Lit Pet Characters

I don't think Keyes has any pet characters. None that I remember. If he did, Anakin would qualify better than Tahiri.

I think he treats Tahiri with a reasonable balance.

 

I don't know if i'd call her his pet character, though he has written about her a lot. If she was classified as one for him however you know what? As one of the few writers to do not good, but excellent work with the character i'd call it a good example of one. He destroyed her, put her through hell, made it so that she had trouble even knowing who she was, but she came out better for it and it was one of the most interesting characters arcs of the entire NJO. It's a real shame he hasn't written any of her appearances since, because no one else seems to get her.

EDIT: Just noticed i'm apparently a Jedi Grand Master now. Sweet.

 

One of the best aspects of the NJO was that a few of the lesser Jedi got significant roles. Even though Corran is totally a central character in Dark Tide just because Stackpole wrote the book, it is still awesome to get Corran as a central character. Just like it was cool to see Kyp in such a large role early on. It made it feel like someone outside of the Skysolo's were doing something important.

 

I'd probably consider Tahiri Keyes' signature character, as she appears in all three of his EU novels in a major role and, IMO, he writes her better than anyone. But I agree that I wouldn't call her his pet character; Tahiri is never portrayed as being disproportionately powerful or skilled in Keyes' books (in fact, she's fairly scornful of the very idea of her being any kind of "super-Jedi" thanks to her shaping in TFP), and while her experience with the Vong would kick off a character arc that would continue throughout her NJO appearances, the main practical advantage it brought was that she understood the Vong as one of their own, not through the acquisition of any kind of super-special-awesome powers. I also can't recall Keyes ever having anyone else go out of their way to talk up Tahiri's awesome, either. I think she was just a character he liked to write, not a character he wanted to push as the best.

Honestly, if Keyes had a "pet character" I'd say it was Nen Yim, rather than Tahiri, since she holds down her own subplot in all three of his works, and though she shows up in smaller roles in Enemy Lines and Destiny's Way, Keyes was the one who introduced her, handled the bulk of her arc, and finally killed her off. Even that is stretching it, though (especially the whole "killed her off" part- I can't see Denning killing Saba, or Traviss killing Fett, for example).

 

I can see Zahn killing Thrawn off though

 

Callista Ming in the Children of the Jedi: Her survival upset what could have been a great story. I thought that the plot twist would have been Cray sacrificing herself for Nichos survival on the escape pod. This would have been so ironic and tragic considering how Luke pined after Cray and belittled Nichos' existence the whole time. As Nichos would try to cope with his existence without Cray and honor her memory, Luke would be in a similar grieving state for Callista, so the story would have a bittersweet ending.

Instead, the plot twist was that they put Callista in Cray's body, so Luke gets the girl as a reward, but in a hotter body and unfortunate implications abound. Also Nichos and Cray die together for absolutely no reason because 'they were in love and couldn't live without each other', more unfortunate implications there.

Bail Organa in Karen Miller's Wild Space: While everyone was OOC to a extremely hilarious degree, and it is kind of hard to tell who the author's pet is, I'm going to give the reward goes to resident drug addict and senator, Bail Organa. Obi-wan was portrayed unfavorably by turning to the dark side, trying to break up Anakin and Padme, and truly living in fear of Bail Organa's strength and wisdom. A man doesn't even need to be force sensitive to destroy a Sith Temple when they are Bail Organa. Far superior to any Sith Lord or Jedi combined, Bail Organa thwarted every one of the Palpatine's plans, and will continue to do so in the future I'm sure.

 

What?

 

That's what happened in Wild Space. I didn't make it up. (I kind of ...wish I did.)

 

He wrote 3 books. Hard to have a pert character when you only write 3 books.

If anything it would have to be Corran and Tahiri . . .

 

Trying to break up Anakin and Padme (before they got married) actually made sense in the context of the story- it was pretty obvious even to Obi-Wan in AoTC that Anakin was dangerously attached- so him not having had a talk with Padme would have made the Jedi look even more foolish.

 

It didn't make sense to me even a little. Anakin was 'dangerously attached' to all kinds of things, not just Padme. His mother, his droid, etc. So why not just give the speech to Anakin? Also, having no attachments is an expectation for Jedi, so Obi-wan lecturing a regular person to remove their attachments is just silly.

 

Speaking of pet characters, I drew Thrawn today. I'll scan him this weekend.

 

Was he classic long-faced Thrawn?
Frog-mouthed Thrawn?
Balding-at-the-edges Thrawn?
Realism Thrawn?
Disco-fever Thrawn?
Rambo Thrawn?

Your depiction of Thrawn says a lot about your cultural heritage, you know.

 

Were is disco Thrawn from?

 

Apparently the French RPG magazine, Casus Belli: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Casus_Belli_89

And I've never seen the cover before. Yikes. Blonde Thrawn?

 

I prefer blonde Thrawn.

 

I shall go with Stormtrooper Thrawn!

 

"There's two things you need to know. I'm the King, and number two is LOOK OUT MAN! It's called the Katana Fleet, man and only three people know it. Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde and the King. And one of them's me."

 

Five years after the destruction of the Death Star and the death of the Emperor, the Rebels has taken over what was the Empire. The last bastion of order became a ship called Chimera and Thrawn was crowned King. After one rockin' year, The King is dead. Every guitar picking, sword swinging opportunist, including Death himself, hears the call echoing across the galaxy. The Empire needs a new King.