6 hours ago, Mep said:

Go back and reread The Darksaber. You'll find the old Zahn trilogy quite wonderful again.

This was ... hard to deal with.

6 hours ago, Cr0aker said:

For those who have read my recaps of the D6 RPG played with my nieces and nephews in the off topic forum, I recently purchased for them the thrawn trilogy for Christmas, each are reading in turn. Star Wars as I knew it as a kid, continues into the next generation, spite the messed up current series and Disney.

I think this is grand.

1 hour ago, Imperial Advisor Arem Heshvaun said:

This was ... hard to deal with.

Oh good. I'm not alone in that regards. I actually liked certain character types introduced, and some of the concepts, but... so much "no." Execution was poor.

I've kinda felt that way about all of Kevin J Anderson's works that I've sampled though, so it might just be his style?

Crystal Star though... that was a low point... Not sure it was THE low point, but it certainly hurt more than most.

9 hours ago, Cr0aker said:

For those who have read my recaps of the D6 RPG played with my nieces and nephews in the off topic forum, I recently purchased for them the thrawn trilogy for Christmas, each are reading in turn. Star Wars as I knew it as a kid, continues into the next generation, spite the messed up current series and Disney.

Now that the ST has ended with a whimper, I really want FFG to go back and create factions for the Legends forces of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.

The Zahn stories are a good memory for me; when "non-movie" SW was huge, and the world had no idea cinematic Star Wars would ever been a thing again. Also, that period has a lot of cool stuff that I would love to play with in this game--I would like to see 1990s SW live on in XWM.

To wit,

JJ tried really hard to not invent anything new, didn't he?

3 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Now that the ST has ended with a whimper, I really want FFG to go back and create factions for the Legends forces of the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.

The Zahn stories are a good memory for me; when "non-movie" SW was huge, and the world had no idea cinematic Star Wars would ever been a thing again. Also, that period has a lot of cool stuff that I would love to play with in this game--I would like to see 1990s SW live on in XWM.

To wit,

JJ tried really hard to not invent anything new, didn't he?

Fang fighters aren't allowed to make a set of cameos?

1 minute ago, KCDodger said:

Fang fighters aren't allowed to make a set of cameos?

Sure, but,

*yawn*

That whole space scene is just a "Where's Waldo" of everyone else's ideas.

39 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Imperial Remnant

I always felt the Imperial Remnant to be a very interesting political faction for story purposes. It represents a former enemy, an uneasy truce, a potential ally. You can have old grudges and new hope. The symbolism of the old Empire, but striving to be something else to differentiate itself to gain political and popular support.

*sigh*

Missed opportunities, in my opinion.

50 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sure, but,

*yawn*

That whole space scene is just a "Where's Waldo" of everyone else's ideas.

That's a pretty weak criticism, IMO. The whole scene is about how "everyone shows up". In order to convey that, you need to have lots and lots of recognizable bits. What if it was just Lando in the Falcon plus the Ghost and a whole slew of unknowns? Does that imply there was some kind of Resistance "reserve fleet" that Lando went to retrieve? Is Hera in charge of it? Where was this fleet all along? And if it's not, then who are all these people?

When you show known ships, it answers that question every time you notice one. "Oh. Those are all our old friends. They answered the call after all. Everyone showed up."

42 minutes ago, Hatemonger said:

That's a pretty weak criticism, IMO. The whole scene is about how "everyone shows up". In order to convey that, you need to have lots and lots of recognizable bits. What if it was just Lando in the Falcon plus the Ghost and a whole slew of unknowns? Does that imply there was some kind of Resistance "reserve fleet" that Lando went to retrieve? Is Hera in charge of it? Where was this fleet all along? And if it's not, then who are all these people?

When you show known ships, it answers that question every time you notice one. "Oh. Those are all our old friends. They answered the call after all. Everyone showed up."

"We need a military force to defeat the galaxy-wide First Order. Let's bop down to pub and call up our old drinking buddies, since we've never made any other friends."

EVERYONE should be The Galaxy. JUST ONCE, JJ might have tapped the EU for something interesting, instead of ripping off 10 years of visually recognizable TV shows.

Mostly I give the whole ST a bye. But that has got to be the laziest scene ever.

Neat!

A book series effectively serving as a prequel for a now defunct story that was initially a sequel, all of which will have to dance around the ham-fisted use of Thrawn in Rebels while navigating the haphazardly (un)built world of the Sequel Trilogy. All centered around Star Wars' most finger-tenting Mary-Sue character, who is afforded more omniscience than most religions' deities.


RIP, STAR WARS, 1974-2020

Man, I was excited for news on the new book that promises to explore a part of the universe we now now is important.

It turns out everyone is just using yet another thread to say the same things about the sequel trilogy over and over again.

