Why You Should Be Reading The High Republic - Phase One Review 

To anyone exhausted to keep up with all the new content: give audiobooks a shot!! I found it so much easier and pleasant to listen to the books while doing chores and commuting. They incorporate music and sound effects and all the voice artists are amazing as well.

Why you should be reading The High Republic: 🗿GEODE🗿

"My biggest criticism is that I want more of it." I really felt that sentence

I think the best part of high republic so far is they are not afraid to kill people honestly

I got into the High Republic via the comics by Cavan Scott, they seemed like the easiest "in" to see if I liked the era before committing to a book and I loved it! I've read every issue and Trail of Shadows, was blown away by both of them and I'm planning on using the downtime between shows to catch up on the novels, which I can't wait to dive into

I've started reading Light of the Jedi and I'm about halfway through it and am in love with this book so much

I got into the High Republic era because of you. Ended up reading everything, from the children's books to the middle-grade, YA and adult novels, plus the comics. Listened to the audio drama, too. It's the best thing to happen to the world of Star Wars in years. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, without which I would never have ventured into this era.

Me, every time I see a new Star Wars Eplained High Republic video pop up: "Brillant, brilliant!"

Gonna be that guy, but damn, if they had planned the sequels with half of the planning they are making for the High republic, It would have been so much better (still like them tough)...

I wasn't a fan of The Bad Batch or The Book of Boba Fett, so I'm glad the High Republic was there to keep me invested in Star Wars. It feels original and refreshing, and it's simply just very well-planned and well-executed storytelling. I can't wait for phase 2!

Do you think the nameless at the end of Phase 1 finally answered the question that has been poised throughout this era and that is: “What do the Jedi fear the most?” Is the answer presented to us as “Fear itself”since the levellers induce and heighten what the Jedi fear through hallucinations?

Pretty happy that HR so far has been doing well. I do plan to get all the primary adult novels some day.

I loved the stories shown in Phase One of the High Republic

I remember when High Republic was announced and there was so much backlash around it that I kinda steered away from it (though more out of a lack of interest. For the most part, it felt like detractors were blowing things out of proportion). Seeing people now say that it's really good, it feels familiar. Isn't this exactly what happened with the Prequels? Kinda ironic

The High Republic has impressed me so much! It feels like a living breathing corner of the Star Wars timeline that has always been there since the beginning. And The Rising storm is probably my favorite Star Wars novel hands down.

The High Republic is now my second favorite era of Star Wars, with the Prequel/Fall of the Republic era being my number one favorite.

Cool! I look forward to getting through phase one.

Loved the first phase, glad it had a happy ending :)

I can not explain my excitement for the High Republic initiative properly. I want all the merch and all the books and comics. I'm completely enraptured. Wow. Just everything I've ever thought star wars should be. It's amazing.

I started reading the comic and honestly I find myself enjoying them more than I thought I would. It has this new but fresh feeling.

I have pre ordered almost every High Republic story and yet I'm still on Light of the Jedi because I just don't have the energy and the overwhelming Star Wars content has burned me out. I really wish I had Alex's energy and dedication.

When the High Republic project was announced, I had high hopes for it since it would focus on the Jedi and Republic at their height. But it has definitely surpassed my expectations. I love how the Jedi have been handled. They all feel so unique, with their different views on how they see and connect to the force, and they are out there helping people, inspiring hope. I'm currently reading "The Fallen Star" and I'm loving it. Although at the same time I'm afraid for all the Jedi stationed on Starlight, with the sense of dread growing each moment. As for phase 2, I hope they focus more on the exploration and discovery of new territories in the Outer Rim, since in phase 1 it already seemed to be pretty well mapped. And I can't wait to meet new Jedi and see the state in which the Jedi Order and Republic are at that point in the timeline.

THANK YOU For this video. Very helpful!

I must say that I love the High Republic. The Galactic Republic still exists and many things are familiar yet so different; the Jedi and the republic are so optimistic, the timeline is realistic, the plots are really good...but what I love perhaps the most are the Nihil. Previously in all the media the enemies were dark side cults (e.g. Sith), crime syndicates (e.g. Hutts), tyrants or tycoons. But the Nihil are neither of those things and they behave and look like something out of Mad Max. So overall I'm really looking forward to the 2nd wave.

I’ve loved all of the novels and YA novels enough that I’m on a second read through on all. I’m thrilled to have such a wealth of stories to read. Books are actually my favorite way to move through a story, but I’ve enjoyed this era so much that I really want to see it animated or live action. I understand maybe The Acolyte will be at the end of this era and that there’s possibly another Disney+ story set in the HR…? Bring it on!

