At long last, a new Mailbag for you to enjoy! A lot of people wanted to know if and when #7 would be out, and my answer is worth noting: it's up to you. I only do one when I've got ten or so good questions to cover. I'll grant that I could probably have gotten this one out there slightly sooner, but the main purpose of this feature (and the subsequent FAQ) is to cut down on having to answer the same questions over and over, so it stands to reason that the more Mailbags I do, the fewer questions we'll receive afterward.

Are there any species which can not conceivably become Jedi?

Not as far as we're aware. Every biological sentient, even clones and such, are a part of the Force and have the capacity to tap into it. The Yuuzhan Vong are the only known species to have ever existed outside of the Force, and even that will presumably be changing soon.

Is that time gap between Truce at Bakura and Rogue Squadron ever going to be filled?

Well, there's a truckload of comics in there already - Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, Shadows of the Empire: Evolution and the entire Rogue Squadron series (which leads into the novel series) most notably. Head here for a complete listing of all the literature that's currently set in that era; there's a whole slew of great short stories, comic tales, and so on to choose from. Oh, and the Bounty Hunter Wars and Glove of Darth Vader books are mostly set there as well, if you're really desperate. As for the possibility of there being a new major novel set in there somewhere, nothing is planned for the next few years, but Tatooine Ghost proved that the Post-RotJ era is still fertile ground.

Will there be any novels not starring Force users or pilots which aren't Tales compilations?

Hm, that's a tough one. The recently-completed Medstar duology is a wonderful example of storytelling outside of the usual Jedi/pilot stuff; granted, it's got Barriss Offee in it, but it's hardly a typical Jedi story. Beyond that, Michael Reaves has three post-RotS novels coming out over the next few years which will be focusing, if the end of Medstar is any indication, on a Holonet reporter and a droid and their adventures in Coruscant's seedy underbelly. Given what's going on at that point in time, however, it'd be a bit of a stretch to say that Jedi won't be involved at all.

I have a Star Wars story I'd like to see as a comic/novel/eBook/fanfic. What do I do?

Unless you're a published author and/or LucasFilm comes to you of their own volition, you're out of luck for the first three. There's nothing stopping you, however, from writing fan fiction. A lot of people set up their own websites to house their stories, though we at TFN do have an extensive database of fan fiction. If you want to submit your story to us, click here to create a FanFic account, which will allow you to participate in the community, both as an author and as a reader.

Are the two Knights of the Old Republic games canon?

With the exception of Jedi Power Battles (since it features alternate versions of TPM's story), all the video games are C-Canon, which means they're below the movies, but equal to books, comics, and so on. Granted, the exact details have to be tweaked to accomodate gameplay styles (especially with things like Demolition and Masters of Teras Kasi), but they all happened in some sense. With regard to Knights of the Old Republic, the basic story definitely occurred, we just don't know the official ending yet. KOTOR 2 is set up so you can continue the original story whether you had the light side or dark side ending, so that won't be any help, but hopefully there will be an official version of the events sooner or later (especially with the New Essential Chronology coming out next year). For further proof that the events of the game are legit, look no further than the recently-released Star Wars Republic #68, which has a reference to the Rakatan Empire and their temples.

I just started reading The Cestus Deception and in chapter 9, Mace makes a comment about the Battle of Jabiim. I didn't think of anything about it at the time but later on I realized that in the Clone Wars timeline included on the inside cover, the Battle of Jabiim is supposed to take place 3 months after the events of The Cestus Deception. Where on the correct timeline should these events have taken place?

That's what's known as an editorial error. While no official fix has been given yet, it's safe to say that the Battle of Jabiim seen in the comics definitely happened at 15 ABOG, 3 months after Cestus. Chances are Mace was referring to a smaller conflict that ultimately led to the full-blown battle with which we're familiar.

What are the variations in cortosis?

Officially, there's aren't really any variations. It's been built into walls and sewn into armor, but it's all the same ore. What does vary is how writers have interpreted its abilities; the Hand of Thrawn books established that when a lightsaber comes into contact with it, it disrupts the feedback and shuts the saber off. The game Jedi Outcast, however, had you fighting enemies wearing cortosis armor that deflected the blade, but didn't shut it off. It's possible that it may be explained someday that it was a variation on normal cortosis, but it's best to just chalk it up to creative license for the sake of gameplay.

How does luke get his X-Wing back from Bespin before ROTJ? Please tell me how and what book it's from.

He didn't. At least, no one's ever claimed he did. Chances are good the Empire scrapped it when they took over the city. In any event, I think it's safe to say that wasn't the first X-Wing he'd lost by that point.

Who has died during the Clone Wars (thus far) that were important or significant?

That's kind of a hard question to answer. Obviously, no important movie characters have died yet, and while we've seen numerous individuals perish, especially Jedi, it's debatable how important any of them were. The best advice I can give is to visit the Unofficial Clone Wars Site's extensive Clone Wars character database. They're got profiles on most of the characters we've seen thus far; if someone's died since Geonosis, you'll probably find out there. If a character you're interested in doesn't have a profile yet, feel free to send an e-mail informing them of their oversight.

