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

a little analysis I did for whoever finds it worth reading:

The role of the post-ROTJ EU so far and in light of setting up the Sequels:
-From Rebellion to Republic reborn:
---Taking back the galaxy and Coruscant (achieved)
---Defeating the last Imperial Holdouts (achieved: though Empire lives on as Remnant due to peace treaty!)
---Reestablishing order and peace (achieved: though many follow up conflicts and shisms)
-Reformation of the Jedi in Balance and Harmony:
---Collecting Lore (achieved)
---Finding new Apprentices (achieved)
---Founding a new Jedi Order (achieved)
-Passing the Torch
---Children born to the heroes of old and raised (achieved)
---the new government surviving initial challenges (achieved though with reformations)
---the galaxy reuniting happily ever after (achieved but not for long)

former Sequel plots the EU already did...
-Second Rise of the Empire
---Thrawn uniting the Warlords
---Fate of Luke's cut off hand: Luuke Clone
---Palpatines return from the Dead as a clone
---Dark Luke
-Rise of the Jedi
---"There is another Skywalker" Leia becoming a Jedi
---The SkySolochildren becoming Jedi
---A SkySolochild falls to the Dark Side
---Vader's Force Ghost
---Luke finding a wife
-Survival and Reformation of Evil/Sith
---A member of the new Jedi Order/SkySolo child falls
---Secret Apprentice of Vader/Palpatine surviving to continue
---Force Mystery/Choosen One Prophecy in relation to Mortis and postROTJ Sith survival: TCW/FOTJ etc.
---NJO: Alien invasion as next big thing with The Unifying Force as Force mystery revelation

so which of these might the sequels attempt to do different, or would they combine them all into one multifacetted trilogy? I still believe the EU stays mostly as it is against all panic voodoo around online. So they will be set after all of this and feature a different yet related plot. though.. what are your predictions?

NO panic or death of EU posts please.. I will not comment on those. I want creative and progressive discussion of this.

My guess is that we'll either get an Empire that's still strong, or some other state-like entity, fighting the New Republic in a (mostly) evenly-balanced war.

Because on a greater political scale, we've had a good government being corrupted from within, and an evil government being brought down by insurgents. What we haven't had yet, at least not as the basic plot of a trilogy of movies, is two governments of roughly equal strength facing off against each other. (The Clone Wars don't count IMO because they mostly happen between movies, and the basic plot of the PT is the downfall of the Republic, not the war against the Separatists.)

So we could have some sort of Cold War movies, complete with all the moral and political issues something like that might bring up -- also, former Rebels trying to keep the moral high ground while facing the inevitably cruel choices a full-scale war against a ruthless enemy entails -- a New Jedi Order refusing to repeat the mistakes of the OJO in being drawn into the war, instead, I don't know, maybe taking on the metaphysical force that keeps the war going behind the scenes or whatever...

I'll admit that most of the above is probably light-years beside the mark. But we do need a different basic constellation of power, one that still allows for large-scale conflict (because they're not going to make the plot of the long-awaited OMG STAR WARS SEQUEL TRILOGY about Jedi kids outsmarting pirates or something) while neither, erm, "invalidating" the Rebel victory seen in RotJ nor mirroring the OT or PT too closely.

cold war is a nice idea, though I hoped for more of a War against an invisible foe approach... like terrorism, with no clear boarders but the enemy striking from within.

The Cold War scenario was basically done during LotF, although the later part of the arc focused more on Jacen's power-grab and fall.

So who/what would be a significant, and audience-believable, threat to the Republic and the Jedi; an enemy that would require some Lightsaber fighting to take place (because that's Star Wars' trademark, and popular, feature)?

Sith have been rather overdone just recently - so probably not them.

Mandos, perhaps? Either a large rogue group or their TCW pacifism was nothing more than a sham?

Something entirely new from the Unknown Regions -- backtracking a lost 'sleeper ship'?

Unknown Regions I doubt, that would come close to "Alien Invasion" theme that NJO covered or before it already Marvel and Truce of Bakura even.

Mandos as enemy would be fun, but unbelievable I think.. we need a good reason and ties to the forceusing enemies. and mandos as their pawns again would suck. but a huge nonforcesensitive group as enemies would rock. we need more scoundrels after all

I'd love the Hutts as enemies.. and a true end to slavery and such as FOTJ tried and ultimately left open ended. though, with Hutts as enemies we'd have ties to Prequels and OT in using Rotta as Jabbas son as leader of the Hutts then.. they could even have Mandos on the Hutt side hired, if Fett is no longer their leader.Hutt Space also is the single big entity that is not really in the Galactic Alliance despite parttime alliances with it or against it during wars. The Empire, so far, is benevolent in the GA fold even if separate, it is negeltable for the Sequels, as is Hapes.

Hutts are all over the galaxy... with smugglers, bounty hunters, business and illegal activities... they are the best main enemy for fleet action and major battles despite it starting with terrorism that leads to discoveries that the Hutts funded/initiated it.. and then later it leads to all out war. the Force comes in when Jedi try to help at first and some fall.. or have divided loyalities due to innocents on both sides etc. a more Mortis-esque Force approach with creation and destruction instead of good and evil, heroes on both sides literally.

I know LOTF and FOTJ tried that but.. someone needs to do it better. decades thereafter.

