Lit Why no Novels from an Imperial viewpoint? (Spoilers)

Well that's a matter of preference really. I mean I'd also like to see some rebel stories showing a rebel resistance movement in action for example.

Well yes it is and Star Wars would need to adapt it to fit and shouldn't just copy/paste mindlessly (I haven't read any of the two zombie books and frankly I don't think Star Wars and zombie works well). But for that you have to try and experiment (granted something Del Rey doesn't seem interested in doing). An anthology would be a great place for these kinds of stories, so you can see what worked and what didn't. It would also be a good starting point for new authors to try their hand. Black Library does this all the time with it's anthologies, seeing which author can deliver what they're looking for and then giving him a novel or two of his own.

 

Unfortunately, DR doesn't seem to like anthologies - Lost Tribe omnibus to the contrary - pity really, as the Tales collections tend to be well-regarded.

As to rebel resistance movements, if you mean something that tries to consider it in harsher or more realistic terms, I don't think it'll happen - the nearest SW got was Rebel Dawn and my suspicion has always been Mothma gave Tharen's band of lunatics a suicide mission to get rid of them, as they were a liability.

Only read Death Troopers, which was a fun read - one thing that book really succeeded on is showing the sheer size of a Star Destroyer!

 

Amusingly enough TCW is doing a resistance movement story arc now. Sadly that's plagued with TCWs usual brand of stupid (seriously how more useless can those battle droids get?). A shame about the anthologies, I never got why DR doesn't like them (granted IG-88 taking over the DS2 was way to silly but still).

 

Weren't most of the anthologies original short stories published in gaming journals and such? I know the Insider has short fiction, but I don't know if they've ever considered anthologizing it.

 

Yes that would... actually should be something to explore and play with. Instead we get a love triangle sub plot. Where's that Stromtrooper firing squad when you need it?

 

Doesn't Allegiance count? The Hand of Judgement aren't pro-rebel, just anti-ISB!

 

Everyone is Anti-ISB even parts of the ISB.

 

It certainly doesn't have much to do with sympathizing with characters for me, though one could sympathize with some of those characters for sure. A character doesn't have to have a quality I sympathize with.

For instance I enjoy Grand Moff Tarkin in A New Hope but I don't think I really sympathize with his character. There is entertainment value in him being a monster, just like I thought there was entertainment value in Bane being a monster. I suspect its the same approach that horror creators want to get from characters like Freddy Krueger or Jason Vorhees.

That said an Imperial POV would need not be that extreme.

 

And that's the problem right there - you can certainly find excellent accounts that tell you why people have acted as they have in real life situations like Israel-Palestine, N. Ireland and Afghanistan but, no matter how well done it is, blowing people up with covert bombs is never going to sell well! Or inflicting collective punishment for the acts of a lunatic or unhinged individual who went suicide-bombing. Or asking a kid to roll a bomb-packed trolley into a marketplace and then remotely detonating it, killing said kid in the process.

Yeah, but let's honest, Peter Cushing can make anyone charming, even a total bastard like Tarkin. Christopher Lee does the same for Dooku.

 

Can't beat the old Hammer pairing for Dracula!

 

If you treat every bit of evidence as "Rebel propaganda" then of course Star Wars has "yet to prove that the leader is a tyrant"

Still, dissolving the Senate seems like the sort of thing Charles I, or Tarquinius Superbus, did- and they tend to be regarded as tyrants.

Machiavelli certainly regarded Tarquin as a tyrant for taking power away from the Senate and to himself- arguing as such in The Discourses.

 

Jason isn't a bad example. I have a friend who is a horror movie buff, and despises Jason and almost all slasher movies: he finds the idea of serialized horror to be pretty much everything that's wrong with the genre: in particular, they make the villain someone to root for. I can't say I disagree. But even so, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that people go to those slashers to root for the villain, someone who's designed to unsympathetic. People just like to see him kill things, despite the formulaic approach to it. Horror in name only, sure, but these slasher creators seemed to have thrown the idea of relating to the victims out the window years ago.

So yeah, I definitely agree you don't need to like, sympathize with, or relate to a protagonist. Bryan Cranston, on his role in Breaking Bad, said something along the lines how he gets asked all the time how they're supposed to like his character, and he always responds, "who said you have to like him?". Whether a character is just somewhat amoral or a mustache twirling villain, it can be fun to follow a villain you don't sympathize or agree with just for the pleasure of watching him or her.

 

Haven't seen the later seasons of TCW- I thought you were talking about the movies having "yet to show that the leader (Palpatine) is a tyrant".

Tarkin certainly uses the phrase "dissolved" for the Senate- what's the evidence that says it wasn't?