Did TCW change the nightsisters that much from their EU depiction

Just curious if TCW changed them that much. I wasn't sure when or who created them so I went to wookiepedia and they said they were created in a book in '94. So did TCW altar their depiction that much.

I personally wasn't much of a fan of the nightsisters but mainly because I think Wicca is just weird and that is pretty much what the nightsisters are (star wars version of wicca).

 

I have a feeling using the nightsisters was completely Lucas' daughters idea. I think every single episode she was a part of used the nightsisters in some way. Makes me glad that GL did choose to sell it to a company and not allow his kids to take over.

 

No I was curious rather or not TCW changed them much. And in my mind magic spells and mysticism belongs in stories like Lord of the Rings. Not really into it in other types of stories. And I am personally glad Katie didn't get a chance to take over or else we likely would have seen a lot more of that kind of stuff in Star Wars.

 

Yeah. IIRC, Wiccans generally tend to stray away from dark magic, while dark magic seems to be what Mother Talzin was all about (zombies, anybody?).

 

The only thing TCW can be said to have "altered" is the introduction of Zabrak blood to the Dathomir gene pool, and the racial make-up of the Nightsister incarnation that exists under Talzin's leadership. Previously, the Dathomiri were overwhelmingly human or human-descended, whether among the Nightsisters or the various other Witch clans.

The Witches of Dathomir are also not magic users, they're Force users. They merely delve into the more esoteric aspects of the Force, and do so under an alternative culture that relates the power of the Force to magic as they understand it. Much of their rituals are based upon tradition rather than necessity, as the same results could be achieved by Jedi, Sith, or other Force users outside of the Dathomiri culture without the need for incantations or other extraneous rites.

And finally, the Nightsisters are not the Star Wars version of Wicca, nor any other shade of Paganism. If anything, the Nightsisters as portrayed by TCW only share similarities with the bastardized Hollywood idea of Wicca popular culture has such a hard time getting away from.

 

I know it's a bit of a silly retcon but Charal from Ewoks: The Battle For Endor is a kind of early example of a Dathomir witch. Sort of. Ish.

 

ITA. While so many find the original book "The courtship of PrincessLeia" weird, I kinda enjoyed the story (heck, it's best than most of the EU stuff...), and Teneniel Djo was one of my favorite characters until a couple of years ago. Reading that book and seeing how they were portrayed in TCW, I sort of have mixed feelings, I imagined them more human-like, hot like they gray skinned bald women. There is this lovely illustration of Teneniel on wookie, showing how I always pictured her/them:

 

Well the reason you always imagined the Dathomiri Witches in the novel as humans is because they were, and canonically still are. And that image is an up-to-date canon depiction of Teneniel Djo's encounter with Luke. While TCW did introduce Zabraks to Dathomir society and the potential genepool, not all Dathomiri possess Zabrak blood, only those who chose to breed with Zabrak mates, along with their subsequent descendants. The Singing Mountain Clan was predominantly human during the period of time Courtship takes place, as is the Nightsister clan under Gethzerion. But now we know from TCW, and furthered by The Last Jedi, that Zabrak-Human hybrids are among the overall populace, occasionally shifting from majority to minority from any given clan at any given time period. I believe it's also stated in the Book of Sith that the Nightsisters under Talzin intentionally bred almost exclusively with Zabrak men under the belief that it would strengthen them.

 

Well I did actually get around to reading "Courtship" recently, something I can thank the Nightsisters arc for motivating me to do, because I wanted to read more about them. The difficulty is the book spends more time on witch culture in general than on the Nightsisters specifically so the only real view we get of how they operate is when the good guys are fighting them, so it's hard to make a direct comparison. If we had seen more of the Nightsister culture in the book, I might have something more to go on. I do plan on buying the Book of the Sith at one point just so I can read Talzin's entry, but I'm not quite there yet.

The Nightsisters in both the book and the show do both seem to be ready willing and able to do whatever is necessary to put down anyone in their way, and relish doing so in a sinister sort of way. It was easier for me, though, to delve more deeply into what drives the ones in the show because I think it spent more time on them. To use D&D terms, the ones in TCW struck me as more of a Lawful Evil sort than the Chaotic Evil you get from most Sith. The oath Ventress takes in Massacre and the party that follows also suggested to me that Talzin's Nightsisters, at least, while vicious and cruel to outsiders, do actually look out for each other to a certain extent and might even care for each other even at a somewhat basic level. Both Maul's mother (from the book "Darth Plagueis") and Ventress' mother do both seem to show that Nightsisters at least have the potential to care for their children if nothing else.

At the end of the day, though, it's very easy for me to place both the TCW nightsisters and the "Courtship" Nightsisters in my personal continuity. They generally seemed to have the same attitudes to outsiders, at least, and if their behaviors are somewhat different, that can probably be attributed to different leaders and different times.

 

I think the person that drew that picture was watching a Xena episode at the time. I think they sexualized her just a tad too much.

 

TCW (or Star Wars generally) giving females gratuitously sexualized outfits??

 

CoughSlaveLeiacough.

 

Lol, not saying that it hasn't been done before but you know they are trying to sell stuff to fourteen year olds when they have pictures of girls running around with weapons with their stuff hanging out.

 

I see nothing hanging out there. I think that's a very pretty drawing.

 

If you don't like mysticism in your stories, then Star Wars isn't for you. If you like science fiction with zero mysticism, then Gene Roddenberry has something right up your alley.

 

ST is also full of mysticism FWIW. Whether it's the Squire of Gothos, or Q, or the wormhole life forms (prophets and pah wraiths) there is plenty of mysticism to go round. Dukat in the DS9 finale, when fully given over to the wraiths was pretty much wielding something not unlike Sith powers.

If you want hard sci if with no mysticism look to the works of Clarke, Asimov, Banks, Heinlien etc.

 

I don't mind the Force in Star Wars as the force belongs in Star Wars. Now if I were watching an episode of csi and all of a sudden someone started doing force pushes and choking people just by pointing at them then I would be saying now that doesn't belong.

 

It seems to me that showing skin on a lady is considered sexualising, but showing skin on a man is unremarkable...

 

Yeah, but consider the frequency of men showing skin compared to women...

 

Yeah, women should do more manual labour with their shirts off in public. This will redress the balance.

Wait, what point were you making?

 

FWIW?