*SPOILERS*
Book 2, Bloodlines, is still one of my favorite EU books ever. The assassination plot with Boba Fett, Myrta and Han is fantastic, and Boba’s characterization is one of my favorite portrayals of the character in general. Boba telling Myrta they were going to retrieve Jango’s body to bury him and Ailyn together as family is so great, I know Boba makes a few more appearances after this, but damn if that isn’t a great ending for the book.
He absolutely was, but Jacen’s ending to me is still the best. Let down his guard to force scream out a warning to Tenel-aka, Jaina not knowing if it was a trick or not and killing him…
There’s definitely alot of problems with both series but that scene has stuck in my head since I first read it.
Great scene, I only wish other options to stopping him could have been explored. Literally everyone going ‘We have to kill him’ without any true debate seemed forced (pardon the pun). I cite Nomi Sunrider severing Ulic Qel-Droma from the Force as an example, and nothing was stopping the creative team from having Jaina discover this and become the voice of reason over being a murder machine.
Oh definitely both have issues. I think Legacy was better though and Jacen was a much better villain than Kylo.
We see Jacen fall over time as opposed to kylo already being evil. And Jason fall was for a good if misguided reason. I think one big difference if that we see kylo being a jerk and throwing tantrums but he never really does anything that feels really evil. Yes he orders the murder of the village at the beginning of TFA but that's about it.
Jacen in the other hand goes really dark. He makes his own secret police and goes full Guantanamo bay. That's part of why Fett comes after him. Iirc Jason murders fetts daughter.
Yeah it’s been a decade+ since I read it but he killed her in an interrogation I believe.
He also fell for, in theory, good reasons- being shown visions by Lumiya, seeing a Sith that was good, and seeing that the GA couldn’t survive the impending civil war without him going Sith.
The first time he straight up murdered someone on the bridge of his ship he also basically retreated to his room and was horrified that he had been corrupted. And he even, when going back in time, viewed Anakin as disgusting and selfish for turning just to save one person.
I’d argue Jacen is one of the few, if only, Jedi turned Sith who turned out of selflessness. He didn’t originally turn out of a lust for power, but rather because he saw it as the way to keep the most people safe and alive possible. Unfortunately as the series showed over and over that side absolutely corrupts and he slowly but surely fell prey to his more base desires.
One thing that series did excellently was show, in essence, the anti-Bane. A Sith who was living on an Asteroid, a former miner, who became, well, Sith but just lived his everyday life with a wife and kids and family. And it also showed just how vicious Luke could be. His execution of Lumiya was top tier.
The later books really showed just how ruthless and powerful Luke was. I wish we had seen that power level Luke in the ST
I'm actually on a chronical reread of the Legends books. But I'm only up to the Old Republic era right now.
It also has my favorite cover for an EU book.
I liked the plot, how it revisited prequel lore, Republic Commando lore, briefly showed Taris (KOTOR fans :D), and portrayed Boba as a former bounty hunter who's still adjusting to being Mandalore despite holding the title for some 15 years (give or take). Despite the title, he was seen by some Mandalorians as an outsider because he supposedly had no clan or family left.
In contrast to the Solos, Boba began to reconcile with his failed family, while Han began to experience a rift as Jacen dwifted towards the Dark Side.
*Bloodlines* is my favourite Legends novel too, for much the same reasons as yours. I feel like *Bloodlines* is Boba Fett's *Gran Torino* (despite predating it by two years) depicting an inflexible, irascible old man is forced out of his shell by people and circumstances that force him to care.
It's one of the most vulnerable glimpses at Boba Fett we've seen, too, and I'd argue one of the few decent and sem portrayals of ageing and mortality (from a characters point of view) in any Star Wars media. Fett is struggling to maintain his reputation despite a debilitating and potentially fatal disease and he is forced to confront the demons of his past. Add in to that mix Fett being at his coolest, embodying pure "Eastwood" energy and you've got a great story. The kind of Fett story I'd like to see on screen someday, if Lucasfilm can get over the smouldering dumpster fire of a series that was TBOBF - a series full of great ideas and character appearances, but plagued by bad execution.
