Lit The theoretical upside to a *new* EU

I'm probably as deeply invested in the current EU as anyone out there, having spent at least a couple grand on EU materials since 1991, and being thoroughly well-versed in the characters, places, and lore established by coutless authors, books, comics and games over the last 21 years.

STILL...

There is an upside to the possiblility of an EU reboot.

That would be a more perfect union of stories encompassing everything from the PT through Clone Wars and the OT.

There wouldn't be the (at the time) necessary vagueness about PT-era developments and characters, along with inconsistencies and other headaches that arose from having post-ROTJ stories coming in with no knowledge of PT-era developments. It was super exciting at the time, and there were a wealth of truly awesome stories that built on each other over the years.

But what if all the downsides were erased along with what we love?

What if Luke didn't lose his wife, and Han and Leia didn't lose two sons? What if Chewie hadn't died?

What if Luke and others weren't written into a corner, and the successive generation(s) wiped out needlessly?

What if it was Padawans instead of apprentices, and there was a better cohesiveness to everything?

What if the best aspects of character development were kept and replicated with even more consistency?

Just some thoughts. We'll always have the current novels we collected, anyway.

 

What id there's no longer a single continuity and it becomes like Star Trek novels?

 

If it goes the Star Trek route, I'm done with it. I can't see that happening, though. That said, there were some really great Star Trek novels, including Yesterday's Son from the original series. I read my share of Star Trek books, but they could have benefitted from a canonical-continuation approach, and could still do so.

 

The main reason why I'll most likely lose interest if they decide to do a reboot is because it'll be inevitable that they'll rehash certain popular classics like Thrawn, and I'm simply not interested in reading the same stories again.

It's actually that which puts me off, rather than the 'continuity' of such reimaginings.

Sure, the argument is they can tell all new stories, which I'm sure they would do too, and like some of the comics-to-animation that they've done in TCW, I'm sure a new take on TTT would be done well, and that new generations would enjoy a new Thrawn story just as much as we once enjoyed the original story, but I've got lots of things I want to read in my life, and the same stories retold with a little bit different just doesn't come high enough up my list of priorities.

 

The only upside I hope for is the bodily kind, as I happy realize that all you fellow fanboys go on a crazed adburd Hitleresuqe book burning rampage; thus rendering my complete collection an extremely rare, yet valuable, collectors oddity.

 

I highly doubt that will ever happen, you don't need to worry

 

My experience with Spiderman, X-Men, King Arthur, and pretty much every other popular franchise in history suggests otherwise. Remember, they've said themselves that the EU is a treasure chest worth mining, and Joss Whedon even said he'd like to do a Yuuzhan Vong story if they let him. Heck, the EU itself doesn't exactly hesitate to repeat the same stories!

Honestly, the reason it's unavoidable is the same reason they'd choose to do a reboot in the first place: because the current EU has run out of ideas. If there were still fresh ideas possible, we'd already be seeing them instead of prequel rehashes, so anything a reboot could do would thus inevitably be retreading the same stories. In the end, there's only so much variety you can do with Jedi fighting Sith, and all mainstream products revert back to 'safe' and 'reliable' clichés -- like stormtroopers in TOR.

Note that when I talk about "rehashing Thrawn" I'm not even saying the character would be a blue-skinned alien with red eyes and the same name. What I'm talking about is Luke Skywalker learning how to cope as a new Jedi Knight while fighting the remnants of the Empire shortly after ROTJ. It's unavoidable that a reboot would tell that same story again, whether with a blue Grand Admiral or someone else in that same role. But I've been through that adventure with Luke, I've watched him mature and rebuild the Jedi, so while you can change the pieces on the board, the fundamental journey remains the same, Peter Parker still ultimately gets the girl. (This is the same reason I've not watched the new Spiderman film yet -- if it was Spiderman 4, I'd have rushed out to watch it, but I'm in no hurry and will get the DVD when I've got through the pile of other DVDs I've still got to watch... heck, I've not even opened my Avengers copy yet!)

Like I said, I'm not saying that wouldn't work, I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good story, I'm not envying the new generation of kids who would find that far better than getting them to read the original stories about Luke's life after ROTJ; I'm simply saying that I've been there, done that, got the literal t-shirt, and simply won't be joining them on that journey again if that's where the EU chooses to go. It's the reason I'm struggling to get that pumped up for Star Wood, as while I'll probably read it, it's not exactly giving me that "wow" factor that I got out of Legacy.

