Lit Why the Old Republic is awesome, and a potential creative gold mine

It's simple, really. You have thousands of years of vague history that will not be touched by hollywood. You don't have to worry about clashing with "Lucas Cannon" or "Disney Cannon." And there's already enough general outline that you have a base to work with, but you have SO much that you could possibly write about. This is prime real estate for good star wars writers to get creative. I know if I was a star wars writer, this would be my era.

Good examples are Knight Errant, Bane Trilogy, and all the "Old Republic" books. Just write some awesome stories, build up these characters, and re-define star wars. IMO, the great EU writers as well as the star wars fanbase should be in control of what happens in the Star Wars universe. Lucas created the original concept, but now, we can do it better.

You can even have books along the lines of "Kenobi," except you won't be dealing with a character whose "official cannon" could clash at any time Disney wants to change something. And you won't have to constantly be comparing it to all the things we already "know" about Kenobi from the movies and beyond.

Thoughts?

 

Just watch the TOR cinematic trailers. Content in that era will happen because of those massive battles.

 

All depends if Disney want to return to the Old Republic era. For now, it's OT and onwards. It's ashame because there is so much freedom to be creative.

 

Oh I have, many times
There's still SO much to work with there, and everything in between.

We can only hope not

 

I like the Old Republic mostly because we don't have to stick with Skywalkers again, history has to go on and other heroes have to emerge. Sadly in the post RotJ EU, other than Legacy they still don't want to let the big three go. Even the main hero in Legacy is a Skywalker.

 

I think Disney will move around the timeline with the standalone films.

 

LOTF was originally going to be an ancient Republic series of nine books, but was shifted to post-NJO before any details were announced.

 

Honestly, the reason the Old Republic is awesome for me is it actually has some semblance of balance sort of.

Skywalkers aren't around.
Lightsabers actually have a counter.
The common person actually seems to matter.

But, the era still has the issue of one upping force abilities, technology and visuals jumping around (Personally, I liked the KOTOR visuals better than the TOTJ or the SWTOR I'm sure their are people that liked TOTJ or that like SWTOR's style), and the abominable design of the Sith Empire. We could have had 1,000 years of stories of what happens in the Sith Empire but, instead we have a crazy pants born evil emperor that kills the dark council whenever he wants and has a council that is horrible ineffective.

 

In regards to TOR: I don't mind the Empire's design; it doesn't feel ancient, but it's not too far ahead of KOTOR. Also, the emperor isn't bad; I would prefer them to have a more efficient leadership that succeeds him. In addition, it would be nice if they focused on having the Empire and Republic fight each other instead of third parties. But overall I like what TOR has done. The different classes have made it feel like a complete and alive universe -- there's a lot of potential there.

 

awesome idea bro you should make a kickstarter

 

Yeah, while I like SWTOR's story and many characters, the design of the Emperor is chessy and they tried to connect it with Palpatine's empire, like the ships and high human culture, which seems a bit weird.

 

The high human culture was found in KOTOR. Its It's displayed by the first Imperial officer you come across on Taris -- I doubt the officer was Tarisian so it still counts.

I also don't think the ship designs are any closer to the OT than in KOTOR. The Thranta Cruisers are just bulkier versions of the Hammerheads in KOTOR and the Harrowers resemble Star Destroyers only slightly more than Interdictors. Lastly the Sith uniforms are just as Imperial as in KOTOR. While the Republic uniforms are obviously copied from Clone Trooper, the Republic soldiers in KOTOR were based very clearly off of the troops on the Tantive IV.

 

Er, what? The Sith Empire of TOR cribs much more aesthetically from the Galactic Empire then Revan and Malak's ever did. The standard trooper armor is only barely more than a palette-swapped stormtrooper (although some of the less common designs are more interesting), the logo is virtually identical, and the Harrowers have much more of a SD-style wedge shape than the KOTOR Interdictors.

Though honestly, this is all kind of a digression, as I don't think aesthetics are going to play any role in whether Disney will or should set future stories in the Old Republic era.

 

I always disliked swtor's blatant ripoff of OT elements. Especially because their empire came from the Rim. All the pseudo-British and human high culture stuff in the OT originated from Coruscant or the Core worlds, so the fact that the Sith act more snooty than the actual galactic capital is annoying. Revan's Sith Empire had the accent too, but at least Revan's fleet was made up of former Republic people. Not to mention the Harrowers which are less original than the Leviathan or the Centurions, former Republic ships.

The Old Republic era is interesting but the focus for quite a while will be the sequel era. Also, never know what offhand comments might be made that will deny story possibilities. TCW was full of stuff like that, and sadly TCW will be a standard for most Star Wars stuff to follow.

 

I don't mind the cribs from the OT in TOR. It makes sense to me with Palpatine saying "once more the Sith will rule the galaxy." So he's played this game, sneaking old Sith designs into the Republic fleet. As far back as TOTJ, we already had Sith-influenced guards that looked an awful lot like stormtroopers...

 

And this guy

 

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd...

 

Nothing like a charge of light brigade reference.

The Old Republic and Pre-Republic eras are indeed gold mines, there are just so many opportunities and place to go with the old EU timeline. I think it would be great to see things like the Alsakan Conflicts, the Zhell/Taung war and other early Republic conflicts get their day in the sun. Less of a concentration on Jedi vs Sith stuff would also be nice. For me, I would also love to see some big epic slugfests between some major powers in the SW Galaxy, something to make up for the Clone Wars media in general, at least from my perceptive.

 

Kotor 1 sold over a million units, won numerous awards, and was rated as Game of the Year by IGN and numerous other sources. Kotor 2 achieved similar, but less success, with it's major criticism being that it was too rushed. Both games together spawned an entire era that received more and more attention, books, comics, another video game, and references in other EU works across the board. That right there is more than enough reason for Disney to use the time period.​

 

Honestly, while I like the characters of Ulic and Cay Qel-Droma, overall I wouldn't be interested in the TOR era if not for KOTOR and KOTOR II. KOTOR II was my first introduction to the era, so my first experience with it was that it had a similar aesthetic to the movie universe. So when I read TOTJ, I was dumbfounded at how dissimilar it was to KOTOR (especially since one of the arcs was called Knights of the Old Republic). And then those games spawned the KOTOR comics, which are without a doubt the best stories told in the era, so they have my everlasting gratitude on that score.

 

I like Exar Kun a lot. He's quite amazing as a badass antagonist.

 

1. Why would Palpatine have any respect for past Sith Lords? He believes himself to be the only person worthy of ruling.

2. Wasn't Palpatine hiding the fact that he's Sidious? If you were secretly a Nazi, would you put swastikas into organizations that you control?

 

Well the Clones looked more like republic troops; so maybe he was trying to refer back to Republic hero's. I can't think of an explanation as to why he'd go with Star Destroyers though -- those would very obviously be Sith.

 

If there's one thing that I want Disney to change about the old republic era, it's the TOR Sith Empire's resemblence to the Galactic Empire.

 

There's a good argument for that, but I love TOR too much that I'd rather have that recanonized. I'm sorry; I'm extremely bias and won't listen to rational arguments about the aesthetic of TOR.