A&A The Official Karen Traviss Discussion Thread

I was wondering if they will be publishing "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" in paperback. It has been a year since it has been published and the paperback usually come out a year after the book was first published

 

I just read the news on theforce.net rss feed. Damn. I was so happy to see Mandos at the end of the CW Season 2 preview trailer (Hamill voice conspiracy theories aside). Then this latest news of messing coniuty. I'm finishing Order 66 and I'm unhappy to report that this big strapping guy had tears in his eyes. I just finished Sacrifice on audible on a long trip. traviss is the queen of bridging decades of continuity. if the merry band of folks gets messed up by CW2 I guess I don't blame her.

 

goodbye Karen. "sob" damn you Clone wars.

 

Fixed.

Of course, it's no skin off my back. I won't miss her at all.

 

For all the problems I had with some of Karen's work, I have to agree with her that this cartoon's almost Orwellian revisions of canon have to stop.

 

Changing Canon is one thing, but overriding someone who has at least nine different stories concerning mandalorians is just rude

 

Karen would know.

 

I can't believe she's leaving. She was possibly the best Star Wars author, besides Zhan. I can't believe she's gone for good.
I still dono't know what these continuity errors are though. What are the cannon issues brought about by CWA. And how much does it affect her books.

[I havn't watched the show: that is why I don't know what the issues are ]

 

Good riddence.

 

I've never read her books so I can't comment intelligently on much of this.

But the Clone Wars changing what book writers have done...how is this different than in the past when a new SW movie has come out and changed what book writers have done?

Yes, CW isn't a film (except the one that was). But it does have a canonicity higher than books and such. And something on a higher level changing stuff on the lower levels is nothing new.

That's not to say she has no right to be disappointed. But, it's also not like some scandalous thing that's never happened before.

 

You know what, most books should have a high frickin priority when it comes to the EU, especiallly because they basically create the EU. The stories that the PT movies changed were completely ridiculous, and were working with main characters. What karen Traviss has done is different. She has created, almost exclusivly, the Mandalorians: a thorough culture, even a language for crying out loud. I think that that should be respected.

 

I can understand her issues.
I'm not sure exactly how much of her stuff has been altered by the new CW series, mainly as I haven't read all of her stuff and the series isn't out yet.

But it can't all be ruined surely. Mandalorian language will live on (Star Trek movies changed Kligons, but the Klingon language prevails) and from what I've seen Mandalorians still look the same. As long as they are portrayed as the great warriors they have always been revered as and don't die as cheaply as droids/stormtroopers I can put up with it?


Anyone know exactly what the extent of continuity conflict is meant to be?

 

I think GL got sick of KT taking the storyline for the mandos in the wrong direction and he and Filoni got together to correct it. KT work with Boba and the whole mando culture had gotten it all wrong and with CW there is thankfully a method for GL to correct it.

 

What is different in GL's version of Mandalorians?

 

um... uh... I'm, realy lost for words here, so let me say this simply: HOW THE HECK DID KAREN TRAVISS DO THE MANDALORIANS ALL WRONG?!?!?!?!?! she made them better than one could possibly ever imagine. And if GL doesn't like them, he lost some awsome points in my book.

 

The back-story of Mandalorians in KOTOR will undoubtedly remain since Lucas endorsed that, and the post ROTJ EU Mandalorian stuff hasn't been altered yet.

That just leaves the Clone Wars era Mandalorians, and aside from the Death Watch malarky I don't think they should've featured much anyway. If GL wants to include them then they better be good and not weak run-of-the-mill soldiers who die in a simple firefight like in KOTOR II (er....hello Obsidian!, Beskar is blaster proof you fools).

 

I think the Mandos were supposed to be an high tech group of evil warriors that were defeated by the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars.

 

Well, that's what they are aren't they?

I'm confused by history anyway, The Mandalorians were fragmented after the Mandalorian War and became mercenaries from then on. Some clans formed later such as the Death Watch and the Journeyman Protectors and fought each other, but they were never prominant again until after ROTJ since The Empire plundered all of Mandalore's resources.

 

I'm sad she's gone, I think her books had some serious emotional writing , moved me to tears. even if her characterizations is a bit off, I think her writing style is very deep and touching and this we need more of in the EU.

 

I am not too proud about her writing of Mandos and in my head they´re always what they have been in KOTOR. But I must respect Miss Traviss produced well written books. I enjoyed Bloodlines especially . . .

 

Among other things. They also served the Republic in the Clone Wars. But the Clone Wars continuity was altered so many times before Lucas jossed the whole thing.

 

First of all, they were barly in KOTOR, and there wasn't realy any information pointing towards the fact that they were realy any different. And even if there was: Civalizations change over thousands of years.

 

I'm curious as to why people ding her RC series for mis characterizations, its in LOTF where that happens.

In RC people say that Zey is badly portrayed. Well, if you had to work with spec ops all day, you would probably need to get your hands dirty quite often.

 

I'll miss Karen Traviss. She is one of my favorite authors and her Republic Commando novels are still some of my favorite books of all time.

 

Things I haven't seen anyone consider yet:

What Karen DOESN'T say in her blog posts.

Well, let's look at what she does say for just a minute. I'm talking about prior blog posts from months back, not The One. She talks about being jaded and disillusioned a lot. She talks about having to stay up working for 72 hours straight. She talks about it being bad for her health. She doesn't sound happy. At the time, she had only just gotten the Gears gig, and she hadn't gotten the Halo one yet at all, so who could she have been talking about?

When you read what most of the other SW authors write or say in interviews about working with the team at Del Ray and LFL, they all glow about what a positive experience it was, and how they were given enough room to do what they wanted to do and the people they were working with were so fantastic and helpful. If Karen Traviss ever sounded that way about her experience with them, it must have been several years ago, before I ever started reading her blog.

Now she's writing for Gears, and listen to how she sounds. She's just over the moon about what a positive experience it is, what great people they are to work for, how inspiring they are, how everything just clicks, and not being said are the words, "and writing for SW isn't like this at all." But when you see what she raves about the Gears people that she doesn't say at all about the SW people?it speaks pretty loudly to me.

Could it be that she was just having what she perceived as a rotten experience anyway, so all things considered, that was something like 1/3 of the reason she decided to throw it in?

Just wondering?