Admiral Daala is a fine leader, but failed time after time, why?

Hence, the NJO started; granted, the "good guys" eventually won, but they sure got a nice pounding before they did.

 

Its impossible for licensed products to be "fanfic".

fan·fic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fnfk)
n. Informal
Fiction written by fans as an extension of an admired work or series of works, especially a television show, often posted on the Internet or published in fanzines.

Going by that definition, the only way that the licensed books aren't fanfic is if the writers aren't fans of Star Wars--and if that's the case, then why are they writing SW books?

 

Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's money? Though, as I recall, a significant portion of current SW authors consider themselves fans.

 

It seems in every SW book that a woman is involved with the Empire, they hardly seem competent.

Think about it....

1. Isard: Practically gives Coruscant away on a ridiculously risky plot, and it fails. She loses a SSD, fails to take it back, loses all the Lusankya's prisoners, and Thyferra.

2. Daala: Loses the Maw, the Sun Crusher, the DS prototype, and 3 ISDs and she only fought one battle vs the NR! Manages to kill off the senior Imperial staff because she's too stupid to think of another way. Fails to destroy the Jedi Academy and goes down in history as having had a TIE Bomber destroy her SSD.

3. Mara Jade: The Emperor's personal assassin (or one of them). Fails to kill Luke, and instead of following the Empire like a loyal Emperor's Hand would, she goes and marries the Emperor's worst enemy, and bears his child!

In Wedge's Gamble, the INT's captain (a woman) defects to the NR and plays a large part in the NR's plan.

Dr. Gast: running Zsinj's humanoid experimentation program fails to kill Wraith Squadron, gets captured, and sells out so she doesn't have to answer for her crimes.

Gara Petothel: Betrays Admiral Trigit, leading to his death. Later fails her own mission to destroy Mon Remonda and/or Wraith Squadron then secretely defects to the NR. Kills another Intelligence agent on Aldivy and sabotages the Iron Fist, causing the destruction of a good portion of the Imp fleet at Sellagis (sp?) as well as freeing Zsinj's experimental humanoids.

In Darksaber, the woman is stupid enough to allow Calista to dock on the Knight Hammer through that pathetic 'static' ruse.

Any others?

 

Ok how about this for a definition of fanfic;

"Fan fiction is the way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk."

-Henry Jenkins
Director of Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

What is Fanfic

"One of the main rules governing the world of fanfiction is that no profit can be made, because, almost by definition, fanfics borrow copyrighted characters (OK, a "fanfic" based on characters such as Dracula or Frankenstein can be sold, because those characters are in the public domain). The fact that no profit is being made does not mean that a "fanfic" is not in violation of copyright laws. So, to make things perfectly clear, fanfic writers are at the mercy of copyright holders. On the other hand, realistically speaking, it is true that copyright holders could drive fanfiction into the underground, but it would be virtually impossible for them to prevent the creation, and to some extent even the distribution, of fanfiction."

 

There's also Erisi Dlarit:

Infiltrates as an operative in RS, gives little information leading to little gain, takes a lot of risks with her opsec, and botches her redefection to a splinter of the Imps. She then flies 2 Imperial missions, failing to get a single kill in either.

 

Ok how about this for a definition of fanfic;


"Fan fiction is the way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk."

I like that definition.

 

Beware the screams of a zillion purists, and fanfic haters crying out, .

 

Frell them.

 

JonCrites: Um, I thought she failed because she was the badguy. I mean, this is the pre-NJO, so the badguys always had to lose by the end of the book or trilogy.

Jon, you are absolutely correct. Everybody else, you can argue as much as you want, but remember... IT IS FICTION. And in this fiction the good guy usually wins (I would say "always wins" but the NJO has shown me that that is not always true).

When I was reading about Thrawn I was thinking the same thing about him as you were about Daala. He keeps getting defeated in battle, but he just says something like "I lost this battle, but not the war". And, of course, he later loses the war.

I do not think anybody expected Thrawn, Daala, or the Vong to win their wars.

 

I don't recall a single battle Thrawn lost.

Anyway, the difference between Thrawn and Daala is that Daala had 0 sucess doing ANYTHING, while Thrawn conquered a quarter of the galaxy in a month.

I'd also challenge your claim that Thrawn lost the war. He was killed, and the Empire didn't lose until after he died. It's like saying that the CSA lost the Civil War after Gen. Jackson died.

 

Technically, Thrawn didn't lose the battle, but only because he was killed by his own bodyguard; that gross miscalculation on Thrawn's part should not be overlooked. I haven't read TTT for quite awhile, but, iirc, during the battle, the Imperial forces were being beaten by the NR before Thrawn was killed.

 

Nearly all people, male or female, are dashing and attractive in Star Wars. Good for the holovids, eh?

It's a writer's trap. Either too striking, or cliched disfigured.

I'm dying to see a fat woman Jedi, simply for originality's sake.

(someone coud say "But you're dead. I blew you up!" And she could counter "It ain't over till I'm finished singing.")

It's why I enjoyed Mr Zsinj best of all. He was fat, he sweated, he made mistakes, jovial, tempermental, but he battled on.

 

(I would say "always wins" but the NJO has shown me that that is not always true).

Unless there's a duel. How many Jedi lost duels in the NJO? (I can't think of any off the top of my head...)

Oh, and the good guys still won by the end of the series

 

"I'm dying to see a fat woman Jedi, simply for originality's sake."

Its kind of hard to tell because her robes are so large, but its possible that Vima Da Boda could have been fat under those robes of hers, . She did become a Jedi instructor at the Jedi academy.

 

Pellaeon is getting on the chunky side in his old age

 

According to the EE epilogue, Vima mysteriously disappeared. When did she pop up again?

 

She reappared some point after JAT, apparently. No exact date given in Guide to Star Wars 3rd edition, and New Essential Guide to Characters though.

 

wat novels again have grand admiral thrawn?

 

I believe Daala becomes somewhat decent. In EC, it says she leads the mini-warlords in the Deep Core against Garm and the 4th fleet during the last campaign, before losing.

wolf

 

Speaking of female Imperials, was Isard still aboard the Lusankya when it plowed into that worldship?

 

she'd be very dead by then.

 

There was an entire thread dedicated to the "Was Isard on the Lucy?" question, IIRC.

And Thrawn appeared in Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command.

 

There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that Isard was on Lusankya, if you reread the last couple scenes of IR. Someone on the boards (I think it's Knight1192) has a link to their SW conspiracy site and offers some good explanation for why she was on the Lucy.

In terms of non-photogenic characters and Jedi, I wouldn't call Streen photogenic, Beldorian is a tad on the portly side, and Teradoc is fatter than Zsinj. Melvar is also supposed to be really ugly.

 

Not only that, but when Stackpole was asked about it after the release of Allston's NJO duology, he brushed it off by giving an ambigous answer that can please both sides, those that believe she died in Isard's Revenge, and those that think she was locked away.

IIRC, He wasn't even clear when he believed that she died, he could have easily been taking Allston's duology into account.