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Antequek posted:I've read the thrawn trilogy, truce at bakura and shadows of the empire over the last few months and I wanna go though a few more books before I (mostly) abandon legends. Not that I think Legends books aren't longer valid because they are no longer canon but I simply don't want to be mixing up my timelines after a certain point. You absolutely must read at least books 5-7 and 9 of the X-Wing series, the ones by Allston rather than Stackpole. Stackpole's books are still some of the better EU books, but Allston's stuff is essential. I would read X-Wing 1-4 and then I, Jedi rather than the Jedi Academy series, for two reasons. First, they're far less dense and are overall better books. Second, I, Jedi is a much, much shorter retelling and retconning of the actually important part of the Jedi Academy series, which is the founding of Luke's academy. X-Wing 1-4 isn't required but since I, Jedi is the conclusion of Corran Horn's story and you were considering reading them anyway you might want to read them first. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Sep 14, 2015 |
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Sep 14, 2015 13:10
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Dick Trauma posted:If you haven't seen the re-do of THX 1138 I highly recommend it. None of the terrible heavy-handed bullshit George stuck in the Star Wars redos, just a sort of polishing, like a shot here and there to beef up the fact that it takes place in an underground city, not just a small collection of corridors. At this point I feel safe saying that all of the genius was Marcia Lucas, not George. All of his early films would have been trash without her editing skill, including Star Wars.
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Sep 18, 2015 00:02
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Effectronica posted:THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars are all lovely movies, with distracting editing confusing people into thinking they're good. OK. I was obviously being a bit hyperbolic. George certainly did good work himself as well or the editing would not have mattered. However, the two things that really made Star Wars compelling as a film - snappy dialogue and quick pacing - were basically all Marcia. These qualities started to suffer after they divorced and by the time of the prequels we had arrived at George's true vision: plodding political drama and wooden dialogue.
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Sep 18, 2015 11:48
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Effectronica posted:1. The snappy dialogue was provided by the actors. Did I say that there was anything wrong with that? The "plodding" part is the issue. The political aspect simply exacerbated that because politics is uniquely unexciting in a film unless handled well. I was not referring to the performance of the lines btw. She, along with a couple of George's friends, kept the original cast from sounding as wooden as Anakin due to George's inability to write realistic dialogue.
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Sep 18, 2015 12:15
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The unabridged audiobooks for the Zahn trilogy are the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. They have excellent sound effects and music along with a very good reader.
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Oct 21, 2015 16:39
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PlisskensEyePatch posted:I really don't get the love of the Thrawn trilogy and Wraith Squadron. I'm trying to read through both, Thrawn for the first time since I was twelve and Wraith the first time ever, and they are just not interesting. Wraith Squadron is a Star Wars/M*A*S*H/A-Team mixture, if anything.
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Oct 25, 2015 01:31
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elestupendojudio posted:Has anyone considered suggesting the incredibly fun and largely accessible X-WING:STARFIGHTERS OF ADUMAR by Aaron Allston? This book has cool pilot action AND actually made me think about politicking and imperialism in third world nations. This would be my pick any day. Allston was the best EU writer and this book is almost entirely stand-alone.
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Oct 28, 2015 13:36
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Angry Salami posted:I always thought it was weird they set Shadows between Empire and Jedi, instead of between ANH and Empire. I mean, Jedi follows on almost immediately from Empire, there's no obvious gap to fit a story into, and Han's in carbonite. Whereas there's an obvious gap after ANH, Yavin base is abandoned, the new base on Hoth is set up, Vader finds out about Luke, Han's being chased by bounty hunters... it seemed like a far more obvious place to try and stick a new story. Who wants Discount Han Solo if the real thing is available? Putting aside the questionable wisdom behind the creation of Dash Rendar in the first place, of course.
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Nov 3, 2015 05:30
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It's always Fey'lya.
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Nov 17, 2015 18:10
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Tatooine Ghost is actually pretty interesting, in concept if not so much in execution. Luke and Leia reconnecting with Anakin's childhood is a good hook.
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Nov 27, 2015 17:06
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jivjov posted:Because it's inaccurate, and in a lot of circles comes with a connotation of being inferior or illegitimate. Who cares? Literally the only difference is that they were paid, it is otherwise functionally identical to fanfiction. Which is fine. An Olympic athlete and a pro athlete do the same thing at roughly the same level of skill, and there isn't anything insulting about comparing the two regardless of payment.
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Nov 30, 2015 14:42
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thrawn527 posted:Good news everyone! Kuat is still canon. Tatooine is on the Corellian Run, which is one of the major hyperspace lanes. Their other option was the Hydian Way hyperlane, which is slightly closer to Naboo but much closer to the Trade Federation. It might not have been the fastest route to go via Tatooine but it isn't quite as much of a detour as it appears due to the mechanics of hyperspace.
