Jeff Diamond’s Comments (group member since Jan 27, 2010)

Jeff Diamond’s comments from the The Expanded Universe group.

Riquelme wrote: "But it is important for the writers to give them roles according to their age and experience."

That is a good point. If Han Solo is still trying to do the things that he was doing back in the Rebellion, it would not be very believeable. When he's getting on in years, he's probably not going to be flying through any asteroid fields.

As another example of how much can happen in the books: I was reading in New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way last night (I've been slow lately) and it was talking about how old Luke is at that point. Somebody mentions that he is in his prime, rather than being a farmboy way back when. The way I figure it, he's getting pretty close to 50. So, that kind of gives us some scope to this whole line of thinking.

I think the biggest change between the older Clone Wars novels and the new ones are mainly the inclusion of Ahsoka. I haven't read any, but I am guessing that they have become more character-driven than story-driven. This is a problem because you end up taking a lot of breaks from the action and you end up spending a lot of time focusing on things that don't really end up making a huge difference in what happens. The biggest improvement they can make is to actually make all of this stuff start contributing to an actual storyline.

I'm kind of surprised. Based on the discussions we've had about authors, James Luceno has generally gotten a hefty thrashing. So for you to say Star by Star is your favorite was interesting to me. But you're onto something by saying the darker and sadder the story, the better it usually is. Case and point: Empire Strikes Back.

Granted, I'm not finished with the series yet . . . I think that Rebel Dream and Rebel Eclipse were among my favorites. I like Wedge, maybe that's why.

Riquelme wrote: "Hello. I am new here.
I started reading comic books (Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire). The first book I read was Vector Prime. Then I just read every book of the NJO series and continued with ..."

Becky read something called "The Lost Tribe of the Sith," or something like that. You can get that on a kindle or something like unto it. If you're low-tech like me, though I would probably start with the Darth Bane books. They're pretty much awesome.

Derrick wrote: "I just use the novel timelines included in the front of the latest novels..."

I'm lazy, so I do that, too.

Okay. I have a theory about the Vong, but I'm pretty sure that it is not right. But it would explain a lot.

I think that something that would make some sense would be the fact that they themselves are biologically engineered technologies. They have no presence in the Force to those Force-sensitive individuals, right? Similarly, something like a lightsaber blade doesn't, but a Jedi can react to it because he/she can foresee the effect that a lightsaber could have on their neck. So the Jedi can respond to things that the Vong do, because they have an effect upon life in the galaxy. Their Gods could be the ones that created them, built up a masochistic religion, and pointed them at things to kill. This could also be kind of like the Titans being overthrown by their children, the Olympians. So it's got a dramatic aspect, too.

I don't like spoilers, so please don't include any in a response. I do realize, though that my "theory" is probably full of holes and that there is a chance that it is totally baseless. Other than that, I would like to hear input.

I think that's the only issue with buying the books. Within a few months, they're outdated. It makes me sad. To that end, I usually try to stick to online chronologies, since those are usually updated within a few days . . . weeks at most.

Michael wrote: "The Old Republic/Sith Era is by far my favorite time. I like to learn about new characters that do not have 'history' attached to them."

So do you like it when a character builds a history in the books, like Jacen, Jaina and Ben?

I think that this has been happening a lot more lately, probably since there have been a lot more things coming out. I mean referring to a different series or trilogy. Big things stay the same, like the birth of the kids, but other things can come into play and be a major story point in another series. Awesomeness.

Sorry. I guess the quote took out the link. The links are the "old" and "new" encyclopedia links.

Kyle wrote: "If you haven't seen Star Wars: The Essential Atlas in person, it's a sight to behold. Easily the best Essentials books and best Star Wars reference book outside of the [book:old|9837..."

Ooh... pretty. I like the map on starwars.com.

Okay. New thing to think about.

