Lit Chief of State Daala

Should have been Cha Niathal.

 

What was Sinrebirth 's reason in the "Deleted Scenes from Invisible" fic, for them picking Daala?

 

Sure, isn't that what the Mandos are?

Is Tavira the type to go into galactic government? One of the things I liked about her in I, Jedi was that she wasn't another warlord scrambling for territory, just a raider - she and her pirates attacked shipping and planets and then ran back to their safehavens to enjoy the profits.

Rodan, that I could definitely see.

 

Which is why she would work better as a quick relief force made up out of Mercs and called in favors

 

There were a few, actually; Caedus and B'wuatu were curbstomping the Confederation and the Alliance-in-exile by playing them against each other, until Daala pulled the one stunt she's any good at, doing something crazy (in this case target the other anti-Caedus leader's ships with MCPS) to force people to cooperate. And it actually works, forcing something resembling a stalemate until Caedus could get himself killed and end the fighting for good. Plus, the GAG had just done a purge of major Senate and military leaders, and the only people left besides Daala were Fyor Rodan (too traumatized to lead), B'wuatu (said no), and a few others whom I'm blanking on but also wouldn't work. I figure it balances out to be just a bit more of a stretch than Corellia electing Sal-Solo to lead it.

All this is coming straight from memory since I re-read the fic last week, so it's reasonably fresh on the brain.

 

Given how scummy she was portrayed as being in I, Jedi, I can't see her being willing to help without a very large reward.

Can't see her being as patient as even Daala was in the position of Chief of State (and Daala was not exactly patient herself).

 

It would have been nice if Invincible had focused on more than just the Jacen subplot. Way too narrow for a conclusion. The Daala thing could have worked (okay large stretch, very large stretch, extremely large stretch) if they had focused on her and the war in the novel and not throwing her out of left field like they actually did.

 

There are people who like Daala as a character, even while accepting her incompetence as a leader:

http://jasonfry.tumblr.com/post/27417920547/eg-to-warfare-endnotes-pt-16

Paul writes: “I find Daala a sympathetic and interesting character even while I think she’s a brutal incompetent as a military leader, and I tried to capture — and explain — that contradiction here. Her enthusiasm for violent physical sports has been part of her characterization since her first introduction, though Viker and Massimo Tagge are new players in her backstory, representing the competing forces that shaped her on Carida. The narrative implies (though it doesn’t quite state it categorically) that Daala was only around 19 when Tarkin promoted her to Admiral — around the same age as Padmé and Leia and Luke when they became leaders and heroes, so not really all that crazy for Star Wars.

"I’m not a huge fan of Daala’s canonical first name, and wanted to make it an abbreviation of ‘Renatasia,’ the name of a legendary queen (aka ‘Reina Tasia’ or ‘Elsinoré den Tasia’) who founded lots of Outer Rim colonial systems such Naboo and the eponymous Renatasia IV — and, I thought, Daala’s homeworld of Irmenu. That ended up being homaged obliquely, in an edit suggested by Jason, in the ‘Renatasian nuns on Botajef!’

"There are a few other continuity details scattered through this one: the name of United Warlord Fleets for her command in Darksaber is new, and alert fans might also note that this biography makes her the military leader of the Second Imperium in the Young Jedi Knights novels. The fake Royal Guards who purport to be leading the show were originally her bodyguards, after all….”

 

Putting Daala into the role of CoS just seems insane. I'm glad I stopped reading after Fury... But that still means I bought&read ten awful or semi-awful novels! (the DN trilogy and the first seven books of LOTF)

 

Her own Planet and a pardon would certainly do.

Still a better candidate IU wise.

 

Why would they elect Fyor Rodan as leader of the entire Alliance? He was part of the Confederation during CivWar2 for Christ's sake!

At least Daala helped the GA in the end.

 

I think that Gorefiend was talking about was Moff Crowal, who was a female moff in NJO, and then in Revelation Pellaeon talks about wanting to make Daala the "first female moff". Although I guess I can lay the blame on the feet of the "editors" as well.

 

Ah. The one person who would have been an even more outrageous selection.

 

Worse than Daala? I doubt that.

 

Even given her actions in LOTF I don't think Niathal would have been a worse choice than Daala. She still had many years of military service and good credibility to fall back on after all. Working with Caedus would of course have eroded some of that, as would plotting against Omas, but place her in a position beneath Daala? A war criminal and persistent enemy of the New Republic? The woman with a known burning and irrational hatred for the Jedi that work so closely with the GA? No I don't think so.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't have minded Niathal for Chief of State half as much as I hated Daala. For instance, Niathal was actually part of the Galactic Alliance, whereas Daala attacked almost everyone- she attacked Caedus' GA fleet at Fondor, the Moffs don't like her either, and yet she ends up in charge. Niathal at least was a senior officer and co-Chief of State with Caedus, although I don't see her holding on to the position after Caedus kicked her out and even after his death, but it would still have made more sense than Daala showing up out of nowhere to be appointed Chief of State.

