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

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

My main beef with the EU is that every author seems to want to have all the big moments. Zahn had clearly created Mara as Luke's love interest; but every other author seemed to want create Luke's true love so it took, what, ten years for the couple to get together? (Let's not talk about how long it took to marry off Han and Leia.)

I rather enjoyed the Solo kids before the NJO. The author that kicked off the NJO admitted he never read anything about the Solo kids and ignored everything written before; and just gave them all complete personality overhauls. In the process turning Jacen, and to a lesser extent Jaina, into unrecognizable creeps.

I enjoyed Dark Nest; but I'm wondering if that is as far as it goes for me. I will certainly never be reading the new comic Legacy which basically blows up Luke and his life's work.

[spiritwhite.livejournal.com]

Amen!!

I read Vector Prime (almost all of it), and chucked the entire NJO out for two reasons. Not enough Luke. And Jacen was weird. Oh, three reasons, I suppose. No Vader. But since that is normal for EU after Endor, I can't really complain, no matter how much I want to.

I'm like you; I have the first book of Black Fleet Crisis in my Star Wars bag, halfway finished. Whoever heard of Jedi becoming hermits because they /can't/ deal with every day life? Luke was just weird in that one.

I rather liked the New Rebellion, but it wasn't the best. I also liked the Courtship of Princess Leia, despite the horrid title and the wierd witches. There was quite a bit of Luke in it, and he was a good Luke, not a stupid one.

I must have a weird fondness for villains, because my favorite introduced character in all of the EU was Thrawn, even though I'm glad he died. He was just cool, to me. And Pellaeon wasn't bad.

Darksaber was stupid. I mean, the Hutts building a superweapon? Bull****! It did rather redeem itself when the overgrown gun practically fell apart on its maiden voyage. That part made me laugh. Admiral Daala made me want to throw up. Children of the Jedi had its share of strangeness, and was a bit creepy as well, but it was better than Darksaber, if not by much.

All in all, I like fanfiction better. You can bring Vader back to life, if you want to. *grins* I love the word 'AU'.

Spirit

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

All in all, I like fanfiction better. You can bring Vader back to life, if you want to. *grins* I love the word 'AU'.

I must admit to preferring AU as well, you could great stories, like Luke was raised by Bail Organa instead of Leia; but because of his likeness to Dad and great Force potential, the minute Vader sees him Vader knows Luke is his. And then Vader comes and takes Luke away and all sorts of great stuff happens.

Or we could, except some people claim to be too busy to write it for us. ;>

Don't even bother to try throwing things, I'm already ducking

[cenori.livejournal.com]

Oh, MAN. I haven't read my EU books in years. It was mostly a grade school thing for me - started when I was about eleven, and by the time I got to high school, I had read about thirty of them. I think I stopped right before NJO came out; I haven't read any of those. You're bringing back all sorts of memories for me. Makes me want to dig the box out of my closet and reread all my favorite parts. :D

Randomness about SW EU…

[emiv.livejournal.com]

This post really brought back some memories! I’ve read several of these EU books, which are now up in my attic collecting dust. I must say that the movie novelizations were always my favorite SW books. (The only exceptions are Shadows of the Empire—which I loved, and Courtship of Princess Leia-which I liked, save for the occasional OOC-ness of Han.)

That being said, I pretty faithfully read the EU books—right up until they killed off Chewie. After that, I lost interest. Not that Chewie was my favorite character—it was just that the spark was gone from the books, the thing that made it Star Wars. Not sure how to explain it, really.

Oh, and everyone is right about Crystal Star—I’ve read it and enjoyed parts (mostly the meaningless bits about the super-duper-Solo-kids.) but overall, I’d stay away from it.

SW EU in general has been muddled with too much, I think. The first several post-ROTJ books were decent, but after that everything got a bit messy—too many authors trying to create their own Star Wars book epic.

[exiled-mind.livejournal.com]

What are your feelings on Aaron Allston's contributions to the EU (Four X-Wing books, Rebel Dream, and Rebel Stand)?

[may-child.livejournal.com]

My main beef with the EU is that every author seems to want to have all the big moments. Zahn had clearly created Mara as Luke's love interest; but every other author seemed to want create Luke's true love so it took, what, ten years for the couple to get together? (Let's not talk about how long it took to marry off Han and Leia.)

Actually, Mara was never earmarked as Luke's love interest. Barbara Hambly's specific assignment was to create Luke's soulmate, and she did: Callista.

