Behind the Scenes

When I first saw The Force Awakens on opening night, I'll admit, I was blown away. Sure, by the mid-point nothing was surprising me, and I could call every plot point before they happened. Yet despite being unoriginal, the nostalgia factor really had me on the edge of my seat. I saw it twice in theaters, and both times I left satisfied.

Then time passed, and I really began to think about the movie. I listened to all these podcasters and youtubers praising this film and honestly, I started feeling that something was amiss. What I didn't realize at the time was that these people weren't acknowledging a simple fact that finally became clear to me roughly a month after it opened: it wasn't original.

It wasn't even the story by itself that wasn't original. The look of characters felt like they were taken from the characters of the Original Trilogy and fashioned to look like a girl's clothes (in the case of Rey wearing a Luke Skywalker type of outfit) or Finn basically wearing a Han Solo type of clothing only browner. All the visuals had the exact seem feel as ANH.

I started seeing all these videos popping up from people who hadn't been fooled by the nostalgia and they made even more sense in putting into words what I had only started realizing had been subconsciously troubling to me. Rey's infinite and rapid power progression which was only made worse by The Last Jedi's novelizations official explanation on why she was so powerful. Finn's almost immediate defection from the First Order. Starkiller Base. The absence of a New Republic military for the most part.

Within five months, even if I could sit down, watch the movie and have fun (even two years+ I still enjoy watching the film), the problems only compound with every watching. No stranger to fan-fics, I began to imagine different ways of fixing the story.

Mid-point of last year, roughly around May, I really began thinking about what if I made a fan-fic on it.

Basically, two versions of the story arose. One was a movie that basically took the elements of the story and tweaked them. One which saw Finn over the course of a few weeks and watching the torture of Poe only then switching sides. One that saw Rey as a galley girl aboard the Falcon but dreaming of being a pilot instead of just a dishwasher. One that saw Poe Dameron supposed to be picked up on Jakku after receiving the map to Luke Skywalker, only to be captured and BB-8 to deliver it. One where Starkiller Base was simply a staging point for a First Order invasion force into the New Republic and not a supped-up Death Star.

Even though I had this version of a story in mind, I wasn't going to write it. No, I was going to hold off for The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson had done good Sci-Fi films in the past, such as the crazy Looper movie and I had heard he was a fan of the Prequels. So I felt like holding off until I had seen the TLJ and only then would I create the fan-fic….if it was a bad film.

And…here we are! The fact you have read a 200+ page fanfic shows you my opinion on the film.

The second version really didn't arise until after I watched TLJ. In prep for this story, I bought the Art of the Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and Rogue One books. Honestly, the AotFA is the only really interesting one, but grabbing it, I used it to determine ideas for the fanfic. Sam Skyler and Kira were the names of the original names for Rey and Finn. The Warhammer class dreadnought was a piece of amazing concept art of a massive conical ship slamming into the surface of a planet.

The Republic

The first thing to cover is the Republic. The New Republic in canon….is, well…..sith spit. In canon, Mon Mothma scaled back the military by 90% after the surrender of the Empire. The Raddus that Leia is on in The Last Jedi? That's a GCW ship that's merely been upkept. They rotated planets on a yearly basis and the Republic was lead by political parties with no real leader.

I decided to keep the ideas of the canon pretty much alive for the Republic. The difference lay between the position of First Senator and the capitol worlds. In the book Bloodlines, Leia gets onboard with the idea of creating a position of First Senator to put the rest of the senators into line. In this story, not only have they succeeded, but they've also decided that the capitol world will be the home world of the First Senator as long as they serve their five years term.

I didn't have the military so drastically cut back, which is a silly idea.

One thing the reader will notice, especially if they are Expanded Universe aka Legends fans, is the names of Borsk Fey'lya and Gar Stazi. These are two prominent characters from those books and comics. Borsk Fey'lya served as Chancellor of the New Republic until his death taking out a massive portion of a Yuzzhan Vong invasion fleet and Gar Stazi was a military leader of a Galactic Alliance resistance against a resurgent Empire, basically he's a more competent version of Leia from canon.

I love the idea of blending the best elements of Legends and Canon together to make a much more effective story.

The Empire

In canon, the Empire post-Palpatine basically vanishes after a single year. You are trying to convince me that the faction that held supreme over the entire known galaxy for two decades completely collapses after a single year? That Mas Amedda, a respected leader who was left-hand to Palpatine, had absolutely no respect by the Empire?

No way, Jose. In this story, I kept the Galactic Empire around, even though much greatly weakened. It's currently at the state that the Imperial Remnant was in Legends, only holding the Deep Core and Core with planets seceding to the Republic at a growing rate. Jagged Fel did become Emperor in Legends, but he had no Force powers. However, his descendant, Roan Fel did. Roan Fel is one of my favorite Legends characters so I decided to make the Fel Dynasty a Force one, especially since his daughter was as well.

Trajan Fel, the Crown Prince of the Empire, was a completely original character for the story, as was his fiancé Jan Zsinji. I named Jan after Jan Ors, the lover of Kyle Katarn.

There is a splinter faction named the Infinite Empire. Those who used to attend the Dark Sith Lords message board site will remember it as the Empire we were a part of. Yours truly was the Admiral of the Sith Imperial 9th Fleet. The emperor of that Splinter Empire, Adol Ha, is a character from other fanfics I've done. He's always been a leader in the Imperial Remnant, and in my Heirs of the Empire fanfic series, was the man who was supposed to become Emperor at the insistence of Luke Skywalker in an attempt to end the Galactic Civil War, since he respected him.

The First Order

I like the First Order, at least what we saw prior to TLJ, despite the lack of context and detail. I wanted a much better look into the First Order. Their training, how their troopers lived. How they were assigned new duties.