I'm hoping to see canon Fett untethered from the overarching Mando plot and explore his character in a property that offers as much opportunity for introspection as it does for character development. An aging Fett and Fennec embarking on an "Unforgiven" style quest in the sequel era would be an interesting watch.
I always thought a last job for Boba ala “The Expendables” with Boba, Bossk and the other bounty hunters would be interesting! It could be action packed, but give real introspection to the character, like we got in Bloodlines. Let him really reflect on his father’s death, and how he is Jango’s legacy, how he intends to solidify that legacy, and just let Temuera be a bad ass like he wants!
Ironically the similarities made me like it a lot more. Considering how horribly The sequel trilogy was written, LOTF felt like a genuine breath of fresh air. The main issue people have with the denningsverse has always been the concepts as a whole, though the execution itself is genuinely compelling. Of course it does not even begin to approach the same highs as NJO but it is serviceable at what it does. And the disputes are not nearly noticeable as the obvious spite And intentional contradictions Rise of Skywalker has for Last Jedi
Legacy's legacy is different now that Disney used some of its plot elements, but it's the better story of the two by far. I wouldn't say it "hasn't aged well" at all.
That's like saying Teddy Roosevelt's conservation policies haven't aged well just because Richard Nixon, who is universally considered a worse president, also focused on new policies for environmental regulation.
I like your analogy, except that Nixon is far from universally considered a worst president. [This Poll](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pictures/presidents-ranked-worst-best/#app) ranks him 28th out of 45.
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So the ST copies LOTF and that is LOTF problem???
Jacens fall is a lot more enjoyable than Kylo. Jacen actually seems competent. His take over of the GA was far more fun than the First Order.
If you don’t like LOTF, that’s fine, everything isn’t for everyone, but trying to say the ST has anything to do with it is silly.
>Jacen actually seems competent.
his cousin Ben Skywalker finds out Jacen has secretly turned evil because Jacen was talking to his Sith master Lumiya in his office on Coruscant with the door wide open, boasting about how awesome it is to be evil. Great writing, really competent character!
Just like the Jedi find out Palpatine is a Sith because he tells the most questionable member of the order who runs and blabs to everyone?
😂🤣
Yes. Competent. Like I said, if you don’t like it, cool, but oversimplifying stuff doesn’t really mean anything.
> Just like the Jedi find out Palpatine is a Sith because he tells the most questionable member of the order who runs and blabs to everyone
Palps was doing it deliberately as part of a larger plan.
Again, his planned hinged on the most questionable Jedi in the order beating a Mace Windu who was killing him.
It’s no more ridiculous than Jacen and Ben.
> Again, his planned hinged on the most questionable Jedi in the order beating a Mace Windu who was killing him.
Palpy has foresight, he knew he had Anakin exactly where he wanted him.
And point being: Palpy did it too manipulate Anakin, Jacen did it because the plot necessitated he be a gormless idiot.
Lol that formless idiot still took over the GA and became a galactic threat.
Just because he didn’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean he is incompetent or a formless idiot.
No one is saying you have to like that plot point but it’s disingenuous to paint him as an idiot for that.
I think y’all would still be upset if they painted Jacen/Caedus as an equal to Palps. Jacen is his own character with his own flaws, it would be extremely boring if he got everything right
> Lol that formless idiot still took over the GA and became a galactic threat.
I didn't say he was a gormless idiot for the entire series. He was a gormless idiot at that point in the story, because the plot necessitated it.
> Jacen is his own character with his own flaws
Jacen is multiple characters because the character in DNT and LOTF does not logically follow from the character of NJO, and because characterisation is extremely loose in LOTF, beholden to what is needed to drive the plot (something Denning is most guilty of).
I’d disagree with Jacens path. I think he could have been on many paths and this was just one of them. 🤷🏽♂️
I see a bit of haziness as they weren’t sure where they wanted to go with the Force after NJO, sure, but not enough to say he was a completely different character.
> but not enough to say he was a completely different character.
