Callista Fans!!!

That's horrible, Cara. I'm glad you're okay, though. I hope the cops are able to find your laptop, and I'll be praying for you (please keep me updated on this). I'll re-send you all my files tomorrow after work.

 

ACJ, sorry to hear about your computer as well. I'm not brave enough to own a laptop for that very reason. I'm much too laid back when it comes to locking things up to own one. I'll be praying for the situation as well. Hopefully it will all work out so that you can get it back without losing any of the materials you've written. I gotta run to the never ending horror known as class. You all have a good one!

 

Good luck with your classes, Darth_Rolek. What's your major, btw?

Luke and Callista Forever! Down with Mara!

 

GJ, I second the down with Mara comment. How much worse can a woman possibly for be not only Luke but the entire Star Wars story?

In regards to school, I've switched schools and majors several times. I'm actually currently studying Bible, though I'm trying to go to grad school for journalism. I started as a business major so go figure...

 

That's okay. I switched my major several times, too. I went from biology to forensic science to general education to criminal justice, then back to forensic science. I'm now training to be a court stenographer.

How much worse can a woman possibly for be not only Luke but the entire Star Wars story?

While I don't care much for Mara post-VOTF and don't think she and Luke should be together, I also don't believe she's the worst thing to happen to SW. In terms of sheer suckiness, I think Waru, Akanah, and anything from the Glove of Darth Vader series far surpass the Red-Gold Mange in suckitude. And also Callista in Darksaber (talk about character assassination!). I still think Callista was the best candidate for Luke, and I'm disappointed that Hambly was forced to write her out of the storyline.

Oh, well. There's always fanfic.

 

I would actually argue that she is the worst because she WON'T GO AWAY! Haha, I get a bit fired up at times. I'll give you that there have been minor things worse. Normally they go away quickly at least. From the interview I read where Hambly said she was later told to write Callista out, I got the feeling she wasn't exactly thrilled about having to do that. Who could blame her? It sounds to me like it really came down to them picking an author rather than a character to keep really anyhow. If I was her, I know I would have been mad about it, but that's another story...

 

I wonder if Zahn had anything to do with Callista being written out of the EU.

 

From everything I've heard, he was the primary reason. Regardless, I will never say Zahn is a bad writer. I do question some of his DECISIONS of what to write about, but I do think he is a skilled writer either way. That being said, I cannot forgive him for forcing Luke with Mara. Even if he didn't do this in a behind the scenes sort of way, the pairing STILL makes no sense in VotF. It looked completely thrown in as if it was put in only in the last draft or something.

There's one thing I've been wondering about the original intentions for Callista. I've read elsewhere that Hambly was supposed to only write CotJ, and Luke and Callista would later get married. If that was the case, I wonder what the original plan was for her. Would she find her powers eventually or no? This always troubled me with Darksaber. The Callista portrayed in CotJ would NEVER have told Luke they could not be together unless she found her powers. At least not from what I got from her character. I'm interested to hear some of you folks' opinions on what was planned for her. It's always fun to speculate...

 

I'm not really sure what was planned for her character but the feeling I got from her character was that she wasn't the type of person that would leave Luke simply cause she didn't have powers. Luke was crazy about her. Granted it would have been tough to deal with the lost but she wouldn't have been alone since Luke would have been at her side. Every relationship has their problems but I saw that as something they could get over which is why I wish she wasn't writen out. I didn't like Darksaber either due to what KJA did to her character. I like his Jedi Academy series but not DS.

The whole Luke and Mara thing really doesn't make much sense either I feel. It was that series that I started to dislike her. Her lecture to Luke. That really cause things to go downhill for me. She wasn't so bad before that, because she was basicly a side character that showed up from time to time to help out or called upon to help or for information. There was never any romantic relationship or hints before. Maybe had there been it would be easier to take but there wasn't from what I say.

I still think that Luke and Callista would have been married had she not been writen out and most likely would have gotten her powers back in time. Maybe due doing something very Jedi like, the force as a result would restore her connection or something along those lines. Something I'd like to picture.

