nope. I know the writing style, because its a YA book. YA books are what they are because they're done in a certain style. The difference between, for example, Twlight and Lost Stars is story content, not style.
I've never read
Twilight, so I can't comment on that. I do know that the YA books I've read have varying styles and varying content, so my first-hand experience tells me that you're mistaken. Besides, all the YA books you mention are in a specific genre, one that extends to GA, as well. (The
Star Wars YA books are not in that genre, for what it's worth)
Those books you mentioned at the end were well written GA reference books, and not kiddie fluff tied to a specific movie.
Were they GA? I honestly couldn't tell the difference. (I'm not being sarcastic. I thought they were all ages stuff.)
Also, honestly, the craftsmanship of
Rey's Survival Guide is comparable to those ones. And for content, I'd say that it was superior to the
Imperial Handbook and maybe
Bounty Hunter's Code. But I think all those books tap into the same idea; that we've got a book that originated from the
Star Wars world. There's something really cool about that.
You're entitled to that opinion. Personally, all the stuff you mentioned I count as fluff, and things that will can be completely contradicted if the movie writers have even the slightest desire to do so.
I think there's room for both "important" and not-so-"important" stories. Not every story needs to be of the same kind and we have a variety of
Star Wars stories in print, from all-brand-new stuff to things the show the movies from a different angle or tell us more about the movie characters. That's what make
Star Wars publishing fun. Not everything fits in the same box.
Also,if you're right about the bolded part, that describes all the books, so there's no reason to single out the YA material, when the GA material would be handled the same way.
Kenobi was important to the character and his role in the SW universe.
Sounds a bit like the stuff I've been reading.
Before the Awakening fits the bill, certainly.
Like I've said, books aren't supposed to be important to the movies, they're important to the SW universe, which is (in my opinion) more important then just the movies.
Okay, but the movies are the backbone of everything. They are the most important thing. Also, who's to say that a book couldn't be important to both a movie and the universe?
I've never read a GA book that wasn't important in some way, either in how it relates to characters (movie or EU based) or continuing its own ongoing storyline. Even books like I,Jedi , which was mostly a retelling of another book series from another character's perspective, was impoirtant to the character it was about.
That's a fair assessment of many of the YA books you're dismissing.
When I say a book is "important", i mean its not about making fluff for the movies and tells good stries in the SW universe. YA books do neither.
First of all, thanks for defining what "important" means to you.
Second of all, different people have different ideas of what makes good and best stories. You love the
Clone Commando series. I found them kinda overrated. Who's right?
Finally, I've read YA books that
do do both.
Animation preference is really subjective, so I won't argue about that. honestly, my biggest problem with rebels art style is that its based on concept art that honestly is too cartoony and isn't very Star Wars like, I prefer how Lucas and the movie design people turned the McQuarrie art into more realistic things, it just looks better in motion then adapting the concept art more directly. The character models are also a bit too rounded for me, but to be fair TCW could be too angular.
Fair enough.
But what Rebels wants to be is inferior to what TCW was. It wants a younger demographic and simpler writing with cliches instead of characters (even if Kanan is kind of becoming a character now, that's one character out of 5 in the main cast).
I've honestly yet to hear a convincing argument for this position. Frankly, I like the
Rebels cast a lot more than the original
Clone Wars regular characters (who, to be fair, were really good).
So, even if TCW took a bit to find its voice, from day one it was trying to be more then Rebels is.
I don't know, TCW was an anthology and never really had a central cast (yeah, Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Rex were the usual core characters), which allowed for more variety of stories, but I feel like the TCW cast also had less character development spread across more episodes. I feel like I know the
Rebels characters far more than I did the TCW cast after watching a comparable number of episodes.
Also, IMHO,
Rebels has more interesting rank-and-file villains that TCW.
Not YA books. They're written very specifically to appeal to a small demographic. There isn't room to be different and make any money when it comes to the YA drama.
That doesn't make any sense to me, based on what I know about writing.
Yeah, but Pixar movies and Harry Potter are more family stories, written to appeal to a large group. YA books are made to appeal to young people in their early to mid teens, with all the stuff they specifically like that really doesn't translate for a more general audience.
Everything I've heard about Harry Potter fits many of the YA cliches, and I've gathered that the general conclusion is that the series is not that well-written. Also, who's to say that a YA author couldn't write something that everyone liked?
I know what a YA book is, and that doesn't change.
I don't think so. Your statements don't reflect that assessment.
I always forget about Ahsoka. Now I'm wondering what star crossed romance the "writer" that made that book put her in.
None. It's not that kind of book.
But, to be fair, Filoni ruined her in Rebels before that book came out, to the point where even making her Bella with lightsabers (or maybe Hunger Games girl with lightsabers, if the writer is on the less terrible end of the YA style) is probably less of an insult then what Filoni did.
Ahsoka is one of those characters who stated out pretty one-note and became one of the better ones over the course of the series. I don't think you can take that away from Filoni.
We probably disagree on what qualifies as teen angst, then.
What do you think it means?
YA isn't a genre, but it is a style. It might be paranormal or post apocalyptic or whatever, but it has the same tropes and cliches regardless of its setting.
