WOW, Donovan and Rogue, I apologize, if I offended either of you, after seeing what is going on with another poster here please accept my sincerest apology.

Unlike the one particularly poster in this thread that's been called out by multiple other posters, you've been pretty civil, so no harm done from where I stand. I don't know what the beef is between you and JegerGryte, and frankly I don't care. I got to hang out a bit with the man face-to-face, and found him to be a pretty decent fellow, and the vast majority of his posts have been constructive to the topic in which there posted, the inflammatory one that he's already been disciplined about by the forum moderators being a notable exception (though I can relate to where he's coming from in that post)

As for those Karen Traviss stories, I don't have any links mostly as I don't feel she's worth wasting any more time on than I already did with the Republic Commando novels. What's a shame is that the first one was pretty good, the second one could be written off as "a certain point of view" in terms of "Mandos are better!" but it just went downhill from there.

Id like to share this...
Star Wars Canon Timeline:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=EC2764183B317212!36789&authkey=!AFEbWZM7PQ923Nw&ithint=file%2cdocx

Oh and back to the EU. Both the upcoming Shattered Empire comic series and Star Wars: Aftermath novel will be canon information to bridge some of the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

As a friend of Chuck Wendig, I'm super hyped for that!

WOW, Donovan and Rogue, I apologize, if I offended either of you, after seeing what is going on with another poster here please accept my sincerest apology.

Unlike the one particularly poster in this thread that's been called out by multiple other posters, you've been pretty civil, so no harm done from where I stand. I don't know what the beef is between you and JegerGryte, and frankly I don't care. I got to hang out a bit with the man face-to-face, and found him to be a pretty decent fellow, and the vast majority of his posts have been constructive to the topic in which there posted, the inflammatory one that he's already been disciplined about by the forum moderators being a notable exception (though I can relate to where he's coming from in that post)

As for those Karen Traviss stories, I don't have any links mostly as I don't feel she's worth wasting any more time on than I already did with the Republic Commando novels. What's a shame is that the first one was pretty good, the second one could be written off as "a certain point of view" in terms of "Mandos are better!" but it just went downhill from there.

Donovan, I think Jeger and I are cool, so moving along

My view on Traviss' books maybe skewed, due to the fact that I had been gouging my eyes out with a spoon trying to read the NJO and the series with the Vong being fresh in my mind, kinda like eating dog crap then jumping to a salad...well anything tastes like a steak after that. I haven't read a Star Wars Book since the Mandos became Tree hugging Hippies in TCW and I will admit that a series of books can drag when there are enough of them in that series. Hell, I didn't even know her name until that episode came out (just looked for TRC titles and bought them) and was like, WTF where is her next book, and looked her up to see what was up. Personally I don't like the idea of an army of guys with light sticks running around ( I am and will be an OT fan), but didn't mind that there are a few out there and didn't see her hating on them if what you said is true. So, loved that she was finally bring us to the point of being closer to the OT.

BTW I played SW Galaxies, was that the first online MMO that came out for Star Wars? I can't remember LOL. That really burned me when they came out with Jedi in that game (I had been playing it since a month after it came out). It followed how FFG is handling their core books, except that you joined a faction if you wanted to and organized yourselves into like minded friends and fought each other while doing quests (don't know why I went into such detail, most here are probably very familiar with it). When they added the Jedi to it I thought, OK, cool let there be Jedi. Then a few weeks later, everyone was pulling out glow sticks and fighting everywhere, and I was astonished that everyone on there wanted to be a Sith or a Jedi. So the select few was me as a commando, smuggler, LOL. Now with FFG SW, I am in a group of 4 and as long as I keep plugging along as my Colonist, Let the other 3 be Force users they still need me to do dirty work, and the chances of doing that are slim to none as the people I play with feel the same way. So I am loving FFG, the forums and playing, I find everyone here for the most part contributes and shares their ideas very well. So thanks guys.

I'm really darned curious about that 'Aftermath' book, but I think I'm gonna stick to my original plan and go into the movie cold. Then once I've seen it, I'll read the book to fill in the blanks (and maybe then it'll be in paperback! )

WOW, Donovan and Rogue, I apologize, if I offended either of you, after seeing what is going on with another poster here please accept my sincerest apology.

Unlike the one particularly poster in this thread that's been called out by multiple other posters, you've been pretty civil, so no harm done from where I stand. I don't know what the beef is between you and JegerGryte, and frankly I don't care. I got to hang out a bit with the man face-to-face, and found him to be a pretty decent fellow, and the vast majority of his posts have been constructive to the topic in which there posted, the inflammatory one that he's already been disciplined about by the forum moderators being a notable exception (though I can relate to where he's coming from in that post)

As for those Karen Traviss stories, I don't have any links mostly as I don't feel she's worth wasting any more time on than I already did with the Republic Commando novels. What's a shame is that the first one was pretty good, the second one could be written off as "a certain point of view" in terms of "Mandos are better!" but it just went downhill from there.