Remember back at the beginning of this thread? How I was wondering how it would happen if any of the big main characters (Luke, Leia or Han) were to die? Well, I was talking to Becky, and she mentioned something that I hadn't thought about.

She's reading the Fate of the Jedi series now, and those three main characters are in their seventies and eighties. Old by our standards. However, she mentioned something that I hadn't thought about. She said that there could be something like what happens in Star Trek that the medicine is much better, and so because of that, the length of their life is frequently about 150 years.

Also, we are assuming that the years that they use are the same as our years. The standardized years on Coruscant could be 100 days for all we know. I don't think that this has been explored, but if it has, please let me know. That would certainly skew the numbers. If it was a combination of the two, then people could live to be as much as 400 years or so. . . possible, but unlikely.

Of course, I am sometimes about as sharp as a bowling ball, so if anybody thinks that I am way off base, let me know.

Happiness upon happiness!

Kyle wrote: "I think I've mentioned some of these before, but I thought I'd put everything in one place.

You can find many novel and complete timelines on the internet, but these are the ones I find to be more..."

Sweet. I've usually just used whatever timelines are on Wookieepedia because . . . I'm lazy. Those are really, really basic, though. But these are good resources. Thanks again.

Kyle wrote: "There's an exclusive Knight Errant short story on starwars.com, Influx. Hyperspace membership is not required.

You can find it here."

Thanks!!

Jim wrote:"Good points. I suppose if their[sic] had been less of it . . .

This is true, but at the same time, I think that it makes the blasphemers stand out all the more. That, and since NJO is so. very. long., there is ample time for their beliefs to morph over time. I don't want to have any spoilers, but any time there is a story, there are some people whose beliefs change throughout. I don't know if that is intentional in this case, but I guess it is possible.

Jim wrote: "What I did have problems with was the Vong's ongoing dialog. IMO, it became repetitious and predictable."

Okay. So nothing has happened on this thread for quite a while, and since I am still working on NJO, I thought it was time to breathe a little life back here. Jim, I think what you wrote is true . . . from a certain point of view. (You'll find that many of the truths we hold to depend greatly on our own point of view.)

The Vong dialogue does get a little predictable, partially because they're the bad guys. You can check out the recent discussions on the thread "Speculation on the future of characters" since we mention that, especially Laurence's comment. But at the same time, I feel that we have to remember that these people(?) are ZEALOTS!!! I feel that when a person gets so strong in a belief that it is the only thing that they think about, you have a group like the Vong. They've been crammed on their worldships for a very long time, doing what? Praying and sacrificing, probably. There are some of them that are examples of a lesser amount of faith, and some are the poster-boys of their religion, but for the most part they are all faithful to the point of recklessness.

Laurence wrote: "Whew! I've had my fingers burned on a few messageboards in the past, let's just say. One person commented on a fanfic of mine solely to tell me that I'd violated the rules of fanfic.net by posting ..."

We're not here to pass judgement. You wrote a fanfic. Awesome! Let's read it and discuss it.

This is very true. As for the kids always cheering on the Republic, Rebel Alliance, New Republic or what have you, you can see it in the Clone Wars animated series. Holy crap, can you see it. But I think you bring up a good point about the different types of government, too. However, I think that the point that Lucas was trying to emphasize the idea that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. (But it rocks absolutely, too!)

As for the idea of the Force being too cut and dry, I was reading in Dark Journey last night, and Jaina is thinking along the lines of: "Maybe there is more to the Force than light and dark. Maybe those are just two aspects of a Force too varied and complex to understand." I can't recall the exact words, but it's something like that.

As for the portrayals of the different sides being too good or too evil, I can't say that I have really thought about that very much. I do like the moustache twirling analogy, though. That made me smile.

Laurence wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm new here and I hope I'm not breaking any rules or annoying anyone if I post a link to my fan fiction Alternate Universe Star Wars story "Galaxies Apart".

Set 5 years after the ..."

Thanks for posting it! Fan fiction is welocme!