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Seemlar posted:Honestly impressive that JJ has managed to make the Suncrusher and the EU's infamous love of more super weapons seem restrained and believable.
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Jan 2, 2020 00:43
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the suncrusher is the size of an x-wing and blows up suns the death star destroyers still don't reach kevin j anderson levels of silly, sorry
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Jan 2, 2020 00:45
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Jazerus posted:the suncrusher is the size of an x-wing and blows up suns Also it looks like an ice cream cone.
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Jan 2, 2020 00:51
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Jazerus posted:the suncrusher is the size of an x-wing and blows up suns If only they could come up with something as entertainingly stupid as the Jedi Academy trilogy or Darksaber. I will hold those up as fun, if awful, books. Chewbacca and Threepio being the galaxy's worst babysitters and Lando going to the Blob Horse races are some of my favourite bits of EU nonsense.
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Jan 2, 2020 00:56
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Jazerus posted:the suncrusher is the size of an x-wing and blows up suns its also basically invincible. like it can just plow through star destoryers.
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Jan 2, 2020 07:57
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I will take Jedi Academy any day over what the EU was from 2005 onwards. KJA at his worst wanted to write fun books. I'd consider rereading it at some point. What sucks is Lucasfilm had started going back to create unabridged audiobooks of their older books. They did the Thrawn Trilogy, Hand of Thrawn, and Allegiance. But then the Disney sale went through and they stopped there. I wish they'd at least gotten through the X-Wing books before quitting. Sure there are the ones that came out back in the 90s but they're compressed to hell and back. You have a book that's probably at least 10 hours worth of material, and they jammed it into 3 so it would fit on a couple of tapes.
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Jan 2, 2020 08:44
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I keep wanting to re-read the X-Wing stuff but I'm not sure about re-visiting Corran Horn.
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Jan 2, 2020 10:44
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Dawgstar posted:I keep wanting to re-read the X-Wing stuff but I'm not sure about re-visiting Corran Horn. Just skip to the Wraith Squadron books then 
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Jan 2, 2020 13:37
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I did re-read the first Jedi Academy book a few years ago. It's dumb but fun once you accept it's going to be dumb. The tonal whiplash from people heading into it right after finishing the Thrawn Trilogy back in 1994 must have been intense, though. It is kind of bold, especially for the time, how they made their second big Star Wars book trilogy into a sequel for the comics rather than the blockbuster first book trilogy. I feel like the Star Wars EU has to be the original DNA for the current obsession with cross-platform shared continuity media series.
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Jan 2, 2020 15:13
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Chairman Capone posted:I did re-read the first Jedi Academy book a few years ago. It's dumb but fun once you accept it's going to be dumb. It felt very weird, because I hadn't read the Dark Empire comics, so when the book starts with reconstruction of Coruscant, and talking about the Emperor Reborn being defeated, I was, "Wait, what the hell happened?" Strangely enough, the N64 Rogue Squadron game that came out around then helped a little with context, because the last round of the game had you piloting a V-Wing against some World Devastators on Mon Calamari, which is apparently from the comics.  Awww yeah. That's the stuff.
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Jan 2, 2020 15:53
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thrawn527 posted:It felt very weird, because I hadn't read the Dark Empire comics, so when the book starts with reconstruction of Coruscant, and talking about the Emperor Reborn being defeated, I was, "Wait, what the hell happened?" Yeah when I found out this was from Dark Empire I was like "well ok that's pretty neat" Sadly I don't think any of the other Rogue Squadron games got to run with the idea of using pre-existing EU works for missions. X-Wing Alliance did do some Shadows of the Empire stuff at least which was nice.
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Jan 2, 2020 18:06
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One of the biggest issues with SW games is they often don't draw on the EU or come up with something new themselves. Too often it was just recreate movie scenes in a two steps forward, one step back sort of way.
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Jan 2, 2020 20:18
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I feel like there was a period in the mid-00s when there was a lot of EU use in games. Galaxies, the KOTORs, Jedi Academy, and Empire at War all pretty heavily drew from the existing EU. But by the end of the decade there was Force Unleashed, back to just making up its own story. I remember it being funny that when TFU was in development, they made a big deal about how closely Lucas was involved with its production and how that justified changing the story of the Rebel Alliance being formed. And then after the Onderon episodes came out in TCW the line shifted to "Lucas wasn't actually involved in any major degree in TFU, this is now the real story he always had for the Rebellion being established."
