Star Wars Literature: Deep Villains and Homoerotic Anti-Heroes

[maglaurus]

I've been flying through Star Wars fiction at a stunning pace, for me anyhow. I find I like stuff that doesn't involve the principal heroes of the movies: Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Obi-Wan, etc. On-screen villains, on the the other hand, I have no problem reading about in follow-up popular fiction. It's like you get to see more of the bad guys when

Comments

[hermesguiness]

I definitely think that a lot of Lucas' plot lines are somewhat alienating. The "male centered-ness" of Star Wars is a turn off for a lot of people, in terms of the movies. Having only one character to associate to (Lea) is crap. The whole "kicking ass, but still needing a man" kind of thing is a little old. What about her rescuing the men? ;)

Like you, I really wished there were some stronger female roles (much like in Clone Wars).

In short, Lucas writes stuff for his own perverse universe (not perverse like pervert, but rather, he writes it for only himself) and I would have been into it if there were "lady jedis". :)

[maglaurus]

Yeah, the books and comics are much better for that. Leia becomes a Jedi Knight years after Episode VI and is constantly fending off evil things trying to get at the Force-sensitive babies she produces with Han. I know of at least one pregnant lightsaber duel she has, and there are more I've heard about but never read up on. The women of the Jedi Order do come into their own in the Clone Wars and "Sith Era" lit. Bane's first apprentice under the Rule of Two is a girl named Zannah who he finds in a Bosnia-style situation grieving over her dead siblings. According to his philosophy, he'll train her to take his place by force of arms when he's too weak to be the ultimate evil dude.