Top 10 Things I'd Change about the EU
Dec. 30th, 2010 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedimara77When I started my EU lists, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starbuck92 asked my Top 10 Things I'd Change about the EU. Of course, I couldn't resist. So here's my list. Beware of ranting.
This list concentrates on post-ROTJ era EU, since that's what I grew up on, and to me, that's what I think of when I hear the term "Expanded Universe." I know there's much more to it than that, but frankly, nothing has ever held my interest like the continuing adventures of the Big Three (and later the Big Four).
While most of my problems with the post-ROTJ EU stem from the Dark Nest Trilogy and later books, the Bantam era EU had its fair share of problems, and I won't ignore them here!
1. Luke and Mara would have gotten together way earlier. And there would be much more angst in between The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn. Like, they’d actually talk to each other and show some sort of interest in each other! Or, they could have gotten together, broken up, and then gotten together during HoT, so his proposal didn't come so out of left field.
If I had my way, the timeline would be like this:
TTT -> Much Revised JAT / I, Jedi -> Revised New Rebellion -> Corellian Trilogy -> HoT
Oh, who am I kidding? If I had my way, my fanfic would be canon. LOL!!!!
2. NO SUPERWEAPONS!!! NO CALLISTA!
I was so freaking sick of damn superweapons in the Bantam era. You had the Sun Crusher, the Darksaber, and Centerpoint Station. Two of those were KJA creations, of course. I didn't mind Centerpoint Station, mainly because the plot wasn't ridiculous, but the whole idea just grated on my nerves after awhile.
And actually, Callista is acceptable, only if she tells Luke stuff about the Old Jedi Order and provides a much-needed catalyst for Mara to get her head out of her ass.
3. There would have been more than one Skycrawler; OR
4. Anakin Solo would be alive and kicking ass.
Either one of these would suffice. I would have loved for Ben to be already born in the NJO. If you read the books in chronological order, it makes perfect sense for them to have Ben after Survivor's Quest. He should have already been born in Vector Prime, and Mara could have gotten pregnant with another child in the NJO. (Of course, if they had gotten together earlier, their kids could have been a lot older in the NJO.)
And then there's Anakin Solo. To be truly honest, I don't mind his death in Star by Star. I think it was beautifully written and perfectly in character for him. However, I really missed him in the NJO and especially in later books. He was the only Solo kid I really cared about, and I can't help but wonder what the EU would be like if he was still alive.
5. Jacen Solo would not have turned Sith.
This, in my opinion, is the biggest mistake of the post-ROTJ EU, even more than killing Mara. I was never a big fan of Jacen Solo, but I hated that he turned evil. It was a stupid, recycled storyline and if someone had to turn Sith, it should have been someone other than a Skywalker. ARGH.
Also, Tahiri would not have turned Sith, either. Poor Tahiri. That girl has really been through the ringer.
6. Jaina and Jag would have gotten together after the NJO.
They are their generation's Luke and Mara, with WAY more angst. I feel bad for all the J/J shippers. They get together, then break up, then get together, then break up, more times than you can count! And Legacy makes it all seem rather pointless.
7. Mara would still be alive.
Obviously. If they were going to do the Jacen turns Sith storyline, his "sacrifice" should have been someone he actually cared about. After he came back from his five-year journey, he never cared about Mara. He was much closer to Luke, his former master.
8. Leia would have become a Jedi after her children were older and she was done with the government – between HoT and NJO.
I hate that she finally became a Jedi Knight during that god-awful bug series.
9. Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ben would be the stars of the post-ROTJ EU, and the Big Four would be happily retired.
Sure, I will always want to read about the Big Three/Four, but there's only so much they can do. They deserve a break! And there's only two left of the new generation, and they need to really come into their own. Jaina Solo, IMO, is painfully underused. (Yes, this is coming from someone who hasn't read LOTF or FOTJ, but I've read enough of the storyline to know that it's true.)
10. Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston, and Michael Stackpole would write waaaay more books.
Because, I mean, they just should.
What I Want to Happen in the Future: Besides my pipe dream of a reboot after The Unifying Force?
Del Rey needs to stop doing long series (which they are going to) and focus on character-driven stand-alones and trilogies that fill in the timeline, specifically between VOTF and NJO, and NJO and DNT. There's so many characters that could be fleshed out. And I would love love love a Luke/Mara book set before VOTF. But most of all, I want my Skywalker family novel written by Timothy Zahn. COME ON, DEL REY. That would be a license to print money.
starbuck92 asked my Top 10 Things I'd Change about the EU. Of course, I couldn't resist. So here's my list. Beware of ranting.This list concentrates on post-ROTJ era EU, since that's what I grew up on, and to me, that's what I think of when I hear the term "Expanded Universe." I know there's much more to it than that, but frankly, nothing has ever held my interest like the continuing adventures of the Big Three (and later the Big Four).
