Lit Could the Jedi Prince series be re-done better?

Here's a brainstormer for everyone. It goes without saying that the Jedi Prince aka Glove of Darth Vader series is one of the weakest aspects of the EU. But for a good number of us who grew up in the 90's, it's also very nostalgic.

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Could the series be redone today and be much better? Perhaps it could be redone as a comic series, with some minor modifications to the overall story, much better characterizations and pacing, skip over some of the stupider aspects that aren't crucial, and perhaps a better resolution to better gel with the rest of the Expanded Universe. It would be similar to how Splinter of the Mind's Eye was adapted as a comic series. In many ways I think that is the superior and more appropriate version. It could alternatively be adapted as an adult novel, perhaps as a trilogy, with vast improvements.

If you couldn't change major things like events, characters and the overall story, but could change things like characterization and tieing it into other EU works, I think it could make for an interesting upgrade. Given what we now know about Palpatine's past thanks to Darth Plagueis, perhaps the concept that he may or may not have had a son could be much more interesting and handled with more care and intrigue. And like I said before, maybe it could be given an additional chapter at the end to better tie into the rest of the EU, or even add in elements that have since been retconned (isn't Isard supposed to be controlling a different faction of the Empire than Trioculus at this time? How does the wedding get interrupted? What becomes of Ken?). I have a lot of respect for the people that work on the EU that take something iffy and make it good, whether it's one of George's latest EU contradictions, or a generally poor story. I think there's bound to be someone or a group of people who could make this thing MUCH better.

What could be done and who would you want to see tackle it (and what format)?

 

The series is great comedy as is. Personally, when I read it, I just mentally substituted every line of dialogue with something less stupid . Not much getting around Han retiring to live in a sky house with a robot maid or Luke being mauled by killers spiders though.

Interestingly enough, I believe the series has contributed a fair bit to canon... like the Prophets of the Dark Side, and a few Grand Admirals.

Oh, and in my mind, Ken dies a grisly death in the Vong war . Maybe the kids from Galaxy of Fear were there, too.

 

It would be the best thing since Dark Empire.

I'm serious. The story line is solid as a rock and I believe an epic can grow in the wasteland the Davidses' prose left behind.

Just drop the environmental claptrap and have it be a Lucenian 2.66-EU-references-per-sentence-on-average-continuity-nerdfest that'll make Plagueis look like The Glove of Darth Vader by comparison.

 

Just these particular paragraphs, taken from the Wookieepedia page could take the story in a much more interesting direction:

If characters like Trioculus and Hissa were given more subversive and less silly characterization, this could be an interesting aspect of the updated story. Along the lines of some of the Imperial intrigue from the X-Wing comics.

Given the recent Darth Plagueis book, this would be a very interesting aspect, following on from Plagueis and Sidious' manipulations that indirectly spawned Anakin.

The environmental crap would definitely go. Even Han's home isn't crucial and could be skipped over. Obviously some things will always be silly, like the names "Trioculus" and "Triclops" and "Hissa"...but then again, we have characters running around these days named "Ima-Gun Di" and "Moralo Eval" and "Savage Oppress". Not to mention Spider-Maul. I think those could be excused.

 

You want to skip the SKY HOUSE?

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BEHOLD THE SKY HOUSE!

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NO ONE CAN SKIP THE SKY HOUSE.

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SKY HOUSE!

<img src="http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/2/25/SKYHOUSE.jpg">

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<img src="http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/2/25/SKYHOUSE.jpg">

SKY HOUSE SKY HOUSE SKY HOUSE!

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RESPECT THE SKY HOUSE.

 

What the hell happened to the Sky House? I swear, post NJO, Han, Leia and Alanna should be kicking it in the Sky House, not fighting Sith.

 

Sure but, would there be a market for it? What would be the point?

I rather enjoy the EU having oddities like this Moffing series. It's cute.

