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

After seeing some of the Rebel Trailers from SDCC, I was thinking that they might bring some of the old Jedi members back in Ep. 7 as background character/camoes. One trailer showed that Jedi Master Luminara lived and was a prisoner of the Empire.

 

The reason we're getting leftover PT stuff in Rebels lies pretty much solely with Filoni. Without a Filoni on VII, it's very unlikely. There has to be someone there to inject those ideas, and anyone in a position to do so is going to be focused on more important matters of continuity than just cameos.

 

No, and ...

 

There shouldn't be that much continuity between the PT and the ST, obviously a reference here or there, but in universe it's been almost / over 50 years at that point. What's interesting about the ST casting is that there's a character old enough (probably Max Von Sidow) who would have been in both the events of the PT and OT, so I'm assuming whatever PT references are wrapped into the narrative of the ST, it would come through that character.

 

I'm sorry but the fact that Palpatine was behind the Clone Wars is going to have a lasting impact on the galaxy. It affects public perception of the Jedi and the Empire's legitimacy.

 

When I look them up - this is what I find:

What are the black blobs seen around spaceships in several shots?
These are hand-drawn garbage mattes. A garbage matte represents a technique of blotting out unwanted areas of a shot, such as the greyish boxes appearing around spacecraft in some scenes, where the matte was used to cut out mounting pylons for the models and other areas not covered by blue screen. In a theatrical presentation, these garbage mattes are generally invisible because of the high contrast of motion picture film; however, the lower range of colors and grayscale supported by home video standards often causes these special effects artifacts to show up when viewed on disc or VHS versions.

 

Continuity means having consistency, means not contradicting. I certainly hope there's complete continuity between the PT and ST, or else we'd get ST references to things that contradict the PT. Like saying Jar Jar Binks was the last Chancellor of the Republic, or the Clone Wars were about Clones invading the Republic, etc.

 

Completely off-topic, but I thought of the perfect metaphor for the EU (for me):

The EU was like a kid that lived down the street that I grew up with and was best friends with throughout school. Things peaked in high school, but in college he got heavily into drugs and after dropping out of college got into harder drugs like heroin, and was stealing money from me to feed the habit and then my car before I finally said enough and cut him off. The Disney purchase was hearing that he got sentenced to prison for vehicular manslaughter and the Legends announcement was hearing he got shanked in jail.

I'll always remember the good times, but he died for me a long time ago.

Kind of like JINO I guess.

 

They are almost certainly going to include references, to the CWAS and possibly Rebels (might be too soon for the last one). I mean, I'm not a fan of the PT or CWAS, but people claiming that LFL/Disney are "washing their hands" of the PT are being absurd.

 

The fact we have the Ventress/Vos book should shut people up.

 

I think my fundamental problem with TCW, which will surely offend those who worshiped everything Lucas said, is that the opening epigraph and introduction to RotS encapsulate the Clone Wars for me, which is why I ultimately couldn't wrap my head around anything TCW did.

 

TCW exists because of one crucial conceit about the franchise: None of this stuff really matters that much, so hey, here's a thing.

Personally, I'm fine with that. Once you've seen that your series is ultimately just a silly unimportant thing---as anyone might 30 years after the completion of their magnum opus---you've broken a meta-wall and there's really no going back to seeing it as monumental again... it's just something to do, because it's what you do. That's just the human reality of it. If there's a reason I'm glad Lucas is gone, it's not because I thought he sucked; it's because he lived in that world the only way humanly possible, and now someone can treat it with the importance that his own perspective no longer allows. Now someone who gets tears in their eyes at the mere prospect of being involved in something that played such a major part in forming their young imaginations can use that genuine perspective, and Lucas doesn't have to worry about the complex weirdness of having his film, the most popular film in the world, become mundane.

 

You may have already read the SDCC legends/EU related chatter from the internet, but just in case, here is are twitter quotes collected together and here is the liveblog from the official site.The legends stuff is round about the middle of each page.
Bear in mind this is all secondary information, and summaries, so there may have been more.
Also a legends headband seems to make making .... headlines........ At least on Jenifer Heddles twitter.

The particular quote I find interesting is from Pablo
Pablo: "Canon is not a value base. Because a thing isn't canon doesn't make it worthless."

