Why has Zahn fallen out of favour?!

Whenever a thread comes up asking what authors you would like to see in the future come / come back to the Star Wars galaxy, more and more people are saying that they do not want Tim Zahn to come back. Why?

He has been one of the best, most interesting and popular Star Wars authors around.

Look at the characters and situations he created: Thrawn, Jade, C'Baoth, Karrde, etc . . .

He is one of the fathers of the modern EU.

I think he deserves to have a crack at a NJO novel, and can't understand when people think otherwise.

 

If he cracks it, he should just use Karrde and Shada and none of the mains.

 

Why not? After all, he is the male Mara, no-one writes he better than him. Why wouldn't you want him to write Mara?

 

It has to do with his ego and his lording it up over all the other authors.

 

TIm Zahn was great for the original Thrawn Trilogy, but the second seemed like an exercise in "Timothy Zahn Characters."

Perhaps it's for the best.

However, I do love it when Mara disregarded the Clone Emperor.

 

I agree with DL - reading interviews with Zahn he comes accross really arrogant, as if to say "the EU is mine". I thought it was quite rude of him to dismiss DE in the way that he did

 

ZAHN made me a reader!

I think I'd lose interest in NJO if Zahn does not do one. He sets the tone for everyone else's novels.

He made star wars a much deeper and more enjoyable universe.

HE SHOULD WRITE EP. 3!

 

DL speaks true. Zahn full of crap. Much ego. Zahn need, go to Hell. Cease transmission.

 

ZAhn trashed De b/c De sucked! it went against so many things that had been establsihed.

 

"so many things that had been establsihed"

such as?

 

Nothing had been established when DE came out. It came out pretty much the same time as the Thrawn Trilogy. In fact, HttE preceded the first issue by only 6 months.

 

It strikes me that folks are fickle. Now, i like Zahn, and he deserves some credit for the modern EU, but i am having a hard time understanding something. It seems that a weeks ago, everybody was touting Zahn, now, it's like he is chopped liver. No sir, i don't get it.

 

Some of this could be in the past year the new authors, styles and attitudes towards SW that we have seen from DR. Greater variety and in some ways less reliance on Zahn's work. With the attitude LFL and BDD took early on in the modern EU and the place The Thrawn Trilogy occupied it had to have an impact. Now there is a lot more out there, stretched over way more time and more options so it's possible to move away from Zahn and some might realize they like this new style (as they might see it) more than the past and thus Zahn. I'm going in circles I know. I think it comes down to more time and the new stuff (mainly the NJO I think) and people reevaluating their opinions. The discussions here over the last year and a half have certainly given the opportunity for that.

 

Because his characters and stories aren't that good.
Thrawn is just unbelieveable and way too smart. Like every other character created by Zahn he's written with one idea in mind: Mine's better than yours is. He creates a powerful enemy in the form of Major Tierce and then wipes him out in one line. Man was that a let down! Mara's speech to Luke. Don't get me started on that load of crap. Luke and Mara had trouble with two droids? In a word, duh. And talk about predictable. At the end of TLC I told my brother that Zahn was pushing for Mara to be Luke's wife (even though the idea that you'd marry someone who said they wanted to kill you is one of the stupidist things of all times.) Then he forced them together. Then there is Zahn's ego. Did he forget that Lucas created star wars? Sorry buddy, but the EU is really just fanfic that some author conned a publisher into printing and it doesn't make you god. Get over yourself.

So, to some it all up. Why has Zahn fallen out of favour? He sucks.

 

Quiwan, do you like the EU, any of it? I'm just curious. I'm not doing this as an attack on you or your opinion.

 

FYI. George Lucas loved Dark Empire so much he gave copies of it to every one of his employees one Christmas.
I thought Dark Empire was great. It was the two followups that felt rushed and dumb to me.

 

Well, first off I think Zahn was right to push for the Luke/Mara marriage. It was clear from the original trilogy that they were going to be the couple. For absolutely no reason, this relationship was abandoned by KJA and the other authors. Luke and Mara are the best choice.

