Thanks so much for taking over for me Lothcat and your bio is fine! I literally just take a bunch of the most important facts and then tie them together with a lot of "however"s and "unfortunately"s, lol.

I'm not done with the Republic Commando series yet (I'm halfway through Order 66 because I'm also reading NJO) but I have read her death scene like 3 times because I didn't understand it the first time. So I guess I'm with Ryus on the subject of that. Haven't read the Legacy of the Force stuff yet though so I don't know that much about Karen Traviss and female characters. I am liking Jaina in NJO so far so I'll be sad if she gets turned into just another character that's part of a "trope". I've noticed these tropes in lots of authors I've read (non-SW) so I guess it's not unusual, but sometimes the same thing doesn't work for everyone.

I'll be back next week to do the series (my trip ends soon) so no one has to spend time for me, but if anyone is interested, I'm happy to do "guest hostings" once in a while. Just let me know!

@Ariel Rubyleader No worries! It was an honour. If you ever need a hand with WOSW, I'd be more than happy to pitch in again🙂.

And don't worry, her death didn't make much sense to me either, and I've read the book twice. It felt like they had to kill her off during Order 66 and just had to find a convenient excuse to do so. I have a little rule I use when I write: If you have to kill a character, at least make it a good death. You can only kill a character once. Right?

Also, a fair point you bring up. Sadly that "trope" is just plain overused in a lot of media, SW and otherwise. I'm a bit sick of it too but ah well, at least it doesn't come up as much in modern media.

“Later, she and Darman would have a Mandalorian wedding via comlink as she was returning from a mission with Delta Squad on Kashyyyk“ and suddenly, I believe in romance again

She seems interesting! I’ll have to maybe check out the republic commando books, although yeah, I’ve heard Karen Traviss isn’t…the best author…idk, guess I’ll just have to see for myself lol! And you did a great job with the summary btw! Very informative! I look forward to any future ones that you might do!

@Lord Lothcat I've heard their Halo books are far better than their work in post-New Jedi Order books. As an example, I've seen Halo fans teasing others that they have leaks of their latest books, filled with terrible things they did in their Star Wars books and people freaking out about how terrible it was and how Halo was doomed. Only for them to reveal to them that basically all they did was change a few details from their Star Wars books, then posted pics of the actual Star Wars books and the Halo only readers freaking out and wondering why the hell Lucasfilm would allow such things and very glad 343 Industries kept Troy Denning and Karen Traviss on much tighter leashes.

Also, what Karen did to Etrain is pretty mild compared to her bad writing in Legacy of the Force. However I read it in the opposite direction, so when what happened to Etrain did inevitably happen, I saw it coming from a mile away because it was basically a very toned down version of the stuff Karen Traviss did in Legacy of the Force series.

They basically read like bad fanfic of every action girl, save Mara and Leia, falling for big hunking Mando men and wild claims that 1 Mando could defeat Sith Lords. Like them being totally immune now to the Jedi Mind Tricks ans Force Illusions but Jedi falling for them left and right. Even Boba Fett has the lead former Imperial Admiral (now basically in Palpatine's old job) basically being his trophy girl (and both are in their 70s).

Just as one example, Etrain's son... basically grew up having to hide being force sensitive from almost every other Mando. He basically lived in shame of his heritage. I felt that as a complete betrayal to Etrain, even though I hadn't known her yet. To me it came off as basically refusing to let a kid know anything about his mother and being taught to feel shame about her being a Jedi. Also, Karen Traviss basically goes off the deep end in these books that Jedi are terrible heroes and Star Wars needs to rebrand towards Mandos. Even going so far as having Mandos repeatedly beating up Jaina Solo and proving to her time and again Mandos are better than Jedi, until she basically was becoming a Mando herself. Just so Jaina can defeat the badguy at the end of the series due to being a Mando and basically forsaking her Jedi training (thankfully other authors ignored that and had her training to learn Shatterpoint, like Mace Windu, from her Uncle Luke Skywalker also. So she'd have at least 1 new force ability for the final fight).

