Discussions Unpopular Expanded Universe Opinions

This is a thread for, as the title says, sharing our unpopular opinions about any Expanded Universe work, be it books, comic book series, short stories, concepts, characters, even RPGs, both Legends and Canon, don't be shy and share your love or hate of a controversial work Thought this would make for a good topic here.

I'll start with mine: I love Darksaber, it was a thrilling, exciting adventure that had a lot of heart put into it, great continuity from all across the existing EU at the time, followed up on some character arcs that were left underdeveloped (such as Daala, Pellaeon, Kyp, and even gave Dorsk 81 character growth), gave us a lot of background on the Death Star creation with Lemelisk being one of my favorite characters from the Bantam era, and mixed up humour and seriousness perfectly.

The parts i like the least are the ones with Luke and Callista and that's just because they aren't written as an interesting couple at all here, feels like KJA didin't want to write about them, and the excuse for why she leaves Luke leaves a lot to be desired.

There's just a lot to love here, if it wasn't for the Callista bits (minus the Wampa fight, that was amazing hahaha) this book would be Anderson's best work, which in itself is high praise in my eyes as i love pretty much everything he's written (i guess that's an unpopular opinion in itself).

I feel Anderson's books capture the Original Trilogy's feel and characters while also building an ever-expanding universe from everything that came before.

Now it's your turn, hehehe.

 

I think Anakin Solo isn't that great. In fact, he is quite bland. He's just a man of action. He fights, he loves Tahiri and nothing else. I'm not sure how much the decision to make Jacen the main hero changed Anakin, but even in the YJK series, Jacen had more depth than NJO!Anakin, and it increased with the NJO

I want to remind that this is only my opinion, I don't want to offend his fans in any way

 

George Lucas is responsible for the Expanded Universe. George Lucas reads comic books. George Lucas picked up a Dark Horse comic book at least once in his life.

 

Some EU works deserved live action or animated adaptations
Yuuzhan Vong are good villains
SWTOR is a good game but is a bad sequel
There are some dumb things in both EU and Disney Canon
i believe that in some point Lucas Sequels and TV Show Underworld will include EU characters like Mara Jade or Galen Marek those characters are too popular like Ahsoka to be ignored

 

Jedi Academy trilogy is better than the Thrawn trilogy.

SWTOR is better than KOTOR 2, KOTOR is better than KOTOR 2, Tales of the jedi is better than KOTOR 2.

 

Heh, to think all of these are considered unpopular these days...

I actually agree with this, i enjoyed reading the JAT more than Zahn's trilogy, maybe it was because my experience was tainted by reading the comic version first (while Anderson's books were my initiation to Star Wars novels) but i can't deny that i was way more thrilled by the plot of the Jedi Academy books.

Interesting, i thought KOTOR 2 was widely considered as a lesser sequel due to it being unfinished or something along those lines, but i may have misinterpreted the general opinion of the game.

And since you guys mentioned SWTOR a couple times, i'm gonna go for another unpopular opinion of mine: I prefer playing SWTOR over both KOTOR titles, purely from a gameplay perspective, this is probably due to having played SWTOR first and getting used to it over the course of 5 years of making tons of characters to explore all the stories, but still i find it more polished and fun to play, even if KOTOR's stories are sometimes way better than SWTOR's (especially when it comes to the expansions that are very hit or miss).

 

They have been unpopular since the PT and people started to hate Lucas.

I read them both after seeing TFA (and maybe TLJ), I found the Thrawn books just good at best (the first) and bad at worst (the last) I found the characters dumb and honestly it didn't grab me. While JAT was an interesting ride, it did things I liked (coming off of the ST it was great) and it also explored the fallout of events, it didn't just kill the bad guy and end we saw the fallout of things and that was neat.

I think part of it may be because my fav character is Luke and I never cared for Han. I don't find Han cool, I never have.

KOTOR 2 is a lesser sequel, though not because it wasn't finished. It is just a bleak and mean story with mean characters. But that is why some people love it. I mean this thing gets held up as the greatest Star Wars work ever, and it's just a really boring one note story with uninteresting characters and boring combat. \

SWTOR's gameplay is a lot better. I just wish it were on console, and single player off-line. So I could keep it and not just until the server is shut down.

 

The EU is dislike it because its very realistic examples, KOTOR 2 and KOTOR comics making Jedi evil, in Tales of the Jedi Jedi genocide Sith species, Revan turn Sith to save the Galaxy, Dooku turn Sith to destroy corrupt Republic and more some fans just want Star Wars to be a fairy tale and its ok

 

Thrawn, Dark Empire and Crimson Empire are much much better sequels than the ST we got from Disney.
The Old Republic era (KOTOR, TOR, Tales of the Jedi etc.) are like the PT should've been.
The New Jedi Order anthology should get its own animated TV show.

I used to have a crush on him.

 

The Vong are not only compelling villains but are a complex, deeply relatable(from a human perspective) and dynamic fictional culture.

Jaina Solo is a mean spirited, cold, and callous woman.

