A graphic short
story by Jan Strnad, John Nadeau, and Jordi Ensign (2001, Dark Horse
Comics)
Bundled with Prelude to Rebellion 67 years before Star Wars: A New Hope
A young Jedi returns
to his home-world to take care of raiders on a personal vendetta.
Read on January 26th, 2004
for the second time
I liked this tale better than the main
story that it accompanied, Prelude to Rebellion. Much of the artwork,
especially shots that took place at night, was better, and the story had
a lot of meaning.
I like the way Yoda allows Ki to make his own journey.
It is not a mission, though he calls it that. Yoda knows that he might
use the Dark Side, yet allows him to go anyway, to find his own way
through the Force. He has to trust that everything he taught Ki showed
him the best way to approach a situation such as this. In the end, Yoda
was proven right.
As with Prelude, however, there was
altogether too much commentary, telling us about the emotions and
intentions of the main characters. I found the authors should have left
us to decide what the characters were feeling. This is not a novel -it
is a graphic story.
Read on September 29th, 2001
A neat short story that shows how long-desired revenge can have
unexpected consequences. But the main character gets to learn something
and get his revenge at the same time, which dulls the impact of the
story a little.
In a way, this story shows us more about how Ki-Adi-Mundi thinks than
the main story did,
Prelude to Rebellion. This story was tacked on to the end of the
graphic novel, but it takes place many years earlier.
It starts with Ki being taken by the Jedi because of his remarkable
powers. Sure, this seems to go against what Qui-Gon said in
The Phantom Menace, that people are found at an early age in the
Republic. But Ki is quite old when he is found, and there must have been
primitive trade with Cerea, even though it wasn't part of the Republic.
While there, the Jedi witnesses a raider come to steal the harvest of
this small farm. Ki is hidden because of the special status of boys on
Cerea (being born only one out of twenty), and the fact that the raider
steals young boys to raise as his own.
When Ki returns to his planet as a Jedi Knight, against the wishes of
Yoda, his teacher, he searches out the raiders' camp. He enters, hiding
his lightsaber, and challenges the leader. But the leadership has
changed! It is now a fierce woman who he must fight, without saber, and
with his hands tied behind his back. He is put out of commission in good
time. Without the bravado he shows here, he could have easily defeated
the woman. But he was so intent on his goal, that he had eyes for
nothing else. And when his opponent turned out to be different from his
target, he couldn't cope with that, and barely got in a blow of his own
before he was taken out.
In the night, as he is tied to a pole as a prisoner, the previous leader
comes to him with a knife to his throat. The man now works as a laborer,
pretty much outcast because he lost the challenge to the new leader. But
he still has lots of muscle, and can be pretty terrifying. But Ki has
had time to think over his mistake, and uses the Force to untie his
bonds. He easily deflects the knife, and ignites his lightsaber.
When the raiders' leader comes into the light, he defeats her in a duel,
but does not kill her. The raiders disband out of shame and fear,
leaving peacefully. A new Jedi has come to Cerea, and with him he brings
peace to the farmers of that area.
This story really shows how the calmness is required for clear thought
when using the Force. Ki needs the time through the night to see his
errors, that his single-mindedness nearly brought him to ruin. When he
is calm, and focused, he can do the extraordinary.
The fact that he gets out of the situation without killing anybody,
without the grief of his first kill, undermines the story a little. He
learned a lesson about control, but did he learn that a vendetta like
the one he pursued is not the proper way to pursue justice? I don't
know.
I liked the art in this story a little better than I did with
Prelude to Rebellion. It seemed a little more dynamic, and even
though nothing was shown as background objects, focusing entirely on the
foreground character, the details were where they were needed to make it
seem realistic.
Strange for a short story, that it didn't seem to be too short. Normally
I feel that stories are rushed, but this one was perfectly timed. And I
like the message that it delivered a lot.
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