I agree, this is the closest thing we've gotten to the 90s EU days and I absolutely love it. Can't wait to read what comes next!

After the High Republic finish, i recommend new star wars fans to read star wars canon comics chrogonically, that means from the high republic all the way to the newest comics, since i guess it'll organize your memory better, me over here regret reading starting from the middle, it makes me confused and makes me forget about the lore a lot.

I've been loving THR so far, but i agree that it should maybe slow down just a bit. I've been trying to keep up with the new books since the start, but I'm full time in university and working so it's been hard to keep up (I'm only on The Rising Storm right now)

I'd be very excited to see more about the plans of the Nihil and where they truly come from. Phase two is getting into their origins, and that of their leader Marchion Ro. I have a feeling that we'll learn who's truly been pulling the strings as this part of the story expands. This has been such an interesting era to learn about and I can't wait!

I was late to the game but I have loved The High Republic and highly recommend it. The YA novels, graphic novels, Manga… all such enjoyable Star Wars tales. I don’t want to get caught up and have to start waiting for releases, but that’s not a worry at the moment because I still have a lot of Phase 1 left.

I must admit that I was rather bummed out (and burned out) after the Sequel Trilogy, so I took a step back from SW for a while. The High Republic has been a joy to read, even if it has only been the three main novels (so far?).

There's a Padawan with a "dog" that's reason enough to read

Thank you, Alex! ✨

I really liked seeing that Disney+ insider episode about the process of the high republic. It was very cool overall I thought.

High republic is amazing

Just finishing up Phase 1 with Mission to Disaster now, I've loved the interactive storytelling and I can't think of any other example where I've been this invested in so many characters and events. Everything seems seamless. I'm a little disappointed it's going further back in time in Phase 2 but I'm sure they have a good reason and we'll get back to the characters we know and love in Phase 3.

Star Wars is alive and well and I’m loving everything about it!

For universes that are as lore heavy as SW, i think planning is pretty important ! Whether it is books, movies or series i think it is always a win ! That doesn’t mean you cannot make control changes along the way. The high republic is proof of that !

I have thoroughly enjoyed the High Republic era so far. I have read the main trilogy and comic series as well as Trail of Shadows (which is one of the best Star Wars comics I have read). The Rising Storm in particular might be my favorite piece of Star Wars reading (book or comic) that I have read so far. Can’t wait to see what comes out over the next few years.

As a person who’s read everything but the comics, I totally agree that the pace of Phase 1 was too fast. There were two MAJOR enemy groups, but only one got any time in the books! I think the Dringir deserved at least one wave of their own. Plus, the whole time period was like… maybe two years? It feels like the conflicts were resolved too quickly. But other than that critique (which, as you say, is just wanting “more”), I am totally in love with the era! Reath, Bell, Ram, Zeen, Stellan, Elzar… some of my favorite characters in all of canon! And I could think of so many more! Really incredible work by all the authors.

Thanks for sharing ♐

SPOILERS FOR THE FALLEN STAR AND FINAL PHASE 1 MAINLINE HIGH REPUBLIC COMIC ISSUE 15 In The Fallen Star novel when it mentions Maru making a concentrated effort (Elzar or Stellan senses an enormous effort centred at the Hub) I assumed he was just leading a group of Jedi to hold the station together… but nah this guy is so badass he single-handedly held the station for as long as he could, no doubt saving countless lives. Genuinely don’t know if we’ve ever seen a more monumental feat achieved through the Force in any other comic or movie. His final words with Avar were heartbreaking, a hero to the very end.

That is why i ma starttng making star wars books in high or old republics.

High Republic is PEAK Star Wars. If you're not consuming everything in THR, you're truly missing out!

People begged for the Sequel trilogy to: tackle new ideas in an era that didn't feel like something we'd seen before, have engaging characters, new villains, feel like Star Wars. Now the High Republic does all of that extraordinarily well, and these same people ignore it lol

Rising storm is my favorite novel of Starwars after the thrawn triology

I love it too!

I as of now only have light of the Jedi and into the dark but I hope to get the other novels and comics, as I am starting to extend out of the movie's and TV shows

I take my time with this story, and really enjoy this series

Just got the main wave 3 books today, now I just gotta wait for a few more books & comics to release then my Phase One set is complete!!

I agree this is probably the biggest thing I look forward to in Star Wars today is this era. That and when they finally pick back up the Sequel era with stories when they're ready.

The many characters of both phases so far reminds me of a Russian novel. Which I am definitely here for.

