A&A The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread

Dan,

I'm working on a web site of Star Wars EU material that "never came to be", so any info you'd be willing to share would be appreciated.

 

Tremayne wrote:
The Grand Admirals article was excellent. I especially liked Declann. The whole article isn't even devoted to the guy, and he's already become one of my favorite EU characters.

Thanks for the feedback on Grand Admiral Declann! He's my favorite too.

As you might have known already, Declann was the only completely original Grand Admiral in the article. We knew that we couldn't have more than 12 (13 when you count the Thrawn/Zaarin swap-out) and 11 had already been named in previous sources. So in our original list, Declann's position was a big question mark.

I liked having a Force-using Grand Admiral, and I'd bet Declann is decent at lightsaber combat. But his primary skill is military strategy, starfighter piloting, and "Jedi battle meditation." It's not apparent in the illustration, but he accessorizes w/ black gloves and a black cloak over his white Grand Admiral's uniform.

These bios are so short that we couldn't do a whole lot with them, but hopefully we've planted the seeds for further exploration of one or more of the Grand Admirals in some other format down the road. (FYI, fun fact: I'd originally written that the "captured Rebel" that Declann kills in order to prove his loyalty to Palpatine was Captain Panaka [another one of my favorite characters], but LFL said no way.)

Dan

 

>Yes, we wrote about Tagge in it, but since it's a standard "Who's Who"-style article (with short capsule bios of all the players) it doesn't add much original material to Tagge's history. <

Does he get a first name? The General Tagge on the Death Star, I mean, not Gen. Ulric Tagge from the Marvel comics.

TC

 

>Yes, we wrote about Tagge in it, but since it's a standard "Who's Who"-style article (with short capsule bios of all the players) it doesn't add much original material to Tagge's history. <

Does he get a first name? The General Tagge on the Death Star, I mean, not Gen. Ulric Tagge from the Marvel comics.

TC

 

>Yes, we wrote about Tagge in it, but since it's a standard "Who's Who"-style article (with short capsule bios of all the players) it doesn't add much original material to Tagge's history. <

Does he get a first name? The General Tagge on the Death Star, I mean, not Gen. Ulric Tagge from the Marvel comics.

TC

 

With luck, Declann will have a cameo in one of the upcoming Clone Wars novels/comics and have a book or two starring him after Episode III. If you have any clout, make sure to drop his name in a few conversations for me. Heheh.

One last question, then I MIGHT leave you alone for awhile: who's your favorite Star Wars character?

 

Bleah, sorry about the multi-posts. The boards have been giving me trouble lately.

TC

 

TalonCard wrote:
Does he get a first name? The General Tagge on the Death Star, I mean, not Gen. Ulric Tagge from the Marvel comics.

General Tagge does not get a name in the "Who's Who" article. However, he might get a first name in a different upcoming project... hmmm hummm tum tee tum...

Tremayne wrote:
One last question, then I MIGHT leave you alone for awhile: who's your favorite Star Wars character?

It's a tie: Lando Calrissian and C-3PO.

Dan

 

Oh, sure, drop hints. Drive us crazy. We don't mind, do we?

BTW,I was paging through a copy of your New Essential Guide to Characters at a bookstore the other day, and I was pleased to see that the whole Rogue Planet/ JA SE inconsistency has been fixed. Thanks. Also, I had read The Way of the Wookiee on TimeTales just a few days before, so I was pleased to see the reference in Chewbacca's entry to the story, as well as the incorporation of Hronk (SP?) into the events of the Chewbacca comic. That was a nice touch.

So, now that Insider is printing short fiction, any chance we'll see another Dan Wallace story? Hmmm?

TC

 

Just wanted to say that I got The New Essential Guide to Characters for my birthday, so I can stop pretending now.

TC

 

However, [General Tagge] might get a first name in a different upcoming project... hmmm hummm tum tee tum...

Anything else you can tell us? Pleeeease?

 

There's a couple fun things in the Gamer article that we didn't have room for in the Insider article, such as the names of the Grand Admiral's Star Destroyers (and thus they aren't official).

Elaborate?

 

Like I said they aren't official, but here's what we would have named the Grand Admirals' Star Destroyers if we'd had the room:

Tigellinus: Avatar
Batch: Meniscus
Zaarin: Glory
Teshik: Eleemosynary
Syn: Fi, later renamed Silooth
Makati: Steadfast
Grunger: SSD Aggressor
Il-Raz: Emperor's Disciple
Pitta: Impenetrable
Takel: Magic Dragon
Declann: Recondite
Grant: Oriflamme

(I loved Takel's...)

Dan

 

Yeah; real intimidating.

So what are your upcoming Star Wars projects?

 

A lot of those Star Destroyer names did get in the Insider article.

 

Come on, People!!!

"Magic Dragon"????

Dan . . . you and Abel . . . ya'all were having "too much fun" with this one!

Ana V

P.S.

I like that Grunger has SSD Aggressor. It fits well with Pete Schweighofer's SWAJ # 2 piece, (and when combined with other insights you've shared in this area before.) Take care!!!

 

There is an "Aggressor" in the Rogue Squadron novel, but its class is not said. Later on, though, Isard comments that the arrival of a SSD over Borelias convinced Derricote to come to coruscant as per her wish.

They could be one and the same.

 

Dan,

The names of the Grand Admirals' Star Destroyers are cool! I also like Magic Dragon. Could it be nicknamed Puff?

 

The Gatherer wrote:
The names of the Grand Admirals' Star Destroyers are cool! I also like Magic Dragon. Could it be nicknamed Puff?

Absolutely. We established in the article that Takel was a heavy drug user, and the buzz of course on "Puff the Magic Dragon" is that it's a coded reference to marajuana use. (Urban legend? Maybe.)

KansasNavy wrote:
So what are your upcoming Star Wars projects?

I just finished working on a big project for Wizards of the Coast that should be out in 2004. I've also got one more Essential Guide in the works, and there are a couple other things cooking that I can't talk about quite yet. But things are good!

Dan

 

WotC? Could it be Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds?

 

Hi Dan,

I haven't had a chance to read the article yet, but I love the connection that you made!

 

Wow! That was a good guess. A month (2 posts ago) was just a shot in the dark. Weird...

 

I just finished working on a big project for Wizards of the Coast that should be out in 2004

Maybe that Tales of the Jedi era sourcebook they were talking about.

 

What Essential Guide are you working on?

-Mazz

 

Dan,

I'm some what curious as to what approach will be give to dealing with the continuity of the two latest SW games. Both have clear lightside and darkside endings. Will the lightside endings for both be the "correct" endings? Much like the ending of Jedi Knight? After all, Kyle becoming the new Emperor is cool, but it plays havoc with continuity.

The lightside ending for KOTOR is quite good, the galaxy is saved, the Sith are defeated and Darth Revan is redeemed. The darkside ending would be quite hard to fit into continuity though, the Sith, led by Darth Revan, basically conquer the galaxy and plunge it into a new dark age under Sith domination.

I know both the lightside and darkside endings for Jedi academy too, but I don't want to call down the wrath of heaven on myself by mentioning them here. Suffice it to say, the lightside ending would again work much better than the dark one.