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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit The 181st Imperial Discussion Group: I, Jedi! Again! (5th Anniversary Special)

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Grey1, Apr 2, 2013.

  1. Grey1

    Grey1 Host: 181st Imperial Discussion Group star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2000
    I bid you Dark Greetings!

    And now for something completely different.

    And now: A knight who used to be a pilot who used to be a cop hits a discussion host on the head with a rubber chicken. And now:

    Hello and welcome everyone to another 181st Discussion. No, not just another one: Can you believe it? It's the fifth birthday of the 181st! [face_party]

    In those five years, we have discussed a lot of classic novels and anthologies (and recently even audio plays and comic books) that might not get as much attention anymore. But we didn't shy away from the huge, universally acclaimed or infamously controversial stuff - former 181st host Beccatoria ended her run with a look at the Thrawn trilogy, the books that started modern EU as we know it; and with that out of the way, I added Traitor and Hard Contact to the list, books that could have caused riots because most if not all people have strong opinions about those.

    This month, we'll go back not to where EU started, but to the place where the 181st started. That's right, we're going back to Michael Stackpole's I, Jedi. Have a piece of cake and jump right into the next installment of our little 2013 Exar Kun Memorial Reading Spree.

    - I, Five years ago: First of all, are there any veterans who'd like to join the discussion? Who'd like not to tell the simple story of "where and when I first read the book", but how they read the book five years ago for the very first discussion? And how they think their appreciation for the novel might have changed, for better or worse or simply different?

    - I, Me: Former host Beccatoria asked back then how the readers thought about the first person narrator thing, and it's too good a question to pass up here. Stroke of genius or gimmick? Does the narration hold up after all those years? Does it feel more out of place now that it's not just a new idea, but a drop in an ocean of regular third person narrations? Where do we even find first person attempts in SW literature these days?

    - I, Avatar: You can't separate first person narration from the character that presents it. Now, Corran always used to be a bit special as a character because he rose to prominence in a sideshow series - X-Wing - where the movie characters didn't upstage the author's creations, not even Wedge, who'd been a natural focus for a more movie-based book. There, Corran could live the dream. Having the impropable background of being a street cop who turned out to be, more or less, one of the 12 best starfighter pilots in the world, he even had a Jedi heritage, holy grail of every fan fiction and RPG character - and not unlike what happened to Dark Forces agent Kyle Katarn in his second video game. With Corran obviously being Stackpole's avatar (but let's not get into that time when he was asked to portray Corran for photos even if he didn't particularly look like him), is first person narration the obvious choice for this novel?

    - I, Jedi Academy: It could also be seen as an obvious choice because Stackpole is giving the reader his own interpretation of KJA's Jedi Academy trilogy. How do you feel about that, Corran not only put into the narrative that already exists, but also claiming a part of bigger importance than the actual JAT gives him (obviously because he wasn't invented back then)? We should also note how I, Jedi uses only part of his page time to deal with the JAT events, having an entirely different plot for the other half of the book. Does the balance work? And can a reader truly understand the alusions to JAT events if he hasn't read JAT?

    - I, Down to earth: I, Jedi not only uses its new approach to the JAT to take a more secular look at how the Force works, how the Jedi should work, how an academy should be run - it is conceived because of these very ideas. X-Wing really came from this more technical, military look at the SW galaxy; I, Jedi forces stuff that's obviously been written with a different perspective into the trusted mold of the decidedly non-fantasy X-Wing books. How does that work?

    - I, Lampshade: Which brings me to Corran's most controversial function... famously or infamously calling out Luke Skywalker, the JAT setup, the handling of Kyp, and in effect KJA's entire work on those books. Does it help EU to "rewrite" elder books like that? Or does it damage EU because stuff undesired by one creative team gets discredited, lampshading stuff that critics of those works disliked instead of embracing it and working it in?

    - I, Midlife: A huge part of the book is about Corran finding out stuff about how his life should work, and how several things he obviously disliked before are suddenly worth a 180 degree turn: Having children. Trusting his wingmate like a true friend. Listening to his father's last message. How do you feel about Corran's maturation curve, especially since becoming a Jedi would normally involve turning wiser than before?


