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Lit Do you think the EU can adapt to anything VII throws its way?

Discussion in 'Literature' started by BoromirsFan, Jan 30, 2013.

  1. TychoCorde

    TychoCorde Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2012
    The current EU is so massive that I think Disney has a difficult task in trying to adapt screenplays for the movies, but if they are vague enough in some cases you can pretty much keep the EU intact depending on placement of Ep VII. It could be like the EU in reverse in ANH Leia and Obi Wan both make fleeting references to The Clone Wars and the EU has pumped out 2 cartoons and countless other material. So with the Mara situation Luke could reminisce to Leia about his time with Mara.

    What I think a lot of people are forgetting is that these movies will have a story they are trying to tell and are not going to spend 45 minutes of the movie referencing all of the EU work that is placed before it. That being said I do understand everyone's fear that they are going to wipe the slate clean and some of the stuff we love will go out the window, but the thing is it will still be on my bookshelf and I will still have the memories of it.

    I guess I don't fear losing some stuff because when I write or fiddle around with my own self created SW universe I bend some of the canon around to suit my stories and the characters I create to fit into that universe. It's like when you were a kid (even adult :-B) and you had all of your action figures sometimes you reenact movie scenes and sometimes you created your own.
     
  2. Mechalich

    Mechalich Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 2, 2010
    In some ways I agree. You certainly can ignore the war itself to a degree, but it does kind of change what character options you have. Prior to the war Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin are more or less blank slates (Young jedi Knights childhood adventures don't really count), after the war...not so much. If you we going for a post-Crucible option then your potential lead characters are really kind of limited, either that or you're putting multiple generations of people into largely cameo/advisor roles. You could do that, but it'd be harder.

    Also, there's no real natural break point between 25-50 ABY, the EU has managed to, somewhat unnecesarily, flood that point in time with stuff happening that is all inter-connected. I struggle to see any reason why you'd really want to set the ST much before 25 ABY. It makes sense to let the Empire fall, the kids grow to a suitable age that they can take over (if you desire to use them at all), and the Jedi order reemerge. After 25 ABY? Well, you can start picking your moment, but doing so means stumbling over EU material.
     
  3. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    Advisory roles is all most of the PT cast got though to be honest. Look at Mon Mothma, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Do they actually do anything on screen? For the most part, they're all three of them just background advisory roles.

    That's why I don't really see any reason for us to be expecting the big three to be playing starring roles: the main cast will almost undoubtedly be the younger cast.

    Might that require some fiddling around like "the Vong War only lasted two years not five" and "the X-Wing books all happened in the same year"? Possibly, but timeline compression has never particularly bothered me personally -- when you read a book, you're focusing on what the characters are doing in the book, not what page number it's filed under on the Essential Chronology -- so there's no reason to conclude the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater purely because of a single line somewhere in Star by Star that said Mara was a couple of years older than they decide to retcon it. (Even the Solo kids could get away with being younger in NJO given what they've had people like Ben or Ahsoka doing at insanely young ages.)

    We lived through that sort of tweaking when the PT threw out Zahn's Clone Wars timeline, but they still re-released HTTE and it remains a cornerstone of the EU despite the odd issue.

    The biggest complication obviously is Ben Skywalker not being born earlier, but if Ben is in the films, that would actually encourage a slighter later starting date anyway, since Luke has no love interest in ROTJ, so he'd obviously need time to meet one, get married, have kids, which pushes the likely ST date further forward anyway unless Disney take Lucas's conviction that "Star Wars is a children's story" too literally and want Ben to only be a little kid 30 ABYish.

    Not that we haven't seen a 9 year old kid being the star of a movie before...
    On the contrary, I've explained previously that the fact Obi-Wan doesn't spend 45 minutes speaking about his life before ANH is the very reason why the OT doesn't rule things out: for all anyone knew (or even still knows) Obi-Wan had a wife and family on Tatooine. Likely? No. But it's actually still entirely possible that JJM could actually write that later this year in Kenobi. He won't, obviously, but the films focus on moving forward taking out the Death Star, not in ruling out earlier possibilities.

    Likewise, even in ROTS the Clone Wars are barely mentioned. Does the fact Darth Maul came back to life get even a look-in? Nope, because that obviously was written after the fact, but it's one of the clearest examples of how whatever the heck the EU or TCW chose to do hasn't infringed on the movies, despite the fact the Darth Maul's return is right up there with the Yuuzhan Vong in terms of how memorable an event it would have been in the character's minds.
     
  4. Robimus

    Robimus Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 6, 2007
    Obi-Wan did quite a bit in the Prequel Trilogy. He fought Sith on four different occasions, not to mention Jango Fett & General Grievous. He was every bit as featured as Anakin was.
     
