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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 12:38 AM
Chalk it up to lack of reference, artistic interpretation, or miscommunication, sometimes inconsistencies crop up in the visual continuity of the EU.
Do Bothans look simian or equine? Are ysalamiri salamander-like or lizard-like? How tall is a Noghri supposed to be, anyway? What color is so-and-so's lightsaber?
Discuss it all here.
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 01:02 AM
Examples in this blog.
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jSarek
Total Posts: 2259
Member Since: 12/03
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 07:37 AM
This message was edited by jSarek on Aug 14, 2007 07:38 AM
The discrepancies between the Thrawn trilogy sourcebooks and comics were actually pretty widespread, sometimes so wide they had to be retconned (e.g. the Bimms, made into two species in the original Essential Guide to Alien Species to justify the widely variant visions). Note that half of the entries in Tasty's blog come from disagreements between these sources. Some more:
Grand Admiral uniform with (WEG) and without (comic) epaulets
Elegant Talon Karrde (WEG) vs. rough-and tumble Talon Karrde (comic)
Mustached Pellaeon (WEG) vs. hard-faced Pellaeon (comic)
Short-haired Garm Bel Iblis (WEG) vs. long-haired Garm Bel Iblis (comic)
Human Lt. Page (WEG) vs. alien Page (comic)
Small-headed vornskrs (WEG) vs. big-headed vornskrs (comic)
Four-bulbed Interdictors (WEG) vs. two-bulbed interdictors (comic)
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 09:54 AM
Going on visuals alone then the Marvel series created a new class of Star Destroyer every other issue  .
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jacenfan1
Total Posts: 2609
Member Since: 08/04
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 10:06 AM
How tall is a Noghri supposed to be, anyway? Yeah!
Honestly this has bothered me for a while. Oh it's not a big deal but just one of those nagging things in the back of my mind when I read about a Noghri. I have seen them on a video game about 6' or so and then when I read a book they are really short. So which is it? Seriouly does anyone know for sure what the actual average size is?
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Snake Plissken Katarn
Total Posts: 2611
Member Since: 06/02
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 10:33 AM
Aren't these the kind of matters Mr. Taste is supposed to settle anyway?
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 12:07 PM
Most of these issues are resolved with newly released artwork. The most recent Essential Guide is usually going to be a good bet for the current official version. With that said, I create threads/blogs like this because it's a great chance for me to get your input.
And yes, Noghri are supposed to be short - 1.4 meters tall (avg).
One other topic brought up in these replies are costume variations. Maybe grand admirals can choose to remove their epaulets. And characters can certainly shave and/or change hair styles.
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jacenfan1
Total Posts: 2609
Member Since: 08/04
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 12:20 PM
Thanks a bunch Tasty. I thought that was correct on the noghri height but it is good to know for sure. For the record I like the idea that characters can totally change their appearance with a huge hair style change or something like that. In other words I am not of the opinion that the character has to look the exact same way each time we see them. For example the Jacen Solo covers that have gotten some negative reaction. I am a huge Jacen fan and I don't have a problem at all with the fact that his hair and his life has changed his look since the Vong boys left town. I tend to like it actually. Just my two cents.
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 04:46 PM
Judder Page appears in 'Return of the Jedi'.
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jSarek
Total Posts: 2259
Member Since: 12/03
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 05:32 PM
Snake Plissken Katarn:
Aren't these the kind of matters Mr. Taste is supposed to settle anyway?
No, he just records them. It's up to the various authors to fix them as needed or desired, though he does provide suggestions and input.
Tasty:
One other topic brought up in these replies are costume variations. Maybe grand admirals can choose to remove their epaulets. And characters can certainly shave and/or change hair styles.
Oh, of course; I'd say it's now a given those epaulets were removable, and that Pellaeon experimented briefly with the joys of a clean shave. But since these different visions often exist in the same scene (e.g. Mike Vilardi's version of Thrawn with epaulets and Pellaeon with mustache in the Clan Kihm'bar dukha from the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook, vs. the same scene in the Dark Force Rising comic), it's still a discrepancy.
Somp:
Judder Page appears in 'Return of the Jedi'.
He does now, after Decipher retconned him in.
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 08:26 PM
That's a great list in the blog.
I remember back when the Heir to the Empire comics were coming out that the WEG staff was very frustrated that Dark Horse was allowed to change how the nohgri or other species looked over what had been established by WEG's sourcebooks - even more so because the sourcebook illustrations were often developed with the novel's author's direct input (at least in Timothy Zahn's case, if I recall correctly).
The bothans and noghri seem to be the worst offenders - it seems like they're at least slightly different every time they're drawn.
WotC's RPG and Minis version is more like the WEG version.
The current WotC Bothan looks more like that of the comics, whereas the Star Wars Databank Bothan entry actually shows all three major variations on different pages, with a color illustration similar to the original WEG version at the top.
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jason max
Total Posts: 234
Member Since: 03/07
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Date Posted: Aug 14, 2007 09:37 PM
As far as book covers go, I think Mara Jade has had the worst case of visual discrepencies. She's appeared as almost Denise Richards-like (Visions of the Future), Shannon Braska/McRandle (Rebirth), Famke Jansen-ish (Sacrifice), and like none of the above (Survivor's Quest)
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Date Posted: Aug 15, 2007 01:16 AM
He does now, after Decipher retconned him in.
< It has been a few years now, hasn't it. But it does mean we have a definite portrait of what Page looks like.
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jSarek
Total Posts: 2259
Member Since: 12/03
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Date Posted: Aug 15, 2007 02:06 AM
This message was edited by jSarek on Aug 15, 2007 02:10 AM
Indeed . . . egads, it's been eight years now since Endor Limited released. How time flies.
Of course, we also had the Rebellion portrait, which looked a lot younger and had movie-star good looks, but we can assume that's how he looked when he WAS younger, and that the years prior to the Battle of Endor were not overly kind to him.
Of course, none of that explains why he looks like the love child of a Klingon and a piranha in the comic. Disguise, perhaps
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Date Posted: Aug 20, 2007 05:56 AM
I think Mara Jade has had the worst case of visual discrepencies.
Yeah, as far as normal human likeness anyway. Somehow though I've developed a subconscious idea of what she "should" look like....for example, the Sacrifice cover looks very Mara to me, while the illustration in the New Essential Guide to Characters looks very off. I don't know where I got this "Mara sense" from though. Maybe it's from the comics, since that's the only place where I've looked at her for a sustained period, as opposed to the occasional single illustrations here and there.
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