- Joined
- Nov 20, 2019
The NJO certainly isn't perfect (there is, admittedly, quite a bit of rubbish, much of it involving the always-aggravating Jacen Solo), but there were so many amazing moments in that series that absolutely deserve to be put onscreen: The reveal of Elegos A'Kla's bejeweled skeleton, Corran Horn's duel with Shedao Shai, the Jedi commando raid on Myrkyr, the fall of Coruscant, Threepio outwitting a group of Vong warriors with only his communication abilities, Ganner Rhysode's last stand, the severely wounded Grand Admiral Pellaeon directing the Imperial Remnant fleet from inside a bacta tank, the New Republic-crewed Super Star Destroyer Lusankya accidentally coming out of hyperspace in the middle of a Yuuzhan Vong taskforce...and then immediately opening up with every one of its thousands of turbolaser batteries, the reveal of Zonama Sekot, the Mandalorians liberating Caluula Station...Fuck it, I know the Vong isn't liked here... but I largely liked the New Jedi Order series. But not without issues of my own. Sometimes they went too far and made decisions that I felt was stupid. But in some strange alternate universe where I was given the power to reboot the EU, I probably would have had the cut-off point at the Hand of Thrawn duology.
I definitely would've ended the direct, movie-timeline-continuation EU with The Unifying Force, though. As much as many people argue that the NJO felt like it erased all of the accomplishments of the main cast over the course of the EU up to that point, I think that the remaining books published under Del Rey's imprint (AKA The Further Adventures of Darth Jacen) were where things really started to go off the rails (I mean, maybe it wasn't, strictly speaking, outside of the realm of possibility for the galaxy to devolve into another major war, but with the Yuuzhan Vong invasion so recent in memory, it really felt to me more like conflict for the sake of selling books rather than an organic development of in-universe politics).
Not saying I'd want to adapt the NJO verbatim, but I think the basic plot of a war with a culture that's completely alien and inimical to basically everything and everyone on the GFFA is a very good one. I really liked the later books where they tried to show things from the Vong's perspective, how incomprehensible they found everything in the Galaxy in comparison with their own bizarre and unsettling practices and technology, how they were utterly convinced that they were the good guys and that their invasion was a noble crusade, rather than a genocidal jihad.I could forgive NJO if they hadn't destroyed so many of my favorite planets and killed so many characters. I mean they even thought about killing Kyle Katarn at one point and that's just unforgivable to even think of such a thing. Also I wanted Anakin Solo to be the next gen of Chosen One and fight his brother...
Feels bad, man...I had so many beefs with NJO, but now those beefs feel like nothing compared to Disney... Just fuck my shit up. Disney how could you fucking do this?!
I think antagonistic Empires are a little over-played in SW at this point. I mean, we've got, what? The Galactic Empire, the Infinite Empire, the Old Sith Empire, the New Sith Empire, the One Sith Empire...the only one I'll give a pass to is the Felpire by virtue of not being head-bonkingly evil and for having the groovy Imperial Knights.Make the new enemy something to fear and respect; too many times have the First Order (What a shitty name, call it something cooler like the Empire Resurrected, or ResPire) fucked up blatantly, and then all of a sudden grow "competent" when the plot demands it. In this new trilogy, make it that the enemy means BUSINESS; they blow up or take over multiple star systems, really dig themselves deep and show that they have the balls and power to do such things. Don't SAY that they can do this, actually showcase the foe's prowess in conquest. From there, tell a tale of resistance against an all encompassing enemy, one the likes of which the Galaxy has never fought before.

And now he's considered irrelevant for being too conservative by the standards of The Current Year...You can unironically thank Obama for that, he came in promising to fix the Great Recession and 8 years of Bush and turned out to be the personification of woke neoliberalism, so all the spurned exceptional individuals that bought it hook line and sinker became convinced peaceful reform was impossible and unironic communism is the only way. But enough about that, we're here to watch the Fall of Skywalker in real time.