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The High Republic – The Finale - The Beacon

What is it ? : The Stormwall Defence Fleet returns to Coruscant with Marshal Keeve Trennis aboard, she is still angry for Lourna Dee taking the final shot against Sister H'Tar which ended the war. She departs for the Jedi Temple having been summoned, and Sskeer accompanies her, and she meets Ceret and Terec who are still connected but Terec is trying to be more independent, while Ceret maintains finishing Terec's sentences.
They have just returned from their own mission where they made the Nameless no longer a threat but at a cost of Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann.
She meets with Yoda who explains to her, but not the reader, what happened and offers her a seat on the Jedi High Council, but she tells him she is not ready.
Four Months later on the world of Dalna, Lourna Dee and the other Storm Breakers, are replanting the world with Rhil Dairo interviewing them, but she is not sure why she is there, when a cruiser arrives carrying the Jedi Council and Chancellor Lina Soh.
And a great celebration occurs, showing off all the characters which have survived the war, Ceret, Terec, Sskeer, Tey Sirrek, Lourna Dee, Yoda, even the Young Jedi, Kai Brightstar, Nubs, and Lys Solay. As the celebration winds down, the Jedi Council prepares to leave, but they still haven't met with Keeve. And Sskeer meets with her, she is dressed in casual clothing, and hands him her lightsaber asking him to take it back to Coruscant. Yoda arrives and tells her she has made a difficult decision, which she tells him she thought it would be, but the Guardian Protocols putting the Jedi Order to war means she felt she needed to leave the order. That if in the future there was a larger threat than Marchion Ro and the Nihil led to the Jedi marching to war at the head of armies once again.
Sskeer and Yoda return to the ship, leaving Keev in tears, but Sskeer decides to remain with her, telling her he has been assigned as her Jedi Liason. She tells him that she has been chosen as speaker for this world, and that means he'll need to do as she says, which he tells her is no different to before, and the two walk away towards their future. . . .

High Points : It's a lovely send off to the High Republic Era, with it tying in everyone, including the Young Jedi (whose final season was actually released after this issue so is the true send off).

Low Points : But Keeve leaving the Jedi Order makes little sense, while she had problems following orders throughout the series, there was never a sign she was unhappy with the Guardian protocols. She felt undeserving of the titles she was given, but never seemed to be uncomfortable with them, and seems to have decided to change the entire course of her life because Lourna Dee disobeyed an order and killed Sister H'Tar, but remains friends with Lourna anyway.
And the warning she offers Yoda about what might happen if the Jedi march to war again, just makes Yoda look even more blind to the dangers when the Clone Wars come about. While Yoda has continually been shown to be blind to the danger it would make more sense if that was because when the Guardian Protocols were activated they led to success, blinding him to the danger during the Clone Wars.

Also it would have been nice if we'd been at least told what happened to Elzar and Avar? Again it's "Somehow" the Nameless aren't a danger, like "Somehow" the Nihil surrendered, and "Somehow" the Stormwall fell.

So what do you really think ? : Well it's an ending. Not a great one, but it is at least an ending to the series (I'm a little surprised they didn't try to tie the Acolyte in more). Are there so many unanswered questions that it barely counts as an ending, yes, but everyone gets to party.

Final Words : So the end of the High Republic Era?
It seems odd they're laying this era completely aside. I can understand wrapping up the Nihil war, and it would have been nice if it had come to a satisfying ending, rather than the Nihil just giving up. But why make a big thing of closing down this era? Why not leave it open for a Tales from the High Republic animated series if someone wants to do it? For exploration in further stories, where it might bridge different eras, having Keeve and Sskeer encounter something, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon finish it off?
They threw so much effort into this multimedia project, and I'm guessing it wasn't massively successful, so now they just abandon it.
And a final question, why is this issue subtitled, The Beacon? That's where the story began, with the Starlight Beacon, but it served a very different purpose to Keeve's project on Dalna! Or is that the thing, her project of people working together is the beacon of light, that the Republic and Jedi couldn't force militarily onto the Outer Rim of the Galaxy?

Score : 7.5/10

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