Author Topic: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Mastadge  26448 posts
Title:
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Registered: Jun '99
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Date Posted: 11/29/05 8:25am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Allston's one of my favorites as well. His Wraith Squadron trilogy is some of my favorite EU -- it's both thematically interesting and a whole lot of fun, frequently funny without becoming too silly. I also enjoyed Starfighters of Adumar. Didn't care so much for his second NJO book, though.

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered: Nov '00
16485_Wedge Antilles
Date Posted: 11/30/05 7:58am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
9. Sorry! Coffee went down the wrong pipe! – A Death Star is Born, Kevin Rubio

And for this one I may get reamed. But sue me. It remains still the most hilarious EU story ever written, the meeting between Palpatine, Vader, Tarkin, Lemelisk and Sivron (with Ackbar listening at the door) to discuss the construction of the Death Star.

In a brief twelve pages, the story reduced me to tears of laughter repeatedly. And, since it basically is just one scene, I can place it, in its entirety on this list. What’s the best part? Take your pick.

Vader crushing the cream in his iron fist? Palpatine rejecting the acronym for the Death Star because it would look to busy on his stationary? Tarkin’s reaction to Vader’s suggestion of “The Death Star?” (You can’t be serious?!) The cameo of Yogi Bear?

I know my two favorites: in the first Palpatine laments the fact that there are no safety railings (I gotta walk these halls too, and my balance ain’t what it used to be, he remarks). Tol Sivron says that can be fixed with a budget increase of only thirty-six percent. Oh, Palpatine replies, in that case I’ll just be careful.

And my all time favorite is when Tarkin makes a muttered remark about Vader while sipping coffee. He suddenly gasps, grasps his throat, his tongue protruding. The coffee cup shatters on the floor. VADER! Palpatine bellows. I’m not doing anything, Vader says, hilariously spreading his hands in the gesture of innocence. Sorry, Tarkin gasps, pounding the table, coffee went down the wrong pipe.

My God . . . if this isn’t genius, there is no such thing as genius spoofing.

Most of the humor stories that would follow this one would just be pointless and stupid, but for one brief transcendent moment, the humor was truly genuinely hilarious. A masterpiece.

 

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Zebra3  6967 posts
Registered: Aug '04
23582_Sunset
Date Posted: 11/30/05 8:20am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
^^ Okay, I've missed the reference here. Where exactly does this story appear. It sounds hysterical laugh

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
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Date Posted: 11/30/05 9:08am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
In the Star Wars Tales TPB, Vol. 1.

 

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RK_Striker_JK_5  20142 posts
Registered: Jul '03
49046_Tenel Ka (81109)
Date Posted: 11/30/05 9:11am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
That was one of the funniest SW pieces I've read-ever.

Great moment, Rogue.

 

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Inara  2121 posts
Registered: Aug '05
19663_Plo Koon
Date Posted: 11/30/05 10:50am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Rogue1-and-a-half posted:
And my all time favorite is when Tarkin makes a muttered remark about Vader while sipping coffee. He suddenly gasps, grasps his throat, his tongue protruding. The coffee cup shatters on the floor. VADER! Palpatine bellows. I’m not doing anything, Vader says, hilariously spreading his hands in the gesture of innocence. Sorry, Tarkin gasps, pounding the table, coffee went down the wrong pipe.
laugh It's one of my favorites as well, especially when Vader was acting innocently.

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
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Date Posted: 12/1/05 8:05am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
8. I’m . . . I’m Ben Kenobi – Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, Alan Dean Foster

Here’s another one I may get blasted on. It seems this book has fallen out of favor in recent years. But I still think it’s pretty darn good. The action is stupendous, including one fabulous large battle sequence involving Vader. And Grammell is a fantastic villain, easily the most sadistic and purely evil of all the Imperials the EU has given us.

And in the climactic battle between Luke and Vader, facing off for the first time in the timeline, if I recall correctly, there is certainly much to worry over. Particularly egregious is the moment when Vader engages in a force lifting contest with Luke, affirming that his own powers are greater than Luke’s because his rock was bigger.

But there too is one of the most chill bump inducing moments of the EU. Vader taunts Luke: I cut down Kenobi, I will have no problem dealing with a half trained novice like you. And Luke responds, in an ‘odd way,’ that leaves Vader shaken for a moment, “I’m . . . I’m Ben Kenobi.”

