ST Official Sequel Trilogy / Legends / Expanded Universe discussion thread

plus that was in 91, when EU was the only Star Wars available.He probably wouldn't have revived Star Wars, if Willow had been a bigger hit at the movies.
The EU was probably a test to see if their was a demand for Star Wars.

 

What are you responding to?

 

about dark empire

 

I think George Lucas should have part of the blame. If he really wanted to, he could have left strict guidelines in place. Prohibiting any future adventures with the main characters or children being born. Of course, I'm also sure he genuinely didn't believe that a true ST would ever materialise. At least not really. What I'm trying to say is that it’s not really the fault of the EU writers. It’s more down to Lucasfilm. They're the ones who allowed the EU to completely run away.

 

I think GL's biggest mistake was allowing this cult to form around the EU.

Btw, I have a major question for EU fans: Why do you often throw the novelizations out of canon when they're clearly at least as canon as the EU?

 

Talk about brand confusion when new fans come in, eager for Star Wars Merchandise, and they find all this
EU stuff that contradicts the ST, do you guys think LFL/Disney can get Truce at Bakura to Crucible off the shelves by 2015, and what about the comics, Video games, and Graphic novels from Dark Horse. JJ abrams wanted The Star Trek guys to stop making material from the original timeline, so he could control the whole thing, so you know control of the new EU is part of his contract, and that means a halt in production of old EU.

 

1. Do you really think he's THAT stubborn?
2. Why would Disney give anyone control of the EU?

 

Because it took them a month to convince him, two they wanted him, three, he's a student of Lucas, so he knows the power of merchandising, four,
he wanted to do that with Star Trek, five Disney wants him, eventually Disney might buy Bad Robot. I wouldn't be surprised if he succeeds kathleen Kennedy, after her LFL contract expires. He already says he has plans for Star Wars books, one of his guys is working on Rebels, and he wants input on Video Games, and comics. Read up on him.

 

Oh, there's a Bad Robot guy on Rebels? Cool, which one?

I posted the JJ Grand Scheme a few pages back, basically, yeah, he wanted to multi-media platform the JJ-verse Star Trek (which comes from Paramount) but CBS (which makes a ton off Trek TV merch) told them to buzz off and they'll market Trek TV as much as they want. (Aside, the Trek TV/movie marketing situation was much cleaner when it was all under the Paramount banner, now it's messier to merge the two)

With Star Wars all under Disney, it even mentions in the article, he can do that plan but with Star Wars. The Abrams-EU! With more merch potential for everyone! You really think with all that sweet, sweet delicious brand name recognition cross-platform profit potential they're gonna let things like Ben Skywalker or Alana Solo stand in their way? Bah!

 

I don't think there should be another EU. Non-canon material would make more sense.

 

kinberg, he's in constant touch with Abrams

 

Well, they'll still *call* it EU just cuz, y'know, brand. I highly, HIGHLY doubt someone will hold a press release and say "TODAY! WE DECLARE! ALL NON-STAR WARS MOVIES NON-CANON!" They'll keep the same "level" system just cuz it's a thing that's there. That's where licensing and Chee all fit in. To slap it all together when it's done.

 

Ah, I thought he was a Bad Robot guy but he's one of the first bunch brought on with Ardnt & Kassadan. I think the three of them actually pre-date Abrams involvement. Still, it's awesome to see more communication between the spin-off crew and the film crew so we can get that sweet, sweet multi-media brand continuity we all wanted. Just gotta take care of that old one that's still hanging about...

 

Because the novelizations often contradict the movies (Blue Five, Luke having TWO trench runs, Luke basically blacking out during his second, successful trench run which sorta implied that Obi-Wan's spirit possessed him--something kinda used again by the same author, Alan Dean Foster, in Splinter of the Mind's Eye when Luke tells Vader he IS Obi-Wan Kenobi... Obi-Wan being Owen's brother in the ROTJ novelization... stuff like that). Those elements tend to get thrown out. I guess some throw out the entire novelization, too, when stuff like that happens.

