Books "Sword of the Jedi" trilogy would be over by now...

Mercy Kill is exactly the sort of book that goes into what Havac was talking about - it was based upon events in the FOTJ, but was its own story - and I've said before, without a true 'finale' to the EU, it's the de facto end, not Crucible.

 

Because I thought they could have done so much better, but that apparently wasn't the case. Darth Vader II was the worst disservice that could have been possibly perpetrated on the NJO, and they never acknowledged they did anything wrong before they just threw everything out the window for something that wasn't any better.

 

Why's that? Neither was the last Legends book published (that was Honor Among Thieves, if I recall correctly, which was fun adventure for Han Solo that I would've voted get carried over into canon, but whatever). Also, Crucible, whatever its flaws, did end on a passing the baton to the next generation note, which figuratively happened when the reboot was installed, making it a finale in that sense. It was also the last novel on the timeline, too, meaning it's the last word on Legends (not counting the Legacy comics).

 

Yes, but Crucible was absolutely dreadful, whereas Mercy Kill is more how an era that badly damaged should have been approached. So it's what most of us prefer to think of as the "end" of that part of the EU.

(And Honor Among Thieves was pretty good, but as you say it's a totally standalone Han novel that could be easily made canon, so it's not exactly a sendoff).

 

Honor Among Thieves felt more respectful to the Big 3 than Crucible ever was imo.
The one scene at the start of the book where Leia apologized to Luke for pulling him out of flight practice and Han said he was playing cards, and Leia said that she wasn't sorry about that. Then Han said he was winning and Chewie laughed or something. That felt more real.

 

Mercy Kill is the follow up the NJO deserved. Can't believe there seemed to be more of an impact of the war in that book than in the entirety of DNT/LOTF/FOTJ.

 

Mercy Kill was the last novel in the X-Wing series, which many hold as one of the foundations of the EU; not to mention that it also included updates through the later NR and into the NJO, and that it was Aaron Allston's last novel.
The 'last' chronologically published Legends novel is a wholly arbitrary and meaningless designation, considering that the 'third' novel in the thematic trilogy was shifted to be NEU.

 

Even more so when some are inclined to totally discount all 50+ issues of Legacy.

 

Crucible was awful. But I was among the seemingly few who weren't very impressed with Mercy Kill. A pretty middle of road book, IMO. Lots of boring parts too.

What even is a de facto end? Legends just... ended. It wasn't planned.

It happened, and they then just...moved on.

The end was the end.

How is any book that any individual may like more than the end, end, a de facto end?

 

The gif didn't work? (it was "post-Vector Prime" that I was getting at there)

 

Well, the last comic of Legacy II can count as the official end of Legends... with most of the remaining One Sith being wiped out.

 

I tried reading Mercy Kill, but about half-way through I lost interest, so I'm sometimes a little surprised at all the kudos it gets. (In all fairness, it's the only X-Wing book I've tried reading, and the idea of the series honestly sounded boring to me in the first place.)

Different stuff can give more closure to different people.

 

Oh, good call. Wasn't that the very latest Legends event and the last Legends story published? And also good?

 

I could see the gif, but I don't get what the TFA character Nines has to do with anything. It doesn't really narrow it down that much (and most of that stuff tends to blend for me). I guess I'm going to have to admit that I give up and don't get the joke.

 

I was reminiscing about how great TCW and Plagueis were before Disney entered the picture, but then I scrolled through this thread...

 

Well you're a Traitor anyway for saying Mercy Kill sucked. And you didn't read the other X-Wings. And so won't understand who was mercy killed. And I'm not going to explain my joke either.

 

Everything Coffee says is a lie, anyway.

 

Coffee. Is. The. Traitor. Ah!

 

Don't worry, Barriss_Coffee. I got it.

 

What Coffee doesn't realize about her new icon is that Thrawn is looking at a painting that he made - he's looking into his own soul to understand himself better than anyone.

And that's why the Sword of the Jedi would've been so amazing!

 

Sarcasm?

I was looking forward to it. And it never seemed like a Legends capstone but a passing of thd guard.

I really liked some of Jaina's characterization in DNT and LOTF. FOTJ seemed to drop the ball on her, IMO.

But Sword had some cool things going for it:

Del Rey was finally getting rid of the long, multiple author series and recommitting to a one-author trilogy.

The big three era headliner book to feature a non-big three, next generation character.

Jana Solo! I was excited for a book about her.

Female lead, protagonist SW hero.

I even thought Golden had potential to do a good job. She had some FOTJ moments I thought worked really well, especially in regards to female characterization. But she also had some real stinkers, like Wild Space (one of my top five worst SW books). I was cautiously optimistic. Yet optimistic.

The announcement included the Kenobi book and other plans, and I was excited for the new direction.

Lots of next gen characters I was really looking forward to getting more coverage. So much so that I was initially bummed about the Disney announcement. I knew it would most likely kill the EU.

 

Yes, but only at myself.

Well, that didn't always work out (Dark Nest). But yes, it would've been nice for them to give the whole 'mega-plotline' thing a rest for a bit, and SOTJ appeared to be the start of that.

 

If you didn't like DNT, that is. And I did.

But anyway... we're in agreement that it was probably a better path going forward.

 

Wild Space wasn't Golden. It was Karen Miller.

 

A trilogy starring Jaina sounds like a great idea... if it weren't for the author. There was still a chance of a decent story, better than if Denning had written it (Tatooine Ghost is probably his best Star Wars book, away from all the attempts at telling an epic story), though I... dislike DNT less than everything that came later. But after how bad FotJ was, yeah, wasn't optimistic about Golden. I never even bothered to read Dark Disciple. Her Flashpoint Starcraft book wasn't anything memorable either.

I don't love Mercy Kill as much as other people, but partially it was such a refreshing change from everything else in the last few years. No Jedi, no Sith, no galaxy ending threat, and return of many fan favorite characters. A great combination, even if I wasn't that big a fan of the plot- it helped wrapped up some of FotJ's loose ends (since post-NJO hasn't really had a proper conclusion since TUF), but was tired of government corruption by then.

And I thought Traitor was a good thing?

(Anyway to shrink the image?)

There wasn't really any ending to Legends, at least not like how VotF and TUF sort of work as endpoints for their era. Trying to "wrap up" Legends would have been an impossible task for just about anyone. Just that its better to remember books like Mercy Kill or even Honor Among Thieves as the last few books rather than something like Crucible. Not to mention attempts to "pass on the torch" had gotten repetitive, after TUF (which DNT-onwards wasted of course). Even Invincible and Apocalypse kind of pretended people like Jaina would have more importance, but... yeah, right, like those novels would ever accomplish anything.