Lit Fate of the Jedi issues...

Spoiler

I really like Pius Dea and there era of the Republic.
But I hate Aby and wish they would just leave her to die in a whole.

I was thinking the part of Cult Encounters where it talked about the order of the sacred glare with the daemons from another galaxy

 

Spoiler

That always seemed to be a bit of a small universe syndrome to me. Surely there are inspirations for the Goddess of the Pius Dea or at least other such beings.

Spoiler

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so I just read Dyon running off to meet Abeloth and then his actual meeting her....

1) I get that Ves is technically right that letting Dyon go and tracking him is a good way to find Abeloth but Luke nor Ben seem to react at all with care for Dyon in that it puts him in extreme danger....that is very bothersome, they're both like, "hey, it's a good lead"....poor Dyon, just a pawn for Jedi and Sith (EDIT: I still think this holds true bc Luke doesn't know about next point when he acts like he does with this point)
2) so Dyon meets Abeloth and yea, he doesn't seem long for this world, if he dies, good job Luke, maybe you should have left him back on Dantooine, at least he'd be alive, I mean he wasn't even a true Jedi and now you basically got him killed (EDIT: good call by book, didn't let Dyon die, thank you!!!, so Luke is okay on this point)
3) so Abeloth is basically a dementor from Harry Potter, she sucks out your soul??? oh, so it can empower her to live forever? I know this is fantasy, but that's like magical fantasy, this is sci-fi fantasy....just seems very weird for this series

 

okay so too late to edit above post but I know it's Dathomir, not Dantooine

wow, just read about taking on Abeloth…..

1) Callista, there's a name I never wanted to hear again, god I HATED her!!!, not to mention I'm pretty sure she was hated across the board by most people....god she was horrible, she was a freaking computer that Luke fell in love with, then transferred herself into one of Luke's student's bodies (that's super weird and creepy), and her and Luke had no chemistry at all, it was just horrible, and that storyline is the worst ever in the EU (to me) and that's saying a lot
2) why is Luke so mushy over her at this point, he LOVED Mara!!! hardly a mention of Callista ever again after Mara shows up
3) not to mention he was super recently mushy over ghost Mara, to suddenly go this mushy over Callista is super creepy to me
4) funnily enough, I totally forgot about Jaina, and that she was not on the planet with them until she showed up fighting Ship above the planet, which I guess was the plan, but IDK, seems like 3 Jedi when having to team with a bunch of shady Sith would have been better than 2 Jedi
5) of course the Sith betrayed them at the absolute worst time to do it, while they're still trying to fight Abeloth
6) please tell me Abeloth isn't really dead, if so, wow, that was quick and not fleshed out at all in the end
7) speaking of the Callista/Abeloth thing, wow, is that supposed to be the big twist???? if so, hahahahaha, that's stupid, just stupid
8) speaking of the Sith vs Jedi fight, just saying, I love Ben, but I think it's a little OP of him to be able to take on Ves' dad so evenly, I would have thought that the idea of him was to be extremely talented (obviously not equal with Luke, but can hold his own and it would take Luke difficulty in defeating so Ben wouldn't be a good match)
9) also, I know it is a recurring thing in SW and all genres, but can we please stop with the bad guy speech trying to convince the good guy to turn bad, OF COURSE it reminds the good guy to NOT TURN!!! u r just helping the good guy to see what he's doing wrong and to stop!!! (it's one of my pet peeves about ROTJ, if the Emperor had stopped running his mouth, he might have actually turned Luke, not that I wanted that but still)

 

Well I mean Luke doesn't know him, so he can't know whether or not he deserves compassion.

I don't Hate Callista (she isn't my fav love interest for Luke, that place goes to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gaeriel_Captison (from the Truce at Bakura) I don't mind Cas though and Luke did like her a lot, so it's sad.

yeah the Sith have the worst timing haha, I love how they turn on him, then turn back to Abby like nothing happened. I like to think it reflects their society where betrayal is expected.

Eh, I think it's a bit op.

I won't tell you anything about Abby.

yeah it's a common trope that never works.

 

Regarding Ben fighting Gavar Khai-I always considered the lost tribe to be relatively weak in terms of their actual power in comparison to different Sith orders.

Also Ben is a member of the Skywalker line so that probably helps him a lot.

