The Best of 2021: Star Wars: The High Republic Stories by Author

2021 was a big year for The Geeky Waffle. We added four new shows to our network, and expanded our website in so many ways, all thanks to the hard work of our talented hosts and contributors. This week, we’re taking a look back at all the highlights of 2021 as we look to the future of the Waffle in 2022.

by Hope

Something that personally made my 2021 so much better was the release of Star Wars: The High Republic. I immediately fell in love with this time period of a galaxy far, far away. The victories are well earned. The tragedies are truly heartbreaking. It’s easily becoming one of my favorite eras in this franchise.

At the helm are five amazing writers who bring so much to Project Luminous. So as we look back on this past year of Phase I, I wanted to talk about my favorite High Republic entry from each writer.

Keep in mind these are all my opinions! Let me know your favorites in the comments!

Justina Ireland

A Test of Courage completely took me by surprise in so many ways. I’ll admit, I was one of those people who thought it would be just fine. It’s a middle-grade book. It would be some cute story and that’s it.

Boy, did Justina prove me so wrong! She hit me right where I love Star Wars the most: with a brilliant character-driven story. I was not expecting it to be about young people processing grief in their own unique ways. After a year like 2020, it was so cathartic to read this story. The world was mourning from an ongoing pandemic. Justina gave us four looks at how to process difficult emotions. It felt so personal as we got to really sit with these kids. They each had their own issues to deal with while trying to survive in a new, harsh environment. It really got to me in the most unexpected way.

A Test of Courage is one of the quieter books in The High Republic, but it’s definitely one of the most important ones. It teaches its okay to mourn, to open up to people, and to help each other. It was just what I needed at the right time.

Daniel José Older

The High Republic Adventures is the highlight of my month. I love these kids. While still having dire stakes and dealing with loss, this comic brings some much-needed levity to The High Republic. I mean it gave us Buckets of Blood and I’ll fight anyone who doesn’t like Torban Buck.

But it never goes too lighthearted either. It’s still a story about children experiencing war for the first time and how it affects them all differently. Zeen is so ridiculously complex for a teenage protagonist. Lula struggles feel so relatable. Watching Farzala and Qort learn how to handle difficult situations is admirable. This comic feels right at home to me as a Clone Wars fan, seeing a lot of parallels in these teenagers and early Ahsoka Tano. These kids mean so much to me and I want to give each and every one of them a big hug.

This title has also given me my dear Kantam Sy, someone who I have grown to love so much. Granted, some of this comes from my fandom goggles of shipping them with Cohmac which doesn’t help with Midnight Horizon looming in the new year. But Sy has become so important to a queer fan like me. They are just one example of the many brilliant queer characters we’ve gotten in the last year from this era.

I am so excited to see Sy fully get fleshed out in a novel come February!

Cavan Scott

As tempting as it is to pick The Rising Storm, because it is an amazingly written book, I am not over Loden yet so it still pains me to think about it to this day. We’ll call this novel an honorable mention.

But that’s also because Cavan’s ongoing The High Republic comic has been stellar out of the gate. Keeve Trennis is such a delight. I love that young woman so much, and it’s been the greatest joy to watch her come into her own. Sskeer’s slow downfall has been heartbreaking as it feels like a huge looming tragedy is just around the corner with him. Also, watching Avar slowly unravel is one of the best character arcs so far. This comic has taken her from a character I liked fine in Light of the Jedi, but it made her incredibly human as her walls begin to crack apart. Avar is quickly becoming a character that I want to know more about as we move forward.

It also gave me two of my favorite moments thus far. The reveal that Sskeer and Orla have hooked up is something I am still screaming about. And only in comic form do we get to see Cohmac’s glorious hair always blowing in the breeze. I love it.

Jeez, though, I am not prepared for sad Orla if something happens to Sskeer. I will cry along with her.

Charles Soule

While I adore Light of the Jedi, and it gave me my first love Loden Greatstorm, my sweet boy Bell, and the best girl Ember, and I recognize that it’s an incredibly difficult book to write so props to Charles on that, it’s not my favorite thing that he has written so far.

My favorite thing was the short story from The High Republic Adventures Annual “Set for Life.” Maybe it was because I was really missing Loden Greatstorm who is still my favorite High Republic character. Maybe it was because we didn’t have enough time with him and Bell. This comic was just so wholesome for those few pages to see the pair together. It was so much fun to see Porter and Indeera. The bits of best girl Ember just being a delight was a treat.

And I think the message of the story felt very timely. Loden flat out tells Bell the Jedi don’t protect people from being idiots. In year two of a raging pandemic, that really hit home that we have to protect the ones we love because not everyone will listen and follow logic. Loden again and again shines as one of the best Jedi ever written, and I love this man.

Also to be very petty, it was great to finally get hot Loden. All the official artwork is gross. He’s a charming, charismatic, handsome man! Sam Beck, the artist for the comic, got that memo because Loden is finally sexy! IT’S ABOUT TIME!

Claudia Grey

So while Claudia has only had one novel and a handful of short stories, that’s no problem for me.

That’s because Into the Dark is my favorite entry in The High Republic thus far. I love this book. While other books and comics have my favorite moments and characters, I think this is the most solid from start to finish. What bothers me with other entires is the adult novels are more focused on the adult characters (minus Bell) while the kids are mostly sidelined. The YA and middle-grade books are mainly focused on the kids while the adults are set to the side.

Into the Dark balances both the adults and the teenagers in the story. It hits those beats just like in other series I love like The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and Avatar. Because who is Luz without Eda, Zuko without Iroh, Mabel and Dipper without Grunkle Stan? This book gets that. Reath, Affie, and Nan are just as important as Cohmac, Leox, Dez, and Orla. The adults have equal weight to the teenagers which is so refreshing to see. I don’t feel like it’s been as successful in any of the other entries of Phase I to this point.

It was also the first personal character-driven story I read as I tackled this before A Test of Courage. After the galaxy-sweeping adventure of Light of the Jedi, it was nice to sit with a handful of characters for a bit and get to know them.

We also got my dear sweet Leox Gyasi. After Loden, he’s my second favorite character of this era. Dear reader, I ugly cried over Leox when I found out he was asexual like me. Here was this warm man who loved his found family, worked hard, and had a full life. He didn’t fall into the horribly harmful tropes that a lot of asexual characters fall in. He was this amazing person, and I finally felt seen for the first time in Star Wars. Leox Gyasi means the world to me.

Also, we don’t talk enough what a dramatic gay Cohmac Vitus is, because that man is living drama who levitates to tell people to sit down and shut up. And he sneaks around, hood up, to scare Reath into doing crimes. Drama gay if I ever saw one.

Into the Dark is the novel I revisit the most. It’s pretty darn near perfect in my eyes.

And the spectacular Geode is always a joy too.

What were your favorite entries from The High Republic in 2021! Let us know in the comments!