What sort of role do you see for Rey on the Resistance base side of things? She’s been gone for a while; do you think it’ll be like ‘I’m endangering the mission, I shouldn’t have come here’ ala Luke where her still-there Force bond with Kylo will force her to exit the main base?

I’m actually undecided on this. I think it’s very up in the air right now whether she will end up on the light side/dark side Jedi/Sith side of the conflict, or the Resistance/First Order freedom/tyranny side. Maybe it’ll end up being a bit of both. However, I do believe that if she leaves the Resistance for a while to deal with Kylo, she won’t run off without telling anyone. It seems that someone has to address the spiritual side of the conflict and she would be the obvious candidate, but I don’t think it will be handled the same as Luke’s arc. Right now, everything is pointing to a drastic change in how Force-users are going to organize themselves and interact with the wider galaxy in the future, and I think Rey’s Force-related arc will be reflective of that. 

~ Jacen

You mentioned in a prior post that you feel Poe will be given a major promotion. Since his favorite ship was destroyed, do you feel Rian was setting him up to fly less? Or do you think he’ll still be a hands-on leader?

I think he will definitely remain a very hands-on leader, and I hope that it will be treated as a huge virtue of his, rather than them throwing him under the bus for it. I expect he’ll be getting a new ship at some point in the next movie; I can’t really see him being content with leading from behind, as it were. And with the Resistance in such a state of disarray, I can’t see anyone really complaining about it or trying to make him into more of a traditional military commander-type, either. I think (and hope) he will, at his core, stay a pilot and a friend to his squadmates. 

~ Jacen

How old do you think people were when they started training to be pilots in the New Republic Academy? 18 or younger? Trying to work out when Poe Dameron would have officially signed up as I know he’d been learning since he was 6. Thank you

Age requirements are a very difficult thing in the Star Wars universe, given all the different species with different rates of ageing. It seems that admission into military academies was based more on how much related schooling one had already completed, such as graduating from a military prep school or a planetary training academy. There isn’t much information on New Republic Academy students, but in Imperial academies there are instances of people (humans) joining anywhere between 15 and 30+ years of age. Poe may well have enrolled before he was 18, but there’s no way to tell for sure, at least not yet. 

~ Jacen

Are hyperspace maps a thing?

In a way, yes. A map of the galaxy is called a star-chart, a star map, or an astronav chart, and they are used for navigating a ship through both hyperspace and realspace. (No special map is needed to navigate hyperspace; each point in realspace has an associated point in the alternate dimension of hyperspace, and every object in realspace has an associated “shadow” in hyperspace, so they are linked.) When a ship jumps to hyperspace, a star-chart is used to calculate a route to the destination that ensures the ship doesn’t collide with a celestial body. This is called astrogation. 

~ Jacen

How do communication channels work in Star Wars? Is it like here, you have to be on the same frequency? How did Poe contact Hux? How do they block unwanted listeners?

I’m afraid there is some confusion surrounding this subject. Essentially, different comm channels allow one to talk to different people or groups of people. To hear the members of your squadron talking among themselves, for example, you have to have your comm unit set to the right frequency. In a military unit, these channels are encrypted so that the enemy cannot listen in, despite being close enough to pick up the signals; this stops anyone without the proper decryption equipment or information from understanding the communications. During a battle, you generally have communications officers on either side listening for any useful and understandable transmissions, so in order to get the enemy to hear something you want them to hear all you have to do is transmit on an open (unencrypted) frequency. It seems to be that someone can either talk on an open frequency and have people listen passively (like you’re shouting at a crowd with a loudspeaker), or have someone talking back on the other side (like you’re shouting at a crowd on a loudspeaker but another person is shouting back at you). (Continuing the metaphor, talking on an encrypted frequency would then be like you’re shouting at a crowd on a loudspeaker and everyone can hear you, but only your friends can actually understand what you’re saying.) So, if Poe had wanted to, he could have made his transmission and allowed the First Order communications officers to pick it up and relay it to Hux without actually talking to him directly. (But that’s no fun.)

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

I’m having trouble figuring out who assigns new people to roles. Is there a person, an administrative-type that would do that? Do you have to take assessments like back in the Empire, or at this point is it a “we need you” sort of thing?

I’m assuming this is within the Resistance? It’s a pretty small group, especially as of TLJ, so I expect that Resistance High Command as well as other ranking officers would discuss among themselves who to send where. Since most Resistance members were pulled from other military organizations, and since there was such a shortage of personnel, there would not have been assessments to join and I find it unlikely that they would have the leeway to make people take them before a promotion either. It was very much a “we need you” sort of operation. New recruits were put where they could help most, according to their skill set and the positions that needed filling, and at least a few were personally chosen based on proven merit. 

~ Jacen

Have you got any tips for someone just starting out writing star wars as to what you as a reader would like to see? just a general list or structure?

Oh wow, that’s a bit of a big question. I’m really not picky when it comes to style or structure or content, and obviously I’m just one person, my opinion is just an opinion. And I’m sure you’ve heard all the general writing advice before, so that’s all good. In Star Wars specifically, I think it definitely does help to have at least some experience with the worldbuilding details of the series. It’s a very daunting universe to get into, but the little quirks of speech and terminology are always nice to see. I really don’t think you need to put any more effort into adhering to canon than you want to, though, which is maybe a bit ironic. It’s all about having fun. What I like to do, because I read the supplemental material, is I collect words and phrases I come across so I can use them later. If you’re at all interested in the extended universe, I’d say that’s a nice place to start. Don’t get hung up on it, though. Even if I know I would have used a different word or described something differently, as a reader I don’t get thrown off at all when I see stuff that doesn’t perfectly fit with canon. 

Really the one thing I would emphasize is that it’s great to get a good feel for your characters. If I can hear their voice in the dialogue, and I can imagine them acting in the way that they do, I am very very happy. That’s really just writing in general, I guess, but it does so much more for the flow of a story than making every detail match the canon. 

Uhhh yeah, I think that’s all I’ve got. I’m really a “do what you want, don’t hurt people, and have fun” kind of fan, but those are just my thoughts. Maybe other people would like to add the kinds of things they like to see as a reader too?

Hope that helps! And good luck with your writing!

~ Jacen

Are cantinas really a thing on bases or ships? I read about them in almost every lengthy FF, but the one canon book I recently read made it seem like they were frowned upon so they snuck “hooch” ?

Yep, they most certainly are. They’re relatively common, in fact, especially in the Empire, as it would seem. There were even cantinas on the Death Star, and plenty of known Imperial bases included them. They could be found on Republic ships and bases as well, though there are fewer named examples for them. In the Rebellion, it being a smaller and poorer-equipped organization, people tended to sneak alcohol more often, especially strong types, which is what “hooch” refers to. 

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen