Dragon*Con
At Dragon*Con today, I attended a panel today of Star Wars Expanded Universe authors talking about the journey of heroes in the Star Wars saga. Timothy Zahn (whom I consider to be the father of the modern Star Wars universe as seen in the novels) was main guest, followed by Alan Dean Foster and Kevin J. Anderson (whom I consider to be the death of the modern Star Wars universe for a long time.)
The panel started on topic, but was quickly derailed by fans. Every question was a complaint about the Star Wars universe, mainly the films. More than that, the complaints were aimed at the prequels and Clone Wars. Normally on panels, you’d see the guests smile and nod and say, “I’d have done things differently.” For the most part, Timothy Zahn and Alan Dean Foster were very respectful of the source material and, though they admitted to problems or what they would have done differently, you could tell there was something different about their opinion. Kevin J. Anderson, on the other hand, was disdainful for the whole enterprise.
Startlingly so.
What’s worse is that he was simply wrong.
“I don’t get why George tossed out every aspect of the heroes journey in the prequels, it was abysmal,” and so on.
Timothy Zahn had to gently correct him and explain how we was using the heroes journey while I sat back and slapped my forehead, wondering how they could have let this man be in charge of the expanded Star Wars universe for so long.
I was never a large fan of Anderson’s work so this didn’t surprise me. What surprised me the most were the Star Wars “fans” who came to the panel less to hear about the heroes journey, and more to air their grievances with the franchise. I was shocked that these people felt so slighted by the gift of Star Wars that they would spend an hour in a hot room to ask questions of people who aren’t even sailing the ship.
I guess the thing is this: Star Wars doesn’t owe you anything. Like any finely crafted piece of art, you enjoy it or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways. Please don’t sat you love it with one side of your mouth and scream about how much you hate it with the other side of your mouth.
If you do, you’re likely to sound a lot like Kevin J. Anderson.
Comments
Great article!
I agree with you about Zahn and about the fans. While I don't think such complaints have been used to steer a panel in the way you described here, complaining vehemently about things that people claim to be fans of is becoming more and more common.
I'm sure KJA returned every check he was given uncashed too...
Very good article.
As much as I love Star Wars, I won't touch anything by Anderson. He makes the whole Universe into something it is clearly not. Mr. Zahn on the other hand, I believe he knows what he is doing. His novels are a wonderful read and I truly become excited whenever I hear he is working on something new. He knows what pleases the fans and wants to give them something they can enjoy.
I believe Anderson is only involved with Star Wars because it is clearly a money maker. The Star Wars movies and cartoon series are 100% CANON. If the movie contradicts something in the novels, then the novel should take a back seat. Mr. Zahn respects this, while Anderson throws a hissy fit about it. Anderson believes his name should be on everything that reads "Star Wars."
I know many will not agree with me and defend Anderson. That is fine. I love Star Wars and it has given me much joy in life. It has made me smile when I was having a bad day, and given me hope in a dark world.
I agree that Anderson didn't appear too classy to be moaning so much about what provided a paycheck for him for a while.
However, I must comment on Timothy Zahn. Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE the Heir to the Empire trilogy. Damn good stuff. Also really liked the Hand of Thrawn duology he wrote. However, I don't know why everyone idolizes him and swears he's the best thing that's ever happened to Star Wars EU. I wanted to like Outbound Flight. I really did...but holy crap it was BORING!!! Same with Survivor's Quest and Allegiance! Do you guys seriously think Allegiance, Outbound Flight, and Survivor's Quest are anything special AT ALL?!? He did some fantastic work, but it seems like he's just writing for a paycheck now. Interesting concepts, but his last 3 books have failed HARD on execution. Before you defend him, ask yourself this, if you read Allegiance, Outbound, or Survivor's Quest without knowing it was Zahn, would you still have thought they were good?
Star Wars Expanded Universe has been a complete waste of time since day one. The only stories that matter are Episodes I-VI, both Clone Wars series, Shadows of the Empire, The Force Unleashed and the upcoming Live Action show.
George Lucas, the man who created Star Wars (remember him?) said in a recent interview that: "Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, The Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married." so stick that in your Transparisteel pipe and smoke it. :P
With the number of franchises KJA has ruined, I'm startled he thinks he's qualified to judge. I wish he'd stick to his original work, or at the very least, not p*ss in the wells he has drunk from.
Well fancy that: KJA biting the hand that feeds him. Agreed the prequel trilogy was a bit light on effective humor and could have benefited from a Han Solo type, but it has its moments. It also gave us the interesting two Clone Wars series, both the recent one and Tartakosky's fantastic short series.
