Full Series The Even Piell Centre for Canon and Continuity Catastrophes

dem lens flares and rapidly moving cameras

 

That's a huge thing I think a lot of people tend to forget. Marvel, DC, Transformers...all these franchises are essentially built on multiverse theory. Each incarnation is free to occupy a new and separate universe so as to allow the freedom to do as they please, all the while maintaining a level of cohesive canon. It's the reason why Young Justice and Justice League aren't just different series, they're different universes, taking place in Earth-16 and Earth-12, respectively. It's why the ongoing Marvel comics haven't been rendered non-canon by the changes of the Avengers and other films, and it's why Transformers: Prime has been doing its own thing without taking a dump on Beast Wars.

Star Wars does not, and honestly though I'm a pretty huge fan of DC and Transformers, should not have a multiverse. There's something great about a single, million-year story that all ties together in a single line of events, causality, and history.

The truth is, it could work. It really could. And I'm sure people would eat it up, while others complained about it, and critiqued it, and savored it the same as any other Star Wars product. But I can't see it as anything but a statement of "We weren't good enough to play with the blocks that were already here, we had to knock these down, throw some away, and go buy new ones." The authors of the EU have been working together inside this single, shared universe for multiple decades without any sort of need for a universe-changing reboot beyond a minor tweak here or there when someone slips up on a fact or misremembers an issue. Are the new movies' writers so weak that they can't engage in that same framework and still come out on top with something fresh, enjoyable, and new?

 

Just a crazy thought inspired by the hiring of J.J. Abrams:

What if the Sequel Trilogy - like the rebooted Star Trek film series - is actually set in an alternate universe, diverging from the original one due to a single change: Anakin does not die on the second Death Star.

The butterfly effect from that one change would be huge. The ST films could still take place years later, but by this time, the Galaxy would be almost unrecognisable to someone from the original timeline. The two universes would exist in parallel as far as SW continuity is concerned.

To a dark place this line of thought will carry us... However, while SW continuity has always been considered almost a living history, alternate history can be regarded as a useful analytical tool.

 

As convoluted as the canon levels are, I think the basic idea of "movies at top *cough* and also TCW and probably whatever the new animated series is gonna be*cough*, everything else revolves around it" is a solid one. And it goes back to George Lucas and Ardnt (and probably Abrams as well who would more than likely pitching ideas) and what they want to do in the ST. If they think that they should tell a story that changes or doesn't use EU-Character-XYZ it should be their prerogative. Getting back to TCW, I dug the Barris as the traitor twist because watching the TV show there wasn't much to the character to make it not work within the confines of TCW. She was basically a blank slate. Didn't bat an eye at the reveal. If the ST writers also want to use Ben, Jania and Solo's grand kid, great! Good on them. But they shouldn't be beholden to it. It's the story they want to tell, not the story that has been written by other writers for decades.

But I don't also want to have just a twitter posting or a Facebook post that says "By the way, with the release of Star Wars Episode 7 means that everything released from Heir to the Empire onward has been labeled Infinities. Like us to win a free T-shirt!" As the way it's been done, the movies drive the ship, everything else crams into follow it. Which is why, if the moviemakers decide to go their own way, an in-continuity crazy history changing retcon novel would probably be the best thing. I'd read that, it'd be like Crisis on Infinite Earths but with Star Wars characters.

 

Boy I tell you there are going to be some P Offed posters on here when the new movies come out. Even if these end up being the best Star Wars movies to date there are going to be lots of people saying how horrible they are simply because they didn't stay true to the EU.

 

WE KNOW.

 

I'd be less angry and more sad. And I wouldn't stick around here either.

Why stick around with a franchise that doesn't want you?

 

Well if that is the case why don't you just decide in your own mind what you want to have happen and then ignore the movies/tv shows.

 

Because I'd like SW to continue. Not a reboot but the original SW that has been in the making for over 3 decades.

 

I think there is a 95/99% chance you are going to be disappointed then. They even said when issuing the statement about the new movies that it was not going to be real EU heavy. Probably the best you can hope for is that it ends up being like TCW where they use some of the same characters and locations in the EU but change them around to where it is a brand new story.

 

What was actually said is that weren't adapting an existing EU storyline for Ep7, and was mostly in reference to the Thrawn trilogy.

There's no reason they can't set it in ~50 ABY after all the current novels. Obviously, they're going to have to reintroduce the characters so that casual viewers don't have to read anything - that's just necessary. But you can do that without rebooting.