While most of my problems with the post-ROTJ EU stem from the Dark Nest Trilogy and later books, the Bantam era EU had its fair share of problems, and I won't ignore them here!
1. Luke and Mara would have gotten together way earlier. And there would be much more angst in between The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn. Like, they’d actually talk to each other and show some sort of interest in each other! Or, they could have gotten together, broken up, and then gotten together during HoT, so his proposal didn't come so out of left field.
If I had my way, the timeline would be like this:
TTT -> Much Revised JAT / I, Jedi -> Revised New Rebellion -> Corellian Trilogy -> HoT
Oh, who am I kidding? If I had my way, my fanfic would be canon. LOL!!!!
2. NO SUPERWEAPONS!!! NO CALLISTA!
I was so freaking sick of damn superweapons in the Bantam era. You had the Sun Crusher, the Darksaber, and Centerpoint Station. Two of those were KJA creations, of course. I didn't mind Centerpoint Station, mainly because the plot wasn't ridiculous, but the whole idea just grated on my nerves after awhile.
And actually, Callista is acceptable, only if she tells Luke stuff about the Old Jedi Order and provides a much-needed catalyst for Mara to get her head out of her ass.
3. There would have been more than one Skycrawler; OR
4. Anakin Solo would be alive and kicking ass.
Either one of these would suffice. I would have loved for Ben to be already born in the NJO. If you read the books in chronological order, it makes perfect sense for them to have Ben after Survivor's Quest. He should have already been born in Vector Prime, and Mara could have gotten pregnant with another child in the NJO. (Of course, if they had gotten together earlier, their kids could have been a lot older in the NJO.)
And then there's Anakin Solo. To be truly honest, I don't mind his death in Star by Star. I think it was beautifully written and perfectly in character for him. However, I really missed him in the NJO and especially in later books. He was the only Solo kid I really cared about, and I can't help but wonder what the EU would be like if he was still alive.
5. Jacen Solo would not have turned Sith.
This, in my opinion, is the biggest mistake of the post-ROTJ EU, even more than killing Mara. I was never a big fan of Jacen Solo, but I hated that he turned evil. It was a stupid, recycled storyline and if someone had to turn Sith, it should have been someone other than a Skywalker. ARGH.
Also, Tahiri would not have turned Sith, either. Poor Tahiri. That girl has really been through the ringer.
6. Jaina and Jag would have gotten together after the NJO.
They are their generation's Luke and Mara, with WAY more angst. I feel bad for all the J/J shippers. They get together, then break up, then get together, then break up, more times than you can count! And Legacy makes it all seem rather pointless.
7. Mara would still be alive.
Obviously. If they were going to do the Jacen turns Sith storyline, his "sacrifice" should have been someone he actually cared about. After he came back from his five-year journey, he never cared about Mara. He was much closer to Luke, his former master.
8. Leia would have become a Jedi after her children were older and she was done with the government – between HoT and NJO.
I hate that she finally became a Jedi Knight during that god-awful bug series.
9. Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ben would be the stars of the post-ROTJ EU, and the Big Four would be happily retired.
Sure, I will always want to read about the Big Three/Four, but there's only so much they can do. They deserve a break! And there's only two left of the new generation, and they need to really come into their own. Jaina Solo, IMO, is painfully underused. (Yes, this is coming from someone who hasn't read LOTF or FOTJ, but I've read enough of the storyline to know that it's true.)
10. Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston, and Michael Stackpole would write waaaay more books.
Because, I mean, they just should.
What I Want to Happen in the Future: Besides my pipe dream of a reboot after The Unifying Force?
Del Rey needs to stop doing long series (which they are going to) and focus on character-driven stand-alones and trilogies that fill in the timeline, specifically between VOTF and NJO, and NJO and DNT. There's so many characters that could be fleshed out. And I would love love love a Luke/Mara book set before VOTF. But most of all, I want my Skywalker family novel written by Timothy Zahn. COME ON, DEL REY. That would be a license to print money.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-30 11:26 pm (UTC)This is just Monday morning quarterbacking... But for LOTF, I still would have had Jacen go Sith, but maybe not kill him off. (I honestly don't care either way. Tahiri too. I'm pretty resistant to that whole generation. Ben not so much, yet.) Where I would have changed things is giving Lumiya more of a role as the main villain. (And utilize Mara more on that - some interesting things to explore there.) And of course tell Traviss to keep her Mando shit where it belonged - in some other book/series.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-30 11:38 pm (UTC)Oh, I agree with this as well. Mara needed time to herself. But I still think that ten years was a bit ridiculous, especially considering they never really spent much time together during those ten years. (That being said, Vision of the Future is my favorite book and I wouldn't change a word of it, so perhaps I'm a tad hypocritical? Heh.)