The only reason Luke was saddled with Mara (who has subsequently divested him of his brain, his spine, and his sense of family) was because Bantam asked Zahn to write the "wrap-up" novels in the series before Del Rey took over the license. He said he would not do so unless he could have Luke and Mara get together. He said he encountered a lot of resistance from LFL and Bantam about that.

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Here via Jedi News.

Just wanted to give this post a heart 'Hear Hear!" My interest in the EU is in the Star Wars characters - particularly Luke, but also Han, Leia, Chewy, Lando, Wedge, random X-wing pilot number 67.

If you are not only going to invent new characters, but have them upstage the OT characters, then I just don't want to know. *sticks fingers in her ears and hums until the bad EU-ness goes away*

(That said, I do like the first Zahn Trilogy.)

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Actually, Mara was never earmarked as Luke's love interest.

Well, Zahn created her to be Luke's LI, though he wasn't given the go-ahead to get them married until late '93. But from that point until the Hand of Thrawn duology was published, all the authors of the books in between Zahn's trilogy and his duology knew that Luke and Mara would get together, so every other woman who was/might have been an LI was eventually deliberately put into "friendship mode" (his words) or just gone, like Callista.

I personally do not think that Callista was good for Luke, whatever Barbara Hambly's assignment was, but that could just be a discrepancy in how I view the character and how Hambly (and you, I suppose, since I assume from this comment that you like Luke/Callista and don't like Luke/Mara) views him. I happen to like Luke/Mara quite a bit, and disagree on her effects on him that you've mentioned. But it's been my experience that arguing about ships rarely changes the other person's mind, so I'll just leave it at that. :)

[rynne.livejournal.com]

One of the problems with the EU is that so many different authors have written/are writing it. I think it complicates things too much, and adds discrepancy in characterization and more, along with what you mentioned, all the authors wanting their own big moments. *sigh*

The only books I've read prior to the NJO where the Solo kids really had a part was the Corellian trilogy, and while I liked that well enough, and them in it, but my dislike of them is partly their characterization and partly their roles. I just don't like how important they are, in the NJO onward, which is why I prefer fanfic. *g*

I liked parts of Dark Nest. Ben was adorable, even if I didn't much like the avoiding-the-Force thing. But I'll also not read comic Legacy, though I'm not sure about book Legacy...

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Well, like I mentioned, it's a recent thing for me. But I hadn't even seen the original trilogy until the end of my senior year of high school, so. :p

Re: Randomness about SW EU…

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot about Courtship of Princess Leia. I read it and liked most of it well enough (especially the Luke bits; I think Luke was done well there), though there were some parts I didn't like. I do like the movie novelizations, though my favorites are the Zahn books, Truce at Bakura, and Shadows of the Empire.

SW EU in general has been muddled with too much, I think. The first several post-ROTJ books were decent, but after that everything got a bit messy—too many authors trying to create their own Star Wars book epic.

I completely agree.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

I like them. I haven't recently read Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand (btw, thanks for reminding me of the names), but the X-wing books are funny as hell, and really well-written. I do remember liking the two NJO books for the most part--better than other NJO books, at least. Anyway, I'd recommend Allston. :D

[rynne.livejournal.com]

My interest in the EU is in the Star Wars characters - particularly Luke, but also Han, Leia, Chewy, Lando, Wedge, random X-wing pilot number 67.

Yes. I do like some EU characters, but not most of them. Usually I start disliking them when they start upstaging the original canon characters.

(Zahn is one of the few EU authors I trust. *sigh*)

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Whoever heard of Jedi becoming hermits because they /can't/ deal with every day life?

That bothered me, a lot. Was definitely one of the reasons I stopped reading that trilogy, though I didn't really miss anything.

I forgot about Courtship of Princess Leia! I sorta liked it, especially Luke (and I agree, he was a good Luke), but I thought parts were just...eh. Leia thinking about marrying someone other than Han? Han kidnapping Leia? And some other weird stuff...eh.

I liked Thrawn, though I thought he was too perfect. *sigh* Like Xizor.

All in all, I like fanfiction better. You can bring Vader back to life, if you want to. *grins* I love the word 'AU'.

Me too, by far. :D

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaha! XD

I do rather want to write that...except that I promised myself that I'm not going to work on more than one long chaptered fic at one time. (I really admire Vikki for her ability to do that.) And right now, Burnt by the Sun (the sequel to Feet on the Ground) takes precedence. (Not the least because people are going to jump on me for the ending of FotG and I want to have BbtS done as soon as possible so I don't have to make people wait too long, and another chaptered fic will definitely delay things.)