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Jan 2, 2020 20:50
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Casimir Radon posted:One of the biggest issues with SW games is they often don't draw on the EU or come up with something new themselves. Too often it was just recreate movie scenes in a two steps forward, one step back sort of way. Ehh I don’t think I agree with that, there’s a lot of games with their own narratives even if not many of them build on existing EU. X-wing TIE Fighter X-wing Alliance Starfighter/Jedi Starfighter Rogue Squadron 1/Battle for Naboo Dark Forces thru Jedi Academy Force Unleashed 1&2 Jedi Fallen Order Battlefront 2 Republic Commando Shadows of the Empire Rebel Assault 1&2 KotOR 1&2 Like yeah some of the above had you playing battles from the movies like Hoth or the Death Star Trench Run, but they tended to be one-offs or bonus levels.
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Jan 2, 2020 21:00
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I'm pretty sure Lucas was in at least some of the story meetings for TFU, but at the same time the only real details we have from those meetings say that he spent all his time relentlessly trolling the writers.
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Jan 2, 2020 21:01
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Chairman Capone posted:I remember it being funny that when TFU was in development, they made a big deal about how closely Lucas was involved with its production and how that justified changing the story of the Rebel Alliance being formed. And then after the Onderon episodes came out in TCW the line shifted to "Lucas wasn't actually involved in any major degree in TFU, this is now the real story he always had for the Rebellion being established." In TFU I think they do at least mention Garm Bel Iblis who I feel like is a Thrawn creation.
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Jan 2, 2020 21:04
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Dawgstar posted:In TFU I think they do at least mention Garm Bel Iblis who I feel like is a Thrawn creation. Zahn creation, but yeah, you got the basic idea.
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Jan 2, 2020 21:14
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Zoran posted:I'm pretty sure Lucas was in at least some of the story meetings for TFU, but at the same time the only real details we have from those meetings say that he spent all his time relentlessly trolling the writers. Reminds me of this anecdote from a making of TIE Fighter article PC Gamer published last month: quote:As the story goes, George Lucas was shown the packaging for TIE Fighter in a board meeting shortly after the game had come out and had started performing well financially and earning acclaim. Lucas picked up the box, examined the cover, and then turned it over to read the copy on the back. "'Imperial Navy'?" he said. "There's no navy in Star Wars." A moment later: "Well, I guess it doesn't matter."
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Jan 2, 2020 23:58
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The term "Imperial Navy" did always rub me the wrong way, especially since the OT used "Imperial Starfleet" multiple times. Even the sequels used "Republic Fleet."
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Jan 3, 2020 00:39
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Dawgstar posted:In TFU I think they do at least mention Garm Bel Iblis who I feel like is a Thrawn creation. He actually shows up in all his mullet glory.
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Jan 3, 2020 06:54
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thrawn527 posted:Zahn creation, but yeah, you got the basic idea. Ooof, yeah I meant Zahn' but the holidays have been a thing. I still remember being vaguely startled when I saw that, too. It was kinda nice somebody did the semi-deep dive.
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Jan 3, 2020 15:09
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TIE Fighter had Thrawn in it. Jedi Knight's expansion had you play as Mara Jade. Rebellion/Supremacy had a bunch of novel and comic characters you could recruit. The 90s games in particular did reference the rest of the EU a lot.
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Jan 3, 2020 15:27
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Angry Salami posted:TIE Fighter had Thrawn in it. Yup, it's where I lifted the Thrawn part of my avatar from.
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Jan 3, 2020 15:29
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I think TIE Fighter even had the first non-Thrawn Grand Admiral, who Zahn then eventually put into one of his later Thrawn books.
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Jan 3, 2020 15:41
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Angry Salami posted:TIE Fighter had Thrawn in it. Jedi Knight's expansion had you play as Mara Jade. Rebellion/Supremacy had a bunch of novel and comic characters you could recruit. The 90s games in particular did reference the rest of the EU a lot. Oh, yeah. I forgot that caonically Kyle Katarn is Mara's teacher. Also Jan Ors shows up in a West End Games book (albeit under a codename).
