The High Republic is some of the best Star Wars out there
Star Wars: The High Republic is a welcome, fresh new era to the Star Wars saga
Star Wars, on the surface, is an overall predictable property that focuses on the battles between good and evil throughout different eras of another galaxy. The large majority of the stories focus on a single family and anyone tangentially connected to them
There are certainly many standouts that go beyond just the movies like the Clone Wars and Rebels series and the video games, like many properties, the deeper you go the story and world get deeper and fuller.
Even with these properties though, they relate heavily to the common narrative that a certain family of space wizards is much better and more unique than the other space wizards that exist in the universe.
I love Star Wars to death, but there is no escaping the grasp the Skywalkers have on the narrative neck of the Star Wars universe.
Although over the past few years, Star Wars has been focused on a new era that happens before everything else we have known: Star Wars: The High Republic.
This literary series is set 200 years before the event of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The Jedi Order is strong, vast and still confronted with some of the small overall issues that the jedi faced in the prequel trilogy; the technology is a bit pulled back with hyperspace and bacta being newer innovations; and the Sith are entirely gone and a more grounded group of enemies is causing issue throughout the galaxy and the new frontier that is the outer rim.
Lastly and most importantly to why I think the High Republic really shines, the entire main cast of characters are completely new. There are some touch stones to people and places older fans would know, but overall, it feels so fresh.
These books and comics have everything that makes Star Wars great, but allows for new ideas to be explored, stories to be told and characters to tug at your heartstrings all while being their own person.
Even the force is discussed in a way that really gives an insight on how it can be utilized, felt and discovered. The moments are exciting and the problems are extremely real.
Each character does heroic feats and also have deeply ingrained issues as well as question if what they are doing are right. They have faults, but also never feel like the entire hero which I love because when someone falters it feels more human and less like a hero falling from grace.
The Jedi aren’t just this bastion of rightness while also doing things blatantly against their code, and this is the real beginning of where they are asked to be more defenders of the galaxy and the hypocrisy of them fighting and killing is questioned.
The books do not just focus on a single jedi either which creates a perfectly woven story and character growth that doesn’t just go through a single book but through the entire literary series. It allows the authors to tell small stories within a large framework that fleshes out these characters in a way that the movies could never do on their own.
With so many Jedi getting their own story told, there is so much room to explore all different types of experiences within the order and understandings of the force. For a huge Star Wars fan, it gives so much context and deep lore to the universe, and personally, I completely adore it.
The villains in the High Republic aren’t just the foil to the protagonist either. They aren’t just a bad version of the good space wizard with a red lightsaber.
They are truly worldly evil. On one hand, you have a group of marauders killing for the hell of it, causing disaster and destruction and truly looking to topple order. They act without hesitation and revel in the chaos they cause. On the other hand, you have an unthinking mass of evil that is out to endlessly kill, eat and grow.
The entire High Republic adds a nice grounded layer of realism over the characters and the world that makes the incredible feats and magic feel even more incredible.
Being only a literary series at the moment, the High Republic is absolutely up for grabs to tell incredible stories either through tv shows, movies or games. Even a film adaptation of these books without adding other stories would be wonderful. On a video game note, Quantic Dream’s Star Wars: Eclipse is rumored to be a High Republic game, and that would be incredible as well, but it has been reportedly delayed to 2027.
For anyone hungry for more Star Wars or something new from this property, please read these books and comics. They are delightful.