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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

Discussion in 'Literature' started by TypoCelchu, Oct 30, 2012.

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  1. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

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    Sep 2, 2012
    Aside from Denning I'm still invested in the books and still have a lot of comics to collect so I'm not too worried.
    Yet.
     
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  2. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    I'd like to think my threshold of enjoyment for Star Wars is pretty tolerant. I was even able to gain enjoyment out of reading some of the post-NJO, but that quickly diminished, and it was certainly never to the same level it was in the past. I'm a big Dark Empire, Force Unleashed, and SWTOR apologist here and those seem to be mostly disliked on this board.
     
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  3. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

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    Sep 30, 2012
    All I want is Rogue Squadron IV. Rogue Squadron has always been my favorite Star Wars game.
     
  4. son_of_skywalker03

    son_of_skywalker03 Force Ghost star 4

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    Dec 7, 2003
    I agree. Which is why I didn't go so far as to include any of it.
     
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  5. Revanfan1

    Revanfan1 Force Ghost star 6

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    Jun 3, 2013
    This except Millennium Falcon, for me. I think that book takes a lot of flak it doesn't deserve–Luceno was a real trooper with it; he stuck with what was written in LOTF as it was written; he didn't try to retcon it, he didn't try to kill off Daala (which might be more than enough reason for people to dislike it), and he didn't throw an in-universe fit that decried everything a main character did in LOTF just for the sake of "he didn't like it." He stuck to it and wrote it even though it probably wasn't the post-NJO content he'd always pictured. That enough is alone to make me respect both the author and the book; besides that, I just generally like MF anyways. :p
     
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  6. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    I don't see how you can lump Millennium Falcon in with the rest since it's not utterly fixated on the Jedi.
     
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  7. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

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    Oct 29, 2005
    I'm not sure if I'd classify turning over all video game production to EA as "new and interesting". Besides EA's not-so-stellar track record, it would've probably been better to not have made it exclusive to one publisher.

    And whatever was going on with Del Rey, the books and novels are being brought to a screeching halt. FFG and DHC are really the only ones continuing right now.

    I'll throw in Mercy Kill as well, but will also note that both books relied heavily on telling stories over a period of time rather than being set solely in the early Legacy era.

    Or they don't want to have to depend on the fickle nature of the video game business, especially Star Wars games - I'm sure the embarrassment of the never-to-be-resolved cliffhanger ending of TFU2 is enough.
     
  8. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    You mean because LucasArts cancelled TFU3 on its own initiative despite the first two games moving millions of units?

    Of course, SOTE was also a comic and a soundtrack and a novel, all of which have nothing to do with video games. As was TFU.
     
  9. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

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    Jul 19, 1999
    One big difference between SOTE and TFU - SOTE gave us a classic EU book, TFU didn't.
     
  10. Revanfan1

    Revanfan1 Force Ghost star 6

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    Jun 3, 2013
    Oh, yeah. Forgot MK. What do you mean they relied heavily on telling stories over a period of time? They weren't in a series, so I'm not sure I understand your point.
     
  11. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    The difference between the two projects is that the novel was the core experience of SOTE, while the game was the core experience of TFU. Lucasfilm could certainly have done more projects like SOTE, in which the video game was supplementary to the novel or novel trilogy. But I get the impression that the licensees don't like the cooperate. The New Jedi Order was supposed to be such a project, but Dark Horse dropped out.
     
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  12. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

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    Jul 19, 1999
    I didn't really perceive any such hierarchy at the time, LFL were very much about persuading people to buy the lot - book, comic, figures, CD, game.

    I think it'd be fair to say the SOTE book defied expectations in a positive fashion.
     
  13. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    The novel told the core story -- the Dark Horse comics were side stories of what was happening in the background of the novel. The video game told an abbreviated version of the novel's story.

    That's why the TFU novel was bad: the game preceded it, and Williams wasn't allowed to embellish. Not that I think it would have helped?
     
  14. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

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    Oct 16, 2008
    This. SOTE gave us Black Sun, which has been featured in countless other works since even before SOTE came out, courtesy of Darksaber of all novels. And today Black Sun is still used and has been expanded on a lot as well. Xizor made an impact. Starkiller did not. Even Dash Rendar, a supposedly one-off sort-of temporary replacement for Han, has appeared more than Starkiller.

    That's how I judge the success of SOTE vs. TFU. I can't think of any negative comments for SOTE, either game or book, while look at how polarizing TFU has been.
     
  15. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    TFU hasn't been polarizing outside of this forum and the general EU community that complains about continuity. Starkiller is more mainstream than Dash Rendar.
     