:p

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Well, Zahn created her to be Luke's LI, though he wasn't given the go-ahead to get them married until late '93.

No -- he didn't propose yoking Luke to that horrid beast until '93.

Excerpt from Echo Station interview:

ES: Well, finally, you put poor Luke out of his misery and matched him in a long-awaited romance with Mara. Are you proud to be the author that finally listened to the hordes of ravenous Luke fans and mercifully ended his bad luck in matters of love?

TZ: I’m of course pleased that LFL allowed me to give Luke a permanent relationship, especially since I’d always envisioned him and Mara growing into such a relationship in the first place. Do bear in mind, though, that I proposed this resolution in October 1993, well before most of the Luke fans really got going. So in this case it was not so much a matter of listening to the fans (or being influenced by them) as it was we were all on the same wavelength in the first place.

But from that point until the Hand of Thrawn duology was published, all the authors of the books in between Zahn's trilogy and his duology knew that Luke and Mara would get together,

No they didn't. If that is the spin that Del Rey or LFL books is trying to give now, then they are rewriting history to make the Mara fans happy.

Another excerpt from the Echo Station interview:

ES: How did Lucasfilm react to your plans to establish a final treaty of peace between the Republic and the Empire, effectively ending the conflict forever? Did they have any initial objections to this?

TZ: I had certain amounts of resistance from LFL to both the Luke/Mara and Imperial/Rebellion resolutions. (Particularly the first, as I recall) But I felt strongly that both plot threads needed to have closure, and made it clear that unless I could do both I wasn’t interested in doing any more Star Wars novels. That wasn’t a grandstand play, incidentally; if they’d turned my down we would have gone our separate way with no hard feelings. I simply wasn’t interested in doing another Star Wars book just for the sake of doing another Star Wars book. Fortunately,---because I really DID enjoy doing the books---they decided to trust me and gave me the go-ahead.

so every other woman who was/might have been an LI was eventually deliberately put into "friendship mode" (his words) or just gone, like Callista.

Callista was created as the love of Luke's life. That's a direct quote from Barbara Hambly. If there was an understanding among the authors that Luke would eventually be saddled with the red-gold gorgon, why was Hambly assigned to create the love of Luke's life?

I personally do not think that Callista was good for Luke, whatever Barbara Hambly's assignment was,

Doesn't really matter whether you think Callista was good for Luke or not; it was Hambly's assignment to create the love of Luke's life, and Callista was who she created. However, LFL must've struck its deal with Zahn shortly thereafter, because Hambly was told to write Callista out in her next book.

but that could just be a discrepancy in how I view the character and how Hambly (and you, I suppose, since I assume from this comment that you like Luke/Callista and don't like Luke/Mara)

Your assumption is half-right. I don't like Luke/Mara, in part because I hate Mara with a fiery passion, and in part because I think marriage to that hateful creature has destroyed Luke, divested him of his brain, his spine, and his morals. I loathe how the NJO authors, subtly and not-so-subtly, attempted to ease (heck, shove) Mara into Leia's place as primary heroine.

But I didn't like Luke/Callista either. Callista was whiny and annoying, and the whole concept of their relationship was just weird. I merely brought up Callista to show that there was no understanding among the authors that Luke would eventually be yoked to the shrew known as Mara -- because it was Hambly's specific assignment to create the love of Luke's life.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the clarification; I hadn't read those intereviews, and was getting my information from the one TheForce.Net had with Zahn in 2000. But it doesn't really make much difference to me, since I still dislike most of the EU and do like Mara and Luke/Mara. :)

[may-child.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

I don't get the appeal of Luke/Mara. I never have, and I never will. I don't see Mara as a "strong woman," I see her as a nasty, insensitive, mean-spirited shrew who feels free to stomp all over everyone in stiletto heels -- while they walk on tiptoe around her.

I've seen people say that this is the first "healthy" relationship Luke has ever had. I fail to see what is so healthy about Luke completely subjugating himself to his wife, and forgetting all about his family. In the NJO, when Leia calls to him after being captured, he sits on his butt (contrast this with how Leia turned around to save him when he called to her on Bespin). When she's tortured, he's too busy stroking Mara's red-gold hair to comfort her through the Force, or even spare her a thought. When Leia's son dies, he once again offers her no comfort, or even thinks about her. He does nothing while Mara slams Leia, to her face and behind her back. She bashed Leia's mothering (although she herself knew nothing of what it was like to be a mother and fight for the galaxy at the same time -- and she ended up making the same decisions with regards to her kid that Leia made with regards to hers, yet didn't reflect that perhaps she had no business criticizing Leia), and Luke nodded like a puppet. Mara chewed Leia out for Ben's disappearance, and Luke just stood there. Mara bashed Leia behind her back for Ben's disappearance, and Luke just sat there, in awe of her.

