Lit Thrawn Trilogy: Overrated?

That's really reaching, that situation is easily re-written using Luke, besides as I said earlier having Mara not only kill Luuuuuke (which at least served her story) but C'baoth was bit of an over kill in jmo

 

I would've still had Mara kill Luuke...but I think that Leia should've been the one to kill C'baoth. He had threatened her newborn children, and Leia had never really had her opportunity to shine in that regard–still hasn't, really; the only villain she's ever struck down was Kueller, and she surprised him with a shot to the head, and Alema, whom she didn't even kill, just maimed. Missed opportunity if you ask me.

 

Agreed. Should have been done that way.

 

I personally can't find the fact that Leia has a low personal kill count to be a negative. There is more to being a hero than just killing or maiming the bad guy, despite what Del Rey authors seem to think. Luke's greatest moment in the movies wasn't when he lopped off the Emperor's head in a hard fought battle that saw him severely wounded as well, it was when he stood up for what he believed in and refused to kill Vader, who was helpless before him.

 

Leia was a military leader, she must have an indirect kill count in the hundreds to thousands. Now, she might not have racked up as many as Luke, who wasted about a million people with one shot. But in general I think being a leader of bad***es is always more impressive than being one yourself.

But yeah, why does killing the bad guy actually matter? We're not talking about the Punisher here.

 

True, I'm not saying that it's a negative, just that it would seem, given that her Jedi training was emphasized several times throughout the Bantam era, that she only had one actual kill. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just that it's surprising. I will say this–it was more in character for Mara to strike down C'baoth than for Leia to, but story-wise it seemed like it was leading up to Leia doing it.

 

At least Leia helped Luke defeat Palpatine in Dark Empire 1.

 

This is true.

 

I never feel Leia is interesting at all, she had no character development in OT and turned into some super awesome Jedi and great diplomat in EU.

 

Purchased them the year the first came out, 91, and it was a geek-gasm, a new Star Wars story- the first one in 7 years. I think most of it is good, but it doesn't feel like a Lucas universe. It's too much science-fiction and not enough fantasy...

 

And Han gets the final kill for Palptine with help from Brand.
Wish Leia was involved in battle against the Emperor in ROTJ somehow and got to hash things out with Vader/Anakin.

 

Personally, I dislike this. Luke should've finished Palpatine once and for all. But then, I dislike the idea of Palpy coming back at all, so I'm biased.

 

I still need to finish Empire's End to see what I think of it. But agreed Luke or Anakin should be the one to finish him. DE1 was the perfect ending.

 

It wouldn't bother me with the new EU if Palpatine never comes back. I just find the idea of Luke facing the Emperor one last time without Anakin there too much of a good idea to pass up.

 

I think it's Empire's End, that clarifies (via Vima) that Leia was using "a rudimentary form of Battle Meditation" during the fight with Palpatine.

Regarding TTT - Leia's "moments of awesome" aren't always violent ones. Her convincing the Noghri that they have indeed been betrayed by the Empire, in Dark Force Rising, I think, was a good one.

 

Indeed. Different books handle it different ways, though. In Splinter of the Mind's Eye, she's the one who duels Vader for a while, despite no lightsaber training.
TTT tends to focus more on her diplomatic skill.
Dark Empire has her be the one that "brings Luke back from the brink".
And so forth.

 

Oh he clearly did, what comes back in Dark Empire is little more then an insane wreck of a creature serving as a puppet of the Dark Side.

 

Palpatine seemed pretty "movie-ish" in DE until the transfer into the younger body. Then he kind of lost his "style" somewhat.

Still "I AM the Dark Side!" is an interesting parallel to RoTS's "I AM the Senate!"

 

It's not that Leia's kill count is low, more that both Luke and her had more connection to C'boath than Mara but Zahn had to have his OC do it. As it was Leia was really superflous to the story (so was Lando actually but that's another story) it could have easily been written without her.

 

Ah come one AOTC Palpatine as scheming Bastard was the only thing really good about that movie. And the OT Emperor is the OT Emperor ! He generates some much outright villainy and menace he makes Vader look like a hand puppet (which he is to the Emperor).

 

No he seems utterly unstable, frail, weak and barely in control of what he is doing or is actually happening. Nothing like the guy running the Empire, bossing around Vader and laying a trap to kill the Rebellion in ROTJ.