Lit Most Ambitions Thing in Non-Movie Canon so Far?

Lobot having a love interest

 

I agree with this - or, more generally, the whole way they go about re-creating the Republic. I'd rate that "most ambitious."

I agree with that too. I mean, the guy's name is "Skywalker." At the very least Vader knows they're related, and surely he at least suspects that it might be the kid Padme was pregnant with.

 

I don't really find it especially problematic at all. Though I'd like them to actually demonstrate how common a name Skywalker is, instead of leaving it to us as a handwave.

It can either be a "Smith" situation, where "Skywalker" was the name given to the earliest space navigators and passed down a lot, or they can pull an ASoIaF type thing and say "Skywalker" is used for bastards and foundlings in certain sectors of space. Or both.

I don't think it will. Short of a ridiculously big name author deciding they want to contribute to the franchise, novels and comics are unlikely to ever again be foundational pieces of the continuing Star Wars mythos in their own right. They are only ever going to be supplementary.

That's not say they can't be really good, but I think those waiting for the "new" EU to eventually deliver the next NJO or Legacy are looking in entirely the wrong place.

EDIT:
IDEALLY the PTP would be able to discern which medium it's best to tell any given story in, and not discriminate entirely in favour of film each time. But, yeah. Ideally. I'm not optimistic in that regard.

 

I want to see something as absurd and long-running as the Lt. Kettch/Yub Yub Commander running gag from the Wraith Squadron novels.

Re-reading those novels and am having a blast.

 

Allston really was the best author in the EU.

 

His FOTJ books were the worst of the lot but still great fun.

Lt. Kettch is one of the reasons why I like the Ewoks.
Who would come up with some like that? And he made it work.
Heck, Wraith Squadron as a whole. Wedge's reasons for creating the squadron were inspired.
The cast of characters made it work too.

 

I kind of hoped we'd get a NEU story of how Luke initially did go by Luke Lars until some point he overhears Owen and Beru heatedly talking about 'taking in Skywalker's Kid'. And then at some point he decides to call himself Skywalker out of protest, or a longing for heritage and identity, or something, against their initial protests. Perhaps on any legal registrations (are there any census' among moisture farmers on Tatooine?), he DOES show up as Luke Lars.

 

I like that.

Hell, I know I once suggested that he might've been Luke Lars right up until the point he left the moisture farm. He never identifies himself as "Luke Skywalker" until after he's been given the rundown on his father's history by Obi-Wan. And it's fun to reinterpret Leia's "You're who?" as a double take over "Skywalker", instead of the "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" that it really was.

But I don't really like the idea of him jettisoning the Lars name following his aunt and uncle's murder so your alternative works better.

 

you're not doing esb right if you think vader doesn't know who he is from the start

 

You know what I'm delighted that the new canon has done? Like, delighted beyond the point of it being healthy? It immediately went right out and confirmed something that the old EU unnecessarily and bizarrely danced around for way too long --- that Lieutenant Blount was the second gunner in the Falcon during the Battle of Endor. It's not at all ambitious so much as it is perfectly logical, but why the hell didn't the old EU ever just go right out and confirm it? Was the rough footage of him in the quad turret from the Blu-ray release not enough? And don't tell me it's because MK-09 was the other gunner; no one outside of a few Wookieepedians knew or gave a crap about that. Anyway, good job manning that quad gun, Blount. Keep up the good work. And now it's time for Lieutenant Page to be canonized as well.

 

And speaking like Desmond Hume.

 

Sana Solo, really just that Han has a wife overall.

Geonosis genocide.

 

I think Gillien wanted Vader to blow up Obi-Wan's homestead in an issue "Darth Vader", like flat-out level it which WOULD make sense considering what Vader would do and all. But instead there's a "DNA Bomb" or whatever that "erases any trace they were there". But the art makes it look like an explosion. That sounds like Lucasfilm kicking in "ahhhh, but Luke made his new saber at Obi-Wan's hut! (even though it's a deleted scene and maybe not canon) And we may use it in the future!" But I kinda wish they had blown it up.

Unless Gillen was totally in on the not-explosion explosion, which seems a little weak to me.

 

Space whales in hyperspace
Vader kicking ass
Geanosicide.
Rogue one is a HUGE risk in my opinion. A random group of rebels explaining a throwaway line in a 40 year old movie title crawl?

 

Rogue One isn't as big a risk as the Han Solo movie, IMO.

Anecdotally, all my casual fan friends are quite intrigued by Rogue One. They all like X-Wings and TIE Fighters and stormtroopers and Rebels fighting the Empire, "More of that? Sweet!"

Their reaction to the Han Solo film is invariably: "Eh, if it's not Harrison Ford what's the point?" If one of the two spin-offs flops, I'm certain that'll be the one that does.

Though I imagine that a really good trailer would do a lot to set people's minds at ease, in that regard.

 

I'm as uncasual a fan as I know, and my reaction is "eh, if it's not Harrison Ford what's the point?"

 

For sure. I bring up the mainstream audience's ambivalence (as I've anecdotally gauged it) because they're who I imagine Disney was gambling on being most interested in a Han Solo movie.

 

One thing's for sure, they'll have to pick their casting very carefully to make that movie work. IMO it wasn't the wisest choice for a spinoff movie, especially not one of the first. To me, a Kenobi spinoff and a Fett spinoff would've been the smartest moves after RO–but even then, RO shows us that you don't actually have to use pre-established movie characters in the spinoffs, so they could've just done a "New Republic" spinoff between ROTJ and TFA. Set it on the Rim so we don't need to see the Big 3, just make it about New Republic military ops, or something. Then again, maybe that'd be too similar to RO.

 

Definitely this. From the beginning I thought it was a smart risk to bring in an author best known for high school vampire fiction (even though that isn't my cup of tea). It could help with the YA audience, but it also could have been fairly divisive. Thankfully Claudia Gray has a great understanding of star wars and ended up writing one of the best entries of the new canon.

 

Ezra's natural connection to the Force.

 

It's a good job I didn't know this before buying Lost Stars!

 

Everything about the Vader series

 

Millicent.

 

I disagree. I think most of the tension in the Bespin duel is attributed to the slow realization of how outmatched Luke truly is. I find it hard to take that plot point seriously when Luke is acting like this is his first time fighting him that whole time in the film. Not to mention that he basically gets destroyed when Vader starts using more advanced techniques like the integration of telekinesis whilst using physical strikes, increasing the power of his attacks and going on the offensive in the latter half of the duel until Luke is trapped and incapacitated. Having Luke see what Vader is capable of before that really diminishes the shock value behind the disparity between his skills and Vader's during that part of the film. That's just my two cents on that though.

 

I'd see Life Debt as doing a couple of major moves:

• Re-defines how much can be done within a single volume as part of a series
• Opens the door to many parallel stories in one time period