Status Updates From Star Wars: Shadows of the E...

Fun times, but I'm a little disappointed. I liked it, but its flaws are much more apparent to me now that I'm older. Xizor's death is very anticlimactic. Vader gives him the 2 minute warning, and then Xizor vanishes from the story. No response, and he gets blown up. I wondered if Perry was given instructions to leave it vague in case they wanted to bring Xizor back later on, but no, this was his EU canon death.

The thermal detonator standoff is fraught for a couple of reasons. Anyone reading this book has surely already seen RotJ, so they know it's pretty much just a repeat of what Leia does in Jabba's palace. But in the context of the timeline chronology, it means that Leia did the exact same thing barely a few months after this event. It's dumb and lazy from both of those perspectives, lol.

The whole Falleen pheromone thing is one of the few details that I very much did remember. It's a very... uh... interesting choice to come up with an alien species that is essentially capable of date rape at will, and then subject the famous female lead character to it. Definitely not something that would be written today. At least not for a mainstream blockbuster franchise like Star Wars.

Like I said when I started, I did not remember many details at all. The fact that Xizor convinced the Emperor to leak the second Death Star plans to the Rebels is... ehhh. It's not the worst idea ever, but it's very unnecessary. The ever-present prequel problem: you are adding unintended context to a story that was already complete. Black Sun giving Leia the Boussh disguise she uses in RotJ is also unnecessary.

Luke finishes constructing his lightsaber, and then the next scene that we see him, a swoop gang comes out of nowhere with the sole intent of killing him. Nothing but a flimsy excuse for an action scene with the lightsaber, lol. It feels like a TTRPG session where you throw meaningless filler baddies at the players so they have something to beat up. Is this really the best use of the limited space that a novel has??

I did not remember that Dash Rendar is supposed to have red hair and green eyes. The actor they got to portray him in promotional images definitely did not, lol. And by going to check on Wookieepedia just now, I learned that Dash Rendar is technically a part of the Disney canon, albeit just a small mention. Interesting.

Having a good time so far. But Prince Xizor really does come across a bit like a super special oc donut steel. He's a crime sydnicate boss, is not human, but he's the Emperor's second favorite person? The racist/xenophobic Emperor?? It doesn't make much sense. Also how Jabba just agreed to Xizor's summons, and also obeyed his commands without hesitation, is silly. I'm nitpicking, but I'd be a hypocrite if I wasn't.