Lit How do you feel/what are going to do when 'the new canon/EU' hits the shelves?

What is at the top?

 

The collected Garfield comic strips.

 

I plan to check them out, but the nice thing about my tendency to hang out in Barnes & Noble is that I can read all kinds of things without ever buying them. That's what I'll do with the sequel novels, at least at first. I won't stay away from them, but they definitely have some big shoes to fill. And yes, I will be pissed, regardless of quality, if they choose to throw continuity to the winds.

Now mind you, my feelings are mitigated by the fact that I also think the EU's been going horrifically for close to ten years (the dreck that was LOTF and FOTJ, plus the beating a dead horse of the Clone Wars era year after year. Wasn't really impressed with the Legacy comics, either). There's been good material released during that time, but the big picture stories... nah. I have to admit that if the sequels were to reset the clock to immediately after the New Jedi Order and wipe out everything that came next, I probably wouldn't end up minding (I'd lose Mercy Kill, but alas, when two objects collide, there is always damage of a collateral nature). But I doubt I'll be that lucky.

Right now, the thing I'm really pinning my hopes on in terms of Star Wars material is "Rebels," actually. I've been waiting ten years for them to finally sink their teeth into the 20 year gap between Episodes III and IV. That's not Sequel Trilogy era, and it's lightly populated enough that I think they could make it without disturbing existing continuity, if they're at all interested in trying.

 

Three responses:

1) I'm a bit tired of being told my reaction is invalid. You might not share it, but that doesn't make either of us "right" - we are both expressing our feelings and expectations.

2) So...does that mean excitement about the new EU is also completely pointless and cognitively dissonant? No one can be happy about it? Or is it that you can only be happy about it?

3) I know that for myself (and I assume at least some of the others), I am reacting so negatively and assuming some level of wiping out of the books I love because a significant number of fans (and non-fans) are crowing about that exact thing. "Thank goodness the EU will be irrelevant - I hate it/hated it/think people who love it are stupid" is the theme.

 

Unfortunately, you're posting in the most pro-EU corner of the entire web, so this is a bit of a sample bias. Try posting this in the ep VII forum or even the TV forum and you'll get a rather different reaction from many people.

Here's the thing. I honestly do understand the need to free up the era to allow for new stories to be created. I accept that could force them to cut some of the post ROTJ EU out, if not all of it.

What I don't so much accept is the notion that 'everything' either should or must be thrown out, which would be counterproductive, hurtful, and a purely corporate decision. We're talking thousands of years worth of history, many of which is unlikely to contradict most stories even the ST would want to tell, or could even be used to enhance it. If they do have the gall to toss out the OT, interqual, PT, or old republic era materials... it'll be purely 'because they can', rather than 'because they must'. That would not be a good decision, as none of the old EU material is required reading, but most of it adds depth to the universe in decent ways.

The PT without the novels and comics? Much more shallow. The EU of this era takes great strides to enhance the weakness of the films to the point where I find them retroactively more enjoyable. The worst part is if they declare everything but TCW noncanon (which is itself only half complete without the microseries at the start and end), it makes the world of the PT era much less interesting, and they probably won't even add any new stories to this time period.

The ancient material is bold stuff. Occasionally flawed, but generally still consistent enough with the universe at large... and it's so far into the past that it has very little chance of causing major contradictions. Even Dave Filoni loves and referenced this era in TCW constantly. It's also fairly popular since it was a major hit with the mainstream gamer crowd. To suggest that it no longer matters is to toss out a vital part of the franchise's history, and perhaps one of the best.

No, my problem with a grand reboot doesn't so much stem from the premise of making room for the ST and future works, it's the lie that it'd be required for these future works to be any greater than they will be without it. If they clean shop for anything before 4ABY, it's a pure business decision. Plain and simple. And a completely unnecessary one.

 

Actually, I'd say its a pure bussiness decision if the clear everything before 30 ABY. Based on the ages of the big three, this is the time where the ST will take place. So technically everything before that should be safe.

 

Think of the wookiepedia entries that will either be stricken to bare bones or completely erased!

 

Or completely increased or expanded.

 

Anything can be true . . . from a certain point of view

 

It would be doable to preserve many portions of the established Post-Endor-EU, especially since the ST does have to jump decades ahead if they want to use Mark, Carrie, and Harrison. Thus it would be possible to keep the whole Bantam EU - and perhaps even the NJO, if they would jump ahead 30 or 35 years, but that does seem less likely since it would mean that they would have to include much of the NJO developments.

SW movies always jumped directly into action, and never gave much background information in the movie itself. The audience had to take the characters as they were; it was enough to know who was good and who was evil.