 

I'd be sort of reluctant to bring this back up. We could easily have Triclops become the new Chief of State.

 

Absolutely not. It is perfect in every way, just the way it is.

 

Well. They could make a deluxe edition, a la The Jedi Path and Book of Sith. With the full text of Jabba the Hutt's Will, real zoochberry fruit snacks, Trioculus's love letters, Hissa's lower half, and other assorted oddities

 

It'd be like repainting the Mona Lisa. A much greater travesty than the special editions, that's for sure.

They wouldn't just give away zoochberry's... they're an extreme delicacy. So much so that they're never seen again after the series, despite being mentioned every third paragraph.

 

And when you open the box, it plays the Space Pirate Boogie.

 

Now I suddenly really want to read those books. Apparently I should have gone to self-defense classes.

But why weren't these books ever translated to Finnish? We have translations of Approaching Storm, The Crystal Star, Rogue Planet and The Jedi Academy Trilogy (and no Labyrinth of Evil, Shatterpoint or any Zahn book apart from the Thrawn Trilogy), these would have felt right at home.

 

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Look at this picture. It's amazing.

There is nothing that can improve the series.

 

Nnnooo, these are unavailable from local web stores. Who would have thought?

Del Rey should have an Omnibus program like Dark Horse, so future generations (like me) could enjoy these old classics. Shakespeare's comedies are re-published all the time, and the last time I laughed when reading his works was in a tragedy (Timon of Athens, the cynical philosopher was a very entertaining character).

 

The elegant and complex prose can simply not be translated accurately into any other language and keep the same impact. If you want the full effect, you have to read the original.

 

In any case, no sane translator would touch them. It would be the equivalent of a pilot signing a contract to fly an old plane which has never gone through repairs, or a porn star signing a contract to work with someone who has tested positive for AIDS.

 

First author who came to mind when thinking about having someone rewrite/update these was oddly not Lucento, but Stackpole. No clue why, it just feels right.

While we are on the topic of rerwiting stories to bring them up to decent levels, could we get re-dos of everything past TUF? Keep Allston, but swap in Stover and Lucento for Denning and Traviss/Golden respectively and see what happens.

 

Well, that proves it - there is no topic that can't evolve into a post-NJO bash within one page.

 

Wait. Han once had a SKY HOUSE?

No wonder his kids turned out so messed up. That's child abuse right there, Solo. Denying them the Sky House you once enjoyed?

For shame, man, for shame. You shoulda kept that Sky House.

 

In all honesty, they shouldn't have done this in the first place.

 

honestly these were the first eu i ever read when i was a little kid. i loved them. i was 6 or 7 years old and couldn't find anything wrong with them. as far as i knew they were the only books that went beyond the movie. i had the 2 hardcovers which had 3 of the books each.

hey they aren't as bad as some things. take old horshead for example. it was so stupid i had it as my facebook profile picture when i first signed up.

 

Han and Chewie built the SKY HOUSE by hand! It had a rotating living room! A transparent-domed kitchen! Floating beds! A yard! Observation decks! A two-cloud-car garage! A Millennium Falcon dock! Ultra-high-density household communications screens! A nanowave stove! A remote control cloud-car-garage opener! THE MOST COMFORTABLE CHAIR EVER DESIGNED! THE SKY HOUSE HAD IT ALL! Han threw a housewarming party! Admiral Ackbar came! Han danced the Space Pirate Boogie! Much zoochberry juice was consumed! THE SKY HOUSE WAS PARADISE.

THEN TRIOCULUS AND ZORBA JUST HAD TO RUIN IT ALL.

But Han must have gone back at some point to get his birth certificate before he got married. How could he leave it again? IT WAS HIS DREAM.

 

Please tell me the book actually says that.

 

I'm disappointed Ann Crispin didn't include references to Han's lifelong dream of building a SKY HOUSE in the HST. She included about everything else, why leave out the thing that's most important to his character?