Aidan McCourt’s Reviews > Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire > Status Update

Officially beginning part 3. The academic writing on Alderaan did not disappoint. It’s unfortunate this was written pre Andor season 2, as having a more fleshed out section on the Ghorman massacre would have been cool to see.

Rip Michael Pennington too! The guy Darth Vader chews out in Episode VI for construction delays on the Death Star II

Theres something that explains nobody knows when or where Darth Vader sustained the injuries that required his suit. Which I have never thought about. The only people who’d know that are dead at this point, and brother can’t cite a force ghost. It’s such a creative way to tell the story of Star Wars, limiting yourself to the information that’d only be available through files/reports/etc.

“An immediate name change saw the Imperator re-christened as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Interestingly, surviving records from the shipyard are remarkably reticent on when they were first informed of this forthcoming name change, raising the question of whether they were already aware of what was about to happen on a geopolitical level.

Imperial bureaucracy precedes the Empire itself

Once again I like the attention to detail. I loved the little funny bits he sprinkles in every now and then. He cooked Leia for essentially threatening Darth Vader with the famously Imperial Senate would take action against him, and then a footnote for something said a book he had to read was “as I found in my research, it was not an easy read.” Enjoying myself with this one.

Its funny this book is written like an actual history book. Alien is a slur and the “politically correct” term is non-human which seems worse. My favorite detail has to be that there are literal footnotes for in-universe sources.