Speculation The Official Episode VII and the EU thread

You know, with the whole light, dark, and grey dynamic that I can see coming. I think a group of non-force users would be ideal but... The Vong are way to different to use that way. What would work better would be an old enemy of all force users... you know?

Mandalore Rises.

 

So Death Watch? I'd watch that.

 

I could see the basic concept of the Vong - an extra-galactic alien antagonistic force - being utilized, but, if it were, we'd likely get original, non EU characters showing up as the representatives of the race/species. However, I don't expect that, if we did see them, they'd be used in lieu of the Sith, but more likely in conjunction with them.

 

The Yuzan Vongs are created by people who are contracted to write a SW novels and they are without a care for the SW mythology or universe.

 

Regarding the EU, I have read some of it & liked none of it. To me, it’s always felt like fan fiction, including the Thrawn stuff, and that’s what I consider it. It never felt like canon to me. Further, I have zero interest in the offspring of the main characters (three consecutive generations of action heroes? Come on. That is beyond lame). Frankly, I can’t picture Han Solo even having kids. That’s just a dumb, dumb idea.

My preference would be someone like a cousin or nephew of Lando (or connected to him in some way) assuming the lead character role. I think a better way to tie this trilogy in with the old is not by portraying the cosmic adventures of Han Solo’s twins but focusing on someone starting out on the peripheral & becoming embroiled in something larger than they are.

 

Comics is a good thing to bring up. With the constant universe wiping of marvel/dc, it is hard to care what happens to the characters. Captain america dies. Who cares, he might get rezzed when the scarlet witch alters reality or when franklin richards creates a pocket dimension. Spider man died, but that is only the ultimates version, he lives on in other concurrent forms. How many times has spidy made deals with devils or traveled through time to futz with the timeline?

The thing I loved about the EU is that it is the opposite of this. They aren't afraid to age characters or give others the limelight. Yeah, the big 3 are the most used, but others get the time to shine. A whole line of books are dedicted to wedge, more to bounty hunters, some of the NJO hardly featured the big 3. Legacy comics take place after everything is dead! This gives a greater impact to the death of chewie or mara since you know they won't get constantly rezzed like a dbz character.

 

Absolutely agree. Which is why I hope it's not retconned or wiped out by a new "canon". It's definitely going to be a fine line for Disney to ride. I hope they only retcon small stuff if they do.

 

Something to consider: there are lifelong fans of Star Wars who have been there from the beginning who don't give a rip about this so-called "EU canon". I'm one of them. We don't see a need for the film makers to be walking any sort of fine line, and hope that they don't. As far as I'm concerned, it's a clean slate.

 

There are also lifelong fans of Star Wars who love most of the EU and dislike the thought of it being turned into "an alternate universe". Especially given that Lucas actually had quite a bit of input into it.

It really depends whether Disney likes the thought of keeping the EU, or not.

 

Understood, but in the same vein you should not dismiss those fans who DO care about the EU.

You see how that works? And how my fine line statement works? The line being between EU fandom and those like you who don't know/care about it. Right?

So while you don't care, there seem to be a number of people who DO care.

All I was saying is that I hope they don't retcon the whole shebang, not that they should feel beholden to it. And it should be no skin off your nose if they decide to use character names and motivations from the EU, if they tell it on a blank story canvas. Which is probably the best we can hope for.

But hey, enjoy your righteous indignation I guess?

 

It's all about balancing the two... which is why I see only part of the EU getting trashed, but something getting trashed.

 

I just don't want the filmmakers to be slaves to the EU, not being able to do certain things because the EU "forbids" it. I think that would be madness. The films (past and future) should always take precedence over the EU.

 

I wouldn't say "always", but I defo think it's quite alright to reimagine characters and events from the EU to fit the films. I agree the EU shouldn't "forbid" anything...but I'd imagine if they had the Solo kids named anything other than Jacen, Jaina and Anakin...or Luke son wasn't Ben....there would be a fan uprising.

 

I don't think they will be, not of Lucas is involved.

 

That point is just as valid, of course. I'd be disappointed from the get-go with any inclusion of "Solo twins", for example, but I suppose there would be equal disappointment for other parties if they are excluded. I guess there is a fine line to be walked indeed, which is too bad IMHO. I don't want the new films to be impeded by what I consider fan fiction. But I respect the opinions of those who feel otherwise.