The EU of the '90s had problems, but they tried not to contradict the films. Of course, back then people weren't going over every frame with a fine-tooth comb, so lots of stuff was missed... but since there wasn't a plan in place, except "tell more stories of what happens to our favorite heroes after the movies" and then the "Tales of/from..." series starting the whole "everyone has a story" idea which led to pretty much everyone in every scene being a spy, bounty hunter, sympathizer, etc. Each time a PT film got released, tho, it brought more & more contradictions with the EU... that's not the EU's fault, but haters seemed to blame it anyway, and used the contradictions of the later movies to justify throwing everything out and belittling the fans who enjoyed the EU.

 

Not having a plan, on the other hand, was the EU's fault - and is for my money the single biggest problem it's ever had throughout its history.

 

But who do you lay the blame on? Not Bantam... not Dark Horse... it all goes back to Lucasfilm. They didn't even have a "continuity guru" for most of that era. Even back at the start of the '90s EU, things weren't jiving... Dark Empire felt outta place when paired with Heir to the Empire; the former taking place less than a year after the latter felt all kinds of wrong. If you read one instead of the other, no big deal; but the Thrawn Trilogy followed by DE made things very confusing, and made Luke look extremely cocky.

Even if they had a plan, tho, instead of that hopscotch game of bouncing around the decade following the movies and backtracking to fill in almost every 'uneventful' month with a new crisis, the PT probably would've caused a lot of ripples.

 

True. But if you're going to argue that the PT should have avoided contradicting the EU, then we will never agree.

 

Really?

I mean, I know that the New Jedi Order series and the Legacy of the Force series are ****ing horrible, but there are some genuinely good novels in the EU.

Has anyone read the Han Solo trilogy?

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor?

The Revenge of the Sith novelization?

Those were some ****ing great novels.

 

Yeah, but declaring them non-canon is not going to make them any less ******* great novels. Basically, the way it works now, if you boil it down to it's essentials, the movies are canon, the spin-off stuff is canon unless it is contradicted by the movies. It really doesn't need to be officially declared canon or not, in the end, all that matters is the person reading it. I can't see somebody sitting down, reading a novel, and saying "Gee, that was a fun lark. Too bad it didn't really happen." I mean, it has the characters in it. They're fictional characters, they lead exceptionally busy lives.

 

pshhhh

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor over the NJO?

Can I have some of the **** you're smoking?

 

You do know the EU started in 1978, and that George set rules for it in late 1977, right? The Thrawn Trilogy might be the start of the 'modern' EU, but it's definitely not the start of the EU by any means.

 

Well, if NJO's taken as a whole, Mindor probably beats it. Mindor wasn't perfect, either... not a fan of the "is that what 'really' happened or is it an embellished holodrama?" idea of the bulk of the book... or R2's out-of-character mechanical thoughts while he was puttering around on that asteroid or whatever it was. Seeing his thoughts, that was kinda neat--but the odd calculations & all that felt too cold & mechanical, not the much more 'alive' droid from the films & TCW.

 

NJO as a whole beats everything. Best series in the entire EU. No contest.

 

ding ding ding

We have a winner

 

it started with the novelization, of a new hope, marvel comics, splinter of the mind's eye, the droids, and ewoks, comics, and cartoons, the holiday special, scholastic books, and the ewoks movies, the Han solo, and Lando trilogies. the canon rules have always been the same, everything happens unless contradicted by the movies.

But that has been changed as Pablo Hidalgo has stated, the TVSeries, and movies are canon, everything else is non canon
That will all likely change once the ST comes out, and disney makes its decision about Canon, and JJ Abrams will be directly involved.

As of 2015 George Lucas will no longer have Disney stock, and he'll just be a creative consultant. Ultimately Kathleen Kennedy has to ask Bob Iger about final decisions, her office is at the Disney offices in Burbank, not at Skywalker ranch in San Francisco.