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Nov 30, 2015 21:28
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Madurai posted:Nine of the Stackpole Rogue Squadron novels were bundled together on the Kindle, and so I figured, "what the hell, how bad could they really be?" Oh, what a fool I was. Only the first one is that derivative. If you don't like Corran though you might as well just move on to Wraith Squadron though.
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Dec 30, 2015 22:06
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Snoke is Thrawn: a near-human leading an entirely human Imperial Remnant. He's a little more non-human than Thrawn in appearance but not all that much. Kinda wish they'd just stuck with Thrawn considering they went ahead and used the Unknown Region as First Order territory.
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Jan 12, 2016 21:45
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ImpAtom posted:Snoke is pretty heavy entrenched in The Force and Sith/Jedi stuff. It wouldn't make much sense to use Thrawn for that role unless you changed his character entirely and in that case why not just make a new character? True. If Snoke isn't the founder of the First Order, though, maybe Thrawn was?
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Jan 12, 2016 22:02
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Cythereal posted:Or they tried to fight the First Order and Thrawn handed the Republic its rear end on a platter, so the Republic is unwilling to fight the First Order openly unless something significant changes. This, or a similar story with a new character instead of Thrawn, is the only thing that makes the New Republic tolerating the First Order in the Unknown Regions make any sense. Jakku is literally closer to Coruscant than any other plot-relevant planet featured in any of the films, leaving these guys alone was super dumb unless the New Republic was actually unable to deal with them.
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Jan 13, 2016 21:47
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Epi Lepi posted:Exhibit B: Every hyperspace jump took 30 seconds at max. This was really jarring to me. Hyperspace travel is supposed to be downtime for the characters to develop in. ANH and ESB would both be a lot worse than they are without the softer character-driven stuff on the Falcon, and TFA could have used a little more of that, particularly to develop Rey and Finn's relationship with each other and with Han.
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Jan 19, 2016 21:25
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Paragon8 posted:It's kind of interesting how difficult communication is in Star Wars. Hologram transmissions only seem to really be used by heads of state or super high ranking people. Aside from wireframe schematics there isn't much visual communication present in the movies at least. I know in the books there's a lot of holonet and holo-dramas etc going around. I'm pretty sure we can chalk up Finn and Rey's conception of the Jedi as legendary as a product of First Order control of the local communications and news, with only occasional scraps of outside information on such topics making it in. Communication in Star Wars does suck, but not to that degree.
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Jan 22, 2016 22:19
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Arcsquad12 posted:So Pablo Hidalgo is now saying that Jango Fett was never a Mandalorian. Funny coming from the guy who edited and did extensive work on the Mandalorians a few years ago. Before Jango existed Boba Fett was just a dude who owned Mandalorian armor. Armor which was usually implied to be antique and nearly unique because the Mandalorians didn't really exist anymore. So I'm pretty much on board with this.
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Jan 30, 2016 19:24
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jivjov posted:I forget who it was; but didn't someone at the Star Wars-y branch of Disney said something to the effect of "a Han Solo film wouldn't necessarily be an 'origin' story, but just a tale of something that happened earlier in his life"? The obvious place to start is Han rescuing Chewbacca, I think. Nobody wants to watch Han without Chewie. Since the film will have to tie up Han's backstory neatly they'll probably include the sabacc game with Lando for the Falcon, too.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:48
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Strobe posted:Why? I guess I should have been clearer. I personally don't think that it needs to at all and a random adventure would be great. I'm just not expecting the people that make the film to agree with that.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:56
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Casimir Radon posted:Old EU was written in the post-Cold War era when everyone was a lot more hopeful about the future, this new stuff is a direct reflection of the sorry state of politics as they are now. Populists vs. Centrists is a bit overly simplified in my opinion, especially when it's supposed to be a government that spans the majority of the galaxy. Aren't we forgetting everyone's favorite Bothan, Borsk Fey'lya? Political dysfunction in the New Republic was sort of a theme of the old EU also.
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May 23, 2016 15:56
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There are two kinds of "lightening up" in Star Wars. There's character comedy, like Han and Leia's banter in ESB or Wedge, Janson, and Hobbie in Starfighters of Adumar. That stuff is absolutely part of the charm of the best Star Wars stories, and a grimdark all-Bothans-dying story certainly needs a charismatic cast. And then there's, well...  
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Jun 1, 2016 04:28
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I want to hang the posh Chewbacca family portrait on my wall.
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Jun 25, 2016 06:18
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Darth Plagueis is all the Palpatine origin story anyone should ever want or need.
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Jul 11, 2016 06:41
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The space for inventiveness in the old EU was both a strength and a weakness. The Thrawn and X-Wing books were loaded with new concepts and locations that fit pretty much seamlessly into Star Wars, because Zahn, Stackpole, and Allston weren't hacks. Even later on, books like Darth Plagueis made up a lot of interesting things about how the galaxy functions. On the other hand you've got gems like Kyp Durron destroying Carida and nobody in the galaxy really giving a poo poo, the Crystal Star, the eternal life of Thracken Sal-Solo, Admiral Daala's eternal fall upward, and literally hundreds of other stupid details large and small weighing the whole edifice down.