Is Kenobi there in spirit? The canonists say no. I say, as a literary free minded personal canonist, maybe. If the canon crushes imagination, we need to discard the canon. And at this moment, in this book, we believe that just maybe, just maybe somehow, Ben Kenobi steps into the room. It’s a moment where imagination takes flight into expansive realities. All this nattering about the secrets of immortality and Force Ghosts and the rules, etc . . . screw it. This is a moment of luminous transcendence, of powerful imaginative writing, of great emotional impact.

It’s that uncertainty that sells it. Say what you will about G-level Canon, I still argue: we will never know to what degree Ben Kenobi was in that room at that moment. And that is as it should be.

 

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AdmiralWesJanson  4693 posts
Registered: May '05
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Date Posted: 12/1/05 9:48am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
I'm perfectly content to accept that Ben was there and aiding Luke, especially considering that Luke did the same to toddler Jacen in Champions...

 

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Rogue1-and-a-half  22151 posts
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Date Posted: 12/2/05 7:54am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
7. Little girl! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! – Jedi Vs. Sith, Darko Macan/Ramon F. Bachs

There is much to recommend Jedi Vs. Sith as perhaps THE great Star Wars Graphic novel. It’s one of the most bitterly nihilistic works of the EU, literally ending with a zero sum punch to the head for the reader. It’s brutal warfare is grim and brooding and the characters are brilliantly sketched. Bane alone catapults this work into the upper echelons. He’s truly one of the most fascinating villains of the Star Wars galaxy.

There were at least two other moments from this book competing for a place on this list. The first happens after a particularly nasty battle and one of the main characters laments the way the Jedi die. “A jedi shouldn’t die like this, choking on dust and soot,” he says. There’s only meaning in songs, a Jedi says, a Jedi who has previously been among the most heroic and idealistic of the Jedi. “Stars knows,” he remarks “I wouldn’t be here if I could do anything else.” It’s a brilliant and gritty, a realistic and incisive look at the Jedi.

The other great moment comes at the conclusion of the book when a character loses a hand (the standby injury of the Star Wars galaxy) in a way that sends shivers down your whole body . . . kudos for taking a cliché and making it sing.

But this moment had to be the one. Our lead female character, a small girl finds her way into the war zone on the back of a benevolent bouncer. The bouncer is then shot down by a previously introduced character, a Jedi trying to clear the field of the negative energy of the bouncers. After the fall, the fact that a child was riding on the bouncer becomes clear and he and one other character race toward the fallen girl, hoping to help her.

And when they arrive, the girl, previously thought to have only small ability in the Force, turns her tear stained and angry eyes on them and without a single word, the two men, both likeable and interesting characters, die, their necks snapped by the Dark Side. It’s a moment of real horror and senseless tragedy: the death of the bouncer is senseless enough, cut down by more or less friendly fire. Coming hard on the heels of that we see two interesting and sympathetic characters die in less than five seconds. Talk about a shocker.

And then out of the mist, Lord Bane arrives, a devil’s grin on his face and it suddenly all makes sense. The aborted prophecy about this girl, Bane’s controversial new doctrine about only two Sith at a time . . . it all comes together and you realize what this girl is, what this girl is going to become.

I said immediately after reading this book, and I stand by the statement, that this is the single most significant fall to the Dark Side of the entire EU. You finally realize, not how serious a step, or how dangerous, but how EASY it would be. No meandering philosophizing about what the Dark Side is. No pretend falling to the Dark Side and then crossing back over. No slow progress from Light to Dark. No. Here, grief and fear strike and instantly BANG! You’re there. Never has a fall to the Dark Side been as terrifying or disturbing as it was here.

A sharp pain in our hearts, grief, anger, bitterness and without even a moment to think, we're gone, a mile down the Dark Path without ever remembering stepping onto it. Tom Veitch, take note. This is how someone falls to the Dark Side. Kevin Anderson, take note. Everyone, really . . . this is the Dark Side. Dangerous, yes. Powerful, yes. But only here does it really show us those most frightening aspects of itself: the ease of the Dark Side, like slipping into an old pair of jeans, and the incredible swiftness, like blinking an eye.

Never before and never since has the Dark Side been so truly frightening.

 

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Tam_Elgrin  4205 posts
Registered: May '04
46300_Ahsoka Tano (3164)
Date Posted: 12/2/05 2:19pm Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Hear, hear. Jedi vs. Sith is utterly fantastic. Laa's death reduces you to tears, it really does.