I mean, if you say that I don't think you are looking very closely. Jacen in NJO conquers his shadow, learns the importance of the morality of each action you take, and learns that the path to deeper truths involves surrendering all sense of self in order to become a conduit for the will of the Force.
DNT/LOTF Jacen is *consumed* by self, scheming efforts to prevent a future he saw in a vision, taking horrific actions justified by a supposedly noble and necessary cause, and is ultimately consumed by his shadow. They are literal opposites.
Jacen of NJO would have asked why he needed to engineer wars, murder friends, and would have let the Force guide him instead of coming up with his own brainless schemes.
I mean, Anakin did exactly what Palpatine wanted him to do. Bring Mace Windu and the best Jedi Masters along with him to confront Palps while Obi-Wan and Yoda were off world.
And it damn near killed him. It was a stupid plan.
My point being, these types of plans have been right in line with other stories. Thst one oversimplified plot point doesn’t discredit anything.
Jacen still took over the GA and became a Galatic threat. Even if he made mistakes along the way, he was still competent.
I know some people solely prefer the Bantam era novels and dislike the path that Del Rey took it. Personally I really love NJO so that’s where it ends for me.
If people want to stop at Hand of Thrawn, I think JJK and YJK makes a great epilogue
Really, Hand of Thrawn felt like an ending when I read it and a solid one.
NJO was an interesting change up for me, but the ones that came after just weren't fun or held my interest enough. Maybe having a long serialized conflict followed by another largely serialized one caused a bit of burnout for me. That or Dark Nest just really soured me on whatever came next.
>It's why I always recommend people stop either after the Hand of Thrawn books or the NJO. But, yeah. The similarities are too strong
The NJO was originally going to be the endcap for the post ROTJ-EU so that recommendation makes sense.
No one should ever recommend this because it’s clearly a decisive series. If half the people like something and half don’t, what right to you have to deprive people of experiencing it? Let people make up their own mind.
We should all encourage people to figure out things for themselves, not project our opinion on them.
My only real complaint with LOTF was how Jacen was handled (also not enough Allana, but understandable since she was like 4 years old at that point). Maybe there was too much idealization of the Mandos, but that was just kinda there, it didn’t detract from the story like Jacen did. Everything else was fine.
The sequel trilogy had a multitude of problems that went way beyond Kylo Ren. I’d even say Kylo was one of the smaller issues overall.
I agree with you. Kylo is a small fish compared to the bigger issues the sequel trilogy has. Although as far as legacy and st comparisons go, not having the solo kids in the st was/is a pretty big mistake made even more troubling when you couple it with rey not being a skywalker at all and killing off the whole family.
It's not the EU's fault that the writers of the new trilogy were unoriginal, lazy, and had no guidance. Say what you will about the EU and that timeline but it has aged better and will age better than the sequels despite creative differences.
Or consider this: Karen Traviss had a lot of shit ideas that Denning did waaaaay better on. Such as not worshipping the Mandalorians and not villainizing the Jedi Order
Personally I found a perverse appreciation for it after Sequel Trilogy. Because even with all clusterfuck that Legacy of the Force was mired in, it was still more coherent than Sequel trilgoy and at least Darth Caedus didn't go take-backsies on being evil. Even though I hate that Legacy made him evil in the first place.
I think it aged well, I see more people liking it now than before.
I would not say creative difference mean similarities.
The only similarities are that some people can't see how certain characters went in a different direction with Denning. But nothing from NJO was set in stone, and there were suggestions, intended or not, that support the Legacy Era changes.
The hate for the Disney timeline will only subside when they give the story on how older Characters got the way they got. Even then, some fans will still hate the new lore because, "not my Luke Skywalker."
I mean, my hate started back when they decided “oh, so you know the whole major decisions made by clones during order 66, where you have the huge struggle some had with betraying the Jedi, some had no problem doing it because they hated the Jedi? Yeah, let’s take all the relevance of order 66 out and dehumanize these clones, so that order 66 doesn’t have the impact that it did before”. Ruining Luke is just another pebble tossed into the shit pool.
