ST Official Sequel Trilogy / Legends / Expanded Universe discussion thread

That seemed pretty clear from the statement.

 

The LFL lady on Twitter also cleared that up.

 

How so? What did she say?

 

I tend to think the Legends label is going on all the previous books. They make it pretty clear in the article what they mean by the EU

Then they say

The EU is now just a repository of ideas, but the EU novels will be kept

There isn't anything here that suggests any of the previous EU books will not be labeled under Legends.

 

I can't remember if there was an exact tweet, or I just got that from reading all of the responses. Basically everything they asked about went under Legends except for the new novels, films, TCW, and Rebels.

https://twitter.com/jenheddle

 

"Everything prior to now is "legends""

So anything in the movies, TCW, Rebels is cannon. Everything else is not. Moving forward, the books, comics and games will all be part of the same canon as what we get onscreen.

 

I wonder how many* are like me, folks who never got into the EU much, and thus aren't bothered by today's announcement.


*Likely a minority of those who've posted in this thread.

 

I wonder how they're going to handle video games moving forward. I assume they too will be canon, but then you have the whole problem of crazy force powers, a trope of SW video games. Some people seem to want to believe, for example, Starkiller's video game powers could possibly be canon, when to me the crazy powers thing is just an aspect of video games and not to be taken too literally.

 

I think that's exactly the kind of thing the new canon is going to be stopping. Heddle says she's not in the know re games, but I think KK's statement in the press release covers those. As of yesterday, or months ago when Pablo already said this, even TFU is no longer cannon. I imagine Rebels will give us the official start of the rebellion now.

What Heddle did say in regards to someone like Plagueis - where there is confusion because the character is cannon but the novel is now not - is that for those who want to believe his story as laid out in the novels is what went down, there is no reason it can't be, until that novel gets contradicted in anything new, if that makes sense.

Kind of like Bane - we had that God awful weird armor looking dude, until George wanted to use him in TCW and he got a non awful redesign for the screen and that is now Bane's cannon appearance.

 

I agree with all that, but I'm wondering about new games. I'm sure players will be able to unlock crazy force powersTM, and then some will entertain the idea that Luke can create a Force hurricane. I think they should have some sort of statement that people shouldn't take video game powers too literally, but the plots will be respected.

 

Luceno has said multiple times in interviews that they cancelled the book because Lucasfilm didn't want the veil pulled too far back on Palpatine. They view him as evil incarnate. They also wanted more of him in the novel.

Just wait until you speculate on something and then someone throws back at you "on page 245 of Heir to the Jedi it says." Unless people expect everyone to watch every clone wars episode, every rebels episode, read Tarkin, A New Dawn, Heir to the Jedi, Lords of the Sith, play every game and whatever comes next just to speculate.

The Empire didn't have wookies in mind when they designed her and this canon stuff didn't have episode 7 spoiler forums in mind when they designed her either.

 

Dra-- I think the story group will be responsible for giving everything a more uniform, in line with the movies feel - so I would guess that amped up powers like that are gone for now, unless it's a plot point in the movies. It's a different aspect of the approach that saw them shelve detours etc.

 

That would be a nice straightforward solution. I'd be fine with some kind of disclaimer. Part of the fun of gaming is the amped up crazy power. Hard for me to see them cutting that, but we'll see.

Is it too much for me to hope fans just don't take video game powers too literally? Probably.

 

I think the problem with Starkiller was that he was presented as way more powerful than anything we'd seen in the movies.

But you're probably right - There will no doubt remain some crazy action/ powers in video games.

 

See the way I read it is in the context of this paragraph:

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.​

Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner.​

One can take it that ALL, and every single piece of media is becoming "Legends", but it can also be read in the context of "just pertaining to the conflicts of Episode VII-XI". I could be putting my own spin on it, but to me it looks like this article was distinctly focousing on the filmmakers as it pertained to of Episode VII-XI.

I also don't see the need for a "story group" if you are just going to throw everything out. I mean they are making a story group to make sure the OT, PT, TCW and Rebels are in alignment? Possibly. Maybe they are making sure all NEW books are in alignment with EP7-9, Rebels, etc.

The only way we really know is to get a Legends list or start to see the new prints coming with the label.

 

I think it's very clear in this statement that all the EU is now considered "Legends":

If it were just the post-ROTJ EU that was being tossed, then they would state that here too, but instead they unambiguously refer to the "past tales of the EU." As written, that means all the past tales.

 

The story group is there to make sure it all fits moving forwards. Everything bar TCW, Rebels and the Moves prior to this point is Legends now. Any new book, unless published under the legends banner as some kind of alternate take stunt, will be cannon. So what you won't get now is George allowing stuff like the NJO books, only to then negate all that with his new story ideas for the ST.

All prior EU is now legends. TCW, Rebels, the movies and all new material from here on out will be cannon. It's really not difficult.

It's exactly the same as Pablo tweeted months ago.

I love how, as fans, we refuse to take even the most common sense and official statements at face value. And by love, I mean bang my head on my desk.

 

Yeah, I don't think the article is vague at all. First they define the EU, and then they call the EU Legends. The End.

 

It couldn't be clearer.

 

This bit:

While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.

raises the possibility of other "elements of the EU" being included, besides the listed ones.

 

Exactly. Elements of the EU are always on the table to be plucked and utilized, but the EU as a whole is being discarded as a canonical entity.

Of course, from my point of view the EU was never a canonical entity in the first place, so all this really means to me is that I can consider future EU as canonical on the level with the movies in a way that I was never apt to do with the previous stuff. So basically, while the movies were always my sole canon before, now there will be more things added to that list, and I can get in on them from the ground floor, which is cool with me because I never had any hope or interest in reading the entirety of the EU before.

 

I have to confess I never really understood how a video game could be canon. Everyone plays differently, whose is canon? Is SW:TOR online game canon? What about that ridiculous SW:Galaxies? Is Tiny Death Star canon? Angry Birds?

 

For the proper context, people should consider the article title:

Not "The Legendary post-ROTJ EU Turns a New Page," but the "The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns a New Page."

 

It helps when the game has a novelization, (TFU, Dark Forces II) - in general, it was "light side ending only" when a game has a "light side ending" and a "dark side ending".

SW:TOR had an Encyclopedia detailing the backstory of the events of the game, as well as individual entries for each of the major character storylines.

 

If it's true that EVERYTHING before today gets a Legends label, then Star Wars is truly a "reboot" or a partial reboot at least. That means whole segments of Star Wars are gone. For instance the Old Republic no longer exists.

See this is where this "blanket statement" from Lucasfilm is causing issues.

Because people are like robots and computers, if they don't have exact data, they can't compute...

So what Lucasfilm is saying is if just somewhere in the OT-PT-TCW they mention a place or person or story, then those things ARE canon, BUT the stories surrounding them are not? If we are looking at it black and white then I guess yes, "the EU before today is 100% gone".

However, to me, unless the story is overwritten, then it doesn't really matter. You can slap a "Legends" label on the Darth Bane trilogy, but if filmmakers, new writers, etc don't conterdict it, then it doesn't really matter. Sure it's "read at your own risk" because it's "not protected", but until it's contradicted or over written, then it also doesn't matter. Also think about it, the SAME authors that write Star Wars books now, will write them in the future. Do you think Karpyshyn or Luceno, or any other author will "overwrite" their own stories or another authors stories?

The only risk we have is the filmmakers and TV producers want to overwrite parts of Star Wars history not in the films. That's obviously taking place with EP7-9. It may happen with the spin offs, it may happen with anything. Like I said it should only bother once your EU story is overwritten.