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Chairman Capone posted:There have been a few Han-centric books and comics since the buyout, but the one with Rendar wasn't a novel sadly, it was one of those Jason Fry in-universe document books. I think it established that Rendar was just off-screen in the snow planet in Solo where Han and Lando first met. I like the idea that even in New Canon, Dash Rendar is still the "I was in the back the whole time" guy.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:26
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So The Final Prophecy was a lot of fun. Kinda feels like Force Heretic III done right; you've got a plotline of Jedi trying to find and survive Zonama Sekot, with a parallel plotline of Han, Leia, and Jaina fighting a battle while the Galactic Alliance deals with a communication problem. The parallels don't really go that much further, but it's still kind of interesting to compare; particularly the fact that while there's not actually that much more plot advancement in TFP than Force Heretic, it's better structured, has more interesting character work, and has just plain better writing, so it flies by where the latter drags. The Wedge plotline is fine and all, but the real meat is the Tahiri/Corran/Vong/Sekot plot. Like in Edge of Victory, Keyes does a great job making the Vong characters and culture feel three-dimensional, and Nen Yim, Harrar, and Nom Anor all having their own distinct perspectives and agendas makes for a great dynamic. And I didn't have much of an impression of Tahiri before reading the NJO (having only read LOTF with her in it), but Keyes' version of her really is great, and it really sticks out how LOTF did her dirty. Overall it's neat approaching the end and seeing how gradually and organically these characters have evolved and matured over the course of the series; Jaina and Jacen are the two others that stand out most in that regard. Also I just want to mention the line near the end "No world should have hyperspace for a sky," both because it's just kind of a cool image, but also something I had been wondering earlier when thinking about the experience of Zonama Sekot travelling. I actually put writing this off a little since I wanted to jump right into The Unifying Force, so I'm already about a quarter of the way into that and enjoying it a lot. Feels weird to finally be at the end after so long, but also really looking forward to reading something that isn't Star Wars after this.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:55
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Chairman Capone posted:Speaking of IDW, one of my favorite Han/Chewie stories was a comic they put out a few years ago which featured Chewie trying to have a relaxing day at a spa while Han dealt with gangsters in a casino. It was just a one-shot, but I thought its focus on Chewie, as well as him just trying to have a normal day, was a nice change of pace from almost every story with them in it.
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Nov 20, 2021 00:08
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does nucanon dash rendar still wear tires on his shoulders??? this is very important
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Nov 20, 2021 04:42
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In as much as the game is canon... They call the shoulder tyres out specifically.
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Nov 20, 2021 05:32
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Spoilers, geez.    Geeky Star Wars Book Thread:It's Too Complicated For A Normal Person To Follow.
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Nov 27, 2021 23:16
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Nckdictator posted:Geeky Star Wars Book Thread:It's Too Complicated For A Normal Person To Follow. Star Wars Book Thread: Jar Jar lacks Chewbacca's complexity
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Nov 28, 2021 00:31
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Nckdictator posted:Spoilers, geez. What the gently caress? These are amazing.
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Nov 28, 2021 01:20
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I bet little houses like that probably for at least $30 now.
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Nov 28, 2021 02:03
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Respect to the dude getting paid multiple times for the same article.
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Nov 28, 2021 02:59
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thrawn527 posted:
So I recently had my Star Wars interest piqued again because my toddler has been watching the movies with me, and I started working on the Hand of Thrawn duology (I finished the Thrawn trilogy a year or two ago). The book makes a lot of references to other Star Wars novels, and I was about to come in here and ask what other old EU books were the best, and hey, here's this handy-dandy list already here. Thanks! I think I might try one or two old EU books prior to the Thrawn trilogy just to see them, and one or two NJO for the same reason. Now if only I could get my hands on the Marvel Epic Collections of the comic Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Empire trilogy. Too bad they're out of print (and hideously expensive second-hand).
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Nov 28, 2021 22:30
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I remember back before TFA came out, one of the shows on my local NPR station had an episode talking about Vector Prime and Chewbacca's death. They also did an interview with Zahn and Stackpole and a few other EU authors. I remember thinking that it was ironic that the end of the old EU was cause for so much (relatively) mainstream coverage of it.
