Yoda Does Brussels is a movie I’d pay to see.
While I do not like Star Wars in general I love the animated Clone Wars series currently being aired. The episodes focusing on clone troopers are particularly good. The ones that focus on Jar Jar are useful because they warn you not to waste DVR space on them.
O, a movie of the original KotOR would rock socks. Much of it was what the Lucas prequels should have been, a galaxy-wide war against a ruthless faceless enemy, with the tide of defeat finally turned by a swashbuckling charismatic hero who bucked the Jedi Council and united a rag-tag army behind him to sweep all before him before a tragic fall from grace into villainy, before finally redeeming himself. Some familiar locations, some new ones, a band of bickering, misfit heroes and a splendid plot twist midway through. And a cynical, sarcastic assassin droid.
I love the three cinematics that introduce SWTOR and the two factions. I would love to see them expanded into a film.
I enjoyed quite a few of the New Jedi Order books, though they were written by a number of different authors, some better than others for sure. I haven’t read any new ones since the NJO series finished - that storyline consisted of 19 books plus a number of novellas and short stories that went along with it. Vector Prime, the first novel in the series, got a bad reputation (because a beloved character from the films died) but was actually the best-written of the lot, IMO.
Truce at Bakura was kinda bad. The Timothy Zahn books are definitely some of the better ones. I did not like Children of the Jedi, but it was better than Planet of Twilight (?) that came right after it, good Og that was awful. Probably one of the worst SW books I have ever come across.
There are two in the middle (Rebel Star and Rebel Dream, IIRC) that I’d recommend. There’s a couple of spoilers:
Coruscant has fallen, Chewbacca is dead,
but if you don’t mind that, they’re a good read on their own.
It’s funny that you say that about the NJO series. I read Vector Prime, enjoyed it, and then swore I wouldn’t read anything else set in that universe that was set chronologically after that, or was thematically similar.
It just wasn’t Star Wars to me. The whole point of Star Wars (to me, anyway) was that it was light-hearted space opera. Even in the EU, you knew it wasn’t ever going to get too bad.
The good guys would win, the bad guys would go down in flames, and there wouldn’t be any terrible sacrifices by the good guys, because it would look terrible, and then something would swoop in at the last minute and save everyone.
I know that’s pretty much a sanitized fairy tale, and that isn’t “realistic” and it’s certainly not the mark of good literature, but that was what Star Wars WAS to me - and with Vector Prime, they quite clearly announced that they were leaving that particular style and moving on. And I wasn’t interested in moving that way with them.
I’ve heard lots of good things about that series, and I have lots of friends who think that it was anything from the best thing to happen to the EU to just another set of books set in the world, but I just couldn’t deal with that shift over to dark and depressing. I like lighthearted reads - my own life is bad enough without reading depressing things happening to beloved childhood characters/icons.
Give me any of the Tales of… series, the Han Solo or Lando Calrissian sets, the Zahn books, or the Corellian trilogy (not good, but fun) or hell, even something sappy and fan-ficcy like I,Jedi before all that dark and gloomy stuff.
The two I mentioned are set chronologically later, but I think they are in keeping with the themes you prefer, even if they mention the events of previous books that weren’t.
My god, that was hilarious! Even better than the comic it ended up with. Thank you!
“Plaugewies!”
I’m another “enjoyed the Thrawn books but hated everything else I read, then stopped” case. I think the problem I have with them, (aside from names like Darth Undead-u) is that the mood is all wrong. Everything is so darn depressing, and it seems to just get worse in the books I haven’t read, from my Wookieepedia skimming. The OT was just so much fun 90% of the time (I mean, yeah TESB ended in a dark place, but aside from that). And ROTJ ends with a happy ending. But then so many of the books go in such a bleak direction.