I'm sure anyone would be made having to write a character out of the picture, after they put a lot of work in creating the character and putting them together with another. That was her original job. To create someone for Luke and I think she did it in a great way that was creative. Not only that but she also gave Luke another source to help him further rebuild the Jedi Order. Someone he could bounce ideas off, that was fully trained and had experience such as he had that would know the good and the bad of the old order. There was a LOT of potential when it came to Callista in terms of the roles she could have taken on if she wasn't writen out I feel.

 

I don't have much of a problem with Mara as a character, I just think it was random and totally out of the blue that she and Luke got married. She's a very strong, powerful character--much like Callista, actually. I simply never viewed her as a romantic interest and when it did happen, it seemed rather tacked on. And even after they were married, their relationship didn't change much, apart from the fact that they were each finally getting laid.

I don't honestly know if Callista will ever be brought back into the EU. Heaven knows I (and probably each of you) have thought up a million different ways for her to come back, or for there to be some mention of her again. It's rather pathetic but in the books following PoT I would always comb pages for even the slightest reference to her. It's really silly, I know, but hey, I was desperate.

I guess, though, that that's what we have fanfic for. The stories Geith and I have created are the reality for me now, not the EU "canon." Mara still has a role, of course, but her role remains as it should have been in the books: an interesting character and friend of Luke Skywalker.

P.S.--no news on the laptop yet, but I'm working to gather replacements of all the files (photos, music and writing) that were lost. Thank God for FF.N! And thanks for sending me FTS, Geith. I really appreciate everyone's support. It means a lot.

 

I'm glad to see you're doing okay, Cara, and I hope your laptop's found soon.

About Mara, I liked her in the earlier books, not so much when she got paired up with Luke (and I was none-too-pleased with her self-righteous attitude toward him in VOTF, especially when she blasted him for joining the resurrected Emperor, when she herself had been Palpatine's personal assassin. Pot, meet kettle. And her comment about Callista and Gaeriel was completely below the belt and uncalled for). IMO, Luke's proposal to her at the end was completely tacked on, with no buildup and no payoff. It was came totally out of nowhere. All my opinion, of course.

Although I've finally started reading the NJO, and have enjoyed many of the books (particularly Star By Star and The Unifying Force), as far as I'm concerned, the fanfics I've written with Cara are the true EU, in which Luke and Callista are happily married, Callista's regained her Force powers, and they're starting their own family.

 

Hey folks. Good insight by everyone. I agree with you all somewhat about Mara. I do think the pairing with Luke has somewhat tainted me to the point where I see everything she does as bad. When she was in her appropriate role (Thrawn Trilogy), she was fine. She was meant to be the rogue type, not a Jedi. I will admit ACJ that I cringed somewhat while reading your story when Luke and Mara had their talk, but then I remembered that that was written without all of her self righteous VotF speaches and what not. She was originally designed to be the way you wrote her, which fit perfectly with her personality I thought.

As far as Callista, I agree totally with NeoStar. I think she was going to be with Luke weather she got her powers back or not originally. In all honesty, she probably was supposed to get them back, but even if she didn't, they still had a nice relationship going. I will never understand how KJA thought we would buy her saying they couldn't be together if she couldn't get her powers back. I mean come on! She had existed for 30 years inside a computer, then she finally gets another chance at life! She would have gladly died on that ship had it not been for Luke! She only came back because he made her want to live again. And now we're supposed to believe that that wasn't good enough for her? Bleh...

The other aspect I liked about them was the fact that Callista had been a Jedi herself. Even if she didn't get her powers back, there's so much she could have contributed to the new Jedi, such as NeoStar said. This is one of the biggest reasons why it made me so mad that they were cut apart. We'll never know just how powerful Callista was or how long she spent in training, but it almost had to be more time than what Luke spent at Dagobah. While he probably has more potential than Callista, she would have been able to help teach him all that she knew. Together, they definitely would have made a much more legitimate Jedi order that what comes to be in my opinion. So much waisted potential came with her character getting the axe...

 

I will admit ACJ that I cringed somewhat while reading your story when Luke and Mara had their talk, but then I remembered that that was written without all of her self righteous VotF speaches and what not.