    This is, of course, just a basic idea of what we could talk about; and don't feel obliged to tackle all topics at once. As for next month - please check our headquarters to help finalize our decision on that.
     
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  2. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    One with a pulley in the middle? :D


    The Clone Wars timeline make Corrans heritage a little hü if you look back. ;) Thats all, otherwise still a pretty fun read.

    I still think more novels should be written in First Person, as it simply enhances the unreliable narrator aspect that some author like to use anyway, plus it would force them to actually use more developed characters and ones they came up with themselves.
    Shatterpoint sort of had it with Mace pretty much narrating the story. There are also a few short stories that are close to using it.

    As I,Jedi is pretty much 3 stories in one, with Corran being pretty much the only constant it always struck me as the best way to tell the story. Though of course the question is if the single person narration was always intended, or that the story outline came first and Mister S just figured it would be easier to tell that way.

    It really just scrapes the full extent of JAT and uses it as a backdrop, though that might really be better for everyone as I always felt that Anderson had pretty awesome storyline ideas just utterly failed to execute them in his own writing.
    Usually I am against things like it and fell that authors should just role with it. If I really can’t stand it, just don’t mention it more than you have to. In I,Jedi though it does sort of work, because anything Corran offers is really just that, Corrans opinion on the whole thing. Ask Mara she would say something different, ask one of the other Jedi Students and they would also provide a different answer.
     
  3. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    After Hard Contact, Karen Traviss also got in the habit of using first person for the opening chapters of her books.

    Anyway, I happened to read this recently, and still enjoy it a lot. It probably should have been split into two books, though, since the Jedi Academy stuff is so disconnected from the Invid plotline. I think you can read this without reading JAT, but you feel like part of the story is missing. That's just the nature of a book written in the first-person, though. Is it a gimmick? I don't think so at all. It's just another form of storytelling, sorta like Mindor and it's ambiguous status as factual or not.

    And I guess I didn't realize it, but I guess yeah, this is a bit of a midlife crisis for Corran. He's unsure of his place in the galaxy, he's trying to get on his father-in-law's good side, and there's the issue of possibly starting a family with Mirax. But he really does grow a lot over the course of the novel and overcomes a lot of these issues, with help from Luke, Booster, Elegos, Rostek, and others.
     
  4. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    Terrible terrible book, saved by the interesting idea of a first person narrative (I winked rather than Corran winked), even if the reader still has to deal with the repetitive awful dialogue, the cardboard characters and badly written scenes.

    The plot is a weird mish mash of several plot threads that don't work or are pointless to the story. While even the ending is pretty much an insult and mess to the so called character development of what's gone on before.

    The first part of the book could also be pretty much be called plaguer-ism and a less than subtle attack on KJA. Now don't get me wrong, I think KJA's books are terrible and he is a hack, but Stackpole should not be spending part of his book (and the readers time and money) saying it, especially when he is just a big of a hack himself.
     
  5. Grey1

    Grey1 Host: 181st Imperial Discussion Group star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2000
    Just checking in and seeing that we've already got both extremes. Excellent. [face_party]
     
  6. Zeta1127

    Zeta1127 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I am currently in the middle of rereading I, Jedi, but its been months since I got to Corran leaving the Jedi Praxeum. I love I, Jedi, its one of my personal favorites after all, hence being part of my Bantam favorites rereading.

    How I ended up first reading I, Jedi was my brother getting it, possibly as a present, while I got Tales from the New Republic I don't even remember how many years ago. Both of those books ended up getting quite beat up, and we ended up loaning them to our cousin a few years ago, so when I started buying Star Wars books for myself last year (I had previously only read Star Wars books via the library, besides the film novelizations and a few others), I, Jedi, Tales from the New Republic, and Tales from the Empire (the last Bantam book I hadn't read) were among the first books I got.
     
  7. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    There are plenty of books that are worse than this one in the EU. But I'm not sure any of them have been as frustrating to me as I, Jedi. I mean, The Ruins of Dantooine? It was always going to suck, we always knew it was going to suck . . . AAAAAAANND then it sucked. I, Jedi, on the other hand, had an interesting premise, centered on an original character that I liked, with an interesting stylistic choice to boot. It could have been awesome. Instead it was "Corran Horn gives the longest TED Talk in the galaxy." Audience: EVERYONE. Subject: EVERYTHING.

