Hiroshima, Nagasaki, & Alderaan

In the film “A New Hope” viewers see a single shot of Alderaan before it is obliterated. They also get a short description from Princess Leia that it is peaceful and has no weapons and Ben Kenobi saying that, “Millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced,”

Fans have heard all this before, and are probably quite numb to the fact that The Empire has just wiped out an entire planet. That is why the following stories are quite important. These tales remind us of the individual people who were affected by the Death Star and the individual people who actually made the decision: the decision to blow up Alderaan.

The middle stories of the collection "From A Certain Point of View" ask some very tough questions about the destruction of Alderaan and some dark themes emerge.

"Laina” by Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from Star Trek) has contributed quite a bit to Geek Culture in the past 30 years. But this is the first time he has written for Star Wars.

“Laina” seems to be a simple story at first. A father (a rebel) is making a video recording for his baby daughter. He tells her of her mother’s death. He tells her of the Rebellion Against the Empire. He tells her that he is making the recording because he might not make it. He tells her that she is going to a safe place.

The story seems simple as first, but the twist ending is as terrible as anything I’ve read since “Cujo”. It will make the reader’s eyes bulge out in panic and think “No! No! This can’t be what is happening!”

Kudos to Wil Wheaton for making me feel such a raw emotion and terror- the way everyone should probably feel about super weapons.

"Fully Operational" by Beth Revis

General Tagge sees what his superiors do not. The Rebellion is dangerous. The Death Star is a step too far. The Rebellion will continue to gain sympathy and support among the common folk of the galaxy. The Death Star is not indestructible.

General Tagge is able to see all this because he is young compared to the old proud Admirals and Moffs that have already won their Clone Wars and are ready for retirement. Tagge comes in with a healthy dose of skepticism, maybe it is this that skepticism leads to his survival while his superiors perish.

This story is basically a rehash of the Imperial Staff Meeting from “A New Hope”. The fact that Tagge survives the Death Star, was established in the comic series “Darth Vader”. Why Tagge wasn’t on the Death Star when it exploded is explored further down in this article.

"An Incident Report" by Mallory Ortberg

This story is simply an incident report filled out by Admiral Motti after he was force choked by Darth Vader. Motti tries to address the incident as reasonably as possible, but the reader gets the sense that Motti’s reasonableness will be ignored by high command.

Oddly enough “Conan Antonio Motti” received his first and middle name on the set of Conan O’Brien. In 2007, O’Brien asked Lucas what Motti’s first name was and I guess Lucas’ on-the-fly response was "Conan Antonio". But how Lucas came up with the name… Conan… is a mystery for another day.

"Change of Heart" by Elizabeth Wein

Told from a “second person” point of view, the reader assumes the role of an Imperial Navy Trooper who witnesses the torture / interrogation of Princess Leia and then the destruction of Alderaan. The trooper is able to see things that Vader and Tarkin cannot, namely that Leia is lying about the Rebels being on Datooine. Eventually the trooper has a “change of heart” about his position in the galaxy. Get it? It's in the title.

"Eclipse" by Madeleine Roux

This story is told from the point of view of Breha Organa. This character may not sound familiar, but she is one of the oldest Star Wars characters. Breha was first envisioned in 1974 as the mother of Princess Leia. Lucas resurrected Breha for “Revenge of the Sith” and she appeared onscreen briefly at the end of the film.

“Eclipse” tells the story of Bail’s return to Alderaan and the bad news he carries with him: the fact that Leia is missing. Breha and Bail have little time together before The Death Star appears in the skies above. Breha attempts to start an evacuation, but by then it is too late.

"Verge of Greatness" by Pablo Hidalgo

17 years ago, Pablo Hidalgo was a Star Wars fanboy like the rest of us. He ran a Star Wars index called echostation.com where he would sometimes post his fan art. Today, however, Pablo Hidalgo has more power over Star Wars than anyone.

Hidalgo is Lucasfilm’s creative executive in story development. He is famous for maintaining the Canon of Star Wars, making sure everything is consistent. But he also carries out the development of every single Star Wars project- which means he is constantly juggling films, books, comics, video games.

Hidalgo’s contribution to this collection centers on Wilhuff Tarkin. Tarkin famously did not evacuate the Death Star in “A New Hope” and fans can guess why.  Not only is Tarkin overconfident in the technological terror he has constructed, he is quite married to it. Tarkin is seen overlooking the very beginnings of the Death Star in the final moments of “Revenge of the Sith”, which means he has been working on the project for nearly 20 years.

This story also focuses on Tarkin’s relationship to Orson Krennic (the villain of Rogue One) and explains why Tarkin finds Krennic lacking.

