Page 1 of 3

More Proof Karen Traviss is a hack.

Posted: 2007-02-06 03:49am
by Darth Fanboy
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/A_Two-Edged_Sword

Vader...training stormtroopers...IN LIGHTSABER COMBAT. Stormtroopers cloned from a Dark Jedi.

It's bad enough that she has ruined Boba Fett, almost as bad that she has allowed her Stormtrooper/Clonetrooper fetish to influence all of her writing...BUT LEAVE VADER OUT OF IT YOU HACK. This is fucking stupid. Get her away from the most iconic character in the franchise.

And if any Fandalorians are reading this, eat shit. You'd probably think it would be cool if Karen wrote a post-NJO novel about how Han Solo clones a dozen force sensitive motherfucking Chewbaccas from hair on the Falcon's couch cushions and has Boba Fett train them in bounty hunting.


Addendum:

Spelling edits

Posted: 2007-02-06 03:52am
by Gandalf
Well that's a new one.

Hopefully it lets more people see how wacky she can be, and it could also give Poe some more fodder. :D

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:03am
by Frank Hipper
I'm trying to envision a stormtrooper holding a lightsaber, but all I can see is stupid. :(

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:08am
by Darth Fanboy
Frank Hipper wrote:I'm trying to envision a stormtrooper holding a lightsaber, but all I can see is stupid. :(
click the link to the Wookiepedia article, there's a picture of Vader with THREE troopers holding red bladed sabers.

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:21am
by Stofsk
Frank Hipper wrote:I'm trying to envision a stormtrooper holding a lightsaber, but all I can see is stupid. :(
IIRC the original drafts for Star Wars had troopers draw lightsabres (then called LASERSWORDS lol) and fight each other.

I don't think it's a stupid idea that troopers would have lightsabres, or a short lightsabre. But I do think it's a stupid way of writing it into the EU.

"LOL Vader teachs storm clones aint tat kewl or wat"

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:24am
by Darth Fanboy
Stofsk wrote: IIRC the original drafts for Star Wars had troopers draw lightsabres (then called LASERSWORDS lol) and fight each other.
I actually have one of the original images as drawn up by McQuarrie as part of a ScreenThemes package. It's neat but i'm glad GL decided not to give everyone swords.
I don't think it's a stupid idea that troopers would have lightsabres, or a short lightsabre. But I do think it's a stupid way of writing it into the EU.

"LOL Vader teachs storm clones aint tat kewl or wat"
Why lightsabers for troopers? It ruins a bit of the mystique plus Vibroblades are a little more practical.

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:24am
by Sarevok
Stormtroopers with lightsabers ? Are they joking ? I mean I have seen sarcastic Jedi Academy modders humour the player community with force using Stormtrooper mods. What the hell is happening to SW writters when they are turning a god damn joke into a serious novel.

I dont get the obsession with force users in imperial era. Original triology is supposed to be an epic face off between the last of the jedi and the sith. Two Jedi and two Sith are all that is left of their ancient orders to continue their milenea old conflict. Adding other non related Jedi to that messes up such a beautifuly crafted plot. If writters want massive Jedi versus Sith war they take look at the KOTOR era. I like the idea of full blown war between the sith and jedi and thanks to KOTOR we have that. There is no need to shit on original triolog for it.

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:28am
by Stofsk
Darth Fanboy wrote:
Stofsk wrote:IIRC the original drafts for Star Wars had troopers draw lightsabres (then called LASERSWORDS lol) and fight each other.
I actually have one of the original images as drawn up by McQuarrie as part of a ScreenThemes package. It's neat but i'm glad GL decided not to give everyone swords.
sharing is
caring

I don't think it's a stupid idea that troopers would have lightsabres, or a short lightsabre. But I do think it's a stupid way of writing it into the EU.

"LOL Vader teachs storm clones aint tat kewl or wat"
Why lightsabers for troopers? It ruins a bit of the mystique plus Vibroblades are a little more practical.
A lightsabre that isn't ignited can be attached to your belt and presumably doesn't weigh a great deal.