What happened to a Senate election?! Last time we got a new Chief of State in a (mostly) legal way, there was that whole campaigning thing. At the end of LotF, while its grasping at straws, I thought the Confederation worlds had rejoined and wouldn't have been happy with someone like Niathal or Bwua'tu in charge, the GA wouldn't want a Confederation politician in charge, so they settled on a third choice. Then Outcast comes along and turns out the Confederation hasn't rejoined, which makes Daala's being CoS make even less sense. Although I think FotJ said Bwua'tu could have gotten the job but passed it along to Daala instead, which still doesn't make sense, but nothing about the whole farce really holds up to close scrutiny.

With how FotJ glossed over her whole history, they were trying to downplay some of the more ridiculous elements, but its still really annoying. And yet its not like JAT has been thrown out of canon since Kyp blowing up Carida is still being brought up, yet nothing of Daala's actions from that same trilogy is brought, and only barely referenced in vague, general terms. I know JAT isn't good, but still, I never expected to have Daala threatening to extradite Kyp to the Moffs for blowing up Carida. You know the saddest thing? The Imperial Head of State would probably treat Kyp fairer than the GA would, given that Jagged Fel was in charge (due to the Jedi, but still, Jag is a good guy).

I think there was a Denning interview post-Crucible, but I think that was mostly focusing on FotJ... although I think he mentioned killiks and DNT, but don't remember the interview in detail. It only made FotJ and Crucible even worse, so nothing I would like to remember, it was bad enough reading those series in the first place.

And on top of all that, Daala gets off scot-free at the end. She's thrown out in another coup, then tries to take over the Imperial Remnant, and then she's in an election for Imperial head of state and then... nothing. Sal-Solo being in charge of Corellia wasn't this maddening, since at the time it seemed like he was riding the wave of anti-GA sentiment on the always independent-minded Coreliia, which does fit into his original ambitions from the Corellia trilogy.

 

The last true election without any interference, rigged elections, coups etc was Borsk Fey'lya's election all the way before NJO.

 

Did the Confederation plotline actually ever get resolved, or is it stuck in the same bad writing time warp that Daala and Lescercen presumably vanished into during Apocalypse?

 

As far as I remember the Unification Summit was not solved. The Confederation is off doing whatever.

 

SMH I used to enjoy all the political maneuvering during the Bantam Era and into the NJO. Now you've got Daala being made Chief of State, by who exactly I still have no actual idea, but its there.

 

I despised Borsk Fey'lya with a passion back in the old days but I sure do miss that character right about now. If he came I'd probably shoot him after a page though.

 

Yeah he was a jerk. Far too smug. Better than Daala though. Really though I just want them to get away from all this take over crap and corrupt leader and just get back to a good character that can run the government properly. It seems nowadays a corrupt senate/chief of state is the norm, instead of one that can actually work to build a better government. Who knows, perhaps that's simply a result of the way people view the government in our world. All I do know is that, for me, during the Bantam Era things seemed so much brighter for everyone involved.

 

Y'know, I read Outcast before the JAT, so I had no idea who Daala was. Naturally, I would never have assumed she was an ex-Imperial insane tyrant lady. I knew it said she had once been an Imperial; but then, so had Pellaeon and he turned out fine. So for the first three books or so of FOTJ, I actually didn't mind Daala; I just assumed she was doing what she had to do. Then I read LOTF, and I liked Traviss' depiction of Daala (maybe the reason I like Traviss' version so much is because I read it before JAT). No problem. Then, finally, I read JAT and think, "Wait...Daala? Isn't FOTJ's Chief of State named Daala?" So I check Wookieepedia. Sure enough, same character. And now I'm thinking, "This is the woman they put in charge?" Makes me wonder if the same thing happened to the authors; they'd heard about Daala but never read JAT so they didn't know just how loco she was, and assumed, like Pellaeon, it would make sense for her to join the Galactic Alliance, and only later realized what they'd done.

 

I could understand Denning, writer of Invincible, not knowing just how bad Daala was (he joined the stable of writers late, during the NJO era). Traviss too- she never reads novels, and relies entirely on info given in synopses, for her references of other works.

Allston, however, I would expect to have read JAT.

 

True that and conniving. Why is he on the side of the Good guys?
Han said it best "Things were so much better in the Alliance when we were all on the same side." Or something along those lines.