That's not how the Force works.
In my opinion they are. I've yet to see a YA book/story that wasn't just a variation on Twilight/Hunger Games/etc style.
The
Ahsoka novel would qualify.
There are some differences in situations, and how stupid/incompetent the main characters are (Tiwlight being filled with idiots and Hunger Games having more competent people is one of the few big differences between them when it comes to style from what I've seen). But they all share the same tropes and cliches.
I see. Once again, YA is not a genre, it's a category that includes a wide range of genres.
Probably because Twilight/The hunger Games are still big sellers. They publish stuff that will sell, and the YA boom hasn't ended yet.
Yeah, a lot of YA books do follow that trend. So do GA books. And there are many of both that don't.
Except movies have variety and are made for a bunch of different demographics. YA books are a small section of books made to appeal to a very strict demographic. Its not comparable to judging all movies by a bad movie.
That's exactly what you're doing here.
In my opinion, they're all terrible. No one has to share my opinion, but when it comes to things I think are good or bad, YA books are horrible.
You can have an opinion.
I don't need to read them to have that opinion. They're all the same. If they weren't, they wouldn't be a YA book.
No, you're misunderstanding what "YA" means.
Well, I wouldn't if they hadn't made Twilight for SW with
Lost Stars 
That's not what the book is like. For starters, you could take the love story out of the mix and still have decent story that develops the characters over the course of it.
There isn't enough money on this planet to get me to read Lost Stars, not that I need to read it to know exactly what it is and its unimportance to the real SW books.
A.) It's a real
Star Wars book and B). if you've never read it, how do you know what the contents are?
Its fine if you like it, but as someone who loathes YAI'll never read it, and its pretty obvious that its just as much fluff when it comes to the SW universe overall as the stupid Survival Guide or kiddie TFA books about Finn, Rey, etc. A different kind, since its not tied into a book and is instead just a SW universe version of Twilight/every YA book, but still an easily skippable, unimportant teen angst romance story.
If you don't want to read it fine, but making quality judgements about books you've never read is about as honest as reviewing a movie you've never seen. Does that make any sense?
I wasn't trying to wind anyone up, but I'm not going to lie about my opinion. I didn't think people would take my opinion as hard as they have. Its fine if they like the books, I just don't consider them anything but terrible books made for a demographic I'm definitely not a part of.
Okay, don't lie. But dismissing people who've had first-hand experience with a topic that you have not
and insulting stuff that other people appreciate is not going to go over well. There are ways to discuss different opinions and stay polite.
But I do know, because I know what I like and dislike, and what I think is good and bad. I think YA are garbage, and that won't change. I'm not trying to convince anyone to agree with me, I'm just stating my position. You can't convince me I'm wrong, because its my opinion. As far as I'm concerned, I know probably more then I need to know about YA books. To me they're all the same, and I loathe the whole category (outside of Harry Potter, which I've already said I count more as "family" books then YA books).
Honestly, I was feeling like I was being hostilely preached at.
At this point (well, probably a few pages before this point, honestlyt) we're just talking in circles. I don't agree with you that you need to experience something to judge it, especially in the case of YA books, where they're all very similar.
So, if we think there are specific differences between specific YA books and the norm, how would that fit into your views?
You don't agree with my opinion on that, and you and a lot of people don't agree on my opinion on the YA books in general, and that's fine. I'm not going to change my mind on any of it, and I'm not trying to change anyone elses. It probably makes sense to just end this line of discussion, we've really got nowhere else to go with it. I'll always hate YA books, and never count the SW YA or kiddie books as anything but terrible, unimportant wastes of paper/time. That's my unchangeable opinion on the subject.
That's one way to look at it. On the other hand, you could find another
Harry Potter.
Their experience doesn't matter in this case. I know what I like and dislike, and what I consider good or s&^t. They don't, they can only speak to what they think is good, bad, etc. I loathe YA books and my opinion on them will never change. Its my opinion, and its not wrong for me. If it was a topic I was neutral or wondering about and asked someone what they thought, then I'd take their opinion into account.
But, that's not the situation here. I have a very well formed opinion on YA books, and I wouldn't read them if I was paid to.
That's the part I don't get. If you don't read them, how do you know if they work like you think they will, or if they won't? In fact, that's been the big stumbling block for me. You've been effectively telling me that I'm wrong about a book, despite you having no idea what's inside. I can respect a dissenting opinion of someone who's read it, or hasn't read it doesn't find it interesting, but passing off an informed opinion as invalid doesn't make any logical sense. (It's also kind of rude.)
I have more then enough real SW books (and normal books in general) to read, but even if I didn't I'd never read a YA or kiddie SW book. Other people can like them, it doesn't matter to me and i don't care that they exist. But I happen to hate them and consider them useless junk.
Seems kind of weird to hate something you've never read. It's not bothering you, you don't have any reason to like or dislike it (since you don't know if its good or bad), you didn't waste time or money on them.
Look, if you don't ever want to pick up a YA book, fine (you're missing some good stuff), that's fine, but can we at least be fair, offer sound points and counter points, and be respectful to the rest of the posters, please?
