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

Kinda. I think 2 years ago the Avengers for Disney got more of a push at D23 than they did at Comic Con (But all anyone remembers is them at Comic Con anyway)

 

It's Disney's Fan Expo - in Anaheim, CA August 9-11. https://d23.com/d23-expo/

 

Speculation time, all. Does anyone else wonder if, providing most of it stays 'valid' as it most likely will, the big D will end up 'influencing' the new tone of the EU? Lucas unwittingly created part of the tone of the later post-ROTJ EU by not allowing the writer to retire the Big Three, and not being happy with the up and coming main character they had in Anakin. He was by no means solely responsible, the writers have kept Luke, Leia and Han in the spotlight far longer than they needed to, due to this idea that the readers wouldn't pick up the books without the big names pictured on the cover, and seem to believe that 'character death of the month' is good storytelling. Mixing up space opera with soap opera. Nor were these the only issues for those of us not too taken with the later books.

Disney however have always been a little bit different. Disney are very much hands on with their franchises. For all peoples criticisms of them, they have never been shy to let the side characters of a story have their own adventures, to put money into projects people want to see, have made a few films that had darker shades without being grimdark (Hook, Hocus Pocus, and elements of PotC). That latter point gives me hope. Hiring Abrams also shows that they are taking it seriously, because lets face it, the last two Star Trek films were better Star Wars films than the prequels (which I like, but still have to admit).

What do you think the long reaching result will be?

 

The non-retirement of the Big 3 had nothing to do with Lucas; he just didn't permit them to be killed. The fact that Anakin died had nothing to do with Lucas either, he just requested that the focus character not be named Anakin, hence Jacen and Anakin had their characterization and character arcs swapped. Anakin didn't need to die and that was a story choice completely separate from Lucas.

I don't think Disney is going to influence the EU... LucasFilm is still autonomous. I'm pretty sure the only direction LucasFilm will receive from Disney will be from Iger (and his future replacement in a few years) to Kathy Kennedy. I really doubt that sort of relationship will influence the minutiae of the EU, beyond refocusing it on the sequel trilogy and possibly requiring it to be pruned to facilitate that.

 

That were are aware of.^^ I think there was agreement, that the Big Three were what was selling the books. I already noted that the authors own just as much responsibility. But as you note, their is no proof. However, Anakin's death had everything to do with Lucas. He may not have outright said to kill him, and we have no real evidence of that, he requested that the focus character not be Anakin... when the last six or seven books had set him up as such. That left them the option of letting his 'journey' fizzle out for him to become a supporting character, or to go out in a heroic sacrifice. Its obvious which was preferable, whether its one of my worst EU moments or not. And they only swapped their stories for the end of the NJO; I don't see Anakin making the same mistakes as Caedus, given his namesake and concern over turning into his grandfather.

Disney owns the franchise now, more or less. They will do what they will do, and we'l just have to wait and see. I'm of the opinion that it will be a creep of sorts. Influence will seem small at first; but by 2020, three or so films in, I predict Disney will have a firm control over most of the franchise.

 

It was decided that Anakin was going to die in 1999. They didn't kill him because he was set up to be a hero and Lucas said "knock it off" and they had no choice. If Anakin was going to be the focus character, then he would have been the pseudo-pacifist while Jacen was the action hero.

 

The sequels better utilize Wedge. He's aged exactly how I imagined he would.

 

Thats not what we heard at the time, I don't buy that, no offence to you of course. Thats not even what the authors said at the time, if I remember correctly. That whole ordeal is how we even found out Lucas didn't want Anakin as a central character.

