Lit Chief of State Daala

Allston probably did know how bad she was, but since Traviss was the first to write her in the new era he probably just followed her lead. Hey, there was a thirty-or-so year gap between seeing Daala in Planet of Twilight (when, mind you, she left on semi-peaceful terms with the New Republic) and her return in Revelation. In this time, she had a child and grandchild, had her husband murdered, and apparently had a relationship with Boba Fett. So, yeah, thirty years can change a person and it is likely that Allston just assumed the change was natural.

 

There was material that had Daala return to the war in the aftermath of Planet of Twilight though - The New Essential Chronology, for example.

 

Huh. I did not know that.

 

Yeah of hand remark in Black Fleet made it pretty much necessary, though her just dying in the NJO would have made things so much simpler for everyone.

 

True, but even her returning in Black Fleet gave about twenty years' space for her to have a big change.

 

At least, Wookieepedia cites that book as a source.

The first source I read that mentioned it (coming as a surprise to me since I figured Planet of Twilight was making it clear Daala wasn't interested in fighting any more) was in The Essential Atlas, which explained how the last big military strike by the Empire against the New Republic took place just after the events of The New Rebellion- with Pellaeon the Moffs convincing Daala to help them.

 

Yeah, that is really odd because POT definitely suggested she was done fighting the New Republic.

 

Given that it was set before the BFC trilogy, but published after it- it may be a case of the author not having read the other books.

Though a case could be made that, by reuniting Daala with her lost love, they ended up revitalising her- and a revitalised Daala is a warlike Daala.

Nice Job Breaking It, Heroes.

 

Yeah, I remember reading Planet of Twilight and figuring that's it for Daala. Which is why I found it surprising when I read in the Essential Chronology (first edition?) that she went back to fighting the New Republic after that. She was outmaneuvered by Bel Iblis I think, but then rammed a ship into his fleet's Interdictor to escape and then made a blind hyperspace jump, and of course, she survived.

I think more recent stuff (maybe the Atlas or Warfare guide, as they've done a lot of continuity fixes/additions, not entirely sure) have added that she was head of or at least affiliated with the Second Imperium from the Young Jedi Knight books, adding that to the long list of troubles she's caused for the galaxy. Think it spun out of how Daala was walking around with Royal Guards (imposters probably) at one point in... Darksaber (?), something like that.

The difference between her and Pellaeon is that we've seen him for years- before the dark Del Rey times, we saw him negotiate a peace treaty with the New Republic. In early NJO we saw him join in on the defense of the galaxy sooner than most of the galaxy- he withdrew to Imperial space after that, but still, by the end of the Vong War, the Imperial Remnant was a major ally and rising power. He was a major recurring character through late NJO and most of LotF. Daala, last we saw of her, really, was Planet of Twilight, reference book mentions, and then Revelation and then Invincible and... yeah, it doesn't make much sense.

 

The Essential Guide to Warfare, and its endnotes, allude to this.

She survives a lot of blind hyperspace jumps. If, as Obi-Wan suggests, "there's no such thing as luck" - maybe The Dark Side is watching over and preserving her, for yet more strife in the galaxy?

 

I think Denning really got into YJK when preparing for Star by Star - he must have, seeing how much his first book relies on the YJK characters - and then there were comments about Kyp Durron that indicated that he disliked that character, which, let's be honest, makes the most sense if one has read the JAT (the one where Kyp explicitly screws up without obvious punishment). I'd expect a tiny bit of knowledge about Daala from an author who apparently specialized in the Bantam era Jedi Academy.

Also, saying that twenty years or thirty years offscreen can result in natural change - especially in a context in which the audience and the fictional universe's basic foundation expect to be filled in on every minute of every character's and every piece of equipment's existence - is a writer's way of sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

 

I will never get tired of pointing out that this was, in fact, the only peaceful electoral transition of power in the NR/GA's history. Mothma resigned the office after falling deathly ill and Leia succeeded by designation, not election. Puffers was an unelected interim president, just a placeholder. Leia then resigned politics and there was a free election and Borsk won. This is the only election involving a transfer of power we've seen that hasn't been to replace a vacancy caused by death. Then Borsk died and there was an election to replace him. Then there was a coup and Omas was kicked out by unelected successors (who then killed him for good measure). Then Niathal got forced out of government and Jacen got killed and their successor was appointed. Then Daala was thrown out in a coup and someone got elected but actually no wait Abeloth got elected and they they killed her and oh what a frigging mess.

So that still leaves Borsk the only chief of state to enter the office through a peaceful electoral transition of power.

And no sitting chief of state has EVER been defeated in an election, except maybe if you count that guy who was there for like five minutes but the whole process was ****ed up by Abeloth and just no. Nothing there counts as any kind of positive sign of functioning electoral democracy.

I said I never get tired of pointing it out, not that I never get depressed by pointing it out.

 

Years between democratic galactic elections: 57; Valorum was re-elected in 36BBY and Fey'lya in 23ABY. I won't count the election of 32BBY because, like the GA election of 44ABY, it was manipulated by a Force-user.

That being said, it is debatable that all of the elections after Palpatine ascension to Senator after 52BBY were manipulated by the aforementioned Sith Lord.

 

"So this is how liberty dies. It never gets started in the first place lol" - Queen Padme Jr., Episode XIV

 

It is now a requirement that "lol" is a line in the Sequel Trilogy.

 

I never thought of that...the horror. The horror.

Please. Please, please, pleeeaaassseeeee, for the love of justice, let the next election be won lawfully and peacefully!

 

So you're telling me... that the one and only time the people of the Galaxy Far Far Away were asked to pick their own chief of state... they chose Borsk.

No wonder Daala has so little faith in democracy!

 

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the election was shown offscreen. Onscreen politics are generally too boring for the SW audience if there's no death and explosions. Not even the amount of politics depicted in The Phantom Menace was acceptable, those brief shots of the senate and lines about the non-violent solution of originally non-violent conflicts immediately made the audience and its internet go OH BORING POLITICS UHHNNG I ONLY READ PAPERS FOR THE FUNNY PAGE I THOUGHT YOU WERE COOL, STAR WARS.

Wasn't that a line in Legacy, or DOTJ?

 

In SW:TOR, one of your companions actually sends you a letter with "lol" in it. Not only that but she refuses to capitalize any letters or use apostrophes at all, and she abbreviates several words in leetspeak. For example, she said "obv not a big fan of neimoidians".

 

Me I don't understand why they used Feena D'Asta (II) insted of Daala; she is the heiress to the largest privately-owned fleet in the galaxy, an political realist and have friends in both the Alliance and the Imperial Remnant

 

Oh there's ways to make politics more interesting, but politics focused on a tax dispute? There is no real way to make that anything other than what is - boring as hell.

I used to look at West Wing as reasonably good for politics, as was Yes Minister, but both of those have been dethroned by Borgen.

 

Easy, because every Denning story has to leave a hanging plot thread or twelve for the next story - he wanted a villain to be COS at the end, I think that much is pretty obvious. At the least, it makes much more sense than him not recognizing the most persistent recurring villain of the Bantam run until she'd appeared in two books already.

 

That does seem feasible.

 

Since the conclusion of the NJO, there hasn't really been much resolution to the stories, with each one feeding the next. It can be safely said that this is deliberate. The series themselves are as incomplete from a narrative perspective as their constituent novels. It's bad storytelling.