So technically if would be possible to preserve much of the original stuff. But when they decide that Han & Leia should have no/other/less/more children than they had in the novels, or if they decided that Luke never married, this would pretty much invalidate the whole Post-Endor-EU since you can't keep the stories if the characters in them change.

And I'm not trusting that anyone in charge of Disney/LFL really cares all that much about established continuity when making decision about the ST, it's characters, and the story they are going to tell.

Considering that SW is a trademark, they are also most likely to give the audience slight variations of the themes the OT & PT dealt with, which causes me not to expect great new story lines, or innovative new EU stuff. But it may be that I'm just an old guy complaining that everything was great in my childhood (I don't think so, but some people may like that explanation better...).

From the POV of a real SW collector (i.e. somebody who really buys and reads most of the stuff out there) a partial/complete reboot of the EU continuity is more or less as if somebody had started to write a series of connected novels and then midway decided that everything he has written up this point was nonsense, and he would start all over again. That's not exactly something you like if you have invested thousands (and it's really thousands when you have nearly all the stuff) of dollars or euros into that whole thing.

 

Honest answer? If they reboot, then I will be the same as Catherine and take it as a sign to move on.

The quality of a new EU would have little bearing on my choice: I have invested so much time reading Star Wars, but I do not want to do that again, and so instead of getting emotionally invested in a new universe, I would take the opportunity to broaden by horizons and read more widely. Or, put differently: I've grown up. Like Cathy, I still read Star Wars out of childhood nostalgia, and would not have got into it today, so I don't have the drive to get into EU 2.0.

 

My 2 year old is obsessed with Star Wars now, so I will likely continue reading them, but also encourage him to read my collection of EU 1.0.

Does anyone know - if they stop publishing paper copies of the books, would they continue to make them available electronically?

 

I've never seen any logical reason not to keep them in issue, simply because if someone wants to buy them, canon or not, it's some more money (though I accept I've no clue if digital availability has its own electronic "web hosting" fee, akin to the warehousing costs).

But then Disney have a history of short circulations so they can re-release stuff a decade later at full price again, so... who knows.

 

This is the most pro-EU corner of the entire web because it is dedicated to SW literature, which means that the people who post here buy (and some collect) SW books. It is good news that at least some portion of the people who buy (and/or collect) SW books are generally not willing to invest in a new set of SW books following an alternate continuity. The people who generally hate the EU wholesale don't generally buy SW books (and, in my experience, mostly hate it because of what they have heard about it -- "they kill chiewbaka? I no likes EU!")

 

You know, this really is quite tragic for a self-professed Garak fan like yourself, you're denying yourself some quite excellent tales!

 

Sorry, but after Lyman was cut the comic just went downhill.

 

You guys realize the they aren't getting rid of the whole Eu? Just the Post Rotj Eu. which personally i don't care for. So honestly i could care less. Rebellion Era Ftw!

 

Rebels and the Boba Fett prequel would like a word with you.

 

That Boba fett prequel is a rumor and i highly doubt the rebels cartoon will contradict anything since it's set in an era between episode 3 and 4 that hasn't been explored all that much.

 

I feel like there's very little a Boba Fett prequel could do that hasn't already been done to the character. I mean, he survived Episode II. He can survive this. I BELIEVE.

 

No one has even confirmed that the post ROTJ stuff will be gone. In all honesty, I'm confident that most, if not all, of the material up until Hand of Thrawn will stay. I highly doubt the new movies will want to deal with the Galactic Civil War. Now the NJO's fate is more unsure. Still, all any of us can do is speculate.

 

Hand of thrawn is where i finished reading. I decided not to finish the rest for 2 reasons.
1. it was already spoiled that Mara jade Jacen and Anikin Solo die.
2. it might not matter in a year.

 

I can't see any stories dealing with the next generation surviving, unless it's in a very nebulous sense in which the Thrawn trilogy happened, but Jacen and Jaina weren't born, or something like that. I get the impression that for the core cast of 8 and 9, at least, if not all three sequels, they're not going to want to be constrained in the composition by the Solo children.

 

Yeah, bottom line is that if there is a "new EU" the entire old EU will be a carcass to be picked apart. Pretending that a "new EU" Rebellion Era book or Marvel comic will adhere to "pre-Endor EU" canon is absurd as it would really be at the whim of the author. There's nothing to suggest that "only post-Endor EU" will be affected, other than wishful thinking (bordering on wish fulfillment).

 

I didn't know where else to put this, so it's going here.

Based on what Pablo Hidalgo apparently said 4 or 5 days ago, Star Wars now operates under exactly the same principles as other properties with tie-in works, which is that any tie-in material does not have any Canonical status or recognition.

This is completely fine and does absolutely nothing to the chronological and continuity-focused integrity of what currently exists, nor do I think the tie-in material that currently exists will be dramatically or drastically affected by any future tie-in material.