    So, it's clear from the beginning that this is going to attempt to sort of rehabilitate the JAT. Fair enough; those books are awful. And Stackpole's books, to this point, have been uniformly great. But, faced with the task of essentially lampshading all the flaws in the JAT, Stackpole decides to take the easy way out and simply have Corran just flat out talk about all the flaws to the characters in the JAT. Think Wedge and Qwi were a bad match? No worries; Corran condescendingly treats Wedge like a child over it! Think Luke's Jedi Academy wasn't the best idea? No worries, Corran Horn, who has only realized that he has Jedi heritage for a couple of years, shouts at Luke, who is the most well-trained and educated Jedi in the entire galaxy, about it for like ten pages! Hate the fact that Luke was made so powerful in the JAT? No worries; Corran Horn, ex-fighter pilot, beats his ass to the ground. Weirded out by the way the students defeat Exar Kun? No worries; it turns out that the only reason they were able to do it is because Corran "weakened" him first, not unlike the way in which people desperately claim that they "loosened it for you" when someone else is able to open a jar they can't open.

    The problem with being so unsubtle about it? Well, it basically makes Corran incredibly annoying. He's always right and very proud of himself for being right. I was a fan of Corran up until this book. After this book, I really disliked him. He was nicely rehabilitated in the NJO, but for the first few appearances, I really had to struggle to tolerate him after the way Stackpole wrote him in this book. In this book, he is the personification of Harry Stu, parroting the author's opinions about the JAT, critiquing the previous plot choices, adjusting characterizations that Stackpole thinks are off base and . . . ALWAYS BEING RIGHT. I mean, he BEAT UP LUKE SKYWALKER. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!

    All this being the case, the stylistic innovation of the first person narrative turns out to not work at all, since we're stuck inside the skull of the most insufferable person in the entire GFFA. It's unpleasant enough to hear the self-righteous and arrogant words Corran speaks in this book; hearing his damned thoughts is like having my fingernails pulled out.

    Then there's the fact that the book basically tries to both retell the JAT and have an entirely new plot. As to the new plot, who remembers a damn thing about it? Who kidnapped Mirax anyway? For what? How does Corran rescue her? Beats the hell out of me. The second half of the book is less annoying than the first half, mainly because Stackpole doesn't have to be constantly beating up on all the other characters. Unfortunately, it's also totally uninteresting. At least the infuriating arrogance in the first half made it memorable. It's interesting. The two halves of the book are both disastrously awful, just for totally different reasons. You don't see that very often.

    I will admit that I really loved the sequence where Corran flies against Tycho; the way Stackpole writes about Tycho's skills is really great in that passage. I loved seeing someone with the Force have to throw props to someone without it. And Elegos is a moderately compelling character. Stackpole did a good job inventing him. Other than that, the entire book is a loss. God, I loathe it.
     
  8. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    @BEAT UP LUKE SKYWALKER
    I never got how people read it that way. It’s a tie. Corran managed to knock Luke to the ground. Luke force slaps Corran for it and then they talk.
    @ ALWAYS BEING RIGHT
    He isn’t really, large parts of the book are about him having to rethink and readjust because things are not working out how he thought they would. Alone his plan to rescue Mirax has to go through 4 revisions, because the 3 before don’t work out.
    @ It's unpleasant enough to hear the self-righteous and arrogant words Corran speaks in this book
    Funny enough, he really is no different here than he was in the X-Wing books. Corran always has been an arrogant jerk and people do keep calling him out on it, especially Mirax and Wesri
    @ Who kidnapped Mirax anyway? For what? How does Corran rescue her?
    Tavira, an Imperial Warlord turned Pirate and turns out to be one of the more competent and well developed Warlords of the whole EU. Mirax was helping the Republic hunt Tavira down, her forces captured her and kept her around for integration. Corran infiltrated the pirates and finds out where they keep his wife. ;) The Pirate part is actually way more interesting than of the Jedi stuff.
     
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  9. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    And Corran gets to marvel at Luke's amazing lightsaber skills in the latter part of the book- and realize just how good Luke really is.

    He also rethinks his "Letting Kyp be promoted to Jedi Knight was a huge mistake" stance- when it's pointed out that he really is, effectively, under a life sentence of hard labor.

