YES! Absolutely. She is my favorite SW character. My alter-ego, actually! EDIT: But there is one thing about her I would COMPLETELY undo. (Spoiler for some so I won't say it.)
Either the Han Solo Adventures of Marvel Star Wars, if we are allowing broad story arcs. A more minor the account of how Han met Chewie.
Darth Maul surgically attached to his Infiltraitor like a bobble head. It would be better than what we got.
Obviously, most of us would disagree heavily. I'd even argue there are some works in the EU that are better than the movies.
Ok, I'll bite. Tell me which works are in your opinion better than the movies (please don't say the whole sorry NJO spectacle). The Thrawn Trilogy was my first piece of EU and still, more than 20 years later, I still say it stands much better than most of what's been published since.
Well, the most obvious one is that I feel the Revenge of the Sith novel is a much better experience than the movie. Of course, that could be seen as cheating, so I'll take the next best thing and say most of Stover's novels, I think, go above and beyond the expectations of a tie-in novel, and are part of the reason why I'm even a fan of Star Wars. I found myself liking the characterizations of Luke, Han, and Leia in his Shadows of Mindor even more than I did in the movies. Another good example would be the Plagueis novel. Not only do I enjoy that novel by itself more than The Phantom Menace, but that novel actually has many things in it that increase my enjoyment of TPM. Considering I'm really not a fan of TPM, that's no small feat. Should be noted that James Luceno did this previously, with Cloak of Deception. Really, Luceno has done a ton to improve the prequel trilogy, if you ask me; I actually believe the prequel trilogy had a very decent skeleton plot, but suffered from Lucas's old "faster and more intense" motto. Darth Plagueis and Cloak of Deception do wonders in filling the holes Lucas left. As you mentioned, yeah, the Thrawn Trilogy is certainly very good. A lot of the comics are very highly regarded, as well. The Clone Wars comics are certainly of much higher quality than the Lucas-approved television show (though I supposed the television show would also be considered EU, even though Lucas plays a large role in it). I have not read it personally, but many hold Legacy in very high esteem as well, as well as the Knights Of The Old Republic comics. It should be noted that I'm somewhat unique among Star Wars fans, as it really was not the movies that got me into it. I've seen the movies all my life, sure, but I didn't come to regard them as any more than "pretty good movies" until being exposed to things like the KOTOR video game, and from there moving on to some of the novels. The main appeal of Star Wars, to me, is that it's such a large, infinite story. The idea of a shared universe really appeals to me, which is why I could probably never get into anything that deals with separate dimensions or whatever (Star Trek, most comics, etc.). So, when looking at all Star Wars media, I don't really put the movies on that much of a higher scale than some of the really good comics and novels. I really respect George Lucas' talent for creating memorable characters, and his undeniable genius for creating interesting settings and worlds (as evidenced by the amount of authors who want to play around in it), but I don't really respect his ability for dialogue or character development. A lot of that slack, I think, is picked up by other authors that help make the franchise what it is.
Ok. Me, I still have a hard time liking the PT. Mostly due to the way Lucas handled and directed the whole affair and that disdain has unfortunately spread to anything (be it books, comics or that wretched, lousy TV show) related to that era. I did read Cloak of Deception back in the day and yeah, Luceno did a very good job with that book. Yes, you cheated with the ROTS novelization. I do wish though that the dialogue in the movie had been half as good as what Stover wrote. Lucas, pwned by the licensed property authors...well, okay, that's not difficult to pull off, since he has admitted writing the stuff in his head is not his strong suit. I wonder what the PT would've been liked has GL conceded the writing and directing duties to better hands.
hmm, well, i feel i need to take part in this thread, and there are so many things, but i think ill just float on the mara jade boat
Yep, I heard about that, I could've had my favorite Sith (Revan) and Jedi (Qui-Gon) in one episode...
Revision- Thrawn Trilogy and the Han Solo song from SW Kinect. The dance, the Wing Guard babes, Lobot rocking out, all of it.
