Dark Fantasy and the NJO

Those who spend any amount of time reading fantasy are probably aware of a trend in fantasy beginning in earnest around the mid-nineties towards much darker stories than the genre is stereotyped as having. Authors like Matthew Woodring Stover, George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman and Robin Hobb have been writing stories where there is no clear good vs. evil and where no one can expect to live happily ever after.

The New Jedi Order, for better or for worse, has been influenced by this shift in the genre. Indeed, the aforementioned Matthew Woodring Stover actually wrote a book in the series, and Gregory Keyes wrote two. RA Salvatore?s Demonwars books certainly fit under the darker fantasy category, and he wrote the very first NJO book. Del Ray is hiring some of the very best fantasy authors they can, no doubts there.

The NJO is somewhat darker than the previous EU novels in that people do suffer pain and see friends die and can die themselves, but is it actually even darker than the movies? After all, A New Hope alone saw the deaths of Owen and Beru Lars, the torture of Princess Leia, the destruction of Alderaan and over one billion sentients, the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the death of Biggs Darklighter. And The Empire Strikes Back is often considered darker than A New Hope. The prequel trilogy has seen two victories even more pyrrhic than the those of the NJO ? at least in the NJO they realized that all they had won was a bit of time, while they didn?t even realized that they lost in The Phantom Menace, and have no idea about the magnitude of their loss in Attack of the Clones. I somehow doubt that Episode III will be any lighter in tone.

Of course, it would be a mistake to confuse body counts with tone. In my opinion, A New Hope is the most hopeful and bright of all the Star Wars movies, despite the highest good-guy body count. The Wraith Squadron books saw major characters die on a semi-regular basis, but those books were also simultaneously some of the funniest and most touching EU books ever printed. Star Wars has had fairly high body counts in the movies, and the EU was comparatively very light on death in the Bantam days.

The NJO has changed things, giving us body counts comparable to those of the movies and also giving us the dark tone of modern fantasy. But was it necessary to have both? Could they have made the series darker without killing off characters? Could they have killed off characters without making the series darker? Has the darkness of the NJO gone too far, or has it been relatively mild when you compare it to the likes of Graham Joyce?s Requiem or Robin Hobb?s Farseer Trilogy?

 

"The prequel trilogy has seen two victories even more phallic than the those of the NJO"

ROTFLOL, you obviously didn't mean what you said, but that's a laugh riot.

Someone call Mr. Freud, .

Oh, and I think you meant to say pyrric(sp?), but obviously the word you chose means something totally different.

 

Just because they use lightsabres to win, doesn't mean they're phallic victories.

 

Mr. Freud and I need to have a long talk about something other than my mother. This isn't the first time I've done this sort of thing in recent days. A phallic victory would come from an entirely different kind of dark story.

Pyrrhic was the word I was looking for.

 

In general the New Jedi Order is an attempt to create a threat that is every bit as frightening as the Empire while also giving the idea that perhaps the publishing house is completely crazy endangering their cash cow.

With Anakin and Chewie's death they did it, not to mention all the other dead.

The Yuuzhan Vong conceptually are indeed Alien by Star Wars standards and much in the mold of the Old Trilogy in the fact that the Yuuzhan Vong are pure evil. The books have abundantly made it clear that the Vong by all standards of morality are unable to be dealt with.

They are the Barbarians to the New Republics Rome (which ironically overthrew Romans)

Dark Empire is the closest in tone to New Jedi Order and Dark Empire (barring its sequels) is the best the EU has to offer. The Emperor in these books has devastated Coruscant which was necessary to prove they were victorious enemies, they have corrupted Luke to the Dark Side, and are attacking a place most fans of the trilogy know about (Mon Calamari)

It's in general the Rebel Alliance getting their butt handed to them and the destruction of two of their Star Destroyers and the complete ditching of the fact that they have defeated the Emperor or apparently made much of an affect on his awesome war machine is enough to make this series perfect....there's even the threatening of a little child.

The key point in difference between the Old Trilogy and the NJO is the fact that the characters in the Old Trilogy in general don't make mistakes or if they do its for the best reasons. Luke's destiny is a bright flame that carries throughout the trilogy...only in Return of the Jedi (barring Ewolks the darkest of the series) is it ever in question.

In the Prequel Trilogy the characters usually come out smelling like a rose. Darth Maul is slain despite his killing Qui gon, the Naboo saved, Dooku has escaped but his armies wasted....however the characters all indecisive and riddled with character flaws. Anakin is rebellious, arrogant, and honestly mean to those he percieves as evil (alot of people)/Obi Wan is legalistic, traditionalist, and imperceptive/Padme is naive and loving to the point of ignoring serious mental issues/Yoda and Mace are brillant and wise but even they have their failings "pay more attention to the Senate" (who shouted TOO @&@)@ LATE! to the screen or wanted to?)

The New Jedi Order basically makes its few mistakes in the fact that it merges the indecisiveness of the Prequel Characters with the Overwheling enemy that is the Old Trilogy.

Furthermore it made the mistake of killing a lead character with unresolved issues (i.e. Tahari and the prophecy) which should never be done.

Some books are very Old Trilogy in flavor like Rebel Stand where the fact that they've lost Coruscant is muted with the fact that they've destroyed the Warmaster's father and Domain Hul...others are more Prequel like in the Dark Tide dualogy where a small victory is overshadowed by immense loss.

Others fall inbetween like Star by Star. In general the NJO is a great set of books it just seems to be a bit uneven in my mind (the Voxyn thing could hae been better handled such as destroying the facility that creates them instead of just the Queen)