StarDestroyer.Net BBS

000 wrote:She uses the Holocron, which is from my understanding an database of stripped-down raw facts for her writings. Think of it as a bare-bones Wookieepedia.

Incidentally, Dan Wallace posts over at TF.N with a fair amount of regularity-- at the moment he's entertaining questions and comments in the thread for this book.

I'd recommend against bringing up Traviss or the numbers or whatever, though, since it tends to make LFL folks uncomfortable when anything is implied about their feelings toward other authors-- remember the incident a few months ago involving Randy Stradley?

000 wrote:About what?

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:

000 wrote:About what?

I think he meant Randy Stradley?

I'm curious, what was the ruckus and what was he responsible for?

Randy Stradley wrote:Sorry. I tried reading it, but couldn't get passed the opening. First, I couldn't for the life of me imagine a clone trooper keeping a journal -- let alone a novel-style journal like the one presented. To whom does he think he's writing? Who is his audience?

Second, the opening line, "You have to see the funny side of things in the army," seemed complete incongruous. See the funny side of things in the army as compared to what? As a clone trooper raised in a factory, what other experiences has he had besides being in the army?

Ms. Traviss might be a fine writer, but the opening sentences of Triple Zero booted me right out of the story, and my own "offended" sense of logic wouldn't let me continue.

Randy Stradley wrote:Clones falling in love?

Clones freakin' falling in freakin' love?!

[Randy looks around at the rapidly shrinking raft that was the Star Wars that he and Jeremy knew and loved. Kicks Jeremy off. "Sorry, pal. It looks like there's only room for one, now."]

Randy Stradley wrote:In the less than twenty-four hours that have passed since I voiced my opinion about the opening paragraphs of Karen Traviss' novel Republic Commando: Triple Zero, at least three people (that I know of) have read additional, unintended meanings into my relatively brief post. You can read the post in question, here:

+http://www.darkhorse.com/boards/viewtop ... 7&start=15

There is also a follow-up post (maybe two) on the next page.

In another, unrelated thread, one poster even went so far as to decide from those few comments that I was at "war" with Del Rey (though I suspect he was grasping at anything he could throw at me because he was mad at me and he was otherwise out of ammunition). Before this goes any further, let me put my comments in context, and tell you the thoughts behind them.

First of all, as I made it clear in my post, I did not read the whole novel. I've heard it's a good read, and I will, in all likelihood, give it a complete read at some point in the near future.

Now, pay attention to this next part, because it's the crux of the matter: My gripes should in no way be perceived as directed at Ms. Traviss, Del Rey, or at any of the fine folks at Lucasfilm. My gripes are directed at the ether, at the zeitgeist, or at whatever undetectable community spirit moved everyone but myself (and possibly Jeremy Barlow, though I will not speak for him) to view the nature and aspect of the clones in the Clone Wars in a certain way -- a way different from how I viewed them.

See, I pictured the clones (based solely on what I saw in the films) as less-than fully developed humans. Possessing more of a sense of imagination (i.e., better problem solving skills) and more mission flexibility than any droid, but molded on a military framework that allowed concerns for little more than chain of command, mission parameters, and loyalty to the Republic and their fellow soldiers. In other words, I never envisioned them as being capable of possessing the hopes, dreams, desires (beyond the completion of their current mission) of a "normal" human. But I now see that I am in the extreme minority (lessee, there's me, and maybe Jeremy, and... well, me, for sure).

So, do I take the news like a man? Do I accept with calm reserve that the truth is other than what I imagined it to be? What -- have you not been paying attention?

Of course I don't accept it. I rail against it, kick its mighty stone foundation until my toes are bruised, shake my fist at its towering battlements, and make off-hand comments that can be misconstrued as criticsm of those lucky souls working within the same system as I, but who have not been afflicted the same way I have. Long story short, I act like a dumb-ass.

I apologize to any readers who mistakenly thought I was on a crusade against the status quo, or who somehow thought that I thought that I ever had a chance.

And, I apologize to the folks at Del Rey who may have taken offense at my comments. Even though we all work in the same arena, theirs is a different job than mine -- and one I would not presume to oversee.

To Ms. Traviss, my sincerest apologies for any perceived slight. Please know that my comments were in no way meant to be taken as an indictment of your skills or your work. As I stated above, my grief is all of my own making.

And, last but not least, I want to apologize to the people at Lucas Licensing, who I count as friends, with whom I work every day, and without whom everything Jeremy and I do would quickly go off the rails. No one should ever blame them for my occasional rants, and I'm truly sorry if they were caught in the fall-out from this one.

