Borbarad
Advocatus Diaboli
Did somebody call for my assistance here? Oh. Literature analysis. Fun time incoming.
Originally posted by S_W_LeGenD
Novels represent the stories of the characters. They represent their world in a sense. Novels are written in a manner that the readers do not get the feeling that they are reading guides or encyclopedias.
Captain obvious to the rescue. You forgot to mention, that novels are texts, which are written by combining sentences, which are combinations of words, which usually are built by using letters. If that statement is a demonstration of your level of competence in literature analysis, you should stop arguing and go get some education.
The actual opinions of characters are typically mentioned in quotes.
In short: No.
Most of the characters thoughts and opinions do happen outside the quotes, which are there to allow dialogue with other characters. You're actually implying, that characters within fiction have to vocalize every single thought / opinion they have. Obviously, that is nonsense.
However, novels can contain texts that directly convey the intended message of the author to the readers. The author attempts to give readers a snapshot of events with these types of texts.
Apparently, you have a hard time recognizing the perspective from which certain things are narrated. Let me explain that, using the quote that you have introduced yourself:
Revan couldn't actually remember any of his battles against the Mandalorians; they were buried in the part of his mind that had been locked away when the Jedi Council turned him against Malak. But he had studied up on his own history enough to fill in the missing details from Canderous's narrative.
In battle after battle, Revan had led the Jedi and Republic forces to victory. Realizing defeat was inevitable, Mandalore the Ultimate had challenged Revan to single combat, and Revan had accepted. Though the Mandalorian fought valiantly, in the end he was no match for the Jedi Order's most powerful champion. But it wasn't enough for Revan to simply defeat his enemy.
Emphasis mine.
What is the context here? What is the situation of communication that is presented to us by the author? Taking a look to the parts that I've highlighted, you might be able to figure out, that this entire passage represents Revan's thoughts. First, he can't remember, then he studies some history, which allows him to fill the gaps. The next paragraph is the result of that "filling of gaps". It is the version of what happened as Revan has puzzled it together. That doesn't mean, that it has to be correct.
We are getting a sneakpeak of some events that occurred during the Mandalorian Wars in the above text, which also represent the opinion of the author.
Really?
What I see there, is a character thinking about his own past. Whether or not this version is correct or matches the opinion of the author can't be verfied in that situation. You see: An author could use a "true omniscient" narrator to introduce "facts" into his story. Even by just utilizing another perspective (e.g. another character within the story) he could have made the content of the narration above more "objective". Yet, he choses to let us take a look into Revan's thoughts about his own history.
And, in fact, we are pretty much confronted with a little contradiction here: Revan, in times of the Mandalorian Wars, was no servant of the Jedi Order any longer. He went to war against Orders of the Jedi Council and pretty much went to the Dark Side (by exploring Malachor V) before the end of said war. So, rather than giving us "facts", we are confronted with a very Revan-friendly interpretation of historic events. Something to expected from a character thinking about himself but not from a truely omniscient narrator. 😉
In addition, there can be descriptions that represent the feelings of characters in a certain situation, as you pointed below by using the example of Vitiate.
Excuse me. Most contemporary fiction is written in form of third person limited narration, in which the narrator talks from the point of view of one or multiple persons within the story, using their opinions, views, thoughts. This is, clearly, also the case with almost all SW works, including the one you've quoted - which I just demonstrated above. So there aren't just "certain situations" in which the feelings of characters apply - the entire narration is written from the perspective of the characters and, hence, always coined by their thoughts and feelings.
My opinions are based on nuetral perspective. I analyze each expression and then try to grasp their context.
Sorry, Sir.
You obviously ignore context and your personal perspective is most certainly not a "neutral" one, because you have some opinion, you're trying to defend here, which excludes yourself from the realm of neutrality.