It's been an issue throughout Lotf and FotJ but it is specifically a problem with Legacy. LotF and FotJ at least had the potential of wrapping up the whole "galactic peace" problem, no matter how annoying the emergence of Caedus and these new Tribal Sith are.
But thanks to Legacy, we now know that no matter what happens to Luke, Ben, Abeloth, or the Lost Tribe, it doesn't matter. Because Krayt and his One take over the galaxy and purge the Jedi that Luke created.
Literally all the hard earned efforts toward "peace", the stabilization of the galaxy, the refounding of democracy, and a new Jedi Order, now all amount to a hill of beans because of Legacy. But worst of all, it's being done with the same goddamn thing as before: the Sith. At least the Yuuzhan Vong were comparatively new and original--a possible last major threat. But the Sith, again?! How many f*cking incarnations of that cult does there need to be?
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
You'd think they'd take a hint after being wiped out...what, three or four times?
Actually, it's the sad attempts at democracy that should take a hint.
Galactic democracy DOES. NOT. WORK.
And no, it has never mattered. Ever since the Thrawn Trilogy the Galaxy has been besieged by everything and anything.
No matter what Luke does there will never be peace. This was evident long before Legacy. Legacy just showed what threats will emerge in a hundred years.
Forget Legacy ever happened. In a few years there will be anew galactic threat in the EU. And a few years after that, another one.
Peace is a lie.
__________________ Earth is a beautiful addition to the Galaxy...but an even finer accessory on the hand of a God.
When one does not come up with new decent enemies, they utilize old popular enemies. Isn't that what The Old Republic is doing?
By the way, it's Star Wars, not Star Peace. If they really want to write new novels they can't have them be about how peaceful the universe is, they need conflict and thus, war.
__________________ Imagination is more important than knowledge.
they could have some regional conflicts like they did for many years between the trilogies. Those were good books. Its the whole galaxy wide conflicts that make it all seem in vain. In all honesty, the galaxy was in better hands with Sidious if you take only the EU into account.
That doesn't mean that they have to have the new conflict be political intrigue or even a golactic issue at all. The LotF book where Ben goes to Farpoint and Han/Leia go to see the Correllians is boring as hell because
Traviss wrote it
the conflict is about getting votes.
There is simply no way to reconsile the problems of a representative democracy (monied interests, corruption, class warfare) with interesting action/adventure novels aimed at teenagers. That is not a thing that happens. Hell, the first movie opened with the information that the Emperor had abolished the Senate! That movie kicks ass! It is once we get into the jurisdicktion of Senators and Politicians that the saga gets bogged down.
Shatterpoint, one of the better novels in the series, does include political wrangling but it is part of the backdrop/setting. It is after the conflict (i.e. the narrative) moves into the political arena itself that politics begins to harm the Star Wars series. (Basically, the decline of Star Wars, for me, is all Leia's fault.) Edit: I agree completely with TJ. Regional conflicts (like maybe a planet having more than one faction or -GASP- biome) would be a marked imporovement.
I advocate some sort of Hyperspace Storm that isolates the various systems and makes commerce (and especially governance) impractical. The Jedi Diaspora would provide many separate theaters for further stories. (This is not an overreaction; the parts of FotJ where Jaina's Chiss boyfriend can't do anything because of the Council of Moffs and her Imperial boyfriend can't do anything because of the Hapans are completely unreadable.)
I agree with TJ. You can have conflict without it being "OMG INTA-STELLAH WAAAGGHHHHH".
In fact, some of the best books in the mythos were not giant interstellar wars. The Thrawn trilogy, Jedi Academy trilogy, and Shatterpoint, for example, were all great series that had conflict and fighting within them. However they did not take place on the same galaxy wide scale that we've seen with the Clone Wars, Rebel/Empire war, Vong war etc etc. After reading those novels, you could actually think to yourself "huh, it looks like there's some actual progress in the Galaxy".
__________________
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Well I just like Legacy because it is a very different spin on the typical archetypes of Star Wars.
This spin presents new and very intriguing ideas.
Fr instance, where I am at right now in the comics. We all know about Anakin's ridiculous posessiveness when it came to Padme. He just would not let her die.
Well, in this, Cade has that but it's up to eleven. It makes sense given what happened to him. Trauma at a young age stunts your psychological growth or whatever and seeing your fathe and freinds killed would probably instill in you a fanatical determination not to let anyone else you care about die.
But right now, he just went too far. He lied to his uncle about Azyln wanting to be saved. She wanted to just be let go - to become one with the Force. Cade's actions however have imprisoned her in a metal shell. Vader's descendant's selfishness has doomed a woman he loves to a horrific part-life.
Shit like that, it's well done and it's emotionally powerful.
__________________ Earth is a beautiful addition to the Galaxy...but an even finer accessory on the hand of a God.
How is that "a different spin"? It sounds almost exactly the same.
"Young child is emotionally scarred. Young child grows up to become mentally unstable. Unstable man becomes over protective of loved ones. Unstable man performs extremely rash decisions in an attempt to save loved ones, unwittingly ****ing them in the process."
Just more of the same old Star Wars shit.
__________________
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
At least Revan shook things up a bit by being perfect from the start.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Yeah, Revan's character arc is that he was perfect (KotOR I is very complimentary the decision to go to war) and then we find out that he was more perfect (even the Disciple notices that Revan was strengthening the Republic by killing its citizens). Really, if we had gotten KotOR III the only logical step would be to make his character the one that discovers (and trains) Yoda.
And left his genes so he could be cloned in to Galen Marek.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Kotor 1 didn't seem that complimentary about Revan going to war. If anything it pretty much proved that the Council were always right ad that Revan going to war played straight into the Sith's hands just as they predicted.
Kotor 2 was written with Revan in the right precisely becuase that idea (and the black/white morality in general) pissed Avellone off so much.
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Carth would disagree. Everyone involved in the Mandalorian War itself would disagree. It is only after the Sith show up that it is considered a mistake at all.
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Mar 19th, 2011 12:54 PM
