Some thoughts on the Star Wars EU

[rynne]

The reasons I decided to read the EU were twofold.

1. I wanted to know what happened next to my favorite characters. I did know that the books aren't canon like the movies are, or at least aren't considered so by Lucas, but still. I'd been warned that some are good, some are okay, and some are crap, and krabapple was kind enough both to give me an overview of the post-RotJ EU and physically send me the NJO (which I will get back to you sometime before I go home for summer, promise!). I'd started in the middle of summer, and in July and August, if you didn't find at least twenty-five Star Wars books on the floor beside my bed, you'd be surprised. But with five exceptions, I stuck to the post-RotJ EU--those five exceptions being the novelizations of TPM and RotS, Outbound Flight (which I just read on Saturday), Shadows of the Empire (which is just prior to RotJ), and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. Even then, I only read Outbound Flight because it was Zahn, and because Survivor's Quest made me want to know what the hell happened, and I only read Dark Lord because it was Vader, and he's my second favorite character, after Luke. But I mostly just read the post-RotJ EU, because of one thing: Luke. I wanted more Luke. The movies were wonderful, but there were only three of them, and I read the EU for the same reason I read fanfic: I want more of my favorite characters.

2. I am a reader. I've always felt more comfortable with book-based (or manga, in terms of anime) fandoms, because it was far easier to reread my favorite bits, and go back and skip around, and so on. It's harder to do that with movie/TV based fandoms, and harder still with video games, and while that's never stopped me from being a fan of movies and video games (Star Wars and Final Fantasy being cases in point), book-based fandoms are just easier for me, both as a fan and a writer. And all six movies have novelizations, and most of the EU (except the video games) are things I can read. So, combined with the previous reason, I just got rather obsessed with Star Wars and the EU.

Which doesn't mean I like all of it. In fact, I dislike most of what I've read. I liked Outbound Flight, but I doubt I'll read it again (it has no Luke!). I liked Shadows of the Empire (except for Xizor, who is a gigantic Gary Stu), I liked all the Zahn books, and all the X-wing books (and I, Jedi). I liked Truce at Bakura. The Corellian Trilogy was interesting, though by then I was really tired of superweapons. Union was full of bits of trite dialogue and what I thought of as OOCness, and I thought the Imperial plot really stupid, but it's pretty much redeemed by being Luke and Mara's wedding. That's about it for EU I liked.

I haven't read The Black Fleet Crisis (well, I started it, read about to the thing with Luke's mother, and couldn't go on), or The New Rebellion (though that's on the floor beside my bed right now, and I guess I'll read it before I go back to school). Or The Crystal Star, because I've heard multiple people say it's the worst thing they've ever read, and the JC fanfic forums rating list has it rated as "an abomination". I've heard about this guy named Kyle Katarn, but I don't know where he shows up, so I only know what Wikipedia has told me about him.

All the other books, from the Dark Empire comics through Dark Nest, I didn't like. Especially Dark Empire, and the NJO. I liked bits of the NJO, most having to do with Luke and Mara, and later Ben, and I did rather like the war with the Yuuzhan Vong.

But I don't like the Solo kids, especially Jacen. And you know, I understand that Luke and Leia and Han are getting older, and that the younger generation has to do something, but...I started the EU because I wanted more Luke. I don't give a damn about the Solo kids, and when they started upstaging the original trio, I really didn't like it. The twin fixation the Yuuzhan Vong have? I thought it was a cool idea, though that's partly because I have a twin, and, erroneously or not, I like to think of twins as being special. But ever since that twin fixation came to light, I kept waiting for the Vong to care about Luke and Leia...and they never did. I kept thinking, What the hell? Han made one comment to Leia about her being able to take Luke, but that was about it for the original twins and their importance as twins. Considering that I never liked Jacen and Jaina, and that Luke and Leia accomplished far more things and were more important to the galaxy as a whole, the fixation on the Solo kids pissed me off. And I hated Jacen, who, aside from growing morally ambiguous (especially in the Dark Nest trilogy), kept upstaging my Luke.

There's my brief rant on the NJO. No more of it, promise. :p

Most EU characters I was uninterested in, though some I liked. Pretty much everyone who showed up in the X-wing books was good; I liked Corran, and if I didn't mind adultery, I'd love to read some Corran/Luke. I loved how people like Wedge and Hobbie and Wes Janson were fleshed out. I liked Talon Karrde, and really liked Mara Jade--though part of the reason I like her so much is that Luke fell in love with her (which I knew before I started reading the EU), and I guess I'm predisposed to like anyone he does. *g* (Well, except for the Solo kids. And Callista, but that's more related to Barbara Hambly. :p) Jag Fel was all right, as was Pellaeon.

One thing I rather don't like about the EU is how, hmmm, discrete it is. It stuck together, for the most part, and later books do build off earlier ones, but it seems that whenever authors who've written earlier books write later ones, they bring their OCs back into more prominence. Very understandable, and not exactly a bad thing, but I thought it made the whole thing lack some sort of cohesiveness, if that makes sense. Tim Zahn creates Karrde and Mara Jade and Thrawn in the Thrawn Trilogy, and brings them back in the Thrawn Duology, even though their roles were not half so prominent in non-Zahn books. Kevin Anderson creates Admiral Daala in his Jedi Academy trilogy, and, despite her absolute incompetence in those books, brings her back in Darksaber to head the Imperial navy. Aaron Allston creates the Wraiths in the Wraith Squadron books, and brings them back in an important role in...whichever NJO books he wrote, despite them not having even been mentioned in books between the Wraith Squadron books and those NJO books. It is understandable that authors want to write more about their OCs, and like I mentioned, it's not really a bad thing, but I thought it...disconcerting. I'm not sure that's the right word. Distracting, maybe.

So basically the thing with me and the EU is that I take what I like and discard what I don't, which I don't feel guilty about because it's second-degree canon, not first-degree like the movies. (And it's the other way around with Harry Potter, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings--the movies are second-degree, and the books first.)

*thinks* Do I have anything else to ramble about? Probably not. I'll shut up now. *g*

Comments

[may-child.livejournal.com]

(I used to pretend I was Mara Jade, it's amazing I never wrote any craptastic Mary-Sue fic.)

You don't need to. The EU authors did it for you, all throughout the NJO. Kathy Tyers in particular was clearly pretending she was Mara Jade. "Balance Point" was simultaneously a Mary Sue fic for Mara, and a revenge fic for Leia -- Tyers hates Leia and has ever since she fell for Han rather than Luke. BP provided the perfect opportunity for her to degrade, insult, and demean Leia as much as was humanly possible, while making Mara out to be a goddess.