A&A The Official Jason Fry Discussion Thread

It's actually set between Hunt for the Hydra and Curse of the Iris. But the villains are crimps, who play a role in The Rise of Earth. Hope folks will like it!

 

Ooh, interesting. Sounds fun.

 

Short story up -- it's an exclusive for members of the Crew mailing list. (Join here!) Lots of Jupiter Pirates stuff coming this spring -- Curse of the Iris is out in PB next month, then The Rise of Earth hits in June.

Re Star Wars, lots of unconfirmed stuff I better stay quiet about. One thing's gotten out, though -- Star Wars Classic Paint-by-Number is mine.

Don't worry, I didn't do the illustrations. What I did write was essays about the classic trilogy, touching on the moviemaking, the characters and the storytelling. Definitely something different, and an assignment I wound up really enjoying.

 

I used to do those paint by number sets when I was a kid - I might have to get that for nostalgia reasons.

 

Just read "The Trouble with Crimps." Extremely enjoyable as usual.

*insert plea for a Diocletia/Mavry story here*

 

Glad you liked it.

Got a scene in my head from when Diocletia and Carina were children that needs a home somewhere, someday.

 

jasonfry

So, I took an hour yesterday afternoon to re-read the sections of the EGTW that covered the Alsakan Conflicts and Pius Dea Crusades. For starters, re-reading these sections brought me so much joy. This book truly represents the last "golden age" of the old Legends EU and canon status aside, it still is a incredible read.

Anyways, a few questions popped up when I was reading it, so I was hoping to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. What role do you think Corellia played in the Pius Dea era? By the end of the era, Republic worlds on both sides of the old Coruscant/Alsakan rivalry were united in opposing the Pius Dea (Duro standing alongside Alsakan comes to mind). Do you imagine Corellia joined those worlds in fighting to restore the Republic?
2. I continue to find the Axis a fascinating group. They kinda remind me of the pre-Civil War American South, with their desire for limited government, minimal interference from federal power, and desire to expand. What real world sources inspired your view of the Axis?
3. Speaking of the Axis, I find it suprising that worlds like Alderaan and Chandrila were on the Alsakani side of things. They seem much more open to the Republic's non-human members than other parts of the Axis.
4. Given that the Coruscanti, Alsakani, and Corellian factions of the Republic existed even during peacetime, do you view each group more as a political party than a quasi-state?
5. In your view, in the early Republic were the Camasi and Duro the most prominent non-human members?

--Adm. Nick

 

Bumping in hopes that jasonfry wants to discuss the Pius Dea Crusades.

--Adm. Nick

 

About the political party angle - I don't think the scale would support that. Since we're dealing with whole interplanetary societies scattered across an area that was presumably less integrated than it would become over the millennia, I have the sense that it should unfold on an impressive scale, too large for analogies like political parties to easily fit. I would guess the closest description is the one the text went with - that they were essentially three different civilizations all laying claim to the shared identity of the Republic and uneasily integrated with the other two.

Obviously, I'm not Jason Fry

 

I was hardly alone on the Alsakan stuff or the Pius Dea -- Paul did a lot to shape the former, while Nathan O'Keefe did the same with the latter. (If Nathan has a username here I'm afraid I don't remember it.)

It was a long time ago, but a few things stand out to me in recalling:

* There's just SO MUCH Republic history that we thought it was crucial to create some conflicts and periods that felt different than Jedi/Sith rehashes; IMHO the EU was really top-heavy with those at the time. That's a challenge. 25K years is hard -- TO SAY THE LEAST -- for storytelling purposes. The parallel for us would be if recorded history reached back to before the Aleutian land bridge, for Pete's sake. Now throw in the fact that tech's essentially static and ... well, wow. If I had a NEU magic wand (I don't), one of the first things I'd decree is that "a thousand generations" is not to be taken literally. Six or seven thousand years of history is plenty for storytelling, and gives us a familiar feel to the history, instead of leaving us with a far longer time period than we can really grasp.

* Some of the history was really there to give depth to other Star Wars stories, either by getting across common ideas or setting up historical echoes, but without pinning stuff down too much -- making history rhyme, if you will, rather than feeling too much like because A then B and C. Alsakan helped account for the Slice and settlement patterns, while the Pius Dea crusades did a bunch of stuff: add depth to human/alien paranoia and mistrust over the eras, give the Navy a heroic origin story, establish that the Caamasi had been the conscience of the galaxy for a long time, and most importantly, introduce a scenario where the Jedi overthrew a chancellor and took over the Senate for the good of the galaxy. So millennia later when Palpatine claimed the Jedi had tried to take over etc., there'd be a historical echo that would make people believe him.

