- Post
- #1566235
- Topic
- Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1566235/action/topic#1566235
- Time
I think Curtis Saxton’s head would asplode if he were to read this. 😄
I think Curtis Saxton’s head would asplode if he were to read this. 😄
“Your eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them.”
Darth Vader was the Dark Lord of the Sith. Under him were six Knights of the Sith. Why only six? Palps probably put a cap on how many Sith Vader could train, just to fuck Vader over. His First Knight was Jerec from the Dark Forces books/games. After Vader kicked the bucket, Jerec became the new Dark Lord. What became of the Second-through-Sixth Knights, I can’t say. Maybe they all died/defected/didn’t get along with Jerec. Whatever the case, he was gonna continue the “Rule of Seven” with knights of his own choosing. Then Kyle Katarn kicked all their asses.
This pertains to the pre-1999 SW Universe, BTW.
I will always “enjoy” how Rebels completely delegitimized the OT. In the OT, we are told the Jedi are long gone because Vader wiped them out. In Rebels, we have Jedi force users, and force using trees, whales, and wolves popping up on every street corner of the Star Wars galaxy.
I’m not opposed to the idea that Jedi aside from Ben and Yoda escaped the purge. But they should all be hiding/operating covertly. But Rebels is just a silly kids show, and you gotta dangle a lightsaber in the kids’ faces to keep them engaged, 'cause Star Wars, right?
Andor is what Rebels should’ve been. Grittier, more grounded, and with all the Jedi characters dead, turned to the dark side, or otherwise incapacitated by the end to properly explain their absence from the OT time period.
Ignoring the prequels+, I run with the idea that Force-sensitivity is much like immortality in the Highlander franchise; some people are just born different with no obvious rhyme or reason why. Force-sensitivity can be passed on matrilineally (in the case of species where females bear young; different terminology would apply to hermaphroditic/asexual species, obviously), but this is due to the fetus developing in the Force-rich aura of their parent, not genetics.
Filoni managed to polish the turd that was the Prequel Trilogy. Most anyone could’ve done that. I knew this new emperor had no more clothes than the last when Rebels aired for the first time, introducing such ingenious concepts as the spinning lightsaber which doubles as a one-person helicopter.
“Sheev” is a lame name. The various fan/rumoured names, from Dantius to Ethril to Frank, were all better. But I dunno, I find it amusing that that’s the name of a malevolent archmage who managed to conquer a galaxy.
Darths before Bane. Whomever created Darth Rivan should be bludgeoned with a sturgeon, and so should Drew Karpyshyn and the others who perpetuated that nonsense.
Ironically, George Lucas likely meant for Bane to be first Darth. Statements from Lucas and the wording of the TPM novelization suggest that the pre-Bane Sith were short-lived and didn’t pose a serious threat to the Jedi. I believe that Lucas meant for the Sith Order started by Darth Bane to be the one that ruled the galaxy 1000 years before the movies.
Yeah, there’s always been a wide gulf dividing Lucas’ canon and official canon, even when there were tiers with Lucas’ ostensibly being the top one. Which makes it all the more absurd when obvious jokes like “Conan” being Motti’s first name and “Stewjon” being Obi-Wan’s homeworld were canonized just 'cause Lucas was the source.
The art is mostly fine. It’s mostly in 90’s styles but it’s fair. There’s only one issue or so where I thought the art was poor. David Roach’s art in The Saga of Nomi Sunrider Part 2 and Chris Grosset’s work in the Redemption arc were my favorites. The aesthetics of the series was perfect.
Agree 100%. Roach’s art is outstanding and I wish he’d returned for future arcs. Alas, it wasn’t to be. I think Dario Carrasco’s linework was competent, but it was muddied by atrocious inking, making The Sith War/Golden Age of the Sith Empire/Fall of the Sith Empire my least favourite arcs to revisit.
I think KJA did an alright job on the series after Veitch left. It’s probably his best writing on SW, full stop. I dislike how condensed the events of the Great Hyperspace and Sith Wars are, though. I don’t know if this was a creative choice on his part or if there was a mandate from on-high forcing him to tell the whole story within a few finite miniseries, but it makes these wars feel smaller and less impactful than they should’ve been.
I prefer prequelisms to stay within the prequel era. It’s the only place I can tolerate them.
Darths before Bane. Whomever created Darth Rivan should be bludgeoned with a sturgeon, and so should Drew Karpyshyn and the others who perpetuated that nonsense.
Speaking of Karpyshyn, his Darth Bane trilogy sucks. It’s like he went out of his way to take away most everything that made Bane a distinctive character – the purple lightsaber, the orbalisk armour – to make him just another generic Sith. Also each one of those books has a side quest of Bane seeking out a holocron – each one. Wow. So creative. Much variety.
From what I’ve read about The Rise of Skywalker (I refuse to watch that movie), Abrams cranked up the whole evil entity to a ludicrous level.