5 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

Sure, but,

*yawn*

That whole space scene is just a "Where's Waldo" of everyone else's ideas.

the f*** are you talking about dude

3 hours ago, Whalers on the moon said:

Man, I was excited for news on the new book that promises to explore a part of the universe we now now is important.

It turns out everyone is just using yet another thread to say the same things about the sequel trilogy over and over again.

RIGHT
GEEZ
GODS
why does this always happen

1 hour ago, Darth Meanie said:

"We need a military force to defeat the galaxy-wide First Order. Let's bop down to pub and call up our old drinking buddies, since we've never made any other friends."

EVERYONE should be The Galaxy. JUST ONCE, JJ might have tapped the EU for something interesting, instead of ripping off 10 years of visually recognizable TV shows.

Mostly I give the whole ST a bye. But that has got to be the laziest scene ever.

From a production standpoint, it's also a lot cheaper to re-use CGI models that you've already created. They might need to update some of the textures for things like the Lancer-class and VCX, but that still costs less than designing dozens of new models for a one-off battle sequence.

I have to say I was heart broken when Brian Herbert got Kevin J Anderson to write all the new Dune books. He completely ruined the EU. There are so many good writers that fly under the radar and never get their big break and yet this guy gets to write everything. So sad.

10 hours ago, Darth Meanie said:

JUST ONCE, JJ might have tapped the EU for something interesting, instead of ripping off 10 years of visually recognizable TV shows.

Ok, there we go. Now I understand.

You're angry he used THOSE other peoples' ideas that you don't like, instead of the OTHER other peoples' ideas that you do like. 🙄

I understand you're disappointed, and you have every right to feel that way, but... can you not see it for what it is?

And I mean... 10 years of TV shows.

Ten. Years.

Can they not also have some legitimacy now? Do you need an "OK BOOMER"?

22 hours ago, pickirk01 said:

Crystal Star provides the same effect, in fact, it makes Darksaber seem a master piece.

Might explain why I didn't have a big issue with the Darksaber. I read half of Crystal Star first and then tossed it back in the shelf. My only recollection of it is how disjointed and jerky the storytelling was. Nothing flowed.

Some people like 78&9. Some people don't. Count me as a don't. However, I am nostalgic for the EU period where we never knew if we were going to get an episode 12&3 in film. The material ranged from very good (Zahn/WEG) to very bad (Crystal Star/New Rebellion) with a lot in between. Although previously a fan of Zahns work, my buddy who got me on the Star Wars nerd track (introduced me to WEG) loved everything about the Jedi... and really liked KJA's series... I did not. We all have opinions and dislike things that take us out of stories. My buddy didn't care for Luke drinking hot chocolate in the Heir trilogy.

For me, in this period and even after 12&3 were released, the sandbox was more open and didn't feel over saturated and silly like Star Trek did/does. It was a broken universe with an authoritative central government (and so, evil) where the hero needs 3 movies of development.. to still get his **** whooped and needs Daddy to save him. 78&9.... well I came into work today to find mouse droppings on my desk (field mice coming in out of the cold) and I was less disappointed by the actual turds.

Like or hate the prequels, episode 3 changed the story from plucky rebellion against evil empire to a story about the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin. Although rough (very) at times, the overall story and themes worked together to make a good cohesive and coherent tale.

Pivoting back to Zahn's most recent Star Wars series, of which Ascendancy is a part of, I am glad he has found a niche on the fringes of the Star Wars 'sandbox' to still play in and write good Sci-Fi. His ability to make aliens feel alien, their culture, technology, language, etc. His understanding that strong antagonists make for compelling protagonists. And even with all the current mess, were still getting some of this. In Star Wars.

For those of us who want to turn off their work phone, sit down with their kids, and play in that sand box again... he makes a little room to do so and ignore all the garbage that now has 'Star Wars' labels on it.

Since there are several EU readers in this thread, I'd like to ask:

For someone who hasn't read anything beyond the original Thrawn trilogy, what would be your top few EU novel recommendations?

10 minutes ago, Scrivner said:

Since there are several EU readers in this thread, I'd like to ask:

For someone who hasn't read anything beyond the original Thrawn trilogy, what would be your top few EU novel recommendations?

Timothy Zahn wrote other Star Wars novels. Read those. Not per se the best, but Dave Wolvertine, independently a great sci-fi author, courtship of Princess Leia. the Han Solo series by Brian Daley. HECK anything by Brian Daley

17 minutes ago, Scrivner said:

Since there are several EU readers in this thread, I'd like to ask:

For someone who hasn't read anything beyond the original Thrawn trilogy, what would be your top few EU novel recommendations?

Not a lot of recommendations, really. Aaron Alliston did a very fun character driven Wraith squadron series. I wouldn’t say good, but it the strength of its characters made it a favourite.

I will I will also add the tales of series, in particular the tales of the Empire and tales of the new Republic.

Although it may sound strange and you're only ability to find them slightly illegitimate, the West End Games adventure journals

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multi post, grr

multi post very grrrr