(Plus, from a practical standpoint, if NJO/LOTF taught us anything it's that less Mara means less horrible characterization.)
Sadly, this I totally agree with. I just don't understand why it's so difficult to screw her up so much.
I'm pretty resistant to that whole generation.
I know what you mean. Like I said, Anakin was the only one who I actually cared about. I think I just hated the idea of Jacen going Sith because I always hoped that they'd do something really interesting with his character, but the whole storyline seemed so cheap to me.
Where I would have changed things is giving Lumiya more of a role as the main villain. (And utilize Mara more on that - some interesting things to explore there.)
Oh yes, I completely agree there. Two former Emperor's Hands facing off? Why did they not focus on that? Oh yeah, because of this:
And of course tell Traviss to keep her Mando shit where it belonged - in some other book/series.
Sigh. Sometimes I get the urge to actually read LOTF just to be completist...and then I remember the Mandos.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-31 12:39 am (UTC)Well, she is rather stubborn. ;)
LOTF has some moments. Even the Mando stuff doesn't start to really go off the rails until the third book, when it starts mixing in with the main plot and suddenly Jaina is Mando Fangirl #1.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-02 06:39 pm (UTC)5. Tahiri is like the least believable Sith ever written.
6. Dear God, don't get me started on that load of BS. It makes no friggin' sense. I'll leave it at that. No one wants to hear my long rants about it.
7. I took it that by killing Mara, he sacrificed his relationship with Ben.
9. EXACTLY. It's time to move on. Yes, we all enjoy hearing about them, but it's time for the next generation. Jaina is such a popular character and they've locked her up. It makes no freaking sense. Ben is being pumped up. What about Jaina? *headdesk*
I heard that they aren't going to do another long series for awhile.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 02:31 am (UTC)#5 - hell yes. I think the Skywalker/Solo line is always going to have that temptation of darkness hanging over their heads, but that's all I hoped it would be: temptation. They made Jacen out to be too much like Anakin Skywalker, I think. I am much happier with where they are taking the "villains" in FotJ because the lines are more blurred, much like how things were in Battlestar Galactica.
Agreed again with #6 and #7. I'm tired of the will they/won't they between Jag and Jaina. Let them find a little happiness. And Mara's death - though I have yet to read it - still seems pointless to me.
#8 - a;jd;aslkfjd;alskjdf;askjdf. Heh.
#9 - sorry, my one and only disagreement because I want my original characters around for years to come, though they do need a bit more happiness in their lives!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 04:55 am (UTC)#3 I take it you mean Luke and Mara should have had more kids. Agreed. At least one more. Hell, Darth Rey took care of 2/3 of the Solo children so all who's left is Jaina and Ben? It would have been nice if Ben could have had a sister. (Hee....a sissssterrrr.)
#7 is a big agreement for me. Bottom line: Mara should not have died. It was Del Rey's marketing ploy to hang over our heads that A Major Character Will Die!! (queue ominous music!). For those who said that the "sacrifice" was Jacen's relationship with Ben, I would argue that there really was no true relationship between the two. I have pointed out in my epic that rewrites the end of Sacrifice, that Jacen's sacrifice could be himself. He had to to shed his own innocence as Jacen Solo to become Darth Caedus.
I have stopped ALL of my Star Wars canon reading after Sacrifice and I will never read any further. I write my own version in my fanfics and in others. Whereas you say Bantam emphasized superweapons, DR rehashed the same theme as the prequel. The profic writers with both publishers had the idea that to have a Star Wars story, you need a superweapon or someone turning to the Dark Side. There could be many other conflicts than these. I try to avoid those two standards in my SW fics because they have simply been done to death.
And speaking of death in SW, I remember when Star Wars was fun. I saw the original in 1977 as a seven yr old kid and, like many, am still transfixed to this day. The good guys won, they lost, and then they won again. It was perfect escapism. Unfortunately, there's no reason for escapism today. Kids have too many choices on how to be entertained. With the coming of the new age, came the new version of Star Wars. That of the realism in Star Wars that Del Rey has given us. If I want realism, I'll turn on the news and hear about the true heroes dying in a war. I don't want to read it when I'm trying to escape from it. And Del Rey has given us too many deaths because, "that's what really happens". DR have effectively sucked out the fun for me from the Star Wars I knew.
Sorry to rant