I loved that scene, as well as the scenes where Callista and Mara interact; those were my favorite scenes to write in that story. There's distrust on both sides, and both are pretty understandable. Mara didn't like Callista because of the whole body-snatching thing (which is admittedly is pretty creppy, if you're not familiar with the circumstances that surrounded it), and Callista didn't like Mara because of her past. Callista was a Jedi of the Old Republic, and she had to watch as everything she knew and loved was utterly destroyed by Palpatine, and seeing as how Mara was Palpatine's personal assassin, of course she would harbor some resentment and mistrust toward Mara. But I liked how in the end, the two characters reach a truce, if not becoming outright friends. They may still not like each other, but they do at least respect one another.

I actually had to beg Cara to keep those scenes when we were rewriting the whole story, because the original version was pretty terrible (it was basically a catfight between Mara and Callista, with no depth at all). Thankfully, we were able to rework it and make it look believable, and not have either character dissolve into total bitchery.

I will never understand how KJA thought we would buy her saying they couldn't be together if she couldn't get her powers back. I mean come on!

I always thought that was a lame reason, too. I almost wish that Callista had just died on the Knight Hammer, than leave Luke for such an asinine reason. It makes her look petty and selfish. No wonder a lot of people couldn't stand her character in that book.

 

Hey Geith. I did like that scene, I just wasn't sure where it was going at first. When I finished it, I thought that it did a great job of showing Mara the way she was supposed to be based on her ORIGINAL portrayal. I don't know of too many that didn't like her in the Thrawn Trilogy. I just wish she would have stayed the way she was back then.

Back to Callista. I don't really think it was that bad of a reason for her to leave, but I DO think it was totally out character. I can understand why someone would be distraught over losing the force. To a Jedi, it would be the equivalent of losing one of the 5 senses. I just don't think that "decision" in Darksaber was in anyway consistent with her character as portrayed by Hambly. That was the real problem I had with that. I almost wish KJA would have just killed her instead of butchering her the way he did. That way, at least there would have been a more legitimate reason for them to break up. Instead, he had to write something that just didn't fit the characters. I can't stand when people do that. I try not to blame him too much, because I do like his other stuff. He was just following orders after all. I just wish he would have done it differently...

 

Honestly, I would have rathered if she was killed off instead to be honest. That way she could have been writen out without KJA writing her the way he did.

 

If she had been killed, at least she would have gone out on a sympathetic note. As it is, we have to now endure listening to all the reasons why so many people (mostly Jade lovers) hate her so much. I still think Callista could have done more to help the new Jedi without her powers than Mara will ever be able to do with them. Her knowledge most likely surpasses Luke's by a comfortable margin.

 

Though there was always the problem by Luke fans as well that would have disliked that she knew more, even though it was only logical that she would have. It seems there is a rumor, not sure how true, that Callista is suppose to be in he next novels that are suppose to come out. I'm not jumping for joy to be honest since the chance for her and Luke to be together is over. I'm sure there will be a reminder of that and they will constantly show how Mara and Luke are in love and what he felt for Mara was unlike what he felt for anyone else, etc. I have a feeling that things will go bad with the character and she might be killed off in the end or made a bad guy. Personall I prefer fan fiction right now since I won't be buying another Star Wars novel that is post-ROTJ(NJO era to be specific) or any post-NJO era novel since the New Jedi Order pretty much killed enjoyment of Star Wars novels for me.

 

I agree NeoStar that we probably have little to look forward to should her character return. The bit about her coming back as a Sith is beyond laughable, even based on KJA's portrayal of her. If she was going to turn to the dark side, she would have done so in an effort to stay with Luke. When she had that "chance" she said no! She only used the dark powers at the time because she could feel the force through it. Even KJA didn't portray her as someone who actually would turn to the dark side, and that's saying a lot right there...

Even though she almost certainly knew more than Luke, I fail to see how that is a bad thing. Luke was the one who restored the Jedi Order, there is nobody living who has more potential than him. The only possible exception would be Leia, but I doubt we'll ever see this potential realize with the way the NJO has destroyed her beyond recognition. Hambly is the only author I've read that really tries to develop Leia as a student of the Force, which is another reason why I really enjoy her books. Anyhow, Luke fans should have liked the fact that Callista probably knew more than he did. It served as a compliment to their relationship. She never wanted to consider herself higher than he was, she wanted to be his helper rather than superior. This is the total opposite of a certain redhead (or red-goldhead) that CONSTANTLY puts him and everyone else who competes with her attention down.

