With or Without the Big 3

Way back before I read the NJO and was just starting with Zahn and KJA's books, I remember thinking I didn't have any interest in reading the NJO books because I thought they didn't have the movie characters in them. Of course by the time I'd read all the books up to the NJO, I had no issues with continuing. And now I don't have any issues whatsoever in reading books without the Big 3.

Not sure where the turning point was for me.
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Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1410

For me the book either needs Luke or it needs Obi-Wan.
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

I'll keep reading stories with the Big Three, but I do think that the EU has gotten a bit too insular in recent years. I've said for a while that a bit more balance is needed to the restore a bit of grandeur to the post RotJ franchise.

The novel I'm most looking forward to in the next year? X-Wing: Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston. I think the EU could use more books like this, and I'm hoping this is just the first of many novels not centered around the Big Three and the Jedi

Again, I don't want Del Rey to stop writing Big Three books, I just want to see some other stories running alongside them.
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Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

I think one problem with the Big 3 books in terms of becoming insular is that the Legacy of the Force series and Fate of the Jedi series have almost completely abandoned almost a decade's worth of ancillary characters, and instead each author has his or her own pet characters that are used in supporting roles. I don't know why characters like Kyp Durron and Corran Horn, whom both seem to have been pretty influential within the Jedi Order, aren't given bigger roles in Fate of the Jedi, for instance.

I'll agree with that. Although I enjoy stories about the Big Three, the best ones also give nice, rounded plots to more "minor" characters.
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Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

I really wish I knew what went on behind the scenes. Jag Fel is given the sort of a role where he's a prominent character in most, if not all, the books of LOTF/FOTJ, but Kyp Durron, Corran Horn, Wedge Antilles, and all these other characters are given little if any time. And then in LOTF we had Boba Fett given equal time to the main characters in three novels, appear in the final one in a very small role, and be absent for the other five.

Is the reason why Jag is given prominence while earlier characters with equally established fanbases among readers aren't simply due to Jag being the significant other of one of the Solo-Skywalkers, whereas he would otherwise be on the cutting block in lieu of pet characters? Or is it a deliberate attempt to downplay Bantam characters?

In LOTF they really messed up the pacing with the Boba Fett parts. I think that's why we don't see anything like that in FOTJ. None of the authors what to repeat Traviss' mistake, thus we don't have a Corran book like I, Jedi wedged in there. But there is also no reason an author can't come back and write a sequel to I, Jedi that takes place during FOTJ. There is a lot of space and plenty of scenes that could be elaborated on from Corran's point of view. We could see Corran fighting in a starfighter over Pydyr when the Jedi Stealth-X fleet arrived (Vortex). They could give us the POV of him and Mirax as they deal with their kids being crazy and then cured. They could show us what happened on Upekzar.

It's really just a matter of fan demand. If the fans let themselves be heard, Del Rey would certainly take such a thing into account.
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I for one think that FotJ is a huge improvement over LotF in terms of giving non-Skywalker Jedi page time. Characters like Saba Sebatyne, the Horns, Seha , Kenth Hamner etc have had interesting subplots. Once FotJ is over I expect we will see stories told in the POV of the other characters.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

I think of the FOTJ series as just one big book. Not nine books telling the same, over-arching, story, but one book split into nine segments. When I look at it like that, I don't mind so much that the story isn't as diverse as what you and I wanted, because it's still, at the heart of it all, a book about Luke and a certain group of characters. That others aren't in there is annoying, for me, as I love it when the minor characters get page time; however, the inclusion of minor characters we've already seen are integral to the plot. To have others shoe-horned in, I believe, would be too jarring.

Think of it like this: Have you read Deceived? Have you also read Fatal Alliance? The former is about a short, singular, almost self contained, story centring around one main character, and a small group - yet it didn't give the bigger picture of the galaxy around it; yet the latter gave us almost exactly the opposite. It had characters, but it was a bit more aloof - rather, not as close to - the characters within the story, yet provided the bigger picture. I view the FOTJ series as like Deceived. It focuses on the characters more than the bigger picture (though said picture is more prominent than in Deceived).
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I am a Star Wars fan. That doesn't mean that I hate or love Jar Jar. That doesn't mean I hate or love Lucas, or agree or disagree 100% with him. That doesn't mean I prefer the PT over the OT, or vice versa. That doesn't mean I hate the EU, or even love all of it. These are not prerequisites. Being a man is not a prerequisite. Being a geek is not a prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that I love something about Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

Huh, I would say that Fate of the Jedi is more like Fatal Alliance. FOTJ is not really a character driven story at all, whereas Deceived is specifically about its character arcs. At the conclusion of Apocalypse, I'm not really sure any of the characters will be different people from the experience -- with possibly the exception of Vestara -- nor is it the focus of the story. Fatal Alliance is similarly more concerned with the big picture than it is with its individual characters changing over the course of the story. It did have one or two arcs, but they weren't the focus of the story like in Deceived, which was about Aryn and Malgus and how they changed as characters through the course of the story.

Speaking of Deceived and Fatal Alliance, I must say that neither book really stuck with me. I had to look up character names just to recall the characters, except for Malgus. But I couldn't tell you his real name without looking it up. Which is a problem with stories not featuring the Big 3. I honestly didn't come to care about any of the characters in either Fatal Alliance or Deceived. I care about Luke, Han, and Leia as characters. I cared about Jacen and Mara Jade as characters. I have to say that at this point I honestly don't really care about Ben as a character. I'm not really big on the father-son dynamic in FOTJ because it feels really forced and inorganic to me, as does his romance with Vestara.

I was talking more about the set up.
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I am a Star Wars fan. That doesn't mean that I hate or love Jar Jar. That doesn't mean I hate or love Lucas, or agree or disagree 100% with him. That doesn't mean I prefer the PT over the OT, or vice versa. That doesn't mean I hate the EU, or even love all of it. These are not prerequisites. Being a man is not a prerequisite. Being a geek is not a prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that I love something about Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan.

You think Ben and Luke's relationship is forced? How? Confused

_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

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