If Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could be criticized for one thing, it's the terrible pacing, especially during the beginning of the film where we speed through scenes featuring Kylo, Poe, and Rey. We know that there was more to see on Mustafar, and it looks like the novelization for TROS is going to deliver.
To help promote the release of the book by Rae Carson, we have a short excerpt featuring the opening scene with Kylo looking for the Wayfinder on Mustafar. You can read it all here.
An oily film slicked across the lake's still surface. But as Kylo approached, the water bubbled up in the center, sending tiny waves to lap at his boots.
A giant emerged, a hairless creature sheening with wetness, bits of lake detritus clinging to its pasty skin. Its eyes were squeezed shut, but it could still see after a fashion because draped over its massive bald head and across one shoulder was a second creature with long spidery tentacles. The two were locked in symbiosis. Kylo sensed the giant's pain, as though it were a slave to the spidery being that clung to it. Yet neither could it survive alone.
Besides describing more of Kylo on the planet, we actually get a lot of characterization for General Hux. I thought he was actually a great character from TFA and TLJ, and the novelization here tries to further justify his turn of allegiance.
What's more, we also get the ‘oracle' character called ‘The Eye of Webbish Bog' that had been teased in the concept art. We don't know why the scene was removed (probably pacing), but I think it would have helped let the story breathe more; it also adds another element into the plan to bring Kylo to Palpatine.
Seeing that one of the major gripes about TROS was also the lack of exposition, I'm sure this novelization will try to make more sense of the story. What's more, we get a lot better character development. Hopefully, this release won't mess up with the alleged ‘Director's Cut' that fans are wanting Lucasfilm to release.
The novelization for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker comes out March 17.
Read Also: Star Wars Fans Continue to Petition for J.J. Abram's Original Cut of The Rise of Skywalker
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Episode IX