Saga The OT is gonna get buried under tons of new canon

When I was over at starwars.com voting in the This Is Madness event, something struck me...

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How popular Ahsoka has become. I knew that she had grown to be loved by many fans, but not at that level that we see here. Luke has a fairly safe margin leading to victory here, but how could it even be THAT close? What I think that we are seeing is the new reality of the overall fanbase.

We, the old guard (folks that grew up with the OT) are not the be-all and end-all of Star Wars fandom no matter how much some of us like to believe that we are. There is an entire generation of fans that are not going to be bothered if Luke's on-screen presence in TFA is relegated to a nod at what is to come in the next two films.

We have a HUGE sect of the fanbase who are fans of the "new" Star Wars. This is evident with the other polls as well...

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Granted, these are early play-in rounds and the Big 3 of the OT will likely dominate later rounds, but consider the winners of the last 2 years. Yoda and Obi-Wan. Their popularity skyrocketed due to the PT and even more so with TCW. There is a big shift in the fanbase.

We old-timers cannot be arrogant enough to think that how the Big 3 are handled is going to make or break this sequel trilogy. It might make it or break it for some on an individual basis, but overall, much of the fanbase has moved on from the PT as being the best of Star Wars. This is what JJ and KK are dealing with. They are crafting a new trilogy for a new era of Star Wars. Our OT heroes are here to facilitate that while hopefully giving us some closure for those characters.

I said it before and I took some heat for it, but I will say it again. Star Wars is moving forward. There will come a time when Finn, Rey and Poe are every bit as loved as Luke, Han and Leia are.


Anyways, these are just some thoughts that I had. Recently in my personal life I have had to come to some conclusions about my age and how things have changed. It sucks, but it's happening and it is what spurred me to post this thread.

 

Good post - I was one of the people who voted for Ahsoka over Luke, and I see what you are getting at.

 

Each fan will continue to have their own tastes. The new stuff won't invalidate the OT to her fans. It's not a competition in spite of many fans trying to make it seem like one. I am an OOT and Post-RotJ fan and I will remain so regardless of labels.

 

I'm 22 years old and prefer the OT over Rebels BIG time. I am not interested in the ST either.
I'd like Luke's adventures between ANH and ROTJ expanded, but I am not interested much in what happens after ROTJ.
The OT had an interesting conflict and it concluded in ROTJ.
I liked TCW(not all of it), but better than Rebels. I wish Ahsoka wasn't created now.
I like parts of the PT, but overall it falls short of the OT to me.
I am concerned about the OT getting flooded by Disneyish and PTish stuff.
I like the feel and look of some of the older Sci-Fi stuff from the 80's better than a bunch of green screen and over powered characters when it comes to Star wars.
I'd rather have Star Wars made in the style of stuff like ESB,ANH, Dune, Krull, etc.
I feel that the New Star Wars is going to lack what got me into it in the first place.

Is Luke Skywalker going to get replaced?
I don't like them changing the OT by adding Rebels. Are they trying to make Star Wars appeal or be relevant to a new generation? Younger fans like me and even younger than me can still like the old stuff.
I don't want Star wars turned into an 8 year old Saturday morning cartoon.

 

The thing is as long as there were only the 6 movies things could be look at in very simplistic term of this came first and then this came later.

TCW starting changing all that as a new generation of fans that were created had that as their first Star Wars. If anything they would first gravitate to the prequels which were the stories before and after TCW.

Now we have fans that view Rebels as their first Star Wars and just as likely they will go back to the other animated series (especially as now they can see the past adventures of Ashoka). Live action or animation it's all the same.

That is the reason why Lucasfilm is doing a re-education of the OT which really now are only one segment of the entire story. Even though the PT is 10-16 years old they are still the newer movies by far and much more likely to have been seen by the younger set. The OT is probably behind the overall curve of the younger fans catching up.

Many people who were 5 when TPM or AOTC or ROTS came out have just as not likely bothered with watch the older movies unless their parents were also fans as opposed to viewers and general audience.

Their experience of viewing and process it all be be so different from what we had. As I said this whole idea of trying to protect the "secrets" of the OT is a nigh -impossible task. If kids who see Rebels and Vader for the first time want to find out more about him the first thing on Google is Darth Vader (born Anakin Skywalker).

That is where it all started though with 8 year old George Lucas watching the children adventure serials on TV that were originally made for Saturday matinees.

 

How does one vote in such a poll?

Also, is it just me or do both Ezra and Sabine look like they're in a wind machine?

 

starwars.com

 

The fact that things are liked better in Star Wars than the OT is not wrong at all.
PT+OT+TCW+Rebels+Legends+New Material is all Star Wars.
Some people's hero is Anakin,the others Luke and the others is Obi Wan,Ahsoka etc.
I personally like 1-3 sometimes better,then I like 4-6 better and then I like TCW better .(I like all Star Wars)

 

Thanks.

 

Well guys we now no its been hijacked but ashoka is losing now.

 

Just because winds change doesn't mean something is hijacked. People like what they like it's all fine.

 

Moving this one to Saga. Personally, I welcome this kind of broadening of the fanbase. Anything to break down PT v OT is good a this point in time!

 

I will be so fascinated to see what happens to those relatively few people who basically only seem to really like the first 2 movies and nothing else has really done it for them since 1980.

I don't know what makes them think that the new movies are going to do anything for them.

 

I think you overassume what may speak to OTers.

 

As I was saying...