I just bought Light of the Jedi! I'll be starting my High Republic journey soon. What do you guys think about skipping the middle grade books? Will I miss an important part of the story?

One problem I have with the High Republic is I feel like they regressed the galaxy too much, like they only managed to go into the outer rim 200 years before TPM?

Can you imagin tim zahn and the high republic group doing the chiss ascendancy from when thrawn and ezra disappeared!!!

It’s a shame about eclipse. That would’ve been media coverage of the high republic

I git really into it. Read the novels the YA novels and the comics

I love high republic but I want Claudia Gray to write Lost stars sequel and other standalone novels

I love the high republic, once they live action and video games start playing in this era then it will Hopefully blow up in the mainstream.

Not gonna lie, Star Wars really hast lost its appeal to me over the years. The only real recent movie I enjoyed was Solo and Mando / Boba Fett are, you know, whatever, they are fine I guess. But the 6 main High Republic novels have drawn me back into the universe like never before. It's mind blowing that only six novels can do that, they are SO well planned that one must wonder where all that planning was during the making of the sequel trilogy. It still seems they don't really have a plan in the movie department. I really hope Disney does something with this story, it's literally at the height of the Jedi Order, something we never really saw in the movies, since, you know, war. I only read the "main" novels, so I don't really have read the middle grade books and so far it's just easy to just wiki those characters if they pop up. If people are overwhelmed with all the content, this is how I have read them in this order: 1) Light of the Jedi (Adult book) 2) Into The Dark (YA book, runs at the same time as the first book) 3) The Rising Storm (Adult book) 4) Out of The Shadows (Ya Book, set several months after the previous book) 5) The Fallen star (Adult book, sort of the "final main book" but some characters only appear in the next one) 6) Midnight Horizon (Ya book, I see this as a sort of epilogue for the previous book, it runs at the same time and it feaures characters that didn't get to be in the last one so it's nice to see their character arcs finished in this one, this book also features a little epilogue set after the previous book)

I actually felt like the phase 2 adult novels are even better than phase 1

I'm asking a lot but I would love to see Moebius draw several issues of Star Wars: High Republic!!! I would love to see his rendering of the Star Wars universe!

I will start by saying I didn't really get into this as much as I wanted/expected to. I've only read the adult novels which turns out to be about 2% of all available media. So while, yes, you get the broader strokes, if you're only reading 2% of something, you're not getting the bigger picture. So when Fallen Star ended, I felt like almost nothing happened. (I know stuff happened, just going off the feeling I have about the books.) I can't tell you why. They were too short, there were a lot of people to keep track of, maybe it was just too new and too unrealized to make me care, but the way it ended (and I won't spoil it) left me feeling a little empty. Now, I didn't feel this way about the recent other groups of books like Alphabet Squadron, Thrawn, or Aftermath and those also had enough new characters and places. Maybe it's that the team was working so hard to have all this be so intertwined that each individual story suffered a little. Just felt very flat to me, and I didn't want it to.

I read Light of the Jedi and I'm starting on Rising Storm, but I'm honestly having trouble getting engaged when I know how the galaxy will turn out by the era of the films. It's a prequel problem on more serious scale than Ep. 1, 2, and 3, which at least had familiar characters to flesh out. I'm also not loving how every book and comic looks nearly the same from a distance: Jedi dramatically posing with their lightsabers.

Still waiting for Midnight horizon.. Might get it in audiable

I read midnight horizons and I also watched your review of it and I think because I don't read any of the comics I didn't enjoy the book. The only things I enjoyed from that book are the continued story of Reath Silas.

Your one criticism is how I feel about some of my favorite characters. I wanted more Kantam from the start, but it felt like I had to wait so long to finally start getting good content with them in the Bake Off and Midnight Horizon at the end of Phase III. I also feel so much disappointment with Cohmac's story. I adored him from the get go in Into the Dark, but since then, it felt like he was a footnote in everyone elses stories. He was just a warm body in OotS and he could have been replaced with anyone. I liked his payoff in Midnight Horizon, but it didn't feel like it had proper build up of how he got there. He's constantly separated from Reath and we barely see them together as master and padawan. Heck, Lula and Kantam have only had one solo missions and it's how they met. Sy spent more time with Ram than their own padawan, which bothers me. It also bugs me that Elzar, Avar, and Stellan are touted as these three important friends, and the three of them were only in the same room once. And it was for Star Wars #20, not even in THR era comic. I hope with more writers, we get some more time with all of these characters to really focus in on them and they slow down the story pace just a little bit. As someone who enjoys character work over plot, it was the one part of THR I really missed. Some people like Keeve and Vernestra got to shine. But not everyone got the same treatment, even in their own stories.

