The Balance of the Force

In tPM film, we see Sith, master and apprentice. Was that "master" supposed to be Palpatine?

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Yes. He makes it clear when he makes the transmission to the Trade Federation, and says something like "This is my apprentice, Darth Maul."

Again - I have never read the books, but I thought that the "only two" thing was more of a result of what the Sith are than a law. Since they desire power so much, when a third joins the ranks, invariably two of them will join up and kill the other. You see it happening all the time. Dooku tries to get Obi Wan to join him and kill Sidius. Sidius gets Anakin to kill Dooku. Both Darth Vader and the Emperor try to convince Luke to join them and kill the other.

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It is more traditionally, the apprentice rises up and kills his master, and finds his own apprentice. Dooku realised he needed help to rise against Palpatine, which is why he tried to get Obi-Won to join him. The Emperor was more interested in another slave than an apprentice, when he said "You, like your father, are now mine."

Thanks, Luke Wolf.

It would seem that the plot in Star Wars is far more complex than I have led to believe.

Sidius/Palpatine, Dooku and Anakin/Darth Vader are humans in look; is Darth Maul
alien...I mean non-human?

Darth Maul is a non-human. He is of the Zabr'ak species.

The movies are such a narrow view of the Star Wars universe that they hardly do it justice. To really understand it you must read the books. Most of them are well written and fairly exciting to read.

My view of the profecy and bringing balance to the force is that the galaxy was overrun with the Jedi. Their presence was so loud that it wasn't the dark side that was clouding their vision, but the overwhelming noise caused by so many jedi drawing on the Force. Anakin brought the force into balance by either killing or forcing the jedi into hiding. The jedi that went into hiding either stopped using the Force and suppressing their presence, or like yoda, balanced their use of the force by being near a 'dark echo' such as the cave Luke went into in Ep V.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sith didn't die with Vader and Palpatine, just like Yoda and Obi-wan weren't the only Jedi left after Ep III. The books have quite a few from each side popping up throughout the years.

As for the Black Fleet book trilogy, the hunt that Luke goes on for his mother was made up by the girl so that Luke would help her out. I dont remember the specifics of that trilogy, it has been many years since I read it.

My favorite Star Wars books have been the 'Thrawn Trilogy' and the 'Hand of Thrawn' duology written by Timothy Zahn. Right up there with those those books is 'The New Jedi Order' series of books. The current series of books 'Legacy of the Force' is also very promising, I have enjoyed the three books that have been published and eagerly await the next, due out the end of this month.

Not to say that those are the only good books, but those are the ones that I felt were the very best.

I would recommend these books to every Star Wars fan, but to get the full picture you should get a list of all the Star Wars books in chronological order and start from the beginning, well at least the books after Ep IV 'A New Hope'. I have enjoyed watching the characters grow and change over time. What I've read of the prequel books aren't bad either, but I am more attached to the characters from Episodes 4, 5, & 6

May the Force be with Ya'll:yoda:

Darth Maul is a non-human. He is of the Zabr'ak species.

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Thank you for posting that. I couldn't remember what species Maul is. I remembered the characteristics, such as horns, and an extremely high/godly threshold for pain, but not the name.

As for the Black Fleet book trilogy, the hunt that Luke goes on for his mother was made up by the girl so that Luke would help her out. I dont remember the specifics of that trilogy, it has been many years since I read it.

My favorite Star Wars books have been the 'Thrawn Trilogy' and the 'Hand of Thrawn' duology written by Timothy Zahn. Right up there with those those books is 'The New Jedi Order' series of books. The current series of books 'Legacy of the Force' is also very promising, I have enjoyed the three books that have been published and eagerly await the next, due out the end of this month.

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I haven't read the Black Fleet Trilogy yet. Gonna have to check them out though, as I have read a large percentage of the Star Wars books. I also need to read the New Jedi Order books that I haven't read yet. I read all the ones that major events happen in, but not every last one, yet.
I havent read any of the Legacy of The Force books yet.

If one were to start reading the Star Wars books (which, for me at least won't be for a while, but they might work their way up the list) - can anyone offer a good order for reading them?

Thanks.

SoyLeche said:

If one were to start reading the Star Wars books (which, for me at least won't be for a while, but they might work their way up the list) - can anyone offer a good order for reading them?

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The mighty Wiki has a Good list of Star Wars Books

If I had never read any of them, I would start at the top and work my way down.
If you would like to read about the characters in the original trilogy, start at the "Han Solo Trilogy"
If you want to read about the prequels, I'd start at 'Cloak of deception'


I have never read any of the non-canon books or any of the online only (E) books.

I only read a few of the youth (Y) books, in the 'Young Jedi Knights' series, they aren't too bad as far as some back story on the Solo twins, plays a little role later on but not an essential read for the overall effect. The target audience for those book are the preteens. Only reason I read them was that they were the only star wars books in the library that I hadn't read, but this was many years ago.

Luke Wolf said:

It is more traditionally, the apprentice rises up and kills his master, and finds his own apprentice. Dooku realised he needed help to rise against Palpatine, which is why he tried to get Obi-Won to join him. The Emperor was more interested in another slave than an apprentice, when he said "You, like your father, are now mine."

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Since I didn't read the books, I didn't understand why Dooku had Palpatine bound in the beginning of the 3rd prelude film. I thought that they were on the same side, and that Palpatine was trying to trick Anakin into believing that he was Dooku's captive.

So what you have explained, explains a lot that the film didn't explain.

If they were really enemies, then how come Palpatine took over the storm-troopers so easily?

Dooku was part of the rebel forces against the republic and thus had no controls over the republic forces.

Palpatine however was the supreme chancellor who had originally conscripted the clone army and had place certain protocols into them that only he was aware of.

If you would like to read about the characters in the original trilogy, start at the "Han Solo Trilogy"

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OOOOOOhhhhhh....I HIGHLY recommend that trilogy. It's one of my favorites. I read all three books in one weekend because they are so good. As the name implies, it mainly focuses on Han, and his past, his life in slavery, training for the Imperial Academy, many adventures, meeting Chewy, all the way up to were he meets Luke and Ben in A New Hope.

gnostic said:

Since I didn't read the books, I didn't understand why Dooku had Palpatine bound in the beginning of the 3rd prelude film. I thought that they were on the same side, and that Palpatine was trying to trick Anakin into believing that he was Dooku's captive.

So what you have explained, explains a lot that the film didn't explain.

If they were really enemies, then how come Palpatine took over the storm-troopers so easily?

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Palpatine was using Dooku to create a false threat against the Republic (a .... Phantom Menace if you will) so that he can seize controll of the Senate and implement the clone army he had already commissioned.