Lit A question on Karen Traviss and her work(s)

I'd prefer it gets retconned to him thinking he's sane

 

Yes, I am referring to the Maul nonsense.

 

Traviss specifically has him joking with Gilamar about the "voices in my head" gag, but Esg has a pretty good solution to that. Heck, he had to be able to appear sane, otherwise (mostly) no one would have followed him into battle, nor would he have been able to achieve enough military success to have been noticed/survived long enough to get ambushed at Norval II.

 

That's better, actually.

I'm sure I'm overlooking important details, but I wouldn't have a problem with Spar being the immediate precursor to Pre Vizsla.

 

Well no matter what, Abel's narrative isn't going to survive 100%- or even 60%- intact, so we could very well see that retcon happening. That being said, I prefer to see Spar as the impetus for the slow resurrection of Mandalorian culture post-Viszla/Satine.

 

I like it, actually. After all the crap the Mandalorians go through in TCW, it's the job of Spar and Fenn Shysa to put it all back together.

 

That really is the only potential positive to TCW Mandalore...

 

It would also explain where Spar got those "former Death Watch" personnel from, since Traviss's version of Mandalore (the planet) is now virtually non-canon and I always got the impression that Jango hunted down the Death Watch to the last man.

EDIT: As a bonus, here is the original panel from Star Wars 68: The Search Begins where Shysa began this madness. I really, really need to get around to reading the whole Marvel run.

 

Marvel run is highly recommended. Some dud issues, of course, but really interesting for the most part, especially given the time frame. Of course, I'm of the opinion that the Nagai war was cut tragically short.

 

According to the Marvel panel at Celebration, LFL hamstrung them anyways - they refused to let them do anything to advance the stories post-Endor.

 

Really? That's quite the revelation. Did they give any particular reason why LFL did so? Wasn't there that planned hasbro-based sequel with Atha Prime or whatever his name is?

 

I'm gonna backtrack to the "riding roughshod over canon" subject for a moment, as I feel that what I wanna say could be good advice to anyone who is looking to break into the publishing industry with any license...

I was reading Writing Comics and Graphic Novels with Peter David, particularly the portion on breaking into the industry. One of the things that editors and publishers look for with writers (and artists) is how well you handle their characters. This is the same argument I use to support my filling my portfolio with fan art; simply put, you're going in to write or draw that publisher's characters and they want to see how well you can do that, so thus, you cater to them with samples of how you handle their characters.

Now, when you go in with a twelve-issue maxiseries that eliminates all the existing characters and repopulate the universe with your own just because you think your take is better... You're not about to make friends in the industry that way.

When you do contract work for a publisher, you are the caretaker of these characters. They will go to another writer later. Sure, add your own twists and little traits to them. Go ahead. But don't change the core of the characters themselves. You are rearranging the living room, not demolishing the house.

This is advice that beginners get before making the foray into the publishing realm, and it is sound and reasonable advice. I follow it closely. I know what publishers want to see in my portfolio, so I cater to them. I cater to my audience. It saddens me that Traviss was absent that day when such things were discussed.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

Apparently they didn't want anything that would potentially conflict with any future plans - so no Luke recreating the Jedi Order, no Han and Leia moving forward, etc.

 

How many authors do the majority of fans think get Luke right? How many authors got Jacen Solo right? How many authors get Jaina right?

Mostly I just read non stop complaints about pretty much every prominate character in the Star Wars Universe which makes me think that your comment could be aimed at most Star Wars authors.

 

Oh, I'm not saying that they get the characters "right." Believe me, I've read plenty of comics where the characterization changes month to month. However, most authors don't, for example, make Spider-man kill his villains with a gun. Most of the time, the core of the characterization is still more or less intact, even if the surface traits seem a bit off.

I'm referring mostly to having plenty of prior material available to peruse, yet outright ignoring it. Even with plenty of references, authors will never get the characters "right." But, most try to get close.

 

You need to talk to some Jacen Solo fans

 

That's more of the entirety of Del Rays fault trying to whitewah Traitor only to go through the retcon revolving door

 

Agree on retcon revolving door, disagree on whitewashing Traitor. For some of us, Betrayal and his fall was the only logical outcome of Traitor (or, really, Vector Prime or Balance Point...)...

 

And that explains why some characterization is highly subjective as well. Different people are often looking for different things.

 

Exactly. Writers have this habit of inserting a bit of themselves into the characters that they write. Even if it's subconsciously. A common axiom for writers is "write what you know," and what else do you know better than yourself?

It's fine to insert a small aspect of yourself into characters. In many cases, it serves to help round out the characters and even add insight to more annoying aspects of their personality. Peter David, for example, inserted his impatience into Quicksilver's personality, and it served to explain away years of the character being angry at the world for no darn reason. The character you're writing has an irritating trait? Do you share that irritating trait? Put yourself in that character's shoes and explain why this trait exists. You'd be surprised how many people emphasize with you.

 

Actually, recent events in the show strike me as a great set up to bring back Spar and Shysa - Satine is dead, Death Watch has wrecked itself in a civil war, and the cities looked pretty messed up as well.

The new provisional government recognizes it can't stick to Satine's ideals, but they want nothing to do with the Death Watch ideology that wrecked their planet. So they turn to what is left of the New Mandolorian Police and Palace Guard to form the basis of a new Mandolorian military, built on the code of Jango Fett - and thus the Protectors are born!

It actually works pretty well, better than my old theories anyway.

Plus, I was always curious why the Protectors and the Death Watch would both be on the CIS side if they hated each other, but with the Death Watch as part of Maul's faction and Satine with the republic, it would make sense for the Protectors to turn to the CIS.

 

I never expected them to turn Jacen Solo into Darth Vader II, not after he became the hero of NJO. I seriously believe LFL and/or Del Rey wanted to bury Traitor as soon as possible.

 

I really can't see Traitor factoring into the equation, to be honest. I don't think anyone was specifically engineering a way to negate another work. I imagine it was nothing more than a combination of wanting to capitalize on the prequels popularity (having the Vader's ancestor turn to the dark side is an all too obvious move, in that regard), and someone saying, "hey, wouldn't it be cool if Jacen turned to the dark side, and then had Jaina fight him? Practically writes itself!"

Of course, that's probably the saddest part of all..

 

I'd hazard that Jacen Vader was an editorial mandate.

 

If they really wanted me to accept Jacen turning to the dark side, there should have been a similar book to Traitor that proved the philosophy was the road to the dark side, instead of rehashing Anakin by trying to prevent yet another vision about a loved one. I see it as betrayal of Traitor, because having Jacen fall immediately says the philosophy is flawed, without actually saying the philosophy is flawed. Having the Solo twins fight was the most cliched idea they could have possible come up with, besides rehashing Anakin.