Legacy of the Force

[DarthTofu]

*Vomits at mention of Zahn* Much as I love the concept of Thrawn, it was a brutally painful experience to read his "come-up-with-why-this-will-work-a-half-second-before-it's-implicated" bull. "I'm Thrawn, I just automatically know every tiny detail inexplicably; I'm never, ever even slightly wrong, and all members of one species will behave identically to one another!"

 

I'd have liked to have seen Thrawn go up against an orphan with no artistic ability who felt isolated from his homeworld, refused to draw, and kept no art.

 

Thrawn: Oh crap! Umm... turn to port! They'll never know what to do if we turn to port!

Orphan: Open fire on the port side.

Thrawn: Ah! Spast! Nooooooooooooo!

 

*Reads title of thread* Oh, er, right. leave out my "you-executed-a-brilliant-idea-horribly" stuff, here...

 

I kinda liked the Star by Star battle, but I feel like that's because it was only really appropriate for that engagement. The idea of literally thousands of ships duking it out over Coruscant makes sense- it's the capitol, with the most people on it, the government, and the most need for protection. Same goes for over Bastion and, later, over Mon Calamari. With other engagements, though, it'd just be home defense fleets/home defense starfighters and elements of whichever fleet groups were in the area. How many fleets were there in the end? Six? Those can be split up into smaller groups, obviously, but at least two fleet groups were always caught up in Coruscant's defense, which left four to police more than half the galaxy; consequentially there wouldn't be quite so many space battles where, looking up, one could almost nonchalantly watch a Star Destroyer flame out in the sky, knowing that there are a dozen more to take its place.

 

I mean, heck, look at the Zsinj campaign! He had perhaps ten Star Destroyers in his fleet, counting Iron Fist, and that was plenty to cause the New Republic headaches, simply because they couldn't police everywhere. It makes sense to strike where your enemies are weakest, which means that engagements are less likely to be as epic.

[SOCL]

Okay. I didn't hear much aside from an reiteration of what you and I just said in the last posts.

 

Actually, I only cited one battle where Thrawn was present, namely Sluis Van, and ironically he failed to predict or even act against what happened there, which is most interesting after your post, Tofu. He didn't always win and, take note, was only able to predict on an individual basis, not on a larger basis. The generalization of psychology for any given enemy is also not all that unusual or even wrong. In handling relations and tactics with North Korea (namely during the war and in war-planning for the possibility of future war), there are entire departments devoted to studying the North Korean psyche and how to incorporate that against them. It's called psychological warfare. What we saw with Thrawn was just an extreme version and, admittedly, odd, but your statement that he could predict everything is simply incorrect: Sluis Van, Joruus C'baoth's behavior, the Noghri, his own death, the loss of the Peremptory, Niles Ferrier's incompetence, the unification of the smugglers against the Empire, the loss in Hyliard City on Myrkr, Mara Jade's assistance to the New Republic (especially during the commando raid on the Palace to kidnap Leia and the twins), just to name a few. He actually did miss quite a few. His abilities were very clearly in tactics, and we actually only have his word that he used artwork against individuals; he don't actually know if he was just a damn amazing tactician. In any event, he also very clearly states that he does not believe that all members of an individual species will behave the same way, just that at a certain level, cultural training and upbringing will limit certain reactions, which is again not inherently untrue. The way a U.S. Marine Corps general reacts to a given situation will often vary, sometimes vastly, from the way a U.S. Army general will, will vary from the way a colonel of either branch reacts, a captain, etc.

 

You don't have to like it, Tofu. No one says you have to. But there are merits in it, real-life ones.

[Evaders99]

I admit: I've been trying not to read Invincible. I hate paying for hardcovers and they stack horribly on my bookshelf against my paperback collection. But I ended up in a bookstore and its the only novel I had left desire to read (and spend money on).

 

This is my initial reaction: disappointment. Legacy built up to Jacen being murdered by his sister?

Every important scene felt like it was rushed.. no surprise with the shortness of the book itself. Less than 300 pages, I finish those in no time.

 

Luke playing mind games with Jacen? Okay I can sorta see that happening.. but it isn't resolved. Does Luke get some new powers?

The book just kind of concludes with Jacen's dead: the galaxy is united again somehow.. under DAALA?? What?

There isn't anything to resolve how the Sith continue.. or even why Jacen was relevant in the first place.

 

I wanted to see Jaina really confront Jacen and attempt to turn him back. What was the whole twin thing if she's just going to ignore him?

I wanted to see her hook up with someone.. Zekk or Jagged Fel deserve some love.

 

Isolder's death - pointless. Shevu's death - slightly less pointless. Tahiri is still majorly messed up... I would love to see her attempting to take Jacen's place rather than getting turned back so easily.

 

I wanted some more complex space battle for the finale. Oh they're being trapped, oh they have a Super Star Destroyer, on they are headed to the real base, oh the Anakin Solo is being destroyed. That's about it. And somehow they managed to sneak a missile boat across the battle to the other flagship and fake an injured ship?

 

I'm a big fan of Denning's Star by Star.

I don't know if this is just because it's what Denning was given to write, but I am just disappointed by this one.

[DarthTofu]

I meant to bring this up before, and I never did: What was the point of revealing that Jacen, Jaina, and Luke could all use the Shatterpoint technique? That made no difference in the end; Jacen used it to kill a Mando, Jaina trained with it.... and that was that. Really no reason for it to be there in the first place.

 

I was a bit dissapointed in the lack of info on the Sith as well, but I think Millenium Falcon is being set up to cover that detail. Who's writing it again? Lucendo? He's a good author, knows what he's doing, by and large. He managed to do well with Unifying Force, in my opinion. I wish they'd let Stover write it, though, instead of his Shadows novel. This is totally his turf- examining people on the dark side and why they'd turn there!

[Evaders99]

I agree. Different pointless scenes make the novel seem even shorter, I generally skim past them anyay.

 

Yep Luceno is supposed to write Millennium Falcon, which is supposed to be post-Legacy yet cover the history of the Falcon?

Not that I want to see it retire, but come on.. how has that hung of junk survived against more modern ships?

[DarthTofu]

When Han and/or Leia is finally killed, I've got five bucks that says the Falcon is blown up with him.

 

If it gets passed along to Jaina and eventually shows up in Legacy the comic series, I'll be annoyed. I mean, the thing was built over a century ago- it's high time something was acknowledged as being faster than it, or else it's high time that the thing get an extreme retrofitting.

[Krytos]

it's high time something was acknowledged as being faster than it, or else it's high time that the thing get an extreme retrofitting.

It has, at least twice if not thrice. I recall that at the start of the Black Fleet Crisis it was mentioned as having an overhaul and then at the start, or sometime in, the NJO it was definitely given a massive overhaul from the New Republic Navy as a gift to Solo - crap like top of the line equipment, armour, shielding and a top up of the hero quota to make sure it'd last another half century. Oh, and the matte black paint job.