 

Exactly, Sinre.

Heck, look at the Battle of Hoth! How many different depictions have we seen of that?

We all stopped caring exactly what sort of vehicles were involved in that fight looong ago.

 

A large part of the Hoth battle being re-done is to do with console tech improving greatly, so not sure if it works in the way you have in mind Zorr.

 

I agree. I'm really not worried about the continuity aspect of a reboot. I just don't wanna see the same character development going through the same hurtles and challenges they have already been through. Why read the same story twice?

 

The problem is, as Zorr's argued, there's only so many story elements that can be used and the majority have already been used!

 

I dunno, its depiction in Force Commander would have trouble matching up with Shadows of the Empire on the N64.

(Admittedly Force Commander probably has trouble matching up with ESB )

 

If there ever was an EU reboot, it would only create new EU haters.

 

Even better - there'd be a new generation who only reads EU derived from the ST, and views us as purists.

 

That's actually something that's crossed my mind... would a new EU even have as much in the way of reading?

I mean, yeah, they'd be sure to release some books, but the books have always been acknowledged as a small part of the franchise, and kids these days read less and less, so depending on how many older readers they lose, they'll have a much harder time building a new under-18 core, which leaves me to think a New EU would probably be more about video games, toys and all the other merchandise they can flog, rather than having as its backbone those funny old things made of dried out bits of dead trees.

That's the big thing that has me thinking Sinrebirth will be right that they'd just "reboot" repeatedly, with the main focus being on their never-ending new films, whose core audience won't particularly care about continuity and poorly written tie-in books, with the main money instead coming from the tie-in video games and other things that form a much bigger part in today's culture than reading materials.

 

Never played Force Commander Zorr!

As to your most recent post - there's definitely a cynical plausibility to what you've sketched out.

 

That's one dark future you paint, Zor... though I've been hearing people say again and again that kids are starting to read more again (and from experience, lots of my first-graders read TCW books and are frustrated that there aren't more of them).

 

Direct those first-graders to Jedi Trial! It'll warp their fragile little minds!

 

Please, logistics can wait until second grade.

 

I've been reading EU for as long as I can remember, so I won't stop now. I just pick and choose what I read, like I always have.

 

I don't think that's entirely likely. It seems that, even in the worst-case reboot scenario, most of the EU material taking place prior to 4 ABY is going to remain more or less intact. Obviously certain plotlines would be strangely orphaned by such a move, as in Outbound Flight, but the biggest EU projects of recent years, TCW and TOR, are almost certain to stay with us (especially TOR, which like any MMO is stilted towards a long-term profit-generating scheme).

In the, in my opinion highly likely, case that does happen, it is also very likely that any post-ROTJ EU that does not hit whatever the ST ends up doing may also be retained.

Such a maneuver may also act as a break on further continuity splicing, since whatever new ROTJ-ST and post-ST EU material comes into being would have a strong incentive to work with the EU from earlier times, especially in the case that they ever do make a live action series set during the Dark Times, or perhaps even put new movies/specials into that slot. There's a reason to do that, from a financial perspective - to try and take fans of one era and make them into fans of other eras, especially the young kids and teenagers who will be caught up by the ST, and thereby sell more toys (Star Wars has always made a huge amount of its money off the toys, so has Disney, and as electronic entertainment becomes less and less able to make money off sustained revenue streams like DVD sales, physical products become ever more important - or more succinctly: It's all about the LEGOs).

It is very possible, and I think even probable, that we may see, from a continuity perspecitve, a partial reboot that kills everything from Vector Prime onward. The NJO and it's post game are the least integrated section of the EU, and the trigger event, the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion, truly does come flying out from beyond the Star Wars galaxy. it influences the fewest media as well: just books and comics. There are no video games set after 25 ABY (I believe Jedi Academy, set in 14 ABY, is furthest in the chronology) and few toys referencing the Yuuzhan Vong or the Galactic Alliance. The damage would be ~50 novels and novellas and two comic series (Invasion adn Legacy) spun off into an alternate 'Yuuzhan Vong Star Wars.' A single continuity EU could probably, just barely, survive that. Anything more though and it probably explodes.

 

And a few reference books (Complete Visual Guide, and so forth) are going to end up with the end part invalidated.

 

I would welcome a new post RotJ EU but we'll see what happened.

I think being able to look back on what was learned from the first attempts (MC, Bantam, Del Rey, DH) and using the best ideas but not just making it up as it progresses could be much better than anything we've had before.