Lit Eleven-ThirtyEight and stuff

Highlight of my day: reading a summary of yesterday's article translated by Google back to English from the summarizer's original Russian.

Best part: "Episode VII Lucas wrote himself, not looking at anyone and anything"

 

It's interesting that SW Blog and this blog are talking about Centerpoint at the same time:

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2014/01/centerpoint-station-an-indictment-of-the-gffa/

I like the article.

 

A suggestion inspired by the latest pages on ACKBAR IS GONE, ALL HAIL SOCIAL FRED! - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0: Why not make a "What Star Wars Can Learn from the 'Disney Afternoon' series" article?

 

...

 

I mean since much of the 'Disney Afternoon' series are traditional adventures that build on the same base as SW dose and many of them could with out problem turn into a SW adventure: f.ex. if they did a Han Solo series they could copy many of stories used in Tale Spin with not to many changes.

And if we trust the internet (and I admit that is stupid) the 'Disney Afternoon' series are highly beloved by many age groups, so they most have done something right

 

Well, WSWCLF is more about holding something up as an exemplar of certain areas where SW is lacking--it's important not to get so loose with it that we're jut saying "look, this thing reminds me of SW".

 

It was not exactly what I meant but than again I seems to have lost my original thought so you can just ignore me

 

Everyone ought to read this:

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2014/02/goodbye-dark-horse/#comment-916

(And no, it's not my work!)

 

Is Jar Jar Binks the Bonkers of Star Wars, or was Bonkers the Jar Jar Binks of the Disney afternoon?

 

I would say that he is more Goofy, Bonkers is a loot more hyperactive while Jar-Jar and Goofy are more easy-going

 

Hav checks in with the second half of our "Goodbye Dark Horse" feature.

 

As The Loyal Imperial hasn't posted about this, I will:
A Case for Starting Over, Part V: Passing the Torch

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2014/02/a-case-for-starting-over-part-v-passing-the-torch/

Piece is excellent and well worth a read, it may tell you everything you already knew but it does it with style!

 

Yeah, when I was partway through writing it, I realized that the fundamental nature of the story was simply too absurd for effective analysis: you can't attempt to make a rational argument in the face of complete and utter irrationality. As it turned out, a straight summary proved to be more than sufficient at getting the point across.

 

How about this one?

http://eleven-thirtyeight.com/2014/02/cog-hive-seven-and-social-justice-in-the-gffa/

Makes an interesting point about why the Republic needed Jedi to deal with "justice" in the first place- because it was a pretty loose system.

 

While I obviously agree with the complaint that the younger generation never got its chance with the torch because the movie characters had to be the main characters, I think the "when they were thirty" bit undermines the article with its bias. Didn't even see a point in reading properly after that and just glanced over the next points. Saying that Han had been more important at age 30 than Jacen or Jaina is... well, Anakin had probably done a greater amount of heroic stuff at 30, fact included that he was dead for almost half that time. Taking Zekk and Lowbacca into the mix? Well, what had secondary characters Chewie and Lando under their belts at age 30? Strike that. What is a 'talented smuggler'?

But it's interesting to see what's basically a case for "our heroes must have more galaxy-shattering adventures" in a "LOTF suxx lol" article.

 

Someone who can survive the hazards of smuggling for years, maybe.

 

Eighty percent of success is showing up. Didn't know that this was out of the ordinary in SW, though, with smuggler being one of three or four career options if you're not going into government work or one of the chosen few.

 

I think your complaints are misdirected Grey!

 

How's that?

 

Easy, I'm not the author of the piece! Therefore I can't tell you why LIT focused it as he did.

For me, the comparison of characters at the same ages makes the point about just how much inhibition was placed on the next generation and asks the question why, that then leads into asking the wider question of why stories like DN and LOTF took the form they did at all and the likely answers aren't pretty.

 

I think the point isn't accomplishment so much as position. Han, Luke, and Leia were independent characters, with full agency and a legacy of accomplishments, who had been having adventures as main characters for a long time. Whereas the Solo kids, at the time their parents were leading story after story, running the galaxy and driving the narrative, are dead, dead, and a supporting hero in a war who then regressed to having to have her parents save her and then was largely ignored by the next series until they realized she was the only major character between 18 and 50 who was going to survive it and they had her kill her brother. It's not about who blew up the bigger superweapon as much as the fact that the Big Three, in their thirties, were fully adult leading characters. The next generation, even with Jaina pushing forty, has never graduated beyond being sidekicks. And outside the NJO, usually pretty pathetically-treated sidekicks.

 

I think Jacen was the hero of the NJO, whether folks want to admit it or not, and Jaina had as big a role as her parents and uncle Luke.

 

No kidding, only for Denning to come along and squander any opportunity for the torch to finally be passed. No, instead Denning just led Del Rey down the path of wasting twenty-two books and to bring down the other three books from the Legacy era.

 

Yeah, over the course of time. I think the only misstep was that they didn't really find something for her to do in the finale. Jacen had his moment, Luke had his moment, Han and Leia contributed certain things, but Jaina's arc didn't seem to build to anything distinct. Had she and Jag been flying and blown up the Alpha Red ship, or taken out Choka and helped force the surrender, or anything, I think it would have been better than having her be the third wheel in the throne room showdown.

But, yeah, maybe "ensemble hero" would have been better than "supporting." But the point is, the highest point she ever reached was "kid taking her place in the ensemble," and she was immediately regressed to a definitive supporting player -- "person who holds down the irrelevant side plots or plays sidekick to Luke or her parents" -- and her character arc annihilated. As an adult approaching middle age, she's more of a sidekick to her parents and uncle than she was as a teen. It's perverse.