How important to your enjoyment of EU is a single, consistent continuity?

Just out of curiosity, from having read the various discussions on Infinities around here.

 

Continuity's nice, but I try to think of it as something of a bonus. Good storytelling is more important to me; ex. I'm not going to throw a fit and rewrite whole storylines (DE for example) because a Star Destroyer's length was "off" or an artist accidently gave Luke a pink saber for a panel or two.

 

Continuity of events is very important to me. One of the reasons I enjoy the stories so much is that the events of one story arc lead into the next. The characters can behave one way because of a previous similar situation. We get to see the characters mature and learn from their mistakes.

As far as the tiny details go, I feel they too are important. But, the color of a lightsaber, or length of a ship, or the color of hair, are unlikely to affect a story as much as messing with the past or future, depending time period the story takes place. ie We can't have Luke talking about his love of swimming when he was little...there wasn't enough water to swim in!

 

Continuity of events is essential to my enjoyment of the EU... the essential chronology is a valuable resource to help place everything in order.

 

I think Infinities sounds like it's perhaps getting out of hand....

Personally, I'll get the other ANH Infinities issues, but I would really prefer singular continuity.

~*~Bria

 

Continuity is extraordinarily important to me when it comes to SW or anything. Even when I collected Trek novels I'd figure out where it was set during the show and keep them all in chronological order. A big part of the fun of all the SW collecting, to me, is to figure out what goes where and when, fit the pieces together, and know what's going on. While the Infinities comic itself isn't so bad, I happen to be opposed to the fundamental Infinities concept. Such a thing should not have happened. The whole Tales thing is even worse. If an author makes a technical mistake, fine, mistakes happen, but deliberately going off the track is no good. And as for the "non-continuity designer showcase," I think that if the writers don't care enough about Star Wars to do a little background research, then they have no business writing a Star Wars comic. As a Star Wars fan, and more importantly as a consumer, I have high expectations and high standards when it comes to this stuff.

 

Infinities is not its own continuity. We all know what the official continuity is and realise what is not a part of it.

Threads appear all the time asking what-if questions and infinities is just a way of exploring these what-ifs and giving a concrete answer.

A continuity is important and there is still only one.

 

Continuity in incredibly important. Without continuity, it'd be like watching all the X-files episodes out of order and trying to make sense of it. Without continuity, there would be chaos and this forum would not exist.

 

Emiaj...
"We all know what the official continuity is and realise what is not a part of it."

Oh, if only that were true! There's still people to this day who do not think things prior to 1991 as official continuity, for example. People who view the Holiday Special as "AU," people who view anything not by Bantam as "AU," etc. A lot of progress has been made since the Star Wars dark ages of a few years ago, but there's still a lot of progress to go.

 

I am one of the people Genghis is talking about. But that's a different topic..

Continutity is very important to me but I strongly dislike most of the comics (esp. the early ones), and a few novels that I wish left the continuity.

*Sigh*

Yours

~Ross

 

If it weren't for a continuity I don't know if I would enjoy the EU like right now if I knew rebirth wasn't part of the cont. I wouldn't be so damn impatient waitng for it to come out

 

Extremely important. It really is the thing that distinguises the Star Wars license from others.

 

I think RNolan also hits on an important point to consider with respect to continuity...
"Continutity is very important to me but I strongly dislike..."

"Acceptance" and "likeability" are two completely different issues. One can accept the stories, etc. happened and can also dislike them. It is an entirely different thing to ignore what Star Wars is and not accept the things which make it up. Most often, the two go hand-in-hand, however. That is, those who dislike something tend to not accept it.

We lose out on the "common ground" of Star Wars when people choose not to accept things that really are part of it. We can all dislike whatever we want, but whatever the owner says is "Star Wars" should be considered "Star Wars" whether individually, we agree with it or not.

"Infinities" has introduced some odd variations of the acceptance/likeability in that we have people:
1. Liking stories and not accepting they're "Infinities," but that they're continuity (some Tales comics, etc).
2. Liking stories and accepting they're "Infinities" and not continuity (some Tales and Infinities comics)
...

 

I'd say continuity is extremely important to me. I highly doubt we'd be where we are with the EU had there not been an 'official' continuity. We'd be left with a lot of individual 'what ifs' and various contradictory post-RotJ adventures.

And I only don't consider the Marvel stuff continuity because I have yet to read it.

 

I rather enjoy following along with the lives of our heroes instead of getting another story based off of the same old storyline. I would much rather watch the characters mature and age that continually watch them rehash different variations of similar scenes from the movies...

 

Continuity is very important for me.

 

"A lot of progress has been made since the Star Wars dark ages of a few years ago, but there's still a lot of progress to go. "

Right, Genghis. Fight the good fight. *Rolls eyes*

TC

 

What would you do if the events in the next films made continuity with the current EU impossible? Would you be willing to accept an "alternate" EU after the films are released that had a better sense of continuity and an overall perspective of the entire story in mind?

