Lit Reading NJO...Again

And the fact Tahiri was never punished for molesting a 14-year-old boy.

 

Regarding Ben in LOTF, if they were going to have him doing the things he did in LOTF, FOTJ should have shown him traumatized for it. Not as he was before.

 

Oh and don't forget Allana in a war zone at age 9.

 

Not to mention Jaina pretty much mudering her brother, who begged her to end the fight, tried to leave the room and with his last act defenetly proved that he was not 100 percent lost like Luke claimed. But after a brief moment of mourning Leia simply brushes aside her guilt and thoughts of what could have been as wishfull thinking and Jaina goes on to happily kill more people for the order.

 

Yeah the Denningverse has this major problem of making Luke infaliable. Not by making him wise, but by having the plot bend over backwards to prove him right.

Also NO REDEMPTION

This is what NJO gets right and Denningverse gets wrong. Star Wars is about redemption, in the OT every film has a character redeems themselves (han in ANH, Lando in ESB and Anakin in RotJ). The NJO gives us the biggest redemption in Star Wars. While the Denningverse say NO. No redemption for Jacen, no redemption for Ves, they are evil and bad and wrong and evil badwrong cause luke said so. Just murder everyone and have the jedi take over the government. ugh.

 

I mean Denning had Ben redeem tahiri sort of, but honestly I think Denning likes the violence, dark dreary tones, and cynicism that he put into his books for that.

Really the man is talented in some of the technical aspects of writing and he does excellent action scenes, but I can think of no author who had as pernicious or damaging an influence on the EU as Troy Denning.

 

Yeah but that was half hearted since she didn't do anything until the last third. And then we get nothing in fotJ.

I think he likes it as well.

Also sex.

 

Ben was 14. Tahiri was 28. Denning should've remembered that!

 

yes


yes he should have.

Also the two red headed relatives of Tenal (why do they have red hair, she got that from her mother's side)

 

Her grandmother on her father's side had "red-gold" hair as well:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ta'a_Chume

 

Oh yeah, Ben flirting with women who were super attractive and at least double his age was super weird too.

Honestly I think Denning has some weird sexual fetishes or something. There is too much of this sort of thing for it not to be something he enjoys writing.

He also had the temerity in the Inferno round robin to say anyone who didn't like his stuff should read kiddy literature or something. I'm paraphrasing but he did say something to that effect

Really, I'd love to see denning interviewed at some point and questioned in depth about his creative choices and influences on the later era of the old EU.

 

Ironic he speaks about childish tastes when his a the most juvenal.

James Luceno, Aaron Allston, John Jackson Miller all had more mature writing than him.

Doubt it will happen.

 

The man comes across as having a faux humility that cloaks a hidden arrogance and sense of superiority or maturity. Sometimes I wonder why the editors of Lucasfilm didn't intervene more firmly when it came to some of the stuff in Denning's books. I wonder if they even bothered to read them, because there is a lot of dark and honestly really inappropriate stuff. I mean, I don't mind darkness, but Denning's writing can be so contrary to the themes of SW and how the Jedi are supposed to behave, also the violence and sexual innuendo aren't depicted with what I would consider tastefulness, depth, or the seriousness that such topics deserve but as gratuitous and more just there because he wants them there.

 

Who is that grey guy right of Elan on the cover of Hero's Trial"? Left of her it is Showolter I guess but right?
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_New_Jedi_Order:_Agents_of_Chaos_I:_Hero's_Trial?file=AgentsChaos1_PB.jpg

 

Droma

 

So a bit over half way now. The battle was cool and it it nice to see the politics.

I don't see why this book couldn't have been a duology.

 

I still missed Tsavong Lah's perspective in the moments the Sunulok went wrecked and he and Seef had to switch over to the Kratak. That could have been described by TD in a very dramatic way.

 

Has anybody an idea how the name Vaecta is spoken, the name of the priestess of Yun-Yammka aboard the Sunulok? I'm wobbling between Va'ecta and Vayecta, both times pronouncing the second syllable.

 

Anyone have the audiobooks? How do they say it there? (I never bother with abridged audiobooks. It seems wrong.)

 

I went to Youtube to search in the audio book of Star by Star, but this scene with Vaecta seems to be skipped. It is really difficult because there are three volumes in one video and it is an eigth hour spectacle. I read here that many scenes in the audio books had been omitted, Rebel's Dream and Destiny's Way are my last hope for tomorrow.

 

Age stuff is complicated always in fiction. Not only the shortlived 60 is the new 40 agenda but also the trend of putting kids into adult situations and roles. They drive speeders, fly ships, fight, kill... that is a general trend in youth lit, well the fantasy/scifi kind at least. As we had with mandalorian culture in Legends, the 13 year olds can be adults in some cultures is a common trope. Not always utilized well though. Some are forced into adult roles and situations by war and catastrophe and show the consequences and damages that comes with it. Other cultures have as in historic precedences child-rulers and the like.
Just look at real world history: Youth/Child protection laws are a fairly young thing, in some parts of the world, even the civilised world, younger than 10-20 years only. The entire concept of childhood and it needing protection from say childlabor or else is also not that old, 100 years at best or little more only. Given fiction uses history for inspiration and invokes thus past times flaws its understandeable they tend to repeat its errors.
Most problematic though it gets when stuff like love, sex and flirt is involved. Adult authors write adult tales and even if they adapt language to fit kid literature, they forget to adapt plot too. As Lucas and Disney do, touching hands is like sex in SW. That is subtle. Lit though has minors (whose age even their own authors forget too often) do way more. Though I am surprised at the level it was featured in Lost Stars in canon. It was tastefully done but still!

I recall Denning making a lot of jokes about Tenel Ka as well, or how he portrayed her suitors and the Hapan court in general. He even made Luke awkward next to Tenel Ka in one book with unappropriate jokes about bedsizes.

This shows that Denning put too much of his own fantasies into characters. Allston had some allusions too in his books, but those were more fun mentions of real world stuff as a gffa version like fanart, fanfiction and cosplay.


Finally a question: What portrayals of minors where the best done in Legends, NJO or other works? Where were minors not used as mini-adults but age appropriate?

Jude Watsons Jedi Apprentice/Quest series comes to my mind as prime example. Kids have adventures, superpowers etc. but I can't recall anything age inappropriate. Another would be YJK books by Kevin J. Anderson with teens off on adventures but often enough age appropriate behavior and limitations to their resources and travels, featuring lots of cameos of older folks when needed to help out.

 

I could not find the name Vaecta in the Audio-Books present on YouTube.

BTW, why did Nom Anor not have his Plaeryn Bol on, when he visited the Coruscant Senate the second time in "Star by Star"? In his first visit, he had it.

 

Yeah Lost Stars shocked me! (still the best canon book I have read so far)

I like Anakins' death fallout, very impactful.

So on towards the end.

The plan to strike Coruscant is very evil and cruel.

I like it, it is a good reason to have a dispute.

I don't like Liea's reason for not helping save the nation. 'oh I am so sick of all this politicking, I would rather the galaxy fall'. ugh

At least have it be shock from Anakins death.

 

While I'm hard pressed to recall anything that nasty in Tattooine Ghost, the writing was not so much on the wall but attached in 20-foot glowing letters in Star By Star.

It opens with Alien-Jedi-Killer, sorry voxyn, drenching a Jedi in acid.