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Jan 3, 2020 16:41
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Angry Salami posted:TIE Fighter had Thrawn in it. Jedi Knight's expansion had you play as Mara Jade. Rebellion/Supremacy had a bunch of novel and comic characters you could recruit. The 90s games in particular did reference the rest of the EU a lot. It is kind of a pity the (pretty decent) board game adaptation of Rebellion doesn't have all the EU stuff in it, I think Soontir Fel is the only character not in the movies
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Jan 3, 2020 17:25
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I wish the new TIE Fighter comic and Alphabet Squadron had referenced the 181st as being the elite TIE squadron, etc, but oh well. See also: Spooky Squadron or whatever the not-Wraiths are called in the nu-EU. I harp on that point a lot, but it’s just so loving stupid and a slap in the face to longtime fans of the actual good content from the old EU and I refuse to get over it.
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Jan 3, 2020 18:17
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The name "Alphabet Squadron" is still one of the dumbest things out of Star Wars in a long time, and that's saying something.
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Jan 3, 2020 18:38
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Chairman Capone posted:The name "Alphabet Squadron" is still one of the dumbest things out of Star Wars in a long time, and that's saying something.
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Jan 3, 2020 18:40
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Why are the wings named after letters that don't exist in that galaxy
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Jan 3, 2020 18:43
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ImpAtom posted:Why are the wings named after letters that don't exist in that galaxy "A good question for another time!"
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Jan 3, 2020 18:45
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ImpAtom posted:Why are the wings named after letters that don't exist in that galaxy Because the “aurabesh” didn’t exist when A New Hope was made, and the “A-wing” and “B-wing” designations from ROTJ were literally production placeholders that didn’t end up getting replaced with real names before the merchandise started rolling out, and then they were stuck with the names and just rolled with it.
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Jan 3, 2020 19:07
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Chairman Capone posted:The name "Alphabet Squadron" is still one of the dumbest things out of Star Wars in a long time, and that's saying something. It's straight up used as a derogatory name in the book itself; so it's dumb on purpose.
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Jan 3, 2020 19:29
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Xenomrph posted:Because the “aurabesh” didn’t exist when A New Hope was made, and the “A-wing” and “B-wing” designations from ROTJ were literally production placeholders that didn’t end up getting replaced with real names before the merchandise started rolling out, and then they were stuck with the names and just rolled with it. Yeah but I mean in universe. If there is an Alphabet Squadron where does Alphabet come from?
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Jan 3, 2020 19:42
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ImpAtom posted:Yeah but I mean in universe. If there is an Alphabet Squadron where does Alphabet come from? Regular non-aurebesh letters are canon, just not widely used. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/High_Galactic_alphabet
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Jan 3, 2020 19:57
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ImpAtom posted:Yeah but I mean in universe. If there is an Alphabet Squadron where does Alphabet come from? A series of letters that make up the words a language uses is still called an alphabet no matter what language it is. But if you want to get real pedantic, there's always the explanation that any appearance of the english alphabet in Star Wars is just High Galactic. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/High_Galactic_alphabet It's not really a big deal. :edit, beaten:
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Jan 3, 2020 20:04
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Was Alphabet Squadron good?
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Jan 3, 2020 20:09
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Dawgstar posted:Was Alphabet Squadron good? It's not a punchy as Wraith Squadron (which I had gone in expecting, given the numerous comparisons to the Rogue and Wraith books made pre-release), but as long as you hold that in mind, yeah, it becomes an honestly good war story about individual pilots and their own personal baggage in and amongst the war.
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Jan 3, 2020 20:20
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I haven't read the book, but I really did not like the tie-in TIE Fighter comic. The plot was a disjointed mess and all the characters were one-note stock cliches. The Poe Dameron comic was a better starfighter-centered series, but even that was really uneven (though the final two volumes were genuinely good, so it at least ends on a high note).
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Jan 3, 2020 21:38
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Chairman Capone posted:I haven't read the book, but I really did not like the tie-in TIE Fighter comic. The plot was a disjointed mess and all the characters were one-note stock cliches. Didn’t the Poe comic canonize the best fighter in Star Wars? E-wing
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Jan 3, 2020 22:14
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