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

Lit The Official StarWars.com Blog Thread - That's right, I went there

Discussion in 'Literature' started by CooperTFN, Sep 24, 2013.

  1. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Why bother with the defection/retirement gambit then?
     
  2. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    They're listed separately. They may be akin, but the caption suggests they are not simply one and the same.
     
  3. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    He can trust himself to do the job right- a clone is never precisely the same person, and might change their mind about the whole thing.

    Still, it's possible that he used the Isard approach rather than the Lemelisk approach- it's left vague how it works- and might have required a lot of Palpatine's direct intervention to work in the first place.

    In Isard's Revenge, we see that the Isard clone has grown away somewhat from the original Isard. Result- Isard has to make use of Rogue Squadron to have her clone assassinated.
     
  4. King of Alsakan

    King of Alsakan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2007
    Quite right, don't know how I missed that on the first read. Its very strange. Something that definitely should not be regulated to starfighter pilots, but to be used as a title of nobility or as you mention as a battlefield honor. Maybe the starfighter thing can considered only a new Imperial practice.
     
  5. Tzizvvt78

    Tzizvvt78 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2009
    The Killiks did say they were what the Celestials became, so technically they were distinct. Perhaps even a remnant of the ancient Celestial civilization. Or maybe it's the grammer and they were referring to them as Celestials?
     
  6. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004

    Though nothing in it precludes different Baron Titles to be around. So not seeing the problem.
     
  7. Eyrezer

    Eyrezer Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 4, 2002
    Funny how we move on. No one commented on the use of "Tan" as a title because, of course, it is 'old news', yet I remember it made quite a stir the first time it was made into a title to reflect an obscure mistake. Is this just the second time it has been used?
     
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  8. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    No, Abel has used it quite often.
     
  9. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Yeah, but the Tan thing was a good way to fix something that was otherwise an aberration. This baron thing is fixing something that isn't broken -- or rather, breaking something that isn't broken.

    uh, well, obviously there are different titles around -- otherwise every single baron in Star Wars would have to be an exceptional pilot, were it as unique as 'tan.'

    I'm talking about Soontir Fel's title and nothing else.

    Iron_lord: Yeah, I mean, my basic assumption (though the canon was never too clear) was that it had to be comic Pestage who was the clone, and it had to be a clone who thought he was the real thing.
     
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  10. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    The Kaine material was brilliant - a psychological explanation why the person with one of the strongest post-Endor positions took a wholly conservative route. And we finally got the story on Kaine's death!
     
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  11. MercenaryAce

    MercenaryAce Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 10, 2005
    I have to agree with a lot of Jello's criticisms.

    Furthermore, I don't really understand why the article tried to explain why everyone took on the title warlord...especially since I don't remember any of the warlords calling themselves that. Or even the New Republic ever calling someone "Warlord So-and-so." I always took it to be a generic term, similar to references to warlords at various timeperiods in Chinese history, especially after the fall of the Qing.

    I also got the impression that most of their titles were made up to sound grand and imposing, and not actual Imperial military positions.
     
  12. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    I can only hope that some lesser known NRDF admirals get some love next.

    Nantz, Yamarus, Nammo, Burke, Vantai, and Ragab are waiting for a chance to shine!

    --Adm. Nick
     
  13. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004

    Thrawn uses it as his title when he meets the Guardian of Tantiss and the wording really only makes sense if it was truly a title of the Empire bestowed by the Emperor.

    Of course other authors seem to also have used it in the more traditional earth context, but then Warlord, or lets better say the german orginal "Kriegsherr", was actually also a title for the Holy Roman Emperor or his designated Warleader.
     
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  14. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
  15. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    There's a more direct example from the opening of HttE (I thought it was DFR earlier but when I looked for it, it was a very similar passage about the rank of GA): "His brilliant successes had won him the title of Warlord and the right to wear the white uniform of Grand Admiral-the only nonhuman ever granted that honor by the Emperor."