Shapeshifters - saw only one in AotC, there are probably other species out there. They could be an 'invisible enemy' with one or more orchastrating events and stirring up trouble here and there - even pretending to be Hutts!

shapeshifters would rock, but them are more for other scifi universes I think. cool though, but I think SW needs something unique not explored in depth in other franchises.

Star Trek had them in the Dominion War already

Keep in mind the Sith have not been seen since 2004.

Remember the majority of the audience won't be familiar with anything since ROTS, so anything "we" now find a rehash won't be the case for Joe Average. And if more Sith proved popular for EU nerds -- as it did for KOTOR and Legacy -- then you can bet money on Disney concluding it'll also work for the mass market.

The EU would sure as hell benefit from "less is more" after all the Sith we've had in recent years, but the majority of film viewers won't even have had their first taste of a Sith Order. They're all still living in a world where there are just two.

Oh yes, more Sith! The net would explode in an unholy cacophony of outraged SW fandom!

What I actually wouldn't be surprised by would be Nightsisters.

The word "Sith" means little to a lot of casual film fans -- nobody in my family is likely to remember if I asked them what the opposite of a Jedi was -- so they could easily go with another Bad Jedi group that weren't called Sith Lords but served the same role, and Nightsisters are unique enough that it injects something that feels "different" and won't have casual fans thinking "Boring. I've seen this before."

I also can't really think of many big franchises in recent years with anything similar... Harry Potter had the Death Eaters, but they were never major roles in the films: it was always about Voldemort, with very little of the creepy evil magick sort of stuff that people's kids will have recently seen in TCW.

The closest I can think of is LOTR... but magic is rarely seen in that either. I'm having to wind back to the 80s to really remember any major blockbusters that made evil sorcery a key plot element.

Do they use Lightsabers though, Zorr? I'm not familiar with the TCW version.

If I can be brutally honest, if the new films negate everything after ROTJ in the EU, then I probably won't have any part of it.

I can definitely see this. TCW has taken the idea and run with it, and admittedly, they've done some neat stuff. The whole concept of the Nightsister idea would probably draw in a lot of viewers -- the films could use a badass female. Or er, several thousand badass females. And if Katie Lucas is still onboard the Lucasfilm part of the project in the future, there's even more of a chance that this would happen.

They use all sorts of weapons... mostly those vibro/"energy" types:

Well, Ventress and Savage do, albeit it was the Sith who taught them that -- but that's me being an EU nerd and recognising the distinction. It wouldn't take a big step for Disney to just go: evil wizards always use them, even if we never see Talzin ignite one.

Like Palpatine in ROTJ, basically.

Come to think of it, it ties back into Maul too, so would be linked to TPM, making Evil Zabrak Witch Dude or Dudette something a casual film purist wouldn't be unfamiliar with. And if they reaaaaally wanted to go down the sorcery route, a group like the Nightsisters could easily be tied into the Evil Emperor's resurrection, too.

I'm pretty much thinking in predictable tropes here.

Yay! For a second there I was starting to worry I was just running my mouth and talking claptrap.

Nightsisters are cool and I love them since COPL... but if Nightsisters in Sequels, then EU ones, not TCW abomination of halfZabrak... NOOOOOOO that'd screw the EU for sure.


I still think having Rotta the Hutt turn out to be an evil version of Blotus as Chancellor Hutt is better.

But, but Zorr, the prophecy said Anakin would destroy evil for-evah!

If the ST does nothing else but take a royal dump on the whole balance of the Force nonsense, I could be happy with that.

Might be cool - definitely a bit different. Rancors optional?

The Nightsisters could work as adversaries.....but I'd prefer it if they worked in a few subtle acknowledgements to The Courtship of Princess Leia.

Let's be honest here: the top of any spin-off list is Boba Fett. I am absolutely convinced that that will be the first non-saga movie they do.

That'd also work, IMHO. What are the chances IYO that they'll bring him back in the ST?

Boba's a bit... awkward, really.

I can see a film audience thinking "Huh? Isn't that the dude who died in ROTJ?"

A spin-off after the ST set between the PT and OT with Vader in it as well definitely sounds possible though, yeah.

To be fair, how many film viewers paid much attention to that?

It's like Michael Miyers. People don't care that much about how he came back to life between each Halloween movie.

Throw in some evil magick voodoo with Talzin-type witches chanting around a cauldron, invoking the spirit of the Evil Emperor a la those hags in Prince Caspean tying to revive the White Witch, [insert evil cataclysm that unleashes the Dark Side again], Anakin's ghost appears to Luke, says the Prophecy was wrong, that Luke must become the new Chosen One, must defeat new villains.

And there you go. Not like most audiences think about things the way we do. They'd just be screaming for Luke [or insert new hero] to go save the day!!!

Very short RotJ flashback - heroes' skimmer moves out of shot, explosion under the sand, Boba jets out of hole! Lucas nearly put something like that in the SE, so I understand.

Oh I don't know Zorr, it'd be kind of fun watching both the movie and ep 7 forums erupt simultaneously! People really seem to care about that prophecy!

Probably be a blow-up here too!

Internet flood basalt chain eruption!

People posting on a forum for Star Wars geeks care.

Rest of world = looking at all of us and just shaking their heads.

ST dumps on OT and makes it un-canon? Guess some of us would like that!