    The "Good Jedi-Bad Jedi" interrogation scene, with Luke in the role of Bad Jedi- is also rather funny.
     
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  10. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    As someone who likes a lot of the ideas JAT throws around, I suppose I should despise this book, but I don't all that much. Although my copy is currently in the attic and this is going on recall of reading it about 15 years ago!

    Here's what I like best about it: For all his belief that is he is unfailingly correct about everything, Corran does come to understand why Luke is doing what he's doing in JAT and his hesitancy.

    It starts off as Corran, confident that his mundane experience of life without the Force has adequately prepared him for life with it. It hasn't, Luke tries to tell him this, that there's far greater dangers for him now and the retort that cops don't execute murderers isn't going to fly because those cops didn't have the dark side to deal with - greater power and responsibility opens you up to far greater dangers, especially when that power is mystical.

    So Luke practically applies the 'don't touch that - it's hot' warning and the method of letting a know-it-all and burn himself, hoping Corran doesn't get too badly singed. As it is, without Elegos, he may well have got himself well and truly chargrilled by the dark side. Yet it is the experience of nearly losing his soul to it that enables Corran to truly see his errors in thinking he knew what Luke was trying to convey. He recognises that Luke couldn't have conveyed the sheer horror of what the dark side nor what succumbing to it will do to a Jedi. He also realises that a military style training for Jedi isn't suitable, that he was using the wrong paradigm and relying too much on precedent. After his own experience, as an experienced law enforcement adult, he can more easily see how a battered 16-year-old teenager could be so easily ensnared by it

    For all people say Stackpole must hate Luke because he has Corran run roughshod over him - Stackpole's Luke could clearly smash Corran into the ground and further with ease. He doesn't, why? What would it achieve? Luke wants Corran as a Jedi, he doesn't want to lose him to the dark side, but he's already played high stakes poker with Sidious, Horn's easy in comparison. But also, there's the end scenes - where Corran gets ambushed and then Luke turns up and takes out about 3 of the 5 attackers with ease. Later when they assault the Jensaauri base, they duel the entire group, but Corran is on the leader, Luke? Pretty much decks everyone else!

    The other element I love is the description of the skills possessed by Wedge and Tycho. Now the attitude is if one has the Force and another person doesn't, the Force-user will always win, IJ rejects that premise. Yes, the Force gives advantage but if someone is skilled enough in a particular area that advantage may not count for much, if at all! And so it is with X-Wing skills. Tycho out-thinks Corran in just about every-respect.

    Where it is weakest is on the history of Exar Kun bit, as it's using information from the Illustrated Star Wars Universe by KJA, but written in 1996 after JAT! One of the notions I liked in JAT and TOTJ was the idea that Jedi Knights will fight the dark side for the course of their lives, therefore they cannot run from it. Thus it makes sense to teach on a planet that was strong in the dark side, Luke followed this path unknowingly in JAT. On a realistic level, the notion that a Sith spirit would be active 4 millennia later, is hard to credit too so no, I don't think history alone should have stopped Luke from setting up on Yavin. Easily one of Corran's weakest tirades, but then most of them are. They match and then exceed Luke's whinging to Yoda in ESB - Yoda just sits there clearly thinking: You'll learn better. For Luke that took the loss of a hand, he did manage to spare Corran that!
     
  11. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    That said, Stackpole's Luke, like KJA's Luke, does use the phrase "I went over to the dark side" now and again.

    Possibly in order to emphasise that "Even the foulest victim of the Dark Side can be redeemed".
     
  12. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Nothing in that statement says he did so voluntarily though! Luke, however, will castigate himself for going to Byss in the first place despite it being the best of a bad set of options.
     
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  13. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    "For a variety of reasons, some of which made sense at the time, and others of which still cause me difficulty" he continues. That's what he says when talking to the whole group (In I, Jedi).

    When talking to Kyp (in Dark Apprentice) it seems almost a challenge.

    "I went over- and I came back. It can be done, if you're strong and brave enough. Are you?"
     
  14. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Hmm, got a gift for understatement there: "difficulty" = being mindfrelled by the dark side of the Force on full fry setting.

    Hard to believe KJA even read DE given that sentence in DA!
     
