Lit Join Me and Achieve Perfection: A Reread of The Glove of Darth Vader

What, I don't even get credit?

 

I need details! Ackbar at a party?

--Adm. Nick

 

Zorrixor You've never read them? My mission has become all the more vital. I have absolutely no problem doing more work, especially for such a worthy cause. Just don't want it to turn into a wall of text that dilutes the message.

Grey1 I'll send you some zoochberries. Your discussion thread did indeed have a hand in making me want to do this (I've wanted to do something like this for awhile, but I always planned on doing it with the NJO... but I decided this would be more manageable and oh so much more fun.)

AdmiralNick22 Yep, the whole gang shows up for Han's SkyHousewarming party. I can't give out details, mostly because I don't remember them, but I remember very clearly that Han does the "space pirate boogie". I don't remember if Ackbar joins in, but for our purposes we'll say he did. I do know for a fact that Ackbar is considered a bit long winded, as he spends a part of the party telling the guests of his many exploits and spreading whaladon awareness.

 

The longer the better I say. I haven't read these either and it's great to see the famous aphorisms in context. So please quote at least those.

Your mission is of the utmost importance. Like the mission Princess Leia gave to Artoo on Tantive IV, the fourth Tantive ship, above Tatooine, when evil Darth Vader tried to get the Death Star plans.

 

I also like the strategic use of the phrase "heir to the Empire". Nice one, Davids.

Yet strangely enough JAT briefly mentions the events of GODV in the Kessel section. Zorba also gets namechecked in the Dark Empire endnotes. Interesting example of very early continuity policy at work.

So Imperial Guards under Trioculus resemble a combination of Magneto and Cyclops...

Actually, the Cyclops part makes sense, given Trioculus's belief in the power of eyes. If Carnor Jax had born of the shame of only having one eye, he never would have been able to usurp Palpatine, even if Palps only has a measly two himself.

 

Specifics? I've not read GoDV in a while, but I'm not sure what the Jedi Search reference to it, was.

 

It's not much. From what I remember, Kessendra is mentioned, as is a meeting of slavers and Imperials held there years earlier (which I took to mean the gathering where T. is proclaimed emperor).

 

Zorba the Hutt also shows up / gets mentioned in a surpising large number of places.

 

Ackbar, naval hero and whale conservationalist. I might need to pick this puppy up!

--Adm. Nick

 

You really should read GODV, Nick. There's actually a lot of Ackbar stuff throughout the series.

 

Okay, that opening scroll did it. Now I'm reading it. The whole thing.

nitpicking here, but...

 

Well if you are a little flexible you could interpret the cave vision as a hint…
though if we are already nitpicking Obi-Wan was the one that told him he had a twin sister.

 

Catching up...

Actually I'm pretty sure Artoo reacted to this prophecy in the only reasonable way. I mean, listen to that statement in your head -- it is obviously the Astromech equivalent of "what a karking load of blah is that?"
Because this text has layers, people. If you read between the lines, you can see Threepio's anguish at his small companion's rudeness, his circuits whirring as he tries to come up with a "translation" that both fits the context, covers up Artoo's fauxpas, and is appropriate for the audience of this book (because if anyone can see beyond the fourth wall, it's See-Threepio)... as well as Luke's newfound Jedi calm as he professionally ignore's Artoos jibe and goes along with Threepio's white lie (because we know that unlike the others, he understands R2)...

That is the real strength of this book -- the subtlety.

 

With pop-cultural references: "Look what you made me do!"

I love it! It sounds like he's cursing like a pirate all the time:

Seriously, Huttese has nothing on this in obscenity

 

You should really be censoring all these lines of R2's dialogue... this forum has profanity rules, remember, and kids don't need to read the... filth that comes out of that droid's vocabulator.

It's no wonder later authors decided not to write out R2's dialogue in full... they probably received complaints from parents.

Edit: Oh, and Dark Greetings!

 

"Meanwhile, Admiral Ackbar, the sad -eyed Calamarian fishman, stood in front of the band and talked on and on about the military strategy that helped win the Battle of endor for the Rebel Alliance, But nobody was paying much attention to Admiral Ackbar---especially when Han began to open his housewarming gifts."

"As everyone got swept up in the excitement of the party again, Admiral Ackbar tried to snare ken. He thought Ken would be a good audience of how the Rebel Alliance blew up the Empire's Death Stars. But Ken tricked Threepio and Artoo-Detoo into keeping Ackbar company..."

 

.....Wow. I totally forgot that happened.

 

You gotta love how every Calamari[an] is treated as if they have this permanent 'sad-eyed' expression fixed on their face [mask]... all those Dark Greetings (or the lack thereof) must be getting to them, the poor little fishies.

Clearly, we should all thank GODV for providing an explanation for Ackbar's expression being the same in every film sourcebook photo or card game depiction for the past thirty years. GODV foresaw this and took steps to retcon it even before it had happened!

How many prophetic acts of pure brilliance can one book do!!

 

You all see the lesson in this, don't you? Had Ken spent time listening to Ackbar instead of dancing the space pirate boogie and drinking zoochberry juice, he would of not fallen into EU canon purgatory and would of risen to become Supreme Commander of the Defense Force. Such a shame to see youth squandered.

--Adm. Nick

 

Between being a bore at parties...and destroying a cathedral on a diplomatic visit...and just letting himself into Chez Solo without knocking and scant regard for privacy...have we all been missing a core element of Ackbar's chararacter? Namely, that he is a rubbish guest?

 

Oh dear. As the good admiral himself might say, the tides of this thread have certainly taken an interesting turn. Perhaps GoDV provides us with an opportunity to delve deeper into Ackbar's persona.

 

Very glad to see this thread doesn't just die between updates, as was my greatest fear about doing this. Equally glad to see others bringing their own personal interpretations to the text; this truly is a story that speaks on different levels to different people. Maybe to you it's an affirmation that one should be proud of their heritage. Maybe it inspires you to follow your dreams, like Han does. All those wasted years of smuggling and fighting for the Rebellion, when all he really wanted was a nice Skyhouse.

Thanks for the extra examples . I try to quote R2 as much as possible, even if I should probably add an obscenity warning.

YOU'RE SPOILING IT FOR HIM!!!

Personally, I don't see why Ken couldn't have listened while sipping a refreshing glass of zoochberry juice.

 

Maybe he didn't want to run the risk of loosing his appetite what with Ackbar's obsessive use of fishy marine expressions all the time...

.....

oh noez this book is making me hate on the fish too!

 

That's not surprising. They say that the Glove is the truest expression of pure evil that's ever existed. It taints all that's good and righteous until it is unrecognizable.

I'd just like to say that I'm surprised how little comments Trioculus' origin has gotten. I mean, that stuff is gold. Twisted into evil from bullying, ruling the playgrounds through fear that he'll tell on you... has a super villain ever had a more sympathetic yet ruthless background? It's clear from the beginning that Trioculus was born in the darkness. It's a wonder he still has a heart after going through what he did.