My favourite Disney Works are the Vader comics and the Dooku audiobook.

I haven’t read any High Republic yet but I have just bought Light of the Jedi. I wish they would do Star Wars about 100 years after the events of Episode IX. Maybe the rise of a new Jedi Order with the presence of a new enemy maybe from outside the galaxy, not necessarily a Yuuzhan Vong redo, shows, movies and books of course.

I fully agree that we needed more time with these characters, locations, etc. But, I feel like the books came out WAAAAAYYYYYY too slowly. It should have been one book a month for each section: adult, YA, and MG, for six months or so for Phase One. Waiting months between books was silly, particularly given how quickly we’re all used to consuming media at this point. And particularly as each book felt like a really good episode of tv. So yes: more books and more time spent with characters and locations! And a monthly release schedule!

You guys should make a video about the order to read this High Republic Era.

I think I'll read all the marvel stuff!

More videos next week? Does that mean we'll finally get some spoiler talk? If so, yay!!

Is there a suggested reading order for The High Republic? I WANT TO READ THIS ALL!!!!!!

On the thumbnail, did we ever see the character with the black lightsaber on the bottom right??

Just finished light of the Jedi yesterday

I think I'd be more inclined to get into it if I could just get the whole thing in one big volume, in correct chronological order. It'd probably need to be an eBook, but I'm fine with that. It would be somewhat ambitious to merge novels, comics and manga that way, but if they're going to spread out the story that way, an omnibus edition collecting all of it makes sense, and deals with the downside of having the story spread across multiple formats, which I know is a turn off for a lot of people.

I own all of Phase One novelization. The comics may be a little outside my budget to stay up with. I almost quit at the slow pace of book one. Just as I was going to give it up WHAM! Just like that, it pulled me in. Now on to book two. It had so many characters and very slow pace. Around chapter 25, BAM! "Just when I thought I was out, they bring me back in." These Jedi in this Era are absolutely far more superior to the Jedi of the Clone Wars. they are masters of the four and utilize it responsibly. They love, they feel anger, and they do not create zombies with no emotion. I love these Jedis my friends give the book a try and keep mushing through you will not be disappointed

I’m late to the party, but best Star Wars ever for me

I haven't read all the novels, but I was super impressed with the main comic line

Yeah, the time jump backwards scares me… not going to lie 😬

Planning really does make perfect! To bad episodes 7, 8 and 9 didn't get the memo.

What are considered the "Main Novels" for Phase 1? There is too much for me to keep up with but I would like to at least do that. Are these the 3 that are considered the "adult" novels? Is he saying you can read those 3 and get a good sense but then all the other stuff - Young adult, middle grade, comics, etc are all good stories that fill in?

Is there a reliable source to find a listing of the phase one books/comics? Is there a list in chronological order?

I love the high republic. Currently it’s my favorite thing Star Wars is doing! The comics have been so surprising and refreshing and I love the characters

My biggest problem with the high republic is just that I don't have the time and money to get into it. I read Light of the Jedi and loved it, but comics and novels are expensive :/ I wish I could just pay some kind of subscription for access to it all and read at my pace from there.

Hello great video 😁 Are the main novels in the high republic the following: light of the jedi, the rising storm, tempest runner and the fallen star?

You gonna make a phase two review soon?

I hope Lucasfilm will approach the new movies in a similar manner with brand new content that do not rely on any of the existing eras !

Rogue One hits Legends! Book 2 soon.

Do you have a suggested reading order? How about most important books, order?

What was the "surprising character death in book one"?

Whats the proper reading order for Phase One?

Who was the unplanned death?

I have had a bit of mixed feelings on each of the novels light of the Jedi was pretty good so was into the dark and out of the shadows but i feel like they put a little too much in them like I’m reading the rising storm right now and it has at least 5 set of characters it follows and I just feel like that is a bit too much because we are following bell ibus, stellan and gios, marchion ro, lorna dee, and Ty and I honestly feel like if we just followed Ty, Bell Ibus and marchion ro we would have gotten a much better novel or if we really need to follow stellan and Gios then we should cut out Ty because then it would be easier to have a better story but they seem like they are trying to cram in. Don’t get me wrong I am enjoying the novel but it feels like there’s just a bit too much

What kinda clues have everyone been seeing in phase 1 in preparation for phase 2

The best.

What is the order of the novels to read it? I want to buy the main story. Not the children novels.

Can someone tell me what is considered canon?

👏👏👏