ST Official Sequel Trilogy / Legends / Expanded Universe discussion thread

The filmmakers shouldn't be beholden to gigantic universe-changing aspects of the post ROTJ EU that has been laid out by other writers. Also, it would take away a lot potential for different story ideas. It basically puts the movie into a box. Chewbacca's moon death being the biggest one from the next gen (of which some are already dead, Sithed, and or married) and now Han & Leia have a freakin' grandkid running around. Too much has happened to play with the pieces that the post ROTJ EU has done.

 

What the title says.

So we all know that it's likely that the post-ROTJ EU is going to be changed a lot. If you had the choice to keep something at all, what would it be and why? Let's just say that everything else would be changed and would work around what you keep. But of course all the obvious plot directions(like Peace restored to the Galaxy after ROTJ and the Rebellion leading that) that the EU covered would probably stay or not, depending on opinions.

For me, it would be the Skywalker/Solo Family. Even people who casually glance over the EU would never miss details like who's the son and wife of Luke Skywalker or Han Solo's kids. So it'd be pretty useless to change that.

 

Vong and Darth Krayt

 

Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade Skywalker.

 

IMO, the Vong sound awesome on paper and if they did them on film, they would be as cool as the Orcs from Lord of the Rings(I mean they're a race of alien space warriors more hardcore than the Mandalorians who are IMMUNE to the Force and Lightsabers) but how the novels handled them could be the "divisive" part?

True, but there are some real gems not worth throwing away, that I'm sure TPTB could find some way of working in?

 

I actually hated The Corellian trilogy because of the cheesy and lame "Full House" feel of the family. I hated the idea of an Anakin Solo and a Ben Skywalker as portrayed in those books. However, I would keep the Solo twins and Ben Skywalker but all with better names, even though I'm open to a female Skywalker named Nomi.

Though I'm not a HUGE EU fan, especially post-ROTJ, I would probably keep Mara Jade.

 

Good choice, but not what I would choose. I'm going with light sabers.

 

I guess it comes down to this: sequels are, by their nature, reactionary. Meaning they are reactions to the material that came before. Do we want Episodes 7, 8,and 9, supposedly installments in an interlocking saga, to be reactionary peices to the films that came before, or reactions to the series of novels and comics that 10% (perhaps less) of the Star Wars viewership has read? Do we want an Episode 7 that deals with the aftermath of the Yuuzhan Vong war (or the Killik invasion?), or do we want an Episode 7 that deals with the aftermath of the 6 previous episodes?

When a movie-only viewer sits down to see the film for the first time, should they be greeted by a Luke Skywalker who has, off screen, been turned to the dark side and back, fought a cloned Palpatine, fought off a galaxy-wrecking alien invasion, fought with his nephew who turned to the dark side, fought off multiple post-Empire Sith threats, and has already rebuilt (and rebuilt) the Jedi Order, with all the imagined conflict? After all that, Now we're going to pick up with a new Episode and say "no wait, this is the really important part"?

Nope. How could the ST, under those circumstances, be anything more than just another conflict, another war to add onto the pile? It can't. The only chance for the ST to have a sense of genuine purpose and thematic significance is to start with a mostly clean slate. Leave what happened in that 30+ year gap mostly to the viewers imagination, and write a story that directly relates to the films that came before.

 

The names. The Solo kids, Ben, and Mara. The personalities don't even have to be remotely similar. But keep the names.

 

The names of the main characters that are apart of the EU

The Vong, Skywalker & Solo Kids, Thrawn, Mara Jade, etc. And then allow for re imaginings of these characters on screen

 

If there can only be one, then hand's down, it's this:

Luke's son, Ben, and Leia and Han's daughter, Jaina.

Ben is a character just staring to come into is own in the EU (fast becoming my favorite EU character over the past couple of years) and is at that perfect age to pick up the torch. Jaina is a force in the books who is more than qualified to help carry that torch into the next generation of Jedi.

For me, the best solution to the "EU in the ST" question is to have these two characters represent the next gen heroes of the ST in loose adaptations of their EU counterparts. Just the basics: Luke has a son named Ben and the Solos have a daughter named Jaina - and then go from there in whichever direction the story takes. The films will likely include new heroes anyway, and doing things this way keeps the stories of the post-ROTJ loosely 'in-play,' canon-wise, without actually requiring the films to reference any of the EU stories and risk being handicapped in any way.

