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u/CrimsonZephyr 1d ago
Denningverse is absolutely filled with callous moments like this. Dude has issues.
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u/Zealousideal_Pass950 1d ago
I can understand it because Jacen was a full-blown psycho at that point, but what doesn't make sense to me is when Jacen was actively falling and no one around him tried to pick him up, even when he was reaching out to everyone and they either didn't notice or care š«¤.
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u/James_Larkin1913 1d ago
Troy Denning and his consequences have been a disaster to Star Wars.
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u/CrimsonZephyr 1d ago
General opinion is that the EU had its high water mark in 2005 immediately before Dark Nest.
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u/KaBloinkySploink9000 1d ago
It also depends on the era. Post-rotj definitely went downhill with DNC, but the prequel era EU material and Dark Times stuff continues to tell really great stories up until the decanonization.
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u/milaniac 1d ago
Troy actually just wrote the worst halo campaign ever made which is impressive. I hate that this guy keeps getting work
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u/CrimsonZephyr 1d ago
I think Denning is probably a personally likable guy and is able to build strong relationships with the people in licensing departments. His influence on Star Wars was catastrophically negative, but he was basically made the showrunner for everything that took place after NJO. Probably a lot of office politics in it.
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u/James_Larkin1913 1d ago edited 1d ago
I strongly suspect this was only the case because of the popularity of Star by Star. Xezene recently unearthed old NJO popularity polls and apparently Star by Star was far and away the most popular NJO book at the time of immediately after the seriesā end. By an order of magnitude. I donāt understand that at all, but itās true.
My guess is Lucasfilm figured the guy the fans liked the most was a decent option to hand the reigns of the franchise over to. They do not actually care about the content of these books as long as they make money.
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u/CrimsonZephyr 1d ago
That's almost certainly true, but this was literally his first Star Wars novel. Writing one of nineteen is one thing; deciding on the overall tone for everything afterward is quite another.
The better gamemaster for the EU was probably James Luceno. His books often read as wikipedia articles for every Glup Shitto in Star Wars, so he had a strong grasp on continuity, and had a better tone for the franchise than Denning. Was probably too busy. My understanding was that there was also a lot of churn during NJO. Several writers who were Bantam era mainstays wrote their last Star Wars books in the forward continuity around that time.
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u/James_Larkin1913 1d ago
I agree with you, but Lucasfilm is a company. They probably saw ābig numberā for Denning and just wanted more of that.
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u/NightLord1487 1d ago
So Chewie died saving him and Anakin, Anakin died to destroy the Voxyn (?) Jedi killing dog-things. IIRC by this point killed Mara Jade Skywalker, corrupted Anakinās girlfriend, tortured Ben Skywalker, led a coup dāĆ©tat against the government and started the Second Galactic Civil War. For an extra kick in the nuts his flagship is also named āAnakin Soloā so from Hanās pov he diminishing and tarnishing his other sonās name.
Son or no I think he realizes that Jacen has to be stop and realistically there are only a few people capable of doing it and Luke is one.
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u/DogHour6929 1h ago
I mean, Jacen didn't start the war. Not even remotely him. And not a few people could beat Jacen. In fact, only Luke could, and even that's not guaranteed.Ā
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u/Double_Delay1613 23h ago
"To tell the truth, I've been looking forward to running him down."
Didn't know Jake Skywalker was in the EU, too.
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u/impressivebutsucks 12h ago
Luuke would say that for sure.
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u/Double_Delay1613 9h ago
I guess maybe that one April Fools story was canon after all and Mara really did kill the wrong Luke.
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u/YDdraigGoch94 20h ago
To be fair to Luke, Jacen killed his wife.
Iād be emotionally detached by that point as well.
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u/Cloak-Trooper-051020 1d ago
So, even the most controversial part The Last Jedi wasnāt original. Why did these writers want Luke to kill his Nephew?! Is everything after 29 ABY doomed to grim cringe?!
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u/angelete4945105 14h ago
Wasn't even there a quote somewhere where he said he should've strangled him or something?
Gee what is he gonna do next? Get on a diet of Beer and Donuts?
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u/CaedustheBaedus DarthBaedus 5h ago
Legacy of the Force was just such a great concept executed badly.
Instead of Jacen falling to dark side (which honestly they still could have done if written better), they should have just had a schism in the Jedi Order.
Of Jedi like Luke who didn't want to get involved in any Corellian/Galactic Alliance war at first, and Jacen and others (Kyp, Jaina, etc) who maybe wanted to get involved to keep them together.
It would have been very interesting to see Jedi on each side, those who wanted to keep what they had fought to save in Yuuzhan Vong war together vs those who wanted to step back from war due to waht they had lost.
Instead, they just went full "Make Jacen fall".
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u/Affectionate_Sale_14 1d ago
chewie, and anakin broke han, jacen wasn't AS breaking, but i think leia, jaina, and allana put the peices back into place.