SPOILER "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray (Discussion)

OMG. Finally finished reading this book. And if my own personality was not as similar as Leia's I would be crying my heart out right now.

I have no words. I agree with @LadyMusashi that maybe it was more my prior admiration for Leia that compelled me to read the book as soon as I could, turning page by page with the hope of finding out what happened 6 years before TFA.

But Claudia Gray does a great job developing Leia Organa's character. She is the same feisty, duty-bound Princess we met back at the Tantive IV. I could write two pages worth of the events we do know her taking place, but the point is that she portrays her same as stoic, but with her own flaws as a human being. And one of those flaws is the way she handles being Vader's daughter. When TFA came out, I was already suspecting she had not come to terms with her inheritance as the old Legends books had portrayed - see "Truce at Bakura", "Tatooine Ghost" and the "Thrawn Trilogy" - which it is interesting per se since we could take this as a proof of what Yoda said: "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.". Had she publicly acknowledge this in the early stages of the New Republic changed something? Being a Game of Thrones fan, it reminded me of the following quote by Tyrion Lannister:

"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like an armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."

I had been holding my tears in most of the chapters, recognizing passages from the new canon - like "Vader Down" reference to Vrogas Vas or the sole mention of Padme being an inspiration for her daughter made me feel a big lump in my throat. But the keepsake box was too much for me to handle - I could hear the voice of Jimmi Smits as Bail Organa in my head, with a background music piece being a mix of "Across The Stars" and "Princess Leia's Theme" while images of Episodes II and III showing, and I could not hold the tears anymore. Especially since a lot of SW fans that hate the prequels consider Padme a weak character, which she might end up being by the end of the trilogy, but not during the first two episodes.

I agree that maybe "Lost Stars" have a better perspective since we are getting to know characters that are not familiar to us, but that we get to know and like them. In this case we know Leia, surrounded by our favourite scoundrel - I'll be talking about that relationship in a minute - and mostly new characters, some of them recently acquainted in TFA. It helped a lot following Claudia Gray's Pinterest to get her mental casting for most of the characters we don't know from TFA, but I found myself really engaged after reading about them. Maybe the one I ended up most infatuated with was (oh surprise) Casterfo. Here Gray does one of the things I found more endearing from "Lost Stars": she portrays her characters as sentient beings, whose political allegiance should not be used as a base for prejudice. At first I thought Casterfo was a Empire-worshipping fanboy, but getting to know him could help me understand why he was like he was and why he did what he did. But Gray proves a point: not because you are a Centrist that means you are despicable. (Well, I cannot talk about Carise Sindian. I despise her.)

Loved the mention to the Jabba the Hut incident. I'm definitely getting a shirt with the image on my avatar "Huttslayer" yeaaah.

I liked Greer and Joph a lot. Having not seen them included in TFA could mean a lot of things, but part of me thinks their history might have taken a tragic turn, due to her condition. Could they make a spin-off story for them??? Just wondering. Anyhow, I liked Leia interacting with them, when watching the races and sipping on jet juice - lol, with this and the Sabacc game I can tell a certain scoundrel has been a bad influence lol.

And well... talking about my favourite scoundrel. For some of us having them apart, in love but apart might sound not like the best thing we might have foreseen for these two, but we have to face it: they are maybe two of the Galaxy's most difficult, stubborn people. Her nature was to be a politician and to serve; his was flying. Both had really strong characters - we knew it from the time they met at the detention block shootout. It reminded me of a quote by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo about her husband, Mexican painter Diego Rivera: "Perhaps you might expect to hear from me tales of suffering about my life with a man like Diego. But I do not think the margins of a river suffer for letting it flow." (Small license: she might have been talking about his extra-marital affairs, but in this case we can use it for the two strong-headed characters of Han and Leia lol).

I would have wanted to hear more about Luke and Ben. Their absences and the way Luke is described make it sound like Luke followed the Jedi way to the extreme: not to mess with the New Republic business, and living a life apart with his Jedi Academy. In some way, after the exhilaration of the Victory Celebration in Endor, makes me feel like Luke ended up living like what Gary Kurtz mentioned it was going to be originally the end of ROTJ: Luke as a lone Jedi Knight, walking off into the sunset alone.

In some way, I'd love to find out later that Casterfo was not actually sentenced to death and that he might make it to later episodes - only if they cast Tom Hiddleston, pleaseeee! And I could not imagine what was coming to Tai-Lin

Anyway, I feel like I'm pouring my thoughts in a random way and that later I might have a greater picture of everything. However, I confirm what I have said previously: Leia is the strongest and most tragic character of the entire saga. And by the effect of his inheritance, both this post-ROTJ material and the ST are still the extended Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker - just hope it's not because there is a reincarnation in the future! Lol.

 

That's what I thought

Just for fun, here are the mental casting Claudia Gray used for the new characters:

Ransolm Casterfo - Tom Hiddleston



Tai-Lin Garr - Ken Watanabe



Carise Sindian - Jamie Chung



Joph Seastriker - Josh Hutcherson



Greer Sonnel - Priyanka Chopra



Korr Sella - Maisie Richardson-Sellers (her scene at TFA was deleted and she appears briefly when Hosnian Prime is destroyed by the Starkiller).



Arliz Hadrassian - Sonia Braga

 

Leia was 22-23 in ROTJ - if ANh was when she was 19, SB three years later, she was 22. So Ben was born when she was 24.

Lol, the eternal discussion about how long it took Han and Leia to get to Bespin from the Anoat system traveling sublight, while Luke was training in Dagobah. The "Moving Target" book hints that it was "weeks". But not sure.

I don't know what to make of this. But I would expect of Ben turning to the Dark and killing his fellow Jedi padawans being something somehow publicly known.

I know. That might be one of the things I miss from the Legends: at least he had Jaina inheriting his love for piloting.

Agree.

Don't want to play devil's advocate, but maybe that's part of her constant refusal to acknowledge her origins. That might be hindering her mothering efforts. But yeah, sound sort of disconnected for me.

Yeaaaah! The Huttslayer!!

Again, her conflict is harming her relationship with her son.

Well, the new canon has shown certain glimpses of royalties around the galaxy - Shu-torun in the "Darth Vader" series - but I don't think I have heard that mentioned before.

Same here.

Just because of Leia I want him redeemed.

I was literally beaming when reading that.

I would not place too much height on what Daisy or JJ said about Rey's origins - it's not like we are going to sue the movie because what they said turned out to be false. I mean, there is nothing in the book about Rey, but I won't discard any theory until I see it in the movies. Obviously I didn't expect the book to give away anything regarding Rey's origins.

 

I know. And we might get confused or misguided by anything we read or hear. So I have decided not to pay attention to anything until I see the reveal on the big screen lol.

 

Lol I guess it works with me. Lucasfilm, just take my money!