The Star Wars social media channels continue to put out new video shorts focusing on different characters from the High Republic, and they’re very cool.
In recent days, we have gotten videos about the Nihil, Bell Zettifar, and Lina Soh! Check them out:
The Nihil:
The Nihil are very interesting villains to me, and in particular I thought that their leader, Marcion Ro, was quite captivating and I can’t wait to find out more about him. In the larger picture, we obviously know that the villains of this era can’t be the Sith (at least explicitly), given what the prequels explained about the return of the Sith, so one of the big challenges for the storytellers of this era was about who the bad guys would be. They came up with the Nihil, who are marauders and thieves, but as we learned in Light of the Jedi, their leader has bigger plans. There’s still a lot we don’t know about them, but that’s even more true of the Republic and the Jedi in these stories – they don’t know what they’re up against. In fact, in the first novel, it seems that the Republic assumes they have already taken care of the threat, but we as the readers know that couldn’t be further from the truth – the threat is only beginning.
It’s cool to get a glimpse at artwork depicting the Nihil in this video, as well as a brief introduction to them. And if I’m drawing the right conclusions, I think that’s the symbol of the Nihil at the end, which is pretty awesome as well.
The Jedi:
The first two shorts focused on Jedi, as we got a look at Vernestra Rwoh and Avar Kriss, who are perhaps the two main Jedi from the first two novels (Rwoh in A Test of Courage and Kriss in Light of the Jedi). And while you can see that these videos don’t focus exclusively on Jedi, they obviously will feature a lot of them. Next up is Bell Zettifar, who was a particular favorite of mine in Light of the Jedi and who I can’t wait to learn more about. The apprentice to Loden Greatstorm, Zettifar and his master assist with the fallout on Hetzal Prime in wake of the Great Disaster, and later are caught up in an adventure that proves far more dangerous.
The Chancellor:
And then there’s Supreme Chancellor Lina Soh, who governs the Republic during this era of great expansion, helping to unify the Republic through her slogan, “We are all the Republic.” From what we have seen of her so far, she seems like a noble and wise leader with a good heart and faithful followers, and of course, she is accompanied by her pets and protectors. I really can’t wait to read more about Chancellor Soh.
Even though I’m reading all the stories about the High Republic, I’m really enjoying this series of videos. As I’ve said previously, it’s great to see the era get such attention, and it’s great to actually get to “see” these characters in beautiful art and animation. These are really cool, and I hope that they are well-received and not only help introduce other people to this era and its characters, but perhaps lead to even more animated stuff about the High Republic moving forward.
Star Wars Thoughts 