If that showed up in my house, I would force someone to ask me "yousa thinkin people gonna die" so that I could "you're ******* right someone is about to die, jar jar!"

Just finished my re-read of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy. Really enjoyed it. I had given away my copies to different people at points, great to go through it all again. Some observations:

1) Zahn with the pre-Internet Ackbar meme when they get to Bilbringi near the end of the third book he says "It appears to be a trap."

2) One of the end sequences of The Last Command is pretty similar to what happens in The Force Awakens. Han and Chewie split up to try and blow up the cloning facility just like they try to blow u the oscillator of Starkiller Base.

3) Luke doesn't do a whole lot in the last book - Mara Jade kills his clone as well as Joruus C'baoth.

4) If Thrawn is going to be in the Ahsoka series, I wonder how deep they'll take the lore. If you watched Rebels, he had Rukh with him - although I think he died - and there was the incredible reference to Captain Pelleaon in the very last episode. I know Zahn has written the hell out of Thrawn, but he's so fascinating in this series. What an overall achievement of new characters for one author in one series - Thrawn, Pelleaon, the Noghri, C'baoth, Borsk Felya, Winter, Talon Kardde, Mara Jade, the other smugglers - Mazzic, Gileppsie, Aves, Niles, Ghent, Niles Ferrier, the vormskrs, the ysalamri.

5) Surprised there was never a back story or a comic of C'Baoth against the "Guardian of the Mountain" on Wayland. I have always wondered who that being was.

Did Zahn come up with the term "slicer"?

I really need to go back and read those again. It's probably been 20 years. I thought the noghiri's arc through the series was beautiful and tragic. I didn't really like how it was treated in Clone Wars. And obviously sad that he got offed.

I'm halfway through Light of the Jedi and I'm really starting to like it. The villains are I guess prates but I get almost a Viking raider vibe from them

Thrawn, Talon Karrde, and Mara Jade all created in one book. Its not my all time favorite of the EU, but its the GOAT and that's a big reason why.

Poe was born before Endor, Ben was born in 5 ABY, so he might have been

Hmmm, this looks like a nice place to set up shop.




De Wanna Wanga.

Red Five said:

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Thrawn, Talon Karrde, and Mara Jade all created in one book. Its not my all time favorite of the EU, but its the GOAT and that's a big reason why.

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Yes, these characters are great especially the first two.

Did you change your name solely for this post?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Did you change your name solely for this post?

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Tay Jabba no Bada.

When is your "best Jabba's palace henchmen" tournament?

redline248 said:

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When is your "best Jabba's palace henchmen" tournament?

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You got it. - VOTE

Boba Fett DQ'ed for being only a part-timer.

Max Rebo

Gamorrean vs. Rees-Yees is an absolute barn-burner. Meanwhile a certain someone is leading all votes with 84.6%!

This is going to be a tournament of 12 hour rounds. Because even inside the niche, this is pretty damn niche.

First Round Results from the Jabba's Palace Classic

#1 Salacious B. Crumb vs. #16 The Big Old Fat Dancer 64%-36%
#2 Oola vs. #15 Yak Face 76%-24%
#3 The Rancor vs. #14 The Frog Dog 77%-23%
#4 Skinny Me vs. #13 Ephant Mon 86%-14%
#5 Max Rebo vs. #12 Droopy McCool 70%-30%
#6 EV-9D9 vs. #11 Weequays 58%-42%
#7 Rancor Keeper vs. #10 Sy Snootles 52%-48%
#8 Gamorrean Guards vs. #9 Rees-Yees 52%-48%

Round 2 - VOTE

#1 Salacious B. Crumb vs. #8 Gamorrean Guards
#2 Oola vs. #7 Rancor Keeper
#3 The Rancor vs. #6 EV-9D9
#4 Bib Fortuna vs. #5 Max Rebo

Including Oola is almost not fair

I'm recording the IP addresses of all those who dare vote against me!

Saw this today. We talk about alternate versions all the time. What do y'all think about this?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I would've loved this. Makes Padme's arc stronger and makes it more viable to have Anakin actually kill Padme rather than her losing the will to live.

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That'd have been awesome. Gets rid of several awful parts like the "ooba" robot, the nonsensical death, Anakin being dumb enough to never follow up on whether the super-pregnant woman might have given birth, "NoooOooOoo"... etc.

Iain McCaig is the artist who did that work and is just as brilliant as they come, having worked on the prequels, The Force Awakens,GOTG, and the Avengers. here is some of his other stuff.

Unused art of Padme with Luke and Leia.



Early concept of ROTS Anakin



Maul and Yoda for TPM



Unused female Sith from TPM

Results ...

#1 Salacious B. Crumb vs. #8 Gamorrean Guards 61%-39%
#2 Oola vs. #7 Rancor Keeper 56%-44%
#3 The Rancor vs. #6 EV-9D9 89%-11%
#4 Bib Fortuna vs. #5 Max Rebo 72%-28%


Semifinals - Vote Now

#1 Salacious B. Crumb vs. #4 Bib Fortuna
#2 Oola vs. #3 The Rancor

But look who Oola's opponent is.

Breaking news: Vader is Luke's father.

More at 10.

It was foretold you would be here ...




FINAL

#3 The Rancor vs. #4 Bib Fortuna

VOTE


Semi results

#1 Salacious B. Crumb vs. #4 Bib Fortuna 47%-53%

#2 Oola vs. #3 The Rancor 43%-57%

Shenanigans

Lucasfilm Games wasting no time. Just announced a new open-world Star Wars game developed by Ubisoft + Massive Entertainment.

What kind of life form is ole Bib?

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Lucasfilm Games wasting no time. Just announced a new open-world Star Wars game developed by Ubisoft + Massive Entertainment.

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tell me more