 

I didn't even live in the 80's and still prefer the OT, I like the look of it better.
There are elements of the PT I do like such as Naboo, Dooku, Coruscant, Padme, Satine, some of the music,... but overall I like the style of the older movies better.

I like it when they use locations instead of blue/green screen a lot, not that green screen is bad or CGI. LOTR used CGI, but it also used locations.

Also I preferred the character conflict in the OT, the story interest me more and that's my personal taste. The ST won't have that, but spinoffs might add to what I did like, have to wait and see, but seeing that's it Disney I think it may fall short, but perhaps still be okay. I've never really been a Disney fan. I never liked mickey mouse, even as a small child.

I liked that Luke wasn't OP. I prefer to see a "weaker person" in a struggle with a stronger opponent . He got to grow and still came out alive. I don't want an overpower starkiller or a 14 girl(Sabine) that fights stormtrooper like its a game.

Despite what people say I disagree Rebels and Star Wars OT are on the same maturity level. OT is kids and adults alike. Rebels looks 6-8 years old to me.(my opinion)

The good guys didn't always win, Luke lost a battle and almost died. The rebels suffered a major defeat on Hoth. Bad guys were dangerous, yes I know about Mr. shoulder tapper in ROTJ.

Stoormtroopers killed Jawas in ANH and Owen and Beru.
Even the PT had tragedy and struggle.

I like emotion movies and I don't get it from Rebels. If I could describe Disney with a word it would be plastic.

 

If Lucas had made all three films, it would be as he had wanted them which was a story of generations. That was one of the ideas going back before he finished ROTJ and decided to put the films on hold. He had said way back when that after Luke's story ended, we'd see a new generation of heroes fighting their own battles and the older generation would only be a small part of it. Looking at what has been finished, that was the case. The story starts with one generation and ends with another. This is continuing now regardless of Lucas's involvement.

The point of "Rebels" is to tell a story set within the same time period, but it won't overshadow the OT. This goes back to what Lucas said in 1993, when he wrote the intro for the reprint of "Splinter Of The Mind's Eye". When he said that there were more stories to tell that even he himself couldn't tell. That's why he allowed the EU to exist and that has continued now with what Disney and Lucasfilm will do without him. And "Rebels" is not exactly Saturday morning fare, especially since new episodes air Monday nights. That's like saying, "Batman: The Animated Series" was Saturday morning fare, because it aired on Saturday mornings a few times during the 90's. Even though it aired in the afternoons and a few times in prime time with good ratings.

 

The OT will never be buried!
But I think the geek community at large - not just Star Wars fans - tends to forget what the purpose of their favorite properties/franchises' new movies/material is... it's always to introduce a new generation to these things. The kids of today who will beg their parents to buy them the new lightsaber this Christmas, they are the oil that will keep this machine running! They shouldn't pander to us oldies.

 

Oh yes they should...who's gonna pay for that sparkly new lightsabre....hmmm?

 

In a way, it has been for years. That goes for the PT too, though to a lesser extent

Look at the EU, old or new, and think about just how much of that information you accept regardless of if it's in the saga or not
I don't remember at any point Tarkin's first name being Wilhuff to be revealed in ANH. I don't recall Veers' being referred to by his first name of Maximillian, and I definitely don't remember anyone mentioning "Sheev Palpatine"

Not just that, but events too that are just sort of there in your head, stuff like the Republic's age, events like the Hyperspace War or whatever, the origins of lightsabers, hyperspace, vehicles, etc.

Hell, even certain terms! I'm sure a good deal of us here would know what you meant if you said "Dun Moch," "Soresu," or "Jar'kai" or other similar terms never explicitly named in the saga

If you wanted saga purity, with no "burying" whatsoever, you'd have to unlearn a lot of what you've learned and forget about a good deal of characters you know, like them or not

Of course, TCW and Rebels are much, much bigger "EU" than the books or games, given their representation on starwars.com, but my point stands

 

personally i think this is why gl made the newer ot changes. whether you love 'em or hate 'em, the changes and effects will be more accepted as the years go on and younger people see them for the first time. if you introduce young children to the ot they will accept it more but older kids have t.v. shows they watch with more effects in them.

the group of oot fans are getting older and there are more new fans everyday. i think there should be an oot release for the fans but i'm more than fine with the newer versions. gl new what he was doing.

 

It really isn't about newer vs older. It's about what is easier for the individual to connect with and it is NOT down to age or generation regardless how oft some paint it that way. Neither is wrong.

 

Personally I'm not a big fan of the notion of canon at all, but if the OT was to be 'buried' it wouldn't be by things like Tarkin and Palpatine's first names. It would be by large scale contradictions which came to be widely accepted as the actual story of SW.

 

Well said, Yak.

 

It's not really a case of 'burying' the OT though... it's a new entry point to the epic saga of the GFFA for a new generation. The OT was the first, but there are a lot of people (myself being one of those) whose first exposure to the Star Wars Universe on the big screen was the PT, because I wasn't even born when the first three were made. I've since seen them, and enjoyed them - I saw them long before the PT in fact. But cinematically, Phantom Menace is where it began for me, and for that reason I am never going to dislike it as much as some will. It's been nearly 40 years since A New Hope was first released; cinema has changed, audiences have changed, it's brand new and a new Star Wars must be made for the audience of today, not those of the past.

Lucas has willingly and gladly removed himself from the position of control over the story of Star Wars, by choice. People like David Filoni and JJ Abrams are the storytellers of the next generation of stories and their vision is going to inform a whole new audience of what Star Wars now is - not what it was, but what it will be going forward. It's evolution, basically, and it's not an easy process.