The Wrath of Darth Maul

So on one hand, Darth Maul's continuity is being rewritten for the sake of better storytelling. I won't argue having Maul back could provide for some very fun storytelling. However, how does the ties with Ventress, Opress, and Dathomiri witches improve the story?

On it's own, I liked the Dathomiri witches. I liked Ventress. Making her a Dathomiri witch, which contradicted canon, did not do anything for me. Having her be a witch was not a plus from my view point. It didn't seem important other than a convenient way to bring the witches into the show.

For me, Opress was not a character I really liked. He seemed like a dumb guy who was constantly getting duped by people. Having him be tied to the Dathomiri witches didn't make him any cooler in my eyes. However, having him be Maul's brother did make him more interesting. I'm hoping they can do something with that, since they haven't yet.

Now, making Maul a witch seems like a non-essential addition since Palpatine supposedly raised him since he was a child (perhaps Darth Plagueis will illuminate this time period). But the idea seems to be that someone wanted to play with Maul so they made Opress which in my eyes was a bad copy of Maul. That idea then blossomed into "hey, let's just bring back Maul!" So now Maul is back. It could be good storytelling, we'll just have to wait and see.

But as of yet, I have not seen how the contradictions to continuity in TCW have improved storytelling. There have been a lot, so I'm probably missing some I don't care about, but in particular the change of Ryloth being a tidal locked planet with a burning, sun scorched surface, the Mandos being splintered with peaceful people and deathwatch on the moon, and Even Piell. Now I'm willing to look the other way on Piell because that's the one instance of breaking continuity that did provide some really good storytelling.
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Knight Joined: 07 Apr 2011 Posts: 211 Location: Ekkaia

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

Just did a search of my e-book of Shadow Hunter and didn't find Iridonia mentioned once. I looked on Wookieepedia's history for the Darth Maul page and the only source it gives for his origin on Iridonia is the New Essential Guide to Characters. I suspect that if, for whatever reason, my search isn't working properly, or his homeworld is mentioned in Saboteur or something, it's done via Maul's thoughts. Which then makes it the domain of character fallibility. There seems to be an expectation that if a character says or thinks something that it is 100% incontrovertible fact, which I don't really get. But then maybe that's because these "essential guides" take that information and present it as such.

Asajj Ventress' backstory wasn't contradicted at all. The episode rather painstakingly included her existing backstory. Unless any sort of addition of information is to be considered a "contradiction."

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

I'm kind of curious what everyone's metric for "good storytelling" is? What, in the past four years of the Expanded Universe, is considered "good"? Obviously TCW isn't, but I'm curious if that's wholly a continuity issue, because I'm really hard pressed to think of a whole lot of other releases which have entertained me as much as TCW has the past few years.

Going back to my analogy and my belief that people would rather take what we're getting over Thrawn trilogy caliber writing that's non-continuity, I find it doubtful that fans could even get past the whole "continuity" thing to enjoy a story regardless of quality.

I think I should just post this picture when talking about continuity:

Dude looks pissed.

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

See, I don't understand how someone could find Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi entertaining and not find TCW entertaining.

And from the continuity perspective, LOTF completely butchers the NJO. We hear about how Maul's home planet is changed or Ventress' backstory is retconned, but if that's the case then what about Vergere? And Denning contradicts his own books when it suits his purposes, with Fate of the Jedi twisting details of Jaina and Jag's interactions in Dark Nest for absolutely no reason, save perhaps to create angst for their relationship in FOTJ.

The complete character derailment of Jacen is the one continuity issue that *I* have a problem with (don't even care about Vergere anymore), because rather than being a "continuity error" like Iridonia/Dathomir or minor character Even Piell's place of death, it's simply not continuity. You don't take a character and completely discard his characterization and assign him a new one to fit his role in the story and say that it's in the same universe as the prior story, because it isn't. This is something that's actually significant. If I read Apocalypse, where Even Piell died or where Darth Maul was born or Asajj Ventress was born isn't going to matter, but Jacen's derailed characterization is going to be felt, if only because of his absence, if not more due to the fact that the series was begun because of his actions.

Also the only book on that list I agree with is Stover's.

EUC Staff Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 1204 Location: Nirn

@Crash My mistake, it was in Saboteur. It says something like "He looked around the cantina, he was the only Iridonian there"
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Knight Joined: 07 Apr 2011 Posts: 211 Location: Ekkaia

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

This is like when Luke knew Vader killed his father.

TESB sucks for contradicting that.

Imagine if an Essential Guide was published in 1979 and then Lucas contradicted it in 1980 and the ensuing outrage.

But this is one of those situations where quality stories and continuity aren't mutually exclusive. Lucas wrote himself into a corner by having Vader kill Luke's father and he should have respected that and not done The Empire Strikes Back. I'm sure he could have done as good a movie without that component.

Master Joined: 21 Mar 2010 Posts: 813 Location: Maryland

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

Yeah, boo on Reaves!

I can understand thinking that bringing back Maul is dumb simply from the comic book logic standpoint but personally I don't have a problem with Star Wars having comic book logic. But then I like Dark Empire.

But I mean Darth Maul being from Iridonia is so inconsequential... and the argument that since it's inconsequential so Lucas should jettison the story, or the parts of it where Maul is from Dathomir *because* it's inconsequential is like... well, why not get rid of Vader being Luke's father then because the first movie already established that Vader *killed* Luke's father?

How's the situation any different? Maul *thinks* he's from Iridonia, so the Essential Guide decided that was factual and put it in. If an Essential Guide was published in 1979 it would have said that Vader killed Luke's father and present it as a fact.

That's why the Essential Guides are so dumb. Star Wars "continuity" is fluid and to publish these books of "facts" without narrative is a futile money-making gesture, because the "facts" are always going to be evolving with the stories, and if the facts are presented by FALLIBLE CHARACTERS rather than as facts outside of a narrative, it's justifiable for them to be wrong down the line. Kind of like Vader killing Luke's father. How about that?

And I just don't get the level of investment people have in these "facts." The reality of the situation is that it's a fictional universe and history has shown that the facts are going to be constantly evolving. Go back in time 15 years and the EU is extremely different. That's not going to change, it's going to be a lot different 15 years from now.

Edit: And I forgot:

Knight Joined: 07 Apr 2011 Posts: 211 Location: Ekkaia

Knight Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 434

I agree with Rogue: non Maul continuity debate should be moved to the continuity thread.

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