Draft!: Star Wars, the Expanded Universe: Round 1 [draft]

Rules: Draft Media from the Star Wars: Expanded Universe. You can pick trilogies or sequels for books and comic books.

Order:

1. E
2. JC
3. SN
4. Y
5. GB
6. LD

E: Zahn Trilogy. Without a doubt, the best written vision of the Star Wars expanded universe, which includes an entirely new race of evil aliens, an awesome bad guy in Grand Admiral Thrawn, a crazy ass Jedi clone, a new jedi, and Kashyyk. I read these books at least 10 times total. Awesome.

JC: Knights of the Old Republic. By far, the most advanced, yet accessible of the Star Wars video games. Developed by RPG mavens, Bioware, Knight of the Old Republic takes place millennia before the Clone Wars, allowing quality writers to escape from the constraints of storylines.

What makes the game so wonderful is that it allows the player to choose whether their Jedi follows the moral teachings of the Force or falls to the power of the Dark Side. Add interesting and free-flowing gameplay to one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever devised, and the result is a phenomenal addition to the Star Wars Universe.

Grimbil: Yeah, the Zahn trilogy was great, it was almost good enough to convince me to read another Star Wars book. Almost.

E: I actually did read more novels. And they sucked.

Grimbil: Have those force canceling creatures made an appearance in any of the games? (ed. note - Nope, they haven’t, thank god).

SN: Damn, damn, damnit. Well, I liked KOTOR so much I’m taking KOTOR 2. It’s not as innovative and doesn’t have as good a plot as the first, but it has the same awesome premise that your actions take you to the light or dark side. I loved going through once and being good, then playing again and torching everything with lighthing.

E: Guys, video games are for losers.

Y: I’ll take the Dark Empire Trilogy, the comic books.

These comics explored the world after Return of the Jedi. The Emperor comes back as a clone, Luke turns to the Dark Side, we see a battle on Calamari, with Ackbar’s people significantly involved, and more awesome stuff. Also Boba Fett comes back. And I don’t care what people say about the viability of those returns after Return of the Jedi, they’re freaking cool, and they sort of make sense.

This is what the next three star wars movies should have been based on. Great as a comic in and of itself, and a great addition to the Star Wars universe.

Grimbil: I’m taking the best Jedi themed game, Jedi Academy 2. I played the first one for a few hours and never got a force power, so to hell with the taking the whole series. The second one tho was sweet. You got to develop both Light and Dark Jedi powers, and the powers you picked greatly changed gameplay. Lots of action (not all that stupid reading like the RPGs), including Hoth and some speeder bike fighting. There really is nothing more satisfying than using your dark Jedi powers to lift an enemy in the air, collapse their tracea, and then flinging their almost dead body off the edge of a floating mining platform.

As you get to the end of the game, you start fighting more and more Jedi. Single light saber, dual, staff…they’re all here, each with multiple combat stances balancing speed and power. Fantastic.

I’ve played thru the game probably five times, and most shockingly, installed it at least 3 times….over the course of 4 or 5 years. Not many games get me to come back like JA2, and I think that’s a sign of just how great this game was. And is…I might go reinstall it right now….

LD: First I’ll take Shadows of the Empire because uh…Hoth level. Also the name Dash Rendar.