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Jul 18, 2016 22:47
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I've been rereading the Let's Read thread, does anyone still have the final Bounty Hunter Backstab flowchart?
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Jul 27, 2016 20:12
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Thanks! dublish posted:You have hardly even begun to plumb the depths of that chart's madness. I've tried to pick favorites between Bossk simultaneously betraying himself, Boba Fett, and a homeless man, which ends up with Bossk as the target of another betrayal, or the Kuat of Kuat quadrant of the chart, but they're both too good. The real madness is trying to trace how many betrayals ultimately start at Xizor.
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Jul 28, 2016 03:56
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KildarX posted:I don't remember look being in the bounty hunter trilogy? Kuat of Kuat betrays Luke with the stupidest scheme ever: plant fake evidence that Xizor killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
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Jul 29, 2016 20:20
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Trojan Kaiju posted:Was there a book, Legends and/or current canon, that dealt with how Leia dealt with her biological father's identity? I think I remember reading that she wasn't as quick to accept it as Luke was but that was so long ago I could have just imagined it. She has a lot of "introspective" moments about it in the C-tier Bantam era trilogies like the Black Fleet Crisis and maybe Jedi Academy. These moments usually consist of her being an unbelievably lovely politician, Fey'lya or someone else making a snide comment about how her heritage is showing, and then her being an even shittier politician to try to show that she isn't actually Darth Vader 2.0. Tatooine Ghost is the only halfway-good Star Wars book by Denning and revolves around her exploration of Anakin's childhood on Tatooine, and she finally* makes peace with her father's legacy. *Tatooine Ghost actually takes place before any of the books where she flips her poo poo about it, but gently caress it. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Aug 1, 2016 |
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Aug 1, 2016 19:10
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Trojan Kaiju posted:Okay the Truce at Bakura was the one I though I remembered hearing about, thanks! I think at some point I'll pick up these 2 and Tatooine Ghost. There's absolutely no reason to subject yourself to Truce at Bakura for one scene.
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Aug 1, 2016 19:30
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Wheat Loaf posted:Didn't he have one in his "I can tell you who your mother was!" subplot in the Black Fleet Crisis? Akanah, who consistently has a totally inconsistent personality and literally only exists to remove Luke from his position as competent problem solver for the duration of a trilogy that would have been resolved much faster with such a person around. Edit: Like as soon as he rejoins the rest of the cast in the last few chapters the huge crisis that everyone is freaking out about for three books is instantly resolved.
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Aug 2, 2016 03:37
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cptn_dr posted:I just finished reading Wraith Squadron for the first time. Are these the best Star Wars books ever written by someone other than Matthew Stover? They're so much fun. I'd almost forgotten the EU could be fun. Yes.
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Aug 9, 2016 21:58
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thrawn527 posted:There is a serious argument to be made for yes, yes they are. Even Isard's Revenge isn't too bad. It's a totally inconsequential but fun adventure story, which puts it in a good place in a franchise filled to the brim with HUGELY CONSEQUENTIAL (but terrible) novels. I guess it does depend on how much Corran you can take, though.
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Aug 10, 2016 21:49
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VaultAggie posted:New trailer for rogue one up. Trailer owns. So this is basically Wraith Squadron: the film, right?
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Aug 12, 2016 04:51
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jivjov posted:Wedge broke up with Qui in the first few pages of Starfighters of Adumar Only one of the many reasons Starfighters of Adumar may be the best Star Wars book.
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Aug 13, 2016 02:06
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MonsieurChoc posted:Finished the Let's read Crap EU books thread. It was hilarious and cringe-inducing. Rapture is a Lego house compared to the scale of Lando's schemes. One thing you can say about the old EU is that no matter how bad the book is, if Lando shows up he's going to be running a scheme that is at least conceptually interesting (and ridiculous). Well, unless you're reading Black Fleet Crisis, where he spends three books preparing to lube up and wrestle a wall naked, with Lobot.
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Aug 14, 2016 22:42
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Bulkiest Toaster posted:Yeah maybe I will check that out. The YA aspect was making me shy away, but then again I like the original Tales books but they aren't exactly high literature. You mean the story where the racist bartender in Mos Eisley distills Greedo's corpse for whiskey flavoring isn't going to be seen as a timeless classic?
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Aug 21, 2016 19:58
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There is literally no reason at all for Female Kyle Katarn to be associated with the Skywalkers in any fashion whatsoever and I really hope it stays that way.
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Nov 14, 2016 13:23
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So how many clones of Sheev did there end up being, anyway? Was there some poor jerk running around named Sheeeeeeeeev?
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Dec 8, 2016 02:32
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