Star Wars Journal: The Fight for Justice

Star Wars Journal: The Fight for Justice is a novel from the point of view of Luke Skywalker.

Editions

 * ISBN 0590511688; Scholastic, July 1998, pages-115 paperback
 * ISBN 0590189026; Scholastic, 1998, pages-115 paperback

Publisher's summary
Luke Skywalker has always felt a call from space, and eventually learned the ways of the Force and became a Jedi Knight. Now, Luke tells the inside story of his battle with the evil Empire.

SKYWALKER DATA PAD ENTRY

LOCATION: TATOOINE

"In just half a day, my whole world has changed. The farm, my aunt and uncle&hellip;. They're gone. Destroyed by the Empire. All my life I've been waiting for something to happen to me. Something important. And now that it has, I'm not sure I know how to handle it."

Behind the scenes
Originally, author John Peel proposed that this novel explain "why someone as gentle as Luke would enjoy killing Womp Rats." However, Lucasfilm Ltd. requested that the journal simply retell the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope from Luke Skywalker's perspective.

The book states that while searching for the runaway R2-D2 in the Jundland Wastes, Luke brought along a blaster pistol for protection. This is contradictory to the film, in which Luke in fact brings a blaster rifle.

As Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia fought to escape Imperial stormtroopers aboard the Death Star, Luke pulled a rope and grappling hook from his belt. Originally seen in A New Hope, this rope was later described as part of a stormtrooper's utility belt. At the time of the novel's conception, however, author John Peel was unaware of the rope's origin. Therefore, he used his creative license to appease Lucasfilm's strict demands and detailed the rope as one formerly used by Luke Skywalker to pull droids out of sinkholes back home on Tatooine.

The book makes mention of "one Rebel agent [who] managed to get the complete plans" to the first Death Star. It is unclear which agent this is referring to, since no single agent managed to obtain complete plans to the station. Instead, agents such as Kyle Katarn and Havet Storm transferred partial plans to Princess Leia aboard the Tantive IV, where they were compiled into a complete technical readout. Rather than this being a continuity error, it can perhaps be explained by the context in which this information appears: Luke is recounting Leia's story to him of her efforts to deliver the plans to Alderaan. It is possible that Luke either got the information wrong, or that Leia simply summarized the convoluted history of Operation: Skyhook.

Luke remarks that the Death Star could have destroyed Yavin Prime and its many moons in minutes. This is incorrect, which is why the Death Star took the time to orbit Yavin Prime in order to have a clear line of fire on Yavin 4, rather than destroying the gas giant outright. The Death Star took a considerable amount of time to recharge its superlaser after firing (a drawback improved in the second Death Star), and would have taken a very long time to destroy each of Yavin's 26 moons.

The book states that Gold Leader was able to fire off his proton torpedoes during Gold Squadron's attack run at the Battle of Yavin. This is contradictory to the film, in which Gold Leader is shot down by Darth Vader before being able to fire.

The book claims that Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off Dr. Evazan's arm instead of Ponda Baba's, as the film illustrates.

General Jan Dodonna is mistakenly referred to as "Admiral Dodonna".