 

I liked Jaina a lot when KJA wrote her
Then the NJO and the Denningverse arrived

Speaking of KJA, another unpopular opinion : his stories are great, and he has, among other things, written the best versions of Kyp, Jaina, Zekk, Tenel Ka and Lowbacca

 

I can sort of understand the IU logic for Daala being Chief of State. Like it’s super dumb on its face. But the context barely works-she was on the winning side, isn’t tainted by (recent) war crimes, and doesn’t overly inflame anyone. I can buy her being installed as a compromise candidate to prevent the war continuing. Assuming the Hapans, Caedus loyalists, and so on wanted to fight on. Nobody is thrilled by her but no one is willing to continue the war over her. Which seems sort of reasonable if you stretch it.

 

Expanded universe writers copying the Jedi formula from the prequels was a bad idea and it just makes the Jedi come across as incompetent throughout all of Star Wars history.
The best portrayals of the Jedi imo are The New Jedi Order book series and the Tales of the Jedi comics (and all the Jedi stories before the prequels) because in both of those series, the Jedi are flawed yet still competent and relatable, they’re not a bunch of dogmatic moral absolutists that sit in their council chairs and lecture anyone that challenges their ideals. (Looking at you Vrook Lamar)
I just find the pre-prequel Jedi more interesting as they have more distinct personalities. There are exceptions to this for the post prequel Jedi but they’re always a Jedi outcast or a maverick of some sort like Zayne Carrick or Revan.

 

With the Denningverse they insisted on repeating the prequels, to the point of copying all the faults of the Jedi of the old republic, faults that led to Sidious' rise to power and the downfall of Anakin
The problem is that unlike the prequels where Yoda points out how much they screwed up and have to use their forced exile to think about their actions, Luke never admitted how badly he handled the situation (he knew since Bloodlines that Jacen was falling, yet he took his time without ever openly attempting to bring his nephew back into the light, and even when he defeated Jacen in battle and had the perfect opportunity to capture him, he did not seized this opportunity)

 

Yeah Luke post NJO is more of a problem for the jedi/galaxy than a help.

I also think the jedi are most interesting as a lose organisation, than a militant order, except after a long war (like in SWTOR or Darth Bane books).

 

You’d think that a much older and wiser Luke would be able to redeem his nephew who he’s known and loved for years when a much younger Luke redeemed his father that he barely knew. But no, he tries and fails to bring back Jacen once and then decides “let’s kill him” because we’re the good guys and therefore anyone against us is evil and deserves to die. That’s morality in the Denningverse everyone.

I’m a big Anakin Solo fan but I understand your criticism of his character, he was very much an action hero archetype. I guess it’s because I’ve been the same age as Anakin while reading the NJO and because of that I can relate to him. Although I also relate to Jacen a lot as well. It might also be because I read Junior Jedi Knights before I started NJO so I got to know Anakin a bit beforehand.

 

The Clone Wars multimedia project > The Clone Wars

More impactful stories, better consistency with the films, Anakin actually having character development, Jedi are given more complex personalities that are explored.

 

Boba Fett had a better back story as Jaster Mereel.

 

Jedi Trial is a good book.

95 percent of EU Sith are utterly boring cause they boil down to Vader/Palpatine clones with a different gimick.

 

I wouldn’t say 95 percent of them are boring (although I like the Jedi a lot more than the Sith). But you are definitely right that there are Sith from the eu derived from Vader and Palpatine. Malak and Malgus are basically stand ins for Vader and Vitiate is just Palpatine 2.0 with the black robes, pale face, emperor title and a love of using force lightning.
Adding to your point, I hate how almost every Sith has a red lightsaber, with a few exceptions of course.

I’m so happy Tales of the Jedi came out before the prequels.

 

True as that may be, the lost tribe was excellent in my opinion. That being said, I really disliked Fate of the Jedi in general, although I'm not really sure what the general consensus on the series is.

 

I think the best part of FotJ was the tribe.

Have you read the stories?

 

If you mean the short stories/ebooks, I haven't yet, although I plan to. I'm just waiting until a copy of the paperback collection shows up at my local used bookstore.

 

(Cracks fingers...Let's do this)

(Deep Breath)

Dark Empire captures a more true to form Star Wars continuation of Return of the Jedi then The Thrawn Trilogy

I really dislike a lot of the retcons and lore the SWOTOR MMORPG introduced to the Star Wars universe with Valkoria and all that jazz.

Once the Bantam Era is over I really could care less about the Post Endor EU anymore.

The Legacy Comics encapsulates everything I hate about what people try to turn into the Star Wars universe into.

I dislike how the Sith species is handled but I have come around from outright disliking them.

The Star Wars Comics did a better job at capturing the spirit of Star Wars then the Books (hence why Lucas probably choose stuff from them over the books more or less if he ever brought anything EU into the movies or TCW)

and that's it for now...I might think of more when I remember.

 

Ok, I really like them. JJM is a great writer and the stories are really interesting I find.