One of the things I really wanted to do was explore what their war plans were. What their end goal was. Why they wanted to go to war when they had a nice gig in the Unknown Regions. It was a reason why having the Galactic Empire still around was important. It made their war a twisted self-righteous war, a crusade in their own eyes to restore Palpatine's vision. Their official reason for war was to rescue their Galactic Empire brothers and sisters from the tyrannical New Republic which is seen as a bully to the Galactic Empire.

I also wanted to do away with the Death Star-esque Starkiller Base. Instead, I resurrected the Galaxy Gun from the Dark Empire series and combined it with the Sun Crusher from the Jedi Academy trilogy. That way it not only did both, and instead of blowing up planets, it basically made them desolate and would allow for military bases to be constructed. This is another thing from my fanfics that I love using. The idea of dead of dying worlds being used as bases. Zarnoth is such a place, which has been seen in my Heirs of an Empire, Jedi Warrior Trilogy and my Darth Plaquies series.

The snow base at the beginning of the story, the one with the TIE Interceptors? That comes from a concept art of Starkiller Base, which had a stone tower citadel and volcanoes in the background.

It also allowed me a chance to add more Legends characters as well. The War Council scenes with Snoke, Kylo Ren and Hux when they are sitting around that conference table? Every single person on that council appear in the book Darksaber as the warlords that Natasi Daala murder during the scene where she takes over the Remnant.

I also got a chance to explore new worlds in the Unknown Regions. Leena-Sa Prima is a completely new world. Snoke's throne room being in a volcano is a mixture of his Last Jedi throne room and the concept art for Palpatine's throne room for ROTJ being beneath the crust of the imperial capitol planet.

The Jedi Order

Luke basically being unable to find any Jedi who survived the Clone Wars makes one role their eyes and that he only collected 12 students? That lines up with Legends but he was obviously a very terrible teacher. Here, we add a Jedi Order that secretly has hundreds of members, because Luke has learned the lessons of the past and doesn't want the real numbers to be known.

We also have the idea of them going into hiding as the Purge happens. There is no map to Luke Skywalker, which is a rather dumb idea. Especially since the whole reason for the map seems to be dropped in TLJ. Why leave a map if you don't want to be found?

No, instead it's the idea that Jedi will be able to show where the location of Luke is. The idea behind Finn's turn starting once he sees Jacen and Jaina being tortured comes from concept art of a Jedi strapped to a chair with a Stomtrooper watching.

The Sith

So, we bring back the Sith, Darth Talon who uses seduction to kill. It allowed me the chance to bring in Jacen Syndulla, who obviously I started writing before Season 4 of Rebels had finished airing. But Darth Talon's seduction and murder of a Jedi was always going to happen and be basically the end of the story. But it was originally going to be a dark-skinned bald human Jedi.

Some have questioned how the Sith can still be if ROTJ ended the Sith…..well, I'm going to address it in the alternative The Last Jedi!

Knights of Ren

I have held a theory that they were once Luke's students for a long time. Even longer than the implications they made in TLJ. So making them such, and including people like Zekk and Tenel Ka, who Kylo Ren's Legends counter-part Jacen Solo knew and ran around with, was a good idea. There was a lot of talk of Kylo Ren supposedly going to Vader's castle in TLJ to complete his training, so I made it their base of operations and where they are trained by the Sith Darth Talon.

Rey

Rey, known as Kira Rey in this story, I wanted her to feel more natural. I didn't want lingering questions over her parentage, and as a fan of the "She's a No One" reveal, I made sure to add her being abandoned. I also wanted her to slowly grow into her Force abilities.

I loved the idea of the lightsaber calling to her and having her ability to see an object's past through the Force be something that both she and Kylo Ren had in common. But to have Anakin Skywalker choosing her as the new Chosen One answered why it call to her.

Her knowing how to pilot the ship coming from her growing up on the Falcon and being adopted by Han also answered that question by showing her being on there for years. And for her to have a destiny that Ben Solo saw and be part of the reason he fell adds a new twist.

I also liked how in TLJ they could communicate over space and time. So added it sooner!

Luke Skywalker

I always felt that Luke should have been the one that the lightsaber jumped out of the snow to his hands during the Starkiller duel. I had a dream a few days prior to TFA where in it, I saw Luke do a Force Repulse similar to The Force Unleashed and take out aa bunch of stormtroopers. Then he stands and says, "I hear you were looking for me."

His standing in the sand chamber comes from concept art where he's supposed to be imprisoned in a cell where sand is always pouring on him. But to make it something that allowed him to mask his presence in the Force was nice.

What to expect from The Last Jedi Alternate Version

Expect actual training by Kira and Kylo Ren!

Why there are still Sith in the galaxy if Vader's self-sacrifice ended them. It falls in line with a theory I have and will tie into other fanfics I've done. I made a very subtle hint at it in the scene of Darth Talon murdering Jacen Syndulla.

Luke's being on the island will be explained as not him going to die. He has a purpose on the island with the two other Jedi.

We will see Luke have some amazing fight scenes! Two to be exact.

A shocking twist at the end that I hope will leave everyone stunned.

An actual war between the New Republic and the Imperial factions. There's going to be a really coold twist as well.

A different version of the nighttime scene in Ben's hut at the Academy. And a different version of his fall that I hope makes people happier. Luke did dip into the Dark Side in Return of the Jedi for a while and we'll see that indeed it has always been there in the background, that urge. But he's not going to do what he did in the movie

The spy that is infiltrating the Resistance will be revealed in the next book!

Snoke+Ezra+Luke dynamic will be revealed and it's going to be crazy!

I won't start it until July 1st though. I am soon moving and I also want to focus on my original books that I sell for money. Until then, enjoy and speculate on what could happen in the next book!