Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars
Subject: Re: Next Swars movieskip
From: <DCC117@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 23:25:36 EST
 <BwsrM0.34p@news.cso.uiuc.edu><1992Nov9.130017.3966@wvnvms.wvnet.edu> <BxHFzw.L4s@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Penn State University

In article <BxHFzw.L4s@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, sjs28257@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve
Stelter) says:
>I agree: the elements were there.  But the presence of a story in the Star
>Wars universe and the presence of some of the superficial elements of the
>Star Wars genre does not guarantee a story in the Star Wars tradition.
>Gone is the character development that is central to the story in the movie

What was wrong with Zahn's character development, especially with
respect to the characters HE created?

>trilogy, the visual appeal that the movies had, and the neato dialogue
>that the movies had.  We're left with a fairly bland story that takes place
>on a much smaller scale than did the films.  Instead of battles that
>decide the fate of the entire Rebellion, we have petty conflicts revolving
>around Thrawn's attempts to obtain some extra ships.  Instead of grand

 Gee, who woulda thunk a couple extra ships ( read here the KATANA FLEET
or the inventory of the Sluis Van shipyards )
could possibly decide the fate of the entire Rebellion?
How silly of them.

But seriously....the conflicts in Zahn ARE pretty important.

>lightsaber duels between opposing Jedi, we have Luke and C'baoth standing

 Unfortunately, Luke's the only lightsaber-bearer around after ROTJ,
so this dramatic aspect of the movies is left out by necessity. The
temptation must be pretty strong to throw another saber-wielder into
the plot so that the new series can sport the good ol' saber battles
from the films ( something like the Lumiya plot in the Marvel comics? ),
but are we to assume that a Star Wars story without lightsaber
battles is worthless?

>I would rather have had no anti-Force plot device at all.  Zahn appears to
>shrink away from portraying Jedi in all their splendor; perhaps he considers
>the full array of the powers of the Jedi too problematic for him.  So he
>introduces the ysalamiri as a way to keep Luke and C'baoth (and, to an
>extent, Mara) on the back burner, power-wise.
>
>Because of this, I feel cheated.  Luke is a powerful Jedi and can do a lot
>of spectacular things with the Force, but we don't really get to see any
>of them because Luke spends so much time in the presence of the ysalamiri.

  First of all, Luke is not yet finished learning about the powers of
  the Jedi. He's by no means a Jedi Master at this point.

  However, we do get to see Luke do a lot of things with the Force
  in Zahn's books; most were done in the movies in some form or
  another, but I don't think that's a problem. Zahn assumes a certain
  kind of generalization of some mental aspects of the Force into
  the concept of "sense", but this is understandable. We see forceusers
  using their powers to enter hibernation, and to reach out and affect
  distant minds. We see different permutations, if you will, of the
  telekinesis aspect of the Force: for example, Luke using the Force
  to send his ( activated! ) lightsaber whirling around a room. This
  was a direct extrapolation of Force powers laid down in the films,
  and yet seemed far more "spectacular" than most of the saber-fight
  maneuvers from the films.
  Zahn has expanded the realm of ( mental ) Force powers,
  and these powers have been utilized by the characters.
  I don't feel that the presence of the ysalamiri has limited the
  expression of Force abilities by the characters.

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