 

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MercenaryAce  2766 posts
Registered: Aug '05
8117_Y-Wing Pilot
Date Posted: 12/2/05 2:48pm Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
SHe killed two Jedi with an angry glance? How-we need more stories about Zannha

 

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Leto II  11805 posts
Registered: Jan '00
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Date Posted: 12/2/05 3:08pm Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments - Date Edited: 12/2/05 3:10pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Leto II
There's also the brief account of the future confrontation between the adult Darth Zannah and Darovit here, in Part 6 of Abel's Dark Forces continuity articles.

Dan Wallace added further detail to the post-Jedi vs. Sith timeline in the NEC, stating that Rain found her way to Onderon and afterward officially commenced her Sith training under Darth Bane. Figure that the 2006 Path of Destruction Bane novel will develop Rain's character even further.

 

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Cull_Tremayne  304 posts
Registered: Jun '05
41986_Jos Vondar
Date Posted: 12/3/05 1:51am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments

Rogue1-and-a-half posted:
I said immediately after reading this book, and I stand by the statement, that this is the single most significant fall to the Dark Side of the entire EU. You finally realize, not how serious a step, or how dangerous, but how EASY it would be. No meandering philosophizing about what the Dark Side is. No pretend falling to the Dark Side and then crossing back over. No slow progress from Light to Dark. No. Here, grief and fear strike and instantly BANG! You’re there. Never has a fall to the Dark Side been as terrifying or disturbing as it was here.

A sharp pain in our hearts, grief, anger, bitterness and without even a moment to think, we're gone, a mile down the Dark Path without ever remembering stepping onto it. Tom Veitch, take note. This is how someone falls to the Dark Side. Kevin Anderson, take note. Everyone, really . . . this is the Dark Side. Dangerous, yes. Powerful, yes. But only here does it really show us those most frightening aspects of itself: the ease of the Dark Side, like slipping into an old pair of jeans, and the incredible swiftness, like blinking an eye.


While I adore Jedi vs Sith, since it is undoubtedly IMO the best Star Wars tale outside the movies to date, I somewhat disagree with this statement. Rain gave herself over to the Dark at that moment sure, but look at her characterization even at the end. She isn't completely consumed with it. She doubts her faith in it. She refuses to kill her own brother for her new Master. She did not go fully over to the Dark Side at that moment. In fact, even Bane must have had his doubts as he sent her back to Ruusan to finish off Darovit to prove her allegiance.

Yes, that moment of grief was the major step, and it will be almost impossible to turn back, but it is a slow process to the Dark Side and this story confirms it. I liken this situation to the Quinlan Vos fall to the Dark Side. In a fit of rage he cuts his aunt in half, and whammo he's on the Dark Side, but that's not truly how it is. He still believes he is right, he still believes he hasn't turned, but we all know it, that action sealed his fate. It's a steep slope all the way down, and Dooku knows he's doomed to be consumed by it. (Obviously untrue as Quin turns back in the end, but just an example).

 

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Quinnocent-Till-Sith  628 posts
Registered: Jul '04
40062_Quinlan Vos
Date Posted: 12/3/05 2:55am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Rogue1-and-a-half posted:
And now another Worst Pick:

3. Maybe you should be a Jedi Racer, instead of a Knight – I, Jedi, Michael Stackpole.

This will forever be the great memory, the moment when I decided once and for all that the EU and the movies were different universes. I eventually refined that to a personal canon, but this ugly moment still stands.

It’s the retconn of all retconns: the pretentious Mary Sue author goes back to fix the cheesy and lazy writer. It was, as I could have predicted, the train wreck to end all train wrecks. It climaxed here when Corran Horn and Luke begin a brawl.

The first stupidity comes when you realize that Stackpole actually thinks Corran is a BETTER SABER ARTIST THAN LUKE SKYWALKER! LUKE FREAKING SKYWALKER. THE GUY WHO BESTED VADER!

And then the fight turns into a hilarious slapstick effort that put me in stitches. How idiotic.

And then, just to end the chapter nicely, Corran decides to lecture Luke about how he doesn’t understand the Force, how to train people or anything and is, as pointed out above, not even qualified to be a Jedi Knight. Again, this is the same Luke Skywalker who trained with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Being lectured by the Corran Horn who trained himself via a mail order program with his astromech or something.

Stackpole: eat a bag of hell. Kthxbye.




So Horn isn't allowed to believe he's better at something than Skywalker? You're essentially moaning about a character's thoughts/opinions.

 

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BobaKareu  554 posts
Registered: Feb '05
40334_Boba Fett
Date Posted: 12/5/05 6:41am Subject: RE: Mike's 20 Most Memorable EU Moments
Come on, give us more moments!

 

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