Lit Disney Wars: Episode 7 and the EU (Disney Purchasing Lucasfilm, intends to release Ep 7 in 2015)

Welcome Sinre.

Admitting it is always the hardest part!

Admit it y'all: who actually thought they could eventually read/appropriate every EU source in existence at one time or another?

Hey, some of us still cling to that dream.

Well, the franchise will slow down and probably end eventually, so if you're young or have discovered how to cheat death then you could do it.

When I was 13 and I thought the only stuff there was was the Bantam books timeline in the front of my Bantam books. I remember panicking when I realised there were comics too because a graphic novel was like a whole month's allowance. Then I found out about WEG and that half of that was out of print, at which point I gave up. Which was really a fairly excellent life choice.

Considering that Disney (apparently) plans to make "non-Saga" movies, I doubt there will be a "new EU" to accomodate the ST because (I think) the original point of the EU was, "The movies won't cover this, but this will."

The impetus for this thread begs to differ.

Eventually Star Wars will lose its luster and fade away, as everything does. It may come back with a movie every few decades, but the EU will slow dramatically when it's no longer all that profitable.

I'd bet the drop off will be in my lifetime.

How is Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and every Edgar Rice Burroughs franchise doing? Pretty much how I described.

Nah, I just learned to treat every second hand sourcebook I found as a rare and serendipitous gift and gave myself permission to skip Darksaber until years later.

It did, it's called "the period between ROTJ and the Thrawn Trilogy". Star Wars consisted of roughly about 80% Ewoks during that period.

Droids, probably!

Pretty much.

*raises hand

Thing is, it's much easier for me, since I'm an amoral douche who has no problem with pirating crap that's no longer in print (thankfully, many Star Wars comics are no longer in print... made my life much easier).

In the end, though, it was the lack of free time that won, rather than what kills most people (the money involved). Now I'll settle for reading all the major novels/comics. Actually getting somewhat close to that.

I considered "completing" WEG, but I gave up because I had no idea where to start, no idea where I could find a list that includes all WEG material, and no idea where I could obtain most of said material.

I've also never played an RPG in my life, so I'm not sure how useful a lot of the WEG stuff would be to me.

To show my ignorance of the whole WEG side of Star Wars, I actually wasn't aware there was story telling involved, outside the Adventure Journal (which, for the most part, I really enjoy), and the Adventure Books (though even then, I'm not sure if they're set up with prose, or like game scenarios). Thought it was mostly things like world building (err, galaxy building), ship specifications, a bit of history, stats, and so on (this last one I know because a lot of people asked for stats in the AJ short stories). All things that sound interesting, of course, but I wasn't sure how useful I'd find it.

The way you put it, though, does make me want to look into it; if nothing else, Dark Empire making sense sounds divine (still don't understand what the hell happened between TTT and DE). One thing I will say about the Adventure Journal is that, even in the bad stories, the galaxy has never felt more alive.

Now that I have your attention, I have to ask something that I wanted to know back when I was considering digging into the WEG material, but couldn't find an answer for; is the Thrawn Trilogy sourcebook literally a compilation of the three individual source books of the three books of the trilogy, or is it a whole new book based on the trilogy as a whole? In other words, is there any point at all to getting the Heir to the Empire SB and the TTTSB?

There are some minor differences between the individual sourcebooks and the compilation, but in all honesty - no, your best bet is just to get the TTTSB.

I think that there is a major difference between Flash Gordon and Star Wars. Flash Gordon was a popular comic series in the 1930s, had three serialized adventures, some toys, and a couple short books. There was also a radio drama for a few years. That's all. From there it only continued as a weekly cartoon strip until it had a reboot in 79 with a new cartoon series and film in 1980. Around this time marvel also produced a short Flash Gordon series of comics. There was again a small line of toys corresponding to the cartoon series. There was another attempt to revive the franchise in the 1990s with an "updated" Flash Gordon story. The series ultimately failed, as did the Sci Fi channel's attempt at a live action reboot.

This does not correspond to the Star Wars franchise which has had six films, several more announced, an immensely successful cartoon series, more merchandise made and sold than any other franchise, several scholarly works written on Star Wars as both a film and cultural phenomenon, nearly 150 adult novels (many of which are NY Times best sellers), hundreds of comic books and young adult/children's books, as well as several popular video games. Star Wars is a far bigger phenomenon than Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers ever were.

You never saw Flash Gordon conventions with costumes, documentaries, extensive toy collections, etc. Star Wars and Star Trek will last much longer than did any previous popular sci-fi series.

I think that novels will continue to exist. Especially novels like Plageuis, and the upcoming Kenobi book. In other-words, they will serve to fill in some background information which won't be shown in the films. And if the 30-40 year gap between trilogies is correct, there is plenty of space to tell stories. This won't all be shown in films. Look at how much they manage to squeeze into the 3 year period of the Clone Wars.

How much EU literature survives ultimately depends on how successful it is, I guess. @Jedi_Ben has been saying since Legacy that companies only listen when it hurts their pocket, so it just depends how things sell. If enough people consistently buy it, they'll keep churning it out exactly like they do now, reboot or no reboot; whereas if less buy it obsessively after a reboot, they might just stick to more targeted spin off adventure stories, without worrying about continuity as much -- think The Force Unleashed.

I imagine it'll be a bit like the recent Dark Horse series, I suppose. The negative fallout after Legacy and KOTOR's cancellations is still noticeable today, with nothing reaching those sales figures, and things like Knight Errant getting axed as Dark Horse try new series-after-new series to find another mainstream hit. So if they decide on a reboot, I can picture a similar "testing the waters" period while they try and work out the best way forward, what sells, whether books are even that profitable these days compared to new films, toys, video games, etc.

Which, in all honestly, would not surprise me. New spin off movies, complete with toys, token novelisation, video game adaptation, would probably make much more money and reach a much bigger audience than the niche novel ongoing continuity market, and if they plan to keep doing new films, then the films themselves will keep the brand alive without needing the obsessives like us to keep it afloat.

Although, admittedly, I'm not getting my hopes up that they'll ever actually make a tenth film... I'll believe it when I see it. Lucas talked about sequels, then didn't; so I won't be surprised if "We'll make Darth Vader films after Episode 9!!! " ends up just being a forgotten dream if Disney acquire something bigger than Star Wars by then. (Nor would I be surprised if they just end up deciding to remake the movies if they find spin-off adventures aren't as successful. Look at Spiderman... we got a remake in less than a decade, not a fourth film.)

I have this 'reader' that tells me how completely non- nerds view things, and that's my mom. She couldn't care less about SW, and she'll never understand how her only daughter got corrupted by the world to ever like such a thing. But even she's admitted that SW is something special when it comes to magnitude and ability to stand the test of time. She might know the name Flash Gordon but would remember it only because she'd find it silly. And I bet my hat she's never registered Buck Rogers even though I had a much loved cartoon flaoting in my room for years.

News

Maybe a Marvel-style movie plan, with the "Episodes" focusing on the Skywalker-Solo group and side movies for "spin-offs"