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SilverWook said:
Vector Prime got a lot of publicity when it was published in 1999. IIRC, it was the only EU novel to have a tv spot.
I find it pathetic that the first and only Star Wars novel to receive advertising on television is an entry from one of the worst Star Wars series ever.
The lovers are old, but the love is still young =P
TMBTM said:
Even a Star Wars fan like me just heard about Chewie's death. I don't know how he died in the books.
A moon crashed on him -- literally.
^Ugh. Worst story in the movie.
I guess this puts another nail in the coffin of Ghostbusters III.
Ben is a nickname Obi-Wan's had since childhood (did you miss the part where Obi-Wan reminisces about he and Owen working on the vaporator together as kids?). She definitely heard Owen refer to him by that name sometime prior to the events of this story.
Fang Zei said:
Minor inconsistincies can be explained/retconned away by Chee and Hidalgo, outright contradictions like Chewie being alive in an Episode VII set 40 years after RotJ cannot.
A minor inconsistency is Bossk not eating reptiles vs. Bossk eating reptiles or Leia building her own lightsaber prior to The Corellian Trilogy vs. never having built her own lightsaber by the time of The Corellian Trilogy -- the Sith starting off as a species that was conquered by exiled Dark Jedi vs. the Sith being an organization of fifty-some darksiders created by a rogue Jedi Master is not.
The NJO is basically "You thought you knew everything about the Force -- ha! -- you were wrong!", while LOTF is basically "Daddy Lucas, we were wrong, but we can fix it! We can make it like it was! Please don't punish us, Daddy, please!"
EXT. TATOOINE - LARS HOMESTEAD/COURTYARD - DAY
Obi-Wan, Owen, and Beru stand together outside the entrance to the Lars homestead. With his duffel bag slung over his shoulder once again, it is apparent that Obi-Wan is leaving.
OBI-WAN: (hugs Beru) It was nice meeting you, Beru. I wish I could stay longer, but I have business I must be getting to.
BERU: (punches Ben playfully in the chin) Don't be such a stranger in the future, Ben, okay?
OBI-WAN: (smiles) I'll see what I can do.
Turning away from Beru, Obi-Wan regards his stepbrother. The two look upon each other, their expressions serious.
OBI-WAN: Goodbye, Owen.
OWEN: Obi-Wan.
With that, Obi-Wan leaves the couple, walking towards his landspeeder. Once he has reached the vehicle he hops in and engages the engines. Making a U-turn, the Jedi knight takes off, leaving the homestead behind.
EXT. DESERT - DAY
Sometime later, Obi-Wan stands alone in the desert, perched atop a large boulder. Off in the distance, far enough away so that Ben cannot be seen but not so far that Ben cannot see it, is the Lars homestead. Looking down and behind him, the Jedi sees his speeder down below, parked in between the large boulder and another smaller boulder; loaded in the back seat of the vehicle are three-days worth of supplies.
EXT. DESERT - BOULDER - TWILIGHT
Hours have passed, and Ben is still on the lookout atop the boulder. Now seated and eating a protein bar, he looks out at the homestead through a pair of macrobinoculars.
OBI-WAN'S P.O.V. - LARS HOMESTEAD
Stepping out of the entrance, Owen makes his way across the courtyard. Passing by the nearest vaporators, he makes his way to the outskirts of the property, where a parked landspeeder is waiting for him.
CUT TO
Obi-Wan adjusting his macrobinoculars as he finishes his protein bar.
OBI-WAN'S P.O.V. - PARKED LANDSPEEDER
Zooming in, we can now see the details of the speeder driver. It is a boy dressed in the light tan clothes of a moisture farmer; tall and lean with dark blond hair, he is only around fifteen years of age. As Owen jumps into the passenger seat, the driver brings the speeder's engines to life and takes off.
CUT TO
Obi-Wan bringing down his macrobinoculars, making haste to climb down the side of the boulder to his parked speeder. Reaching the bottom, he runs over and jumps inside. Tossing the macrobinoculars beside him, be brings the vehicle to life and, gunning the engines, shoots out from between the boulders with a burst of high speed. An expression of grim determination on his face, Obi-Wan tries to keep a safe distance away from the other speeder to avoid detection without losing sight it.