But the general point I was getting at is that a bladed weapon can be used for utility purposes. So a vibroblade can do that (or really, a vibroknife).

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:49am
by Darth Fanboy

Posted: 2007-02-06 05:02am
by Stofsk
Darth Fanboy wrote:Stormies with Laserswords
And...tower shields.

That is fucking cool.

Posted: 2007-02-06 10:09am
by Jim Raynor
I'm reading the Wookieepedia articles on those stories, and they don't even make sense.

If it's so easy to clone a Jedi, and have all the clones be full-fledged force users, why didn't Palpatine have a fucking army of Dark Jedi?
Wookieepedia article on Sa Cuis wrote:As a test, Emperor Palpatine asked Cuis to follow Darth Vader to the Parmel Sector and kill him. A short fight ensued, which ended with Cuis defenseless and backed into a corner. Vader Force choked Cuis and demanded to know who had sent him. Sa Cuis refused to answer despite being close to death, and Vader realized that he had found someone thoroughly loyal to his master.

As a result, Vader let Sa Cuis live long enough for Arkanian Microtechnologies technicians to take swabs and cell samples for cloning. Once the samples were collected, Vader decapitated him.
So, the Emperor sends a Dark Jedi to kill Vader, and Vader beats him down and threatens to kill him as a test of his loyalty. They find that he's a completely loyal servant, then they just kill him anyway? WTF?

Posted: 2007-02-06 10:42am
by Surlethe
Pardon me if I'm wrong, but since the Force isn't genetic, then why should clones of Jedi necessarily be able to use the Force?

Posted: 2007-02-06 10:53am
by FTeik
The ANH-infinities has Royal Guards wielding double-bladed laserswords (like Darth Maul), so this isn't something totally knew.

Still a bad idea, if you ask me.

Posted: 2007-02-06 12:18pm
by CDiehl
So, the Emperor sends a Dark Jedi to kill Vader, and Vader beats him down and threatens to kill him as a test of his loyalty. They find that he's a completely loyal servant, then they just kill him anyway? WTF?
Also, they cloned the guy who lost. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. :roll:

Posted: 2007-02-06 12:31pm
by Ted C
Gah!

The woman is like the poster-child for the RSA theory of canon.

Posted: 2007-02-06 01:09pm
by Jim Raynor
Another thing:

The first story is set 19 years befor ANH, and the second story is set 1.5 years later. The clones were obviously not made using the regular Kaminoan method, which takes 10 years.

However, didn't Zahn write it so that the Spaarti method produced insane clones, unless ysalamiri (who nobody knew about) were used? Problems with the Force-repelling lizards aside, at least Zahn was smart enough to come up with a way to keep Palpatine from cloning up armies of Dark Jedi.

How does Traviss explain how these clones were created?

Posted: 2007-02-06 01:17pm
by Darth Servo
Someone send that idiot that this little clip

Guns > knives

Posted: 2007-02-06 01:44pm
by The Original Nex
Jim Raynor wrote: However, didn't Zahn write it so that the Spaarti method produced insane clones, unless ysalamiri (who nobody knew about) were used? Problems with the Force-repelling lizards aside, at least Zahn was smart enough to come up with a way to keep Palpatine from cloning up armies of Dark Jedi.

How does Traviss explain how these clones were created?
The insanity was only the result of speeding up the growth process to 1 month, it's not inherant in the Spaarti procedure. A clone can be safely grown in a minimum of 1 years time.

Regardless, this is a silly idea by Traviss...

Posted: 2007-02-06 01:45pm
by Tanasinn

So, the Emperor sends a Dark Jedi to kill Vader, and Vader beats him down and threatens to kill him as a test of his loyalty. They find that he's a completely loyal servant, then they just kill him anyway? WTF?
Vader's a vengeful bastard. It's not out of character for him to kill someone simply because he or she annoyed him.

I mean, look at Captain Needa. He actually had the stones to fly to Vader's personal ship and admit blame for a failing to his face. That's gotta take some sort of guts, and Vader killed him anyway.