Donovan, I think Jeger and I are cool, so moving along

My view on Traviss' books maybe skewed, due to the fact that I had been gouging my eyes out with a spoon trying to read the NJO and the series with the Vong being fresh in my mind, kinda like eating dog crap then jumping to a salad...well anything tastes like a steak after that. I haven't read a Star Wars Book since the Mandos became Tree hugging Hippies in TCW and I will admit that a series of books can drag when there are enough of them in that series. Hell, I didn't even know her name until that episode came out (just looked for TRC titles and bought them) and was like, WTF where is her next book, and looked her up to see what was up. Personally I don't like the idea of an army of guys with light sticks running around ( I am and will be an OT fan), but didn't mind that there are a few out there and didn't see her hating on them if what you said is true. So, loved that she was finally bring us to the point of being closer to the OT.

BTW I played SW Galaxies, was that the first online MMO that came out for Star Wars? I can't remember LOL. That really burned me when they came out with Jedi in that game (I had been playing it since a month after it came out). It followed how FFG is handling their core books, except that you joined a faction if you wanted to and organized yourselves into like minded friends and fought each other while doing quests (don't know why I went into such detail, most here are probably very familiar with it). When they added the Jedi to it I thought, OK, cool let there be Jedi. Then a few weeks later, everyone was pulling out glow sticks and fighting everywhere, and I was astonished that everyone on there wanted to be a Sith or a Jedi. So the select few was me as a commando, smuggler, LOL. Now with FFG SW, I am in a group of 4 and as long as I keep plugging along as my Colonist, Let the other 3 be Force users they still need me to do dirty work, and the chances of doing that are slim to none as the people I play with feel the same way. So I am loving FFG, the forums and playing, I find everyone here for the most part contributes and shares their ideas very well. So thanks guys.

I think they directly contribute to the overfocus on

Yeah Galaxies was the original Star Wars MMO. I never understood while some people especially in Star Wars MMOs but some Tabletop players I've encountered as well have a force sensitive or bust attitude. I think they contributed to the over focus on Force related matters in the later EU and the Clone Wars which dragged the quality of the material down IMO.

Yeah Galaxies was the original Star Wars MMO. I never understood while some people especially in Star Wars MMOs but some Tabletop players I've encountered as well have a force sensitive or bust attitude. I think they contributed to the over focus on Force related matters in the later EU and the Clone Wars which dragged the quality of the material down IMO.

I don't think it affected quality so much as I felt people took it something that is supposed to be special and made it unspecial. In otherwards, the jumped on the bandwagon to be special and because everyone did it it was blah towards me.

I dont know about the rest of the Nu Canon, but one recurring theme has again reared it's ugly head in Heir to the Empire Jedi:

Boba Fett's version of the Sarlacc fight, since he said it does it make it canon?

I like what Karen did with the Mandos in the Clone Commando books. But I think she may have gone off the deep end a little in the later books. And lets face it the Jedi were kind of terrible people during the clone wars. They seriously lost there way. Which I think was Palpy's plan all along. Tarkin was right about the Jedi not being cut out to be generals. You need to do some pretty terrible things if you want to make the other side not want to fight anymore. and by not doing so you tend to have the war just drag on and on. Which was also a part of Palpy's plan.

Always been a fan of Boba Fett. But I liked him when he was just some anonymous bounty hunter wearing the armour of a lost warrior culture. Not a fan of all this Mandalore crap no matter who does it.

Always been a fan of Boba Fett. But I liked him when he was just some anonymous bounty hunter wearing the armour of a lost warrior culture. Not a fan of all this Mandalore crap no matter who does it.

So am I, just threw the vid out there

just finished reading Heir to the Jedi, and was disappointed greatly by the writing, and the story. Luke facing off against a ship that looks like a (the exact words from the book) "Piece of toast" *headdesk*

and then Luke using the force to eat noodles

Really going to read reviews before buying another book after that

I like what Karen did with the Mandos in the Clone Commando books. But I think she may have gone off the deep end a little in the later books. And lets face it the Jedi were kind of terrible people during the clone wars. They seriously lost there way. Which I think was Palpy's plan all along. Tarkin was right about the Jedi not being cut out to be generals. You need to do some pretty terrible things if you want to make the other side not want to fight anymore. and by not doing so you tend to have the war just drag on and on. Which was also a part of Palpy's plan.