EXT. ANCHORHEAD - EVENING
Sometime later, after the light from the twin suns of Tatooine has completely disappeared, Owen's speeder enters the settlement of Anchorhead, Obi-Wan's tailing behind at a discreet distance. Eventually, the first speeder comes to a stop at Docking Bay 32, Anchorhead's only starship harbour. Obi-Wan parks his speeder on the other side of the street, a building behind.
Climbing out of the speeder, Owen and his driver enter the dark depths of the docking bay. Ten minutes later, a medium-size starship -- a G9 Rigger freighter -- ascends from within the docking bay. Climbing upward, it speeds for open space, soon disappearing among the countless nighttime stars.
OBI-WAN: Owen, what are you up to?
EXT. ANCHORHEAD - STREET - EVENING
An hour later, the freighter returns from its trip into outer space. Obi-Wan, still parked and waiting, watches as the freighter makes its descent, slipping back into Docking Bay 32 without attracting any undue attention to itself. After a few minutes pass, Owen and his accomplice exit the bay, returning to their speeder. Instead of returning to the path that brought them into Anchorhead, however, they instead head down a street that takes them deeper into the settlement. Starting his own speeder, Obi-Wan follows after them.
EXT. ANCHORHEAD - STREET - WATTO'S SHOP - EVENING
Within a few minutes, Owen's speeder comes to a stop outside a junk shop. The large, currently unlit, sign installed above the main entrance reads "WATTO'S SHOP". Parking a fair ways away behind them, Obi-Wan narrows his eyes as Owen and the younger boy climb out and slip into the shop.
OBI-WAN: What are you making my brother do for you, Watto?
Shutting down the speeder's engines, Obi-Wan climbs up and out of the vehicle. Making sure that no one is watching him, he quietly follows after the pair.
INT. WATTO'S SHOP - EVENING
Like a thief in the night, Ben slips inside the dark junk shop. Looking about him, he notices the many items of machinery laid in piles and placed on shelves within the dingy interior. Closing his overcoat, he begins making his way deeper into the shop. Soon he comes to the far end of the room, which opens out into a smaller room in the back. Peering into the room, making sure he cannot be seen, the Jedi knight sees Owen and the boy at a desk with Watto, the flying blue Toydarian owner of the shop.
WATTO: (irate) (gestures down at a datapad resting on the desk's top) Whatta's this? This is a payment, you say? Payment!? Bah! I wouldn't have been able to make a down payment for my mother's funeral with this!
OWEN: We can't help it, Watto. We’re in a funk right now. Ever since Ash-It Eeyoo Naim started up his business, the suppliers haven't been eagre to fly with us.
WATTO: Excuses, excuses! Bah! (beat) It's-a time, I think, that I got a cut of the profits thee are bringing in on your moisture work.
OWEN: (alarmed) Watto, no! We're barely getting by on what we make already!
WATTO: Thee think I give a ranat's rear if thee get by? I don't-a. I want what's due to me. I've been more than fair, waiting for thee to pay off your debt.
DRIVER: (irate) You're paying interest, you old bird. That's being fair?
WATTO: I was at a low point when I loaned to Cliegg Lars -- rest his soul -- as thee well know. I took a big loss pitying the fool. That's why there's-a interest. (pushing his face up in front of the boy's) I want-a cut of the farm, boy -- that, or a cut of your momma and sista's fine, soft flesh. How's that bargain for you, eh?
DRIVER: (enraged) You lousy piece of --!
The blond-haired boy strikes out, hands twisted into claws for Watto’s throat. Owen grabs him, wrestling him away from the Toydarian.
OWEN: Nik, no! Calm down! You're gonna get us in trouble! Cut it out!
NIK (DRIVER): (struggling against Owen's grip) Stupid rotten -- (to Owen) Let me go, dammit!
OWEN: Nik, stop! Stop it!
Nik squirms for another several seconds. Finally he stops, letting out a deep breath. Slowly, Owen releases him.