He's no more respectful toward his dead family members. When his harpy wife hypocritically slams his father ("The Dark Side is the Dark Side -- if you knew Anakin later in his life, you wouldn't be so quick to defend him"), Luke just stands there.

[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.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the fact remains that others do like Mara Jade, Luke/Mara, and do not see her as "a nasty, insensitive, mean-spirited shrew who feels free to stomp all over everyone in stiletto heels -- while they walk on tiptoe around her." I totally respect that you have your feelings on Mara and her relationship with Luke, but others simply don't see it like you.

It's starting to sound like you're character bashing, and considering that you're talking to Mara fans, it is a bit rude. Personally, I like Mara okay, though I'm not especially interested in her. Then again, I'm not a huge EU fan. I prefer the films above all. And in those, Luke's only love interest was, well, his sister. XD I've no vested interested in defending Mara, especially since I abandoned the EU after reading The Courtship of Princess Leia, but at this point, it does sound like you're trying to antagonize people. I'm sure they don't mind you explaining that you don't like a certain character, but calling character's insulting names tends to get people's hackles raised. And really, there's more fun things we can all be doing. :)

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Mmm... I have Outbound Flight sitting next to my bed, waiting to be read. Must do that.

[cenori.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's fine! I love watching people get into Star Wars - it was my first fandom, and will always be nearest to my heart. :) The one fandom I know I'll never grow tired of. I got into it when the special editions came out in '97, so I was about... twelve, I think. Not nearly as early as some people.

I remember, walking around my small Catholic school with those big, thick novels, teachers always used to stop me in the hallway to ask what I was reading, looking so impressed by the length of the book. When I held it up and told them it was Star Wars, they were always disappointed. XD

[may-child.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. I'm a fan of the prequels, and no matter where I go on the Internet, LiveJournal included, people are saying far worse things about that, and about the characters in it, than I've said about Mara here.

I simply don't understand why Mara fans must be protected from reading things they don't like about her, while fans of the prequels are told to simply put up with bashing of what they like.

[krabapple.livejournal.com]

which I will get back to you sometime before I go home for summer, promise!)

Hee! Don't worry, I'm not missing them very much! :) (Well, most of them.)

Star Wars EU being my home fandom, as it were (though not my first online fandom, technically) there's so much I could say. I, too, basically read the EU as an extension of movie canon -- pro fan-fic, really.

I think the Bantam era is decidedly mixed. There's some good, some bad, and some ugly. Sometimes I feel in the minority on which OCs I like: Mara, Corran, etc. The only novels I would read again are Zhan's and the Rouge and Wraith series, which I happen to think are some of the best novels in the entire EU. I took me a long time to read them since they didn't feature the original trio, but I really loved where they went (Allston in particular, who is one of my favorite EU authors).

As for the NJO: Eh. I started out okay with it, but was decidedly over it by the time the last novel came out. I don't even think I finished it, frankly. Which is kind of sad. I was just bored. I didn't particularly like the Vong, and though I am again in the minority in liking Jacen, Anakin Solo was really my favorite (as was his growing relationship with Tahiri), and after he died, I was more or less done. Star by Star just killed me. (I was also a heratic who liked Jaina/Kyp, so, you know, I'm surprised the fandom didn't set fire to me. *g* I thought Jag was okay, but tha's about it.)

I found the Dark Nest trilogy disturbing in a few ways that really make me question where LucasFilm is taking the EU. Surpringly, though, one of the things that doesn't disturb me is Jacen. I mean, he does, but I think his growing ruthlessness under the guise of practicality is actually cohesive as an a character arc, and makes sense with the events of the NJO. Jaina . . . I could care less about, sadly enough. Frankly, I think the Joiner thing is just creepy.

What I really didn't like was Luke's Grand Master/taking over the Jedi Order stuff. I love Luke, but that's a whole lot of power, you know? I'm not sure I like it, and I think while it might solve things in the short term, the long term is pretty hairy. Mostly, I think I'm probably in league with Leia on this one. :) (And I did like her training with Saba a lot.)