 

@AusStig, maybe hate's too strong a word bc I don't hate her personally, but everything about the story that involved her was weird and icky as I noted, and I def. thought her and Luke had no chemistry, so I was very glad to see her go, and her being back is just a reference back to that other story which I feel should be erased due to it's horribleness

also, doesn't know Dyon?? he's a Force sensitive who trained at the Temple for a small bit, but left bc he couldn't make it, yet he went to Dathomir where he seemed to be a good person, and he has helped Luke and company in last book, there's no reason to think anything other than Dyon is a good person and deserves compassion

I figured that be the reality initially too when they were first presented, h/e they've shown the Lost Tribe in this series to not have this problem at all.....they pirated the galaxy for 2 years immediately upon achieving space flight, Lady Rhea almost took down Luke, Ves even matched him for a small minute, when they showed up on Dathomir they took down the Nightsisters like they were nothing, so I've come to believe somehow someway they are just as good....I do think that is a big problem in believability though

personally, I'm not a big fan of this "line" = greatness w/o age and I know Ben has already been through a lot in a relatively young life, but he's only 15?, I'm not sure he should be able to take on full fledged adult Sith so easily....although admittedly I didn't even think about this during NJO with Solos, of course they weren't fighting other Force users....

where adult to youth is seen in regards of years of training/experience

 

Ben seems to have gotten all the sexual scenes in the last bunch of Del Rey books starting (shivering) with Invincible. He got more then his cousins and his family did at that age and no one bated an eyelid.

 

The return of Callista grabbed my attention as well.
The end of Planet of Twilight made it sound like Luke wouldn't see her again, but i was interested in learning how her plot line would have gone.
Pretty heart-breaking imo.

 

wow I'm shocked...so most people weren't absolutely turned off to her just from the Eye of Palpatine story??? that story killed all interest in her to me, not to mention the Hoth story afterwards was pretty boring too

jw, what are people's feeling then on
1) that she was a computer that Luke fell in love with
2) that she took one of Luke's student's bodies to inhabit and the weird complications that arise from that when you think about it

also, nobody else thinks his mushy reaction to Callista at this point is weird considering his life with Mara and even super recent reactions to her at the Lake of Apparations??

 

In more recent times, this seems more plausible than ever.

People have short memories.

Sent from my Moto X-Wing

 

My comment was reference to Lukes earlier line that "compassion is for those who deserve it", when Ves called him out for being cold to the deaths of Sith.

I think Luke just felt like he had no other options.

So now comes the fall out of Abby's death...

Yeah pro-Empire people (in and out of universe) have been doing that since the start of NJO

 

okay so finished Allies.....I have some thoughts on the ending but I also need to recap the book I guess...…

Ending
1) so there was no more Abeloth stuff in this book after the fight, wow what a buzzkill, and I get it might be set up for something in the next book, but that sucks for this book badly
2) so Luke decides to tell Lando/Jaina to leave and for the rest of the Sith to leave except Taalon/Khai/Vestara, and they agree to this.....I'll be super shocked if the Sith actually leave, this just seems like another bone headed decision by ANY person in Luke's situation...you shouldn't trust the other side at all w/o a contigency
3) Daala: "I'm not a dictator" while deciding to crush protests over slavery, just shut up now
4) Daala: "They're not the GA" referring to the Mandos while talking about them openly working for her, I'm pretty sure they represent the GA IF they are working for the Chief of State!!!, r u an idiot Daala??
5) poor Bwua'tu, right on the verge of hopefully making some good changes in this story and now he's dead probably so we can spin wheels for another 3 books before they wrap it up in Book 9, also I'll be waiting for an answer on how someone (I would think Daala) knew about his collaboration with the Jedi (also further proof of her dictator ways for the above 2 points)
6) poor Tahiri, that really sucks for her personally that they played the audio, but I have a hard time truly feeling sorry for her, she did do the crime, but it is a sucky way to end the book

Overall
Luke storyline setup was great for this book, I do not personally believe it paid off well though
1) Klatooine story was weak and only setup that obviously the Sith would mess with the Fountain thing, the only good part of it was the slavery revolt being part of the bigger revolt galaxy wide for world building
2) I believe Luke was too trusting and they let it pay off too much for this to be believable for Sith
3) not near enough time was spent on Abeloth's planet, and that wasn't fleshed out well enough, the whole selling point seemed to be on the Callista shock reveal, which for me as I said, didn't do anything for me at all and ruined the whole thing
4) the abrupt end and nothing else just drove the story off a cliff at the end and that sucks

