PT Film Tie In Novels vs. Movies

I felt that the ROTS novelisation benefited from being a lot less recalcitrant to show Anakin losing his marbles.

 

Yeah, the ROTS novel definitely does amp up the "crazy" in Anakin to Vader, however, I still see it all there in Christensen's performance in the movie. You just get, like, more pages of it here. As mentioned, he is kinda throwing out one-liners when he's killing the Separatists but I can totally buy Vader doing that. I never saw his tears as being sad about what he did to the Separatists, that was just a job which I do buy that he enjoyed doing, but his tears were instead about a whole bunch of other-stuff that happened/what his future hold. And the aforementioned marble-losing.

 

I love that the TPM novelization explains the history of the Sith. The movie leaves you wondering what a Sith is and how the Sith went extinct.

 

I prefer the films, but I also enjoy the novels. One thing I did that really made me appreciate the novels further is I read Labyrinth of Evil, ROTS, and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader back to back. You really get a lot more background on Anakin/Vader and Sidious.

 

In an interview about ROTS, Stover said that he feels Anakin chose the dark side rather than having been seduced by the dark side and Palpatine. This might be why Anakin is presented in a less sympathetic light in the novelization.

 

Are you sure that was an inconsistency with the film?

 

At least the novel had the political scenes in it unlike the movie.

 

Along with Darth Plagueis, those are the best Novels that the PT era has to offer.

 

Most certainly. I've read many of the novels (not most, but many). And those ones and the Darth Bane trilogy are the ones that made the biggest impression on me.

 

I think most fans would agree that Jedi Trial is the best.

 

I enjoyed DK's take, even if our very own Lit Forum hated it for the most part.

I had a tough time with Anakin's near-instant willingness to confess-all open-up to the married-Stu Halcyon... but as a standalone, the story was well-written. If that makes sense.

 

Oh Lord! I remember that. I also remember how much I disliked it. I thought Stover's characterization almost reduced Anakin into a one-note character by then.​

 

I haven't read the TPM and ATOC novels, but I will sing the praises for the ROTS novel til the end of time.
Anakin's characterization was brilliant (The parts with him contemplating Sidious's reveal was especially amazing), Obi-Wan was brilliant, they actually gave Mace character, the PoVs of Anakin is great and really interesting, and the opening with the people's reaction to the attack on Coruscant is breathtaking.
Unfortunately, some parts were not up to snuff; Order 66 should've been covered more, Padme's character, and Utupau kinds drags.
But, I still love it. Especially the humor (I will never forget the part where Obi-Wan stares at Anakin's butt in the elevator and Anakin's one-liners).

 

Neat bit of business in the ROTS novelization, Windu references Skywalker being "The Shatterpoint" which plays extremely well if you read Matthew Stover's Mace Windu novel "Shatterpoint". There's a lot of back and forth between those two works so when the Windu/Palpy confrontation happens, it resonates.

 

Definitely one of the best parts of the book alright BigAl6ft6
Impossible to do on screen though.

 

It's a pity that I disliked most of the novel.

 

Because Padmé refused to go with Anakin in the film. In the novel, if he really is the most important thing to her -- more important than her principles and her life's work -- then she would have gone with him.

That she didn't just shows that Stover doesn't know how to consistently characterize.

And the political scenes work better in the deleted scenes, so that, unfortunately, can't elevate the novel enough for me.

To be honest, it's reading posts like these that really made me give up on the EU.

I've read Labyrinth of Evil, ROTS, and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader and if they're really among the best of the PT novels then I can't imagine how terrible the rest must be. Just my opinion, though.

 

You quit reading the EU because other people liked the stories more than you did? I find that fascinating.
If only this were a different forum...

There are only five or six other PT-Era novels that I've read... TPM, AoTC, DM-Saboteur, DM-Shadow Hunter, DM-Lockdown along with Shatterpoint... but for my money, LOE, ROTS, Dark Lord and Darth Plagueis were the best of the bunch.

 

Well that and a few rather terrible PT novels. Greg Bear's Rogue Planet. Jedi Trial (which I never finished -- I gave up). Alan Dean Foster's The Approaching Storm. Good god was that a terrible book. I kept bursting out laughing at his horrible purple prose -- he sounded like he was regurgitating a thesaurus at some points.

I quit reading the EU because the novels that everyone said were the best seemed subpar to me. And the few additional novels I had checked out were absolutely terrible. Why waste my time? And if Stover's novelization taught me anything, it's that the EU is incredibly subject to the whim of the author. A lot of the novels feel nothing like the films. So why bother? I might as well read fan fiction. It's free after all (and often better written, to be perfectly honest).

 

Funny how you say how terrible the EU is with its characterization, plot, etc., and then praise the PT for being some of the best films ever made.

 

I imagine it would be funny to you since we don't share an opinion on many topics. Notice, though, that I'm posting to the PT board rather than the EU board or the Lit board. Because I'm not going to rain on their parade and waste my time railing against something I don't like to a bunch of people who are looking to enjoy it.

This thread asked about the novels vs films and was posted on the PT board. I've given an honest opinion. If you think it's funny, I wonder why you're here. Did you expect us all to hate the PT?

 

To discuss the PT.

 

Yeah.

So don't act all surprised that people here actually, you know, like the PT and think they're good movies. If I'd liked the EU, I'd be posting there, but I don't, so I don't waste my time.

 

Fair enough.