Sure the trailer would probably be giving too much away if they showed what exactly is in the holocron (aka the holo message or data within), but it seemed at least two of these moments happened at different times. So, Ezra holding the holocron and the three Force-Weilders (Maul, Kanan, and Ezra) watching the holocrons happened at different times. This implies that Ezra somehow unlocked the Sith holocron by himself. These are the three 'facts'/inferences from the trailer.

  So why does this bother me? Firstly let me relate what I believe about holocrons. Holocrons are basically very, very intricate databases. Not quite computers, not quite simplistic datachips. They're old, especially the Sith holocrons, and I imagine they're hard to make. Also, if my memory serves me correctly, they're hard to unlock. Hence why they're Sith or Jedi holocrons and not computers or chips locked by physical means. You have to know how to open it--special training and exact understanding of its components--or else none of the information is revealed. I am 90% sure the entire thing can even decode itself, erasing it. Not any old Force-User can open it on a whim. Why would a Jedi make a holocron that a Sith could unlock? My understanding of holocrons is that the unlocking process could take hours, maybe even days, total concentration throughout.

  With that said, I feel that Season 3's display of holocron usage is totally confusing. What would combining--if that's actually what happened--Jedi and Sith holocrons amount to? Sure they seem to contain certain polarized Force receptors, but what good would combining them do? You'd be combining, in essence, just two databases. The data would still be there (or maybe it'd be destroyed by the process and conflicting parts). And then, most confusing to me, was Ezra somehow unlocking it and, more so, even in contact with a Sith holocron. Because if unlocking it is difficult to impossible (simply through the loss of knowledge), then even finding holocrons can be very tough. The Sith seem to have pieced holocrons throughout worlds they used to control, locking them away in elaborate crypts and traps. Since The Rule of Two began, these traps have literally been abandonned by the Sith simply because they practically protect themselves via few Darkside Users holding the knowledge and adeptness to traverse the traps and unlock them. The Jedi, as far as I know, kept their holocrons at temples--mainly, the Coruscant Temple--due to the protections of having a government system that protects them and sheer numbers of Lightside users. All this makes sense to me.

  What doesn't make sense is how some very inexperienced Force-Wielders could unlock a Sith holocron. I mean, I'm sure Siddious exposed Maul to holocrons but to unlock one is something I see Siddious holding the knowledge to do. After all Maul was only a puppet to him, barely a full-fledged Sith as his defeat by Padawan Kenobi should have showed. Likewise, where to find Sith holocrons is very kept very hush hush. I can think of a few times where Sith holocrons surfaced during Maul's lifetime and the Clone Wars. One in which Dooku sends an acolyte and dark-Jedi, Quinlan Vos, to retake a holocron (I think it might have even been on Korriban). Ok, so two medium-trained Force-Users get through the decayed crypt's traps (Dooku didn't participate), this isn't totally unexpected/difficult yet. It becomes difficult when a single Sith-hound is involved. Many people who haven't read this Clone Wars novel may not know what a Sith-hound is.

This is a Sith-hound (from that very book):

    And this is all in regards to a single, extremely old, decayed, probably less-wealthy Sith's tomb. The Sith-hound scares both acolytes away (I'm pretty sure they can't even kill the thing) and they barely escape to the safety of Dooku's flying ship with the holocron. This is not just an obstacle course, it's a test. If you can survive the traps (perhaps using followers at diversions), then you probably deserve the information the holocron contains. 

  So I find it highly unlikely a Sith holocron fell into the young hands of Kanan, Ezra, and Maul. Siddious didn't even have the things lying around and he was the most powerful Sith living at this time! You do not mess with these things. Not because the information somehow corrupts normal people into Sith-dom. No, because the information in them details meditations leading to new powers and uses for the Force. Light or Dark, holocrons are literally teachers long dead  to new, worthy students. A group of apprentices not even fledged from their orders would not have a clue to operate these things, even if they did happen to get their hands on them. And what Jedi, in their right mind, would allow a Sith holocron anywhere near a child or less disciplined individuals??!! It's like handing a gun to a child and expecting them not to play with it. Again, you do not mess with these things!