* And of course some of the stuff was just fun to goof around with. People compare the Pius Dea stuff to Warhammer; I have to confess I knew nothing about Warhammer except the name. Hey, the idea of galactic crusades isn't a stunningly original one. I loved the idea of Jedi knight errants, anti-paladins and tying in the weirdo Order of the Terrible Glare. I liked having BoSS come out of nowhere to play a key role in the conflict (though it was probably a mistake having that happen twice), and I most of all I loved the endgame of doomed Pius Dea ships crawling through deep space cut off from the galaxy. I always thought the finale of the Pius Dea war would make a crazy awesome trilogy; at the very least I hoped to do a follow-up story in which someone found an ancient Pius Dea ship full of bones. Alas, neither ever happened.

To your questions:

1) Hadn't thought about it; I'd like to imagine the Corellians were some uneasy combination of profiteers and helpers, running underground railroads for targeted aliens and tricking Pius Dea hierophants while making scads of credits.

2) That's one for Paul -- the political/cultural stuff was really his work.

3) One thing we wanted to do in Warfare and the Atlas was get across that things changed a lot over millennia. (Without inverting everything so it didn't feel like Star Wars -- tricky balance there.) That's why you'll see trade routes appear and disappear (sometimes leaving political/regional boundaries behind), for instance. I also liked the idea of "noble" worlds such as Alderaan and Chandrila earning that status. Maybe they repented of their previous role as Alsakani dupes, got re-educated by the Caamasi, etc. Honestly, with 25K years of history to fill, there was room for most any good idea.

4) I like Big Fat'Lya's take -- more like civilizations than parties at that point. But I can easily see those civilizations becoming the foundation for later parties/philosophies in a less fragmented Republic, with ironic reversals in philosophy etc. (Think about the changes in regional/racial pattens for Democrats and Republicans in just a couple of generations.)

5) We definitely looked to give those guys lots of pixels, along with the Herglics.

Hope that's not too rambling/impressionistic. I love getting to play in the NEU sandbox, but it's always fun to revisit this stuff too.

 

Exploring more of the Old Republic timeline would have been appreciated.
So many story opportunities not Sith related.

 

So their dislike for non-Corellians (except for their money) is something that developed later?

 

Valin__Kenobi I believe is Nathan O'Keefe. He stops in from time to time.

 

Great stuff, thanks Jason!

I love your idea of world's like Alderaan and Chandrila having a past that was less "noble" than their modern form. That parallels to the real world very nicely. It's like looking at Britain's imperialistic past or America's past with slavery. Neither nation practices those things now, but they did and it was major events that caused them to change.

The idea of the early Republic being an uneasy merging of three civilizations is an intriguing one. It would be interesting to learn what in-universe events caused this to change. Eventually, in the old EU canon, the Republic seemed more cohesive (at least in terms of a common civilization) in it's last few millennia. It would be great to see how a major war (Sith, Mandalorians, etc) helped unite the world's of the Republic in a much closer union.

I forgot to bring up the Herglics, so thank you for reminding me about them! Their early domination of the Southern Core really fascinated me, as well as their evolution from a competing state to allied state to outright member of the Republic.

--Adm. Nick

 

I can't help but wonder if there's any connection between the Sith and the Order of the Terrible Glare (and perhaps even a connection between the Sith and the Pius Dea). Any thoughts on this?

 

Given that Pius Dea was some 4000 years before the Hundred Year Darkness began, the connection might be somewhat tenuous.

I suppose that the Jedi who went on to become founders of the Terrible Glare would share the Pius Dea's distaste for aliens. I don't remember reading of that being much of a thing for the Hundred Year Darkness Jedi - but it was a thing for Arden Lyn as one of Xendor's followers.

Maybe, like Lyn - the Pius Dea and the Terrible Glare were massively prejudiced against Caamasi - perhaps the future Terrible Glare were even spiritual successors to the Minions of Xendor - having read the forbidden writings of Xendor and Lyn, believed them, and chosen to take up with the Pius Dea for that reason?

 

jasonfry - I wonder if you could help me with a timeline placement question for your work.

quite simply - does Last Call at Zero Angle take place before or after Weapon of a Jedi?

many thanks!!

 

Up to LFL officially, but I'd say before.

 

That's official enough for me! Big thanks Jason!

 

Doesn't it take place like the day after the destruction of the Death Star?

 

Star Wars book news ... um, nothing that can be discussed. Sorry. I'll be in London for Celebration, that's something -- anyone going?

But to celebrate The Jupiter Pirates: Curse of the Iris coming out in paperback, how about a free Jupiter Pirates short story?

 

Got tickets on order for all 3 days - hope to see you there! Are you doing anything you can talk about yet - like panels/autographing?

 

Hey, great!

No plans fleshed out yet. I know I'm signing for DK, dates and times TBD. Hope to be busy doing other stuff as well....

 

Hope to see you there at some point!

 

Could have just swung it to come to celebration! Would you be able to sign other books or would you be bound to DK books?