 

Rhetorical questions are all fine and good, but seriously, what could happen that would literally destroy the EU?

Almost nothing's been printed that's set around the time of Episodes II or III. The closest is Rogue Planet, which is set a solid seven years before SW2. Although Alan Dean Foster's The Approaching Storm is set closer to SW2, Foster actually read the movie script, so his novel is unlikely to be contradicted by the movie.

I'm sure we'll see some minor contradictions that will need "patches" of one sort or another. But the chance that Star Wars II or Star Wars III will completely dynamite the EU is so small that I can't treat it as a serious possibility.

Not even for the purpose of answering a rhetorical question.

 

I Agree Mr. Skysolo. In fact I think GL royal guard is already fixing things that may come up. Reading the questions asked at comic con, notice how the one on Boba Fett is answered. I think it shows they are thinking about it at least.

As far as continuity for me goes I like it. I think it is needed but I will accept a snag here or there. It makes it fun for us to come here and think up, toss around, and fight about ways to make it right.

My .02

 

TalonCard...
"Right, Genghis. Fight the good fight."

I don't think it's about fighting any fights, TC. It's about helping educate newer fans about the stories they may have missed. Stories such as those in Star Wars Gamer go a long way to mending any perceived rift that may exist between the post-1991 stories and the pre-1991 stories.

 

I was never a strict canonist, ie, someone who thinks only the movies are important. Side note, I think you can be a canonist, and still like the EU. To me, this means you recognize the importance of the movies over the EU in the hierarchy.

Also, I was never a completist, ie, someone who thinks that most everything EU, except obvious AU or humor (like Skippy the Jedi Droid) should be fit into the continuity.

I am neither of the above. I tended to put the EU on an even footing with the movies, except where the EU blatently contradicted the movies. Additionally, if I don't think something EU should fit in with the timeline/continuity, I won't force it. Some call it minimalism, others call it personal canon, but whatever the name, it is a recognition that not everything should be placed in the timeline/continuity.

I used to think continuity was important. However, my view changed when Del Rey released the "Essential Chronology" and shoehorned just about every bit of EU into the timeline. Things like "Splinter of the Minds Eye", many of the Marvel comics, more and more DH comics, and the "Glove of Darth Vader" series of books should not be considered part of the overall timeline/continuity. Personally, I think fitting everything into a continuity makes the EU look silly.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

I have seen nothing in the novels that contradicts the movies that were released before them.
The continuity within the EU is fairly tight. The only exceptions are the GodV and some comicbooks which LFL seems to have tossed aside in favor of a more logical story line. The rest of the novels and comicbooks all fit together with very few, very minor, easily fixed differences.

What I DO see, that bothers me a lot, it the idea that the new movies are going to ignore the previously created books (and comicbooks) and the idea of that making the books "wrong."

Some folks hold to the idea that the movies, no matter when they are made, are "right" and anything that deviates from them is "wrong."
My feeling is that which was created first is right, regardless of who created it.

If someone were to write a novel that contradicted the classic trilogy, that novel would be "wrong" and would belong in an Alternate Universe.
If things in Ep 2 contradict parts of the EU (such as Uncle Owen NOT being Obi-Wan's brother) it is the movie that is an alternate universe and the screen writer would be disregarding continuity.

If the novel writers are expected to work from what has been created before, then the screen writers (even if it is the guy who authorized the EU in the first place) should show the same courtesy to previously published material.

If LFL allows the next movie to seriously conflict with the Bantam, Del Rey and Scholastic novels and tosses them out of the mainstream as they did to much of the Marvel line and (deservedly in this case) the GoDV books, I will continue to consider the books the "real" Star Wars and not bother with Ep 3 at all.
If Ep 2 and 3 contradict the 60 or 70 novels, then the movies are ?wrong" and I will consider them an Alternate Universe.

 

I agree. I prefer the idea of the older stuff holding precedence over the newer stuff, regardless of its origin.

Hence, the depiction of Jabba shown in the original Marvel Comics adaptation of Star Wars should be the definitive version of the character. This version precedes the movie version of Jabba by six years.

Janson really did die on Hoth, as shown in "Hoth Stuff," (Marvel Star Wars #78). Also, Wedge really did grow up with Luke on Tatooine, as revealed in the same story.

R2D2 walks, rather than rolls, around on his three legs. We know that because the Star Wars novel, which describes R2 that way, was released five months before the movie and hence has canonical preference over the film.

And did the Prophets of the Dark Side series appear before Courtship of Princess Leia? If so, I guess that series has the REAL version of the wedding of Leia and Han...

And yes, the Clone Wars take place according to the timeline implied by Heir to the Empire, etc. Just because this upstart Lucas guy decides to place them at a later date doesn't mean that it really happens that way in the Star Wars universe. Who does he think he is, anyway? He acts like he CREATED the Star Wars universe and OWNS the creative property, for (blue) Yoda's sake...