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ROTS - Novels etc!!

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Has anyone here been out and bought any of the tie in books yet??

I saw the novel and all the making of books for sale the other day and had a quick look at the Making of ROTS book and wished straight away I hadn't!!

Man, I saw a load of good pics as wall as a of a totaly fucked pic of Anakin, and a few reasons why he can't do certain Sith things.....

But, really wished I hadn't

So, anyone here read the novel yet?

If so please put a spoiler warning up first!

http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

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I got the novel and the Art of... in the mail from Amazon today.

I've already looked through the art book and am going to start on the novel tonight.
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
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Hey HotRod. I have read the novel.

Spoiler Warning....Spoilers To Follow











Well, the major problem with the novel (for me) was Stover's style. It really bugged me. Right in the middle of important things he would suddenly stop and go off on this tangent about events and things that happened outside of the movies. It mostly struck me as EU stuff and I really didn't care about it since I don't read EU. It was like he was trying to fill up pages. I wished he'd just stuck to the story and left EU stuff to EU. Thus, I found myself rather bored in spots.

Also, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this novel didn't tie up everything with a big pretty bow. There are still things left unanswered in both trilogies and there are even new plot holes opened up. Like that's a surprise.

According to the AOTC DVD commentary, George states that who erased Kamino from the Jedi Archives and why would be revealed in the next movie. Well, it might be in the movie, but the novel never even brings up the subject. Nor is it ever reveal who ordered the Clone Army in the first place. We know it was Dooku, but it's never brought up. These are things that Lucas said would be answered in this movie. I hope it's explanied in the movie because the novel sure didn't explain it. It's also never explained how Palpatine managed to stay hidden for so long. Yes, Lucas has used the cheap explanation that the dark side is clouding the Jedi's perceptions but that's just pure rot to me. None of this is ever made any clearer.

In the novel, Luke is born first and Padme touches his head and names him. Then she drifts back into delirium and Leia is born. Padme never touches or holds Leia. So, in the context of the novel, Leia's feelings or images of her mother that she talks about in ROTJ don't make any sense. This might be different in the movie. I hope so.

The big thing that really bugged me in the continuity department was the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin. During the duel, not once did Obi-Wan try and turn Anakin back to the good side. In fact, he didn't show anything other than the fact that he wanted to kill Anakin. Period. No remorse. No regret. Nothing. So the line that Vader says to Luke in ROTJ, 'Obi-Wan once thought as you do' now doesn't make sense. There isn't any indication that Obi-Wan went to Mustafar for any other reason than to kill Anakin. Padame on the other hand, she tries to turn Anakin back to the good side and even as she dies she thinks (and says) that there is still good in Anakin. Again, this might be different in the movie. I hope so.

Another point of contention for some might be the whole Anakin becoming Vader. It works on a certain level for me, but it feels rather weak. I had always pictured this as being a rather slow process. You know, Anakin starts using the dark side more and more and before he knew it, it had taken over. Sort of like becoming addicted to drugs or something. Well, this doesn't turn out to be the case. The transformation seems to be really quick and rushed. Anakin's motivations for choosing the dark side are rather weak. It boils down to his obsession to try and save Padme from death. There's more to it than that of course. Anakin's got Palpatine playing on his fears about Padame, his desire to have greater power and the fact that the Jedi appear to be using Anakin. Yes, the Jedi and Palpatine both put Anakin in a very awkward position. The Jedi don't trust Palpatine and want Anakin to spy on him and Palpatine doesn't trust the Jedi Council and he appoints Anakin to be his representative on the council to spy on them. So Anakin is stuck in the middle. He wants to be loyal to both sides, but of course that gets difficult when Palpatine tells Anakin that he's Darth Sidious. During the Mace/Palpatine duel, Anakin makes his choice. It's really not that he chooses the dark side, as much as he chooses the side that promisses him the ability to save Padme. It just struck me as weak. I have been telling my best friend for six years now that Anakin's mother and Padme were going to play a part in Anakin's destruction. While I was right, I just thought that there would be more to it than this. As I said, it does work for me on a certain level, but I was just expecting so much more. Knowing Lucas however, I shouldn't have. Deep or hidden meanings have never been Lucas's strong suit. Everything is pretty much on the surface. I guess I forgot that.

There are scenes in the movie that for one reason or another didn't get into the novel. The whole battle scenes on the Wookie planet (forget it. I'm not even going to attempt to spell it.). Chewbacca's rescue of Yoda isn't in there either. Now we know that we get to see the battle because it's in the trailers and it is talked about in the novel. However, Stover never actually takes us there. Lucas may not have wanted that shown in the novel and wanted for that to be revealed in the movie. I can't say, but it seems logical to me.

Some fans, myself included, are going to be really pissed off that other than one quick shot (and that is probably an interior shot at that), we never get to see Alderaan. I guess it doesn't matter that in twenty years it's going to be blown to bits. We aren't supposed to care. Bah! This is just poor writing on Lucas's part. A problem that could have easily been corrected if Padme had been from Alderaan instead of Naboo. Or Lucas could have solved the problem with just a few scenes on Alderaan in this movie. I'm not holding out any hope on this. Alas, poor Alderaan. We never really knew ya.

Overall, not a great novel. There was too much explanation of things that I really didn't give a damn about. I found myself bored several times by these useless tangents. Just tell me the damn story and keep the EU stuff for EU. An obvious lack of explanation (or in some cases no explanation at all) for events that I felt needed to have been explained better.

