While I agree that planning things out a bit more has its advantages, the chaotic nature of the Bantam era resulted in a lot of different directions and ideas. The issue was that it wasn't very coherent, and had to be fitted into a narrative after the fact. (Which was actually pretty capably done, so kudos for that.) I fear that a planned-out approach often runs the risk of being even
more monotonous, which would exacerbate rather than alleviate the particular problem that
@DarthOne raised.
Despite some really weird books, I think the Bantam era (which corresponds to the warlord period, concluding with the peace treaty in 19 ABY) is overall a realistic take on the post-Imperial chaos and its various challenges. And
@Lord Invictus correctly points out that the warlord struggle is pretty much over by 12 ABY, when Daala's reconstituted fleet is soundly defeated at Yavin. After that, the Remnant is fighting a losing battle, has to withdraw to the fringes of the galaxy, and is reduced to a minor power. It just takes another six years for them to finally accept that they've lost.
The "OH NOES THRAWN IS BACK!!!11!" plot always struck me as somewhat silly. It's even mentioned that "Thrawn was good, but not
that good". The idea of his supposed return throwing everybody into a panic is not realistic. (And is an early example of Zahn's increasing tendency to turn Thrawn into an invincible superperson.) Nevertheless, the fact that the plot fails, and things end peacefully is enough to make it all okay. Things are finally in order, fifteen years after Endor. That's a realistic time-frame for a period like that.
Overall, I don't think that judging the whole timeline based on a chronology in a guide-book is really fair. Especially since said judgement contains clear inaccuracies (e.g. "most of Luke's students being massacred "; "Jaina goes evil"). Yes, NJO has some bleak shit in it. Sometimes too much of it for my liking. But just reading an outline does kind of gloss over the crucial fact that it was
going somewhere. It was not -- I repeat: NOT -- some 40k-like ultra-grimdark story with an eternal bleakness as the status quo. It went to dark places in order to then ascend back into the light of hope. Whereas we might see the OT films as coming down to
personal redemption, the NJO series elevated that concept to a galactic scale. The whole point is that the war seems hopeless at times, and the Vong seem like monsters without redeeming qualities, and there are easy choices that involve moral short-cuts...
...and instead, the
morally just path leads to a redemption arc for the
entire species.
I really think that Stover and Luceno in particular had such an excellent grasp on the underlying ethics and metaphysics that they managed to really express something amazing in the NJO series. So despite that fact that it has flaws, and the fact tht I would have done certain things very differently... it's not fair to treat it like something it's definitely
not.
