Books Queen's Hope - New Padmé novel from EK Johnston

As long as I never see Anakin written again how he was in the Season 6 Clovis arc, that shouldn't be hard to avoid....I hope.

 

Have you read Thrawn Alliances? I find that WORSE than Clovis arc.

 

Really? No, I haven't. How come ya find it worse?

 

Personally, I really like how Anakin was written in the Clovis episodes. I mean, this is a guy that maybe a year later commits genocide and helps usher in a new government that goes on to commit many genocides, just because he's in love with Padme. You don't think he'd beat some guy up? Anakin was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. TCW was right in showing that once in a while.

The most negative thing I can think of Anakin's depiction in Thrawn: Alliances is that Thrawn is smarter than Anakin, and when Thrawn does that thing he does with everyone where instead of explaining something outright he prompts the other person to attempt to understand it themselves, Anakin just sees it as Thrawn being a condescending jerk. He also keeps up the pretense that he and Padme are just a Jedi and a Senator that are in no way in a romantic relationship, even with a stranger from the Unknown Regions who doesn't know anyone who would care, which seems ridiculous, but again, that big secret weighing on him is also a big part of what turned him to the dark side.

I don't like the view of Anakin that he was the perfect moral action hero and then just snapped one day and instantly became Darth Vader. If he did snap one day, that was the day his mom died and he killed the entire Tusken village. But even before that in AOTC he was being weird and emotional and espousing pro-authoritarian political beliefs.

 

Because Zahn makes Anakin a dumb thug who can only kill and cause problems. And Padme is scared of him.

Thrawn IS a condescending jerk.

But that isn't my issue, this is a Zahn book, so thrawn will be treated as a genius.

My issue is that Padme is scared of Anakin. As well as making Anakin a dumb thug.

Zahn is playing the outcome the event. He knows Anakin will kill lots of people and Padme so that is what he is writing towards that by making Anakin think with his lightsaber and Padme fear from him.

But he misses the tragedy. Anakin is smart and cunning. While he can panic under emotional stress it isn't he default. Padme NEVER thought Anakin would hurt her, that is why she went to him. It never occurred to her that he could hurt her, she had no fear and all faith in him.

Anakin isn't a perfect person, but he isn't just waiting to turn dark and kill people. He is someone who wants to do good, but is flawed.

But E.K. just doesn't seem to even LIKE romance at all. Since no one has any romance in her books, in Shadow one of the handmaidens rejects a romance and the only romance in peril, was the girl who liked sabe and Padme couldn't explain who she was to her.

I really didn't like how she wrote the relationship between clovis and padme. They could have dated for a while before he crossed a line or something, but they didn't he just had a crush and she didn't like him (then he assaults her).

 

Oh no. I don't have an issue with Anakin beating up Clovis, that's entirely in character (though TCW depicting Anakin more as a stereotypical action hero compared to the multimedia project does make that change in that arc more jarring imo).

My issue was bringing domestic abuse undertones to Anakin's character pre-Mustafar. Just adds an unnecessary ugly component to Anakin's sympathetic Achilles heel which is his love for his family.

 

And I think these are both "playing the outcome".

Since we KNOW Anakin will kill or try to kill Padme people write him like that is where he is leading and not out of character.

On Clovis x Padme, yeah he was bad. But I don't think he had to be in the past, he could have been a good or at least decent person, who changed.

 

Yes, having read it recently this really annoyed me. Anakin was simply characterised as an idiot.

nothing wrong with that. I don't read these books for romance.

 

Indeed. But I do wonder how she will portray the marriage. Or even if Anakin will feature at all.

E.K. might not even have him in the book.

I like shipping so I don't mind a bit of romance haha.

 

I think the problem is, being married to Anakin at this point is a huge part of Padme’s life, especially given how taboo it is in-universe. It’d be weird if that aspect of her life was completely omitted.

 

She can think about it, but she does have a life outside of him. Remember the TCW episodes with the debate about government spending. I don't think Anakin was in those eps much if at all.

 

I’m not suggesting the marriage should be the primary topic and focus of the book, but to omit that aspect of Padme’s life completely would strike me as weird and disingenuous.

 

True. It is a possibility though, given E.K. doesn't like romance or Anakin (seemingly), so it might be the least worst option.

 

Forgive me, I'm not well as in-tune with SW lit these days, but why is it assumed E.K. doesn't like Anakin? Did she talk about it in a interview or imply it?

 

The relevant Anakin material from EK’s interview, which it seems most people here haven’t read:

https://www.starwars.com/news/queens-hope-exclusive-reveal

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Also, I don't know where the "EK doesn't like romance" thing is coming from - I haven't heard her non-SW books but just from being familiar with their plot descriptions I'd say a lot of them are very romance-heavy, notably The Afterward.

 

I'd say it's more a feeling that she doesn't like putting Padmé into relationships with toxic men, or at least writing them. She avoided her relationship with Clovis entirely in Shadow, and based on that quote the Anakin stuff might just be a "small sliver" of the actual story.

 

A large part of the second book was taken up by 1) the war and 2) Panaka's recruiting, so there really was no place for a bunch of romance. And even then, there was some, just not with Padme (for instance, the Panakas).

I think a stronger point can be made that EK Johnston doesn't like Ric Olie, rather than Anakin or romance. It think Ric was mentioned a total of 2 times across both novels so far. Once just quoting his TPM line, the other as a comment by another character that he has an inner ear problem and can't fly. In other words, she grounded him offscreen. I think if we asked Ric his opinions about this, he'd be disappointed because he was grounded offscreen.

 

We are overdue for the Ric Olié Renaissance.

 

Thanks, what I read ended after the first sentence.


As to the no romance, well that is just the impression I got, from Shadow. It wasn't just nothing between Clovis and Padme, but it was also when one of the Handmaidens rejected point blank the possibility of romance with the Naboo guard.
It didn't bother me in Peril. Though I did find it odd Padme didn't just explain who she was to Sabe's wanna be gf.