Daala/Jedi/Coruscant storyline - same old same old
1) Daala acts like a dictator, and doesn't believe she is...….
2) the Mando siege and total disregard for life should once again be a game ender in public opinion and it's not really shown to be, yes it tells us public opinion isn't favorable, but this is totally disregarding citizens' rights and lives, it's like what happens in third world countries, and the public just doesn't like it? they should be absolutely rioting in the streets bc they wonder if they are next
3) Han and Leia lack of much to do in this book is def. noticeable..., although I am glad they're not off being bad parents this time
4) the Jedi still can't seem to get it's act together on how to work together, they really are useless without Luke, not that his leadership was all that great in my opinion either

so overall, I really don't think this book paid off on much.....

 

You did want Tahiri to face consequences


spoiler

Spoiler: later FOTJ big spoiler

I WISH Abeloth had died then and didn't come back

 

I like the jedi are no longer crazy. So that pays off.

Also the audio evidence should not have been used at that stage of the trial. Especially since it CAME FROM DAALA! She is the one who supplied it. Now while giving over key evidence is somethign fine, BUT she does it very late in the trial (when it looks like Tahiri might get off) and she hides that it was her. If that came out (say from the conspiracy against her unearthing it) it should be a scandal.

Yeah remember back in Bloodlines when their were protests against the GAG for ARRESTING PEOPLE? I guess Jacen purged them all off screen over all.

Yeah Bwua'tu was finally going to not be a horrible enabler of dictators and he gets attacked for it.
Again if this comes out (that Daala is sponsoring them, which should be easy since she is using them to siege the Temple), then Daala should be gone, either step down or removed legally.

Well Han and Leia sent rats to the jedi (which is the most help they have given since the start of this series)

 

yea, didn't mention that, but that is a good thing, IF it stays that way

IDK it came from Daala, maybe that's revealed later, but it's ok, and yes, another notch against her, doubt anything will come of it though, color me shocked it if does

GREAT POINT!!!!, this is so frustrating to me

yea, I had already figured it was Mandos dressed up as Jedi even before Bwua'tu figured out it wasn't true Jedi, but yes, IF it comes out she had the head Admiral of the Navy killed, YES HAS TO GO, if not, the GA is dead as a functioning govt.

true in actuality, h/e I just missed them getting an actual GOOD story that takes up a good chunk of a book, they are some of my favorite parts of the EU

 

I'm actually very interested in this discussion here, I'd love to get some input from everyone....my prev. post on Callista didn't get responded but I'd really like to know why people do like her or at least the Luke/her pairing

from my pov, Children of the Jedi is the worst single book story in the entire EU....
1) I hated reading about Luke being stuck on that ship so injured, not real sure what was going on, and the whole Callista being a computer yet he fell in love with her...to me it was so sappy and weird, and not very becoming of Luke freaking Skywalker, it made him look weak and like a chump to me, do others not see it that way?? what's your feeling on that story??
2) then the body switching was just horrendous to me, I mean, Cray was Luke's student, someone he had mentored for IDR how many years but at least a few, and now suddenly he's going to be kissing/loving Callista in Cray's body???? that's so icky to me as well, does that not bother other people??

If nothing else, maybe this explains why I didn't want to see Callista again, but I'd love to hear your responses!!!!

 

1. Eh I don't mind. It was a bit weird but nothing more than other stuff from that era.

2. Yeah that's really odd and weird. But I assumed she altered her body to not look like his student.

Although at this I had just read The Last Command for the first time and it had lost all respect for Mara, so I was more open to other love interests for Luke.

now on to Vortex, the book that killed all hope of the 'heroes' not being worse then the people they fight

 

I thought it was the weirdest thing ever...I mean the rest of the EU during that time was mostly just taking on Sith/IR, some sci-fi stuff like clones, super weapons, etc., but this story and Waru from the Crystal Star just were way farther out there to me

well, Mara was still "bad" during that time so of course it wasn't the time for Luke to fall for her (hence why I don't like Ben/Ves at the moment), admittedly I've read the entire post-ROTJ EU in order so I watched Mara's somewhat change and it smoothed a lot of that over for me

wonderful to hear about Vortex (why am I not shocked it's Denning), do I want to continue????

 

No, you don’t, but you have come so far. Why stop now?

 

Never change Sinny. Never change.