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| Darth Skuldren wrote: |
I've never read the whole Dark Empire series so I really can't comment on that. But I did read Jedi vs Sith before I read the Bane Trilogy. I'm also not annal about continuity, so if a book changes existing continuity, it doesn't turn me off. I know it's not official, but I'm perfectly fine with book canon trumping comic canon. Each medium is a different form of story telling, and when trying to contain a story withing a single issue of a comic, when trying to make every issue in a comic series entertaining, you have to change the way you tell a story.
For me, I like books better than comics simply because as a reader I get a deeper bond with the characters. |
That's the issue that people have with the comic miniseries that depict big events. Most people aren't fans of the artwork in Dark Empire or Jedi vs Sith, either because of the watercolors in the former or the Satyr aliens and Spanish galleon spaceships in the latter (Karpyshyn himself isn't a fan of Farfalla having goat legs and made it a point not to mention them, so as far as a reader of PoD or RoT knows, Farfalla is human).
As for novels having more depth to characterization, I agree, but as it applies to Star Wars, I think it's mostly wasted which is why I rarely view it as a positive. There's very little consistent characterization through Star Wars, and the books I am a fan of at least have a semblance of character arc across them. The New Jedi Order is my favorite book series in Star Wars because they plotted out the character development for Anakin, Luke, Han, Jacen, Jaina, Mara, and Leia across the course of the series and it's fairly consistent, with perhaps some minor issues. I think Shadows of the Empire, Truce at Bakura, Shadows of Mindor, The Courtship of Princess Leia, and Tatooine Ghost are pretty consistent with character arcs for Luke and Leia (although I suppose I'm being somewhat generous for COPL -- though it does have Leia's Force heritage come into play with the Witches and I think Wolverton took his cues from Dark Empire for Luke), because they had the milestones of The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Dark Empire to guide them in their characterizations of those two characters and it happens to gel fairly nicely despite there not being an organized effort.
I think that's because Dark Empire was a fairly big deal and essentially one equivalent to a sequel trilogy (with the Thrawn trilogy being another, but it didn't really do anything in terms of character arcs or development apart from Karrde and Mara). Once that milestone was passed though the characterization got really messy in the timeline until Zahn sort of righted it with Hand of Thrawn, from which New Jedi Order took its cues.
I think the novels work best when there's either milestones for the authors to go by, i.e. the movies and in the early EU Dark Empire, or if it's a large project that's meticulously planned like New Jedi Order. After NJO, I think that central planning really went out the window and now they just have a general idea of what they're going to do and write their novels. I thought Jacen especially was a mess in terms of characterization in LOTF, and that's not even considering the huge shift from The Unifying Force to The Joiner King, not just for Jacen, but Luke as well.
So anyway, getting off the point of the thread, but to sum my point I think the primary unique benefit that novels bring to the table is really wasted by a majority of SW novels, but I appreciate the ones that bring it. And I wouldn't mind seeing either Tales of the Jedi or Dark Empire novelized, but I would rather see it novelized by someone like Stover or Luceno.
And I wouldn't mind seeing the author take liberties with the stories either, especially Dark Empire. For instance, assuming that The Force Unleashed 3 is either never made or its conclusion leaves Starkiller's status unclear (rather than killing him), I think it would be interesting if he was involved in the events of Dark Empire, since he would work well as an ally yet foil to Luke due to the opposite nature of their training (like Mara Jade). And at about that time in the story, Luke is as, or more, powerful than Starkiller, so he wouldn't be stealing Luke's thunder. It just seems like it would work rather well since Starkiller is sort of privy to some of the dark side and Sith secrets that Luke is seeking in that series to understand his father, and Starkiller probably knew Vader as well as almost anyone. It works well with Luke trying to figure his father out and understand him, as well as trying to figure out how to conquer the dark side from within. I could actually write a whole lot more about why I think this is an awesome idea but I'd further derail this thread, unless it falls under the concept of "Darth Whoever"?
I like respecting the past EU like Dark Empire, but I also wouldn't mind seeing characters like Starkiller integrated into events like it, because having characters like Starkiller and Ahsoka (or even minor ones like Jax Pavan) drop off the face of the galaxy seems out of place, and I find it unsatisfying if they're going to take the easy way out and simply kill both of them off to explain their absence, because I enjoy their characters. It's just a shame so much timeline is mapped out so that I can't continue to enjoy stories about them due to the fact that their absence is conspicuous (I think their non-action in big storylines can be explained the same as Kyle Katarn's, but I doubt it will be handled that way). The same goes for Jacen; I would be so much happier with the Expanded Universe and Star Wars as a whole if he didn't become Caedus and didn't die, or even if he simply didn't die and was participating in Fate of the Jedi attempting to atone.
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"Trust not the words of a poet, as he is born to seduce. Yet for poetry to seize the heart, it must ring with the chimes of truth.”
“The world is understood through metaphors. Language is a metaphor-system. Mathematics is a metaphor-system. All real-world schools of magic and religion revolve around the understanding of vast metaphor-systems, symbols as they relate to concepts."
"See, the thing is, everything everyone tells you is a lie. The truth is always bigger than the words we use to describe it."
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Darth Sidious is my favorite (I especially like his laughter 
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