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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

Discussion in 'Literature' started by TypoCelchu, Oct 30, 2012.

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  1. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 30, 2012
    Rise of the Empire era?
     
  2. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    I'm sceptical that SW can sustain that level of creative mining! Films are complex things to produce and while Marvel's model has been a success, it's the exception not the rule in my eyes. I suppose given that success, I should expect others to try to ape it, much like many tried to imitate B5's 5-year arc and failed to do so.

    Nonetheless, in other areas, even where there are different teams, the omens are not good for such a compressed timetable - video game series like Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect being cases where speed of release has adversely impacted on quality.
     
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  3. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    Star Wars, like Marvel, has the benefit of both an enormous built in fanbase and mainstream recognition to the point where everyone, from toddlers to elders, can name at least one character. And, like Marvel, it's a universe with almost infinite potential for stories (it's worked fairly well for the books!), assuming the writers don't feel the need to make every story about the Jedi and Sith. If handled well, it should do fine.

    But yes, "one a year" does worry me. Oversaturation is a much greater problem in film than it is in books or comics.
     
  4. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Yeah, like Ben I worry about the pace of stuff. Even if I was some sort of Purist (heaven forbid!) I'd be worried about the pace of films. Oversaturation can be a thing.

    I mean, I like all those things too which was why I was optimistic too. I am just getting concerned and paranoid. Perhaps it's a function of being information starved, or a function of constant cancellations without anything new coming down the line.

    Yeah a forest fire means new growth, but sucks for the trees that are already there. If that makes sense. I don't know, I'd use a seaweed metaphor instead but I'm not very aquatically minded.

    I'll declare you a pessimist and you'll LIKE it!
     
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  5. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    This actually echoes something I agreed with in another thread last month (sadly I forget who the OP was): that if Star Wars was treated the same as myth, with alternative interpretations simply a natural part of it, and things not stamped with that instantly divisive phrase "official story", then it would end all the canon wars arguments with the single stroke of a pen.

    In that respect, I almost hope the spin-offs aren't recognised as "the official continuation of the saga" but are, from the onset, simply seen as "one possible story", and something the next sequel episode is perfectly free to ignore if it so chooses.
    Funnily enough, I read an interesting essay on the integration of Harry Potter into popular culture in China the other week, and it's curious that in China they embrace fanfiction as just as "official" (sometimes even moreso) as the real deal.

    Now, in Harry Potter's case that's been in large part because they've had large scale problems with black market translations causing a lot of Chinese kids to not be able to tell what the "real" story is, and so they've just accepted whatever book they read, even if the character's names have been translated totally differently. But, black market copies aside, Chinese people apparently are perfectly happy with fanfiction in general, and there's apparently tons of "Harry Potter Sequels" on the web over there that people embrace like it's literally the next book, and don't just dismiss as fanfic the way we'd ignore it in the West.

    ...where am I going with this? Well, the Chinese example arguably shows that maybe the West needs to open itself up a bit more to letting stories be completely unofficially, and, say, if TCW doesn't give full closure, people actually embracing a particular fan-made animation that ended it like it was just as valid as if it had come out of Filoni's mouth?
    To quote the article Cooper linked to...

    "You Take Your Star Wars—I’ll Keep Mine" :p
    [face_laugh]
     
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  6. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

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    Sep 30, 2012
    I think Chinese culture places less value on "legitimacy". Dynasties overthrew each other for thousands of years until China became a military dictatorship in 1911.
     
  7. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jul 22, 2010
    Zorrixor I am in complete support of that principal. Fiction is a lot more fun, I find, when you don't take it all so seriously. Not long ago at all I posted in the Ackbar thread that I'd read my first good fanfiction, Firefly's Forward. I've poked around a little beyond that, in a few different franchises... of course, most of it is tripe, but there is quite a bit of good stuff out there. Doesn't matter if it isn't "official". Just enjoy it on its own terms. I am surprised, though, that Harry Potter fanfic has been published in China... or that fanfic has been published at all.

    There can, of course, be a middle line. Marvel have shown that people, even casual movie goers, can get behind cohesiveness. I don't want Star Wars to turn into Star Trek, in the sense that the EU is not an EU at all, really, but a large amount of alternate universes. In the same vein, if we start seeing a deluge of Star Wars movies come at us, then they better damn well be at least consistent with each other.

