of_Kaiburr_and_Whills

Superweapon VII said:

I think KJA did an alright job on the series after Veitch left. It’s probably his best writing on SW, full stop.

For sure.

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.

A more grand-scaled conflict is a missed opportunity. An editorial mandate seems quite likely.

I wonder if Veitch and Anderson were signed on for a specific amount of issues beforehand or if they only got deals to do one arc at a time?

Okay, so I actually just finished reading this series and was preparing to write up my own little review so this thread is perfect timing!

I really liked it. It’s an epic in every sense of the word: it features war, love, loss, revenge, and redemption. It’s corny, dated, and cheesy at some points, but Tales is so incredibly human.

One of my favorite aspects was the idea of what it means to be a Jedi- what the spirit of a Jedi truly is. It’s about the choices you make daily. It’s about facing the consequences of your actions. It’s about accepting the past and knowing you can’t change it, but making a choice to act and make things better in the moment.

Ulic Qel-Droma’s story was a rollercoaster, and Exar Kun was a cool villain. Again, the series has its clunky moments, but it made me feel things like pity, disappointment, and concern for the characters.

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.

Also, Redemption was fantastic! It was so incredibly done. Poetic and with lots of meaningful imagery and themes.

To summarize, Tales of the Jedi was a worthy read despite some of its quirks.

Spartacus01 said:

Thanks for the clarification. It would seem certain YouTubers have done a great deal of damage to the fandom haven’t they?

Superweapon VII said:

Yeah, it’s a neat coda to the SW Universe. I generally eschew 1999+ EU, mainly because it’s a headache trying to parse through it, but there’re quite a few Tales stories which can slot in my canon with no problem.

I don’t blame you. It’s hard for me to reconcile all the pre-1999 and post 99’ stories too.

Spartacus01 said:

I suppose I’m the only one who also accepts the post-1999 EU? Well, even though I still don’t like anything set after the Young Jedi Knights series. Lol.

I accept quite a few post-99’ stories, such as Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Shadows of Mindor, Kenobi (with some slight modifications to chapter 35), Genndy’s Clone Wars, The Force Unleashed (mostly for nostalgia), some Prequel-era comics like Acts of War, some stuff from Star Wars Tales, etc.

Like I mentioned above, my issue is trying to believe it all works together. Some people take the six Lucas films and six seasons of Clone Wars as primary source material, while blending in EU stuff that works for them. Some do it with just the six films. Others just stick with the OT, or even the first movie. (Something I find incredibly interesting due to the infinite possibilities.)

For me, ultimately, I’d put most if not all of my favorite EU stories as myths or Legends about the Star Wars universe. So, something like Genndy’s Clone Wars happened, but who knows if it happened exactly as shown in the series. It’s similar to the view some fans of new canon have towards Legends material- it happened, but not necessarily how the events of the story depict it. This mostly helps explain away contradictions and tonal/thematic differences between stories.

And again, this is just when I’m viewing all the Lucas stuff as the prime directive- which, to be fair, is most of the time. I have a little bubble in my mind where all, or at least a fair chunk of, the pre-99’ stuff happens and it’s “real.” And to make clear, I rarely dabble with nu-Lucasfilm era stuff. One of the exceptions I have is the Legends of Luke Skywalker Manga. It’s a fun one for me as, again, the whole premise is that its a bunch of legends and stories- who knows to what degree of truth they are. At the end of the day, they’re all stories. I’m not too worried about any sort of official canon.

Oh, and also… anything past New Jedi Order is a no-go for me… (And I’m pretty on the fence about NJO as it is.)

Superweapon VII said:

Alright, I’ve decided to commit myself to a personal canon. God have mercy on my immortal soul.

Lol. May the canon gods judge us lightly.

Actually, this pretty much sums up my Pre-Prequel timeline. Though I’m still in the process of determining my personal Star Wars mythos, so far I have two that I hop between depending on my mood.

I’d like to suggest Storyteller from Star Wars Tales #19. It came out in like '05 or so but has no prequel references whatsoever and it’s just a neat little story anyway. (I recommend it to everyone who sees this comment!)

Well, other than what Superweapon VII has already added, I’d recommend the Brian Daley Han Solo Adventures and L. Neil Smith Lando Adventures.

They don’t have any connection to prequel-era stuff and are quite fun and action packed, just expect some weird stuff from the latter trilogy.

I’m sure some might also share this opinion, but I prefer when Jedi don’t get married or have kids. I can accept that some would here and there, but I’d like it to be kept at a minimum.

I think Vader taunting Luke by threatening to turn Leia evil can work even if they aren’t siblings. Luke still cares for her greatly as a close friend and ally, so that would surely tick him off.

And about Leia having the Force, I guess it depends how we decide one has the Force. It technically exists in all beings, and we see through the prequels that the amount of receptivity or natural attunement one has with it is brought through midichlorians. Of course, if an individual has enough, they become a Jedi. I think it’s entirely possible Leia could have some natural receptivity to the Force even if she weren’t a Skywalker.

Now I don’t necessarily want to start a whole debate here over midichlorians, force sensitivity, Lucas, the prequels, etc. So I won’t go too much further with this, I just think it can go both ways is what I’m saying.

But to preserve the way Lucas wrapped up the saga and the way expanded material has built upon it, its easier to just remove the kisses, yes.