 

What an incredibly ARROGANT stance.

Just wow.

Also, if you are going to be "disappointed from the get-go" about anything in a film that hasn't been made yet....then I doubt anyone can help you if you decide to be outwardly that obtuse about fiction that's not been written. I guess your crystal ball is better than mine.

 

Relax. My opinion of the EU is my own, that's what I think of it. That doesn't constitute arrogance, it's my point of view. I'm not pretending to have the final say here. You have a different opinion & I respect that.

 

I'd avoid Death Watch... they're a bit more Dark then I'd suggest, going with a grey opponent like the more traditional "True Mandalorians" for example wanting to be independent of the Republic would work great and give it a bit more moral ambiguity. Is someone pressing them to want this, do they really not like us that much, and so forth.

 

I had the same fear when I heard the news, so many years of reading just for all those events to have never happened. But the statement by Disney CEO Bob Iger over the acquisition seems encouraging:


I don't see why he would talk about the scope of Star Wars' history as a draw for Disney if the first thing they were planning to do was nuke it all. I'm optimistic that Disney is going to want to let Lucasfilm handle the continuity the way it always has. They will have to clean up the continuity mess that is always created by a major release, but the EU has always come through it in the past.

 

YeAh, while the movies will be original I still think the existing EU stuff will remain canon. Too many people have wasted to much time reading countless series of books (myself included). However I do vaguely remember reading somewhere that GL said that chewie is not dead so we'll see

 

Why would you consider that time wasted even though you were entertained while reading them? It's all make believe, what difference does it make if it coincides with the films or not? I dont get it. Will the books you bought suddenly vanish from your bookshelf?

 

This was Lucas's secret plan. As soon as Episode VII is released, the entire EU will sponantously evaporate.

 

This is a good point, it is easy for those of us who are really like the EU to get a little too attached, but there are reasons that we care about whether they are considered canon. When you read a lot of books about the same characters it is nice to know that in theory the growth and character development that has taken place over dozens of books will continue to affect the actions of the characters in future books and movies. In practice of course, that's not always the case since authors can't all be well versed in such a huge body of literature and sometimes characters just don't match between authors.

Realistically I would be satisfied as long as they keep the changes somewhat retconnable and for the purpose of making the franchise better as a whole. The thing I most worry about is the loss of the sense that when something happens in the EU it has consequences, because when a franchise gets rebooted all the time, you stop caring about character death or actions since it won't have any lasting impact on anything anyway.

 

I think it all comes down to the same reason people get annoyed with reboots of canonistic material in comics.

They simply want a beginning, middle and an end that cohese into a total narrative together. Dismissing large sectons of what you THOUGHT the story was, is a difficult pill to swallow as a fan.

That's not to say it doesn't happen. Stuff gets retconned ALL the time in many mediums and genre's. It's like when they change book cover artists halfway through the series (GRRM I'm looking at you). As much as you'd love them to look the same on your shelf, they simply don't no matter how hard you stare at them.

Call it a first world problem, but it's upsetting.

Now, as a fairly prominent blogger of book reviews, I'm not he type of person who feels that any story would be "wasted time" even if it were to become non-canon...BUT, It's nice to know when things are endorsed.

Case in point: the BBC's DOCTOR WHO books. Though not fully endorsed or otherwise by showrunners, every one of the New Series DW books can be seen as actual; adventures the Doctor had....and that feels good. If Steven Mofffat or RTD were to come along and dismiss them as not-canon anymore, it would certainly bug me. Not because it was time wasted, but because the tales I read weren't deemed "good enough" simply because of their medium? Does that make sense?

 

It makes great sense what you're saying, and honestly every franchise that's grown beyond a dozen books has retcons, non-canon, and lesser canon. It's ironic that the whole debate about canon started thanks to 2001 and Arthur C. Clarke's novels since they were often different from each other (despite being written at the same time). Most series or universes have a 'primary' or 'original' medium that overrides all others. In Star Wars case it's film, in Harry Potter's case it's the books, and so forth... compared to say the Hitchiker's Guide Universe, we got it easy.