I am so with you on the awfulness of Tatooine Ghost. And, blast it, that book had a sampling of all my favorite things: PT!Anakin, Leia dealing with herself as his kid, and Han/Leia bonding. How did it manage to suck so badly?
Well, because, as you say, Denning went for a really stupid interpretation of Leia's issues with her biological father. Because, I mean, Leia trying to unpack that she's the kid of a man who blew up her homeworld, tortured her, cut off her brother's hand, and did all of that in service to a government she thought was so vile that she joined an illegal resistance movement... and then she finds out that he's the product of the same kind of sentients'-rights abuses that she probably went on mercy missions to ameliorate. Now that is a story. (And one that gets bonus points for actually showing that Anakin's life as a slave sucked, i.e. actually making what gets shown of slavery in this series being as ugly as it should be.)
And OMG so with you on the reproductive/anti-childfree squick in this. So much. And I could even see the process as being, "Leia discovers some of the things that actually made Anakin susceptible to the Dark Side, which were environmental rather than child-of-the-Corn thing, and the discussion between her and Han about having children moves to the more honest level of 'Are we both ready, willing, and able to be good parents?' with a healthy helping of, 'And if we are not, we are not having kids, TYVM'." But... it was just so badly written.
Also, do want Leia's reaction to Padme's journal, because, as you say, that would have been that much more powerful. Or, you know, love-letters between her parents. During the war. Where someone who, like Leia, has some front-line experience with combat, would begin to get a glimpse of how Anakin went off the rails, and perhaps in particular how the Jedi Order contributed to that (and by extension, how the NJO needs to look and not to look, and that could be a tipping point for her in terms of getting involved with the NJO, because she's so not letting that happen again.)
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2011-10-05 01:30 am (UTC)Well, because, as you say, Denning went for a really stupid interpretation of Leia's issues with her biological father. Because, I mean, Leia trying to unpack that she's the kid of a man who blew up her homeworld, tortured her, cut off her brother's hand, and did all of that in service to a government she thought was so vile that she joined an illegal resistance movement... and then she finds out that he's the product of the same kind of sentients'-rights abuses that she probably went on mercy missions to ameliorate. Now that is a story. (And one that gets bonus points for actually showing that Anakin's life as a slave sucked, i.e. actually making what gets shown of slavery in this series being as ugly as it should be.)
And OMG so with you on the reproductive/anti-childfree squick in this. So much. And I could even see the process as being, "Leia discovers some of the things that actually made Anakin susceptible to the Dark Side, which were environmental rather than child-of-the-Corn thing, and the discussion between her and Han about having children moves to the more honest level of 'Are we both ready, willing, and able to be good parents?' with a healthy helping of, 'And if we are not, we are not having kids, TYVM'." But... it was just so badly written.
Also, do want Leia's reaction to Padme's journal, because, as you say, that would have been that much more powerful. Or, you know, love-letters between her parents. During the war. Where someone who, like Leia, has some front-line experience with combat, would begin to get a glimpse of how Anakin went off the rails, and perhaps in particular how the Jedi Order contributed to that (and by extension, how the NJO needs to look and not to look, and that could be a tipping point for her in terms of getting involved with the NJO, because she's so not letting that happen again.)