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Star Wars Read-Through Part 16: Prelude to Episode II: Before the War

"That may be possible. He's just returned from a border dispute on Ansion." 

The Star Wars film saga is full of lines such as this which point to the universe and the characters having a history beyond what we see on screen. In Episode IV, it was something as simple as "You fought in the Clone Wars?" For Episode II, it was the line above, a mission to the planet Ansion in which Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, were participants. 

Cover of The Approaching Storm. Image from Wookieepedia.


Star Wars novels and comics have long been the ideal medium for exploring these stories in more detail. What happened at Ansion? a viewer might ask after hearing that reference. Look no further than the novel set immediately before Attack of the Clones opens. 

Unlike for Episode I, the second prequel did not have as many direct prologue stories. For this post, I consumed the following stories:

I read The Approaching Storm in hardcover format. I do not own a system where one can play Jedi Starfighter, so I watched videos of it on YouTube. 

Story: 

The Approaching Storm is the story of Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luminara Unduli, with their respective apprentices Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee, as they negotiate to keep Ansion from leaving the Republic and taking many other systems with it. They broker a treaty that is acceptable to Ansion's city-dwelling people, but must take it to the nomads in the plains, a task laced with many complications. 

Jedi Starfighter is the sequel to Starfighter, the Episode I prelude/tie-in game where you piloted a Naboo starfighter and various pirate and mercenary craft on missions against the Trade Federation. In Jedi Starfighter, you fly either as pirate/freedom fighter Nym in his Havoc bomber or as Jedi Master Adi Gallia in her Delta-7 fighter (the same type of fighter Obi-Wan flies in Attack of the Clones) to stop the Trade Federation from manufacturing and using "trihexalon", a dangerous chemical weapon that kills the living but does not harm their battle droids. The game ends with Nym fighting to reclaim his former base on Lok, while Jedi Master Gallia reunites with her former apprentice Siri Tachi (from the Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest books) to help deliver the clone troopers to Geonosis during the climactic battle of Episode II. 

Cover art of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter. Image from Wookieepedia.


Thoughts:

I believe I was spoiled by the quality of the prologue novels to Episode I, like Cloak of Deception and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. I expected the books that establish the status quo ahead of the movie to be compelling and intriguing. Sadly, this was not the case for The Approaching Storm.

The core of the story is fine. At the height of the Separatist Crisis, two Jedi Knights and their Padawans undertake a mission to keep the planet Ansion in the Republic. Things going on in the background develop the Separatist conspiracy, and point to the commercial interests that are influencing systems' decisions to leave the Republic. 

My main problem revolves around how many small challenges delay the Jedi's mission. They convince the city dwellers to agree to a treaty, if the plains nomads agree to it too. But on the journey to the nomad overclan camp they face one problem after another. It very quickly became too much, unnecessarily padding the story. I would have preferred a shorter book with half the obstacles than the overly long and contrived list of challenges faced by the four Jedi.
Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee dancing before a tribe of nomadic Ansionians. Image from Wookieepedia.


Jedi Starfighter was disappointing in a different way. I was surprised by how little one actually pilots the titular Jedi Starfighter. Half the missions are flown from Nym's ship. I would have preferred that the gameplay focus on the one starfighter and do it very well, rather than switch between two, only one of which is on the front cover. Near the end, missions are split between Adi Gallia participating at Geonosis and Nym retaking his base. Thankfully the very last mission reunited them and brought the stories of Nym's base and the Separatist plot together nicely. And the story was interesting, and tied in nicely with both the original Starfighter game and the comic Starfighter: Crossbones. The game also set itself up to have a sequel (though one never came). 
The raid on Trade Federation Space Station 1138, from Jedi Starfighter. Image from Wookieepedia.



I found it odd that the game kept referring to the fighter Gallia flies as a prototype. Many other sources show that Jedi Starfighters of this type and similar were already in use. Furthermore, not much time passes between Gallia approving of the prototype and Obi-Wan using it in Episode II. Perhaps her fighter is unique? It is hard to tell. I simply put the idea of it being a prototype fighter out of my head. 

This book and video game represented the final stories set before Episode II. Everything else in the prequel era is focussed on the Clone Wars and the eventual rise of the Galactic Empire. I am disappointed when I compare what we received ahead of Episode II to what stories were released ahead of Episode I, but these were by no means bad. I just wanted more and better. 

Next: 

My next Legends post (Part 17) will cover the various adaptations of Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Also coming soon is a return to the New Canon and discuss Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, its adaptations, and related stories. 

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