I mean, I understand that you need conflict to make a story, and I don’t expect everything to be Ewok celebrations and happy flowers. But The main characters all seem to be angst-filled… Chewie dead, 2/3 of the Solo kids dead (and one going to the dark side), Luke finally gets hitched to Mara Jade, and then she dies too. And then when all is said and done in a few generations, the New Republic is gone, the Empire’s back, and the only Skywalker left is an ex-Jedi mercenary?
No thanks… (again, most of that’s from skimming online summaries. I might be wrong on some details) I’d rather see my favorite characters having fun adventures. That’s what I like about star wars. If I want bleak and dark, I’ll watch BSG or B5 instead.
Yes, those two were definitely on the upper end of the quality scale for the NJO series.
One of the problems that I had with the series is that it just seemed so WRONG when the writers callously killed off Anakin Solo who they had spent so many books building up to be the next great Jedi, best guy since sliced bread, and BAM, he’s dead before he’s even seventeen years old? WTF. :rolleyes:
Honestly, I really thought the whole thing was a red herring, and that he would be brought back in a later novel, miraculously alive. It was hard to take the plotlines seriously when I was forever expecting the, “Voila! He’s back!” big reveal that never happened.
I really like the Clone Wars show, and Jar Jar is hardly ever in it so it is unfortunate that somebody only saw a Jar Jar episode. It shows off some interesting corners of the prequel era that the movies never got to touch on, of course if you absolutely hate the prequels (which I know is a lot of people here) you’ll probably be turned off to it.
I haven’t seen the show, but my son has a few of the comics spun off from it. A surprising amount of nuance for kids stuff, which the movies were wholly lacking, like the ethics of being a Clone Trooper when you are essentially a slave bred for war yet supposedly fighting for the goodies.
I think they should just take the X-Wing series of books and make the live action show from that.
Also, the Yuuzhan Vong do not exist to me.
The OT was basically a feel-good, Good-Triumphs-Over-Evil story. The Prequels reverse that. The EU curb-stomps it, urinates in it’s dead occular cavities, strips the corpse naked, and performs unspeakable sexual acts upon it.
I really, REALLY wanted the Thrawn trilogy to be the basis for the second SW trilogy that Lucas was planning way back. I still want the Thrawn trilogy to be the basis for the second SW trilogy. Because they’d be about 10,000x as good as the damn prequels (although 10,000x0 is still 0).
Actually I find the show has a lot more of the aesthetic and feel of the original trilogy than the PT, so for me the show often makes me smile because it reminds me of the OT. It is clear the creators love SW and it shows, they love slipping in little nods to the OT.
The slavery arc was both very dark for a kids show, and also classic sci fi pulp Star Wars.
One thing I LOVE that the show does is everytime Anakin is slipping I am cheering him on, don’t stop Anakin force choke that bitch! 
It makes his downfall very understandable.
I keep hearing how good Clone Wars is. I am thinking of catching up with it. Should I start from the beginning (I am talking about the CGI one, I have seen the drawn one from years ago) or is there a place where it kicks in and gets good?
I started now watched season one and it’s pretty hit or miss. It’s the kind of show you can have running in a separate window while surfing the web. You won’t be too confused watching them non-sequentially. The first episode featuring Yoda was pretty good.
I wouldn’t advise it, the early episodes are VERY uneven and it took them a while to get their legs. The show is an anthology anyway and the episodes jump around in time and place so you don’t need to worry about backstory(if you have seen the films you are good to go).
I’m trying to think of some highlights:
Episode called Rookies is just good writing.
Landing At Point Rain was the first time I said goddamn this show is good.
The Umbara arc of four episodes I mentioned earlier, good shocker ending too that made perfect sense in hindsight.
The escape from the Citadel prison arc of four episodes, Anakin has to rescue a young upstart Republic captain named Tarkin :eek:
The slavery arc in the fourth season, classic Star Wars pulp sci fi along with darker themes.
Look for episodes involving Mandalorian terrorists called Deathwatch, they are all good.
I was a bit disappointed by Clone Wars, it seemed to be aimed at kids more then adults.