    The use of the coordinating conjunction makes the "only human" part ambiguous, but the former can only apply to his successes under the Empire since it's just the beginning of HttE, so it had to be a legit Imperial title.
     
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  16. Halagad_Ventor

    Halagad_Ventor Star Wars Author - SWRPG Designer star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 3, 2001
    Hey amigos.

    I really fell behind responding to some of your comments to the recent spate of StarWars.com stuff. Thanks for your thought out and enthusiastic criticism. I can't thank you enough for being immensely supportive and reading all this work as fast as it's been published.

    First, the Wheel pieces (Part 1 and Part 2) by Rich and I were, like many of these, intended for publication a good ten years ago. It’s a project we worried would never see the light of day, since we considered it our finest collaboration, with our styles meshing in an even more gratifying way than usual and with gripping narrative elements emerging that even surprised us. This one truly came alive in the collaborative process.

    Happy we could help, Ben. ;)

    I jumped for joy when I read about the Jubilee Wheel in NJO: Hero's Trial back in 2000, mistakenly believing it to be a reference to Marvel's Wheel. In retrospect, James Luceno's original text seems much more like a coincidence than an equivalence with the Marvel version, but the similarity between these two gambling stations has certainly been befuddling us Star Wars authors ever since, as evidenced by the compounded confusion over the years by well-intended one-liners and appearances in various sources. Rich and I felt the neatest way to resolve the mess was to definitively state that these were two different stations and then to address the retcon fallout from other sources.

    Once we decided that, it became obvious to make them rivals in some respect, and since we were focusing on the administrators of the Wheel, it seemed promising to have -- to borrow the vernacular of professional wrestling -- two alpha heels like Iaco Stark and Dominic Raynor go at it.


    This was part of the fallout, too. The paragraphs involving reference to both the Wheel and the Jubilee Wheel were simply getting confusing at times. So we italicized Jubilee Wheel (as it was originally in NJO: Hero's Trial) and, because so often we instinctively kept wanting to use the out-of-universe designation "the Marvel Wheel," decided upon the technicality of the "Marvelous Wheel" designation with guilty satisfaction.


    I guess it's simultaneously gratifying and disappointing to know I have achieved the ubiquity of a signature style. Thanks for noticing, Coop.


    Thanks, Ms. Coffee! :)

    Again, thank you. Collaborations with Rich seem to bring out my funny bone.

    Incidentally, that sentence is also a tangential reference to this: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Curse_of_Stark

    Slipping in the dandelion warriors and Cody Sunn-Childe were both Rich's doing, and my reaction when I read those bits was pretty much the same as yours. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to make the modest relation between Cody's species and the Sullustans.

    The inclusion of Cheelit, on the other hand, was owed to the line Rich had written about Count Vrescot being "quite tasty, if a bit tough to chew." It kept vaguely reminding me of some cuisine I'd sampled at some point.... When I realized I was thinking about octopus, Vrescot's species (and fate) was sealed.

    Best comment in a long time, my old friend. Thank you!
     
  17. LelalMekha

    LelalMekha Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2012
    Yep, I found that the inclusion of the dandelion warriors was really cool, although a bit strange. After all, warrior or not, they're only one-meter high semi-sapient plants. I don't doubt they can represent a threat, but... on par with Wookiees?
     
  18. Rogue_Follower

    Rogue_Follower Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2003
    Well, it depends on whether their enemies have allergies.
     
  19. Halagad_Ventor

    Halagad_Ventor Star Wars Author - SWRPG Designer star 4 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 3, 2001
    In some cases, a project will be a continuity free for all, referencing genres and publishing eras of source material widely and indiscriminately. History of the Mandalorians was definitely like that and, well, who am I kidding, most of my projects are like that.