  15. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    He probably only read a summary of it.

    His account of the activities of Palpatine's clone, and of Luke, during Dark Empire, in The Essential Character Guide - also takes a similar approach.
     
  16. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    I love that so many people really try to read into the scene about Corran taking Luke to the ground that Luke has some great purpose for "letting" Corran beat him down. Maybe the reason is the simplest: Stackpole thinks Corran could take him down and so he has him do it.

    Also, Corran wasn't this bad in the X-Wing books. He was constantly getting schooled in those books. Evir frigging Derricote nearly took him out in hand to hand combat and he had to get his ass saved by senior citizen Dodonna. He tried a Jedi Mind Trick and nearly got everyone shot because he wasn't good at it. He trusted Erisi Dlarit more than almost anyone and she turned out to be the mole. He got sent out to do some squadron business on Tatooine and nearly screwed the pooch for everybody because, even though he was a CorSec cop, he had no idea what Booster looked like. And, lest we forget, how many times did he come within a hair's breadth of actually dying in those books? To the degree he was actually thought dead, like three times, wasn't it? His arrogance was mostly confined to the area where he had a right to be arrogant: his piloting skills. In I, Jedi, he thinks he's an expert in everything: the Force, the Jedi teaching model, hand-to-hand combat, the criminal justice system, romantic relationships, etc. And was his life ever in danger?

    He's way more infallible in I, Jedi than he ever was in the X-Wing books.

    Also, as to Tavira being "one of the more competent and well developed Warlords of the whole EU," why don't I remember a damn thing about her then? What did she do exactly and in which books? Maybe I just haven't read them.
     
  17. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    I'm really enjoying both sides of the discussion here.

    I read about 125 pages before work this morning, I'm hoping to finish it by this weekend.
     
  18. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    When Kun is pounding on him, it's only the fact that Kun wants to gloat, and mentally torment, that stops him from simply killing Corran outright. As it is, Corran spends the next few days in a bacta tank.

    When the bombs go off in the warehouse, and Corran channels the energy to prevent it from killing him, Corran has never channelled that much energy before- had he made a mistake at that moment he'd have been fried.
     
  19. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    The counter-point is what would Luke beating the hell out of Corran actually prove?

    If SW was going to go for the style of the old martial arts films, where the martial arts master is a total bastard to the student then I can see a point to it, but without that direction?
     
  20. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    There is a third option available.
     
  21. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Which is?
     
  22. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    That the author was writing filler and a fight scene between himself and Luke Skywalker, probably seemed a good idea to him at the time
     
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  23. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I disagree with the idea that Corran is presented as infallible, and in fact I'll defend I, Jedi as prime, crackling entertainment and a more thoughtful book than we usually get.

    There are a couple issues. One is that Stackpole tends to be an analytical sort of writer. He thinks a lot about what a relationship says about a character, how that person's family background influences their behavior, what emotional place or unexamined bias their reaction is coming from, how their interactions are shaped by their personalities and how their personalities are shaped by their pasts. It makes for absorbing characters when that analysis comes out, but it also makes for a slightly clumsy narrative voice as Stackpole gets this information out to the reader via similarly self-aware and psychologically examining characters. This happens with all his main characters, but it's most obvious with Corran. The result is that Corran is a person who is supremely self-aware, someone who's able to analyze his own behavior and realize where he's going wrong. That, I think, creates a false impression about his perfection -- because Corran is diagnosing his own flaws, it disguises the fact that he has a lot of flaws, and he's not necessarily as good at fixing them as he is at diagnosing them. Stackpole at least has the craftsmanship to make sure that his characters aren't always examining themselves, and they're sometimes getting called out by other people. That means that sometimes Corran is getting called out by others, but also sometimes he's calling others out. The fact that Corran is narrating I, Jedi and we don't get any other POVs means that Corran is forced to shoulder most of the calling out. Honestly, I don't have much of a problem with it.