"Far Too Remote" by Jeffrey Brown

Jeffrey Brown is a cartoonist who is most famous for the “Darth Vader and Son” series and the “Jedi Academy” series. Consumers of the audio version of the collection “From a Certain Point of View” will not even be aware that this story is in the book.

“Far Too Remote” consists of a single panel depicting Cassio Tagge arriving on Dantooine to find an abandoned “Rebul Base”. Well, this solves the mystery of why Tagge wasn’t on the Death Star when it blew up, and it feeds directly into the next story.

"The Trigger" by Kieron Gillen

It was an amazing surprise to discover that Doctor Aphra, gets her own story in this collection. Doctor Aphra first appeared in the “Darth Vader” comic series which eventually evolved into her own comic series.

Aphra is an intergalactic archeologist and is the "Indiana Jones" of the Star Wars universe. Aphra is a fun character and this is a fun story, but there are still serious themes here. Aphra questions exactly how the Empire was able to blow up an entire planet. Who pulled the trigger? Was it similar to a firing squad, where many people pull many triggers, so that no one had to live with the guilt? What kind of person could pull that trigger any way?

In this story Aphra finds herself at the wrong end of a trigger. Her life hangs in balance as she tries to reason with the person holding a blaster to her head. What kind of person is he? Is he the kind who can pull the trigger? Furthermore, what kind of person is she?

"Of MSE-6 and Men" by Glen Weldon

MSE-6 is a mouse droid on the Death Star. MSE-6 is having a bad day. His master TK-421 was not at his post. It turns out TK-421 was murdered by a smuggler, a farm-boy, an old man, and a wookiee.

I’ll give this story points for effort. The narration is told through the head of MSE-6, whose thoughts are shown here in very basic computer code. Somehow MSE-6 becomes the unintentional messenger between TK-421 and an unnamed Imperial officer, who start to form a romance whilst they pass messages back and forth through the mouse droid.

Overall this tale tries to do too much and the results are truly bizarre. The finished product is truly a mess and in the end the most clever thing about this tale is probably its title.

"Bump" by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker

Stormtrooper TD-110 is probably the most famous trooper in fandom, and we didn’t even know it until now. Not only is he the Sandtrooper that was brainwashed by Ben Kenobi and tricked into stating, “Move along. Move along,” he is also the Stormtrooper that bumped his helmet on a Death Star blast door.

The other Sandtrooper story in this collection “Born in the Storm” featured a Sandtrooper sick of his job and ready to leave the Empire. But in this story, TD-110 is the opposite. He wants nothing but to serve his Empire, but cannot stand the singe mistake he has made- letting Kenobi, Luke and the droids go.

I guess that mistake gets him thrown off of the Death Star because TD-110 reappears in The First Order years later and is featured in the junior novel “Join the Resistance: Escape From Vodran” which is also written by Ben Ackner and Ben Blacker

"End of Watch" by Adam Christopher

This tale tells the story of a slightly disgruntled station commander aboard the Death Star during the search for Luke, Leia, Chewie, and Han. This is not the first story in this collection about a slightly disgruntled Imperial and after a while, it all just gets boring. I mean who kriffing cares about these people? Just because a character might exist and just because an author can write about that character- it doesn’t mean the result is going to be a story. “End of Watch” is not a story, Adam Christopher. A story needs rising action and some sort of climax. The words you have come up with form sentences and those sentences form paragraphs, but shouldn’t story-telling be more than that?

"The Baptist" by Nnedi Okorafor

One learns many things about dianoga in this tale. Dianoga are from the planet Vodran. Dianoga have seven tentacles. Dianoga are hermaphroditic and are able to choose their gender. The Dianoga that attacked Luke Skywalker in the garbage compactor was named Omi. Omi was force sensitive.

When I say Omi was force sensitive, I don’t mean that she had a lightsaber or could levitate things with her mind. But Omi did receive visions of the future. It was these visions, more than anything, that led her to attack Luke Skywalker in the trash compactor, although to Omi, this attack is more of a ritual. That moment for Luke, as much as anything he experienced after leaving his tiny moisture farm, was a sort of baptism- in which he became a new person.

I know that a force wielding dianoga seems kind of silly and unnecessary, but in the end all that matters is whether or not the story works as a story. This one does. Kudos to Nnedi Okorafor for making us care about this seven-tentacled creepy crawler.

Until Next Time

Now that I am 75% of the way through this book, I can’t wait to read the last 25%. Not all these stories are winners, but there is enough good stuff to keep a reader interested. Happy Reading Star Wars fans.