C3PX said: I still like Shadows, I admit it is not perfect, but I felt it had a lot of the spirit of the OT present in it.
See that's precisely one of the things I have against it -it felt totally at odds with the spirit of the OT to me. No spirit of the OT in it at all. It was very 90s. I feel it doesn't fit with the OT any more than 1997's SE cgi cutesey Jabba. And I see Shadows as trying to shove inappropriate 90s stuff into the OT, which is precisely what the SE dd.
C3PX said:As for Boba Fett's role, hmm, I don't seem to remember him having an especially big role beyond "Look! There is slave 1, get it! Oh darn, it got away!"
And Jix? He was one of Jabba's bikers perhaps? I really don't remember too well even though I have read the book more than once. Obviously he wasn't cool enough to stand out to me.
Jix and Boba Fett were amply covered in the Shadows of Empire comic and Jix had his own spin-off comic as well. The Shadows comic is as much part of the project and story as the novel and video game.
I don't see Dash as such a rip off as Han. The galaxy is bound to be full of his time, mercenaries and pilot/fighters for hire. I didn't like that they had him fly in the battle on Hoth, it felt like they were trying too hard with that one. And yeah, I have always been bugged by the close relationship with Xizor and the Emperor. It just doesn't fit, especially the idea that he would allow Xizor in the room with him while discussion the importance of killing or turning Luke to the darkside. Just isn't the kind of thing that seems like a cunning galactic dictator would do. In the end it really comes off as Palpatine having been played the fool, though they do kind of make the suggestion that the Emperor was using him to test Vader.
Well, you get some of my annoyance anyway, then.
And as for the Outrider showing up in the special edition of A New Hope (I am assuming that is the SOTE reference that you are annoyed at having been placed in the SE, it is the only one I know of), never really bothered me. It seems like more of an easter egg than anything else, as it is barely there and if you blink you miss it. Honestly, if you were not looking for it, you'd never catch it. Bet a lot of people reading this thread don't even know it is in there.
Well, I've had it said to me that the Outrider was put in the SE to make Shadows movie-level canon. I sure don't appreciate any attempt to make Shadows movie-level canon. And Shadows is very much expanded universe and expanded universe doesn't belong in the OT, so shoehorning Shadows references into the OT in the SE really pisses me off. The Outrider wasn't the only thing -there was also Shadows-style swoop bikes and there may have been more.