Point being, Legacy of the Force is VERY controversial. Especially for it's treatment of female characters. They're all basically disposable narrative tools (in Karen's books), or sex objects (in Dennings books). This was one of the parts of Legends I was glad got retconned.

Etain had so much narrative potential in her early books, but she's basically just a sacrificial lamb like Padme was in RotS towards the end. I absolutely despise treating female characters like that.

@LordRyus Thanks for taking to time to reply. (From what I know), 343 is a lot more vigilant when it come to what writers are and aren't allowed to say. Still, some elements of their writing still occasionally shine through in the Halo novels. Like constantly sidelining female characters for no reason. It makes sense now, I guess I just never put two and two together.

I had no idea what actually happened in Legacy of the Force, other than it's one of Legends... er... darker spots. Kind of hard to believe Lucasfilm just let them... write that? I just can't see that happening at all today lol.

I (also) didn't know Venku actually appeared later. After reading his Wook page, that's such a missed story opportunity. It would have been so much cooler if he learnt how to use the force and became a Mando-Jedi!

But, I now understand why Legends fans really don't like Traviss's writing at all. But why, in your right mind, would you throw that awesome plot line away for the sake of your own petty agenda? Why! It doesn't make any sense!

After looking in to this some more, I have to fully agree with you. The concept of Etain was so good, but bad writing dissolved her in to an "eh" character. Thank you again for taking the time to write all this out, I now know to stay far away from Legacy of the Force😄.

@Eleanor1138 I'd give the first one a go... It's a fairly good read, and not a bad intro on to Legends. Traviss's work seems to be a bit polarizing, so I guess the best solution is to try for yourself. And thanks! It was really fun to do. I'd gladly do one again!

^Oh yesss, I recommend you stay away from Troy Denning’s LOTF novels. They ruined the Skywalker and Solo family so badly it should be a drinking game. Mara lost all of the character development she had since Thrawn trilogy and she became a sacrificial pawn. Jacen Solo essentially lost Qui Gon Jinn like morals and humanity and became someone who thought the ends justify the means even if meant killing his own family. Ohhhh and Jaina became a sex object that was pimped out for warfare benefits (yeah this really happened…). Okay that covers my weekly Troy Denning rant 😂.

^don't forget pimping out Tenel Ka Djo too while we're on that topic. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♀️

As far as I'm concerned, Legends ends with New Jedi Order. Then it had a weird 'what-if' afterwards called Denningverse and some comics that tried time jumping into the future but sadly got tied up in Denningverse by forcing them to undo Vergere's plotline in them too because Denning wanted it.

^Yeah…that too😬. Well at least we got an adorable Allana out of the deal. Anyways this got way off topic. Sorry guys 😅.

Great job 👏

I have to say, I didn’t knew her before, but it seems, like she’s worth reading more about her. The Republic Command novels are on my list anyway…

Good job, Lord Lothcat!

That's an interesting summary and you bring up good reasons for why you think Etain is underrated. What I find a bit weird about her story is that it seems to imply that it's unusual for a Jedi to care about clones or that being a Jedi and caring about clones is mutually exclusive - which isn't exactly correct, as the 2008 CW-series shows, since there are many Jedi who care about clones: Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Anakin, Yoda, Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Shaak Ti, ... And I find the way she dies rather weird as well.

However, I'm personally not planning on reading those novels so far 1) because I'm not all that interested in Mandalorian culture (at least not at the moment to such an extent that I'd read a whole novel series); 2) I've heard mainly negative things about Traviss' novels, especially when in regard to their portrayal of the Jedi (and I'm admittedly a bit biased in this regard), so, another reason I'm not too keen on reading those books; 3) there are so many other SW-novels and comics I'm planning to read and which attracted my interest a lot more than Traviss' novels, so, they are definitely not among my first priorities.

But it was interesting to read about this character and about your opinion on her. Well done! 👍