 

I keep hearing rumors that she MIGHT return in the post-NJO trilogy, probably as a Sith Lord, or something equally lame. I hope that's not true. The only way I would accept her becoming evil is if she kills Mara in one of the books.

 

Now now Geith, do you really think there's any EU author out there brave enough to kill Mara, especially through Callista? If she comes back as a Sith Lord, I promise you it will be Mara that kills her. That would be right on the same level as some of the other butt kissing they've done to her character. They have to make every other character look so weak and vulnerable so that the red-gold pestilence can continue to get closer and closer to the status of deity. I would rather never see Callista again in any EU book than think of what gross injustice they will do should they bring her back...

 

I know that would never, ever happen, but wishful thinking never hurt.

I would rather never see Callista again in any EU book than think of what gross injustice they will do should they bring her back...

I agree with you 100%.

 

Her knowledge most likely surpasses Luke's by a comfortable margin.

not necessarily; I like Callista and all, but she was trained "by a maverick and schooled in unorthodoxy." While it worked for her, it mostlikely would have done Luke's Academy more harm than good. Luke's training was also unorthodox, and when you attempt to combine two unorthodox methods, disaster results more often than not.

Plus, she wasn't exactly stable; she didnt have her powers, and she would resent those that did. She began to resent Luke, the very person whom she loved the most. If she could begin to resent her love, how would she feel with complete strangers?

 

I disagree that Callista's knowledge would have been a hinderence rather than help to the Jedi Academy. Think about it--Luke knows very little about the Force, if one considers how much there is to learn (especially since most Jedi trainees began at birth and weren't knighted until they're in their twenties in the Old Republic.)

Callista only trained for five years, it says that much in CotJ, but there was far more knowledge available to her during the heydey of the Jedi.

And as far as unorthodoxy is concerned, I take that to mean that Djinn Altis simply provided "other points of view." Perhaps he didn't believe in the whole midichlorian crap, which is fine with me.

Luke knew nothing of the Unifying Force versus the Living Force--Yoda didn't have time to cover that in his training. If you think about it, Luke would never have become a Jedi if desperate times hadn't called for it. I think Callista did teach him a lot, and we know that she did teach some at the Academy while she was there. BH makes reference to Luke remembering how she taught Tionne how to use a lightsaber (which we also see her do for Leia, enabling her to kill Beldorian) as well as teaching all the students to use the sand globes and mind mazes they found on Belsavis.

It was hard for her to watch others expand their powers, but I think that the loss was still very near to her heart, and seeing others use their powers must have been like seeing a picture or hearing a song that reminds you of a close friend who had recently died. That kind of pain never goes away, but you learn to live with it, as we see Callista had in PoT.

I wonder if perhaps something happened to Callista that prevented her from returning to Luke. No one knows for sure what really did happen, but I don't think that she would have made that promise to Luke lightly. Even if she hadn't regained her powers, she would have come to terms with it and eventually returned, I think. Perhaps the fact that she didn't tells us something. Perhaps she did in fact die. It's quite possible, actually, that she did. It's also possible that she decided not to return when she saw that Luke and Mara were getting married.

I think--and almost hope--though, that she's dead.

 

I might be imagining things, but isn't there a passage somewhere in one of the NJO book that references Callista, and that Mara might have had something to do with her never reappearing again in the series? Or am I just going crazy? Can someone confirm/deny this?

Oh, and great post, Cara! And welcome to the Callista Club, Robal_Krahl!

 

Great post ACJ.

In the end, I do hope she doesn't really return. I'd rather have her be dead then have her writen as evil or anything close. I feel only negative outcomes would come from adding her back into the story. And if she's evil, I bet we all know who is going to fight her, just to increase her character more. ugh. All the same I won't be picking up the novels anyway. I'll just have to stay away from any and all talk about them, incase there is something I won't like.

Finally will have some free time tomorrow and I finish reading ACJ and Geith's story. Still working on the 2nd part.