Author Topic: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)  (Read 2903 times)

Offline Scott

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ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« on: April 15, 2005, 11:28 PM »
Anyone finished this yet?

I had three points I wanted to talk about.

#1 The movie trailers and action figures point to lots of stuff happening on Kashyyk.  The book doesn't even deal with it at all, other than that Yoda was there to help the wookiees

#2 Order 66 was dealt with also very lightly.  I hope this is not the case because reading the Art of book, the Concept Art team came up with some amazing planet locations for the Jedi to die on.  Really cool stuff that I hope we get to see on the screen more than what was detailed in the book

#3 Mace Windu comes off as an ass while Anakin is portrayed as a victim of the whole Jedi vs Sith battle.  Its almost like you shouldn't feel bad for him that he betrayed Mace at all.

Good stuff though, I can't wait 5 weeks any more, I want to see the movie now!  I suspect some of this is the fact that Stover had to write the book while the movie was still evolving so things are constantly changing but some of this stuff especially the Wookiees is a little perplexing

Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2005, 06:25 PM »
I'm 3/4 of the way through - so I'll comment on a couple of your points...

1) I was surprised to find out that the space battle, duel with Dooku, confrontation with Grevious, rescue of Palpatine and crash of the ship took up 100+ pages in the book. I thought all of that stuff was supposed to take place in like 20 minutes of the movie! If the movie is two hours long, why does a segment that is only 1/6th of the movie taking up 1/4 of the book?

So my point here is that I think the author decided to focus on the core dynamic of the movie. It's great eye candy that Yoda goes to Kashyyk and first helps the Wookies repell the CIS invasion force and then the Wookies help him escape his clones when they go Order 66 on him. So again, the author may have chosen to focus on Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine and Mace instead and decided to expand on events surrounding those characters instead of scenes that are in ROTS for fan-boy placation and ILM to pound their chest proclaiming "Look What We Can Do!" - just a thought...and this goes on further to #2....

2) I think the deaths of other Jedi around the galaxy at the hands of their clone charges will be handled quickly in the movie as well - we really only need brief establishing shots and then see the clones fire on the Jedi. This is something I can see a book glossing over easily (and remember I haven't gotten there in the book yet) since the book can have some narrative explaining that the extinguishing of Jedi around the galaxy is felt by Yoda - in a movie you can't really express what a character is feeling except through dialogue or action - so the best substitution would be to show quick scenes of Jedi dying.

3) You are right, I too was surprised at how much of a "jerk" Mace Windu is portrayed as. The book gives you insight into the mind of Anakin and Obi-Wan, perhaps the portrayal of Mace is further enhanced by how Anakin feels about the way Mace is acting towards him or the secrets Mace is forcing Obi-Wan to keep. In reading the book you definitely feel like Mace is squeezing both Anakin and Obi-Wan REALLY hard and is almost the true reason why everything transpires as it does. However the book also is clear to bring up a couple of other points:

a) The dark side is making things incredibly difficult for the Jedi, even going as far as tainting some of the Jedi through confusion - the Dark Side is definitely working against Mace and he is definitely fighting on a daily basis from giving into the fear of losing control

and

b) Palaptine, several times, reminds Anakin that those who have power are always afraid to loose it. So I think the book is trying to show that what Palpatine is saying is on one hand subterfuge of the Sith, but on the other hand there is a kernal of truth. Just like when Dooku tried to convince Obi-Wan to join him to bring down the Sith in AOTC. Dooku's mojo didn't work on Obi-Wan, but Palpatine's is DEFINITELY working on Anakin.

My BIGGEST disappointment, and again I haven't finished so it still a possibility, was that we didn't learn that the death of Shmi was orchestrated by the Sith.

I would have thought that in ROTS we learned that Sidious (who the book says HAS been working grooming Anakin as his next apprentice, which we already knew) had Dooku arrange for the Tusken Raiders to kidnap and torture his mother. A tactic that Darth Vader uses in ESB when he tortures Han, Leia and Chewie to draw out Luke. It would definitely be an interesting connection between trilogies to see that a common tool of the Sith when trying to trap or turn a Jedi is to torture those the Jedi cares about. An excellent place for this to come up is in the beginning. Obviously through the shadow of the Dark Side, Sidious talks to Dooku right before he starts to fight Anakin and Obi-Wan, through Palpatine. It would have been easy to have Sidious instruct Dooku to tell Anakin that he was behind the death of his mother. This would have fueled Anakin's rage towards Dooku and he would have even more easily given in to his anger when he faced Dooku - which in turn would have furthered his advance towards the dark side.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2005, 06:30 PM by Pete_Fett »
Peter

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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2005, 02:18 PM »
Ok - so I finished the book about five days ago and I'm just getting back to this thread...

