What is your opinion on the EU?

During the time between TPM and AOTC I was having serious Star Wars withdrawl. I was so bad I spoiled myself rotten for AOTC and tried reading some EU. I just wanted to say that the bit of EU I read really took away from the drama of the movies. It kind of ruined the whole idea of Anakin (Skywalker) being the chosen one. It made Anakin, Luke, etc. seem a lot less important and really damaged my view of the movies for awhile. Plus, they killed off Chewbacca!

I almost abandoned Star Wars because the original story was no longer moving to me.

After a few weeks however, my common sense kicked back in. I watched the movies like a maniac and vowed never to read any EU again.

Now that I have another three years to go though untill I get my next Star Wars fix...Well, I don't know what to do...Has this ever happened to any of you guys before and do you think I should give the EU one last try?

BTW...the reason why I did'nt ask this in the EU boards is because I figured I'd get flamed and get totally biased answers so please don't lock me for posting here!

 

EU leads to the darkside.

 

I don't mind it. I say to each their own. I prefer the movies and the movie novelizations.

 

Novelizations of the movies are very good. I really liked the Attack of the Clones Novel. They are one reason why I would like to try to read some more Star Wars books but I'm just not sure if I should waste my time reading EU if its going to cause the same problem it did last time.

I really liked that book about Darth Maul that was suppouse to take place right before TPM...Thats the only EU book i've ever read that I actually liked!

Do you guys have any suggestions?

 

As far as the EU goes... it has its purposes/functions. When it comes to names of persons/places/things in the Star Wars galaxy not directly mentioned in the movie... the EU is a good source for your answers.

I used to like the novels, but after Vector Prime I gave up on the EU. Too bad Too bad, I really enjoyed it.

 

Personally I like EU.

When you didn't have anything to dealing with SW between 1983 and 1991 (excluding the cartoons) you take what you can get.

I still like it, granted some of the stories aren't the best, but where else are you going to get extra SW stories? Make them up yourself?

I say enjoy it, because after Ep.III, this is going to be the only form of SW story entertainment.

Latre!

 

I love the EU

To me there are 3 kinds of Star Wars fans.

1- The Movies Only fan.
2- The Expanded Universe Only fan.
3- The Complete Star Wars fan.

No 1's I don't understand how you can not like the EU. It gives you so much more information and storys
with your favourite characters.

No 2's I don't understand how you can like the EU without liking the movies.

and No3's Now these are the true SW fans. They love the Movies but wanted more.....
They get the best of both worlds!

I'm sorry if I offend anyone These are just my thoughts.

 

I'm a No3 fan and may I say that the TPM novelisation was actually better than the movie.

 

Expanded Universe is an Abomination. the True star wars fan will steer clear of it.

i was once tempted by the EU side, and for a long time it held me in its grasp. but i became tired of crappy stories in which characters already established did not act as themselves, or things that contradicted the CANON movies occured, or just really stupid stuff like the salamari. after about 20 of those books i came to the realization that it was a shameless milking of star wars, and got rid of my books at a garage sell.

in the end you can do 2 things:

1. consider the EU a seperate alternate universe.

2. dont read it ever

but do NOT consider it an acurate continuation of the Star Wars story as created by Lucas.

 

Personally I like to read the EU before RotJ. Actually I mainly tend to read EU around the PT era. The rest dont really take my fancy.... that's just me though

 

kenobikenobi, can you tell me what the name of that book was? (about darth maul)

i'm not a big fan of the eu, but i think it can be good for providing backgrounds for characters in the movies

take boba fett for example,

when we saw him in the ot, he was very mysterious, and that added to his character

so a lot of people would have been interested in knowing more about him

GL couldn't have put more about him into ROTJ because he wasn't important enough to the story, so anyone who liked his character could go and read something in the eu if they like


i personally want to know more about darth maul , but am gracious that we hardly knew anything about him in TPM since that made him cooler

 

I'm a fan of everything Star Wars. I like the Expanded Universe. I think it adds to the glory that is Star Wars. And I really don't see what the big deal is. Thank You!

Edit:

And the book about Maul is called "Shadow Hunter" by Michael Reaves. It's a good read, go get it!

 

What is your opinion on the EU?
It stinks. And let me quote one of the EU characters: "That's a fact"

Reasons?
Well Zahn feels that his Holy Duty is to explain every little bit that was left unexplained in the movies, like the Dagobah cave etc.
And the Empire going on for 25 years. I know the army was still there, but why would anybody with any brains want to restore the Empire? It can't be be cause of tradition. The Empire existed for 20 years and the Republic for a couple of milleniums. It can't be the Emperor. Who the hell would wanna fight for a dead tyrant with bad attitude toward anybody who disagrees with him? If anything everybody should be happy for him dying.
In my opinion they should have ended the Empire right after ROTJ and make some new (interesting) enemy not drag the Empire for 20 years and then replace them with some lousy Borg-wanny-bees.

 

Jades-Fire I really liked the way you put the fans in 3 catagories!! I'm definately in the 3rd one!!

