Latest news with #LukeSkywalker
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
The Laws That Changed the Jedi and Republic Forever
'For a over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic,' Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. In the decades of Star Wars storytelling since, countless tales have fleshed out that connection between the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order's service of it, from its highest highs to the lows that tore them both apart in the fires of the Empire's rise. But while a thousand generations span much of the unseen ancient history of Star Wars well beyond the circumstances we find the Republic and the Jedi in by the time of the prequels, the status quo introduced in those films—where the Republic and the Jedi are enmeshed akin to separations of church and state in our own world—is not quite so ancient. In both current Star Wars continuity and (much more extensively) in its former expanded universe material, the transition between the long history of the Old Republic—the ancient entity that had shaped the galaxy for tens of thousands of years, often locked into conflict with resurgent Sith Empires—and our understanding of the 'modern' Republic comes approximately 1,000 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga. And they are both defined by the same name: the Ruusan Reformations. In contemporary Star Wars canon, little is known about the specifics of the reformations, beyond the fact it was a series of legislative packages that significantly curtailed the power of the office of the Republic's Supreme Chancellor—a level of power that would not be granted to that office again until the Clone War. But in the Expanded Universe, the Ruusan Reformations represent a transformative moment in galactic history: a moment that did not just reshape the Republic, but forever changed the Jedi Order's place in it. The period of time prior to the Ruusan Reformations was one of existential crisis for the Galactic Republic. For a thousand years, the galaxy had once again been thrust into a cataclysmic conflict between the Republic and a resurrected Sith Empire, established by Darth Ruin during the fourth Great Schism between the Jedi and the Sith. The New Sith Wars, as they would come to be known, were a series of interstellar campaigns that radically reshaped the power balance of the galaxy. The Sith Empire surged dramatically in power with its re-establishment, taking over swaths of the galaxy as the Republic was beaten back to the brink of extinction multiple times. Thousands upon thousands of Republic member worlds were abandoned to the Sith as the Republic retreated further and further towards the galactic core, and in doing so, the economic and industrial systems that had supported its vast expansion crumbled, as corruption and lawlessness broke down the fabric of galactic civilization. The final century of the New Sith Wars were known in particular as the Dark Age of the Republic. Beyond the impact the Sith Empire's upper hand had on its structure as its size and scope was drastically reduced, the Republic was heavily diminished through layers of political and industrial corruption and outbreaks of disease, as well as a breakdown of key logistical systems like the HoloNet, rendering the vast majority of real-time galactic communication impossible, and the deactivation of hyperspace lanes to the Outer Rim. But there was another significant issue: as a leading faction in the war against the Sith, the Jedi Order itself had increasingly assumed much of the legislative and military branches of the Republic. Jedi served as Supreme Chancellors with sweeping political power, or banded together to form governmental bodies and defense forces across individual sectors of space. Even the Republic's own standing armies and navies came more and more under the direct control of the Jedi, effectively making the order the de facto galactic power against the Sith Empire. By the last decade of the Dark Age, the Sith themselves had similarly diminished, fracturing over a series of internal feuds and civil wars, before the Sith Lord Skere Kaan, a fallen Jedi Master, reforged the remaining Sith into the Brotherhood of Darkness. Launching another war against the weakened Jedi and Republic, the Brotherhood was eventually beaten back into a years-long series of engagements on the planet Ruusan. Culminating in the seventh and final battle of the Ruusan campaign, the Sith were believed to be eradicated from the galaxy once more with the deployment of a catastrophic, Force-attuned Sith weapon known as the Thought Bomb. With the sacrifice of a final hundred Jedi, the New Sith Wars were over… and it was time to reshape the Republic forever in an attempt to assure another galactic civil war between the Jedi and Sith could never happen again. The legislative restructuring of the Galactic Republic that would come to be named the Ruusan Reformations for the world where the New Sith Wars finally came to an end was enacted by the then-Supreme Chancellor, Tarsus Valorum. Born from the same political dynasty that would eventually give us the Republic's final Chancellor before Palpatine, Finis, Tarsus Valorum was the first non-Jedi Supreme Chancellor elected to the office in over 400 years by the time the Sith-Jedi conflict ended on Ruusan. Valorum's reformation did not radically overhaul the structure of the Republic's governing body—there would still be a Supreme Chancellor and a Galactic Senate, as there had been for thousands of years beforehand—but they did significantly redistribute power away from the office of the Chancellor and back into the representative democracy of the Senate. In order to do so, the Ruusan Reformations redrew the Senate's representative districts from millions of sectors into just 1,024. While increased power remained in the galactic core among founding member worlds