Star Wars Legends Highlight of the Week: X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston

In this feature, a fan will share one thing they love from Star Wars Legends — a book, a comic, an author, a character, an event, or anything else they want to highlight — and tell us more about it.

If you, too, love Legends, follow @from-a-legends-pov and check out our upcoming Star Wars Legends fanfiction event, From a Legends Point of View, HERE. Signups open THIS SUNDAY, April 28, 2024 — please encourage your favorite Star Wars writers to participate!

Today’s Legends highlight is X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar by Aaron Allston, a 1999 Legends novel, and we’re talking with @alwaysstarwars.

Tell us about your Legends highlight. What is it, and why is it a highlight for you?

X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar is technically the 9th book of the X-Wing series, but it functions as a standalone novel. Set in 13 ABY (about nine years after Return of the Jedi), the book focuses on Wedge Antilles and his friends and fellow pilots Tycho Celchu, Hobbie Klivian, and Wes Janson, as they travel to the neutral world of Adumar and try to negotiate its admittance to the New Republic. The plot itself is relatively straightforward, but it’s really just an excuse to get Wedge, Hobbie, Tycho and Wes out on a mission together. And that quartet is the reason the book is so good. The four of them had been featured heavily in the previous X-Wing books, but there were always other characters and a larger plot with which to be concerned. This book gets rid of all that and just gives the reader Wedge, Tycho, Hobbie, and Wes getting up to assorted hijinks, pulling pranks, and being generally hilarious. It’s a buddy comedy in book form and it’s just fun. Aaron Allston is great at capturing the spirit and humor of Star Wars that some authors struggle with, and Starfighters of Adumar is a delight because of it. All of the X-Wing series is great and worth a read, but this is by far the most flat-out entertaining.

Any favorite moments or quotations to share?

A lot of the humor is context-specific, but this quote gives a good sense of the irreverent tone of the whole book and the fantastic relationships among the four main characters:

“Leader, this is Three. Are you crazy? Acknowledge.” “Three, Leader. That’s affirmative.” — Wes and Wedge

To learn more….

If you’d like to read more about X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar, you can check out its page on Wookieepedia or find the novel at your local library, new through a few outlets, or used through independent booksellers or your favorite used bookstore.

And be sure to check out @from-a-legends-pov and our From a Legends Point of View fanfiction event; signups open April 28, 2024!

Laundry Day (in which Anakin is allergic to water)

✨🌙 ART LOG -> @404ama

ONLY ONE IS CANON. PLEASE READ THE QUESTION.

* For the purposes of this poll, both Legends and Disney qualify as canon.

** Eminent domain

Don't give away the answer before the poll ends! I'll reblog with an explanation once it's done.

"Why the big red--" I've already had five people vote in the wrong direction.

"One day, the Imperials started packing up and shipped out. So we made our move and escaped. We were the only ones who made it out before the orbital bombardment. Even the clone troopers left us to die. Said they were following orders."

this broke my heart.

and i think it needs to be discussed a lot more.

my first reaction is to say "no!! they would never do that!!! they would never leave behind their own little brothers!!! they are loyal! they have honour! they're good people!!"

but i think that's the point here. we're no longer seeing the clones we typically see from the Clone Wars show. we're no longer seeing our romanticized, rose-tinted-glasses version of them.

i feel like we're actually seeing them more closely to their original Legends version, where there was no inhibitor chip, where the clones really did obey orders without question and carried out Order 66 without a chip to force them into it, simply because it was a direct order from the highest authority.

and that's what we're seeing with these remaining Imperial clones. they are those types of clones. 95% of the "good" ones have been rooted out by now. what's left are the die-hards, the obeyers, the brainwashed, the ignorant pawns. they aren't concerned with saving lives or protecting people, not even their own kin. they're there to follow orders and serve their Empire.

it definitely hurts, but honestly, it's a bit refreshing, and yes it is realistic. i remember reading a post ages ago about an interesting hypocrisy within the fandom -- how we as fans hate seeing clones treated as less than human, how we want them to be treated "more human", BUT we also prefer them to be these good, heroic, noble characters. which is definitely not a human trait. humans are inherently both good and bad, and some are bad, and some are very very bad. so if we want our clones to have the full range of humanity, then some of them have to be bad people.

so really, especially at this point in the timeline, it is entirely realistic that these "bad" clones exist, that they are willingly choosing this path, and they are choosing to let people die, even their own, because of orders, or simply for their own survival.

personally, i'm glad the writers were brave enough to take this step. i honestly hope it doesn't end up as a "they're all still brainwashed" or "their chips are still active" explanations. we need some clones that want to be with the Empire. we need some clones to be villians.

we need to discuss

waist

It’s a real good thing Luke Skywalker was an incredibly famous respected hero of the Rebellion.

Because Luke really was like “Hey, first class, congrats on coming to my new praxeum, I just learned that word from Leia. I’m sorry yer the test dummies for learning how to teach Jedi. I’m your Jedi Grandmaster Luke Skywalker. I had a month long seminar with Grandmaster Yoda, and then he died making me Grandmaster through attrition. I’ve had a self guided study since of whatever I could scrape together from what the Empire didn’t destroy. The New Republic has been nice enough to let us squat in the historic abandoned Yavin Base. Don’t mind the nearby Sith Lord or comatose Jedi Master furry in nearby temples, they’re not important…yet.”

