Wherein I catch up on months-old links: the EU & female characters

[deaka]

Ben Skywalker’s Ascension into Domestic Violence - Why the Fate of the Jedi Hurts So Much is an interesting read. (Warning, though, some discussion of violence & possible rape - ditto under the cut here). Although I'd personally qualify this suggestion:

Comments

[lotusflower85]

I didn't even finish reading LOTF, so have only the vaguest idea on what's happening in the EU, but this was interesting. Agree that simply hiring a female author doesn't mean the female characters will be well-balanced, developed or "strong" - we only have to look to Twilight for proof of that.

I too have become increasingly fond of the Bantam era - but that may just be the nostalgia factor.

[deaka]

I keep telling myself to let it go because it's always annoying when people do the whole 'I don't read the EU but I will complain endlessly about it every time it comes up' ... but here I am anyway. *ahem*

Yeah, I think the gender of the author is the wrong place to look - not that it isn't good to have female authors in the mix, but single authors don't seem to have much impact in the current model and 'female writer' doesn't equal 'will treat female characters well' any more than 'male writer' equals 'will treat them poorly'. Going back to more authors + greater flexibility would be go a long way, I think.

[juxtaposie]

You know, I'm pretty sure this is the point at which I will be really and truly able to step away from the Star Wars EU. There are parts of it that I will always love, proudly(or guiltily, with a little shame), and I still intend to go on loving them long after they've been driven into the ground by the things that have happened since, but I've had a love-hate relationship with the EU for a long time - I think we all have - and... yeah, I'm done. I just can't take it anymore. I've been waiting too long for these books to make me feel the way I used to feel about Star Wars, the way I still feel when I reread the YJK books, or the Thrawn Trilogy, or (god help me too) NJO.

Bye-bye EU. I'm going back to my head fanon where all three Solo kids are still alive and everything didn't go completely to shit. Deuces.

[deaka]

Yeah, I hear you. It's frustrating how far it's fallen, because despite the best efforts of LotF/FotJ I still like these characters, or want to like them, and I hate not being up to speed with what's happening. But then whenever I do try to catch up, I wish I'd not bothered, so. It's probably much wiser to leave them to a time when they were actually recognisable. Sigh.

[blancwene]

It's a sad, sad day when I long for the NJO, especially since I barely finished the series. (That last trilogy, Force Heretic? With the interesting painting-like covers? Book one was so bad, I just skipped right to The Unifying Force.) And yet I actually bought the ebook of Traitor last week, because I always found it fascinating

[deaka]

Force Heretic was awful, wasn't it? So incredibly dull. I can't remember a thing about it, which is sort of bad, considering it was the penultimate part. And Traitor was a great piece of writing. I still can't get over what a waste Jacen's character arc was.

Mm, she has said that. Oddly, I wasn't all that impressed with her Ben, from memory (that said, I've only read the first book she wrote in FotJ). Allston's take on Ben is the only one that stood out for me. Really, Ben should be a whole lot more screwed up than anyone is writing him, but that's hardly new for Star Wars.

I guess what I'm most frustrated by is the Sithiness of EU right now. And I don't just mean the utterly unnecessary descent of Jacen into Darth Doofus, but the...Sith mythology, I guess? I have absolutely no interest in Sith lore and the One Sith and these FotJ Sith. I really wish they'd all died out with Palpatine.True! The Sith mythology thing is a lot like the Mando obsession, and both are better off in side novels for the fans into that sort of thing than as