Now that's not the first time I have heard a quote like that. I remember John Ostrander making a similar statement regarding legacy being canon, and one of the writers for TOR regarding the trooper story. In fact a lot of the fans were saying it just after the 25th of April reboot. I think generally this is a position that is often favoured by content creators, fan fiction writers, and people who are a bit more flexible with canon and just want a cool story. However, people still like to see how their favourite stories fit together as a whole to the movies, and canon seems to cement the relationship.

The other side of the argument are those who like the universe as a whole, and want to know more about it, often though the guidebooks, online supplements, etc. The answer Pablo gave is less satisfying. I mean why would you buy a guide book to find out what does not happen? But I guess in the same way, like a stories it can have value to individuals. Lots of people treasure the Dune guide despite it being non canon.

Now I think most people do both, love for stories, love for the universe as a whole. So while this answer somewhat satisfies my feelings over particular stories, it does not work as well for the universe I watched for years grow.

Anyway ramble over!

 

I guess I should disclaim: Understand that I'm saying this as a fan, but who understands that the EU's value rarely exceeds pulp... But, I still think it's presumptuous for Hidalgo to say that, because frankly, in most cases, well... being a stupid little Star Wars story makes it pretty close to worthless, in a literary sense. Being a stupid little Star Wars story which isn't actually even a Star Wars story anymore? Well, depending on how your brain works and what you're here for, I'd say that can make something functionally worthless. (Second disclaimer: This statement is usually responded to with someone saying that we should try to see it as this or that or whatever to ameliorate the loss of continuity, but myself and I'm sure many others are here for that basic gut worldbuilding sensation, and it's that first sensation that matters most. A deep consideration of the material doesn't yield a more satisfying perspective, because that's an intellectual reaction, and for me the EU is about a more abstract emotional comfort.)

The things which maintain their value for me are the really clever or self-contained comic series. Dark Times, Agent of the Empire, Legacy... Unpretentious, never in over their heads, fairly small stories.

 

A8T - That's an excellent synopsis. And while I love Pablo and everything he's done for the old EU, his response is sort of... meh? If canon's "not a value base," then what is it? Why acknowledge it at all? Clearly they're putting a lot of value into organizing a new canon -- they wouldn't be doing that if canon wasn't valuable.

 

It's six of one, half a dozen of the other... I don't think even Story Group have a clue anymore the best way to handle this.

 

Continuity is more important than canon. Or so I'm told. I think the two get confused.

The ST/story group/whatever is a new continuity. The old continuity isn't canon, but it still has continuity with itself and the films. It just doesn't have continuity with the new stuff.

I dunno, I've just learned to appreciate the NJO and some other stories on their own merit, and they have continuity with each other and it enhances the story, but that there's no continuation from that is too bad but it doesn't bother me.

 

Don't you mean they haven't had a clue this whole time?

 

Yes, this is exactly the case. And we have one, possibly two, ongoing series that are still working with the old continuity.

Translation "My Reader's Guide isn't selling any more, I need to fix that"

Because it is indeed awesome, but notice that Brian Herbert has made sure that it will never be republished. And note that it was non canon with the current published material - Frank Herbert had given it his cautious approval and at least one bit made it into a future story; he just stated that he "reserved the right" to the ultimate control over the Dune universe, as well he should.

But it will be years, if ever, that we'll get anything like the Atlas or the Essential Guide to Warfare again. Cue a bunch of "guides" that are full of glossy movie/TV photos and as chock full of interesting information as the current Databank.

 

well I suppose that's a bonus then!

 

I don't know. I have mixed feelings about their point on the importance of canon, but I at least appreciate that they have touched on the subject of Legends rather than just ignored it.

Anyway here is the complete audio from that panel at SDCC. From 19:00 to 25:30 is on legends canon. I wish I had found this first and put it here before my previous post as it puts those quotes into context.

 

Well, to play Sith's advocate they're probably going to 'cheat' a little and salvage as much as possible from the LEU for this very reason - if they're telling Jason Fry he can continue with his galactic mapping project, that tells us something right there. And regardless of its ultimate status, I'm sure that FFG-created material is going into the pool of material to draw from; even if it's not recognized as NEU canon, people like Hidalgo and Chee can't have forgotten the lesson of WEG filling in the blanks for LFL or the role in providing the background material for the Thrawn Trilogy.

But yeah - Rebels Visual Guide is probably the best it's going to be for next few years.

 

TCW has shown that they are willing to use Atlas for sector names and planet locations. That doesn't mean that there won't be any "Naboo sends help to Dac from the other side of the galaxy because they are somehow the closest" plots, because speed of the plot, baby!