SPOILER "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray (Discussion)

clearly nobody did.

where's the spork? i think i still have the remnants of some of my eyeballs in my head.

 

Yeah, the story as a whole is a bit of a downer. (Annoying, since CG said it focused on "happier days" with Leia and Han--true, but not true enough! ) Not only do we have Leia's remaining trauma from Vader, but Casterfo's story really plunges it into sadness, along with the assassination.

I always go back to SKB turning into a sun and to listening to the JW soundtrack of TFA. I don't find too much gloom in either of those things--the soundtrack especially seems to reflect the excitement and danger of SW without dwelling on the tragedy. That's where my headspace is these days. Hope that Vader's dark shadow across his family will finally be lifted, all the more powerful, perhaps, through the turn to the Light of the very one who now reveres that shadow.

 

just not okay with what happened to Ransolm ~ after everything we got put through with his horrible story! bugger all.

thank you for that.
this stuff just puts me in a state sometimes.
gotta focus on the hope. the hope. hope.

 

I absolutely loved Leia in this book, but it made me sad that things would have gone sour in a quick amount of time, as 6 years isn't a lot, and in the movie it seemed that She and Han hadn't seen each other probably in 4 or 5 years at least by that time, but they still seemed to care in the movie, so I knew it wasn't 20 years or something. I am thinking that Ben must have been giving Luke a hard time by the time of the events in this novel, just they didn't know. Maybe the Darth Vader info going public contributed. Just conjecture. It was very exciting, especially that scene in the underwater city, and the rescue! That was hard to imagine. I imagine the Empire collectors doing it "innocently without knowing" not being unlike some civil war collectors, or other war collectors. Nazi stuff would upset people and we associate that with really bad things, and this character knew and hated the Empire, yet still collected that stuff? That was kind of weird, but some people have a morbid taste for stuff I guess in a gffa type deal.

--- Double Post Merged, May 4, 2016, Original Post Date: May 4, 2016 ---

Ransolm was a real sad thing. Even with what he did. Getting railroaded and thrown under a bus.

 

he didn't even go down for making the horrible mistake of breaking Leia's trust.
he went down for trying to amend it.

 

All the more reason to take down the FO and Carise. Although she's no longer a "lady," it seems she's still a senator with influence, right? I wonder if she will show up later somewhere in the FO...

 

The best-case scenario would have been to be able to save Ransolm, and for Carise to have a permanent and formidable enemy in him in the Senate. Heh.

 

This is my favorite part of the book in terms of the writing (yeah, I'm a word nerd ):

A few words, and suddenly she was back there--the sick ozone smell of the Death Star's recirculated air thick in her nostrils, Tarkin's chilly smile as thin as a knife's blade, and clamped around one of her shoulders the armored hand of Darth Vader--

--her father--
"You understand nothing." Leia had to force the words out...​

I love how Leia's thoughts have only to graze the idea of her father, and she recoils from them as if burned. This part moved me more than when she described her torture in more detail.

 

Is it knowledge that Leia and Luke are twins? Or is that kept secret also.

 

That's how she should have been the entire time

 

Even though the topic itself says spoilers, I feel the need to say this:

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR Bloodline AHEAD
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED​

I actually got my local library to buy it (and to make up for that, I just spent $90 on LEGOs...I need a legion of FO Stormtroopers and they need both a transport and their Captain, damn it!). And it came in today (perfect timing). So I just spent a wonderful May the Fourth Be With You reading a really good Star Wars novel. It really helped flesh out some areas that were left unanswered in The Force Awakens and explained the First Order's place in it a little better. And it made me love Leia even more than I did before. Especially that last blow towards the former Lady Sindian. Leia needed a mic to drop after that.
My second favorite part of the book was, surprisingly, Ransolm Casterfo. How my thoughts of him mirrored that of Leia's throughout the book, with me thinking he's a complete moron and Empire lover to realizing that he's actually a good man (though can act recklessly and foolishly) and understanding his point of view, with the complete understanding that he has no love for Palpatine, Vader, or their actions. Especially during the scene where he starts to see the true feelings of some of his fellow Centrists. And the fact that the First Order aligned senators framed him for the assassination of Tai-Lin Garr is just tragic.
In addition, all the characters are just on point.
All in all, it's a very good book, one I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It's probably the best Star Wars novel I've read.
Now I need to try reading Lost Stars...darn, my local library doesn't have it.

You don't know how tempted I am to reference Billie Lourd's character from Scream Queens.

I personally have a theory that only someone that they knew in life could see a Force Ghost. It would make sense.

 

You and Lors San Tekka are on the same wavelength: "I've traveled too far, and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force."

 

Oooooh, so much interesting stuff in here. Thanks for posting this, @LadyMusashi.

A few major things I took away:

• Ben has not yet turned (8:33) during the events of Bloodline. Claudia Gray did not qualify this in any way except to say (later in the interview) that Leia thinks that he is with Luke and some other students learning the ways of the Force.
• Claudia Gray had the major essential points of TFA related to Leia and her family from the storygroup when she wrote the book, and then had a round of author edits on the manuscript after she had seen it.
• No information is given on why we didn't hear about Snoke.
• As far as input into the book relative to Eps. VIII and possibly IX: the storygroup ideas that she worked from are in play for future movies. There is one visual element that she had to describe as it will look in future movies.
• If CG had her choice, she would love to do a comic that gets Casterfo out of his current situation.

 

i'm all for rescuing Ransolm!

i wonder if the visual element might be the statue of Bail Organa. not sure why that comes immediately to mind, but she does describe it rather specifically; and then later again when it gets damaged in the explosion.

so, possibly Leia's holo message is what kicks off the Benplosion after all.
though, if we are still to believe Snoke is behind it all, he must've been ripe for it regardless. (camel meet straw).

 

I was thinking of the statue too, because whatever "element" it was didn't seem from her description to be all that complex, so probably not a world/place.

Now that I've heard this interview, I am really leaning toward the idea that Leia's message is, indeed, the straw.