This was a great read@ As someone who also loved the NJO (and personally thinks the whole EU should've ended with TUF), I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. In my opinion, there was one major reason so many of the NJO's themes and characters got dropped out of nowhere (Dark Journey was one of my favorite books in the series and got slammed with this, with basically every plot point being ignored):
The release schedule. 19 books in 4 years meant that authors couldn't read the previous book before starting on the next one--it usually wasn't even out yet! They had to write that shit off Cliff Notes and napkin outlines! Combine with various authorial biases, and you get the characterization merry-go-round and the plot morass we got. For instance, as much as I love Allston's books, he really desperately wanted to be writing Wraith Squadron instead, so when they gave him the books immediately after Dark Journey he was NOT playing with that.
(Another area in which this becomes clear: even if you like Jaina/Jagged, Jagged's personality is completely different with every author, and it's really obvious when he goes from Gary Stu to Bog-Standard Imp Officer to This Is Just Another Han Expy, ALLSTON.)
On the other hand, Vergere is bae and what Denning et al. did to her is a tragedy. "Sith? Jedi? Are these the only choices? Dark or light, good or evil? Is there no more to the Force than this? What is the screen on which light and dark cast their shapes and shadows? Where is the ground on which stands good and evil?"
no subject
This was a great read@ As someone who also loved the NJO (and personally thinks the whole EU should've ended with TUF), I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this. In my opinion, there was one major reason so many of the NJO's themes and characters got dropped out of nowhere (Dark Journey was one of my favorite books in the series and got slammed with this, with basically every plot point being ignored):
The release schedule. 19 books in 4 years meant that authors couldn't read the previous book before starting on the next one--it usually wasn't even out yet! They had to write that shit off Cliff Notes and napkin outlines! Combine with various authorial biases, and you get the characterization merry-go-round and the plot morass we got. For instance, as much as I love Allston's books, he really desperately wanted to be writing Wraith Squadron instead, so when they gave him the books immediately after Dark Journey he was NOT playing with that.
(Another area in which this becomes clear: even if you like Jaina/Jagged, Jagged's personality is completely different with every author, and it's really obvious when he goes from Gary Stu to Bog-Standard Imp Officer to This Is Just Another Han Expy, ALLSTON.)
On the other hand, Vergere is bae and what Denning et al. did to her is a tragedy. "Sith? Jedi? Are these the only choices? Dark or light, good or evil? Is there no more to the Force than this? What is the screen on which light and dark cast their shapes and shadows? Where is the ground on which stands good and evil?"