Lit A question on Karen Traviss and her work(s)

Is the "stormtrooper effect" even a thing in-universe or is that just a fan thing to explain why the heroes win?

I kinda get it, but at the same time it's always been there that the rebels are mostly former Imperials and are fighting in such a way to negate Imperial advantages, and every straight up fight we see ends in a slaughter for the rebels.

AdmiralWesJanson just made an excellent point that even what could be seen as a embarrassment was more surprise and confusion followed by a Wookiee in a tank turning the tide...after all, the on-screen evidence is that Ewoks were getting fried left and right and Han and Leia were trapped by the door attempting and failing to gain entrance. Plus the rebels were all special forces themselves. So it's not really that weird of a thing.

 

I wonder how differently received RotJ would have been overall if the Ewoks had actually been Wookiees like George originally planned.

 

Maybe we should sum up each of the major Traviss controversies - and see which of them are most deserving of criticism and which least?

I'd say the "Clone Army Numbers Controversy" is probably the least. There were plenty of sources (including the AoTC novelizations) hammering home that "unit = clone" before Traviss started writing.

 

Terrible, terrible characters is still the highest on my list, to seeing how none of them are likely to ever, ever be mentioned again.

 

Do "terrible characters" really count as a controversy?

 

I consider them a controversy if they reached Etain and Bardan levels of "WTF" ness.

 

Etain, I get. Bardan I never had a problem with.

 

Bardan is Mr. "I hate you mom and Dad! I'm going to run off and join this biker gang!" in space.

 

Fair enough, but I thought it worked in context. Not everyone's cut out for the life of a Jedi. Bardan just liked the Mandos better.

 

I don't think that her skill in characterization was ever really a controversy on the scale of, say, the clone numbers, or the view of the Jedi, or her leaving, or Mandalorian culture invading all of the galaxy. People complain/critique/analyze characters from all the novellists, and rarely does it become a noteworthy controversy. All four of the things I mentioned, and probably a few more, remain fairly contentious today, and can start up fairly heated arguments. (For the record, I still quite enjoy her work.)

 

The stormtrooper effect is largely an illusion. The reality is the Stormtroopers are very rarely shown to actually shoot at anything in the OT at all. When they do fire they are usually either A: shooting at moving targets who they probably have orders to capture rather than kill - as in Han and Chewie on the Death Star in New Hope and Luke in Cloud City in Empire or B: moving down random Rebels with considerable efficacy. In ROTJ there is no shot, not one, where a stormtrooper actually fires on an Ewok (Imperial army walker pilots do). There are shots where they fire at R2 and Leia, hitting both times.

The origin of the stormtrooper effect can actually be traced to one specific scene: the bridge sequence on the Death Star in New Hope. The troopers have elevation, numbers, cover and their targets are motionless and they still fail to hit Luke or Leia. However that is the only scene, just one, where stormtroopers display truly pathetic combat performance.

As to the ground battle at Endor, we really don't know what the kill ratio of that battle was - it's never shown onscreen. Probably the stormtroopers killed vastly more Ewoks than they ever took in losses and many squads were probably at large in the woods until subsequently captured by far more numerous alliance units, but that doesn't matter because they failed to protect the bunker.

 

What more is there? I know that she angered a lot of people with the way she portrayed the jedi but was she more extreme than other that had portrayed the jedi in a bad light?

 

Notable controversies:

Trying to retcon the droid army from quintillions to a few hundred million
Different portrayal of Fenn Shysa & Spa from the History of the Mandalorians article.
Saying extremely undiplomatic things about certain sections of the fandom online and in published media (Star Wars On Trial, for example).

 

Thanks
Now when you mention it I remember the last two but I think the first one is new to me

 

It was the short story Odds, included in the True Colors paperback - that dropped a lot of hints that "quintillions" was propaganda.

Since Dooku & Sidious are in cahoots - it makes sense for both to be misleading their minions the same way.

 

I wonder if a section of the fandom annotates each article, short, or novel looking for each single error or different interpretation.

First section, people are making the loss of several zeroes similar to nailing a railroad spike through a person's head. If you want to argue on a numbers level then you are missing something. You still have clones are excellent soliders, robots are stupid overgrown tuna cans. Wait, in the story we see protagonists realizing the Clone Wars might be a crock. Wait, my imaginary numbers turned out to be fairy dust in and out of universe therefore I must cry.

Second section, the franchise has been retconning and overriding lesser known entries through its entirety. Notice the rapid technological change from Tales of the Jedi to Knights of the Old Republic or the old Marvel run's piecemeal appearances in the status quo. People here are howling because said difference came from a more popular work despite a low percentage of the fandom reading it.

Third, grow a thick skin because writers are humans, capable of the same mistakes. Someone not taking the established line? I fail to see the horror in it except for a writer showing how they feel for once. I hope most of the readers aren't babies.

 

would not surprise me

Can you clarify what you mean? I don't follow

 

I think what's meant is that the residents of Stardestroyer.net, and similar fan groups, massively overreacted to the Odds short story.

 

Tbf it was a pretty lame story.

 

Traviss is a fine writer for one book, but she should never attempt a trilogy. It becomes a severe repeat when she does.

Christie Golden replacing her on the roster was the best decision Del Rey/LucasArts ever made.

 

And what made it so unusual is that these groups weren't prone to overreacting.

 

Okej, what is the joke? I don't know the stereotypes regarding Stardestroyer.net as you do