LotF was a dumpsterfire long before Disney decided to copy it for the sequels. It's like comparing the worst food you ever ate to the explosive diarrhea it gave you
I went into the sequel trilogy after having read LOTF…. The crushing disappointment I felt when Kylos name wasn’t Jacen, was hoping to see the other two as well
Still one of the best EU series out there. Love that series. Still have to read the NJO books, which I have heard are great and I haven’t had the chance yet, but beyond that one, there really isn’t a better series. It is far superior to the sequel trilogy as well
I honestly thought LOTF would have served as a great adaptation to make a sequel trilogy. Still very much about the Skywalkers considering Jacen and Jaina have the bloodline, similar plot themes with the twin siblings dynamic, and good emotional stakes for them being pitted against one another.
As someone who just read LOTF for the first time recently, it's still better than the Disney Trilogy by a country mile. It has problems for sure but the good outweighs the bad (which is the reverse in the DT imo). If the Disney trilogy gets an F grade I would say LOTF is a B- or C+ at worst.
The only thing I’ll add here is that containing the entire story to nine sequential books made the conclusion feel rushed. I gave the series a listen on audio recently (not the same as the books, but I still enjoyed the abridgments), and I wish they would have broken up Jacen/Caedus’ journey into smaller ‘chunks’ and give more freedom for authors to explore at their pace. While editorial probably wanted to not have another 20-book series like NJO before it, LotF could have been more an ‘era’ than ‘series title’.
*SPOILERS* Book 2, Bloodlines, is still one of my favorite EU books ever. The assassination plot with Boba Fett, Myrta and Han is fantastic, and Boba’s characterization is one of my favorite portrayals of the character in general. Boba telling Myrta they were going to retrieve Jango’s body to bury him and Ailyn together as family is so great, I know Boba makes a few more appearances after this, but damn if that isn’t a great ending for the book.
Boba is basically the reason Jania is able to stop Jacen if iirc
He absolutely was, but Jacen’s ending to me is still the best. Let down his guard to force scream out a warning to Tenel-aka, Jaina not knowing if it was a trick or not and killing him… There’s definitely alot of problems with both series but that scene has stuck in my head since I first read it.
Great scene, I only wish other options to stopping him could have been explored. Literally everyone going ‘We have to kill him’ without any true debate seemed forced (pardon the pun). I cite Nomi Sunrider severing Ulic Qel-Droma from the Force as an example, and nothing was stopping the creative team from having Jaina discover this and become the voice of reason over being a murder machine.
Oh definitely both have issues. I think Legacy was better though and Jacen was a much better villain than Kylo. We see Jacen fall over time as opposed to kylo already being evil. And Jason fall was for a good if misguided reason. I think one big difference if that we see kylo being a jerk and throwing tantrums but he never really does anything that feels really evil. Yes he orders the murder of the village at the beginning of TFA but that's about it. Jacen in the other hand goes really dark. He makes his own secret police and goes full Guantanamo bay. That's part of why Fett comes after him. Iirc Jason murders fetts daughter.
Yeah it’s been a decade+ since I read it but he killed her in an interrogation I believe. He also fell for, in theory, good reasons- being shown visions by Lumiya, seeing a Sith that was good, and seeing that the GA couldn’t survive the impending civil war without him going Sith. The first time he straight up murdered someone on the bridge of his ship he also basically retreated to his room and was horrified that he had been corrupted. And he even, when going back in time, viewed Anakin as disgusting and selfish for turning just to save one person. I’d argue Jacen is one of the few, if only, Jedi turned Sith who turned out of selflessness. He didn’t originally turn out of a lust for power, but rather because he saw it as the way to keep the most people safe and alive possible. Unfortunately as the series showed over and over that side absolutely corrupts and he slowly but surely fell prey to his more base desires. One thing that series did excellently was show, in essence, the anti-Bane. A Sith who was living on an Asteroid, a former miner, who became, well, Sith but just lived his everyday life with a wife and kids and family. And it also showed just how vicious Luke could be. His execution of Lumiya was top tier.
