Daniel José Older was three years old when he caught his first glimpse of the characters who occupied the Star Wars galaxy, and he was so frightened he made a run for the exit of the movie theater. But Older - now a New York Times bestselling fantasy and sci-fi author - went back in, and his life has never been the same. Older is a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, a series of young adult and middle grade novels and comic books, and he's keenly aware that most of the Star Wars characters, especially the most prominent male heroes, either have a strained relationship with their father, or simply don't have a dad at all.

On this episode of Paternal, Older discusses why there never seem to be many parents in the Star Wars galaxy, why he gravitated to the series after never seeing protagonists who looked like him as a kid, his mother's penchant for magical storytelling after fleeing Cuba, and how he thinks about the Jedi-like skill of compassionate detachment, especially now that he's recently become a father himself.

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