Discussion Why all the EU Hatred?

I love lots of EU. There is an unfortunately inappropriate amount of bad Star Wars media that isn't very high quality, but that has always been the problem, starting way back with the original Han Solo and Lando Calrissian trilogies, and especially true for the original Marvel comics... But that changed starting in the 90s. There's a ton of great stuff out there, you just gotta wade through some crap to get to it.

I don't want any of the already written EU plots to be in the movies, but not having references to fan favorites and having universally liked characters or plots be retconned into oblivion is not a good thing

 

I hated what the EU did with the Jedi post-RotJ.

 

But in all fairness I've hated anything that's been done with the Jedi outside of the OT.

 

You LIE!!!!! Seriously, what are you? Anti-fun?

Oh, and to answer the original question.
1) They are lazy.
2) They don't like to read.
3) They are broke.

 

All I know is that the ST is going to be an original story, which doesn't mean that all of the characters within it will be completely new. Assuming that TPTB actually use these characters (which is no sure thing), I think that any confused people would have several resources to educate themselves about such characters. If people take the steps to go see Episode VII, I give them credit for being smart enough to find the right sources of information to learn about these characters. Whether that be directly by themselves in reading novels, or going to Wookiepedia, or perhaps by having friends who have already done so to go to for information. Again I know I am taking the leap that TPTB will even use Jaina or Ben, it is highly likely they will not. But as for ready made characters with deep back stories with which to use, it is a good resource for TPTB should they use it. I doubt TPTB would make an Episode VII, VIII, and IX featuring the big 3 completely, so they will likely turn to a new generation of protagonists. Why use totally new characters with no back story when they can use previously established new characters with a wealth of back story material? They have a ready made new generation of Skywalkers to use, if they choose to do so.

 

Alright, I take back what I said about Han and Lando but I replace them with the Jedi Prince books even a young reader couldn't get behind those...

 

You should have written that entire post in acronyms.

 

There is a lot of bad EU materiel, especially OT-era and post OT-era, but there is a lot of good stuff too such as:

Book series:
Republic/Imperial Commando
Darth Bane trilogy
Jedi Apprentice
Jedi Quest
Legacy of the Force
and several single books....

Comic Series:
Tales of the Jedi
Knights of the Old Republic
Legacy

 

You say that as if the Glove of Darth Vader isn't the peak of English literary achievement.

Hamlet. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ulysses. All merely the preview for the epic saga of a man with three eyes who dresses like a member of Judas Priest searching for a single black glove on a planet with a thriving illegal whaling industry.

 

It seems that when people here dislike the EU, there reasons is that it is poor quality, but that is just one big generalization. The EU makes up all comics, tv series, video games, and books, and yes i agree some of that material is poor quality, but alot of it is great. People should not be focused on the bad, to not see the good.

And don't think bad quality star wars can only exist in the EU, for some of the prequel films have been considered not so good quality by many. But im not going to allow that to cause me to despise the entire saga, simply because of some stupid stuff in some of the films.

Perhaps it can be said that there is more poor quality in the EU then there is in the films, but that is simply because the EU is WAY bigger then the films.

 

because most of it sucks. especially post-ROTJ works.

 

bantam books raped my childhood

 

I don't hate the EU, but I do consider it an alternate universe to that of the movies, and therefore have no emotional investment in it the way I have in the movies themselves. However I should add that while I have read a fair amount, the only post-ROTJ book I've read is The Truce at Bakura. This has been a very deliberate act on my part to allow that universe and those characters to live on in my mind in the way I'd like to imagine them rather than the way a group of authors did. On the other hand, I'm now very excited that there will be a continuation within the Saga itself to finally answer those questions in a difinitive way, much like the prequels did for the time period before the OT. I think the fact that the story comes from Lucas, and that I know it's been in the back of his mind since he first decided to add the episode numbers, makes me much more interested in this particuar vision of that time period. And I do think that in the despite everything this final trilogy will ultimately follow Lucas's vision for the where the story goes, as well as the style that he set, fairly closely. I hope so anyway. IMO, Episodes VII-IX need to be as close as possible to what GL would have made if he still had the passion and energy to do so, in order to complete the Saga in a way that's appropriate to taking the nine films as a whole. After that I'm assuming they will dispense with the episode numbers at which point I say run wild with all the EU material you want, since they're pretty much going to turn the movies into an expanded universe anyway.

 

There are no words. Perhaps I should retract my opinion and revisit these champions of narrative prowess.
Marvel set such a strong precedent with their quality of dialogue writing, perhaps Jedi Prince went over my head.

 

One simple reason why I never got into the EU beyond Dark Force Rising is simply that in the late '90s I didn't want to read anything else that would conflict with the Prequels or give me ideas that would make me feel spoiled for them. Unlike the average book adaptation movie, when I go to a STAR WARS movie, I want to be surprised and I want a script that isn't an adapted screenplay. Film is this franchises true arena.
I've been annoyed with the fans who automatically feel anything in the EU is "established canon" that is more important than anything that could be in a SW movie or TV series directly from Lucasfilm. It use to be that people didn't care. No one cared that Splinter in the Mind's Eye was contradicted by The Empire Strikes Back; no one cared expected comic books to be the Word in regards to the most popular and then ongoing film series of all time...or maybe they did and I just never saw those people. There's just been a whole generation raised more on the books and video games than the films and they automatically have expectations based on the works of those who were inspired by the original work. I don't care if Mandalorians or Nightsisters have been explored in whichever books. I like seeing them in "The Clone Wars", and the material is a quality decent enough for their presence to not just be thrown in just for the heck of it (like how some things were used in the Prequels.) Why is it that every other movie, like Batman movies, can take signature elements (batcave, murdered parents, double identity) and put them in original stories but STAR WARS can't?

 

Personally I think some AU is the way to go. But it sounds like Disney is going to do their own thing. However, GL already has the treatments for the next three lined out. So who knows.

 

Because everything post-ROTJ is just not Star Wars...

 

I did, and do. Try again. Those were the most fun I've ever had reading Star Wars books.

edit: okay. Darth Maul Shadow Hunter was the most fun, but in a very surprising non-main-character way.

 

Yes...and the Sky is purple.

You know your going against what Lucasfilm has stated over the recant years.

Just because you think something isn't star wars....doesn't make it so. Im sure there are purists out there who don't even consider the PT apart of the Star Wars saga....simply ignore it.....but that doesn't make it so.

 

Stay classy!

 

I'm not lazy, have read over 2000 books, have quite a lot of money and I don't much care for the majority of the post Return Of The Jedi literature. Didn't you just call The Phantom Menace a 'masterpiece' in another thread? Jab jab.... right back at ya! Duck and move....duck and move.

 

Well, at least I like the movies I profess to be a fan of.

Though, if I wanted to make the argument, and I will, that liking anything takes more effort than disliking it. People who would rather rationalize their dislike for something are lazier than people who rationalize their like of it. That's just how I see things.

 

Yeah, it's not like there were six Star Wars films of varying quality! There was only one! This is an all-or-nothing proposition!

 

They're all kind of the same movie. Pay close attention to the use of the phrase "Stay here". Over and over and over consistently. People are especially fooling themselves if they think one trilogy is better than the other.