Do gravity well projectors and cloaking shields prevent communitation between ships in their sphere of effect (Or sensors from reading anything)? For instance if an interdictor crusier were to set up one of its artificial gravity wells around a group of rebel ships, would those rebel ships be able to communicate with each other and/or anyone outside the system? And in the case of cloaking shields: During Trawns attack on Sluis Van, did the cloaking shield on board the bulk cruiser prevent Sluis Control from reading what was in it and coming up negative?

I can't recall any specific examples off the top of my head, but it's definitely never been overtly stated that gravity wells have any effect on communications or sensors, so I'd say almost definitely not. It's hard to say with cloaking devices, though. The Last Command specifically states that a cloaked ship's sensors are useless, but it doesn't mention communications. It's not really an issue, when you think about it; even if a cloaked ship was able to send transmissions, doing so would be pretty stupid for a ship that's trying to hide its presence. Which is all cloaking devices do, in response to your second question; mask a ship's physical presence. That's why Sluis Van didn't pick up the TIEs; the sensors couldn't see them. Communications didn't factor into it.

And on a related note...

What is it with cloaking devices? In the prequels Darth Maul has one and his ship can still function normally when it is on. In the Thrawn trilogy there just being fully developed and ships have to fly blind using it. Is this an error or what?

It's more a matter of access. Cloaking devices aren't just being developed in the Thrawn Trilogy; the technology's been around for a while. What Thrawn did was take the Emperor's old prototypes and improve upon them. Remember ESB? "No ship that small has a cloaking device!" Thrawn was able to change that, thus allowing him to use them on freighters, cruisers, etc. As for Darth Maul's ship, you can accomplish a lot when you've got Darth Sidious' resources. Nothing the Sith Infiltrator did was impossible; just really complicated and really expensive.

For a more specific answer, dp4m from our forums had this to say: There are two types of cloaking systems: Stygium Crystal Cloaks (Maul) and Hibridium Cloaking Devices (Thrawn). Stygium crystals were only located on Aeten II and by the time the Empire took over, nearly impossible to find as the supply had dwindled. Hibridium is the typical "double-blind" cloak that Thrawn adapted for his uses (and is an ore located on Garos IV).

Do you have a list of e-books and timeline to interact with the Star Wars novels?

We don't have a specific timeline for them, so I'll just list them for you:

Darth Maul: Saboteur - shortly before Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter

The Hive - during The Cestus Deception

A Forest Apart - shortly before Tatooine Ghost

Fool's Bargain - shortly before Survivor's Quest

Recovery - shortly after Balance Point

Ylesia - during Destiny's Way

I have a major question to ask about how Luke percieves the force in the latter part of The Unifying Force. See the big thing is is that for most of the series Vergere gives Luke and Jacen this hole crap about how they percieve the force in the wrong way and therefore cannot sense the Yuzhann Vong and then tell them that there is no dark side of the force and that anger is not a dark emotion. So my question is this: How can Yoda, who trained Jedi for over 800 years mind you, not see that anger if used right cannot lead you to the dark side and yet a creature that spent 50 years with the Yuzhann Vong and comes back with a heretical view of the force can? And another thing that does not make sense is that Luke still believed this even after he himself almost turn to the dark side fighting Shimraa with this technique. How can that be?

If you're willing to give Vergere any credit at all (which many are not), the key to understanding Luke's career as a Jedi lies in the fact that he did not undergo normal Jedi training. Yoda and Obi-Wan spent no more than a few weeks combined instructing him in the specifics of the Jedi way, and everything else he picked up through experience during the Rebellion. What time Yoda and Obi-Wan did have with him was sort of a crash course, and with one ultimate goal in mind: to make him a weapon. Their only two priorities when instructing Luke were that he could defeat the Emperor and Vader, and that he wouldn't fall to the Dark Side doing it. They never even considered that he could redeem his father, they just needed the strongest Jedi they could muster. And, of course, it wouldn't do any good for him to beat the bad guys only to fall to the Dark Side himself, so they made sure he was as wary of it as possible. Even if it could be proven conclusively that Yoda was a follower of Vergere's ends-justify-the-means philosophy, do you really think he would have told Luke about it, given what he was up against? Regardless, it's pretty safe to say that Yoda didn't follow that philosophy, and it could be argued that this was one of the reasons the Jedi fell: they'd gotten caught up in their own dogma and forgotten that the Force was a complex entity (for lack of a better term), and not everything is completely good or completely evil. Maybe if Anakin's romance with Padme - a high Dark Side trespass in those days - had been acceptable to the Jedi hierarchy, he wouldn't have grown to resent them and truly fallen.

The aliens in the dark nest--from the titles it looks like a hive society. What could they possibly be? The Verpines?

It's too soon to say. It has been confirmed that the Killiks from Tatooine Ghost play a part in the story, but that doesn't necessarily mean the titles are referring to them (after all, they're supposed to be extinct). There's certainly no shortage of other insect races in the GFFA to choose from, in any event - Verpine, X'Ting, The Assembler, Vratix, Arachnors, Ruurians, and so on. Or it could always be a completely new race. And who's to say they're definitely insects? The whole nest/hive thing could be meant metaphorically. They could be referring to the Senate. =)