One would think that Palps couldn’t get any more ludicrously evil than in ROTS, but if anyone could find a way to do it, it’d be Jar Jar Abrams.
I’ve come across a few posts from folks who claim that K. W. Jeter’s The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy references the Clone Wars. Specifically, that the majority of Mandalorians disappeared from the known galaxy at the end of the wars, their fleet making a blind hyperspace jump into the unknown. None of them cited their sources, though, which is frustrating.
That’s the coolest idea ever. So naturally, it didn’t happen in any canonical material.
In one of the Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson strips, the builders of the Massassi Temples were shown to have left Yavin IV for another galaxy, leaving the Night Beast behind in stasis. As TOTJ would later reveal, the Night Beast was a mutated Massassi warrior created by Exar Kun, meaning it was his Sith followers who left for another galaxy. I can easily imagine these Mandalorian refugees ended up fleeing to that very same galaxy and encountering the descendants of Kun’s Sith, perhaps joining forces.
So many possibilities, and we end up with Jar Jar Binks and Leia Poppins.
We need a sequel to The Crystal Star, with Waru returning to the GFFA with an invasion force of fellow Warus seeking to destroy the Force and replace it with the Anti-Force of their universe to facilitate colonization. Use the opportunity to introduce the greater SW Multiverse, with an entire fleet of Death Stars, Darksabers, Starkiller Bases, and Suncrushers gathered from every timeline to fight the extradimensional slabs of giant scaled meat.
(jk – or am I?)
I think the terms “light side/dark side” create confusion themselves, if we’re to understand the light side as being THE Force and the dark side as misuse/abuse of the Force. Saying the Force has “sides” implies an intrinsic dual nature.
I’m sure you’re aware of this but this is why the term “light side” is never actually used in the movies, original or prequel.
The “good side” is mentioned, though. Semantics? You be the judge. I still think use of “dark side” is a misnomer if the Force isn’t meant to be analogous to Yin/Yang. Lucas could’ve found a better way to describe the opposing philosophies of the Jedi/Sith.
I think the terms “light side/dark side” create confusion themselves, if we’re to understand the light side as being THE Force and the dark side as misuse/abuse of the Force. Saying the Force has “sides” implies an intrinsic dual nature.
These are some cool ideas I might incorporate in my Prequel rewrite.
Owen was Obi-Wan’s brother.
Then why does Owen hate Obi-Wan so much?
Resentment over Ben leaving the family to become a Jedi + blame for Anakin’s death/fall (whichever Owen believed to be the case) + jealousy, perhaps?
Vader was already in the suit when the Empire began, he rose the through the ranks as damaged goods (mainly through being Tarkin’s henchman).
When did the Empire begin? What put him in the suit before he fought Obi-Wan?
In Heir to the Empire, Pellaeon muses on having served in the Imperial Starfleet for fifty years. 9 ABY - 50 years = 41 BBY, if we assume Pellaeon wasn’t also including time spent in the Republic Starfleet.
As for Vader being in the armour by 35 BBY, I don’t believe this is necessarily the case. The most which can be said with certainty is that he’d assumed the identity of Vader by that time, but the injuries which put him in the suit could’ve still occurred later.
I mean i’m glad the Old EU Aka Legends has been left alone they haven’t gone back and given darth names to all the non Darth Sith Lords, or retroactively gave them all red lightsabers. And they didn’t edit the timeline or backstory Zahn had in his trilogy about the old Empire, the Clone Wars, they didn’t correct the ideas of the Jedi pre prequel to homogenize them with Lucas.
Well, not in those original stories, thankfully. Didn’t prevent them from, say, homogenizing the lightsabers of all prequel-era Jedi into single shades of blue/green even when they’d been depicted with other hues beforehand, the Dark Woman being the most egregious example.
I’ve come across a few posts from folks who claim that K. W. Jeter’s The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy references the Clone Wars. Specifically, that the majority of Mandalorians disappeared from the known galaxy at the end of the wars, their fleet making a blind hyperspace jump into the unknown. None of them cited their sources, though, which is frustrating.
From the Dark Empire Sourcebook:
Damn, that’s at least two generations of Boda women getting away with having children and raising them as Jedi with the Council being none the wiser. How did they ever manage, lol.
I think the notion of gray Jedi can work – if such characters are clearly portrayed as antiheroes/antivillains with questionable morality.
If that’s a temporary state. Eventually you should have to pick a side, because that’s how the dark side works.
I mostly agree. Guess it all boils down to what picking the dark side entails. I’m not a fan of every darksider being a 2-dimensional sociopath who craves UNLIMITED POWA!!! for the sake of UNLIMITED POWA!!!
This character, andyvotty, has links to spam inserted in both their posts:
I’ve reported both, but the mods haven’t seemed to have taken notice.
I think the notion of gray Jedi can work – if such characters are clearly portrayed as antiheroes/antivillains with questionable morality.