 

Any conflict with the Imperial Remnant (other than Clone Palpatine, which is just silly) would make for a nice, pre-written backstory for the ST.

Even if they don't directly reference anything, I could still see an exchange between Luke and Han along the lines of "Hey Han, bet you haven't seen this much action since we kicked out the last of the Imperials" "Yeah, I really missed getting shot at"

 

I didn't think other EU threads were allowed.

Anyway, I haven't read too much post-ROTJ EU, but I guess the name Ben isn't terrible.

 

Mara Jade

 

I didn't either, but I haven't seen any "in before the lock" posts, so I figured something had changed.

 

Not a fan of the twins' names. Jaina and Jacen sound more like the Wonder Twins names than decent Star Wars names. Ben is passable, but a bit predictable. Mara Jade sounds likes Star Wars self parody. I don't like the Vong because they were meant to be Sith Purebloods but Lucasfilm rejected that apparently, which makes the concept a secondhand concept. I'd rather have a traditional Imperial Commander > Thrawn.

I think I'd keep the concept of Leia never coming to peace with Vader's crimes against her and her people. But then I'd do more with the idea than EU has. Maybe she's imbued this animosity into her children, or her children are fascinated by the ban on their grandfather. Or maybe she's not allowed them to be trained by Luke.

The Emperor's Hand concept is also passable.

 

That would be atrocious, and it would be a radical departure from the rules of the universe already established.

Considering how up-in-arms some have gotten over losing the Fox Fanfare, I can't imagine this change would go over terribly well.

 

Where has Lucas said that, please provide the link to the quote ?

If anything what he said in the past was more the opposite.

The whole ST sounds like it's being based off a few scribbled notes on the back of a fag packet anyway.

 

Admiral Thrawn, played by Benedict Cumberbach. He looks good in blue.

 

So I was listening to the latest Rebel Force Radio podcast today and I have to say I like Jimmy Mac's theory of what this "Story Group" is trying to do. We could be wrong, but it sounds like they are just finally making ALL "canon" just "canon" and not the different levels that we've seen over the years. In no way did they blatantly say "we are wiping out everything except the OT" I do think POST ROTJ EU is at risk, but it is hypothetical that they MAY keep "some" of the existing EU, at least character wise. So the Solo and Skywalker kids may survive it, maybe even Luke's wife, etc.

Now I don't suspect pre-ROTJ EU to be too messed with either. For example if they make a spin-off Boba Fett movie, it doesn't necessarily have to conflict with EU, that is unless they do the "copy-cat killer" version, then that conflicts with TCW. To be honest I bet that is why they had to make this group, because everyone is jumping in saying "let's pump out the spin-offs" and Disney/Lucasfilm was like "whoa whoa whoa, stop the clock". They didn't want to conflict with the ST, and why they are at it the OT, PT or TCW either. Even the Old Republic would be at risk if they didn't work on continuity.

The Star Wars universe is BIG, I don't think too much of the EU will collide with the films with the exception of the post ROTJ. And it is entirely possible that the events that took place after ROTJ up until EP7 COULD have happened. Keyword is "some". Maybe the Solo's don't have kids, but there was a "Thrawn" in that time period . We just won't know until the films come out.

 

Dra--- LOVE the idea of Sith purebloods but not Vong. Also, I didn't realize the Vong were supposed to be Sith.

And you know I agree with a lot of your posts but I have to take a bit of exception to the bolded part. IMO Thrawn was a horrible character because he was an alien in what was essentially the space Nazi Empire. They were racists. Therefore the aliens were all used as pawns in lowly and menial ways -- IE Garindan the spy or the bounty hunters. NOT once did we ever see an alien Imperial. Sith or demi-sith like the Inquisitor were okay as far as Sidious was concerned but I strongly believe Anakin hated aliens and with good reason:

1- He and his mother were owned by Hutts
2- He and his mother were owned by Watto a Toydarian
3- His mother was enslaved, beaten and tortured by Tuskens

After Anakin wiped out the Tusken who killed his mother he told Padme he hated them and they were animals. So to me Thrawn was always an awful mistake, far from a traditional Imperial commander, that is best left to an EU that is soon to be largely overwritten.

 

I think it's because no one's started to go off on a tangent and just go into an EU rant or something.