    But when you're focusing on a major element identified with a particular series, such as Xim for the Han Solo Adventures or in this case the Wheel from the Marvel Comics, I think it's important to establish the continuity "mood" of the project as cleaving closely to the source material. Ideally, you want to reference other continuity elements in the family. For instance, that four-armed brute that Han fights in the gladiatorial arena was wielding "dagger-thorns," and I thought making his origin Ultaar -- a world established in the Marvel comics -- with its giant blossoms thus made the most sense. On the other hand, it was Rich's inspired idea to pull Cody and Wermis out of Marvel obscurity and into the mix. Cody's a fascinating character, and I thought it was a perfect choice, especially given the correlations that become evident regarding Lando Calrissian's tenure as administrator of Cloud City and his involvement in the liberation of the Wheel from the Empire.

    This is a question more appropriately answered by Rich, as the subject was his idea. But the Wheel storyline is arguably the very best of what Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino achieved on the Marvel run of Star Wars. It was the most epic of all their storylines, and a lot of us remember that fondly. What I find compelling about the setting is that it holds at once the promise of fortune, fantasy and vice. Gambling *and* gladiatorsin space.

    Thanks, Hav. Admittedly, to produce this caliber of short piece probably took around a week. As in something like 168 hours ... over ten years. Give or take.

    I dunno. Maybe that's conservative. Rich?

    Careful, Waru of Waru. Thou art bordering on apostasy.

    Many thanks, Eyrezer. Some of the descriptions of the Wheel's administrators were so brief that making a wise choice of species could really lend a lot to a character's profile.

    I haven't read any Asimov, shockingly enough, but will take that as a compliment. (Bicentennial Man, perhaps?)

    Most of Strom's hilarious background is all Rich's doing.

    Shucks, we didn't know that. Sorry Jason and McEwok. In our defense, we wrote that end for Wermis quite a long time ago.

    The operative word being "if."

    The reason for that is actually rather practical. Originally, those characters all had roleplaying game stats attached to 'em.

    It was one of those rare weapons that didn't already have a name in Yuuzhan Vong, mostly due to the fact that the nickname "dread weapon" got mistakenly interpreted as its proper name in later sources. I always wanted to play with Vongese, though.

    That's one possible, totally gross interpretation.

    But chiefly, as I espouse here: "Uncertainty is part of his design."

    I guess that remains to be seen in particular, but my intention was along the lines of what I did in "History of the Mandalorians," where each era of Mandalorians is defined by a different appellation.

    That was Rich and was arguably the most jaw-dropping tidbit he worked in there. ^:)^
     
  20. Rogue_Follower

    Rogue_Follower Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2003
    Yep. A bit of Bicentennial Man, a bit of Evidence. Maybe others too---I haven't read all of Asimov myself.

    It's in good keeping with his original depiction in the Marvel series, which I feel harkens back towards a classic sci-fi type depiction of robot issues. Very different from how droids are explored in most modern Star Wars literature, with some exceptions.
     
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  21. AdmiralWesJanson

    AdmiralWesJanson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    Just read the articles. Lots of cool tidbits, but my favorite is yet another reference to the Defender-class star destroyer and its CTD appearance. Between this and the Invasion comic, it seems likely that the Defender lost out to the Nebula for the New Class project, and was basically sold to more backwater regions.

    Also cool to see what happened to the real Tonnika sisters.
     
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  22. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    And... a GODV article!

    That's right, it's the secrets of the SHIELD of the Star Wars universe... Imperial Intelligence? The NRI?

    Nope, it's SPIN. :p
     
  23. HedecGa

    HedecGa Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 19, 2006
    Just a quick note to say that, though the byline reads otherwise, Abel was my brilliant co-author on this one. Little bit of technical difficulties going on at the blog, but wanted to give credit where credit is due!
     
  24. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
    "The facility boasted twelve levels including housing, a full commissary and private tutoring for the children of the military and civilian staff, among them Luke’s informal apprentices: the Jedi Prince Ken and Zak and Tash Arranda."

    The Arrandas studying alongside Ken? Beautiful stuff.

    "Admiral Gial Ackbar dividing his time between serving SPIN and leading the New Republic’s fleets against squabbling Imperial warlords."

    Heh heh, well at least we know that he didn't shirk his navy duties entirely in order to be the heroes' limo driver.