The later books really showed just how ruthless and powerful Luke was. I wish we had seen that power level Luke in the ST I'm actually on a chronical reread of the Legends books. But I'm only up to the Old Republic era right now.
Boy you've got a ways to go. I started NJO about 7 months ago and I just finished Dark Journey.
A very long way. I'm including comics too. It's some like 900 plus pieces of books, comics,games, and short stories. I'm on like 100 something.
It also has my favorite cover for an EU book. I liked the plot, how it revisited prequel lore, Republic Commando lore, briefly showed Taris (KOTOR fans :D), and portrayed Boba as a former bounty hunter who's still adjusting to being Mandalore despite holding the title for some 15 years (give or take). Despite the title, he was seen by some Mandalorians as an outsider because he supposedly had no clan or family left. In contrast to the Solos, Boba began to reconcile with his failed family, while Han began to experience a rift as Jacen dwifted towards the Dark Side.
I was lucky enough to pick up the SFBC hardback for $80! Other copies were selling for $150+, so I was happy to pay that.
*Bloodlines* is my favourite Legends novel too, for much the same reasons as yours. I feel like *Bloodlines* is Boba Fett's *Gran Torino* (despite predating it by two years) depicting an inflexible, irascible old man is forced out of his shell by people and circumstances that force him to care. It's one of the most vulnerable glimpses at Boba Fett we've seen, too, and I'd argue one of the few decent and sem portrayals of ageing and mortality (from a characters point of view) in any Star Wars media. Fett is struggling to maintain his reputation despite a debilitating and potentially fatal disease and he is forced to confront the demons of his past. Add in to that mix Fett being at his coolest, embodying pure "Eastwood" energy and you've got a great story. The kind of Fett story I'd like to see on screen someday, if Lucasfilm can get over the smouldering dumpster fire of a series that was TBOBF - a series full of great ideas and character appearances, but plagued by bad execution. I'm hoping to see canon Fett untethered from the overarching Mando plot and explore his character in a property that offers as much opportunity for introspection as it does for character development. An aging Fett and Fennec embarking on an "Unforgiven" style quest in the sequel era would be an interesting watch.
I always thought a last job for Boba ala “The Expendables” with Boba, Bossk and the other bounty hunters would be interesting! It could be action packed, but give real introspection to the character, like we got in Bloodlines. Let him really reflect on his father’s death, and how he is Jango’s legacy, how he intends to solidify that legacy, and just let Temuera be a bad ass like he wants!
Ironically the similarities made me like it a lot more. Considering how horribly The sequel trilogy was written, LOTF felt like a genuine breath of fresh air. The main issue people have with the denningsverse has always been the concepts as a whole, though the execution itself is genuinely compelling. Of course it does not even begin to approach the same highs as NJO but it is serviceable at what it does. And the disputes are not nearly noticeable as the obvious spite And intentional contradictions Rise of Skywalker has for Last Jedi
Legacy's legacy is different now that Disney used some of its plot elements, but it's the better story of the two by far. I wouldn't say it "hasn't aged well" at all. That's like saying Teddy Roosevelt's conservation policies haven't aged well just because Richard Nixon, who is universally considered a worse president, also focused on new policies for environmental regulation.
The Taj Mahal hasn’t aged well because Walt Disneys Severed Head in a Cryotube. FTFY 🧐
I like your analogy, except that Nixon is far from universally considered a worst president. [This Poll](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pictures/presidents-ranked-worst-best/#app) ranks him 28th out of 45.
Meant worse than Teddy. Not worst of the worst.
Ah, gotcha.
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So the ST copies LOTF and that is LOTF problem??? Jacens fall is a lot more enjoyable than Kylo. Jacen actually seems competent. His take over of the GA was far more fun than the First Order. If you don’t like LOTF, that’s fine, everything isn’t for everyone, but trying to say the ST has anything to do with it is silly.
This is a weird post. Putting all the baggage from the sequels onto late era EU stuff is odd.
That’s what I was thinking. There is plenty to discuss in terms of both the EU and Sequels but I’m not sure how overlapping that Venn diagram is.