I take the good with the bad in regards to the EU; heck if it were'nt for the EU a lot of information (like the Bounty Hunters names!!) would never have been revealed! You would'nt know who Nien Numb is or what race is Darth Maul, or even Han and Chewies origins!! Now I don't like all the EU, (Chewbacca will be missed) but I respect most of it because it really does help you know more about your favorite characters!!!

I say there is room enough in this galaxy far, far away to include it and tolerate it's existance!!

 

I'm a number 3 alright.
I like EU, but I can see why many don't. Let's be honest. There is a lot of crap. For every x-wing series you get a Planet of Twilight, a Crystal Star and a Children of the Jedi. But I'm not demanding. My rationale is this: It's Star Wars. It's the universe and characters I love. I want to get as much of them as I can.

As I said, I can understand why people don't like it. But I do. Each to his own, I say.

 

So basically...What you guys are saying is...

1. novelazations of the movies=

and

2. Using EU for extra information about the characters in Star Wars like Nieb Nueb=

and

3. Rest of EU=

?

sounds good to me!
thanks for the help!

BTW...all this talk about the EU reminded me of this is just a little observation I had...

I was listeing to a book on tape about a year ago narrated by Anthony Daniels and well...One of the reasons I turned it off is because I could'nt help cracking up (every single time) at the way he played Han and Leia! I mean don't get me wrong... He played a great Luke and of course did fine as 3PO...but his Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher impressions need work! hehe.

after edit
---------
Anthony Daniel's Harrison Ford was'nt the main reason that I stopped listening BTW...lol. I'm not THAT picky. It was mainly because the story just did'nt keep me very interested... I can't even remember what it was about now!

 

I like the EU. I really like the EU. There is a lot of EU with living Chewie, if that bothers you so much. There were many good reasons for killing him off, not the least of them being to bring drama back. The EU is not considered cannon. However, it is official continuation. Lucas okays all major decisions. He reserves the right to contradict it, but it's usually salvageable. I'd definitely give the EU another chance. Even post Vector Prime. If you like Star Wars, who wouldn't want more. Most of the novels are very good at capturing the spirit of SW. The characters are the same ones we've come to love so dearly. Even when they change, there's still something familiar. There are trillions of stories that remain untold. Why not let them be known?

 

I may sound like a D.A. but what is EU?

 

In my opinion they should have ended the Empire right after ROTJ and make some new (interesting) enemy not drag the Empire for 20 years and then replace them with some lousy Borg-wanny-bees.

Don't want to insult your opinion or anything, I just want to point something out. In the EU, the Empire ended 6 years after RotJ in the widely disliked comic series Dark Empire, Dark Empire II and Empire's End. Everything that came afterwards and claimed itself as the Empire was nothing more than splinter groups and remnants.

Anyway, by that I guess most can tell that I am a completist. I love the Expanded Universe and I love the movies. Some of the Expanded Universe stuff is pretty ingenious IMO, like that Jedi Outcast game. Great stuff. Or the X-wing novels by Aaron Allston. Some of the EU I really don't care for, but I still regard it as part of the official storyline. Examples of the stories that I don't care for are "The Crystal Star" and The Hand of Thrawn duology.

 

I find some of the EU to be somewhat entertaining. (i.e. Timothy Zahn, Tales from Series)

However, as I read them, I am not really thinking that this is what would happen to the characters.

George has the final say on what happens, and until you see it in a movie or he writes an all encompassing STAR WARS Encyclopedia, the EU will just be fun stories out of a fan's imagination.

EDIT: Obi-Wan-Jedi-Gurl,
EU=Expanded Universe, which includes books that fans have written but aren't necessarily true to Lucas' story.

 

well I realy don't like the Timothy Zahn stuff, but most of the PT era EU is really good-esp Darth Maul: shadow hunter, which is probably the most flat out exciting book I've read for ages,even including stuff outside the SW books-the rest of the PT era books expand on the films in a believable way(no cloned emperors,or Darkside Lukes there)
and help provide insight on stuff like the trade federations motives for the events of TPM, the complacency of the Jedi etc, and anyone who claims that THOSE books arent an "accurate" continuation of GL's universe is wrong-fair enough, they don't have to read them, but they make sense, are referred to in the films"border dispute on Ansion" to give one recent example

 

Thanx Darth_Hater!

I don't like some of the books cause they are terrible and they just don't seam right when I read them.

 

Well, I personally take things from the EU with a large grain of kosher salt. If it fits in with and doesn't contradict anything from the movies, and it's written fairly well, fine. If it's crap, it gets flushed like crap. There are some fairly decent EU stories, and there are some that are complete and utter *****. In some cases, EU is very helpful for background information, and other times it creates more questions than it answers. I personally liked most of the Zahn series, for the most part it felt very Star Warsy. There was some BS though, like the Ysalamiri, Mara and the whole emperor's hand thing, and the cortosis thing. On the whole, I enjoyed the overall story though. The EU really is a mixed bag, so I just take the good stuff with me and leave the bad.

 

To me, the EU is just fan fiction x5. I read some of it, like a little of it, but I take it with a grain of salt.

 

As my profile says, I support the EU.

Once Episode 3 has gone and passed, theres gonna be no more Star Wars, so we have to turn to the books. And even if you dont agree with what they mean to the Movies, most of them are still good reads. The EU adds a whole new depth to characters shown 2 seconds in the movies.