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Nov 29, 2021 03:35
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So what's the general consensus on the Disney EU versus the Old EU? I know the old EU got super-convoluted by the end, my impression of Disney EU is it's on its way there. Just from the comics alone it feels like they're trying to cram too much inbetween the OT movies. Am I off the mark or is that the general sentiment?
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Nov 29, 2021 18:13
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Don’t know about general consensus but I lean towards liking the old EU better. Most of the material that came out after Denning took over was irredeemably terrible, but Disney made such a mess in their main canon product line, and it’s a bunch of baggage we’re going to be stuck with for a long time. My head canon ends with Survivor’s Quest. I’m glad Disney stopped what the EU had become, but they went and rapidly messed it up themselves. The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch have been good though, and the former probably saved Star Wars in the eyes of a lot of people, myself included. In conclusion Star Wars is a land of contrasts.
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Nov 29, 2021 19:03
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I really don't know how to talk about a general sentiment, especially because I don't know anyone in the real world who reads Star Wars stuff any more. And I think anyone talking about it online is more prone to fall into the tribal camps that have politicized each other thanks to the wider nerd culture war. A culture war which I find just totally draining by this point, especially because I feel like the rabid misogynists who think Kathleen Kennedy is Satan by this point are far dwarfed by the rabid defenders of Disney and St. Kathleen Kennedy Who Can Do No Wrong and are still 100% certain that Rian Johnson is going to be doing his movie trilogy any time now. I will say personally I think the old EU from 1991 to c. 2008 was the peak. It went into steep decline after that, to the point where the last few years before the Disney buyout, I was actively hoping for it to just get scrubbed and reset. And lo and behold.... I do think there is some irony that at least in the comic front, literally just before the Disney purchase was announced, Dark Horse was showing signs of rebuilding their comics slate, all of which then of course got immediately undercut. I think a lot of the Disney-era stuff from the start was not as interesting as the old EU, for a mix of reasons, not least of which was they were coming out at a time in which the media was now firmly always going to play second fiddle to live-action stuff. There have been some good things in both the comic and novel fronts since the Disney purchase but I don't know anyone who is still singing the praises of Aftermath long after the immediate novelty wore off, for instance. On a personal level, the last year or so has seen my interest in Star Wars almost completely collapse. I think it was a combination of Rise of Skywalker along with the Kylo Ren comic, which I was really looking forward to, both be revealed as piles of poo poo. Kylo Ren especially hurt because the author had done decent stuff, so it was doubly dispiriting. I agree with Casimir Radon that The Mandalorian has single-handedly preserved my interest in Star Wars, and I still occasionally play Squadrons and will buy the KOTOR remake, but that's about it at this point. I'll watch Book of Boba Fett and whatever other Disney + shows come out, but I can't imagine paying to see another movie in the theaters (assuming Lucasfilm is able to actually get another Star Wars movie off the ground any time soon). I will say that that's just me, and the books and comics seem to still be selling well. Marvel claims that The High Republic #1 sold over 200,000 physical copies alone, and if that's true, it's one of the best selling comics of this century. Even if they're inflating the numbers a bit, it still seems to be selling pretty drat well. High Republic and the Bounty Hunter comic both seem to be in the top 15 comics sales each month, and usually at least one is in the top 10. Which is good, because I think High Republic is the first time Disney is doing a big "EU event" on the level of NJO or Thrawn Trilogy or the original Clone Wars run. And two or three years ago, High Republic is exactly the sort of thing I would have loved. I still do love the concept. I just don't really have it in me any more to get drawn into another Star War. There is one note of caution, though. The Dark Horse Star Wars comics, particularly Legacy and KOTOR, were some of the highest-selling comics of their time as well (even if their peaks were about half as much as what Marvel is able to sell for its Star Wars comics now). But both of those series peaked in sales numbers a few years after ROTS came out, before starting to go down in numbers. As we're soon going into the third year without a Star Wars movie, I wonder if that point is starting to approach. Especially because the big heavy lifter for Star Wars now is The Mandalorian, and Lucasfilm actually canceled all of their initially-announced comic and novel tie-ins for the show. That's good for the show for not being constrained by spinoffs (not that it would have anyways, it's already contradicted the novels at least once) but it might not be good for the new EU works if they're not able to do anything even tangentially linked to the leading Star Wars brand of the last few years. Anyway, thank you for listening to my TED Talk.