So, let that be a lesson to me to keep my big mouth shut. Especially when I know I have the weight of the entire Star Wars galaxy teetering above my head.

Even more interestingly, a poster over at TFN brought up that Randy's apparently been wanting to do a story about Han and Bobby Fett teaming up for years.

Randy Stradley wrote:Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:31 am Post subject:

Wapoe, I watched your video and, per the "challenge" on your site, I judged for myself that the film is "revenge fantasy" and not satire. Satire would be poking fun of the cult of personality that is occurring around the Karen Traviss material (and the author herself). Inserting a version of yourself into the mix in order to show one-sided arguments against an effigy of the author and then killing her defenders makes it a revenge fantasy.

Which is not to say that Dark Moose and others are right. I hasten to point out that I have no firsthand knowledge of any of his statements or actions (nor do I really need to see/read them, as none of this has anything to do with events taking place on this site). But even if he has done and said everything you assert, it doesn't make your film satire.

Star Wars is a phenomonen like few others in fiction. It's well-loved and it's huge -- big enough that some fans are able to focus on tiny niches of the continuity, lay claim to them, and defend them voiciferously. Some authors will, as well (hey, just because someone can string words together or draw doesn't mean they aren't raging fans). But like any other shared continuity, and despite all best intentions, mistakes, contradictions, and even just plain bad ideas will creep in. We can shake our heads in dismay, but in the end all we can do is accept what has been done and hope that one day the bad stuff will be retconned into a more palatable form. Fantasizing about physical violence against authors or other fans is neither helpful, nor funny.

Lord Poe wrote: EDIT: How soon do you think Dark Moosetard and KT Jelly will hoof it on over there after reading the above?

Ender wrote:Depends on how many people have tomorow off. If its a 4 day weekend, I say DM tomorrow morning, KT Wednesday afternoon (she lives in the states now, right?). If not a holiday, or KT does not live in the states, then Dm tomorow morning, KT tuesday afternoon. DM early no matter what because he is a loser, KT later then him even if she notices first to try to appear more dignified then the lackey.

Ender wrote:A quick flip through has "millions" of factories, the Confederacy's army is made of "uncountable number" of droids, tens of thousands of one kind of droid guard a single factory, the size of the Confederate army was "unprecedented" and a couple of other bits.

Ender wrote:4 platoons of ARC troopers to take a single factory. A platoon is 32 men. That's 128 ARCs, of which 96 were killed. Yet there are the claims that there were only 100 ARCs. Funny that.

Randy Stradley wrote:Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:31 am Post subject:
Wapoe, I watched your video and, per the "challenge" on your site, I judged for myself that the film is "revenge fantasy" and not satire. Satire would be poking fun of the cult of personality that is occurring around the Karen Traviss material (and the author herself). Inserting a version of yourself into the mix in order to show one-sided arguments against an effigy of the author and then killing her defenders makes it a revenge fantasy.

Which is not to say that Dark Moose and others are right. I hasten to point out that I have no firsthand knowledge of any of his statements or actions (nor do I really need to see/read them, as none of this has anything to do with events taking place on this site). But even if he has done and said everything you assert, it doesn't make your film satire.

Star Wars is a phenomenon like few others in fiction. It's well-loved and it's huge -- big enough that some fans are able to focus on tiny niches of the continuity, lay claim to them, and defend them vociferously. Some authors will, as well (hey, just because someone can string words together or draw doesn't mean they aren't raging fans). But like any other shared continuity, and despite all best intentions, mistakes, contradictions, and even just plain bad ideas will creep in. We can shake our heads in dismay, but in the end all we can do is accept what has been done and hope that one day the bad stuff will be retconned into a more palatable form. Fantasizing about physical violence against authors or other fans is neither helpful, nor funny.

Lord Poe wrote:The guy gave it a fair shake, I'll say that for him, even if I do disagree with him.

Is sarcastic humor impossible to recognize unless it has "Monty Python" stamped on it?

One of the favorite arguments among the Fandawhorians at TFN is that since Odds came out after the ICS and other sources, it automatically retconned all of them away

Jim Raynor wrote: Also, The New Essential Guide to Droids just came out, right? One of the favorite arguments among the Fandawhorians at TFN is that since Odds came out after the ICS and other sources, it automatically retconned all of them away (which is ridiculous, even though Chee did say that newer sources usually take precedent, that rule is hardly set in stone, nor does it mean that the films can so easily be trumped by C-canon). Going by this logic, does this mean that the NEGTD has retconned away Odds?