Great post! And I must say it pleases me a little bit that the EU fans are wetting their diapers about continuity re: the Clone Wars. Now they know what it feels like to see their precious EU get stomped all over, which is what the EU itself regularly does to the canon characters, storyline, and themes. The EU fans insist that their precious books are so much "better" than the canon, yet they desperately want their precious books to be PART of the canon and are insulted if anyone says otherwise.
I'd make a case for eliminating/rebooting the EU that takes place before the events of the OT, but was written before the prequels started coming out. To avoid confusion, I'm talking about books such as the Mary Sue fantasy fanfic known as the misnamed Han Solo Trilogy, which introduced a Mary Sue even more egregious than Mara Jade, if such is possible: Bria Tharen, aka the impossibly beautiful (even Boba Fett is weak-kneed in her presence) founder of the Rebellion, Han's First Loooooove who he pines over for 10 years, the one who got Alderaan involved in the Rebellion, and the one who transmitted the Death Star plans to Leia's ship before dying a martyr.
Get rid of THAT red-gold pest, and I might actually be able to tolerate the OTHER red-gold pest, Mara...as long as she wasn't Sue-ified and steadily given more and more importance to the Empire in general and to the Emperor personally, while STILL being painted as "totally pure" and "never dark" and all that nonsense. And don't pair her with Luke. PLEASE. It may be mean, but I'd much rather Luke be a solitary type than paired with the likes of HER...or anyone else, really. None of the EU "girlfriends" for Luke thrilled me, although Gaeriel Captison wasn't too bad. I suppose they could invent a decent girlfriend for him if they did a reboot, but I wouldn't count on it.
Nah, I'm not annoyed with how the EU handled Luke and Leia finding out about their folks at all.
I think EU authors should be reminded that they are not the "gods" of SW, that it is Lucas's story and he invited THEM into HIS playground, not the other way around. If they consider themselves such superior writers to Lucas and would be insulted at the thought of him overriding what they put down, then they shouldn't take the assignment. And while I don't necessarily think they should be the biggest SW fans out there (that can lead to problems as well), they should at least have a genuine affection for the story...a story they want to stay true to, rather than remaking it according to their fantasies and philosophies. For better or for worse, the SW movies are the story, and that includes the movies' flaws, whatever you consider those flaws to be.
If Zahn was to write any more EU novels, they should put a leash on him, because of his arrogant tendency to write whole stories around his OCs, and to ignore the movies' continuity because he just likes HIS continuity better. What's remarkable is that Del Rey actually claims, with a collective straight face, that they DON'T let him do whatever he wants.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-02-21 07:33 pm (UTC)I'd make a case for eliminating/rebooting the EU that takes place before the events of the OT, but was written before the prequels started coming out. To avoid confusion, I'm talking about books such as the Mary Sue fantasy fanfic known as the misnamed Han Solo Trilogy, which introduced a Mary Sue even more egregious than Mara Jade, if such is possible: Bria Tharen, aka the impossibly beautiful (even Boba Fett is weak-kneed in her presence) founder of the Rebellion, Han's First Loooooove who he pines over for 10 years, the one who got Alderaan involved in the Rebellion, and the one who transmitted the Death Star plans to Leia's ship before dying a martyr.
Get rid of THAT red-gold pest, and I might actually be able to tolerate the OTHER red-gold pest, Mara...as long as she wasn't Sue-ified and steadily given more and more importance to the Empire in general and to the Emperor personally, while STILL being painted as "totally pure" and "never dark" and all that nonsense. And don't pair her with Luke. PLEASE. It may be mean, but I'd much rather Luke be a solitary type than paired with the likes of HER...or anyone else, really. None of the EU "girlfriends" for Luke thrilled me, although Gaeriel Captison wasn't too bad. I suppose they could invent a decent girlfriend for him if they did a reboot, but I wouldn't count on it.
I would enjoy a book about Padmé set in the 10 years between TPM and AOTC, but darth_pipes is right, Del Rey would probably say there isn't a market for it. Luke and Leia finding out about their parents together would be a great thing. No stupid Mara mucking it up with her odious presence like in the EU...p-whipped Luke wants to call out to HER first (never mind that the shrew has no respect for his father, although she STILL uses his lightsaber) when he finds a recording of Anakin and Padmé, and Mara plunks her hateful hiney into the situation when Luke and Leia watch it, saying that "only C3PO could be that annoying." Pot, meet kettle.
Nah, I'm not annoyed with how the EU handled Luke and Leia finding out about their folks at all.
I think EU authors should be reminded that they are not the "gods" of SW, that it is Lucas's story and he invited THEM into HIS playground, not the other way around. If they consider themselves such superior writers to Lucas and would be insulted at the thought of him overriding what they put down, then they shouldn't take the assignment. And while I don't necessarily think they should be the biggest SW fans out there (that can lead to problems as well), they should at least have a genuine affection for the story...a story they want to stay true to, rather than remaking it according to their fantasies and philosophies. For better or for worse, the SW movies are the story, and that includes the movies' flaws, whatever you consider those flaws to be.
If Zahn was to write any more EU novels, they should put a leash on him, because of his arrogant tendency to write whole stories around his OCs, and to ignore the movies' continuity because he just likes HIS continuity better. What's remarkable is that Del Rey actually claims, with a collective straight face, that they DON'T let him do whatever he wants.