Also Yaddle-fetishist Charles Soule did an interview with Hollywood Reporter about how "amazing" High Republic is.
If it's half as "amazing" as he claimed his Kylo Ren comics were going to be, then it's safe to assume that his contributions to
High Republic will be concentrated ass.
@Mississippi Motorboater you win this thread with your posts on the real EU. I appreciate you putting in the time to read and then breakdown your thoughts. I look forward to your breakdowns whenever you post them. While I have some qualms with some of your conclusions(I believe LotF definitely repudiates the NJO's ending conclusion of the light and dark sides of the force not being important and the ends justify the means morality expressed) what you are doing is great, your thought process clear! I commend you.
Hey, thanks! It's cool to know that people find my EU sperging posts entertaining enough to read through...especially given their massive, unruly length. I know that a lot of people on this thread are seasoned EU readers already, so I'm trying highlight things that particularly stand out to a fresh-eyed newcomer like me, especially in the wake of the franchise's deterioration under Disney.
And naturally, I don't expect everyone to agree with my conclusions--especially over something as controversial as LOTF. I just hope that with the evidence I've supplanted, everyone can at least
understand my conclusions, even if they don't agree. That's all that really matters...the books have been out for years, and everyone's already made their assessment of their quality.
Mine's just coming really,
really late.
I'm not engaging in an autistic slap fight with you, no offense meant by that, but I will say this:
1)Those two things are not logically connected at all. You're enjoyment of something shouldn't, and doesn't need to have a direct connections to something that comes later. That's a non-sequitor of the highest regard.
2) The lack of references has been explained to you already. LotF and Legacy of the Force the comic series were being written and put out at the same time. The comic division literally could not include any references to what happens in LotF not FotJ due to the comic coming out during one of the boom series being published and the other one coming out after Legacy of the Force completed it's run.
I'm not trying to open up a new can of worms on this topic either, but one thing that I'll add is that
Star Wars Legacy marked the first time that Dark Horse had ventured past ROTJ in years. One thing you'll notice about Dark Horse's contributions is that while they initially tackled New Republic stories in the early 90's--
Dark Empire, Crimson Empire, X-Wing, and even an adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy--after Del Rey took over publishing, they restricted almost all of their output to the
Republic and
Empire comics.
Why? Well, for two reasons: One was that Randy Stradley was apparently disappointed that Del Rey had decided to tackle the Alien Invasion plotline that he and the folks at Dark Horse had been outlining in
Crimson Empire, prompting them to be less enthusiastic about greenlighting comic projects set during NJO.
But more importantly, it was because they didn't want to publish post-Endor adventures in comic form that clashed with simultaneously-running novel story arcs, such as NJO. As
@Getting tard comed points out, Dark Horse wasn't privy on everything the novel division of LucasFilm Publishing was doing...hence why you have discrepencies between
Heir To The Empire and
Dark Empire, for example. So rather than screw themselves over with more continuity clashes, it was just easier for Dark Horse to avoid the post-Endor era that the novels were tackling: That's why you'll notice an a conspicuous lack of comics dealing with Luke's New Jedi Order, or the Solo Twins...because the novels were tackling that, and going through story arcs and authors at mach speed. And even though there was communication between the novels and comics divisions of publishing, there were limits to how they could coordinate and keep everything consistent. So Del Rey's authors were given the freedom to run wild with their story arcs about Luke's Jedi Order, while Dark Horse concentrated on established eras like the Clone Wars or the Galactic Civil War. DH pretty much avoided tackling anything post-Endor for most of the 2000's, and let that remain the playing field of the books.
They wouldn't attempt anything in that era unless they knew they had some breathing room not to step on unfolding narrative events.
Star Wars Legacy and
Star Wars Invasion allowed them that breathing room. Legact was set over a hundred years beyond the current novel story arc at the time, allowing the Del Rey authors to do things like tease Krayt and the One Sith by having Alema run into them on Korriban in
Inferno (something I neglected to mention in my post on the book).
Star Wars: Invasion, the
only long-running comic to be set during the Vong War, was being published
years after NJO had been released...in fact, if I'm not mistaken, Del Rey was in the middle of FOTJ when the
Invasion comics were being put out, which meant Dark Horse wouldn't be tackling anything current and stepping on any author's toes.
So it's only natural that there wasn't a whole lot of crossover between
Legacy and LOTF while they were being published simultaneously. That kind of coordination wasn't the norm, and it would be unrealistic to expect elements from both story arcs to be fully present in each other.
Imo, the authors of LotF, and more specifically FotJ did a very good job, one I might add they did not need to, in connecting both book series with the comics themselves in the references they include to Legacy by taking elements in both book series and tying them into the future the comics laid out. Before anyone goes "if the book series could do it why couldn't the comic series do it?" One, there is no reason to assume Dark Horse comics would be privy to Del Ray's publishing story ideas. Two, most of the references in both book series I'm referring to directly tying to Legacy of the Force occur in FotJ not LotF.
I encourage you to try rereading the series again. Imo LotF and FotJ are two of the best products coming out of all of the EU(with LoTF ranking slightly ahead of FotJ), nu-wars and Thrawn, and NJO included in that assessment. I imagine they only shine brighter now that you can see how a worst version of the themes were seen in the sequels.
Agreed. Just because the Bantam Era of publishing doesn't make a wealth of references to things like the Clone Wars, the original Jedi Council or other PT elements doesn't magically mean they're not connected, or in the same continuity. A lack of connections doesn't automatically equal contradictions.
On a side note, it is remarkable to find someone saying
anything good about FOTJ. I've seen small fringes of people defend LOTF, but I've seen next to
nobody stick up for FOTJ. The disgust and utter revilement for that story arc is almost universal, at least everywhere I've looked online.
But, much like LOTF, I won't know if that hatred is justified until I've read it.