ST Worried for Episode VII?

It would be like some juvenile delinquent discovering his mother's make-up kit and suddenly proclaiming himself the Joker.

 

darklordoftech: Finally noticed your sig- LOVE it! Ha ha!

Totally agree with your last point, btw. The only Sith that I would find acceptable is someone or something predating Palpatine. Anything less would be a disappointment.

 

Thank you!

I too hope that any Sith that appears predates Palps. Having the oldest villain in the entire story die 2/3 into the story is anticlimactic.

 

Yes, I am worried that they are going to follow the trends and make the ST too complex and dark, like Nolan's Batman movies. Star Wars is like a Fairy Tale/Bed Time Story; it should be simple. I just wish that we had Hyperspace, or some other Official info, to counteract the bad rumors. I am still hopeful though.

 

Here's why I'm not worried. The Originals will never be topped. They were just a moment in history, in time that made millions of people happy around the world for the time they were released till today almost 40 years later. I went into the prequels with this idea so I wasn't disappointed as some people were. So going into the Sequel Trilogy, I'm not going to put unrealistic expectations on these films. So I can just enjoy them. Also Lucas isn't as involved so I can't judge them with his films. This is a new chapter. But naturally fans will judge these Episodes against the PT and OT.

 

Sorry if someone mentioned this already (I'm sure it has) but what's the reasoning they don't just follow Timothy Zahn's books despite being noncanon? I'm seriously worried about the future of Star Wars and I'll rebel (pun intended) if they screw this up.

So with these movies, are they pretending like the Yuuzhan Vong and Grand Admiral Thrawn don't exist? Because that's just f'ed up if so.... seriously. Unless these films live up to the hype the non-canon books will be the "official" story, at least in my heart.

 

They want no constraints from the EU, so the EU is now just legend, and they can create a post Jedi world without any restrictions at all to make what they believe is the best possible story.

 

You said it yourself: noncanon, i.e. apocrypha. Lucas always said the books were a separate universe, so it's not at all surprising his outlines for episodes VII-IX had nothing to do with the EU. And FWIW, the direction they're taking TFA sounds 100x more interesting than anything in the EU.

 

Knights of the Old Republic is the only EU I care enough about to want to see canon.

 

Who says his death was only 2/3 into the story?

Canonicity aside, let's start with the most obvious: Zahn's books took place 5 years after ROTJ. It's now 31 years after ROTJ was released. Slight disparity there. An enormous amount of the subject matter would need to be changed, such as Leia being pregnant with twins; Luke still being so unsure about his role as first of the new Jedi that he seeks out the rumored Jedi Master of Jomark; Mara Jade bearing the Emperor's "last command" to kill Luke for 3 decades instead of 5 years; the Republic, while only comprised of a quarter of the old Imperial territory, still being so fragile & fractious; Karrde's organization still being a fairly recent endeavor filling the hole left by Jabba; the villain, Thrawn, having been off in the Unknown Regions for three decades, doing who knows what, before finally saying "I'ma try to defeat the Rebellion with 5 Star Destroyers, a hidden fleet, and a whole bunch of brand-new clones & salamanders!"; C'baoth himself, somehow being a venerable Jedi Master that could guide 60-something Luke while only being a few years older than him--or probably being in his late 80s, if he were meant to be a Jedi Master before Order 66, perhaps... there are all kinds of problems with it.

Another huge problem? All three books take place within one year. The SW films generally skip years, or even decades, between episodes. Zahn put a lot of "SW-isms" in the books, making them 'feel' fairly movie-like with their structure, but while they'd make fun animated movies on DVD, akin to DC movies adapting popular comic stories but in no way tied to any 'canon', they wouldn't be as great as actual films as many folks think. And I enjoyed the hell out of those books, and still think they read pretty well despite their faults, and would still love some sort of "Thrawn-type" event to have happened around 5 years after ROTJ in the new canon, perhaps briefly referenced in the new films, although it would obviously be much changed from what the stories currently encompass--but an alien Imperial warlord, elsewhere when Endor happened, threatening the Rebellion/Republic in a way they haven't experienced since Endor... perhaps if the "cold war" rumors pan out, it could be the last time they were in serious danger of the war getting 'hot' again... maybe Luke discovered a dark Jedi, not quite Sith (and not at all sane), perhaps many other similar things happened back then, before his power grew, before he ran off to hide in isolation. It'd be fun to see that explored in the new post-ROTJ canon, streamlining it, making it work with the new backstory we'll get from VII, etc...

