They tried to retcon it in one of the stupid book series that the emperor was actually a good guy because he was prepping the galaxy for an invasion by monsters that were a stand-in for Arabs :yea:
I noped the fuck out of that arc the moment they killed off Chewie; good to know I didn't miss out on anything worthwhile.
Diversity Alliance is so fucking funny. A podcast I watch was reviewing the Jedi Knight books one by one and dipshits would keep entering their chat and saying "wow can't believe you went woke too" at them.
However, the Diversity Alliance is well before the Vong. Like they don't impact the ability of the NR to "defend against the space terrorists", since they get defeated like 5+ years in universe before the Vong show up.
Also gotta love star wars with the "every character is related" shit and having Oola's sister leading them for some reason. I get that these are young readers books, but either don't broach the topic or have tact jfc
thankfully Disney killed off the expanded universe by making it non canon, there were some insane brainworms in there
That part specifically was silly, but I though the OG Zahn trilogy was ok (but also I haven't read them since highschool, I only remember they weren't Empire apologia in the way the Vong were) (probably still lib tho)
Well the main political opponent of our heroes in the New Republic is a slimy spymaster who's entire race is portrayed as spies, who uses the fact that his people got massacred getting the DSII plans and in general got enslaved as an "excuse" to further his political goals. Like holy shit Zahn
But yeah Luuke is silly and I am fine with him. The only actual issue I have with his existence is he is there for the third act of the final book and then that's it. Like Zahn realized Cabaoth needed a plot
I am probably not reading them again regardless. Too many depressing leftist books to read.
How are the Vong stand-ins for Arabs? Unless you mean thr Outbound Flight retcon which is Zahn being a clean Wehrmacht weirdo in his own little corner. The Palpatine was building the death star to fight the vong thing was implied in one source book by an idiot, and thankfully was fully dismissed by everyone else. Not that you didn't have fascist ass writers like Karen Travis, but I wouldn't say it was a common thing. Just don't let her near star wars again
Keep in mind NJO started before 9/11. Star By Star came out a month after 9/11, and the series wrapped at the US invaded Iraq. I don't think considering when it was written is great evidence. Yes the Saddam gassing the Kurds stuff already happened, but it wasn't much of the zeitgeist. NJO was plotted well in advance and most books finished their first drafts before the US was in Afghanistan.
Not to say american neoliberal militarism was not an influence, but the Vong are honestly a less egregious example as things go. The EU of that era had that horrid trend of military characters always being right and for dramatic tension they have to defy orders. I love the X-wing series but they do that shit every fucking novel.
Outbound Flight overshadows any influence on the Vong for me because unlike the Vong, the events of that story actually do come right out and try to justify military intervention and have the enemy "use human shields", with Zahn literally saying it let him write about Iraq without saying "Iraq"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfBC6c_0YWw
There are certainly liberal western biases to the entire Vong plot, particularly creating an invading enemy to defeat while writing yourselves a way to see reasonable and benevolent, in this case not using the bioweapon. I just don't think the Vong storyline should be lumped in with the one-off retcon implication that Palpy was "protecting the galaxy from the Vong"
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I finished Andor recently and they did a great job of showing what it was like to live in a fascist police-state, from the little micro aggressions by individual enforcers, to banality of evil oppressive systems, to higher level evil acts like military invasions and the Death Star. Thank goodness for that show because it took the far away and exaggerated evil of the movie bad guys and made it personal, and, hopefully for lots of people, familiar for an audience that hasn't lived through Nazi Germany. (At least, it gave me US and Israel vibes, but not sure if other libs will catch those same vibes.)
Bruh, bruh, you gotta think beyond the fictional story about whether or not the fictional bad guy specifically created to be the bad guy is bad.
it reminds me of the Cabal org from Horus Heresy which was so justified that even most chuds from fashdom nodded their heads, so they were very quickly retconned into absolute villains and removed offscreen (and by the Eldar no less!).
They're literally getting so far into idealism and "the curtains are blue" mentalities that they are literally disregarding the actual fiction that they claim to be analysing.
Let me try:
Elmo in Grouchland is a masterpiece of socialist cinema, if you ignore the plot of the movie, it is about Elmo realising that reform is useless and only revolution will free the working class from the shackles of oppression.
I thought the Empire was the US, and the Rebel Alliance was the Viet Cong