However, I think it's time to move away from Zahn. He's done his work but let's move on. I liked the Hand of Thrawn books but there were some things I didn't like. He makes the villians practically invincible. He used clones and that clone Tierce thing was ridiciolous. I also hate how he has the heroes react when Thrawn comes back.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Thrawn's back! We're all going to die, let's hide in a closet!"

I mean, seriously, they all act like cowards and they are afraid to do something because of Thrawn's very presence. This despite the fact that his fleet wasn't even the size of the one in the Thrawn trilogy. He makes Thrawn look so invincible that it makes you think Palpy was just some dope who got really lucky to control the Empire and could have gotten beaten at any time. He makes you think Thrawn was the real power in the Empire. Despite how good Thrawn's character was, he was no way near as unbeatable as Palpy and Vader.

Just needed a long rant there...

 

I have nothing against Zahn. But he's written five books, all of them hardcovers. Give someone else a shot.

 

Same reasons as Darth Pipes..but one more:

The way he finally made extensively using the Force being of the Dark Side. What garbage..

 

Personally, I liked both Zahn's work and DE, but that's irrelevant.

I don't understand why people talk down Zahn's work either. Along with DE, he practically pioneered the EU. I think his plots are rich and imaginative.

 

"In fact, HttE preceded the first issue by only 6 months"

While HTTE may have come out before dark empire, dark empires was partly designed long before that, by marvel's epic line. So dark empire came before zahn's works in a way.

While I Like mara, I don't like the way that zahn made her the most, egotistical character who thinks she knows better than luke. No character should be made more important than the main characters, unless they die or are not important to the story(as is the case of the x-wing books.) Besides everything she knew about the emperor was flawed, He just used her as a pawn. Just like anyone else in the empire. She is not all that she thinks she is.

 

I haven't heard or experienced this arroganance that is being pointed to, so I can't comment on that...but I can say that without Zahn I wouldn't be into the EU at all. Give the guy some credit, he did lay the foundation for the EU and he problably feels very protective about it.

 

Zhan's strength in writing is his characterization. When I read his books the characters were very detailed, bringing a sense of knowing the charcter and their motivations.

I do feel however that with the NJO we are pulling away from that, because we already know the characters well enough. The shift in the writing is pushing toward more action and less character development.

I agree with some of you that Zhan overstepped the bounds trying to make the characters more his than GLs. Again I agree that DE was a much better sequel to RotJ than HttE, because the characters stayed in their roles. Leia was not some politician, sitting at her desk all day.

He does deserve a great amount of credit, he is an excellent writer. I would love an NJO book by him as well as many of you, but the focus of the NJO is different. Perhaps Zhan would have a problem writing for someone elses creations as other authors did for his own.

 

The accusation that Zahn tried to have an undue amount of influence over the SW EU is, to my mind, justified. BUT Zahn is not the only guilty offender, both KJA and MAS can be similarly accused, so it is not just limited to Zahn.

As to the DE dismissal, yes, it is unfortunate but it can be attributed to the ego of Mara Jade.

Which brings me to another point: Jade. since BP we have had a different portrayal of Mara, from that of Zahn, which has done the character a favour. Zahn is no longer unique in portraying Mara Jade well. I do acknowledge that MAS has also written the character, but he does so in a way akin to Zahn whereas Tyers interpretation is more distinct, to my mind at any rate.

One thing that Zahn did well, which has yet to be achieved by NJO, despite its political plot following the line established by Zahn, is to show the NR's plus points as well as its flaws. He makes the Empire sympathtetic yes but also has it accept defeat.

It may not be so much the case that Zahn was a brilliant writer way above other SW authors, but that he was put on a pedestal by some fans, whom now have decided to topple said pedestal.

Jedi Ben

 

It's not so much that Zahn has "fallen out of favor" as it is that who actively partipates on the board has changed.