Okay, I'm going to shut up now. I just never get to talk about Star Wars very much. :)

[krabapple.livejournal.com]

When will LJ give us an "edit comments" feature? When? Oh, the typos . . .

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* I don't like prequel-bashing unless it's obviously done for fun. I don't mind people making fun of anything in a humorous way. I see people bashing Obi-Wan on Anakin boards all the time, and since Obi-Wan is my favorite character, it always upsets me a little, so I was trying to put myself in a Mara fan's shoes.

I'm not saying you can't explain why you don't like her, because I certainly complain about things I don't like, but I always try to temper what I say around people who do like it, regardless of subject. It's just about courtesy, nothing more. :)

[may-child.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* I don't like prequel-bashing unless it's obviously done for fun. I don't mind people making fun of anything in a humorous way. I see people bashing Obi-Wan on Anakin boards all the time, and since Obi-Wan is my favorite character, it always upsets me a little, so I was trying to put myself in a Mara fan's shoes.

I'm not saying you can't explain why you don't like her, because I certainly complain about things I don't like, but I always try to temper what I say around people who do like it, regardless of subject. It's just about courtesy, nothing more. :)

That's nice of you, and I appreciate what you're saying in theory. It's just that in practice, people don't learn by example. I've tried to turn the other cheek with regards to prequel-bashing, and it's only gotten worse. Meanwhile, EU fans in general and Mara fans in particular are insulated and protected from negativity.

[ginchy.livejournal.com]

"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."

Hooray!! That's EXACTLY how I feel about it. EXACTLY. I love seeing someone else say it in print form! :)

Luke, Luke, Luke...give me more Luke! (And Mara) But mostly Luke! :)

[rynne.livejournal.com]

The only novels I would read again are Zhan's and the Rouge and Wraith series

Those, and Truce at Bakura, are the only SW novels I bought after reading them, rather than being content with knowing they're in the library if I ever got the random urge to read them again. Also, I loved Allston's books. He's so funny. :D

I liked Anakin Solo well enough. Better than Jacen or Jaina, at least. His death scene was heartbreaking, but I think I would have liked Star by Star better if I hadn't thought that the mission to destroy the voxyn queen completely bogus. (Honestly, if the Vong could have created one of them, I'd bet they could create more. Geez.) Though actually, Jaina/Kyp is pretty popular, from what I've seen. :p I don't particularly care for it, since I like neither Jaina nor Kyp (and people writing Kyp as more powerful than Luke makes me want to gnash my teeth. I understand he was created before the prequels, but Luke and Leia and their kids are directly descended from the Force, and Yoda and Ben thought Luke powerful enough to stand up to the Emperor and Vader, so I always thought of Kyp as another person upstaging Luke :p).

Oh, Jacen's character arc makes sense to me, too. His growing ruthlessness isn't the only reason I dislike him (dude, Vader is my second favorite character in everything SW); the main reason is really how he keeps upstaging Luke. I may have come into SW late enough in the game that I watched both trilogies knowing that Anakin/Vader is the real main character, but to me, Luke is the hero, and he'll always be the hero. I don't want anyone taking that away from him, and because that's what Jacen did in the NJO, I don't like him.

I also thought the Joiner thing creepy. o.O

What I really didn't like was Luke's Grand Master/taking over the Jedi Order stuff.

I don't mind it, but only because I don't think the EU authors will make him go to the Dark Side because of all the power. (If Dark Empire hadn't happened, and he hadn't already gone to the Dark Side, I might be more worried, but as it is, it's a sort of 'been there, done that' plot thing.) I don't know what happens in Legacy, but I remember reading that in the dramatis personae of the first book, Luke is not listed as Grand Master, so I think it's probably a temporary thing anyway, meant to stop the Order from dividing into permanent factions until they sort out what exactly their role in the galaxy really is. So in the interest of keeping the Order cohesive, I don't mind, but I don't think it's something he should keep up.

Hee. :D Talk about Star Wars all you like, I don't mind!

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Oh Luke, how I love you. ♥ ♥ ♥

It's one of the reasons I love fanfic so much--I can read stories completely/almost completely about Luke, without having to worry about characters I don't care for taking center stage. :D

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

::Sigh:: I guess this makes sense. So I won't bother you about it anymore.





Well, not until the day after Burnt by the Sun's final chapter is posted, at which point you become fair game.

(Again already ducking) ;>