They don't need to kill anyone off. That gains us nothing. They need to develop the characters with the most potential further, let the rest float around the background, and make up some new ones if we need more variety. We're suffering from a dearth of significant Jedi to fill out the Order, not a surplus to waste.
I'm not talking about the visual background somehow being represented in the books. "Luke walked through the halls of the Jedi Academy. Off in the distance behind him, Jysella Horn was doing something." I'm talking about having them around to fill out the setting. Namedrop them in a crowd scene. Need to fill out a squadron or a strike team? Use somebody existing. Need to mention that someone random has been sent off on a mission? Use that character. You're not really developing the character, but they're still around to fill out the Jedi Order and make it feel like more than just the set of characters we're following.
I agree Valin, Dorran, Jaden and Jysella have earned that, maybe even Seff Hellin or Avinoam Arelis. But what about the extra Barabels and Kunor Bann, Turi Altamik, and the rest? Let them get killed off
What does that accomplish? Valin, Doran, and Jaden should be bigger than just namedrop walk-ons. But as long as we've got other Jedi who are mostly just names, keep using the names where you just need names. That's how you develop a living universe.
I suppose I agree, but at the same time shouldn't we get at least one outting with the named Jedi. I'm ok if we name drop Tiu Zax or Kolir Hu'lya. They have back story. I feel like the majority of Jedi should be treated somewhere along the lines of the attention Seha got through FotJ. Now if Seha falls out of favor, she can make a great character. Either move a character away like Danni Quee, Streen, or Kiranna Ti, or develop them then move them to the back. But don't create another human Jedi to do a job an already established human Jedi could be doing. The reason I want a Star by Star like novel in this era is to allow the young Jedi that the authors want to use to be developed whilst killing off some of their creations that fell into the gutter. Would love an Allston series that is a cross between his Wraith novels and his use of the Jedi in the LotF and FotJ, where he doesn't have to go to Luke, Leia, Han, Ben, Jaina, or Jag every chapter
I still say if a story needs to kill anyone off, kill Rosh Penin first. His ongoing survival is further proof his character just exists to annoy us!!
I actually think Kyle Katarn hunting Jaden and Marka Ragnos down would make a very good story. When you've got Kyle personally on your trail, you know **** just got real. Not surprising, since Kyle is by far the hardest boss fight in any of the Dark Forces games.
I think as long as they primarily use the Big 3, other characters will not get as much development. Luke already has a couple lifetimes worth of character development. Its time to start building on the other, smaller cast members, who always seem overshadowed by the Big 3. EDIT: I am happy to learn that SOTJ will not be featuring them and allow for other characters to grow into their roles.
not!!! i liked him better as a pilot in the rogue squadron novels or as a simple investigator. we need him and Ben to have an adventure
That is the problem with recient Corran Horn. They have forgotten his roots. Anytime there is a Jedi death, he should be the first one on scene if possible. Allston always remebers Horn's pilot history, which is nice. Though I must say, Dark Tide was probably the best mix between Jedi Horn and Pilot/Investigator Horn.
This excites me as well. Hopefully, the ST will move the Big 3 to support roles within the novels, maybe not even make the dramatis personae. The new characters will headline ST then lead the EU. I still want a non Skywalker/Solo Jedi cast story, ie. Star by Star
Any material that is meant to be a direct lead-in to E7 will likely be based on notes from Lucas and/or those directly involved in the films, not original plot ideas from Lit/EU people or authors, so the only way the above-mentioned novels serve as direct lead-ins to E7 is if Christie Golden and Troy Denning are asked to scrap everything they currently have for said novels and basically start over from scratch using whatever notes might come from the filmmakers.
But the books could be bridge books, adjusting things and even retconning to allow for EU and EP 7 to be, so you can be happy and I can be happy and no one will be angry or upset. There is a way we can all win
I know this isn't going to be the most popular opinion, but I feel like the best thing that could happen right now would be for Crucible and SOTJ to be delayed or cancelled entirely to minimize conflict with the sequels. There's no point in continuing to go farther and farther down the timeline now that we know that there are movies coming up. If the Del Rey folks had any idea that there were going to be new movies it's unlikely we would have gotten anything past FOTJ. At this point, It's like publishing a series about Anakin and Obi-Wan in 1998 using information about the Clone Wars from the Thrawn Trilogy--hold off until we know what the movies are going to cover in that era. If they aren't published, we have that much less to retcon later. TC
Fact is, that we've been stomping pretty much in the same place of the timeline since 2006. Betrayal took place in 40 ABY and Crucible is only five years later. That's a slow progress considering the amount of books and events. Compared to the jumps they did earlier (VotF 19 ABY - VP 25 ABY, TUF 29 ABY - TJK 35 ABY even TSW 36 ABY - Betrayal 40 ABY) it's worth a thought. Could they've been told to hold on? I'm not saying they want to save the EU at all costs - but it might be that someone knew something would happen eventually, and tried to arrange the cards as neatly as possible.
Well, they knew they couldn't kill Luke, so I imagine that was pretty much all it was really. After all, until the ST stuff, we were all waiting for the day Lucas would finally green light a final adventure for the Big 3, with people repeatedly speculating whether it would be some big multi-media thing with a video game and other tie-ins, etc, so... they always knew there was a "limit" to how far they could take the Big 3's storyline.
I agree. It's not like I'm in love with the projects anyway, but even so, blindly forward isn't really the way to go here.