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Nov 29, 2021 22:58
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The Legends continuity has the benefit of hindsight, where anyone can pick and choose the best stuff (or the stuff that interests them) from 30+ years of stories and ignore the rest. The current EU is still growing, and it's kind of hard to define what exactly that entails. Does Rogue One count as Expanded Universe? Does The Mandalorian or Bad Batch? If we're just sticking to the classic EU branches of comics, novels and games, then Legends has the modern stuff beat just by sheer volume meaning there's going to be a few standout pieces no matter what. There's also a lot of things that are at least comparable in content or subject matter between the old and new stuff, and while the newer stuff has a higher level of polish, it's borrowing from the stories it is for a reason.
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Nov 30, 2021 09:06
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So what's the general consensus on the Disney EU versus the Old EU? I know the old EU got super-convoluted by the end, my impression of Disney EU is it's on its way there. Just from the comics alone it feels like they're trying to cram too much inbetween the OT movies. Am I off the mark or is that the general sentiment? You fool! Don't you know there is no Disney EU? There is only....The Group!
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Nov 30, 2021 09:25
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Robot Style posted:There's also a lot of things that are at least comparable in content or subject matter between the old and new stuff, and while the newer stuff has a higher level of polish, it's borrowing from the stories it is for a reason. I remember thinking in 2015 when the new Marvel license began that their debut series all seemed to be de facto continuations of the series that Dark Horse had been doing at the time: OT crew in between ANH/ESB; a Darth Vader series; a Jedi who survived Order 66; and a bunch of OT-character post-ANH miniseries. Also, I'm kind of surprised that looking it up now, since 2015 Marvel has only had a few ongoing series: Star Wars, Darth Vader, Aphra, Poe Dameron, and Kanan (which was basically a miniseries).
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Nov 30, 2021 16:32
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So what's the general consensus on the Disney EU versus the Old EU? I know the old EU got super-convoluted by the end, my impression of Disney EU is it's on its way there. Just from the comics alone it feels like they're trying to cram too much inbetween the OT movies. Am I off the mark or is that the general sentiment? the old EU's quality had higher peaks but also infinitely deep valleys filled with bugs and goo monsters
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Nov 30, 2021 17:29
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I prefer Waru to “Hyperspace Skipping”. The Crystal Star is hands down one of the worst Bantam era books, but it’s easy to ignore. You put a bunch of stupid stuff in a tent pole movie, and you’re pretty much stuck with it.
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Nov 30, 2021 18:03
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Thanks for ya'll sharing your thoughts. To be honest, I grew up with the old EU so I'm attached to it, but I'll take a good story where I find one, there is some good stuff Disney is putting out nowadays. Casimir Radon posted:You put a bunch of stupid stuff in a tent pole movie, and you’re pretty much stuck with it. That describes a lot of my feelings about the new Disney stuff succinctly. The Sequel Trilogy put me off so much (I honestly was not going to even see Rise of Skywalker until my wife insisted, she had never watched Star Wars before we got married, but she liked the Kylo/Rey stuff), I'm pretty leery off most new Disney stuff. I still appreciate they're reprinting all the old novels and comics though, at least I can have good quality copies of old EU now.
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Nov 30, 2021 18:22
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Finished Lesser Evil today, and it's curious that (Outbound Flight spoilers)Zahn kept Thrass's death almost completely the same as that book contextually, just excised the names of the other characters involved as well as Outbound Flight itself. Weird. Overall really dug the book and how absolutely drenched with Chiss politics it was, I wonder if we'll get any Grysk stuff in the Ahsoka show (most likely not, but I can dream).
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Dec 1, 2021 01:14
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I’m still working on Lesser Evil and like it a lot. I hope Zaharia just keeps being allowed to write what he wants forever.
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Dec 1, 2021 01:18
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It's funny how universally negative the response to the Star Wars hotel marketing has been. I don't think I've seen one positive take on it.
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Dec 1, 2021 14:02
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I just bought the following books off of Thriftbooks for 20 bux. Excited for most of them. Jedi Academy Trilogy (I know they're not the most recommended but I like Kevin Anderson's Tales of the Jedi Series and I know they have some connections) I, Jedi (I like Stackpole's Battletech work) Visions of the Future Survivor's Quest Definitely excited for the Zahn stuff, mildly excited for them all. Once I have the Dark Empire and Tales of the JEdi comics, I'll have all the EU stories I enjoyed as a kid, for my kids to one day read. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Dec 1, 2021 |
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Dec 1, 2021 14:09
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Chairman Capone posted:It's funny how universally negative the response to the Star Wars hotel marketing has been. I don't think I've seen one positive take on it. Well that's my excuse anyway.