One final nitpick. The cover. No where on the cover does it say Episode III. The spine doesn't match the style that was used for both TPM and AOTC novels. If I didn't know that this was the novel for the final Star Wars film, it would look like every other EU book that is out there. Nothing to make it stand out as part of the movie series. Poor marketing in my opinion. Great artwork, though.
Keeping The Star Wars Hoiliday Special alive. Once person at a time. Stir, stir, whip, whip, stir, beat, beat.
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well... i did not really know where to post this, so there it is:
this is the last cover of a famous french sci-fi/fantasy/horror/action movies magazine.
it says: what can we expect from episode 3?
intersting article about the prequels inconsistencies and the policy of Lucas.

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Originally posted by: grifter
well... i did not really know where to post this, so there it is:
this is the last cover of a famous french sci-fi/fantasy/horror/action movies magazine.
it says: what can we expect from episode 3?
intersting article about the prequels inconsistencies and the policy of Lucas.



Too bad we can't read it.

Anyway, I think what the issue boils down to is that Lucas just doesn't really care. He just wanted to get Star Wars out of the way so he could move on to other projects.

Seriously though, it probably would've been easier to just re-release the original trilogy without the "Episode IV," "V" and "VI" monikers than to make three new films.

Also, how could there be scenes missing from the novelization? Most novelizations are written by, essentially, taking the script of the film and then writing it in novelized form. Usually this results in scenes being ADDED to the novel that aren't present in the movie, and I've never once heard of a novel missing scenes that were present in the movie.

It IS possible, however, for some scenes to play out differently. There are instances in the "New Hope" novelization where this happens (dialogue is different etc.)
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I can't link this but I know I read somwhere that Stover's deadline for the novel was before Lucas completely finished the script. Lucas prolly decised to show the wookie battle after stovers deadline. It could happen. Alos, i doubt any of the inconsistencies will be fixed in the movie. Lucas is the kind of guy that just wouldn't worry about them, then give some half-assed explanationon a commentary later that, although it seems to work, could have just been done right in the first place. He'll also go wohth the "They are just movies, settle the hell down and just enjoy them for that" In that respect I kind of agree with Lucas. Some people just try too hard to make sense of SW things. Others expect his storytelling to be author-like. Lucas isn't even close to the status of a high-prfile author. and because he won't let anyone else tell his story, editing out rather unimportant but still confusing inconsistancies and problems just doens't happen.

Hey look, a bear!

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Originally posted by: JamesEightBitStar

Also, how could there be scenes missing from the novelization? Most novelizations are written by, essentially, taking the script of the film and then writing it in novelized form. Usually this results in scenes being ADDED to the novel that aren't present in the movie, and I've never once heard of a novel missing scenes that were present in the movie.


Well, all I know is that there are a few scenes of the Wookie battle in the trailers and not once does Stover actually take us to the planet or the battle. There are a few communications with Yoda, but those are all done via hologram. In the novel we never see the battle, nor is Chewbacca even mentioned. We know for a fact that Chewie is the one who rescues Yoda after Order 66 is instigated. So, you draw your own conclusions as to why this stuff is missing. All I'm saying is that it isn't in the novel but it's in the trailer and very obviously in the movie.
Keeping The Star Wars Hoiliday Special alive. Once person at a time. Stir, stir, whip, whip, stir, beat, beat.
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hotrod mate.....

save your money......

the novel was shit........& as someone else said it's all Stover's fault......the novel is extremely poorly written, I found myself skimming through entire chapters of absolute garbage that had nothing to do with what we know happens in the film trying to find the "juicy" bits.....

the biggest problem i had with the novel was the pacing......the battle of Coruscant (from beginning to the landing of the shattered cruiser) occupies I'd say atleast 40% of the 400 page novel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

after that the novel speeds through every plot point, some not being addressed at all (Kashyyyk, Dagobah, Alderaan), the duel was bitterly disappointing to read, leaving the heavily inconsistent plot threads (& the rebuilding of Vader) to be tied up in about 5 pages.....

i feel like a cheap whore for reading it & wish I'd never laid eyes on the damn thing! Save that £15 & get drunk instead....

as for the making of book, well that's actually quite a good read...except there's no last chapter!!!!!! you can log onto www.starwars.com to read this though (& it's free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

the pictures are excellent, & of course incredibly spoiler-laden!

that was a tenner well spent!!

& another thing...it has today been announced that we can have midnight madness for ep3 here in the UK...

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Evil dude: "You do not no pain, you do not know fear. You will taste MAN FLESH"

Evil ugly dudes: "YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
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Well I'm trying my hardest to stay spoiler free...at least in terms of the actual story.
I've blown it by flicking through the making of book and seeing pics of a fucked up Anakin, Vader minus his legs etc...
Also I've just listened to the soundtrack, and kinda got how the ending will be...Luke and Leia being held and shown by Mr & Mrs Organa on Alderaan then cut to Owen and Beru on Tatooine...Well going by the music I take it thats how it will end...Dunno!!

But I don't think it's too hard to tell how the story will go, I just hope there's a few surprises left for me to see

Nice seeing you again by the way D-J-D

http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

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cheers hotrod...been away struggling & sweating through the pain & misery that one calls a dissertation!! haha

hope all is ok with you?

btw have you seen the ep3 visual dictionary & the art of ep3? saw them in HMV today & was jolly tempted but...maybe another day

hehe

ordered Lego Star Wars on pc today as well....that game looks great fun
Evil dude: "You do not no pain, you do not know fear. You will taste MAN FLESH"

Evil ugly dudes: "YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
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Yeah I saw all the books when I was up Bluewater spending money I don't have.
I'll get the 'visual dic' and 'art of' when I've seen the film.
I've got all the other 'art ofs' and 'visuals' so i may aswell complete the collection.

I did have a sneak peak at them also

And I saw the trailer/demo for the lego game...does look like quite a laugh!

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