Lit Crosscurrent and Riptide: Random Throwback Discussion

I imagine they went something like this:

"That flagship series is going great, right? Monthly and trade sales are both still high?"
"Sure are, boss!"
"Great! Let's cancel it."
"Wait... what?"
"Time to push the envelope, kid! We're going to go where the EU has never gone before... we're going to do a series about Leia, Luke and Han set just after A New Hope!"
"... Boss, are you feeling OK?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, Doug, when you can finish penciling the next issue?"
"I think I can finish this character's left arm by June 1st."
"Doug, it's October."
"You heard me!"
"Doug, the fans care less and less after every huge delay."
"I know. These delays scare the hell out of me. I swear they won't happen again."
"Didn't you say that the last eight times ... ?"
"I SWEAR THEY WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!"
"Hmm... well, if I cancel three other successful series, we can fit Dark Times into our schedule for the next three years. That's what the fans really want, isn't it?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hmmmm, our current series aren't doing that well. People liked Legacy, right?"
"Yeah, it was our most popular Star Wars series for years."
"What if we did it again but we made it bad this time?"

 

I think it's fitting that Wheatley has been illustrating George R. R. Martin's last few projects. If ever there were an author and an artist suited for each other's schedules, it's them.

 

Well, that's just, like, your opinion man.

I've read both 3-4 times and Crosscurrent is always 10x better. It's not just because Riptide is a repeat. Riptide just sucks in comparison and does everything worse.

IMO

 

It might have just been Lords of the Sith tbh, repackaged into a single book and shoved into the "it's a new EU!" phase.

I can imagine them thinking Vader/Palpatine fighting rebels together would "blow people's minds"

 

I doubt it but it's possible.

 

Yep, the decision was baffling - "we've done 50 issues!" "we have? damn, we better axe it!"

That was a sweet set of 5 books and they worked really well together.

 

I'll admit to having something of a soft spot for these two books. They used a bunch of crazy and interesting concepts, and characters that weren't the sky solos away from the train wreck that was FotJ/LotF. Plus the Anzatzi stalker Kel Dor was a pretty memorable villian even if his name was a litteral meme.

That said, the books aren't written very well, it pains me to say it but they just aren't. Jaden is about as interesting as one would expect a faceless video game protagonist to be, The writing is clunky and hard to get through at times, there are a bunch of wierd errors, and all the side plots wind up being entirely irrelevant. Oh and let's not forget the whole thing ending on a cliffhanger nobody ever intended to resolve.

 

Crosscurrent & Riptide are both examples of books that get along mostly on atmosphere--even more Riptide than Crosscurrent. There's something wonderfully fitting in making a series of books about creeping dread and identity loss & confusion and making the protagonist Jaden Korr, the black hole of characterlessness left by a video game Player Character. They were weird and interesting and effective enough, and I appreciated them for that.

Crosscurrent has a better plot than Riptide, but neither has much in that department, and what is there seems mostly for continuity purposes (the clones are by Thrawn! the weird living identity-shifting clone station is Rakatan! the random Jedi IS FROM LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH (TM) !); and the characterization is pretty lacking as well.

But yeah, that era of the EU was just so, so, so, so bad that they look good by comparison, even if the general sense of stifling aimlessness seems to infect these books to a degree as well. Even being forced to remember the lifeless garbage fire that was Apocalypse is obnoxious to me. Crosscurrent & Riptide look good in that context because they have actual effective atmosphere and themes, but they still are pretty much of piece with it, especially in their meandering plot construction and general refusal to tell a coherent story.

But yeah, admittedly the last Star Wars book I read was Kenobi, so I'm with you with on discussing the old stuff.

 

Dark Horse cancelling KOTOR and Legacy at 50 wasn't just a dumb decision, but it was handled terribly too. Especially Legacy, when Ostrander had explicitly promised fans that Legacy wouldn't end at 50 after the KOTOR announcement came, and Jan fuming about it on her own site afterwards, and Stradley having the nerve to defend the decision by claiming it was entirely the fans' fault for not buying more issues. That was a real blow to Dark Horse's pristine image in the community.

 

Did Crosscurrent have any female characters?

I honestly can't remember if it did.

 

I never actually read Kenobi. Is it worth getting? The only book I've read from Legends post the Legends classification was Crucible.

 

Definitely not any main characters. It didn't have that many characters full-stop.

 

Kenobi is wonderful, and almost succeeded singlehandedly in getting the bad taste of FotJ out of my mouth and actually making me like Star Wars again. It's an extremely simple & straightforward idea (what if Obi-Wan were the Mysterious Stranger in a Western?), but it's executed very well, with excellent characterization. In many ways, it's the opposite of the LotF/FotJ era of the EU; just a good, well-told adventure story with lots of nice thematic resonance, but absolutely no Galaxy-shattering drama. Definitely recommended.

 

Might pick it up and pretend it's part of Nu-canon in my head then. Would hope they borrow elements from it if they do end up making a Kenobi film.