Well, as I predicted, we're in full Star Wars mode this week. What can I tell you — a visit from Henri does that to me. I only wish he were still here to enjoy it. For that reason, visitors may find that this blog is temporarily reverting to the reason I initially started it in the first place; namely, a chance to vent about Star Wars. If you're not in the mood for that sort of thing, best skip a bit. Also, this post tends to be a bit on the negative side, so if you're not up for that right now, move along.
That said, I stumbled across an interesting tidbit about the Expanded Universe that I absolutely had to pass along to my fellow Jedi. I was browsing Wookiepedia yesterday, and for some reason was delving into the background of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. For those who know me, or who have stumbled across my review of the first book in the trilogy on Goodreads, you'll know I pretty much despise Zahn's take on the Star Wars universe. His characters are near-godlike in their abilities and foresight, making Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia — who, before the Expanded Universe stories began, were once the heroes of the Star Wars universe — look like half-witted buffoons who are lucky enough to hang out with said main characters. Or unlucky enough to find them as adversaries.
This is a frequent complaint of mine about the EU novels, but Zahn originated the idea of the near-infallible EU character. He also spends a great deal of time trying to get the reader to share his delusions. Most of the time, he spends so much time telling us how great Grand Admiral Thrawn is, I half-believe the character is a real person who hired Zahn as a PR flack. The worst offender in my memory is when Wedge Antilles, one of Henri's favorite characters, ruminates on how the battle of Endor might have been different, if only Grand Admiral Thrawn had been there (cue scary music).
He also has the habit of making a lot of Rebel Alliance coalition members seem dirty and unlikable. In Return of the Jedi, Mon Mothma mentions the heroic Bothans who died getting the information about the second Death Star. After Zahn finished "fleshing out" the Bothans, they are so shifty, underhanded and downright unsympathetic, I found myself being deeply sorry that more of them hadn't been killed. I can, in all seriousness, name at least three Imperial officers from the movies that are infinitely more likable than all of Zahn's Bothans put together.
To polish things off, Zahn is so afraid of the Force as a dramatic device that he created ways to make it not work. He created the Ysalamiri so that Grand Admiral Thrawn could have a cocoon of invulnerability to the Force — essentially, Jedi kryptonite. He also created a predator, the Vornskr, who hunt the Ysalamari using the Force. I still haven't figured out how the Vornskr were able to cultivate the ability to use the Force while evolving on a planet that is essentially, because of the Ysalamiri, Force-dead, but nobody else seems to have a problem with it, so who am I to criticize?
Sorry. Tangent. Won't happen again. For this post, at least.
One of Zahn's creations was a Jedi Master named Joruus C'baoth. We later find out that he's an unstable clone of the original C'baoth, and as luck would have it, quite insane. He essentially fills the role of "evil Dark Force user" since Darths Vader and Sidious are no more. Like most of Zahn's characters, he's pretty much insufferable, and I remember hating his character only slightly less than Thrawn, albeit for similar reasons.
During my research yesterday, I discovered that Zahn had originally planned C'baoth to be an insane clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is pretty much the last nail in the coffin for me with Zahn; you don't take the beloved mentor and turn him into the bad guy. The fact that Zahn wanted to do just that to give the book a little more oomph speaks volumes about him as a writer, Hugo award or no Hugo award. Like the Bothans, it ruins whatever good feelings you may have had about the character. As a literature device, it is on a par with making Han Solo a wife beater, or Luke a drunk — it has dramatic impact, but it is a cheap bit of sensationalism that has no respect for the integrity of the characters as they have been already shown.
The other important thing I discovered yesterday was that the only reason he didn't use the Obi-Wan clone idea was because George Lucas stopped him. Let's stop and think about that for a moment: the man who a lot of people blame for ruining Star Wars with the prequels stopped Timothy Zahn from turning one of the most beloved characters in the Original Trilogy into an evil and psychotic plot device for his own selfish ends. So the next time we start to bad-mouth George for his numerous (and somewhat valid) sins again the Franchise, let's remember that he was once a force for good.
As an epilogue, I have been mulling the idea of putting where my mouth is, and writing some Star Wars fiction of my own. If I decide to do it, I would take only the established six films as canon. This might teach me some respect for Mr. Zahn, who, to be fair, had the enormously intimidating job of adding on to a legend not of his own creation. I haven't come up with anything yet, but the wheels are starting to turn in that direction.
That's all for now, campers. I promise, I'll have some fun Star Wars content in my next post.
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