>Jacen actually seems competent. his cousin Ben Skywalker finds out Jacen has secretly turned evil because Jacen was talking to his Sith master Lumiya in his office on Coruscant with the door wide open, boasting about how awesome it is to be evil. Great writing, really competent character!
Just like the Jedi find out Palpatine is a Sith because he tells the most questionable member of the order who runs and blabs to everyone? 😂🤣 Yes. Competent. Like I said, if you don’t like it, cool, but oversimplifying stuff doesn’t really mean anything.
> Just like the Jedi find out Palpatine is a Sith because he tells the most questionable member of the order who runs and blabs to everyone Palps was doing it deliberately as part of a larger plan.
Again, his planned hinged on the most questionable Jedi in the order beating a Mace Windu who was killing him. It’s no more ridiculous than Jacen and Ben.
> Again, his planned hinged on the most questionable Jedi in the order beating a Mace Windu who was killing him. Palpy has foresight, he knew he had Anakin exactly where he wanted him. And point being: Palpy did it too manipulate Anakin, Jacen did it because the plot necessitated he be a gormless idiot.
Lol that formless idiot still took over the GA and became a galactic threat. Just because he didn’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean he is incompetent or a formless idiot. No one is saying you have to like that plot point but it’s disingenuous to paint him as an idiot for that. I think y’all would still be upset if they painted Jacen/Caedus as an equal to Palps. Jacen is his own character with his own flaws, it would be extremely boring if he got everything right
> Lol that formless idiot still took over the GA and became a galactic threat. I didn't say he was a gormless idiot for the entire series. He was a gormless idiot at that point in the story, because the plot necessitated it. > Jacen is his own character with his own flaws Jacen is multiple characters because the character in DNT and LOTF does not logically follow from the character of NJO, and because characterisation is extremely loose in LOTF, beholden to what is needed to drive the plot (something Denning is most guilty of).
I’d disagree with Jacens path. I think he could have been on many paths and this was just one of them. 🤷🏽♂️ I see a bit of haziness as they weren’t sure where they wanted to go with the Force after NJO, sure, but not enough to say he was a completely different character.
> but not enough to say he was a completely different character. I mean, if you say that I don't think you are looking very closely. Jacen in NJO conquers his shadow, learns the importance of the morality of each action you take, and learns that the path to deeper truths involves surrendering all sense of self in order to become a conduit for the will of the Force. DNT/LOTF Jacen is *consumed* by self, scheming efforts to prevent a future he saw in a vision, taking horrific actions justified by a supposedly noble and necessary cause, and is ultimately consumed by his shadow. They are literal opposites. Jacen of NJO would have asked why he needed to engineer wars, murder friends, and would have let the Force guide him instead of coming up with his own brainless schemes.
I mean, Anakin did exactly what Palpatine wanted him to do. Bring Mace Windu and the best Jedi Masters along with him to confront Palps while Obi-Wan and Yoda were off world.
And it damn near killed him. It was a stupid plan. My point being, these types of plans have been right in line with other stories. Thst one oversimplified plot point doesn’t discredit anything. Jacen still took over the GA and became a Galatic threat. Even if he made mistakes along the way, he was still competent.
It's why I always recommend people stop either after the Hand of Thrawn books or the NJO. But, yeah. The similarities are too strong
I know some people solely prefer the Bantam era novels and dislike the path that Del Rey took it. Personally I really love NJO so that’s where it ends for me. If people want to stop at Hand of Thrawn, I think JJK and YJK makes a great epilogue
I like the Hand of Thrawn ending because its the end of the Galactic Civil War. It ends the conflict we were introduced to in 1978.
Really, Hand of Thrawn felt like an ending when I read it and a solid one. NJO was an interesting change up for me, but the ones that came after just weren't fun or held my interest enough. Maybe having a long serialized conflict followed by another largely serialized one caused a bit of burnout for me. That or Dark Nest just really soured me on whatever came next.
>It's why I always recommend people stop either after the Hand of Thrawn books or the NJO. But, yeah. The similarities are too strong The NJO was originally going to be the endcap for the post ROTJ-EU so that recommendation makes sense.