  In other words, Ezra should not be holding a Sith holocron. Maul and Kanan shouldn't be able to obtain a Sith holocron. The 'combining' of holocrons should create nothing of use. And even if they got their hands on a Jedi holocron, it should be unreadable to them because none of them have ever been taught how to open it. :p 

  All of this makes me really disgusted at Disney for denouncing the EU yet stealing away this very complex, historical element away for their own, incorrect usage. It's like someone taking a multi-tool and only using the screwdriver on it to open cans. Not only is it being used incorrectly but it's being used nonsensically. Who knows, maybe they'll have Maul and Kanan somehow traversing a Sith crypt or an old Jedi temple to reclaim the holocrons. Maybe Ezra (being unreasonably insatiable like Ahsoka and Anakin) will smuggle the Sith holocron away in some foolish attempt at a reproduction of Pandora's Box. It all shrieks lazy writing and lack of research. I will never know what becomes of it. All I know is that Youtube forced me to watch that muddle (in which the last remnants of pity I had for Rebels' Rex went out the window into a blackhole) and this is what happened. :p

I hope you leave not too offended or befuddled. 

Why Star Wars Rebels is Scaring Me

Sooooo....Remember what I said as soon as Disney bought Star Wars? Remember that bombshelter I was going to take all my 212th people (and 41st because Gree is awesome) into? NOW IS THE TIME!!! D: I just got back from pacing the room and literally shaking with anxiety because, like I feared, the Rebels tv show is dragging a few clones into it's twisted plotline. I just watched a bunch of videos confirming that Rex, Gregor (the worst for me), and Wolfe in the upcoming season of Rebels. One of the videos displayed Rex cackling like a maniac and not making a shred of sense. :p I also noted along with the commentator that the clones had scars from removing the Force-drug-triggered chips. Now what to do with this information.

 For one, I am happy I don't see Cody there. I hope I don't see him in that show AT ALL (i.e this is crucial for my final book to do what it came to do; it nears on the entire point of my Commander Cody books), EVER. I want him to stay in my bombshelter until these books are published. But as people were discussing both in the videos and in the comments, it is largely believed that Cody will not have been spared the "chip's" influence and conclude that this is why he "committed Order 66" (once again largely ignoring the delicate details of that scene and the proceeding scenes with him afterwards). First of all, why wouldn't Rex have told his best friend about the danger of a chip controlling him when injected with serum??! That's like not telling my sister that she has cancer. Ok, so the excuse that it would look suspicious and they'd get killed, but this is exactly what I cover in Underworld!! I don't want to spoil it but the clones ban together (like anyone would!) and manage to work around it. Because who can tell if they simply don't take the injections or secretly have the chips extracted? I never liked the idea of the chips to begin with (see other posts ranting over the potency of choice over submission) but if that's how they're going to roll, I can't justify any clone not attempting to not just help his brothers but his Jedi Generals to prevent the inevitable from happening. And how could Rex tell Wolfe and Gregor when they are away on completely different planets but refuse to help Cody?! That is just stupid.

And if Rex is presumably crazy from a mishap in surgery....I don't even want to think of what Disney's writers will be willing to do to shame Cody. :( It's not funny Disney. I don't like seeing people who were supposed to die in or shortly after the Clone Wars reduced to mindless senility before their years. It makes no sense and isn't fair to anybody who sees clones as people striving to be seen as human. I can tell you right now, if Cody was watching these videos of his friends all having a "jolly ol' time" blowing up spaceships or making light of Rex's obvious impediments, he'd be over in a corner sick to his stomach. And seeing Gregor with Rex and Wolffe is like a blow to face for me too. That guy is 212th (&(*&*&^%^%$! He deserved to go back to his legion and be with them until the day he died. He deserved to get off that stupid, craphole of a planet and get back to people who actually appreciated him. ;__;

