Star Wars musings, just 'cause
Feb. 4th, 2010 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jade_sabreSo ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias linked to a review of The Phantom Menace that explains what goes wrong with it in surprising and awesome detail. I highly recommend it--it's broken into pieces so you can watch a bit at a time. In the first few segments there are some highly questionable bits of non-humor, but if you push past those you'll be well rewarded. (A commenter on sartorias's journal said that apparently this reviewer's thing is to treat the subject as "if you're this much of a fanboy nerd, you're probably also a sociopath"; I haven't watched any of his other reviews, so idk.)
Anyway, in the first clip there's a hilarious section on character (or lack thereof), and it got me thinking. I mean, I basically ship Obi-Wan/Padme on the basis of the fact that they actually had slight semblances of interesting character--like, in a world that wasn't railroaded, I could see movie!Obi-Wan with movie!Padme. (This is a world where the things I assume about their characters based on their positions in life are actually exhibited, not just imagined.)
Book!Obi-Wan is much more like a Jedi ought to be--committed to his cause, compassionate yet detached, disinterested in romantic relationships--and he'd be harder to ship with her. But I love him too.
And, well, there's a in-between TPM and AOTC book called The Approaching Storm, and in it, the two Jedi Knights (Obi-Wan and Luminara) and their two Padawans (Anakin and Bariss Offee, I think) are attempting to convince an alien race to trust them, and each is asked to offer a gift. And Luminara (okay I looked this one up) offers a display of Force power, and Bariss dances with her lightsaber. Anakin sings a lullaby his mother used to sing to him, and Obi-Wan...tells a story.
And it's always stuck with me, this idea of Obi-Wan as storyteller, 'cause there's a line where he's got the hero and the heroine in a life-or-death situation and pretends he doesn't know how's it going to end (past that he confessed he could not see), and the whole audience is like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TELL US THE ENDIIIIIIIIIIIIING and he relents and there's a happy ending. And it's just a little character detail, and I doubt it comes up anywhere else in the canon, but it's one I treasure, because I feel like "being a good oral storyteller" isn't often used as a character detail--usually a lot of plot centers around that kind of thing. And sure, it's used in the plot here, but the author took the time to describe the process, and while on rereading (thank you look inside at Amazon) the prose isn't particularly brilliant, it's still...huh.
And of course I'm rubbish at telling stories out loud, and it's a skill I'd like to have but don't, so that adds to it.
But still. Obi-Wan Kenobi, master storyteller. Own it.
And while we're talking about it, there's a fandomsecret about Mara Jade to which I can only say WORD. And at first I thought she meant "the man who murdered her" as "Troy Denning," who I personally hold responsible for the suckage of later Star Wars novels.
See, once upon a time, someone wrote (Alan Dean Foster I think? Who also wrote the book I mentioned earlier, haha) Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which I own but have never read because its canonicity has been called into question (also, it was written before we knew Luke and Leia were siblings, awkward), and then not really much else happened for another ten years. And then in 1991, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy came out, heralding the Ballantine Books era of Star Wars novels. I'm fairly certain I have read every single one of them. They're written by individual authors, aren't necessarily connected; Michael Stackpoole and Tim Zahn's books reference each other, because the authors are friends, and I, Jedi obviously references the Jedi Academy Trilogy, but for the most part things are isolated. And some of them suck a lot. (Take it back; I never read the third Callista book. And I tried. But there were bugs involved and, uh, Callista.) Tim Zahn wrote the Hand of Thrawn Duology, rounding out the Ballantine era, capping it off as covering the period of fifteen years after ROTJ, winding up plotlines (like Luke's role as the series bicycle, y'all it was just ridiculous, in retrospect), and leaving you satisfied.
Anyway, around the time TPM came out, Del Ray took over the franchise and reorganized it. The first major part of this was the Yuuzhan Vong series, an ambitious 25ish-book project involvinghiring hacks like Troy Denning multiple authors all writing in the same storyline, covering I wanna say like five years, fucking up the Star Wars universe exploring sci-fic-type topics, killing Chewbacca in the first book trying new, edgier, darker things with Star Wars. And for the most part, it's really, really good. Heavy, especially in the middle, when it's dark and Troy Denning is killing people left and right BECAUSE HE CAN, but overall I think the project worked out pretty well.
I'm less familiar with Del Rays forays into prequel stuff, although I hear Karen Traviss's clone books are pretty good. Clones and Mandalorians Are Her Thing, and I have no real objection to this.
Anyway, after finishing up the Yuuzhan Vong, I mean, you'd figure they'd take a break. But instead Troy Denning came out with a trilogy and I got far enough into it where bugs were permanently altering main character's brain chemistry and said screw it.
And then the Legacy series happened. Three authors, two of whom I adored, and Troy Denning, got together and wrote what started out as, like, a Star Wars novel of the variety of "why I got into reading Star Wars novels in the first place," and then ended up in that place the secret referred to. And I stuck it out
but
dayumn. They went out of their way to kill almost every character left over from the Ballantine days--and I do mean every character. The last book was a veritable slaughterhouse of HEY WAIT I LIKED HIM/HER.
And now there's yet ANOTHER series and in these new books there's some sort of galaxy-wide plague or something driving people crazy? And they started with Valin and Jysella Horn and Y'ALL I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS. YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE HORN BABIES, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME.
so I haven't read those yet.
sad thing? I probably will.
words that just came out of my roommate's mouth: "right now I am trying to prove that 1 does not equal 2."