G&G-Fan said:

alternatively just remove Luke and Leia kissing (both times).

that’s better for me personally. Leia being Luke’s sister is just too iconic and ingrained at this point. Luke and Leia’s conversation in ROTJ is so good and her being used as emotional leverage by Vader also makes it all worth it.

That works for me too.

Come to think of it, I wonder if this was ever an idea Lucas had for any OT re-releases.

Okay, so I’m over here looking outside thinking “Why does it look so dark out? The sun is shining brightly and there’s not a cloud in the sky. Have I been looking at screens for too long today or am I going crazy? It just looks… darker somehow.”

Then I learned the solar eclipse was happening today.

So my eyes are fine. I still might be a little crazy, but that’s irrelevant right now.

‘Star Wars: De-Incest Edition’

Leia is not Luke’s brother- snip out all the pieces of dialogue that say so.

At the top of my head only includes: Some of the stuff Ghost Obi-Wan tells Luke on Dagobah, some of what Luke says to Leia on Endor, and the baby Leia in Episode III (which I know isn’t OT, but still).

None of this would diminish Leia’s role in any of the films and would remove the incest-y details.

Just finished Black Amazon of Mars by the late great Leigh Brackett.

Nothing groundbreaking or thought provoking, but really fun and pulpy all the way through. The oldest piece of fiction I’ve read (save for snippets of The Odyssey and Inferno) is The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, so perhaps I need more experience to gauge this correctly, but Black Amazon feels way ahead of its time.

Next up is Superman: For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.

Superweapon VII said:

Glad he got the cut. He looks like one of those lame rubber forehead aliens from TNG.

After Utris failed to get the part in Star Wars, he auditioned for Star Trek where things went much better for him.

I don’t always listen to Rebel Force Radio, but I tuned in to today’s show and learned there was apparently an alien guard for Cloud City that never made it into the final movie. The EU named him “Utris M’Toc.”

“You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world.”

Welcome to the site! Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed the films.

Ranking these movies is so tricky for me because I enjoy them all and it varies on what I’m in the mood for. Instead I’ll just list my personal critical rankings.

Raiders 5/5, Temple and Crusade 4/5, Skull and Dial 3/5.

Dial was fine I thought. Not as remarkable, but not bad.

I’m still not really interested, but I will say two shots in this trailer did look really fun to me, those being the closeup of Sabine’s face on the speederbike with the E-Wing(?) soaring in the background, and the similar shot with the little astromech droid. It was simple stuff, yes. Very simple. But the expansive backdrop of Lothal and exhilaration of the chase, or whatever is happening, looked fun. That’s all I really have to say.

I’m going to have to disagree with Filoni, as usual… lol

I’d say Yoda probably.

JadedSkywalker said:

I really need to get into the older EU. Star Wars in its purest form. The original Marvel comics, Newspaper Strips from Manning, and Williamson. Radio plays by Brian Daley. Novels by Daley and Foster.

the pre west end games, pre Zahn, Pre prequels stuff.

I read the Newspaper strips years ago but I remember them having a pulpy adventurous feel that was missing in later works. Those stories really did a lot to make the galaxy feel like a vibrant and exciting place. Plus the art by Al Williamson is splendid.

I’ve been thinking of revisiting them recently, and I may even need to check out the main Marvel run as well!

Is- is that Yaldabaoth…?

-disregard (Comment posted twice)

Acbagel said:

The Star Wars: The Old Republic video game has a mission called “The Face Merchants” set in the Coruscant underworld where Black Sun has been operating a similar operation. Though the technology back then seems way more archaic as it required invasive surgery from specialized droids/software to reform the faces of the criminals, the concept of altering facial appearances has at least existed in Star Wars aside from this one TCW episode.

Wild, it honestly sounds like something from a horror movie. Nice to see the idea explored a bit.

So I was thinking about this arc of the TCW recently when I realized how absolutely out-there it gets- particularly with the tech.

I’m talking about the arc where Obi-Wan fakes his death and afterwards precedes to swallow a little electronic ball-shaped device that sits in his throat and alters his voice to that of the bounty hunter Rako Hardeen, gets an injection that reconfigures his bone structure to that of Hardeen, competes with other bounty hunters in a giant Rubik’s Cube of death, all in an attempt to infiltrate the group and stop them from assassinating the Chancellor. Oh, and during the actual attempt, the bounty hunters use holographic technology to completely disguise themselves as blue senate guards.

It makes you wonder who makes this technology and where else it could be implemented. I mean, I assume its expensive, but if there’s a serum that can literally alter your bones who knows what kind of crazy things can be done with it.

Just reread Kenobi. Fantastic book! I know servii already reviewed it here and I don’t want to sound derivative so I’ll keep this short.

This novel has such great banter and relationships between the characters. The action is fun and the world has that rough, lived-in feel that the OT does. The story is nothing grand and galaxy-changing, but its certainly got high stakes for the new characters who you’ll come to love and care about.

John Jackson Miller may be the best EU author in my opinion because both Kenobi and his KOTOR comic are great. He can write fantastic characters with compelling stories and lots of good drama. He also captures the OT feel so well in my opinion- and not just on a surface level either. I strongly urge everyone here to check out these stories.

Edit: Also I wanted to ask, has any one here read Honor Among Thieves? If so I’d love to hear your thoughts because I’m tempted to pick it up.

Superweapon VII said:

Doesn’t hold a candle to the weirdness of '80s EU.

You know what, you’re right. That takes the cake.