  5. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    We're talking about the PT cast's reappearances in the OT.
     
  6. darthzac14

    darthzac14 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2012
    Well if Kennedy/Arndt/ Abrams are smart they'll probably just compress the timeline slightly. I mean if anything (NJO, DNT, LOTF, FOTJ) is thrown out, then what are Leland and Pablo even doing at their jobs? There are two approaches that can save Star Wars IMO: A female protagonist, Allana Solo (age of Ani is TPM) or a male protagonist Ben Skywalker (age of Luke in ANH)
     
  7. rumsmuggler

    rumsmuggler Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2000
    The EU always adapts.
     
  8. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    What about the fans? :)
     
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  9. rumsmuggler

    rumsmuggler Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2000
    Some will.
     
  10. Sith_Knight087

    Sith_Knight087 Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Some of It will adapt, although other parts of it MAY have to be ''slightly'' altered, who knows. But I will remain optimistic.... well for the time being anyways.
     
  11. Sith_Knight087

    Sith_Knight087 Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Maybe they'll just ''retcon'' it, so that all the events between the NEW JEDI ORDER NOVELS - LEGACY COMICS turned out to be nothing more than a BAD DREAM Luke once had..... oh and Chewie's still alive [face_whistling]
     
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  12. thesevegetables

    thesevegetables Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 11, 2012
    Convienient. And disrespectful. And a waste of my money. :)
     
  13. Sith_Knight087

    Sith_Knight087 Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    That was men't to be a joke.[face_laugh]
     
  14. Sith_Knight087

    Sith_Knight087 Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    But in all seriousness there still could ''possibly'' be a alterations to the post ROTJ EU.... I hope this doesn't happen, but it's ultimately the decision of ''Disney Acquired'' Lucasfilm what happens to EU canon.
     
  15. TheRedBlade

    TheRedBlade Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 17, 2007
    Though I like the NJO and some bits of the Legacy era, 19 ABY and the end of the Bantam era do provide a clean break. Star Wars is and has always been a franchise that centered (and was marketed to) the young. Going out into the universe and grappling with morality and responsibility was a theme of both trilogies so far. If we pick up where the books are now, the next generation has already gone through that process. Moreover, Ben being born so long after the Solo twins and coming of age during Jacen's fall makes a literal "next gen" series hard to reconcile with the EU - especially when the general public will demand a Skywalker as a main character. A grandkid-era story could be possible, but Jacen's fall and death and the fall of the New Republic make this era tonally grim and wrong - not suited for a movie that is trying to breathe life and energy into a damaged brand.

    If we get a fresh start in, say, the mid-20s ABY, we'll lose some GREAT stuff - Traitor, the Enemy Lines duology, etc. But we could have a film staring the Solo Twins and the Son (or Daughter!) of Skywalker, and that would be awesome.
     
  16. Zorrixor

    Zorrixor Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2004
    Ben being born so late isn't entirely an issue, really, as I'm hesitant that the main cast would include both a Solo and a Skywalker character for two main reasons: firstly, you need a love interest and some tension there, so one main character needs to not be a member of the immediate family, and secondly, because they might just think having both sets of SkySolo children in starring roles is just too much of a Next Generation story that is more rehash than itself unique.

    Throw in both sides of the family being white and I can see them potentially wanting one of the main cast to be from a different background, as they can't really get away with the new Lando character being the token black man again. Add in the need for some alien or droid sidekick or whatever, and you're cutting down on the number of family members you can focus on.

    Which, assuming Ben was the main star, is why I actually don't think any of the rest of the main cast need to be existing characters and could all be new to the films, with Jaina slightly more in the background as the Qui-Gon mentor role, with Luke as Yoda. After all, the prequels never even told us where Han or Lando came from.
     
  17. anakinfansince1983

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

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    It seems that a lot of people are assuming that the Big Three will be the starring characters again; maybe I missed an interview in which this was confirmed? Otherwise it seems to be a lot of speculation and assumptions.

    TCW crapped all over a lot of EU; Adi Gallia's and Even Piell's deaths, the time frame of Anakin's knighting, Ventress' back story. There's a reason that the Clone Wars Continuity discussion has almost 500 pages. A lot of the retcons were unnecessary IMO.

    But new EU has emerged from TCW show, including Karen Miller's books, which I really like. So yes, the EU can "adapt," but the fans might not be able to. Some people are more pissed off about the retcons than others.

    I'm hoping that the new movie takes place far enough after Legacy of the Force and features entirely original characters so that retconning won't be necessary. But I don't know that that will happen.
     
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