Merry Christmas and welcome to a holiday special edition of Monday Morning Coffee! I end up writing an edition about once a year, but this time I came down to the wire.
For those yet unaware, Monday Morning Coffee (MMC) is the weekly news roundup for Wookieepedia Discussions. We go over all the forum news of the past week—although since our regular reporter @Infantry31st has been busy, I’ll cover the last three weeks today!
For our mug picture this week I’ll link one I found online, in case anyone needs to buy any last-minute gifts.
🗞️ STAR WARS NEWS
We’re dry, people! Almost none of these new releases have discussion threads. If you’ve read any of these new books, start a post reviewing them!
New Releases
I’ve omitted the releases of comic book collections to focus exclusively on new material, but you can check out everything released this month on each date’s wiki article. I started on December 5.
The Dawn of Rebellion Visual Guide is the first major reference book to be released in a while, documenting some of the newer television series’ coverage of the early fight against the Empire.
More significant, however, is the release of The High Republic Character Encyclopedia, an overview of all the characters in the publishing project so far.
December 6 saw three comic issues come out! The first was issue #4 of the Dark Droids: D-Squad miniseries, which is part of the current crossover between the Marvel comics set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
@Lewisr advised over Discord to avoid reading issue #41 of Charles Soule's corresponding Star Wars run, as it apparently spoils plot points of Dark Droids due to a scheduling change.
Dark Horse’s reboot of The High Republic Adventures kicked off as well with issue #1.
Artist Ian Gibson passed away on December 11.
He was one of the pencillers for Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire.
Star Wars Insider 223 was published on December 12.
December 13 saw another comic burst. Issue #41 of Bounty Hunters came out as part of the Dark Droids crossover.
Issue #12 of Hyperspace Stories centered on the crew of the Millennium Falcon during the Battle of Endor. Give the obscure characters some love!
Shadows of Starlight issue #3 continues the fallout of the Jedi after the loss of the Starlight Beacon. Bell Zettifar, a major character since the start of the publishing project, has been knighted as a Jedi at long last.
The following week, on December 20, Greg Pak’s Darth Vader issue #41 continued Vader’s role in Dark Droids, with his cybernetics now affected by the droid Scourge.
Doctor Aphra follows the crossover in her own series issue #39.
This year’s Revelations one-shot gave us a tease of future comics to come in 2024. Discuss below if you have any favorites!
Okay, more numbers. Issue #2 of The High Republic’s Phase III comic series came out as well.
That brings us up to today, where @Keelman2001 has reported the passing of actor Richard Franklin, who played Sirro Argonne, one of Galen Erso’s engineers in Rogue One.
From The Feed
The one news report we did cover on the forum was from @UndyingSoldier forwarding the announcement of The Glass Abyss, a novel releasing next year about Mace Windu and Qui-Gon Jinn. Read up on it for yourselves!
From The Newsroom
The Monday Morning Coffee Newsroom was empty this week. Usually it’s where we organize MMC issues and curate news reports.
As I said above, take the initiative to start more threads and keep up with the times!
💬 FORUM NEWS
When I say “happy holidays,” I’m specifically referring to Forum Improvement Month. Check out the Origin Tree thread to see what initiatives have been branching out to grow more quality discussions in the community.
If you’re interested in helping the effort and want to better your own contributions to the forum space, head over to Ask A Reg A Question about it!
General Business
If you’re new to the forum, welcome! Get yourself up to speed on this place and where we fit within Wookieepedia as a site. If you’re not new, see about Forum Improvement Month and how you can help in the celebration!
If you’re here for Christmas posts, post presents here and in the merch thread linked within.
Post general Christmas sentiment here as long as it’s related to Star Wars.
Contests
The Meme of the Week is possibly the single most successful forum project ever assembled. Continue pointing more people there—we’re on round 166—as it helps declutter the forum from too many meme posts!
Round 165 ended in a tie between excellent puns brought forth by @Imnotreallyhereatall and @Aslam113.
Round 164 was swept by @Dark Lord of the Pith.
Round 163 was won by @Padawan Jedi 66.
Additionally, mod @Ajjviolin96 continues her campaign to flip the polling scene around, hosting written debates far stronger than any swath of one-click responses. The first round finished over a week ago, with the only right answer to such large topics: “it’s complicated.”
Get your knowledge of the Greek alphabet in order and join the second round, discussing the Sith as opposed to the Jedi.
🔶 WIKI NEWS
The wiki as always is bulking up new articles for everyone to read, so I’ll defer to an editor to comment with any standout news. Everyone can continue voting for 2023’s Character of the Year if they follow the instructions on this page.
Consensus Track
Two more consequential votes are currently being held on the Consensus track forum to make changes to Wookieepedia’s policies and large articles.
The first is a vote to change the main image for Baylan Skoll on his wiki article.
The second is…mine! I’ve filed a motion to open more channels on Wookieepedia’s Discord server to users who haven’t met the full-access requirements yet.
Oh yeah, join Wookieepedia’s Discord server if you haven’t already!
It’s a great way to learn from experienced editors about how to best contribute to the wiki.
⭐️ FEATURED POSTS
We’ve been late to feature anything for a while, but these ones are particularly special. @Aunnesty cooked up a brilliant essay about the state of Star Wars with respect to the current theatrical lull and potential stagnation of Disney+ as more television series are released there.
The post was also a backdoor reminder that the Essay of the Week contest…y’know, exists.
There was also another post I featured by @Farm Raised Kraken, who did the unthinkable and watched the Holiday Special.
☀️ COMMUNITY PROJECTS
@Holder of the Holocron completed the third round of polls intent on a complete ranking of the musical tracks composed by the brilliant Kevin Kiner and his family.
But wait, there’s more! Since I forgot to continue the discussion on it and the rules for what makes a community project are pretty much lost to time, I’ve marked the Star Wars 2023 nominations as their own community project, in line with the wiki’s larger vote.
☕ LOOKING AHEAD
Add anything I missed in the comments if you have more to share. That’s it for coffee this year! The 2023 Archive is thus complete, so if you want to make the 2024 one, let me know, or else I’ll post one ahead of the next issue.
If you're interested, volunteer to write for January 1, 2024 in the Newsroom thread above! Happy holidays, enjoy the end of the year, and may the Force be with you, always.
