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An oblate sphere of purple fire.

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I was reading Wookieepedia as I often do. Yesterday I thought I'd better familiarize myself with the different forms of lightsaber combat, and ran across Mace's Vapaad form. In the description, it quotes Anakin from the ROTS novelization as having described Mace's combat form as "an oblate sphere of purple fire."

This is a problem with the EU that last evening finally had me doing a facepalm right there at the keyboard after I had read that quote.

Writers are always having characters say things that I cannot imagine them believably saying. I cannot imagine Film Anakin describing Mace's combat form as "an oblate sphere of purple fire."

It's like there's three Anakins here: Film Anakin, EU Anakin, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars Anakin. Somehow we're supposed to accept they're the same character, but they're way too different to be interchangable. It's annoying.

You may say it's similar to Batman, in that different writers have different visions of what a character needs to be. Well, I don't see that being an adequate reason. Unless it's an Infinities story or something, these characters are meant to at least believably reflect what we see in the films.

What an oblate sphere of purple fire this is.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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In defense of Matthew Stover's ROTSs novelization, it is the only form I care to experience that story in. Far better than the film. I don't even remember that line from the book, so it clearly didn't have a big impact on me or bother me that much. I like Stover's Anakin far, far, better than Hayden's Anakin. I don't have a problem with trying to keep up with all the different Anakin personalities, I don't care about the movie, and I don;t care about CW, so Stover's Anakin is really the only Anakin I give a hoot about.

 

For anyone who hasn't read the ROTS novel yet but plans on it, do yourself a favor and mentally purge your mind of everything you know about the prequels before doing so. Imagine Anakin as someone other than Hayden (like Christian Bale for example), and you may actually find yourself enjoying the story for once. Far from flawless, but as good as ROTS is going to get IMHO, especially if you distance what you are reading from what you have seen on film in every way possible.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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In defense of Matthew Stover's ROTSs novelization, it is the only form I care to experience that story in. Far better than the film. I don't even remember that line from the book, so it clearly didn't have a big impact on me or bother me that much. But I like Stover's Anakin [is] far, far, better than Hayden's Anakin.

Definitely. I'm not knocking on Stover, so much as the trend itself in EU. I prefer Anakin to be eloquent, as Darth Vader is in the OT (one of the few traits I think should be present in both good Jedi Anakin and evil Sith Vader).

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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To be fair, I think the 'oblate sphere' comment is in the narration from Anakin's point of view, not necessarily a direct quote.

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Sure it wasn't meant as Anakin's actual thinking?

I downloaded the e-book of ROTS, but I must have deleted it at some point. Someone could verify with context and everything.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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The novelization is the best part of ROTS-Stover really gets these characters: read Shatterpoint for more.

Anakin in the books is a much more believable and likeable character. The Clone Wars Anakin exists to drive the plot forward and is devoid of any and all real emotion or thought-just like the cartoon itself.

The books really make the prequels seem as if they might be connected to the OT. All three novels are light years ahead of the films and are my preferred way to reexperience I/II/ and III.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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The Clone Wars Anakin exists to drive the plot forward and is devoid of any and all real emotion or thought-just like the cartoon itself.

You're talking out your ass. Devoid of emotion or thought? Have you ever even sat through any episodes from the series? The characters are three dimensional, and there's some genuine heart-felt moments. The stories are solid as well.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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I don't know, I think the Clone Wars Anakin is pretty limited. He comes off too much like a bland Joe Shmoe. He's better than Hayden Anakin, but that's about it. The only real Anakin as far as I'm concerned is Sebastian Shaw's.

As for Mace Windu's Vapaad, I can't stand how the EU builds up Mace Windu into this bloody god figure. Oh he's got a special lightsaber style that's better than anybody else's and allows him to use his anger without going dark, and hardly anybody else can master it and those who try go dark. Isn't he so fucking wonderful and cool. And he has this shatterpoints ability to see weak points or something. And he was on the council at 28. And he's the bestest lightsaber fighter in the galaxy. And isn't he so cool. And he has a purple lighsaber because he's just the coolest. It's nauseating. Onscreen he was totally flat because Samuel L Jackson (who's actually a great actor) was totally miscast.

Anyway, prequels Annie is dumb, too dumb to know what "oblate" means.

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How was Vapaad even an acceptable form in the eyes of the Jedi Council. It's dancing precariously on the edge of the dark side, for the sole sake of defeating an opponent. What's the point of even calling yourself a Jedi if you apply a form like that?

It's like the RCC approving pre-marital oral sex because it isn't truly sex.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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I never got that. If Mace is delving into the dark side, why doesn't anybody else care? There are some other instances of jedi "delving into dark side techniques"-even Dooku snuck into the archives to study Sith Holocrons. Does any jedi actually heed their own teaching to "mind your surroundings"?

 

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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Wow, this stuff sounds retarded. Glad I have never been subjected to any of the prequel EU (beyond the Brooks, Salvatore, and Stover novelizations, if you want to count those as EU).

Jackson did totally suck as Mace Windu. A shame too, he could have made a pretty cool Jedi. If I am not mistaken, he begged George to find him a part in the prequels, in that case, it is not that he was miscast, it is that he was given a part that didn't work for him. Sam is good at the laid back cool badass kind of characters, and George gave him the part of a tight assed authority figure. Whole thing felt forced for him.

 

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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I thought the style that Stover choose to write the ROTS novelization in was very distracting actually. Other than that I found it an interesting expansion of the film.

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain.
"A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes"...James Feibleman (1904-1987)
www . axia . ws/axia

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^That doesn't surprise me in the least.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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His style of laying out the internal gears instead of focusing mostly on the outside struggles was refreshing. He took cardboard cut-outs and made them very real.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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Funny enough Stover had Mace right before he was zapped out the window in palpatines office notice too late that Anakin was Palpatines Shatterpoint. 

Which ultimetely is prophetic because luke re- awakens the jedi  Anakin in vader long enough for him to destroy palpatine.  Therefore he was the chosen one who brought balance to the force by doing away with the sith.

Fan debate still rages who really was the chosen one Anakin or Luke.  It could be neither if the EU is taken into account because a hundred and something years after the return of the jedi the sith return.

Maybe the other, Leia was the chosen one,lol.

Maybe the jedi's legacy rest with Cade Skywalker.

Me the EU is just not canon with the films, though most of it is a damn site better than those prequels. Even the bad superweapons of the week, clone emporers,lol.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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I see the Skywalker bloodline as being the "Chosen One", rather than exclusively Anakin.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)

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So who here is a fan of Stover's star wars novels?

I thought Traitor, Shatterpoint and Revenge of the Sith were fantastic reads.  His fourth which i looked forward to the most because it was a Luke Skywalker novel and seemed so cool Shadows of Mindor was a let down.

I am sure those who were fans of the Russ Manning comic strips of the 1970's thought it was awesome.  With the mind controlled dark troopers and Black Whole adept of the darkside, i thought it was as uber lame as Lumiya being in the legacy novels.  What's next Jar Jar meets Jaxxon the bunny?

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

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Double Post.  You guys ever get that slow loading page error?

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.