Accidental Continuity

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

I was looking over the first few chapters of Ambush at Corellia the other day -- which as an aside, is interesting because the twins are the same age as Anakin in Episode I -- and I noticed that in this book that Anakin Solo is depicted as being preternaturally gifted with machinery in a way which the book depicts as being a Force gift. Since the book was published in early 1995, it's rather interesting that Anakin Skywalker's grandson was written that way before Anakin Skywalker himself was likewise depicted as being gifted with machines as a child, especially since there's really not any indication that Anakin Skywalker has this gift in the three original films.

While Lucas is well known for not adhering to continuity, I sometimes wonder if he does have some knowledge of the Expanded Universe and that he intentionally has some homages, or merely takes inspiration from it. Another example: the stories of Revenge of the Sith and Dark Empire both start identically: a Skywalker miraculously crash lands as a crippled Star Destroyer on Coruscant.

Stover played with this again in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor with Luke landing the crippled Mon Calamari cruiser on Mindor. I'm sure there's other instances that I made mental note of but completely forgot.

My original idea for the thread was to ask what books go together, even unintentionally, to create an interesting narrative. Are there any interesting examples of unintended continuity that anyone can think of, or does anyone think that there's a specific series of books that go well together despite not being written to do so?
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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."

Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1417

One thing they always talk about in the books is Jaina's piloting abilities. They attribute them to Han, but I like to think she takes after her grandfather -- the best star fighter pilot in the galaxy (in his day).
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

It's always bothered me that Luke's piloting ability is downplayed in the novels. It would have been a useful method of eliminating Luke from other aspects of the plot to have him involved in a dogfight or something instead of coming up with convoluted methods of removing him from the action entirely or stuff like cortosis or ysalamiri. For that matter, it bothered me in Vision of the Future that Luke and Soontir Fel exchange only one line between the two of them for interaction.

As for Jaina, I always thought that she was most balanced as a character in the New Jedi Order series compared to later books. They seem to contort her to fit the plot rather than play to her strengths. It's like after she's drummed out of Rogue Squadron by Jacen she lost her talent in the starfighter. She still flies one from time to time but she's pretty much the same as Luke in that regard now.

Another interesting connection, also in Ambush at Corellia, is Mon Mothma exhorting Luke to get into politics. Luke says that Leia could equal him in talent in the Force if she applied herself, so Mon Mothma suggests that Luke likewise has political talent as his sister does. Given who their mother is, it allows one to wonder if Mon Mothma is guessing at their parentage as well. Especially given how much time Anakin is around Padme during the Clone Wars.
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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."

Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1417

Well, the part about inheriting Anakin's piloting skills would be accidental continuity.
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

How so? Anakin's status as 'the best starfighter pilot in the galaxy' was established back in '77.
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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 can't begin to describe how dumb this is. I used to sympathize with Lucas ignoring the EU because of things like this happening in the EU (everyone under the sun being cloned). No more. *headdesk*
_________________

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

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

I'm confused.
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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."

*whispers* He meant that for the TCW Darth Maul thread. Wink

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All things die, Anakin Skywalker, even stars burn out.

So this is how liberty dies....with thunderous applause.

Those without swords can still die upon them

The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

Ahem. Move along, move along.

I was wondering why this didn't show up in the TCW thread... Embarassed

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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.

We'll say a wizard did it and leave it at that. Wink

_________________
All things die, Anakin Skywalker, even stars burn out.

So this is how liberty dies....with thunderous applause.

Those without swords can still die upon them

The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

I'm tempted to make a thread titled "Bad Continuity" for the explicit purpose of enumerating instances of erroneous conclusions drawn by authors or "did not do the research" type allusions to prior stories, though I suppose this thread could suffice for that purpose.

For instance, Stackpole (and possibly others) concluded that Jedi Masters vanish upon death, and people jumped on Lucas for not having Qui-Gon do this in TPM. Darth Vader was a Jedi (plus he supposedly killed a lot of them) and he was genuinely surprised when Obi-Wan vanished, which establishes that it's out of the ordinary, so it's an erroneous conclusion on Stackpole's part.

Another example is Zahn's conclusion that dark side practitioners explode upon death because Palpatine seemed to do so. It seems to have been dropped plus Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus didn't explode (although Darth Maul didn't die!).

I could write an entire thread dedicated to how badly abused cortosis has been since it was introduced. In Vision of the Future, it's described as being immensely brittle, so much so that when walked upon pieces flake off under people's feet and it's said that a blaster bolt could easily shatter it. Yet in Path of Destruction, it's used for armor and requires a jackhammer to pulverize the rock out *around it* because it's so durable. And then its effect on the lightsaber blade shifts to whatever is convenient for the plot, whether it be merely to shut off the blade upon contact as in Vision of the Future, or to allow for a melee weapon which can literally block a lightsaber blade without shutting it off as in the KOTOR games, or to not only shut off a lightsaber blade, but to prevent it from being reactivated for a period of time as in Purge.
_________________
"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."

Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1417