Posted: 2007-02-06 01:58pm
by Einhander Sn0m4n
Darth Servo wrote:Someone send that idiot that this little clip

Guns > knives
Better version.

Posted: 2007-02-06 02:20pm
by General Zod
Doesn't proper lightsaber combat skill take years of training by Jedi from an early age regardless? And several hundred hours of it? Even more to add to the stupidity, where is Vader going to find the time to actually train all of these troopers when he has other duties to attend to?

Posted: 2007-02-06 03:00pm
by Noble Ire
The sad part is that the story wasn't even all that bad, at least for Traviss. The cloned dark Jedi bit was quite stupid, but the characterization of Vader was actually fairly decent, and it gave him more depth than one is used to seeing in the EU. This is just another example of Traviss squandering her writing abilites, be it out of arrogance or a desire to insert "cool" stuff to feed her pet Fandolorians. I have no doubt that the former will come into play as well if anyone confronts her on the blatant continuity problems the tale creates.

Posted: 2007-02-06 03:41pm
by FTeik
Jim Raynor wrote:Another thing:

The first story is set 19 years befor ANH, and the second story is set 1.5 years later. The clones were obviously not made using the regular Kaminoan method, which takes 10 years.

However, didn't Zahn write it so that the Spaarti method produced insane clones, unless ysalamiri (who nobody knew about) were used? Problems with the Force-repelling lizards aside, at least Zahn was smart enough to come up with a way to keep Palpatine from cloning up armies of Dark Jedi.

How does Traviss explain how these clones were created?
Well, since the problem is caused by clones having the same kind of Force-signature than their donator I wouldn't be surprised, if Vader or Palpatine could do some Force-mambojambo to bloc the effects of clone-madness.

However this quick growing of clones is another indicator, that Traviss is an inconsistent hack. If cloning of adults can be done in less than two years, what were the Kaminoans doing for ten years (wasn't it Ender, who suggested, that only the Commandos and ARCs take that long to train and the ordinary infantry-clone is grown in a few months, flash-learned and put into suspended animation?) and why were there only three million clones in the Grand Army of the Republic after that much time? :roll:

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:09pm
by Mange
FTeik wrote:
Jim Raynor wrote:Another thing:

The first story is set 19 years befor ANH, and the second story is set 1.5 years later. The clones were obviously not made using the regular Kaminoan method, which takes 10 years.

However, didn't Zahn write it so that the Spaarti method produced insane clones, unless ysalamiri (who nobody knew about) were used? Problems with the Force-repelling lizards aside, at least Zahn was smart enough to come up with a way to keep Palpatine from cloning up armies of Dark Jedi.

How does Traviss explain how these clones were created?
Well, since the problem is caused by clones having the same kind of Force-signature than their donator I wouldn't be surprised, if Vader or Palpatine could do some Force-mambojambo to bloc the effects of clone-madness.

However this quick growing of clones is another indicator, that Traviss is an inconsistent hack. If cloning of adults can be done in less than two years, what were the Kaminoans doing for ten years (wasn't it Ender, who suggested, that only the Commandos and ARCs take that long to train and the ordinary infantry-clone is grown in a few months, flash-learned and put into suspended animation?) and why were there only three million clones in the Grand Army of the Republic after that much time? :roll:
Perhaps someone with a better memory than me can dig up the quote and source which said that the Kaminoans deliberately used their "ten year" clones as benchmarks.

Posted: 2007-02-06 04:57pm
by Coyote
I heard that the original idea was that the lightsabers really were just common energy swords, and it took no inherent or genetic specialness to use them-- you trained on them just like masses of sword-wielding fighters did back in the Medieval era.

Lucas's original idea, IIRC, was that on a spaceship, a blaster would be too dangerous, risking rupturing the hull, so inter-ship boarding parties would eschew blasters and use melee weapons-- in this case, ordinary swords that happened to be laser.

I don't know why he discarded the idea, although I'm sorta glad he did...