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“A Closed Fist Has No Claws” is an epilogue of storts for Phase 2 of The High Republic, and features Mardo Ro on the hunt for something more elusive than prey – a way to create and continue the Ro legacy. Punch it!
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Raw Episode Transcript:
Hey, Rebel Rouser, I’m Allen Voivod, and this is Star Wars 7: Your Daily Dose of Star Wars Joy. Thank you so much for joining me for it. Tessa Gratton came to The High Republic during phase two. She co-wrote Path of Deceit with Justina Ireland. That was her first contribution to the whole ginormous mega storytelling initiative. Back when we were discussing that novel, I said that right from the start, right from the very beginning of the story, just the sense of dread and danger was palpable. She’s a huge contributor to that. The story in Tales of Light and Life from her, A Closed Fist Has No Claws, is just as compelling as anything else that she’s been a part of for this High Republic initiative.
It is the story of Marda Ro after the events of phase two of The High Republic taking place about a year after those events. I think this one, at least for me, I suffer a little bit from the fact that I have not gone through all the phase two storytelling. There are things about Marda Ro’s experience over the course of that that I’m just not familiar with.
I’m getting spoiled a little bit in the sense that I know she obviously survives, but I guess I expected her to survive anyway. With a last name like Ro, you figured that she would have to because she had to be Marchion Ro’s ancestor. Warning, spoiler territory, but this has been out for a while, so I think it’s okay. But yeah, this story is basically about her starting her search for other Evereni, that’s her species in the galaxy, and to find somebody to continue the Ro lineage. But it is also, to some degree, about how she has taken over the Gaze Electric, how she is starting basically the Nihil without saying the Nihil. There are times when she’s drawing lightning stripes across her face in sympathy and support for raiding crews that she has going out. She’s reflecting that nothing in the Galaxy is freely given, which had been the creed of the path of the open hand. And so if nothing is freely given, then what is there? It’s taking, basically.
So it’s becoming raiders and smugglers and just generally bad people who are stealing from everyone and doing all sorts of damage in the process, hoarding stuff, selling stuff, and continuing to build their supplies and their war chest, and also feeding the great leveler. So a couple of different force users end up getting fed to the great leveler during this story. And she talks about future generations and if you have to wake the leveler up, things of that nature. So the leveler isn’t quite asleep yet, but she’s anticipating a time when maybe the leveler is going to have to go into some hibernation or something like that, which, of course, presages what happens back in phase one when Marchion Ro actually finds the leveler and ends up thawing it out from someplace.
Now, she hasn’t necessarily left the idea of the Path entirely behind. What she does is considers Path disciples who are totally far out in the galaxy, who were never a part of what happened when the Path of the Open Hand changed into the Path of the Closed Fist, and she gives them the opportunity to either join her in whatever her new mission is or to go along their own journeys and never speak of the Path again. Otherwise, she’s going to hunt them down and eliminate them. Some do, some don’t. Ultimately, she starts growing the group that’s with her in the Gaze Electric. And one of her loyal companions says, What are you doing? What’s going on here? Martha’s answer is that she’s making a beginning. What that is, is basically the Nihil, but again, it’s not actually a word that’s used in the story.
Most of the story is actually a diary entry of sorts. You could think of it that way since Marda is addressing her eventual progeny, her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, whoever sees this record of her time getting things started and trying to build a legacy. We also find out that one of the Evereni who she’s been chasing rumors around about for a few months, turns out to be somebody with just one hand. And apparently that’s Yana Ro, her cousin who has survived the events of phase two, but Marda and whatever happened there had to cut Yana’s hand off. And yeah, so apparently she survived and is still kicking around somehow. And the one critique I have about this story is that that particular thread is not resolved in any particular fashion. It’s just Marda realizing that she’s been following a trail of rumors and that it leads to Yana. And she says, Of course, I’ve been hunting my long lost cousin.
But it doesn’t say, And I decided to stop because she can go do whatever she wants and I want no part of it, or I continued trying to hunt her down for the rest of the year during which this is taking place and never found another rumor about her again. But there’s no closure given to that particular door that’s opened. That was my only complaint, if you will, about the story.
Those are the highlights that I wanted to share with you about A Closed Fist Has No Claws, which is Tessa Gratton’s story in Tales of Light and Life from The High Republic collection of short stories that’s getting us toward phase three starting up. That’s going to do it for this episode of the podcast. It just remains for me to say thank you so much for joining me for it. As always, may the Force be with you wherever in the world you may be.