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Dec 1, 2021 14:35
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:I just bought the following books off of Thriftbooks for 20 bux. Excited for most of them. Not a bad haul. JAT has a lot of its critics, but I think it's fun, and also kind of important in the EU scheme of things. Also, parts of it got used in Solo. It's also interesting that both KJA and Johnson specify that Luke starts both of his new Jedi Academies with twelve students. As a warning, you might want to also get Zahn's Specter of the Past, it's the first part to Vision of the Future.
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Dec 1, 2021 15:10
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Chairman Capone posted:Not a bad haul. JAT has a lot of its critics, but I think it's fun, and also kind of important in the EU scheme of things. Also, parts of it got used in Solo. It's also interesting that both KJA and Johnson specify that Luke starts both of his new Jedi Academies with twelve students. Seconding all of this, particularly the need to get Specter of the Past before diving into Vision of the Future. Those two books basically serve as a cap to that era of the EU before the NJO started, so keep that in mind when deciding what order to read stuff in.
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Dec 1, 2021 15:15
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I actually have Specter of the Past on my bedside table right now, almost done with it. I bought it back when I first read the Thrawn trilogy.
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Dec 1, 2021 16:23
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definitely read I, Jedi right after Jedi Academy
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Dec 1, 2021 16:28
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Well, I've finished The Unifying Force. Gotta take some time to put together some more coherent thoughts about it and the NJO as a whole, but I'll say that it was a great ending and I'm so glad I finally got around to finishing the series.
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Dec 2, 2021 02:00
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Jazerus posted:definitely read I, Jedi right after Jedi Academy This lmao
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Dec 2, 2021 02:55
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Lord Hydronium posted:Well, I've finished The Unifying Force. Gotta take some time to put together some more coherent thoughts about it and the NJO as a whole, but I'll say that it was a great ending and I'm so glad I finally got around to finishing the series. I know I said it right up thread, but one of the best Star Wars books period, one of the best endings of any EU series, and would have been a perfect ending to the EU.
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Dec 2, 2021 04:04
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I’m honestly hoping at least the Jedi Academy Trilogy and I, Jedi get rereleases going forward. The rerelease of old Legends material seems to be picking up steam with Rogue Squadron and Shatterpoint this year, and Wedge’s Gamble coming out in April.
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Dec 2, 2021 06:07
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I think most of the Essential Legends Collection seems to be tied into new canon works. You have: Thrawn Trilogy: the obvious remake of the Thrawn trilogy with Ahsoka Kenobi: The Kenobi show Bane trilogy and Plagueis: The Acolyte show Rogue Squadron/Wedge's Gamble: The canceled Rogue Squadron movie The only one that doesn't seem to be linked to an upcoming canon work is Shatterpoint.
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Dec 2, 2021 14:36
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Chairman Capone posted:Rogue Squadron/Wedge's Gamble: The canceled Rogue Squadron movie i thought it was just delayed goddammit i want to see corn horn on the big screen
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Dec 2, 2021 17:01
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Jazerus posted:i thought it was just delayed I haven't seen anything saying it was cancelled either but maybe my Google-fu is weak
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Dec 2, 2021 17:09
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Indefinitely delayed. Not quite the same thing but it doesn’t look good.
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Dec 2, 2021 17:22
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It's delayed the same way that Rian Johnson's trilogy of Star Wars movies announced in 2017 are delayed. Or to put it another way, it's the movie that Patty Jenkins will work on after finishing her Cleopatra remake.
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Dec 2, 2021 18:28
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Casimir Radon posted:I’m honestly hoping at least the Jedi Academy Trilogy and I, Jedi get rereleases going forward. The rerelease of old Legends material seems to be picking up steam with Rogue Squadron and Shatterpoint this year, and Wedge’s Gamble coming out in April. You can always buy old copies of books off thriftbooks or abebooks for dirt cheap. Pretty sure Amazon has a collected edition of Jedi Academy re-releases under the Legends label.
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Dec 2, 2021 19:50
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