SPOILER "Aftermath: Empire's End" By Chuck Wendig (Discussion)

hahahaha ~ it's funny you mention this. i was actually kinda worried about his state of mind early on in the book.
and then again when it looked like Conder wasn't gonna make it.

 

Finally was able to get it. As soon as I finish A Game Of Thrones, I'm hoping to get this done in a few days

 

priorities!!!

 

I can read several non-fiction books at once. But only one fiction book.

I started it before Catalyst but put it on hold to rush that before R1 and now I gotta finish it lol

 

Finished reading the book last week. I must say that I enjoyed it a great deal, easily the best book in the Aftermath series.

 

I have a stressful job, working in a jail, watching inmates prepare to go to prison for 25 years or so (and they are mostly black), allot of my co-workers (male and female) use spirits to lift themselves up, so much so, they become alcoholics. A co-worker died at the young age of 40 because everyone could actually smell the alcohol coming out of his pours, no one said a thing, when he passed, we all knew why he died. Bringing alcohol to work, is when I draw the line, storing it in your locker isn't cool. Drinking at 7am cuz you worked from 3 in the afternoon to 7 in the morning (17 hour shift because ppl call out sick and you have to stay on the job day after day is difficult) sort of like working for the Empire... hehe. A Captain came to work dressed up as Captain Kirk we all had a good laugh. I played around thinking of walking in as a Stormtrooper... haha!

I had my stint, but I'm glad I stay away from the stuff. Martial arts, MMA work-out, pumping iron, drawing & painting, spending time with friends & family is a great alternative. Exiting Jail after 17 hours is like freedom, and most want to celebrate because they didn't get stabbed, slashed, or shanked. Walking out the same way you came in is a profound joy. Reading Empire's End, Sinjir always thinking of the spirits, reminded me of my stint. Trying to forget the harshness of the job, and having to return to the same hell hole the next day is daunting, to say the least. Great pay, 6 figures and above, great benefits, but a whole lot of stress... Luke Skywalker, Obi-wan Kenobi, Rogue Squadron are my idols, I don't like the bad guys because I see them everyday.

 

I assumed R2 was with Luke, but not Threepio.


I feel like we got a bit more play into Snoke. I gather he may be a Dark Side Force user on the scale of Palps but from another galaxy. But I wonder...if he watched the Empire rise and fall, why did he not get involved? Was he the puppet master and Palps his puppet? I feel like there are so many possibilities, I could give myself a headache. Additionally, Palps meeting up with Snoke sounds likes a horrible idea. Mainly because one of them would try to destroy the other. And so Sloane is now in the unknown regions - perhaps in another galaxy. She's got power, but how does Snoke come to take it? Something tells me there will be a Sloan-centric book showing her downfall in the next few years.

Based on what we know, Snoke has to make himself known to the Republic soon after the events of the Battle of Jakku. And what about Luke? What does he know about Snoke? Or does he go into exile because Snoke practices a dark side so ancient that the answers lie in the past?

 

has Snoke been the Imperator all along? if Palps was, indeed called by Snoke as is potentially inferred in the novel, has Snoke been running this show all along?

in which case was it Snoke who originally developed/prompted Palps to set up Order 66?

has he been trying to rid the galaxy of Jedi all this time?

 

I'm torn on the idea of Snokenstein being the puppet master - something about it doesn't seem right, would it mean Palpy was a puppet from TPM? After they've grown Palpy as a master manipulator and a near genius who laid the trap secretly and became Galactic Emperor, it would seem odd to almost take all of that away?

Now, a Dark Side equal that's been stewing in the Unknown Regions? I'd be up for that. Nothing contradictory either.

I'm absolutely intrigued as to how they handle Snokenstein's character - not even his identity, more just where he's been, how he came to the scene and how the big players know of him (Leia, at least...)

 

i'm still hoping Snoke is a macguffin for something much scarier and even more disturbing lying in wait:
like a reincarnated Palpatine or Sheev's angrier, even wrinklier twin ~ hahahaha

okay, not very likely, but I agree with @The Hud: something about Snoke isn't quite right.

 

Steve Palpatine

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 2, 2017, Original Post Date: Mar 2, 2017 ---

Also, the idea of Snokenstein hiding out in the Unknown Region just has a sinister edge to it.

Hiding. Hiding where? If a 7 foot (potentially powerful Force user) can go unnoticed, god knows where he was lurking.

Imagine stumbling across that

 

Well as Qui-Gon says, "There's always a bigger fish." I do like the idea that when the dark side rose and the Force balance shifted, perhaps that awoke Snoke. But for him to be able to communicate with Palps through the Force means that Snoke may easily be more powerful than Palps. I don't like the idea of diminishing Palps. In a sense, Palps was gonna go home. Remember, Palps was going to reshape the galaxy using the DS of the Force (as per Lords of the Sith and Tarkin). Maybe going home was part of that - thus opening up the Galaxy to more dark side by reopening those travel lanes.

I'm wondering of the Ancient Sith come from the Snoke-regions. This would jive with the idea of Luke finding the origins of the Jedi.

Then...and follow me here. What if the SW galaxy is the origination of the precursors to the Jedi and other LS users and the unknown regions or Snoke-Land is the origination to the precursors to the Sith? Thus the Dark Side users are in a sense foreign bodies in the current SW Galaxy, infecting it. What if all this time the duality between the light and the dark is greater than just one galaxy. It pits two against each other.

 

clearly hiding out in the galactic men's room with his feet up on the seat ~ waiting for children to prey on. : o p

 

I like this...I could buy into this. Really could affect the Old Republic Era as well.

 

Since I have a (very) bad feeling about some kind of time travel plot...
What if the dark presence/force calling to Palpatine is an alternative time line Palpatine himself?

Look, I don't like those kind of things, but what the hell do JJ Abram, Rian Jhonson and Colin Trevvorow 's previuous works in common?

 

No God, please no

 

I know... same here, but...

 

@The Hud, @lealt: i am a firm believer that a good story tell-told can pretty much break all the rules, so i'm not discounting the possibility or the potential success of such a storyline.

and, let's face it, it's one way to retcon the heck out of distasteful elements ~ hahahaha.