NIK: Okay ... I'm okay now. (beat) Let's get out of here. I don't want to stand in this dump a minute longer.
The spice-hauling partners leave the Toydarian’s desk, moving on their way out of the room. Watto follows them with angry eyes.
WATTO: You've made your decision, then ...
As the two young men cross the room, Obi-Wan flees into the shadows of the shop to avoid getting caught. Crouching down behind a partially-disassembled protocol 'droid, he watches as they make their way to the shop's entrance, slipping outside into the quiet night.
EXT. ANCHORHEAD - WATTO'S SHOP - EVENING
Owen and Nik walk over to their speeder. As Owen jumps in the passenger seat, Nik just stands there on his side of the vehicle, looking down at the moisture farmer.
OWEN: (noticing Nik's stare) What? Let's go already.
NIK: (frowns) You never stand up to him.
OWEN: What?
NIK: You never stand up to him, Owen. He walks all over you, and you take it like a Mos Eisley whore!
OWEN: (frowns) What would you like me to do about it, Nik? He's powerful, with powerful friends -- I can't just put a blaster bolt between his eyes!
NIK: You could still resist him, show him that you aren't going to take his garbage sitting down!
OWEN: We can't all be blessed with your brand of assertiveness, Mister Anakin Skywalker.
Sighing, Nik -- full name, ANAKIN -- decides to give up the discussion. Hopping into the speeder, he brings the engines to life.
ANAKIN (NIK): This deal's getting worse all the time.
OWEN: Don't I know it.
Punching the controls, Anakin takes off, racing up the street like a mynock out of Hell.
A few seconds later, Obi-Wan steps out of Watto's shop. Looking to his right, he spots the speeder in the distance as it turns and disappears around a corner.
^Young love ...
TheBoost said:
As my pals at camp used to say, it's only gay if you're not thinking about a girl.
Do pre-op male-to-female transsexuals count as girls?
^Well, seeing as he hasn't been around since December 2011, he's as good as banned anyhow.
Sadako said:
I've got a bit of headcanon that states that midi-chlorians are attracted to the Force and sustain themselves on the Force, and so beings which are Force sensitive can sustain larger colonies of midi-chlorians, but that the connection ends there.
I go a bit further myself and run with the idea that they're bonafide Force-sucking parasites which rewrite the DNA of their hosts to make them dependant on their presence to survive.
TIMELINE-H
PODD
October 14, 1994
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare made a bigger impact on the box office in this timeline than in our universe, leading Heather Langenkamp to become a big A-list actress. As a direct result of this, Ms. Langenkamp’s image was plastered everywhere, and – as a direct result of that – my counterpart on this Earth came to loathe her with a passion.
FINAL NOTES
My counterpart is a total dumbass.
Why do I have the feeling that this Rob fellow would have annoyed the hell out of me had we crossed paths?
If a person worshipped the Christian God and believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but believed that They were evil and went about knowingly promoting evil in God's name, wouldn't you come to think of that person as a "Dark Christian"?
As long as vaguely-defined universal translators, overuse of human/rubber forehead aliens, and stupid notions of all humanoid life being created by some progenitor race are avoided, then yes, I would.
Sadako said:
The fact that midi-chlorians are a complete throwaway plot device is even worse. The story would not be different in any way if they just replaced every instance of 'midi-chlorians' with 'The Force'.
This is why I don't like midi-chlorians. It's not that they demystify the Force -- they're clearly meant to be conduits to the Force, not the creators of the Force or the Force itself -- but because they're completely, hopelessly, redundant.
Saying "Screw the EU!!!!!! Hope it dies. FOREVER!" just because of one lousy book is silly. There are plenty of other works in the EU that do Han -- and the Han/Leia relationship in particular -- justice.
This story, for example
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/A_Valentine_Story
is an excellent pre-TESB story which explores Han and Leia's developing feelings for one another (the art is awesome as well -- it really captures the spirit of the characters, and the colours are gorgeous).
Ryan McAvoy said:
Wow Neglify, the whole of your 'Post 50' is some of the most batsh*t scary authoritarian stuff I've read outside of George Orwell's '1984'!