A few facts:
- KJA gave us the novels' worst villain: Admiral Daala. A bumbling, irrational, unconvincing twit.
- KJA confuses Jedi powers with "Magic, the Gathering". Does everything have to be so easy. Just use a little magic. Also, why be so inconsistent: a littlle exorcism is hard but throwing a whole fleet of Star Destroyers across the universe is child's play?
- Deus Ex Machina syndrome: just use the Force... in the lamest way imaginable.
- Best not mention the Tales of the Jedi comics.
But we should thank him for steering clear of the NGO and LotF. A bitter KJA is better than an empowered KJA.
Lucas never said the quote Paul T. is attributing to him. Quite the contrary: Lucas gave out copies of Dark Empire to employees at Lucasfilm, and is on the record as saying that he loved it.
Bryan, I respect your opinion, but I think you're being needlessly harsh and melodramatic. The prequels, in many people's opinion, were vastly inferior to the originals. How is it wrong for them to express that opinion? Is it any less valid than the opinion you're expressing here? KJA may have written Star Wars novels, but he is, ultimately, just a person. And people have opinions. He has the right to express his--and it's an opinion shared by a lot of people, so it's not like he's saying this outlandish thing that comes out of left field. As for Zahn...well, I've met him a few times, and even hung out with him for a weekend once at a convention, and I found him to be smarmy, stuck up and two-faced. So while I think his earlier SW novels were great (his later ones sucked), I don't hold him in any higher regard than you apparently hold Anderson. I'll say this: I completely agree with many fans' assessment of Anderson's weak writing. But don't knock him just for saying what he thinks.
I was at that panel, and I don't recall any of the authors bitterly attacking anything. Just sharing opinions. And the audience seemed to agree with their assessments. I ALSO remember my first Dragon*con in 1994 or so where Zahn reamed Lucas for the way the Han rescue from Jabba's palace was written in ROTJ (he said he could've done it better) and a more recent con where he said "Lucas doesn't understand the Force." What??? So let's call a spade a spade and acknowledge that everyone has their opinion of the way SW SHOULD be. And I think Zahn has benefited more from his SW books than anyone else, so he has more of a reason to stop talking about how Lucas doesn't know what he's doing.
Maybe he's just upset the PT pretty much blew his continuity out of the water. In any case, Star Wars fandom has degenerated into a collection of gripers who base their opinions on what the consensus seems to be on the internet. I would have gotten up and walked out of that panel. What a waste of time.
I am almost positive that Lucas really did say Paul T's quote.
That doesn't mean that Lucas doesn't like the EU. Like it was mentioned earlier, he liked Dark Empire and he liked the name Coruscant and he probably likes most of the other stories. But he doesn't consider them "canon" and doesn't feel obligated to change his movies to be consistent with every silly little obscure detail that other writers have come up with.
I stopped following the EU a little bit before the episode one was released...it became just too much for me to keep up with. Zahn's books were great, of course. Anderson's books were garbage. It is quite ridiculous that a man with his storytelling skills would ever criticize anybody else.
@Mike: I've liked nearly everything that Zahn has done in SW. OK, Allegiance wasn't his best novel. But the great thing with Zahn is that he ALWAYS writes the characters we know and love "in character."
Personally, i liked Outbound Flight alot because it built up Thrawn's back story.
Here's something to think about: Zahn's most popular stories in SW are spread over three parts (Heir to the Empire) and two parts (Hand of Thrawn), while those books that ppl consider to be flops are the single volume books. We all know how Zahn is an expert in weaving together numerous sub-plots in a single story and bringing them all together at the end. Could it be that he needs to be given the mandate to write stories that will span 2 or 3 volumes so that he has enough space to write stories with plots and subplots and build up his characters?
I'm a SW fan who stays away from the fandom. I'm sorry, but Star Wars doesn't owe anyone a thing. And for those who act like its common knowledge that the prequels are "vastly inferior" to the originals...I try not to speak for everyone and only for myself. I disliked Star Wars for years (mainly b/c of the fandom) and I was indifferent to the bits and pieces of the movies I'd seen. I was dragged to see ROTS and I found that I loved the epic scale of it.
I and many others like me, enjoyed the prequels and we derived pleasure from it. So like Kant said, people want to push their judgement of taste onto others with the whole "its common knowledge that the prequels are inferior" stuff. Um, no. It's not common knowledge to me and I loved it. The prequels are what made me convert from someone who disdained Star Wars to someone who loves it. It makes me weary to see "fans" who have to bash and hate all the time. Do something constructive instead.
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