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Post by finarvyn on Jul 4, 2018 14:59:25 GMT -6
Who likes it? SotME is an oddity, as it was an intended movie sequel which never happened and thus doesn't follow some of the "canon" established in Empire Strikes Back. The thing for me is that other than the original movie/novelization, SotME was the first expansion to the Star Wars universe and it happened to follow some ideas that seemed logical to me at the time. Looking back decades later it seems like a dead branch on the Star Wars tree, but at the time it was one of those amazing finds. My early OD&D Star Wars campaigns made heavy use of SotME and its concepts. Anyone else have a thought about this?
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Post by Falconer on Jul 4, 2018 22:23:10 GMT -6
Interesting you put this topic here and not with the novels. I do think of it as a novelization of an embryonic draft ESB script, and I’m fairly sure SotME and ESB were never meant to have both happened consecutively. However, I love that pre-ESB period, where you have this and the Marvel comics and the Brackett draft and even the Holiday Special all kind of riffing off the original SW and progressing in logical ways, but ESB itself of course nailed it.
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 5, 2018 4:52:28 GMT -6
Interesting you put this topic here and not with the novels. Feel free to move it if you like. The pre-ESB period is one that I like as well, and I'm thinking of things published before ESB and not things which were supposed to have happened before ESB. I think that if I was to run another pre-ESB OD&D Star Wars (or other RPG) I might consider the following as canon: (1) Star Wars ANH movie and novel (2) Splinter of the Mind's Eye (3) Marvel comics of the era, which sadly I no longer own (4) The first two of Daley's Han Solo novels (memory says they are much better than the 3rd one?) And this might be controversial, but I might also include: (5) Rogue One
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Post by Falconer on Jul 5, 2018 8:16:35 GMT -6
The third Daley novel is great! And it would be a great basis for a RPG. No ESB influence that I can tell, FWIW.
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Yora
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Post by Yora on Jul 5, 2018 13:04:10 GMT -6
I read it once years ago, and I have to admit that I don't really remember anything about it. There was a swamp planet, but that's pretty much it.
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Post by rafael on Jul 6, 2018 7:22:17 GMT -6
I am waiting the audiobook on this one; that said, I am pretty stoked for it.
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Post by boot on Jul 6, 2018 11:38:13 GMT -6
I loved it when I first read Splinter. Today, my affection for it has died. I've read the book a couple of times and read the comic, too.
I'm pretty over it.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 6, 2018 19:44:52 GMT -6
I added some pics to the OP. Welcome, boot! I have to say I have never been tempted to read Splinter, despite my strong affection for, well, pretty much EVERYTHING else published pre-ESB. Rafael, you’ll have to let us know if the audio version is any good!
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 7, 2018 4:22:50 GMT -6
Thanks for the picture-add. Makes my post look a lot cooler. I have the SFBC edition of SotME as well as the paperback. I was thinking of re-reading it if I can put down my Dresden Files book. I may find that its luster has gone away, but at the same time I have this attraction to the "Star Wars and Splinter only" timeline and wonder where it might have gone from there without ESB.
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Yora
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Post by Yora on Jul 7, 2018 16:09:13 GMT -6
I've never read the Marvel comics, but the pre-Empire EU is kind of a fascinating thought. Somehow, the ideas introduced in that period don't seem to have made it into the rest of the larger EU that started with the RPG.
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Post by greyarea on Jul 7, 2018 21:08:49 GMT -6
Love Splinter. Great read even after all this time!
The comics were fine. I had a friend who was a huge fan. I did like the comic strip with Al Williamson art.
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Post by boot on Jul 8, 2018 12:41:51 GMT -6
I am waiting the audiobook on this one; that said, I am pretty stoked for it. Any news on it coming out in audio form?
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Post by boot on Jul 8, 2018 12:47:35 GMT -6
The third Daley novel is great! And it would be a great basis for a RPG. No ESB influence that I can tell, FWIW. I was unimpressed with the Daley Han Solo novels. I read the first Lando novel by L. Neil Smith and felt the same. They did little for me, and I haven't made it to the last two Lando books yet. I understand that A.C. Crispin's Solo trilogy is pretty good. I need to give that a go some day.
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Post by Starbeard on Aug 2, 2018 21:24:13 GMT -6
I enjoyed Splinter a lot more than I thought I would. It has its moments of schlocky '70s trade paperback writing, but once I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb I found that part somewhat charming.
In the end there isn't too much about Splinter that can't get shoehorned into the ESB-verse. In fact, it shows some really early examples of ideas that were later taken up in the EU, sometimes to the point of just being out of control. For example (
Imperial treatment of aliens: Leia was surprised that the Empire was hiring non-humans in their clandestine operations, but Luke explains that the yuzzem Hin and Kee, being young and naive, were not very experienced in Imperial affairs. They were duped into signing themselves into near-slavery working on Mimban. They aren't actually enslaved though, just hired into slave-like conditions—still, there's still the explicit link between the Empire and humanocentrism. You will note that the whole trope of Imperial humanocentrism and species slavery really comes after the movies in the EU, unless you count the Holiday Special (which is more forced occupation rather than slavery). In the movies it's only vaguely implied, never actually seen or described: there's the Death Star officer who refers to Chewbacca as 'this… thing', but I think that's mostly just to fix the Empire as jerky bad guys, not as any kind of exposition that demonstrates actual Imperial policy within the setting. Remember that See-Threepio, and even Luke, also get weirded out and disgusted by funky aliens.
Jedi as wuxia warriors: At the climactic moment of the duel between Vader and Luke, Vader begins using the Force to throw stones at Luke, and is surprised that someone who isn’t a master can do the same (he uses a stone to block it). Vader also leaps into the air (‘more than a jump, less than levitation’) and gently falls to the ground; afterwards, as the full demonstration of his mastery, he makes a hadōken ball/glove of white light called ‘kinetite’ fly at Luke—it flies quickly, but gently. Luke, possessed by Obi-wan, throws his hands up in a blur which deflects the globe back at Vader. There is a soft crack as of an explosion and Vader is knocked to the ground.
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Post by boot on Aug 2, 2018 22:05:49 GMT -6
The comic had a startling scene (back then) when a lightsaber was used to slice an Imperial officer into two pieces. Today, that's no big deal, but when I first saw that in the comic, it blew me away--showing the power of the saber. I think the dude was bisected shoulder to hip.
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