    Maybe I'm just sympathetic as someone who is myself pretty self-aware of my flaws and less good at fixing them, but I just don't find Corran that obnoxious. Yeah, he's self-righteous. Stackpole is aware of that; it's a feature, not a bug. Corran goes around being self-righteous. He calls out Luke when, hey, guess what, Luke is making serious mistakes or at least acting in a way that should cause a lot of perceptive readers to intensely question the wisdom of what he's doing. Stackpole has Corran point that out, not as some kind of didactic showing-up but as a stand-in for the frustration the reader might have with Luke. Noteworthily, he also has Mara call out Luke, because it's not just about Corran somehow being always right -- it's about reflecting the fact that Luke's leadership in the JAT doesn't appear that wise. And Corran leaves, because his dissatisfaction with Luke's methods is necessary to advancing the plot and getting him out of the Praxeum and into the pirate plotline. And then he needs Luke's help to finally save Mirax, and by the end he's resoundingly impressed with Luke's abilities and realizes that maybe he was shortsighted in disagreeing with Luke, and that even if he still might not agree with everything, Luke is a lot wiser than he thought, and there are considerations that he wasn't taking into account but Luke was. That's not authorial arrogance, that's a complex, self-righteous character combined with POV. Corran isn't always right. He has to get called out himself by both Luke and Elegos, and I think Mara has some words for him as well.

    He thinks he's a badass, he thinks he's got Kun figured out and is a step ahead of him, and he goes to take on Exar Kun, and he gets his ass thoroughly and completely kicked and barely gets saved by Mara. The point of that scene isn't, "Oh, I weakened him for you (he's just the distraction while the others get the trap ready and bait to draw him into the trap; he tries to weaken Kun in the process, but fails miserably)," it's, "Corran's arrogance gets him in way over his head and he's lucky to come out of it alive." I don't really see how you can read a scene where the lead character is reduced to sobbing desperately at a transparently fake daddy-issues illusion cast by the villain (and to which Mara walks in, saves the lead, and effectively says, "Oh my god this is soooooo pathetic") as an ode to how awesome he is.

    Does Corran talk down Wedge's relationship? Yeah. But Corran has been very close friends with Wedge for years, and is invested in what seems to be a budding relationship between Wedge and his longest-serving best friend, Iella. In that context, he speaks up to say, "Just as a friend, I want to tell you to make sure you're not making a mistake here." Is it out of line? Quite possibly. Is it way out of line? Not really, for the situation. Maybe it's a mistake, but it's the kind of mistake friends make, and yeah, it comes out of Corran's somewhat pompous desire to make sure his friend gets his friendly advice, but Corran is meant to be a flawed, slightly pompous character. I just don't see my way to holding it against the character or the book.

    This isn't "Corran Horn Is Always Right: A Novel of the Jedi Praxeum." It's "Corran Horn Is a Flawed Human Being Who Tends to Think He's Always Right, as Humans Do, and Then He Keeps Getting His Comeuppance Throughout the Second Half of the Story Until He Recognizes That Actually He Wasn't That Right: A Novel of Jedi Maturation."
     
  24. fett 4

    fett 4 Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 2, 2000
    That whole argument of inner flaws and hidden undercurrents by the author seems completely negated by the ending, with Horn deciding to stay a fighter pilot rather than a Jedi because he can help more people o_O
    It was such a BS reason by Stackpole for his character just so he can always be right it shouldn't need to be explained.

    I would not read to much into the Mara thing, he and Zahn are good friends and so there was always gonna be a scene of how uber cool Mara is
     
  25. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004
    They just have a sparring match, Luke has been surprised before by people that use unusual tactics, that’s precisely why they train and it’s not like Corran dominates the battle.

    From memory - Exar Kun is close to mind crushing him on the spot, only that Exar is rather busy elsewhere is what saves him from that fate. The Pirates narrowly kill him 3 times, the first time precisely because Corran is just being an arrogant jerk again. He only avoids getting shoot down over Xa Fel because he can force cheat and Luke has to save him from getting slaughtered by the Jensaarai.

    That’s because it’s all written from his perspective and just makes it seem that way. Havac points out pretty much the rest of it. ^^

    She already showed up in the X-Wing comics and is carried over from that, plus she is insanely more competent and developed than a whole swath of others that show up. Daala has a whole bloody fleet and is less of a problem to the Republic than Taviras raids. Whilst Drommel, Harrsk, Teradoc, Yun etc. are little more than passing references. Sure this is more do to other warlords really just kind of being there rather than developed but it still gives Tavira one of the more expansive backgrounds and track records.