...
anyway.
maybe one day I'll take the above mini-essay and fully flesh it out, like, "my experiences with Star Wars books, or, why I can still remember minute details about these novels despite not having read some of them for years and years" (hint: I must have been the most obnoxious, nose-in-book child you ever met). And I didn't even mention Star Wars Chicks.
anyway, sometimes I wish I had a way of getting into the Star Wars fandom, just because most of the people I know who have read as much as I have are, like, nerdboys around here, and while I'm so grateful for my Star Wars group, it'd be nice to have someone else to talk to.
sartorias linked to a review of The Phantom Menace that explains what goes wrong with it in surprising and awesome detail. I highly recommend it--it's broken into pieces so you can watch a bit at a time. In the first few segments there are some highly questionable bits of non-humor, but if you push past those you'll be well rewarded. (A commenter on sartorias's journal said that apparently this reviewer's thing is to treat the subject as "if you're this much of a fanboy nerd, you're probably also a sociopath"; I haven't watched any of his other reviews, so idk.)Anyway, in the first clip there's a hilarious section on character (or lack thereof), and it got me thinking. I mean, I basically ship Obi-Wan/Padme on the basis of the fact that they actually had slight semblances of interesting character--like, in a world that wasn't railroaded, I could see movie!Obi-Wan with movie!Padme. (This is a world where the things I assume about their characters based on their positions in life are actually exhibited, not just imagined.)
Book!Obi-Wan is much more like a Jedi ought to be--committed to his cause, compassionate yet detached, disinterested in romantic relationships--and he'd be harder to ship with her. But I love him too.
And, well, there's a in-between TPM and AOTC book called The Approaching Storm, and in it, the two Jedi Knights (Obi-Wan and Luminara) and their two Padawans (Anakin and Bariss Offee, I think) are attempting to convince an alien race to trust them, and each is asked to offer a gift. And Luminara (okay I looked this one up) offers a display of Force power, and Bariss dances with her lightsaber. Anakin sings a lullaby his mother used to sing to him, and Obi-Wan...tells a story.
And it's always stuck with me, this idea of Obi-Wan as storyteller, 'cause there's a line where he's got the hero and the heroine in a life-or-death situation and pretends he doesn't know how's it going to end (past that he confessed he could not see), and the whole audience is like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TELL US THE ENDIIIIIIIIIIIIING and he relents and there's a happy ending. And it's just a little character detail, and I doubt it comes up anywhere else in the canon, but it's one I treasure, because I feel like "being a good oral storyteller" isn't often used as a character detail--usually a lot of plot centers around that kind of thing. And sure, it's used in the plot here, but the author took the time to describe the process, and while on rereading (thank you look inside at Amazon) the prose isn't particularly brilliant, it's still...huh.
And of course I'm rubbish at telling stories out loud, and it's a skill I'd like to have but don't, so that adds to it.
But still. Obi-Wan Kenobi, master storyteller. Own it.
And while we're talking about it, there's a fandomsecret about Mara Jade to which I can only say WORD. And at first I thought she meant "the man who murdered her" as "Troy Denning," who I personally hold responsible for the suckage of later Star Wars novels.
See, once upon a time, someone wrote (Alan Dean Foster I think? Who also wrote the book I mentioned earlier, haha) Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which I own but have never read because its canonicity has been called into question (also, it was written before we knew Luke and Leia were siblings, awkward), and then not really much else happened for another ten years. And then in 1991, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy came out, heralding the Ballantine Books era of Star Wars novels. I'm fairly certain I have read every single one of them. They're written by individual authors, aren't necessarily connected; Michael Stackpoole and Tim Zahn's books reference each other, because the authors are friends, and I, Jedi obviously references the Jedi Academy Trilogy, but for the most part things are isolated. And some of them suck a lot. (Take it back; I never read the third Callista book. And I tried. But there were bugs involved and, uh, Callista.) Tim Zahn wrote the Hand of Thrawn Duology, rounding out the Ballantine era, capping it off as covering the period of fifteen years after ROTJ, winding up plotlines (like Luke's role as the series bicycle, y'all it was just ridiculous, in retrospect), and leaving you satisfied.
Anyway, around the time TPM came out, Del Ray took over the franchise and reorganized it. The first major part of this was the Yuuzhan Vong series, an ambitious 25ish-book project involving
I'm less familiar with Del Rays forays into prequel stuff, although I hear Karen Traviss's clone books are pretty good. Clones and Mandalorians Are Her Thing, and I have no real objection to this.
Anyway, after finishing up the Yuuzhan Vong, I mean, you'd figure they'd take a break. But instead Troy Denning came out with a trilogy and I got far enough into it where bugs were permanently altering main character's brain chemistry and said screw it.
And then the Legacy series happened. Three authors, two of whom I adored, and Troy Denning, got together and wrote what started out as, like, a Star Wars novel of the variety of "why I got into reading Star Wars novels in the first place," and then ended up in that place the secret referred to. And I stuck it out
but
dayumn. They went out of their way to kill almost every character left over from the Ballantine days--and I do mean every character. The last book was a veritable slaughterhouse of HEY WAIT I LIKED HIM/HER.
And now there's yet ANOTHER series and in these new books there's some sort of galaxy-wide plague or something driving people crazy? And they started with Valin and Jysella Horn and Y'ALL I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS. YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE HORN BABIES, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME.
so I haven't read those yet.
sad thing? I probably will.
words that just came out of my roommate's mouth: "right now I am trying to prove that 1 does not equal 2."
...
anyway.
maybe one day I'll take the above mini-essay and fully flesh it out, like, "my experiences with Star Wars books, or, why I can still remember minute details about these novels despite not having read some of them for years and years" (hint: I must have been the most obnoxious, nose-in-book child you ever met). And I didn't even mention Star Wars Chicks.
anyway, sometimes I wish I had a way of getting into the Star Wars fandom, just because most of the people I know who have read as much as I have are, like, nerdboys around here, and while I'm so grateful for my Star Wars group, it'd be nice to have someone else to talk to.
