The decision of Masters Yoda and Creighton Sun to bury the secret of the Nameless Ones looks like the first fatal mistake of the Jedi.

This book sold the initial question "What scares the Jedi," for me 100 percent. Whatever the hell is going on with Planet X is terrifying and I want to know everything. Also, this book has easily the best SW cover imo. It's awesome.

I finished the book yesterday at like 1 am and... Those final chapters were [chef's kiss]

The irony of PoV and Phase II is how unnecessary the Path’s violence was in the end. They orchestrated all this chaos, watched the Jedi help others, and saw that as “proof” of their evil using the Force.

Hope we see Dagan Gera & Santari Kri in phase 3 as he was my reintroduction since January 2020

The Underdweller and the Protector were both cool and mystical like the people on Mortis. I hope we see more planets like them in the High Republic.

This and Path of Deceit also had incredible cover art.

I love the high republic era I definitely want to see more of it in media and games

Personally, this is easily my favorite book of phase 2. These characters are SO well written. I connected with them way more than the adult novel cast. Except maybe Axel.

I wonder if Elecia's case wouldn't be the reason why the Jedi would begin to use the Midichlorian testers. They would track back the origin of the Nihil, find about the Path and Elecia and would perhaps think that it would've been better if Elecia was taken into the Jedi Order and then became perhaps an Agricorps member rather than letting her behind.

So I've agreed with a criticism of phase two regarding how connected the readers got to the central Jedi character. Even after reading every book and all the comics that are out, I still have to remind myself who is who. After finishing Path of Vengeance, it hit me: Phase 2 is about Marda, Yanda, and the Path, rather than the Jedi who are supporting characters. Their story arcs are much more satisfying than that of the Jedi characters. And that, in a nutshell, is my biggest difference between Phase 2 and Phases 1 and (hopefully) phase 3.

I liked some of the Jedi characters in Phase 2: Gella, Creighton, and Enya were cool. I really enjoyed what Cataclysm did with Yaddle. Hopefully we see more of her in Phase 3 or The Acolyte.

Even though Marda still remains a believer in the Path's teachings, there's a bit of irony that her idea of what qualifies as a "Force abuser" changes and she's willing to cut the Jedi some slack at the end (she even saves some of them, and leaves Oliviah alive, albeit in a state shock because of the Leveler's presence). That leaves me to wonder if something else happened, information got lost or mixed up, the later Ros were distorting their own family history (whether deliberately or otherwise), or a combination of. (What little we heard about the Ro family history previously came from them, and the Unreliable Expositor/Narrator is a trope for a reason) I also like how the Mother's backstory doesn't even make her more sympathetic. Sure the Jedi turned her down, but given how disproportionate her actions are (and it's explicitly confirmed that she's purely motivated by jealousy), it makes her come off as a spoiled brat (bear in mind, her main Force expertise was mental manipulation, so she was probably used to getting what she wanted with it until the Jedi turned her down). Kinda like Marchion Ro.

This is in the running for my favorite HR book so far. The Rising Storm is up there as well. Cavan Scott is becoming one of my favorite authors.

Thanks for the review! I always love hearing what you have to say! Are you going to do Easter Egg breakdowns for the Phase II comics and books?

My take on Shea's child was that she is Mari San Tekkas mother, not Mari San Tekka herself. From what I remember, and what Wookieepedia also says, Mari San Tekka should have been around 6 years old at her abduction "a century ago" in relation to Phase 1. Phase 2 plays 150 years before that, and those 50 years area a bit too long to still label that a century... maybe 10-20 years, but no way I would let 50 extra years count. Meanwhile, if the child born is Mari's parent (either mother or father, it doesn't strictly have to be the mother I think), it would make way more sense I think. There even could be another generation in between...

Really loved the book, though (spoilers) I hope we’ll get an epilogue connecting the last chapters to Phase I. Something that ties Marda’s anti-Force mission to her getting into the pirate business and forming the proto-Nihil membership. Because those motives aren’t quite aligned just yet.

I finished last night…and have many many more questions than before, lol!

SPECTACULAR story, i love the Ro's

There were some elements of Phase 2 I really enjoyed particularly with the Path of the Open Hand and the Convocation. I like that Star Wars is finally rectifying the situation of the only Force users seemingly being Jedi and Sith which didn't make a lot of sense. But having read most of Phase 2 content I still don't really get why we jumped back 150 years instead of just continuing off Phase 1. I'm sure Phase 2 elements will play into Phase 3 but I really would've rather just continued the Story we already had than start a whole new storyline in the past

I'll have to look into checking this one out sometime sounds really good.

As someone who waits for the trades to read the comics, I feel they should have included Oliviah in the books more to make that reveal hit a bit more. Edit: Should’ve finished the video before I commented, but on the same page.

Glad you could finally catch up with the books, Alex. 😂

Can I go into Path of Vengeance having only read Convergence, Battle of Jedha, and Cataclysm?

Totally missed the Mari thing lol. Super satisfied with The Mother's death

I haven’t read any phase 2, but is it possible that Planet X is that planet from the Padawan obiwan young adult novel? The force stuff reminds me of that, as well as the “hidden” nature of the planet

Does anyone know why the mother isnt affected by the leveller? Everyone else is terrified by them but the mother is fine.

i also dont remember how i knew olivia and elecia were related, but i knew both their last names. hm

I bet planet x is Tanalor.

Personally I prefer the characters of phase 1 and didn’t really connect as much to the ones of phase 2, happy to see them again

Meanwhile me stuck waiting for the comic series to end so I don't get spoiled on the battle of jakku

But the book isn't out yet according to Audible it comes out June 6th

Phase 3 can't come soon enough! I wasn't really into the second Phase much, so I'm glad we're finally moving past that.

Planet X should have been called Nibiru.

While I’m enjoying the High Republic books, and I did really like Path of Vengeance, I find the timeline and sequence of books and comics very confusing and hard to follow. Between the adult books, the Young Adult books and comics, it is difficult to figure out what order to read them in. Even the official Star Wars web site does not make it clear. Why not label the book High Republic phase 2, book 4, or something else, so readers don’t get lost. Personally I don’t care much for the YA books, except for anything from Claudia Gray. They shouldn’t bury important plot details in what are essentially kid books.

I hate reading "Phases" in the context of Star Wars.

1stt

A lot of these high republic books have really generic titles eh

I'm not saying anything about Cavan Scott's writing-style, but they really need to give him less full creative control in some areas. He often just mindlessley inserts random aliens with one appearance in the entire franchise into his stories and it's so damn annoying and distracting. That Morseerian-Jedi was the final straw for me. I think my worst fears were finally confirmed.