Post Proof Or Retract: Dispelling Myths Regarding EU

i don't think zahn picked coruscant from a list...i heard somewhere (i know this is not proof) that lucas didn't much like the name and wanted to change it for ep1, but was convinced to keep it the same for continuity...

 

As for GL's involvement in the EU, he gets the final say on all major events in novels/comics. This includes: Chewie dying, Force powers, OB1 Clone idea. For proof, just ask Kathy Tyers, RA Salvatore, or any of the other EU authors who post here.

wk

 

GL has/doesn't have any involvement with the creative process in the EU.

George Lucas does/doesn't read EU material.


Have no fear, SuperFett is here!

From god himself, KJA

"George read the outlines for the new SW novels, but he actually read most of the comics and he gave us specific directions for the Sith in our TOTJ"

Taken from his TF.N interview here

 

?It wasn?t long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and the Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take at least nine films to tell? three trilogies? and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story.

?After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story?however many films it took to tell?was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories I was destined to tell. Instead they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by a galaxy that Star Wars provided. Today, it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga. This legacy began with Splinter of the Mind?s Eye, published less than a year after of Star Wars. Written by Alan Dean Foster, a well known and talented science-fiction author, Splinter was promoted as the ?further adventures? of Luke Skywalker. It the bookstores just as I was preparing to write my own ?further adventures? of Luke, in the form of a script entitled The Empire Strikes Back.

?It seems only fitting, after all these years, that Splinter would be republished as I prepare once again to write another further adventures set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...?

-George Lucas,
From the Introduction of ?Splinter of the Mind?s Eye? by Alan Dean Foster

 

It may not have been Lucas. It could have just been the general Lucasfilm staff, but I don't think there's a clear answer. In Adventure Journal # 1 ( 1994 ) Timothy Zahn says it was "Lucasfilm" to both things.

 

I bought Splinter yesterday, it'll go nicely with my other two copies I have at my parent's place. I wanted to read it again, then I checked the copy I had bought and it was the one with the Lucas quote.

 

From the official websight's databank entry on the Noghri (the behind the scenes section of the entry):

In the development of his Thrawn Trilogy of novels, author Timothy Zahn drafted out a number of ideas that were disapproved for treading too close to material that George Lucas was to address in the prequel trilogy.

One idea that Zahn postulated was that the Sith were a species of killers in servitude to Darth Vader -- Dark Lord of the Sith. The idea was that Vader's gruesome mask was a stylized depiction of a Sith face. The idea was abandoned, and Zahn's Sith became the Noghri. Although not said in the text, it is hinted that the Noghri bear more than a passing resemblance to Vader's facemask

I don't know whether or not that proves/disproves anything, but since I saw something about the Noghri, I figured I'd post that here in case any conclusions can be drawn from it.

 

No... so far my research hasn't turned up anything about that one.
Sorry, I'll keep looking.

 

I have read the Obi-clone statement somewhere before, but I can't recall where. I'll look for it.

 

It's in Adventure journal #1.

Zahn goes into how he wasn't allowed to do several ideas. It's the first time he talks about how he didn't want to follow the continuity set forth by dark horse already(early copy of dark empire, that veitch had to rewrite, to include added scenes cause zahn caused some contradictions), as well as insulting Dark Horses products in the interview. Zahn says he was was more than willing to follow the continuity set forth by WEG, and praised the company.

 

Have to go look for the issue later. But I can get the exact quotes when I do.

 

From AJ #1, Spring 1994 :

"C'baoth was one of the characters who originally had to be changed. My original intent was that [he] was going to be an insane clone of Obi-Wan. Lucasfilm wouldn't let me do that, so I had to make him a clone of somebody else."

"Originally, the Noghri were going to be the Sith. Vader is mentioned as a Lord of the Sith in various places. And I wanted them to be the Sith that were referred to. That was another of the ideas that was canceled by Lucasfilm.

Another thing I wanted to do, that again they wouldn't let me do, was make Vader's mask a stylized version of the Noghri faces, that he adopted that armor in part as a gesture to them being so useful to him as the undercover death commandos. Lucasfilm would not let me do that officially, so what I did was simply take the same idea, describe their faces that way, but not make any references within the book that they reminded people of Vader's mask. But that's basically where they came from. Also, by having their gray skin darken as they get older, that would also reflect in Vader's black armor, would be an image of old and wise to them."

 

well, merkuian many of the authors have said that lucas looks only over a one page outlines of the story. I assume it's not any different for zahn, right?

 

Coruscant is actually a small town in Israel. My dad went there and told me about it when I mentioned Coruscant in the context of Star Wars. I believe it was probably picked for some stupid little symbolic reference to the Bible or something.

 

Coruscant is never mentioned in the Bible....

 

I think there was an Interview with Shelly Shapiao (sp) about NJO and she said that GL looked over the entire NJO and gave it thumbs up.

I'll go look for it on the OS.