And then back to the fact that if Cody does appear he will likely be as poorly treated by the artists and writers as the others were (i.e beards and Cody do not equal!). Or he will be thrown on the opposing side as some twisted version of himself (as if the chips somehow make you evil or insane or something....What garbage....) bent on killing everything. If I hear or see this happen I will lose hope that any of my books will ever get published. (If that happens you can be sure to find them in their entirely, all 8 of them, on Deviantart or something.) I mean, how little can you make the clones seem after all the exploration and expansion their stories got from the EU and Clone Wars episodes?! If they were to show the clones, instead of making them perversions of themselves to serve some sort of dumb comic relief (which I did not find funny at all), then include ones like Climber who for sure refused the Order in books. Or even Spar who goes on to become the Mandalore (that is mindblowing when you think about it...the first Fett on the throne is a clone)! Or Able, the clone stranded on a planet (somehow not aging hardly at all....was a cure invented??) that joins Luke. I love that story! Able wasn't affected by any chip (which kinda bounces my theory that only a few clones, the younger ones especially--because Sidious realized that the clones were too close of friends with the Jedi--only had the chips implanted) and didn't kill Luke or Leia even though both were clearly Jedi. He actually ends up dying a horrible death to protect them. And since they created him, definitely go into Rex's future stories. But for the love of the Force don't make him so stupid and imply that they are the "lucky few" or the "good clones" meanwhile you let Gree and Bly and Cody all rot (literally in Gree's case) in shame!

This series backpedals the clones, reverts them back into "mindless meat-droids not capable of protecting or organizing themselves to stop the Sith". It ignores the huge amount of cases in the comics and books where the clones openly refuse to kill the Jedi, or clearly allow the Jedi to survive an initial feint-attack. It ignores the huge amount of sympathy there should be for these beings and really any others forced into a situation like Order 66, knowing the consequences and the in-consequences. You cannot just erase perspectives like that and pretend they never happened or could happen. They did and they will because clones are not "meat machines". They're people. And I don't know how many times I have to keep saying this (and biting my tongue against giving away too much of my books), how many times the books and episodes and games and graphic novels have to keep saying it either. I guess a lot because Disney still can't get the concept of 'grey characters' into their skulls. I digress.....Like usual... :p       

If there is one good thing that can come out of this is that I know where my books sit judging by the age Rex and the other clones look in the videos. In other words, in relation to my books, Cody is safe and sound from this horrid time period. t__t

*Joins Cody in the corner. *

Favorite CLONE WARS episodes (so far)

~Rookies: It can be summed up in one word: sacrifice. (and I said I would write about why clones are interesting, here it is!) Jedi have been taught their whole lives that death is nothing and that to sacrifice oneself is honorable, therefore I would say it is easy for them to die and get over it. Now compare that to a clone trooper. Nobody ever told them that "Oh, you're going to go into the Force the same as any Jedi so sacrificing yourself it really honorable." or " You're a great person!". They had no reassurance, no confidence in what happened when the inevitable happened, nothing. That's why their deaths meant more, because they gave their lives from their hearts, not from anything else. Dying is one of those things I used to be terrified of, now I've told myself what I think is in store in the afterlife and have gotten over it. I can't even fathom what fear they must feel at the point when they realize it is their life that must be given. But then again, the courage and their good hearts is what inspires them to give to the last full measure.

~Darkness on Umbara, The General, Plan of Dissent, &Carnage of Krell: Love, love, love the Jedi/clone conflict in these ones. I'm a firm believer that this wasn't the only example of Jedi mistreating their men. Think of Quinlan Vos, though he was essentially a 'rogue' Jedi, his actions toward Bly ultimately got that commander on the wrong side of the Jedi. And he practically physically beat Faie when the clone was trying to reason with him. It's Jedi like these that are at fault when considering the outcomes of Order 66. And what's even more troubling is the varying degrees of misuse done by good Jedi like Obi-Wan or Mace Windu, even Yoda! I think the only Jedi you can see exempt from this would either be Anakin or Kit Fisto. Skywalker's will to save Rex is awesome. I think the Jedi just have a hard time coping with the outcomes of fighting alongside unForce sensative clones and realizing that this attachment isn't bad, that they should embrace it as a simple act of kindness and concern toward's a group of individuals who could easily die in the next minute. Their failure to acknowledge that was what turned the clones off towards them. (MEGA SPOILER ALERT!!) Also I'd have to say I bawled my eyes out when Waxer died in "Carnage..". Who couldn't after seeing how sweet he was and what an important roll he played when he comforted Numa on Ryloth. 