Anyway, I think the novel and the movie should definitely be taken as two different takes on the same story.

Things the book glosses over (or moves quickly past or even only casually mentions) appear, at least from the trailers, to get A LOT more coverage.

Like Scott said - the book doesn't touch on Yoda & the Wookies at all. From what I can gather based on Spoilers I've read there are two stages to Yoda on Kashyyk - (1) first he's commanding Clones to fight along side the Wookies in defense of Kashyyk and then (2) when Order 66 is given, the Clones under Yoda's command turn on him and the Wookies help him escape.

I think the author might have originally intended to have the book be longer or to delve into more things, but it is impossible to write a book based on a movie that is constantly in flux and will be in flux until the day it is released (the digital version at least) and have that same book out over a month before the movie. He probably became very frustrated and started to cover all of the events loosely because he had no idea how GL would present them in the final film.

I could almost read the frustration of the author at the end of the book because in the start of the book he goes on for pages about the thoughts in Dooku's head, yet at the very end Yoda being left on Dagobah was given ONE SENTENCE.

Personally, I would have LOVED to see some internal dialogue of Yoda at that point - Dagobah was to be his home for the rest of his life, he KNOWS that and we don't get any insight to why he picks Dagobah or where he sets up his hut or anything?

I know the book can't please everyone, but for me the greatest part of the AOTC novellization is that the book went BEYOND the movie - the book doesn't begin with Padme's ship blowing up - the book begins with a "While Anakin and Obi-Wan are on Ansion..." look at the life of the Lars family on Tatooine - how close Owen and Beru came to be with Shmi, how Shmi loved Owen like a second son and still longed to see Anakin once more, how kind and generous Cliegg was - it establishes the strong foundation that is needed to establish them as "good people" worthy of caring for the newborn Luke Skywalker.

Now - I have heard that there is going to be a book coming out later this year that deals directly with events right after ROTS ends. So perhaps the author of that book will talk about Obi-Wan and Yoda both starting their respective exiles and training under their "new" master. I certainly hope it does at least and I hope it also delves into early family life for both of the twins. I fear however, that the book will deal only with the "young" Darth Vader.

So I'd give this book a 3 out of 5 stars simply because it doesn't uniformly deliver an experience that takes you beyond the visuals of the movie that it should have. Perhaps I'm being to harsh, but that is what I expect from a PT movie novelization. The overall story of ROTS though - ROCKS! This is going to be a great movie, it's just a shame the book wasn't a good book.
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Offline Scott

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2005, 05:06 PM »
Agreed Pete on a lot of your points.  The first Act was way way way too in depth while the end was way way way too rushed.  It is not even close to being on par with the TPM and AOTC Novelizations IMO

Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #4 on: May 2, 2005, 02:43 PM »
Agreed Pete on a lot of your points.  The first Act was way way way too in depth while the end was way way way too rushed.  It is not even close to being on par with the TPM and AOTC Novelizations IMO

You're exactly right, I've read almost all of the PT hardcovers:

Cloak of Deception
The Phantom Menace
Rogue Planet
The Approaching Storm
Attack of the Clones
Shatterpoint
Cestus Deception
Jedi Trial
Labyrinth of Evil
Revenge of the Sith

and I hate to say it, but out of all of them as books that tell a story - the Revenge of the Sith novellization is the worst. Labyrinth of Evil was leaps and bounds better.
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Offline Nirvana

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2005, 09:16 PM »
I know this thread is kind of old, but I just finished reading it a couple of days ago. It was a good book, but the beginning sequence took forever, almost forcing me to flip through it. This also feels like Matthew Stover is hurrying to finish the book towards the end.
My biggest disappointment was at the end with the whole ordeal on Mustafar. That was probably my favorite part of the movie, the way you can almost feel Anakin's soul getting colder and harder after every Seperatist leader he kills. Instead of doing that and going deeper into his feelings, like it did in most of the book, he makes corny jokes that would be more suitable in an action movie. "The Emporor promised we would be left in peace!", one of the Seperatists shouts, and Anakin replies "He meant in pieces. I mean, come on! That ruined the end for me. Needless to say, I was dissapointed. Sorry for suck a long post. :-[
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Offline Ben

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Re: ROTS Novel (Spoilers)
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2005, 01:44 AM »
I couldn't believe the Chancellor's rescue took nearly 100 pages. As soon as I got that far, I was afraid the author would skimp of the best parts, namely the eradication of the Jedi, Anakin's descent, and pretty much everything from the last hour of the movie.

I did love that part about Anakin and Obi-Wan being poster boys for the war. I was tickled pink about that, for some reason.  :-X
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