Let's Talk About The High Republic's Kingdom Hearts Problem

Here at the Geeky Waffle, we love Star Wars: The High Republic. It’s one of my personal favorite eras of Star Wars ever created. We can’t gush enough about it as we have featured the work over and over on this website.

But I have started noticing something over the last year that’s bugged me more and more. At first it was a small problem. A little thing here or there that would be distracting, but not terrible. But as the books, comics, an audio drama, and more continue to roll out, it’s getting harder to ignore. This issue finally came to a head in the Fallen Star when I began to wonder how the era as a whole was being presented.

We’ve been told by the Project Luminous writers that everything is important and we must get everything for the story. Though not all fans are going to get everything, leaving to holes in the narrative. In The Fallen Star, I questioned if some people would even know who Chancey Yarrow or Nan are. Would the Vessel crew be as effective without their backstory? Would Orla’s narrative be as poignant? Would people miss Avar’s story and where she has been? When we don’t get everything, then it’s easy to miss moments which can lead to frustration.

I think it’s time we address the Big Mouse in the room and state the issue:

The High Republic has a Kingdom Hearts problem.

Kingdom Hearts is a game franchise that is infamous for driving its fanbase mad by constant platform-hopping in pretty much every game of the series. While they did make strides to streamline the franchise to a single console to prepare for Kingdom Hearts III, if you wanted to get the entire story while it was being released, you would need a PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, a cell phone, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, a web browser, and finally a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One to get the entire story.

And like The High Republic, Kingdom Hearts was made where fans had to buy almost all the games for the story to make sense. For example, if you skipped Birth by Sleep, then you would have no idea who Aqua, Ventus, and Terra are and why they’re important in Kingdom Hearts III. Doug Walker aka the Nostalgia Critic talked about this when he reviewed Kingdom Hearts III for his most recent Disneycember run. If he hadn’t watched recap videos, he would have been completely lost going into the third main game. He flat out says it’s a necessity to know what’s happening in the side games.

I’ve been really feeling this problem with The High Republic. I’m behind on some of the content, and began running into bits of the narrative which led to confusion about what was happening. It’s not just me either. I was on two separate podcasts recently where two different hosts expressed being lost in some of the books. One hadn’t read any of The High Republic Adventures comics, so Race to Crashpoint Tower was her first introduction to Lula, Zeen, and Sy. She knew nothing about Zeen’s past and why it was important, so the first quarter of the book set on Zeen’s planet left her confused. It should also be noted that she’s a college student, so cost and time are limiting factors for her. The other host I talked with hadn’t read the Marvel comics yet, so he had no idea why Avar made an alliance with the Hutts and thought the Drengir were still causing trouble even though they had been defeated.

When the authors say everything is important, that’s a difficult task for fans. Some people don’t enjoy reading comics. On the same podcast as my “confused about Avar” friend, another guest said he struggled with comic formats making them very difficult to enjoy. I personally struggle to process audio, so I’ve been putting off Tempest Runner since I know it will be hard for me to get through. Some people don’t enjoy young reader books. And speaking of young readers, are they expecting a middle grade child to jump into the carnage of the adult novels? I sure hope not!

If someone just read the adult books in The High Republic, they’d miss everything Keeve, most of Sskeer, the majority of Avar’s storyline, almost everything with the Drengir, they’d never see the Star Hopper crew, Kantam Sy, and Buckets of Blood, most of Vernestra’s story, miss the demise of Mari San Tekka, and only have brief mentions of Reath and Cohmac. They’d only witness the Vessel crew and Orla Jareni in The Fallen Star. Characters like Emerick and Sian are barely known. There’s so much of this time period being missed!

Also, speaking as a low-income fan who lives below the poverty line, buying everything is incredibly costly. A lot of times I need to buy these out of my own pocket for work writing articles like you’re reading now. To avoid spoilers, you pretty much have to buy and read fast to stay up to date. Heck, when we posted our article about favorite High Republic stories from last year, someone sent us an angry tweet that we spoiled Loden’s death. They had just started Light of the Jedi being a year behind on Project Luminous. Speed is key if you don’t want to be spoiled.

I ran the numbers to add up the cost of the books, comics, manga, and audio drama for Phase I. I also included Life Day Treasury as it did have a story about Stellan Gios included. I didn’t add in the audiobooks or the children’s book adaptations, because those are extra. I also didn’t include the short stories in Star Wars: Insider, though it should be noted that they’re part of this too if you want everything. And I used the cost of the hardcover novels and single issues as they are released first for a fan who wants to stay up to date.

The total cost of Phase I came out to $436.49.

If we assume that Phase II and Phase III will have the same amount of content, by the end it comes out to roughly $1300 for all of Project Luminous.

That’s a hell of a lot of money. When I see this cost and the push that everything is important, it gives me a very icky corporate feeling. Like the Big Mouse is making them split the story into so many different formats to get the most money out of us fans. And I don’t personally have the best relationship with the Big Mouse as a corporation so this puts a big damper on The High Republic for me. As a low income fan, it really is a struggle where I accept getting spoiled until I can afford to get caught up.

So how do we address the Kingdom Heart problem? How do we put a focus on what’s important to make The High Republic easier for fans to digest without a focus on everything? I started thinking that I would like to see The High Republic take on a format like another favorite fandom of mine being Danganronpa.

The Danganronpa franchise is massive. It has so much world-building, so many characters, and so delightfully convoluted in the best way possible. The entire thing is split up among video games, anime seasons, manga, novels, alternate universe novels, drama CDs, and even live-action theatre plays. But the thing about Danganronpa is the main story is streamlined in the video games and one season of the anime. Everything else is extra stuff to fill out lore, the world, and character backgrounds if the fans would like to go that route to deep dive.

Buying everything is not necessary to know the main story. It’s just in two mediums. The only reason the story jumped from video game to anime is because the creator, Kazutaka Kodaka, said the story of Danganronpa 3 simply wouldn’t work in a video game format and could only function in the anime medium. This choice was made to best tell the story, unlike The High Republic which feels like it’s medium jumping just because it can.

I love the Danganronpa route because I think it’s so much easier for fans to digest and it’s a lot less costly. This could be a possible solution to fix The High Republic’s Kingdom Hearts problem. They could keep the main story to one line of books. Then, they can have the comics, YA and middle-grade novels, and the Adventures run to be the supporting material to fill in lore and characters. It would give fans the choice if they wish to deep dive into the era. Because again, why even have books marketed to a middle-grade bracket if everything isn’t appropriate for them? I wouldn’t want my eleven-year-old nephew to read The Rising Storm with Elzar boning women and the graphic deaths.

The Fallen Star really opened my eyes to this problem. All over Twitter, I’m seeing fans discuss being behind. One of my favorite artists is in the UK where The High Republic Adventures comics aren’t all available to her and she’s getting spoiled all the time. It would be nice to see the story streamlined a bit. Instead of medium jumping because it can, have it only jump mediums to best serve the story.

Until then, I’m still going to think the Big Mouse is icky and be woefully behind with my favorite era of Star Wars.