~The Hidden Enemy: I like this one because it was the first one that directly confronted the issue of the Jedi's 'use' of the clones. You can also see the conflict beginning between Cody and Obi-Wan which I love because Kenobi doesn't realize what's going through his commander's head. He also doesn't realize that it's not just Slick that is sick with the way he sees his brothers treated. You can totally see it in Cody's face at the end-- he's not stupid. I just love how he fights it though. He doesn't want to believe that his own Generals are beginning to forsake them a little bit. I think it completely justifies why they went through with Order 66. Even though Cody more or less saved Obi-Wan's life by making it seem like he had died only so he could get away. In my books (literally) Obi-Wan (like the rest of us) goes on thinking that Cody did it on purpose and without consideration to their friendship, up until the end when he meets the clone again. Kinda sad but I love it. Shows us that you don't have to be a bad guy to do stuff wrong.

~Cloak of Darkness: Because it has Gree kicking butt in it! :) Gree would have to be my second favorite clone commander because as a person, he's really interesting. I mean, how many clones are culture buffs?! He 's like the anthropologist of the GAR. And I think that's awesome!! Kinda makes you wonder what some of these guys could have been after the war if there had been a happy ending. :'( In compassion he was almost equal to Cody.The good guys lost a great man when they killed Gree. He's going to have a special place in my books.

~The Deserter: I just love the line where Rex says "Because I'm part of the most pivotal moments in the history of the Republic. And if we fail, then our children, and their children will be forced to live under an evil I can't well imagine."
I think this is a great representation of not only the rich gravity of the Clone Wars but Rex 'growing up'. At first I really disliked him because he kept calling the younger clones 'shinies' and seemed like he was showing off all the time. Now that I've seen this one and Darkness on Umbara, I think we really get to see him becoming more 'Cody-like'. The reason why I used that is because Cody always seemed to be the elder clone, he always was quiet and humble when it came to Rex's escapades. I think he was standing back and letting the captain find out for himself what it really meant to be a clone and even human for that matter. Cody of course (in my books) began as a lowly private and saw the worst you could see. He knew how precious life was. It was in that way that Commander Cody comes across as a deeper, wiser clone. (I can't wait to see him on Season 3!) When Rex left that house, he had 'grown up' in a way.

~ Innocents of Ryloth: Not only was that a great representation of what compassion clones are really capable of but also the Jedi's ignorance to what they actually feel. (I'm sorry if I'm hating on the Jedi a little too much but this is just what I see them doing) True Obi-Wan was just trying to help too, but the part where he literally snatches the Twi'lek kid away from the people who actually found/saved her always makes me mad. It's like Kenobi is thinking: Why is she hanging around them? They don't even speak her language. The natives are supposed to converse with only the Jedi. Only we can understand their needs. That's just what it felt like to me. I make sure to cover this in many of my 'battle' books where I explore the natives' reactions to both the Jedi and the clones. Just a clue: It's very different! The clones seem to have a more casual yet more 'deep' (ideologically: as in what they talk about) relationship than the Jedi, which are served respectively but not as closely as the clones. The reason being, clone troopers can't sense a person's intentions or morals like a Jedi can and therefore can only come to a conclusion by talking to the person and using their amazing attention to detail to decide whether the person is bad or good. In this way, they are actually making more contact with the native inhabitants of the planets. Which is something I'm sorry we don't see more of in the Clone Wars show because it's the Jedi who are always the spokesperson and negotiators, not the clones. Another failure of them to engage the total assets of the clones.
   On a more positive note, I love how the clones don't exactly know what to do to comfort her. It's clearly very awkward for them and you can see that when they go to her house. I think the episode did a great job illustrating this awkwardness. I also love how it shows human compassion and how much a part of a person it really is. Even though the troopers couldn't precisely identify what they felt or what to do, simple gestures like a pat on the head, a hug, or calm speaking are clear examples of what humans do to comfort people. If you watch the episode now you will probably see that Waxer did more acts of kindness to Numa than Obi-Wan. The Jedi picked her up but he didn't really talk to her like the clones did. Think of what would have happened if the troopers had never found her. The mission would have probably failed, save for Cody's intelligence would have most likely been their sole savoir.