Lit The Yuuzhan Vong

I echo the 'interesting and dearing' opinion, though 'interesting' varied a lot, depending on the author. They were alien enough to create that doomsday feeling that carried the start of NJO and I think Greg Keys' Vua Rapuung was nothing less than brilliant - but I admit that when we came to Zonama Sekot & the end of NJO I was fed up and started to long dearly for villains and stuff that was easier to relate to. After all I read SW in my sparetime and for the easy kick, if it gets too complicated I can as well stay in RL, it's not that it couldn't demand my attention 24/7

[QUOTEAusStig]I HATED the YV, mostly cause they were different. [/QUOTE]
Yeah... differences work both ways - they fascinate and they made the Vong great villains but they also made the story hard to grasp, not least with the alien tehcnology. I've noticed that you see comparatively few fanfics with the Vong, probably because you need to be a pro and have experts available to deal with all that stuff.

 

I think one of the other things that was interesting about them was the conundrum they posed to the Jedi. Things like them being voids in the Force and their use of melee weaponry meant that they were a good challenge to Jedi. And then there was the whole philosophical side of things. If the Force was part of everything, then what do you do if something was not part of the Force? Not saying the NJO should not have fought them but the philosophical side of things were interesting to say the least. And ultimately the explanation as to why they were blanks in the Force was a good one.

 

I found the philosophical elements weak at best, but a large part of the reason is that I saw it as unlikely that Luke wouldn't have instructed his students in basic practical moral reasoning. Thus:

Vong are a void in the Force but are invading and killing many NR citizens. Is the dark side permitted against those not in the Force? No, far too dangerous. Can the Jedi fight them? Yes, but with care as the Vong have strength of numbers.

What's to argue about? Had it taken it a step further and brought in the element of finite resources and the Jedi having to choose to aid one out of many deserving targets, with Jedi disagreeing over who to help - that would have ben far m ore plausible to me. Instead we have Kyp being deemed rogue because he wishes to fight the Vong and Luke sitting on his arse for 2 months contemplating the Force-void element. Huh?

Should have added before though that I liked their use in Legacy, as that was the sole story done 2005 that acted like the Vong invasion happened! Plus that the Jedi would back the Vong's atonement offering of the Ossus Project felt right.

 

I feel like everyone forgets what great things Greg Keyes did with Nen Yim.

 

Nen Yim was an amazing character as well. I loved her arc. Mezhan Kwaad was an interesting character as well

 

She was but nothing beat those scenes between Nen Yim and Kae Kwaad. Freaky freaky stuff. It wasn't Star Wars at all but it was great.

 

My only issue with the the Vong storyline is that I got kind of burned out on the whole gore and pain thing. It seemed like some of the books kept trying to out do previous descriptions of the horror that they inflicted on each other, and I just didn't care anymore.

I think if the NJO series was half as long, it would have been much more shocking and impressive, but after a while I felt like "Yeah yeah, they love pain, tell me something I don't know."

 

I concur with the Nen Yim thing. Changing from a simple apprentice to a black ops scientist to head of her caste and discovering a partial origin of her people... thats amazing. I felt really sorry for how she ended.

 

That is indeed incredible about Nen Yim. I wish she had lived.

Plus I want a story set on Zonama Sekot set after the NJO. Also a series about the history of the Vong before the NJO would be great as well.

 

love the njo, loved the vong. unlike the sith, they were creative, interesting enemies

 

The NJO is a long series. I read the main books and the short stories last summer and it took me two months. A couple times I almost burnt myself out but held on. It's an interesting experience reading everything.

 

yep. it is a better read, reading them close togather without waiting 3 months for the next book.

 

I hated the Vong at first because it made no sense to not be part of the Force. We were taught that the Force is made up of all living things, even rocks were part of the Force. Now these creatures come and are not sensed in the Force? But I got used to it and began to enjoy the series. The least enjoyable books were those starring Han in his less than appealing funk over Chewie's death. And I agree with the poster who said they went overboard with the gore.

 

It didn't bother me that the Vong were outside the Force. It changed things up. I thought it was so because they were from a different galaxy. Don't ask me why I thought that. I just did.
I liked the Agents of Chaos duology by James Luceno. Reminded me of Han's smuggler days in the Han Solo Trilogy and Adventures. Han needed to be affected (right one?) by Chewie's death and I liked it.

 

I guess I'll have to be the dissenting vote.

Couldn't and still cannot stand the Vong. Very, very not-Star-Wars-y to me.

 

thats why i loved it. The amount of creativity. to come up with such a complex, interesting species. very cool.

 

Eh, the problem, for me at least, is that the focus on gore and pain, both emotional and physical, has never really gone away since the Vong brought it to the fore. Now we have Star Wars horror/gore novels, we have Troy Denning writing Saba walking around with an exposed brain and Caedus disemboweling Jaina, things like that.

It hasn't stopped just because the Yuuzhan Vong War is over.

I really dislike that this brutal, grimdark element has been added to Star Wars. If that had been there in A New Hope, Leia would have spent the rest of the film after Alderaan's destruction as a gibbering, broken wreck, instead of picking up and moving on because it was necessary.

 

I have to agree with dewback_rancher about the state of the books after the NJO. Too much gore and pain, physical and emotional. Tone it down a lot. Okay the whole are they going to die element can stay. I like that from NJO but the how much horror and hell can they go through and keep going with nothing going wrong is getting tiresome.

 

It does seem that post-NJO Force-healing / regenerative ability has gone up greatly?

 

I enjoyed them. it was a decent threat against the Jedi that did not consist of another long lost or secret group of sith rising up. I think they could have done some things better. They dragged out what little history we have of the Vong for far to long. I think they would have been more welcome to the community if the story as a whole did not take so long to tell.

I appreciated the creators for doing something different though. I am always supportive of trying new things even if it may not go as well as desired. Trying something new takes guts with picky fans which is what the world consists of for any kind of entertainment.

 

THIS!

 

Or as Jaden Korr....

 

it is said that Kyle Katarn was going to die in SBS, but Lucas Arts asked to not to kill him...
it was supossed to be a JKIV, situated in the NJO era, im still waiting for that game.

 

LA is far too protective of their characters, to the point that they seriously need to suck it up and let someone else give us the conclusions we deserve.