    I've got no problem seeing an alternate interpretation of the events after ROTJ; hell, I may even welcome it. As I've said many times, if there's any area of Star Wars fiction that deserves multiple artistic interpretations across different mediums, it's the sequel to the very foundation of the franchise. Just don't get too carried away. I don't want three different universes in the books alone.
     
  8. CooperTFN

    CooperTFN TFN EU Staff Emeritus star 7 VIP

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 1999
    You seem to have confused the Episode VII forum with civilization. An easy mistake to make, but never made twice.

    Doesn't that make TCW and 1313 a firewall? Or controlled demolition, since we're mixing our metaphors?
     
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  9. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    [face_rofl]
     
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  10. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 22, 2010
    The dictionary defines "civilization" as the following:

    "an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached."

    Umm... yeah [face_whistling]
     
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  11. GGrievous

    GGrievous Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2005
    tries not to laugh
     
  12. Obrusnine

    Obrusnine Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 16, 2013
    I think we have a traitor in our midst... he did not say that with enough feeling... this implies that he is a part of that (not) civilization!

    Get him out of the nearest airlock!

    :p
     
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  13. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    And people call me imperialist.
     
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  14. Obrusnine

    Obrusnine Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 16, 2013
    They do not understand the full power of the Dark Side of the force...

    Muahahaha and all that.

    *Goes to continue building Death Star 3*
     
  15. GGrievous

    GGrievous Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2005
    DS 3? Let's blame Chee for that.
     
  16. Obrusnine

    Obrusnine Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 16, 2013
    I can build another Centerpoint Station instead if you like, :p
     
  17. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    One a year is bad news. Oversaturation and overdependence on the cinematic medium could squander the goodwill Star Wars has left and weaken the franchise overall. If they're just hoping for a spinoff between each ST film, and then once the ST is done, there's a break before they get the next phase of whatever they're doing in theaters, that would be better, but frankly, I don't think they can turn Star Wars into a film-every-year thing without hopelessly watering down what the Star Wars brand means.
     
  18. TrandoJedi

    TrandoJedi Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 4, 2011
    You're making me depressed. :(

    I don't want over-saturation!
     
  19. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jul 22, 2010
    I'd be fine with a "Phase" system, where there's an annual SW film for maybe a 3 or 4 year stretch and then a break, but if it's something done every year, the series will undoubtedly lose whatever special place in the public consciousness that it's retained. When people are no longer excited to go see a Star Wars film, you know you've diluted it beyond repair. Even the prequels couldn't do that.
     
  20. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I don't know that many films frequently produced has to be bad news. It could be, depending on who is doing the writing and what his or her focus becomes; if we have several movies in a row that all focus on The Divine Interventions of My Pet Character, then yes, it will be bad. But I'm not sure I want to assume that with as little knowledge as we have.

    How far back does the Old Republic timeline go in the EU? Tens of thousands of years? That's a lot of time to play with, not to mention how far ahead they could go into the future, with old and new Jedi, new villains, etc.
     
  21. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jul 22, 2010
    There's definitely a very deep resource for story material, it's just the danger is completely burning the public out on it, therefore decreasing revenue and decreasing the chance of getting more interesting films in the setting . "Damn, not another freaking Star Wars movie..." should never be a popular general reaction.
     
  22. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Definitely not, and I hope Disney would revamp long before it got to that point.

    Are people really saying "Damn, not another friggin' Marvel movie", unless they didn't really like comic book movies in the first place? I haven't heard too many complaints about rebooting Spider-Man only six years after the last film was released.
     
  23. instantdeath

    instantdeath Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jul 22, 2010
    I actually heard tons of complaints about the Spider-man reboot (I may have made a few myself :p). For now, the jury is still out on whether the one Marvel movie a year plan is going to work in the long run. Obviously The Avengers was a smash hit; will The Avengers 2 do as well? Will it still be going strong in Phase 3? I certainly hope so, as do nerds everywhere, but it could be they'll have to dial it down after an extended period of time, especially with DC apparently set on releasing regular superhero movies. Could be the general public (love using that term, makes me feel so superior [face_devil]) will get sick of superhero movies.

    If it works, though, you'll get no complaints from me. I've got no problem with the movie theaters being a nerds paradise every summer.
     
  24. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    Hell yeah.
     
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  25. The_Phantom_Calamari

    The_Phantom_Calamari Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 10, 2011
    What? Complaints about an unnecessary, premature reboot comprised approximately seventy-five percent of the total discussions about that movie on the Internet.
     
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