Books The Official TARKIN by James Luceno Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Does this mean we're going to get the purple chicken Vergere again?

 

Everything I say is a shameless try to get likes from Jello.

 

You got that wrong: The Alliance to restore the Republic IS the (new) Separatists rebellion. After all this is from Tarkin's POV to whom they would all be the same: secessionistic and rebellious.

 

When does this book (or at least the chunk of it) take place? The description calls Palps the future Emperor, Vader is new, and the Death Star is recently completed

 

It probably starts around or prior to TPM and covers the entire thirty-plus years to ANH.

 

Ah, shame, it'd have been nice for NEU to have done something different that incorporated things from the PT that wouldn't have been possible back in the 80s and 90s early EU works, rather than just covering the same dynamic we've seen.

 

True, conflating both groups as one enemy does serve the Imperial propaganda machine.

I'm hesitant, though, if true Separatists would support a group called the Alliance to Restore the Republic, when they would view that as just as abhorent as the Empire itself, and would probably rather sit back and watch the Rebellion and Empire slaughter each other.

I've just never been that fond of Separatists suddenly abandoning their ideals to join the Rebellion. I always saw it as mostly an anachronism from the early EU works, where there hadn't been Separatists, so they later just had to say they all became Rebels, but... if there's something I like about NEU it's being able to see a Galactic Civil War that is more than just Blues v. Reds, which was something the EU seldom incorporated.

 

Do we know that the "Alliance to Restore the Republic" name exists in the NEU? Considering how the Republic became the Empire, restoring the Republic might not be such a noble goal.

 

I would love to see former Separatists joining the Rebellion. I think it could create an interesting story. You have the Rebellion leaders who were former senators and opposed the Separatists and you have former Separatists who have no reason to like the rebel leaders and hold to different ideals than the Republic. At the same time, they're each other's best chance at survival and they likely dislike each other far less than they hate the Empire. This would make these two groups logical allies; still cooperation would be difficult, at first. That would be a fun situation to read about.

 

In a lot of ways it might be more realistic for the Separatists and Rebels to still be against each other. Rebels often turn on each other for ideological differences far less important than the fundamental disagreement the Separatists and the Alliance have over centralized government.

Nonetheless, I still think it would be interesting for at least some of the Separatists to eventually join up with the Rebels. I have to think that in the first few years after the war any self respecting Separatist would have a hard time working with a prominent senator like Organa. Yet in the years closer to ANH it makes sense for older Separatists to recognize that establishing a less authoritarian New Republic is a least a good first step towards eventual decentralization.

 

So actually a lot like Plagueis with a backdrop of the films.

 

Even of who the different factions are changes, I could definitely see Disney wanting the galaxy to always be at war from AOTC until Episode IX. It's Star WARS, so more wars = more oppertunities for stories.

 

I would be okay with that, as long as the didn't allow anyone to go past Episode IX -- until they make a fourth trilogy anyway. I think the heros should be able to do that eventually, but there's no need to give them that in the middle of the saga. I'd like to see the wars relate to each other in some way. The Separatists join the Rebellion, the Empire becomes the Remnant after ROTJ and when that defeated former Imperials join a group that's either the enemy in the ST or the enemy immediately before them. I think that would be fun and tie the different parts of the saga together.

 

Since they keep saying that "Bestselling Star Wars veteran James Luceno gives Grand Moff Tarkin the Star Wars: Darth Plagueis treatment, bringing a legendary character from A New Hope to full, fascinating life." I can only imagine that's the intent!

 

That's what I thought too, but the chapter excerpt in the sampler took place post ROTS. It didn't read like a flashforward and it was also the first chapter... I think. My impression is it will be like Plaguise, but only cover a couple years.

 

Actually it was Chapter 2, so who knows what Chapter 1 and any potential prologue focus on. Not to mention the most recent synopsis that CooperTFN listed seems to be more grand in scope.

Then again, it should be a great read regardless!

 

Trench vs. Tarkin?

 

THIS IS WHAT I WANT.

 

Oh, Jello, you want to see Dangor in this book as badly as you want your next breath, don't you?

I'm not even calling that a bad thing; it's just refreshing to see someone who knows EXACTLY what the hell he wants and is entirely consistent about it.

Hell, Luceno's probably the only one who can make Dangor’s corpse-face and Fu Manchu mustaches feel like they make sense. It could be something as simple as saying he was still getting over a bad case of the Thanagrarian flu when they took that picture...

But you know, Jello, for all the stick we give that visual depiction of the character, as an artist and illustrator myself, I still feel obliged to tip my cap to the illustrator. It may have been Mike Vilardi, it may have been Chris Travis, I'm not really sure (please, anyone feel free to clarify that for me if they want; I'm on vacation and don't have the book at hand), the fact remains that whether it was a good basic idea about how Dangor should look or no, it was fantastically executed.

And since I'm on the subject: would it kill them to put a FEW illustrations in these novels? Help a brother out, man!

 

So after reading the Cad Bane stuff (and adding to the insanity) yesterday I go read Kenobi (the paperback finally arrived). And on the first page of the prologue, a drunk accuses a bartender that he's a droid and we get this reply: This again? I told you when you asked earlier. My eyes are large and red because I'm a Duros.

Does JJM know about the Cad Bane meme? Because when I saw that I burst with laughter.

Edit: Damn, wrong tab (and thus thread). Can a Mod please move this to the Cad Bane thread (the one formerly known as Ackbar is Back)?

 

I want all of this.