    "As for Han Solo, after losing nearly a year of his life frozen in carbonite, the Corellian smuggler-turned-war hero seemed to suffer from an identity crisis. Aside from a rarely-frequented and rundown apartment on lawless Nar Shaddaa, Han didn’t have a home to call his own and, after a lifetime on the run, the rogue was considering settling down at last, planting permanent roots in picturesque Cloud City. He briefly renounced SPIN membership to work on his sky house with his first mate Chewbacca. Han felt ready to enjoy the bachelor life, though his feelings for Leia couldn’t be denied, and he struggled between keeping her at a distance and suddenly wanting to elope, ready for a house full of “pip-squeak Solo kids” tugging at his boots. As Leia spent more time in the field, Solo began to fly missions for SPIN as a means of being close to her: Leia was his home, he soon understood."

    Perfection, that right there is.

    "...the Ryloth Ark, once in the possession of Emir Wat Tambor (though, whether this chest was in truth one of several known replicas was uncertain)."

    Hell. Yes.

    "Yet, beyond these plotters lay still more, as the Church of the Dark Side, Sate Pestage — and by extension, Palpatine, himself—manipulated the slavelord with talks of “destiny” and “prophecy.” Trioculus was an unknowing attack massif, and Palpatine was the secret master who held his leash, leading him on a holy crusade to search for Sith talismans and the secrets of the Lost City of the Jedi."

    Palpatine was pulling Trioculus's strings ... ? Holy hell. What a retcon.

    "Not long after SPIN closed its doors following a harrowing attack by a mind-controlled Triclops that ruined Han and Leia’s attempt to become bride and groom, and set their wedding back for years (though the circumstances were such that the princess still thought of herself on occasion as Leia Organa Solo)"

    Well, that wedding is finally explained. :D

    "ndeed, after the Battle of Mindor, the codename “Blackhole” was, in a way, inherited by Grand Vizier Sate Pestage. Having fulfilled the Church of the Dark Side’s prophecy that Palpatine would be reborn and confiscating one of the “distorters” with which Cronal holographically projected his intimidating persona throughout the Empire, Pestage co-opted this façade as a cover for himself, exploiting the darksider’s connections in service to the reincarnated Emperor’s Grand Plan: an envisaged Dark Empire..."

    :eek: The Blackhole from the Dark Empire Sourcebook was Pestage all along?

    Hiram Drayson, Kea Moll. Lando's Commandos. Guri. The roots of Alpha Blue. Fantastically tying the Jedi Prince books into Mindor as well as the greater EU --- this article is just wonderful. Seriously, I never thought that Jedi Prince could be framed within the greater NR-era EU this well. Bravo.
     
  25. AdmiralNick22

    AdmiralNick22 Retired Fleet Admiral star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 28, 2003
    Sweet Jesus, that is one hell of an article! Well done Halagad_Ventor! Great to see some love for the early years of the New Republic, plus that article was chalk full of interesting tidbits and mentions:
    • Yavin serving as the true de-facto capital until Coruscant? I like it.
    • The Provisional Council being the de-facto "Senate" makes total sense.
    • SPIN office on Dac and other core Alliance worlds? Brilliant.
    • I loved the bit about Ackbar dividing his time between commanding the Third Fleet against the Empire's remnants and working with SPIN. As if I needed further proof of Ackbar's badass nature, he served as Supreme Commander, SPIN operative, and member of the Provisional Council, all while maintaining actual fleet command duties in the field.
    • As a follow up to the above and a play on a famous quote: ACKBAR IS BOSS :cool:
    • Mon Mothma's flagship New Hope is mentioned! I only wish they clarified what the vessel is.
    • DRAPAC actually sounds kinda a cool now.
    • MOTHERF****** Sky House. [:D]
    • making the SPIN Rapid Response Team an outgrowth of Luke and Admiral Kalback's Rapid Response Fleet was another brilliant touch.
    Sweet Jesus, if only all of the EU was written by such amazing authors, we would all be in a better place. ^:)^

    --Adm. Nick