Counterpoint: the Thrawn trilogy is legitimately one of the best pieces of young-adult literature in the last 30 years. Zahn writes for Thrawn a grand tragic arc with the precision of a metronome, where the hero is undone by his own tragic flaws.

X-wing taught me - “Remember. Just because a man is fat, has a moustache, and his only other appearance was in a dreadful book about jerkass space amazons, doesn’t mean he’s not one of the most intelligent guys in the entire Empire.” You will be missed. Warlord Zsjinj.

Came for this point. Thank you.

I’ll never understand. I haven’t been able to get through anything he has written, and I love Dune and Star Wars.

I don’t understand why Kevin J Anderson keeps getting invited to write in other people’s universes.

People forget what things were like when the Thrawn trilogy began. Star Wars fans had spent a decade chasing every “This is the next Star Wars” flash in the pan. Whether it was garbage like Ice Pirates, or Velveeta like Krull, we were always sating ourselves on things that could ostensibly pick up the torch of the…

I still remember getting the first of those from the book aisle at the Lowes Food store which sat at the bottom of my hill. I now have two storage drawers full of them. Like Ms. Trendacosta, I quit at the Yuuzhan Vong, but I will always recommend the shit out of the X-Wing books, and the Thrawn trilogy.

I’ve always felt that Thrawn was alright, but Pallaeon was really the heart of these stories. Seeing that not everyone in The Empire was evil added so much depth to all of star wars.  It is the interplay between the two that is so lacking from some of Thrawn’s more recent appearances. Karrde and Mara are also great,…

FUXX THE CLOWN INDEED

Well, I expect you’ll only be supportive of my plan to entertain children while dressed as an axe murderer.

I was going to add ventriloquist dummies, but those pretty much fall under the doll category.

Yeah, dolls easily fit into the uncanny valley thing, too. (Or at least can - it’s telling that the scary-doll movie “Annabelle” made up a completely different, lifelike, and potentially more disturbing doll than the cartoonish Raggedy Ann doll that was the basis for the story.)

You don’t center horror stories around things you don’t find creepy - that makes no sense, that would be comedy, intentional or not (e.g. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Night of the Lepus). No, horror must be premised on feelings of ambivalence, at the very least. Clowns have a bunch of qualities that trigger deep…

Beat me to it, but I’ll say it again: fuck clowns. If that makes me anti-clown, or a clownaphobe or whatever, then so fucking be it.

No, clowns are just creepy. Its the uncanny valley effect. The perpetual smiles makes it harder to trust them, since we rely on facial cues to tell what a person’s moods and intentions are. Something with static facial features is always going to unnerve most people. Whether it’s the Michael Myer’s mask, or the…

He almost murdered the Kinks.

IT came out when I was in middle school. The notion that clowns could be (and pretty much were) terrifying was not news to me.

Well, when you dress up and make your living being something that people are instinctually afraid of (see various studies on the subject, e.g. the 2008 Sheffield study that shows most children dislike clowns, studies that found high overlap between qualities people consider “creepy” and those possessed by clowns...),…

When they come for you, you have my axe at your side

Too both you and Cool_Breeze, who simulposted pretty much the same sentiment - Don’t. Please. That’s how Juggalos are made.