Reading the republic commando series again and posting my favorite / most unhinged parts

JAINA AND JACEN- ONE SOUL IN TWO BODIES

-Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

Man, early Legends really was the wild west. Thrawn is somehow making a Star Trek reference.

(Looking on wookiepedia, this is the only time a Borg implant has been referenced. There wasn't any info about this causing any sort of legal trouble.)

THE FINAL CANON QUEER STAR WARS CHARACTER OF ALL TIME IS

JUHANI, THE OG

Star Wars Legends: Poll of the Week - Out-Of-Context Pictures

Which of these out-of-context pictures from a Star Wars Legends property is your favorite? (Context provided below)

1: “Heat stick”: Oh, no, that certainly doesn’t look like anything else, no….

2. Laser-eyes Leia: Is it possible to learn this power?

3. Hit where it hurts: He had it coming.

4. “Turn off the foam, Threepio!” I don’t know, that looks kind of fun, Luke.

5. Han punches an otter? An otter wearing fancy jewelry, no less.

6. Playing ships with a Sith: Vader plus younglings doesn’t usually go well….

And now, for some context:

1: “Heat stick” - Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson spend a cold night together on a mission, and yes, that is supposed to be a heat stick used to warm them and not a glowing something else (Star Wars - original Marvel Comics)

2: Laser-eyes Leia: Meet Leia Organa II, a replica droid of the Princess, designed to speak, move, and act like the real Leia, and equipped with blasters in her eyes. The real Leia Organa is captured and nearly forced to marry Trioculus, a three-eyed warlord claiming to be Palpatine’s son (he wasn’t – that was a different three-eyed guy), but right before the wedding Leia’s friends switch her with Leia Organa II. At the altar, the replica droid blasts Trioculus with a little pew pew straight from her eyes, killing him, and the real Leia is able to escape (Queen of the Empire)

3: Hit where it hurts: When Black Sun boss Prince Xizor’s attempted assault of Leia Organa (by drugging her with his powerful Falleen pheromones) is interrupted by Chewbacca coming to the rescue, Leia gives Xizor a well-deserved knee to the groin before escaping (Shadows of the Empire)

4: “Turn off the foam, Threepio!” On a mission with Leia and the droids, Luke Skywalker uses extinguisher foam to subdue some Blackhole troopers aboard a Hrakian ship (“Gambler’s World,” Early Star Wars Adventures)

5: Han punches an otter? Han Solo’s evil cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo has imprisoned Dracmus, a female Selonian who has been trained as a diplomatic envoy to humans. He forces Dracmus to fight Han, whom he has also imprisoned, but Han is familiar enough with Mandaba, the Selonian language, to convince Dracmus to go easy on him during the fight without Thrackan catching on. Han still loses the fight, but gains Dracmus’s trust, and when Dracmus is later rescued, Han is allowed to come along (Assault at Selonia)

6: Playing ships with a Sith: Plourr Ilo recalls her brother Harran (Harrandatha Estillo), who from childhood was an evil, vicious person who wanted her dead so that he could become ruler. Harran idolized Darth Vader, and when Harran met the Sith as a child, Vader made Harran his protégé, taking advantage of his sadistic personality and apparently also playing ships with him for hours (Star Wars comics, X-Wing: Rogue Squadron - The Warrior Princess)

Hungry for more Legends content? Follow @from-a-legends-pov and consider signing up for our upcoming fanfiction event, From a Legends Point of View! Signups open April 28!

He too, was a star, and the light that shone from him was the Force

✨🌙 ART LOG -> @404ama

I read Shadows of Mindor and I really liked Luke's musings on the Force in the book so I had to draw something. Other doodle under the cut:

Hi I have another stupid insane plot idea

OKAY SO. Inspiring facts of canon:

We all remember that Dooku is like 20yrs older than Palpatine, yes? (I have been informed that is is not actually common knowledge as I thought. Dooku's born 102bby and Palps is 84bby. Please do not comment only to express shock at the ages.)

We also all know that Dooku is one of the most prolific masters (not counting Yoda) in terms of Number Of Apprentices Taught, which means that he really enjoys teaching/guiding younger people into becoming the best version of themselves (even if that's sometimes the best Sith possible, like Ventress), despite some Notable failures.

Situation: Dooku time-travels to his own twenties or thirties. Could be physical (Knight Dooku meets The Count) or mental (Dooku wakes up with sixty years of memories), but he's There.

Important Factor: Palpatine is YOUNG. Like, a teenager at MOST.

Plot Shape: Dooku has a New Project. He is going to harass this very young politician/actual child into not being a shitheel, and drag his current apprentice (probably Rael) into helping.

If Palps is sixteen or something, he's already in politics, because Naboo. If Palps is like... four, then Dooku might just Pick Him Up as a new Initiate for the Temple.

Bonus points: Skeevy Sheev is also a time-traveler, specifically of the mental variety, and loathes that Dooku is exerting his age like this. It's Undignified! The man is trying to mentor him! SIDIOUS IS MEANT TO BE THE MASTER, NOT THIS JEDI REJECT.

I just need Dooku's "I can fix him" mentoring energy to smack into teenybopper Sheev at full force.

I'm sorry for laughing my glorious red eyed king

can't believe this man has killed thousands