It certainly is easy to see why L. Ron didn't like psychologists.
Well, I admit I'm biased -- I hate modern mainstream superhero comics.
I thought now would be a good time to show how I envision some of the various characters/groups/items/etc. that I have introduced so far within my script.
I see Obi-Wan as looking like a young Kenneth Branagh.
Basically, I came to see him as my ideal image of Ben after watching his adaptation of Hamlet, where he had platinum blond hair -- which reminded me of how Ben's character looked in the OT, what with his white hair -- and all-black clothes, which pretty much reminded me of Luke's outfit in ROTJ, which was more-or-less a look I had all ready come to associate with the Jedi in my SW Universe.
This is the hairdo I envision Ben having within my script.
Suffice it to say, the TPM concept art has had a major influence upon the development of my SW Universe over the years.
This is pretty much the outfit Obi-Wan is going to wear throughout the script.
Unlike with the Coruscanti Jedi, I didn't want Ben to wear something which was reminiscent of a uniform or monastic robes, but something that was more casual -- more "civilian" -- while still retaining the overall black look of Luke's ROTJ outfit.
Naomi Watts is the closest real-world person I can think of that looks like Siri Tachi. That's all I'm going to say.
This is how I envision the Force Hound to look like beneath his helmet (that's Lance Henrikson from the 1991 adaptation of The Pit and the Pendulum, BTW).
The uniform of a Coruscanti Jedi Knight.
The uniform of a Coruscanti Jedi Master (notice the cloak).
The uniform of the Mandalorian Death Watch.
Basically, I got the idea of this look from the Imperial Sourcebook, which mentioned that the uniform of Palpatine's Royal Guard was based in part on the uniform of the Mandalorian Death Watch (something subsequent EU did not run with, BTW, as every image I've found online of Death Watch Mandalorians has them looking like your basic Mandalorian, more-or-less).
I'm surprised no one's ever brought up just how small Gungan brains appear to be relative to the rest of their body. Seriously, in the real world, a creature with a skull that small* would probably have the intelligence of a monkey at most.
*Of course, it's possible their brain isn't actually located within their skull but in some other unseen location in the body, in which case never mind ...
Mavericks said:
For me being an ardent Han/Leia fan (I'm sort of romantic mood, ya know) "The Courtship of Princess Leia" as a crying nonsense is like spit in my face. Zero understanding of personalities of both characters, huge EMOTIONAL inconsistency with their love story arc we saw in ESB and ROTJ (I mean, c'mon, how could Leia, who risked her life to rescue Solo - that dashing scoundrel she fell in love with and who she shared so many ups and downs with - even think of possibility to marry another man. She was made into really disdainful bitch here. And seriously, we're talking about HARRISON FORD! How many women would prefer some polished dude "prince Isolder" over FORD?!)
Yeah, this aspect of the novel is just so goddamn stupid (too bad the various guidebooks never let on just how stupid this plot was -- I may have had the good sense to ignore reading the book altogether).
Another one also regards the EU crap about Solo him "discovering" his noble ancestry. WTF!!! So in order to justify his pretensions to marry Leia (who, remember, confessed her love in the worst possible situation that could ever happen!) some authors decided to bear this out by tying up this to some class-conscious way of thinking. What a shit! Integrity of her character and her strong moral values and principles (of which loyalty to the single man she would choose as her lover is a main one, I suppose) by no means makes this possible: neither political considerations nor social prejudices was no matter for her to be with Han, be it a simple liaison or a legal marriage. The fact of Solo's ordinary origins even makes their relations even more romantic and sensitive.
It's funny, actually -- later stories that focus on Han ignore this backstory completely, establishing instead that Han is an orphan with no memory of his parents and only one known relative (who certainly isn't royalty).
If only the people running the EU for the last thirteen or so years would have been so bold as to throw out blatantly stupid additions to the universe that don't work. *cough*JediPrinceSeries*cough*
Screw the EU!!!!!! Hope it dies. FOREVER!
Okay, now you're just being silly ...