to ensure they received individual representation, this realignment significantly decentralized the power of the Senate back out through the inner and outer rim of the galaxy. It also, for the first time, allowed both cultural and corporate entities to seek individual representation in the Senate (a move that would eventually see the Republic's decline into corruption once more, centuries later). But while the impact on the structure of the Republic itself was minimal, the Ruusan Reformations radically altered the Jedi Order's position in the galaxy. As part of the process, the Jedi acquiesced to sweeping demilitarization and depoliticization reform, in a bid to prove to the Republic and the galaxy at large that the Order would not become an interstellar military organization in its own right after the defeat of the Sith. As well as blocking Jedi from holding political office as they previously had done, the Ruusan Reformations effectively stripped the Jedi of almost all their martial power. Jedi military ranks and standard battle armor were stripped from the Order, and the vast armies, navies, and starfighter corps under the Order's direct control were disbanded. The Jedi themselves were placed under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Chancellor and the Republic's Judiciary branch, which became the primary law enforcement body of the galaxy and the replacement of the Republic's standing armies leaving the Republic itself demilitarized, heralding an era of relative galactic peace until the creation of the Clone Army almost a thousand years later. In an attempt to stop another resurgence of the Sith, the reformation process also overhauled Jedi recruitment and teaching policies. Not only did the Order enact policies that demanded Jedi be recruited and trained from a young age—ending the direct induction of adults into the Order—those same policies centralized Jedi training on Coruscant, in an attempt to maintain oversight and prevent students from exploring forbidden Sith teachings in secret. Within the universe of Star Wars, the Ruusan Reformations would come to represent a landmark moment in galactic history, the transition of an ancient era into the more familiar time period of Star Wars movies. But in reality, the creation of the Reformations in the old EU largely existed to try and canonically reconcile two lines of dialogue: the aforementioned 'thousand generations' line from A New Hope, and the arrival of the prequel trilogy and Attack of the Clones in particular, where Palpatine states that the Republic had 'stood for a thousand years' when discussing the Republic's attempted negotiations with separatist systems. Before the status quo of the Jedi Order and Republic was introduced in the prequel trilogy, the Star Wars expanded universe had largely only explored the era of the Old Republic in terms of its ancient history, thousands and thousands of years before the events of the movies, through works like the Tales of the Jedi comic series, a period popularized even further through the Knights of the Old Republic video game series releasing alongside the prequels. What is now known as 'Legends' material was informally structured in Star Wars canon through a series of tiers, each one taking priority over those below it. At the top of this structure was the canon of the six Star Wars films, starting with the original trilogy and then incorporating the prequels. This was eventually updated with the arrival of a secondary tier representing the Clone Wars 3DCG animated series when it launched in 2008, which sat over the tier that represented the vast majority of contemporary Expanded Universe material (two further tiers existed below this, representing secondary and retconned EU material and stories deemed explicitly non-canonical). The introduction of Palpatine's line about the Republic existing for a thousand years in the movie canon (and commentary in The Phantom Menace that the Republic had not seen interstellar conflict on the level of the invasion of Naboo since its formation) sat in contradiction with the Expanded Universe's exploration of the Republic era, which had told stories of endless conflict between the Jedi, Republic, and Sith across a period that spanned 25,000 years of ancient history. First explicitly covered in the 2007 novel Darth Bane: Rule of Two—which also introduced the titular 'Rule of Two' concept for the Sith, aligning their status quo in the prequel trilogy with the existence of the Sith Empires of the Expanded Universe—the Ruusan Reformation brought these two tiers of continuity into relative harmony, providing a dividing line between what would be known formally as the Old Republic and the Republic as it was seen in the prequels. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mark Hamill Makes Announcement About 'Star Wars' Future
Mark Hamill, who plays the legendary character Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, wants to clear the air on a comment he made that led many to believe he is quitting the franchise. Hamill, who starred in one of the most recent installments of the all-time great movie series, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, made it sound like he is indeed entirely done. "But my deal is, I had my time. I'm appreciative of that, but I really think they should focus on the future and all the new characters,' Hamill explained to Chris Agar of While that created a stir among Star Wars fans, Hamill has since clarified his comments. "I don't want to make a big pronouncement like, 'This is my decision.' I'm just saying that it really felt like a conclusion," he explained to Willie Geist on Sunday Today. "My character was given complete closure. I died, ironically, by overdosing on the Force, I might point out." "I saw headlines: 'Mark Hamill quit Star Wars.' Well, let me say, they haven't asked me," Hamill added. "It's not like they said, 'Please come back.' How much can you do with a Force Ghost? I'd like a movie set all in the Force Ghost realm. I could have conversations with Alec your lips to God's ears." Hamill goes on to add that with his character dying in Episode VIII, it's time for the franchise to move into the future. "I once the Skywalker trilogy was over, it was a whole new era for them [Lucasfilm]," he said. "I had my time. I'm really appreciative, but I'm really looking to the future for all these new projects," The franchise has routinely brought back departed Jedi through the use of Force Ghosts, so don't be surprised to see our favorite Skywalker make a cameo in a future film. Mark Hamill Makes Announcement About 'Star Wars' Future first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 18, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
The Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Darth Water's iconic Star Wars lightsaber set to fetch eye-watering sum at auction
A LIGHTSABER used by Darth Vader to battle Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi could sell for up to £2.6million at auction. September's sale is thought to be the first time a verifiable lightsaber prop from the original films has been up for grabs. An old British press camera flash handle was modified to make the prop. Special effects were then added by animators. Los Angeles auction house Propstore said: "The prop photo-matches The Empire Strikes Back and screen-matches Return of the Jedi through identifiable damage on the hilt, confirming it is the main lightsaber seen in the majority of Darth Vader's on-screen shots that include his bladed lightsaber. "Genuine lightsaber props from the original trilogy are exceptionally rare. This is believed to be the only hero lightsaber prop from the original Star Wars trilogy with verifiable screen use ever to be offered at public auction, and is widely considered one of the most sought-after items in Star Wars collecting." Brandon Alinger, Propstore COO, said: "The lightsaber, or laser sword as it was initially called, was imagined by George Lucas as the perfect defensive weapon for a more sophisticated age. "Nearly fifty years after the first Star Wars film, lightsabers are a universally recognised symbol of the world's most beloved film franchise and are consistently ranked as the most iconic and memorable props of all time. "They are the 'ruby slippers' of cinema's modern era. Surviving genuine lightsaber props from the original trilogy of films are exceedingly rare, and Propstore is honoured to present this historic artefact in our September sale. "It is a grail-level piece, worthy of the finest collections in the world. This lightsaber is simply everything you want it to be-one of the most significant Star Wars artefacts ever. "One of the most significant cinema artefacts ever." Batman and Star Wars memrobilia part of film and TV auction set to fetch £10 million 4
New York Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Darth Vader's lightsaber from original Star Wars trilogy to be auctioned off — expected to rake in up to $3 million
May the force — and fortunes — be with you. The lightsaber used by Darth Vader during the latter two films of the original 'Star Wars' trilogy will be auctioned off alongside a slew of other memorabilia from the franchise and is expected to rake in millions, according to a report. The hilt of the primary dueling lightsaber used by masked villian during 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi' will go on the market at Los Angeles' Propstore in September and is predicted to sell for anywhere between $1 million and $3 million. Advertisement 3 The lightsaber used by Darth Vader during the final two installments of the original trilogy will be auctioned off. Propstore The prop hilt is believed to be the first of its kind to go on the market, as no other lightsabers from the original trilogy ever went to private buyers. They were instead cycled through museums, with Luke Skywalker's lightsabe from 'The Empire Strikes Back' residing with Ripley's Believe It or Not. 'Surviving genuine lightsaber props from the original trilogy of films are exceedingly rare, and Propstore is honored to present this historic artifact in our September sale. It is a grail-level piece, worthy of the finest collections in the world,' Propstore COO Brandon Alinger told The Hollywood Reporter. Advertisement Starting in August, the prop will have its own press circuit from London to New York before finally parking in Beverly Hills, where it'll be sold to the highest bidder. The auction coincidies with the 45th anniversary of 'The Empire Strikes Back.' 3 The prop is expected to sell for $1 million to $3 million. ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection The same tour will feature other famed props from acclaimed classics, including the bullwhip and belt worn by Harrison Ford in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' and a hero close-up neuralyzer, or pen-like object that wipes minds, from 'Men in Black.' Advertisement Propstore features a long lineup of other relics from classic franchises, including more from 'Star Wars' like gifts given to crew members after the films wrapped and a replica of the lightsaber used by Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi Master played by Liam Neeson, in the prequels. 3 The lightsaber will be brought to New York in August on a press circuit. AP Darth Vader's dueling lightsaber was held on-screen by the late David Prowse, the physical actor for the Sith Lord, and stunt double Bob Anderson. The fallen Jedi was voiced by the legendary James Earl Jones. Advertisement In 2022, the gun used by Han Solo, played by Ford, in 'A New Hope' sold for $1 million. It is only one of three surviving models from the trilogy. In June 2024, a toy figurine of bounty hunter Boba Fett from the 1970s sold for a staggering $525,000.
