Lit Unpopular EU opinions

Ben Skywalker is turning out to be a really great character. He truly feels like the son of Luke Skywalker and is a joy to read.

While I have too many issues with LotF to truly defend it, FotJ was a great series. Very entertaining.

I don't care what The Clone Wars has done to canon, it's a great series, and what it has "replaced" was largely crap anyway.

I still think the NJO was one of the best things to ever happen to the Star Wars EU.

And despite how good the Legacy comic books may be, I think it's one of the worst things to happen to the EU. Legacy, and The Force Unleashed.

Millennium Falcon was a very entertaining book, and was exactly the sort of book I felt the EU needed/needs.

Because this book seems to be almost evenly divided between hate and love, I'll mention I fall on the 'love' end of the spectrum for The Clone Wars: Wild Space.

Only here because she still has so many fans: Karen Traviss is, far and away, the worst author to ever be credited to a Star Wars work. Thank you Karen for leaving our franchise. Never come back.

Films: I don't mind, and in fact enjoy, the majority of the changes made to the films, from the Special Editions to the blu-rays. Keep 'em coming! (My caveat is, if a change cannot be incorporated seamlessly into the original, it shouldn't be made. I don't give a damn who shot first in the cantina, but the fact that the edit to make Greedo shoot first looks so phony, I hate it.)

 

I don't hate Christie Golden.

 

Interesting to read this and see how people who post completely opposite "unpopular" opinions. Makes me wonder if perception works like that - that as soon as any but a small number of people disagree with you, your mind turns yourself into the poor, oppressed minority.

In particular - I know the dislike for the Mass Endings is pretty overwhelming on the internet, but I already starting to feel a bit isolated being the only person in this thread that dislikes them.

 

I think for me, at least, it's a measure of what I perceive to be intense opinions - not necessarily doing a sweep of "how many people hold these opinions," but "how loud are these opinions expressed?"

And don't worry, Merc! I hate the endings too!

 

Is this really that unpopular? I certainly haven't liked her SW books so far, but I actually think that she could write some very good novels; she certainly had a lot of good concepts. Of course, that's what drove me nuts about FotJ and LotF; all the authors involved were either people who had written really good SW novels in the past or, in the case of Golden, seemed like they had the capability to write very good SW books.

Instead, they wrote FotJ and LotF.

 

Will anyone cop to liking The Ruins of Dantooine novel? Or is that an unpopular bridge too far?

 

One of the previous posters already did, I think. I've never read it, so I have no opinion.

 

I liked it- it wasn't exactly gripping- but I didn't find it horrible either.

But then, I've never really found a SW novel I didn't like to at least a degree.

 

Shoot, must have missed it. Well, yeah, I read it. It's easily the worst EU novel I've ever read.

 

Well, there's the most unpopular opinion in the entire thread.

To be honest, though, I know I like even the ones I don't like, if you know what I mean. Half the fun of SW for me anymore is that when there's a bad instalment, I can just hop on here and bitch about it.

 

Dead to me.

 

It's probably unfair on some levels to judge Golden based on collaborative work like FotJ, but her issue wasn't dealing with bad story-telling necessitated by a larger overall picture at the whim of Denning, she just was bad. Typos and flat out, unchecked mistakes (where her editors were here, I don't know), bizarre characterizations that made her look unfamiliar with the characters she was writing. And as I understand it, there was an interview with her that put a lot of people off, where she said that her rough drafts sometimes end up being printed (do I have that right?). Over all, I think people tend to view her as sloppy and not very considerate of her best possible work reaching fans.

My very unpopular opinion is that I actually have no problems with the hated scene from Ascension with Ben and Vestara, where he finds her writing a message to her dead father.

 

You'll forgive me eventually.

Either that or we'll duel over a pit of lava and one of us will get left for dead, but frankly that sounds exhausting...

 

I think he means that Luke should just have remained single and childless. Though siring a bastard seems to be all the rage in the Star Wars galaxy, given how many Jedi seem to 'love 'em and leave em.'

 

Very true, that seems to be a likely explanation.

 

- I enjoyed FOTJ. Aside from a few rough spots I thought it was a solid series, and provided some immense potential for future books.
- I actually approved of the death of Kenth Hammer. I was never incredibly fond of the character, and felt it was being butchered even further so the best thing to do was to kill him. I also think the other Jedi get way to much hate over the death. The only one to blame for Kenth's death is himself, and the authors who wrote him that way.
- The only time I actually liked Anakin Solo was leading up to his death. In a way i was bumbed that a character I was finally starting to enjoy was now dead, but I has not the least bit heartbroken. It was actually a relief to me.
- I am not that crazy about any of the solo/skwalker children. Even the older ones still felt like teenagers to me. Jacen always struck me as way to bipolar. I don't mean that as a joke just a character element that became difficult for me to follow with.
- I enjoyed bringing The Ones into the literature. I think they are an interesting element that brings things back to the mystical side of Star Wars.
- I'm not a fan of the X-wing series. I don;t think they are poorly written, but they never got my interest.
- Knight Errant is possibly the most boring book I ever read. I realize I am probably going to regret saying that on here.
- As much as I am disappointed in Karen Traviss with her later work some of her early stuff was really good, and her crummy work does not change that for me.
- Star Wars Rebellion is perhaps the most underrated game in the Star Wars universe. I still play it.

 

I'm with you on KE - I couldn't get past the first chapter

And I agree about Traviss's early stuff - I still love it.

 

Jacen, and...?

Not being snide, I actually can't think of any others.

 

Etain.

I'm surprised Obi-Wan didn't, given how many love interests they've given him.

I think it's an extrapolation, given the "no love but no celibacy" thing Lucas said a decade ago. I personally wish Attack of the Clones had decided to figure some other way out to get cheap drama...

 

Speaking of KE, and JJM beyond that:

I think that Knight Errant (the comic) was decent at best.

I think that KOTOR: War was absolutely terrible, and lacked absolutely all of the charm and sense of adventure (not to mention consistent characterization) of the original KOTOR series.

And...I think of the original KOTOR comic series, while I still think it had a strong beginning, end, and 2/3 point, anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the total issues went from bland to bad. Especially during the stretch in the middle of the series when every story arc was named something like "Daze of Hayte" or "Knights of Dayz" and had deliberately terrible covers.

 

Soooo agree with you!

 

The Squibs and Juun and Tarfang are hilarious and great additions to the EU.

Legacy is overrated.

 

Many of the best parts of FotJ are Christie Golden's.

 

Traitor is a good novel, but highly overrated, and the "philosophical" parts are both overblown and inane. Vergere is an annoying and generally uninteresting character whose flatness is masked only by her lack of definition. I really don't give a kark whether she's a Sith or not.

I have serious reservations about the plot and events of Legacy.

There should be no Sith after Return of the Jedi. Come up with new villains if you want them.

The ideas behind LotF were actually quite good, if somewhat inappropriate for the setting.

Kotor II is a much better game than Kotor 1 (though admittedly I've only played II with the TSLRCM), and a true masterpiece of the EU.

I liked the Bantam days when nothing significant ever happened. I wish things would stop happening now. I don't like it when things happen in Star Wars books.

I really don't mind seeing the Big 3 continuing to have adventures into their '80s.

I love monstrously overpowered depictions of Luke.

I sincerely want Waru to come back.

 

You seem to be suggesting that the rest of us don't.