Another vote for Zahn’s trilogy as the best eps 7-9 idea. Of course, given what Lucas has done with the prequel era, i just hope he decides to quit with the movies rather than ruin the Expanded Universe. i don’t think that if he decides to do sequel movies, he will ever go with any EU source.
And yes, I know that a lot of the EU stuff is crap coughKevin J. Anderson cough. But when I read Zahn, I can actually see it as a cinematic experience, soundtrack and all. It moves me a lot mroe than the prequels have.
For those of us who haven’t read the Zahn novels, could someone please summarize the general concept and story behind them? How long after 4-6 do they take place? Who are the main characters?
5 years after ROTJ, the New Republic has pushed trhe Empire back to the point where they control roughly equal amounts of territory, though the Republic is gaining in strength, and the Imperial Remnant is in decline.
The NR has taken Coruscant as its capital, and everything seems to be on the up for the Rebels.
Enter Grand Admiral Thrawn. A non-human, he was still a favorite of the Emperor, was kept in reserve, and sent out to the Unknown regions to gain territory. He returns and begins a counter-offensive that unravels the NR. He’s a tactical super-genious; a very good- some say too good to be true- villain for the heroes of the Original trilogy. None of the usual Admiral Ozzel type mistakes with this guy.
Luke is a full Jedi at this point, Han and Leia are married, and she is pregnant. A lot of the plot is driven by Luke’s inadequacy at being the last Jedi, and being expected to teach Leia’s kids. The series is a trilogy, and I don’t want to spoil too much, but we’ve got lots of space battles, clones, assasination/kidnappings, political intrigue, some Dark Jedi thrown in, and a few really good original characters: Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade- the Emperor’s Hand, and Talon Karrde, smuggler, rogue, and all around clever guy.
Zahn is considewred the father of the EU- though there were comics and some novels before it, it really launched the concept.
I recommend both the Zahn Thrawn trilogy and it’s sequel duology, the Hand of Thrawn. Of course, Stackpole and Allston also wrote kick ass stuff taking place during the 5 years between the movies and Zahn, mostly focused on the soldiers of the rebellion (not a lot of Jedi). The Rogue and Wraith Squadron series are some of my favorite books ever.
I third the Zahn books as the true Episodes 7-9. Excellent writing, and true to what Lucas started (not what he corrupted and degraded.) Twists, turns, Noghri, clones…Zahn is a master storyteller. Stonebow is right, too. Mara Jade is a kickass character, and a very important one at that!
I remember reading not too long ago, Lucas saying that he doesn’t want to see anyone else make 7-9. This leads me to believe that he’s at least thinking about it. If ever, I don’t think it’ll happen for a while.
You know, I really don’t understand this attitude. Whatever motivated GL in making episodes I through III, I sincerely doubt it was just about the money.
Why?
(1) He already has all the money
(2) He waited as long as he did before making them.
If he was just after maximum bucks as fast as possible, he would have made episodes 1-3 and 7-9 in the late 80’s or early 90’s.
Oh, and while some parts of Zahn’s novels were quite good, I had two huge problems with them:
(1) Those little monkeys that supressed the force. Come ON. That’s just like Star Trek where they are constantly finding planets where the magnetic resonance in the atmosphere won’t allow transporters to function
(2) Thrawn always struck me as WAY too flawless a tactical genius. He looks at a pot made on a planet, and that allows him to deduce that generals from that planet will not be able to properly handle a particular type of military maneuver? Oh PLEASE.
OK, Max…I’ll give you the first one. The ypsylari were a bit much. But I thought Thrawn was perfect. There was logic behind his abilities, not some mystical “Force.”
And to Lucas’ credit, he hasn’t been sitting on his fortune and indulging to excess – he actually puts his money back into the moviemaking arts, giving benefits for everyone to enjoy.
People may be pissed off about Jar-Jar Binks, but IMO he’s a small price to pay for Skywalker Sound, THX audio, Pixar/Renderman, Industrial Light and Magic, digital theater projection, and a truckload of other stuff.
Hoo yes. Thrawn was a great character, and I’m sure you could find out a little something about a species’ perception from studying their art, but finding exact, precise blind spots that predict, with 100% certainty, how every member of the species will react in a given situation? Puh-leese. Why hasn’t anyone sat down with Mona Lisa for ten minutes and gone on to rule the Earth, then?
The Zahn trilogy is decent. I think it falls apart toward the end. The biggest flaw were the space monkeys which were so Zahn didn’t have to think of actual obstacles for a Jedi. “Well if I make Luke not able to use his powers… that makes my job easier.”
The Hand of Thrawn is utter boring shite.
I was under the impression that Lucas wrote the plot outlines for all nine movies at more or less the same time. I would presume then that if he makes 7-9 (and I agree that he probably won’t), they’ll be based on his outlines from the 70’s and not any of the SW books (and would in fact contradict the books).
Please, not the Thrawn trilogy - the writing was so-so, and both Thrawn and the ysalamari (I think that’s how it was spelled) were not believable to me.
I’d like to see the Rogue Squadron on the big screen - liberation of Coruscant, cleaning up the last bits of the Empire. I’d even more like to see Wraith Squadron, but you’d have to have Rogue first, to lay the groundwork.
The Thrawn Trilogy was good, but I agree that Thrawn was too smart. If this guy was such an uber-genius, why didn’t he take over the Empire years ago?
I thought that the ysalimiri were a nice touch. Instead of dimissing the Force, like so many other Imperial officers did, Thrawn recognized the danger that people like Luke pose, and looked for a way to neutralize it.