Scottish Sun
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Incredible Star Wars themed glamping site that's in the middle of the desert with ‘sand cruisers' and sleeping domes
Guests are greeted by a story of the land before being able to dress up in the costumes STARRY EYED Incredible Star Wars themed glamping site that's in the middle of the desert with 'sand cruisers' and sleeping domes THIS is a sci-fi glamping experience that lets "Star Wars nerds" live out their film fantasy in a resort that looks like "Luke Skywalker's home planet". With cave-like houses, sand cruisers, trampolines and a bed covered by a see-through dome, guests can live out their dreams of stepping into the fantasy universe. Advertisement 6 Star Wars enthusiasts get to live out their film fantasy in the American desert Credit: outpost-x 6 The off-grid haven is three hours outside of Las Vegas Credit: Instagram/@outpost.x 6 Outpost-X is also an immersive experience so you can dress up in cosplay Credit: outpost-x The off-grid haven is a three-hour drive outside Las Vegas, in the middle of the Utah desert. Called Outpost-X, the movie themed resort is well-suited for sci-fi fans as it looks like it's on a Star Wars planet. What sets Outpost-X apart is its immersive experience. According to guests, the hosts of Outpost-X reach out with a podcast before arrival. The podcast tells the story of the planet, explains the lay of the land and introduces the characters - which you can dress up as with their cosplay rentals. Advertisement On-site, there are ten otherworldly places to spend the night; some are built to look like caves but are all modern inside, with beds, running water, showers, kitchenettes, and central heating. The Zen domes are designed to make the most of the clear night skies, which is why they're transparent. Being in the middle of the desert with little air pollution, the starry sky was described as "spectacular" by one guest. Connected to the dome is what looks like a mirrored box and inside there's a kitchenette, comfy seating area and bathroom. Advertisement There's also the beautiful Viking Tent with golden embellishment which is a cosy tent for two. The website even allows booking up the entire complex, although prices for this start from $5000 (£3,650). On-site there's a communal lounge which has meditation sessions and movies. You can stay in these six holiday homes from TV & Film 6 The movie set looking props make for Instagrammable pictures Credit: Instagram/@outpost.x 6 One of the biggest attractions is the five handmade sand cruisers Credit: Instagram/@outpost.x Advertisement One of the best parts of the resort is the sand cruisers, which are essentially go-karts. All five sand cruisers are hand-built, each inspired by a different sci-fi movie. There is an audio tour you can listen to while you race around the dried-up lake, or take a self-guided tour of the grounds. There are also trampolines, a fire pit, and a spa with a mud bath, cold water immersion, hot shower, sauna and hot tub. The resort opened last June but has had lots of Star Wars enthusiasts stay since then and was fully booked for the first six months. Advertisement You don't even need to book an overnight stay as there are day passes available too. One guest wrote on Tripadvisor: "We were so excited to visit Luke Skywalker's home planet." Another commented that they got the "best pictures" while "driving sand cruisers" at twilight. Some guests were not completely happy with their stay; one complained that the water was turned off in the early hours of the morning. Some commented that the project felt "rushed" but still praised it as a "different" and "fun experience". Advertisement For a themed stay in the UK, check out this holiday home that Legoland fans will love. And this stay is the UK's first Oliver Twist-themed holiday cottage.