 

"There was some original design ideas that we had and certain timing issues; certain events that we thought should happen later or earlier in the series that didn't. You know, one of things that was decided above my paygrade and that I never liked was [Anakin Solo] dying. I personally thought that it was a waste of character, and this is part of the reason why I characterized him as much, and did as much with him, as I did in the two books I did in NJO, 'cause I was hoping, hoping, hoping that maybe somebody would decide that he'd get a reprieve. Alas…" — Michael Stackpole

Stackpole knew when he wrote the second and third novel in the series that Anakin was going to die. It was planned from the start. The series was planned from start to finish in 1999 and it was known all along that Anakin would die in Troy Denning's novel, and it was never going to be any other way, except that Anakin and Jacen would have had their characterizations swapped, in which case Anakin would have been the character refusing to use the Force or fight the Yuuzhan Vong and that would ultimately be captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and trained by Vergere and later find Zonama Sekot and receive training from Sekot and then melt a guy.

 

I think we both may be right, in this case.

You know, one of things that was decided above my paygrade and that I never liked was [Anakin Solo] dying. I personally thought that it was a waste of character.

It came down from above, as a decided plot-point. Above his paygrade could mean the editor, or further up, but it may just be that that what Lucas told them came up as they were setting up the story. Anakin living may have been one of the events they thought should happen but didn't. All we know then, if this isn't just PR, is that his death was decided by higher parties.

I'm always leery of accepting this sort of quote, as no company/creative body/ect likes to admit plans changed half way through a project, and that unpopular decisions were the result of executive meddling. The kicker is, these quotes we get are all we ever likely will get, and we'll never truly know. I still firmly believe that Anakin's death was decided only a few books before Star by Star. Short of leafing through design documents, that's unlikely to change. Its also more of a compliment than the other view, because frankly I don't see a story decision that literally sent Star by Star flying at my wall and forever tainted/ruined an entire book series for myself and a lot of others as a good reflection of the authors and creative staff. They didn't just annoy me. They lost sales. Over £50 worht of sales, for the rest of ther series. And I wasn't alone at the time either. I retreated to earlier timeframes, like the OR and PT. Chewie was painful enough. Its only been followed up by many other pointless deaths of valuable characters.

However, we are getting somewhat off topic, so i digress.

 

Anakin's character arc was over, whereas Jacen's was sustained for the duration of the series. Anakin rose from the tragedy of Chewbacca's death and used it as motivation to become the action hero that he was. Jacen's character arc continued after Anakin's death until he rediscovered the lost Jedi art of complete subsumption into the Force -- something that Anakin was not going to discover with his characterization which involved shouldering the burden. The series was definitely Jacen's hero's journey.

It's also worth noting that both Conquest and Rebirth -- the two novels preceding Star by Star -- weren't part of the original plan but replaced the cancelled Knightfall trilogy, so if anything Anakin would have gotten less focus with the original plan.

 

The big announcements will probably be at D23, they may give us a lot more episode seven details, since the actors need to be in shape for the fiming, and action, as well as getting to know the script, and the rest of the actors, will have to work on their chemistry.

especially since they have such a tight schedule. Don't forget they need the new actors likenesses for new merchandise, since Disney just signed a new contract with Hasbro, and they'll want to start working on the Toys, Book covers, Comic book artists need practice drawing the new characters.

The movie may come out in may 2015, but if they want more hype then episode 1, they'll try and get the merchandise out earlier.

 

More hype might be a bad thing. It didn't do Episode I any favors! I'm hoping we get casting news at D23.

 

Disney is going to Hype it up, like you won't believe, They've probably wanted Star Wars for years, but they had to wait till George Lucas was ready to sell.

 

I'm sure everyone has.

 

John Williams Confirmed!!!

 

Not a huge surprise, but welcome all the same. Star Wars isn't Star Wars without a John Williams score.

--Adm. Nick

 

Well, at least I have one confirmed reason to watch the films now.

 

the soundtrack??

 

geez whos gonna do these movies when Williams passes away

 

We won't worry about that until we have to.

 

Someone else is probably going to score the non-episodic films as it is, so I'm sure they'll have other people ready to take over even if Williams just decides to retire from doing Star Wars.

 

what is that image from??

 

A Truce at Bakura illustration from the ERC.