  16. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

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    Oct 16, 2008
    I'm mostly talking about the quality of the game. It didn't get great reviews, and the second got worse. And I'd almost say Dash is more mainstream because he was part of the Golden Age (IMO) of Nintendo, which gives him and SOTE a lot of nostalgia points.
     
  17. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

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    Oct 29, 2005
    That's exactly what I mean. Do you think Del Rey would've been bothering with the novels - or at the very least, not kept the second one open-ended - if LucasArts had said "Eh, we may or may not continue the series. By the way, if we don't, you can't continue the story on your own. Because we might someday. Except we won't. But we want to keep our options open."?
    It's the same nonsense that has been repeated over and over by LucasArts. The smartest tie-in move was by the X-Wing book series was to have little, if anything, to do with the actual games themselves. Republic Commando, like 'em or hate 'em, smartly relegated the game's protagonists to guest appearances since they weren't allowed to resolve any of the dangling plots from the game.

    SOTE was a middling, by-the-numbers "multimedia" project centered on a rather perfunctory game. It's a crying shame that the same thought wasn't given to the NJO - Invasion concurrent to the novels? An RPG setting that wasn't worthless? A video game or two?
    Someone keeps posting about the Pablo Hegemony bringing Law and Order to all the secondary material, or something, so who knows - maybe the new movies might mark the dawn of a New Era of coordination. Then again, I thought the same thing when TPM came out, and ended up with a copy of The Phantom Menace video game that's gathering dust somewhere in a box.

    As for TFU... it's an unfinished story that can never be continued unless EA wants to do something with it. Personally, I just assume that The Ruins of Dantooine completes the trilogy.
     
  18. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    I seriously feel like this forum has a massive sense of myopia concerning stuff like The Force Unleashed. The game is the best selling Star Wars game and LucasArts game of all time (unless SWTOR surpassed it?). Starkiller as a character has been mentioned in a non-Star Wars film because he has become achieved some degree of penetration into pop culture. The Force Unleashed was the big Star Wars event after the prequel trilogy ended and is a lot more well known than most of the Expanded Universe.
     
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  19. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

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    Oct 29, 2005
    Meaning that MF had a number of chapters that was the "history of the Falcon" interspersed in the main story; similarly, Mercy Kill had entire chapters set in the NR and NJO eras.

    I'm sure the Holiday Special has been mentioned more.

    I don't really see how sales charts or popularity should affect whether I or anyone else likes or dislikes the games. Completely separate from the EU and Star Wars and as someone that avidly plays video games, I found them tedious and uninteresting, although certainly not Colonial Marines bad. YMMV, obviously, but there's no secret conspiracy of elitism going on here. Some people like it, some people don't - and a lot of people, I imagine, both here and elsewhere, probably don't give it much thought.
     
  20. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

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    Oct 16, 2008
    Hm, what film, out of curiosity? I mean, yeah, there was Soul Calibur, but he didn't make a huge impact there.

    And as for the "big Star Wars event after the Prequels", that'd be TCW. Say what you will about the quality of that series, but it's carried SW for the last 5 years, and introduced the franchise to a new generation of kids. TFU did neither. People may have screamed their lungs out when SLJ announced TFU2, but it was but a footnote in the larger world of gaming.
     
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  21. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    Win Win, with Paul Giamatti.

    And yeah, TCW was bigger than TFU. Incidentally this forum hates both. I wonder why?

    Edit: And I suppose SWTOR is the third big Star Wars release, which is also not very popular here.
     
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  22. darklordoftech

    darklordoftech Force Ghost star 6

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    Sep 30, 2012
    Except unlike when TPM came out, LFL has new bosses (KK and Iger). GL barely paid any attention to his own company.
     
  23. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

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    Sep 2, 2012
    Most common reason, after "continuity issues" seems to me to be "Sue-ish characters" with Ahsoka being given as the most common example.

    "Grievous being further downgraded" gets brought up by fans of the old Clone Wars animated series.

    and lately there's complaints about Barriss Offee's arc.

    Maul being brought back seems a bit more divisive- some bring up the Old Wounds comic as a justification for it.
     
  24. son_of_skywalker03

    son_of_skywalker03 Force Ghost star 4

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    Dec 7, 2003
    TFU was released in 2008 (after a year's delay). TCW didn't start until 2009.
     
  25. DigitalMessiah

    DigitalMessiah Chosen One star 6

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    Feb 17, 2004
    Luke Skywalker is a Sue-ish character. Luke S.?

    That's kinda the point.

    This hipster attitude that hates everything that's popular in Star Wars here has really begun to grate on me.
     
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