 

I think you are dreaming that the movies will allow room for the novels to take place. Again if they do have it take place in 50ABY in your own mind you can still say it encompasses all the novels. But chances are slim that it will take place in 50ABY (in Lucas's notes he has it taking place around 20-40 ABY)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sequel_trilogy

 

Then move the dates up a little bit, it's really not that difficult.

 

Well unfortunately just because you want that done doesn't mean it is going to happen.

 

That you managed to make me look like I was being selfish with my reasoning is quite an accomplishment. My way benefits the most people - the writers and readers of the EU and the viewers of Ep7.

 

How does that benefit the viewers of Episode 7? It limits the potential quality and appeal of the sequel trilogy.

 

Firstly, the already existing children of the Big Three (and Mara) are ripe for marketing. Their names alone would do it. There's also the fact that Disney want Ep7 to bring in new customers to the SW brand. There's only so much Disney can produce (and certain types of customers are insatiable) - having existing novels that are not essential but provide already-written backstory to the characters can provide painless, easy money, and lots of entertainment for newcomers if they desire it.

I don't see how the quality would be affected at all. It's of a higher quality when it's part of a cohesive universe, but also able to be watched alone.

No spoilers here but the end of FOTJ leaves a fairly blank slate. No one faction is stronger than the others really. Also, there's an entire planet of Sith for them to draw upon if they wish to have lots of Sith (they may not, so they can just not involve that).

 

I'm not opposed to the idea of a multiverse(s). So long as there aren't crossovers and they remain separate I wouldn't have a problem.

For example, don't say that Ahsoka and TCW's Mandalore exist in "Galaxy-1" while keeping the old version of Mandalore in "Galaxy-2" and Palpatine survives as a clone in "Galaxy-2" but then having a crossover where Ahsoka some how is transported to Galaxy-2 and says "wow, Mandalore here is different and the Emperor survived!"

Instead keep them entirely separate.

Also do what Marvel does in the sense that the Earth 616 continuity (the main continuity) continues alongside the Ultimate continuity (Earth 1610), allowing authors to continue with popular story lines and characters that would otherwise have been rendered non-canon, as opposed to doing what DC did where there is an entirely new continuity for the New 52 set in "New Earth" but at the same time they ceased (at least for the time being) telling stories in the multiverse that contains "Earth-One" (the continuity that ran from the 60s for several decades).

 

I tell you what. Why don't all the EU authors pool their money together. Buy Star Wars away from Disney then they can put all the EU stuff in there that they want. Unfortunately it is Disney's and Lucasfilms story to tell now. They are going to tell the story that they envision. You might as well learn to accept that the EU isn't the story that is going to be told by them and stop complaining about it. Making long threads complaining about shows creators and how they didn't respect the EU isn't going to do anything but fill up space on a fan forum. And chances are you are only going to become more frustrated with it as time goes on.

If you learn to accept it you might find out that you enjoy the stories that are being told as well and you will have no worries about those stories being compromised.

 

There in absolutely no way should be multiverse's. When you think about it how many people do you think actually read the books. Very few. And an even smaller percentage of them read them so religiously that they get upset when the movies/tv shows don't follow them. No point in the movies (that make hundreds of millions of dollars and is a billion dollar franchise) should adhere to what a very small percentage of people want to see. If the comics started out as a movie franchise and made billions and billions of dollars they probably wouldn't have these multiverses either.

 

The less Yuuzhan Vong the better...
In any case if they do to Star Wars what they did to Star Trek we'll be seeing a newer sexier set of films. Star Wars might just be mainstream again.

 

What?....

If the movies SHOULDN'T adhere to the EU, then that is all the more reason TO have a multiverse to accommodate the contradicted story lines that EU readers/players/watchers DID enjoy.

The EU is not just the books. It's the novels, comics, games, TCW, guidebooks, etc. It's not like the market for these products is 10 nerds sitting in a room. It's thousands upon thousands, if not millions of people. Definitely millions with the number of people that bought TOR alone (although numbers did decline). Games like KOTOR are some of the more high profile examples of popular EU products.

Star Wars as a money making franchise existed on toys and EU for well over a decade in between ROTJ and TPM. They may pale in comparison to the total movie going audience, but if your goal is to sell comics, novels, games, etc. then it's not smart to alienate that audience unless you have to choose between the movie or EU audiences (the latter overlaps with the prior) and there really is no reason to do so.