I think she went off the deep end by the time she wrote Order 66 personally.

just finished reading Heir to the Jedi, and was disappointed greatly by the writing, and the story. Luke facing off against a ship that looks like a (the exact words from the book) "Piece of toast" *headdesk*

and then Luke using the force to eat noodles

Really going to read reviews before buying another book after that

Yeah. Kevin chose some weird descriptor terms. Part of me suspected the imagery was done in Luke's narrative voice, and not just some funky ways to describe objects. It's hard for me to read a Star Wars book about the main heroes and not be critical of the character writings. I'm hoping we get some stories focusing on new characters or side characters like the Ventress book.

just finished reading Heir to the Jedi, and was disappointed greatly by the writing, and the story. Luke facing off against a ship that looks like a (the exact words from the book) "Piece of toast" *headdesk*

and then Luke using the force to eat noodles

Really going to read reviews before buying another book after that

Get used to it, sadly. I heard an interview with one of the editors at Del Rey (Shelly Shapiro) on the Jedi Journals podcast and she was basically saying that they are talking in an alien language, and the books are the translated English. So for all we know in your example the original word for 'toast' is mzkyy'yminnupil, but in English its 'toast'. They both mean a wedge of cooked bread.

It's a bad move in my mind. Trying to make everything earth-analogous to appeal to new readers takes away some of the ambience of it being another galaxy.

I do recommend listening to the full interview for the proper context, but when I heard it I mentally went "Really? Ugh."

I liked the Rebels Cartoon, wasn't a huge fan of The Clone Wars due to it being pretty straight forward (especially as everything in the series didn't really do a whole lot to "affect" Revenge of the Sith). The biggest issue was that it made the Imperials seems like a bunch of idiots, from the Commandant and the Taskmaster (frankly, they were a high school principal and a janitor) to the way Tarkin came on the scene.

Don't get me wrong, he had a good reason for dealing with the Commandat and Taskmaster. But what Tarkin did and what it cost the Empire, just doesn't make sense.

This just leaves me with some uncertainty and I hope that Disney doesn't decide that all Imperial Officers are incompetent and stupid.

I think it has more to do with All villains in a kid's cartoon are incompetent and stupid then anything reflection on the empire in particular. Watch any superhero cartoon or other story-arc cartoon aimed at the same audience, the bad guys are always foolish in that way, and the heroes are always pulling off big, super accomplishments like that. You have to take it as it is, a Cartoon, and not as an animated documentary on the rebellion. (The same which can be said of any book, movie or other story)

In regards to Tarkin blowing up that communications tower, they did have a back-up method in play (using droids to carry important data up to a ship in orbit) and the destruction of the tower was pinned on the Rebels (Vizago says as much, which Ezra vehemently denies).

In Tarkin's case, he's killing two birds with one stone. First, he puts a permanent end to a subversive message, and secondly the lack of off-world communications would be a notable burden to the people of Lothal, and he can very easily paint the "Rebels" as being responsible, thus souring the populace against the Rebel insurgents.

Then again, Tarkin's always been an extreme measures type of guy, as noted by the Tarkin Doctrine (which outlines how the Empire can best implement and maintain a "rule by fear" policy) and his "alternative method of persuasion" to get Leia to cough up the location of the Rebel base... and then blowing up Alderaan anyway. He's definitely not one for half-measures or small steps when it comes to ensuring the Empire's enemies are dealt with.

The Empire cannot allow pirate broadcasts to the local systems using its own hardware. Disabling the hack would have taken time. Every passing second has the Rebels broadcasting their propaganda with impunity, making the Empire look flawed and vulnerable. In the very next episode we find out from both Kallus and Fulcrum that Ezra's message has been heard across several worlds and is already having an effect. Tarkin may not have foreseen the way the Rebels would exploit his decision, but he made the only tactical decision he could under the time constraint - stop the broadcast.

As for incompetent villains - we're not going to get a show where the heroes are out thought and gunned down each week. So just like 99% of modern entertainment, be it tv, movies, for 'kids' or for adults, the bad guys are going to do stupid things and the heroes are (generally) going to win out. Rebels is far from unique in this.

However, I think we may see a change in the competency of the villains in Rebels as it progresses. Within the constraints of a kids' cartoon, the villains actually haven't been that stupid. And as the series has progressed they have become more competent(ish). Tarkin upped the stakes a bit and this was clearly deliberate on the part of the writers. Now we have Vader coming in - I think they are definitely aware of these risks and trying to avoid them as the series progresses.

Disney needs a new Xanatos. Rebels is a perfect place for that.

Meh, it's an issue I have with. There's no reason there can't be a competent officer in the Empire. Heck, there are other bigger fish in the universe that can be just as destructive, and even more so, than the rebels. I wouldn't mind seeing the rebels join forces with an officer like that, especially one that knows he/she can't win without it. Heck, I wouldn't mind if they had that officer defect to the rebels later on..

I expect the story to follow the OT pattern only on a larger scale. The rebels win in the beginning, get hammered at some points in the middle, and win in the end possibly with the loss of some or all of their team in the process of the final win.

I expect the story to follow the OT pattern only on a larger scale. The rebels win in the beginning, get hammered at some points in the middle, and win in the end possibly with the loss of some or all of their team in the process of the final win.

Interesting. Not exactly what I would be looking forward to, especially if it's a TPK, but it would close off some of the loop holes.