*All posts in the Star Wars Canon series contain minor spoilers
“This is how twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption and treachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not just the end of a republic; night is falling on civilization itself. This is the twilight of the Jedi.” Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Written by: Matthew Stover
Published: April 2, 2005
When does Revenge of the Sith take place? 19 BBY
Synopsis:
After three years of civil war across the galaxy, the Separatists have abducted Supreme Chancellor Palpatine during a battle on Coruscant. Heroes of the Clone Wars, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, are sent to rescue him aboard General Grievous’s dreadnought, the Invisible Hand. Meanwhile, the Jedi Council fear that Count Dooku’s warning about the Republic being under the influence of a Sith lord is true. They search through the Senate to find who this mysterious Sith might be.
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The Revenge of the Sith novelization is quite different than the previous Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones ones. There are very few scenes and lines that are copied right out of the film; it tells its own story of the events that take place. The writing style is unique, and gives lots of inside looks into what the characters are thinking and feeling. Throughout the story, there are asides which pause the action of the story to profile in on a specific character. They all start along the lines of “This is Obi-Wan Kenobi:” or “This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker.” Because of this, there was a lot of detail, and I found the story dragged on in some places. The rescue of Palpatine took place over a third of the book.
Since this book was written before the Clones Wars tv show, there ends up being quite a bit of detail mentioned that takes place during the war that is no longer considered canon, such as Depa Billaba turning to the dark side and Obi-Wan believing Darth Maul died on Naboo. The book took lots of liberties with talking about the Clone Wars since there wasn’t a lot of media about it at the time. This makes it hard for the book to hold true today. There were also some mistakes in the book over things that have always been canon such as stating that Padmé was the youngest ever elected queen of Naboo, when in the Attack of the Clones movie, she tells Anakin she wasn’t the youngest.
I did like how Palpatine was written. It makes it very clear how he is able to switch back and forth between Palpatine and Sideous in the blink of an eye. There is a conversation between him and Count Dooku when he is captured where he starts out as Sideous as the discuss Sith-y things, but then he changes into Palpatine as it gets closer to his rescue by Anakin and Ob-Wan. It is really well written and shows an inside look at how a single man could rule both sides of the war.
I was not impressed with how Padmé was written though. She goes from such a strong senator and leader in Attack of the Clones and the Clone Wars show, to someone who is extremely unsure of herself and is more than willing to give up everything she’s worked for to run away with Anakin. It wasn’t very believable and really belittled a strong female character.
I also need to talk about Baby Yoda. No, not the Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian who is all the rage right now, but how Yoda disguised himself as a baby to sneak back into the Jedi Temple with Obi-Wan to send out a warning to any remaining Jedi after Order 66. It was absolutely ridiculous, but also kind of hilarious considering how popular Baby Yoda is now.
Overall, the book did keep me engaged and did offer quite a bit more insight to the story outside of the film, more so than the previous two novelization for the prequels. But I did find it difficult to read after watching the entire Clone Wars series because of so many inconsistencies written that are now known to be canon.
Have you read the Revenge of the Sith novelization? What did you think of it?
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Complete list of Star Wars Canon Novels
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