...but the old EU, love it or hate it or anything in-between, was a colossal mess. Especially the Bantam years before they hired anyone to keep track of the continuity and just threw anything & everything at the wall to see what stuck. The Yuuzhan Vong were one of the most divisive additions to the EU. The continuity of the EU had also progressed beyond the 30-ish-years-post-ROTJ timeframe of the ST. I hope they'll freely pull characters, species, locations, etc from the EU in all the various projects we'll be seeing going forward, and wouldn't mind at all seeing certain stories imported into the canon in some fashion, perhaps as retellings (think Marvel's Ultimate Universe) that would fit with the new narrative... but I accepted months ago that the EU had to be set aside as its own thing, an alternate reality that branched off from the PT & OT, and mostly didn't even mesh with TCW (mostly). It's still there... just like if you get tired of reading about the 616 Peter Parker, you can go read about his younger Ultimate Universe self.

 

Definitely worried since J.J. and Disney are apparently on a mission to make this the OT 2.0.

 

It will be an average movie, at best the second most successful film of 2015. I'm not worried about it.

 

They're trying the hardest they can to make it look like the originals, so if it stinks.. This could mess with our childhoods far more than the prequels did. I'd never want to see an AT-AT again.

Another thing, do you really think Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are going to throw themselves into their roles? They have 30 years of back story to catch up on for a start, and only found out a couple of years ago.

This whole thing seems rushed.

 

Rushed? It's been over 2 years since the announcement and more than a year to go before the movie is released. And you call that rushed?

 

Rushed? This was supposed to come out in May. It got pushed to December.

 

Ford and Fisher are not making a baby for the movie. They're actors. Figuring out the characters based on unknown events of 30 years time is what they're being paid for.

 

I've never been entirely confident in J.J. Abrams's storytelling or directing abilities being a great fit for this project, but knowing that he's only directing the first one and the hope that Lucas's basic story for the trilogy as a whole hasn't been discarded keeps me fairly optimistic.

 

You don't know that. It could be a fantastic film...probably better than any film in the saga. Highly unlikely, but it's possible.

 

When I write something, you're encouraged to take it as conceded that I already know it's only my humble opinion, and I can't actually predict the future. But as a purely statistical exercise, the new Star Wars movie is, as you wrote, extremely unlikely to be anything special.

But I do know for a fact that I'm not worried about it.

 

I just want some sort of back story regarding the Sith and the Prophecy

 

First Point: I feel like the TCW did a lot of fan service to make up for poor writing. Let's leave it at that.

Second point: Fair Enough. But general opinion plays a part in first impression of any material. The PT reputation is clouded by irrational hatred.

You are not alone.

 

Aside from the mess the EU was, they can now pick and choose from parts of the EU and use it in movies.

I've said this before, there is very little they can do in the ST that won't (in some form) trounce on familiar EU territory.

 

This is true; in other topics, a popular discussion about the sequel involves Luke potentially accidentally killing Han who's trying to stop Luke from killing Driver, his son (or Driver kills Han when Han tries to intervene), who'll be injured and become the cyborg from the concept art gazing at the burned-out Vader helm... and if Ridley is Driver's sister (tho not likely a twin), you've got a Solo boy who went dark and a Solo girl who'll likely be facing him by trilogy's end, to either redeem or kill her brother. Smells a lot like Jaina vs Jacen, doesn't it? Even if their characters are very different, they don't share the twin-Force-bond, Driver's motivations are unique, etc. Just as Luke actually falling to the dark side between trilogies would smack of Dark Empire, or Palpatine (or really any old Sith) being cloned would smack of DE, etc.

Let's just hope they never pick anything resembling Waru to use in the new films/EU

 

I agree. I'm not worried because my expectations aren't unrealistic. There's been tons of mediocre & flat-out awful content with Star Wars over the past 30 years, mixed in with too few bright spots. Same with lots of other revisited franchises. In Star Wars' case I'll accept the risk in exchange for more movies, even if it screws with the originals. I don't know how much more mileage I can get out of Empire.

With these new ones, George Lucas isn't writing them (outline aside), or directing. They have a top-notch crew from Kennedy on down. Sounds like they've got a great budget + economies of scale with Disney that LFL alone wouldn't have. I wouldn't have chosen Abrams to direct but it's not like he's an absurd choice. They have everything they need to get the job done and breathe some new life into the whole thing so there's hope.

Then again you can't assure anything by just throwing a bunch of money and talent at a production. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, and it's hard to predict the chemistry between actors or any number of other aspects. I think they had a perfect storm early on with McQuarrie's designs, a cast that mostly clicked, and the right pool of creative talent that made it happen. It's tough to compete with a perfect storm that it typically takes to make a classic.

Based on Abrams' prior work and apparent commitment to the project I imagine it will probably be at least decent enough, though maybe a little cookie-cutter and redundant. The kind of movie that winds up 85+ on Rotten Tomatoes while it riles up more serious fans for a variety of reasons. There are some big divisions between Star Wars fans in what they want and don't want. If JJ can do for SW what he did with Trek I'd be happy enough.