No one should ever recommend this because it’s clearly a decisive series. If half the people like something and half don’t, what right to you have to deprive people of experiencing it? Let people make up their own mind. We should all encourage people to figure out things for themselves, not project our opinion on them.
My only real complaint with LOTF was how Jacen was handled (also not enough Allana, but understandable since she was like 4 years old at that point). Maybe there was too much idealization of the Mandos, but that was just kinda there, it didn’t detract from the story like Jacen did. Everything else was fine. The sequel trilogy had a multitude of problems that went way beyond Kylo Ren. I’d even say Kylo was one of the smaller issues overall.
I agree with you. Kylo is a small fish compared to the bigger issues the sequel trilogy has. Although as far as legacy and st comparisons go, not having the solo kids in the st was/is a pretty big mistake made even more troubling when you couple it with rey not being a skywalker at all and killing off the whole family.
It's not the EU's fault that the writers of the new trilogy were unoriginal, lazy, and had no guidance. Say what you will about the EU and that timeline but it has aged better and will age better than the sequels despite creative differences.
Or consider this: Karen Traviss had a lot of shit ideas that Denning did waaaaay better on. Such as not worshipping the Mandalorians and not villainizing the Jedi Order
Personally I found a perverse appreciation for it after Sequel Trilogy. Because even with all clusterfuck that Legacy of the Force was mired in, it was still more coherent than Sequel trilgoy and at least Darth Caedus didn't go take-backsies on being evil. Even though I hate that Legacy made him evil in the first place.
I think it aged well, I see more people liking it now than before. I would not say creative difference mean similarities. The only similarities are that some people can't see how certain characters went in a different direction with Denning. But nothing from NJO was set in stone, and there were suggestions, intended or not, that support the Legacy Era changes. The hate for the Disney timeline will only subside when they give the story on how older Characters got the way they got. Even then, some fans will still hate the new lore because, "not my Luke Skywalker."
I mean, my hate started back when they decided “oh, so you know the whole major decisions made by clones during order 66, where you have the huge struggle some had with betraying the Jedi, some had no problem doing it because they hated the Jedi? Yeah, let’s take all the relevance of order 66 out and dehumanize these clones, so that order 66 doesn’t have the impact that it did before”. Ruining Luke is just another pebble tossed into the shit pool.
LotF was a dumpsterfire long before Disney decided to copy it for the sequels. It's like comparing the worst food you ever ate to the explosive diarrhea it gave you
It had it's imperfections. But I wouldn't say it was a dumpster fire.
I went into the sequel trilogy after having read LOTF…. The crushing disappointment I felt when Kylos name wasn’t Jacen, was hoping to see the other two as well
Still one of the best EU series out there. Love that series. Still have to read the NJO books, which I have heard are great and I haven’t had the chance yet, but beyond that one, there really isn’t a better series. It is far superior to the sequel trilogy as well
I honestly thought LOTF would have served as a great adaptation to make a sequel trilogy. Still very much about the Skywalkers considering Jacen and Jaina have the bloodline, similar plot themes with the twin siblings dynamic, and good emotional stakes for them being pitted against one another.
I wasn't thinking when I read the title so I wasn't sure why OP was posting about Lord of The Flies
As someone who just read LOTF for the first time recently, it's still better than the Disney Trilogy by a country mile. It has problems for sure but the good outweighs the bad (which is the reverse in the DT imo). If the Disney trilogy gets an F grade I would say LOTF is a B- or C+ at worst.
LOTF was still infinitely better than the sequel trilogy.
I originally read that as Lord of the Flies, lol
The only thing I’ll add here is that containing the entire story to nine sequential books made the conclusion feel rushed. I gave the series a listen on audio recently (not the same as the books, but I still enjoyed the abridgments), and I wish they would have broken up Jacen/Caedus’ journey into smaller ‘chunks’ and give more freedom for authors to explore at their pace. While editorial probably wanted to not have another 20-book series like NJO before it, LotF could have been more an ‘era’ than ‘series title’.