Retcons - good, bad, ugly...

As established by the Han Solo Trilogy, Han was with Bria Tharen, Salla Zend, and Xaverri, and going by that precedent, any of the handful of other women described as his girlfriend or whom he was pursuing (Doc's daughter, Fiolla, etc) were likely also intimate with him.

 

I laugh at all Retcons. My favorites are all the ones concerning Boba's origins and Concord Dawn. Krukh is pretty funny, too.

 

Execellence,

I think the problem most people have isn't about Han being in love prior to Leia. It's the TIMING of the issue that almost seems to cheapen the Han/Leia relation.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the Crispin . I loved the story, the emotion, the action, everything. But for the book to literally end with Han walking into the Cantina to meet Luke nad Obi-Wan, thinking "Goodbye, Bria" and knowing he's about to meet/fall for Leia ...it just feels too close. It's like me breaking up with my Girlfriend, heartbroken, literally turning around to see a girl behind me and go, "Ooh, hey there hott stuff..." It's just not...right....

 

Ahhh, the voice of sanity.

 

Yeah, Excellence may have his...quirks, but in this he's pretty much dead on.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that LFL tries to incorporate everything into one overreaching umbrella of a universe, but it's just...impracticle. And the longer it goes on the worse the problems get.

I look for internal logic in things like sequential novels and comics, but as to some of the larger (and smaller) debates, they tend not to be things I think of unless they really stand out.

Even the "Debate Which Dare Not Speak It's Name" doesn't bother me, as when I'm reading a {CENSORED) novel I'm not thinking about how many (CENSORED) there are, I'm grooving on the story.

I realize this isn't the same for everyone, but some of the hysterics displayed over things like the A-Wing...I admit it, I don't understand it. It's like someone watching the Superman movie and not understanding why the comics don't portray the exact same story. Hell the MOVIES don't portray the same story. Look at how Batman Begins nullifies all the other Batman movies.

I like a general sort of canon, but I think LFL in trying to do a nice thing takes it way too far.

 

It's made in-universe in the Essential Chronology.

I agree that it's pretty non-sensical. I guess it could be argued that it's the first big Rebel victory, and a major turning point, but that would still be like the US having a dating system based on the Battle of Saratoga.

 

I think the A-wing appeared in Droids because it was one of several sets originally designed for RotJ that were rebranded for the cartoon toy-line - I get the impression that all of these were (or were planned to be) incorporated into cartoon episodes.

Another one of these was the ATL Interceptor, originally designed as the Death Star Defender starfighter, which reappeared in WEG and the novels as a post Endor Republic Systems Defender...

But WEG established from the outset that the post-Endor Defender was based on an older design, so there's no continuity problem there...

Anyone know how far back the A-wing backstory goes?

---

"Developed secretly since the outbreak of armed rebellion, the A-wing was assembled from equipment, parts and technology readily available to the beleaguered Alliance forces...."
-- [i]Star Wars Sourcebook[/i], 2nd ed., page 15[hr][/blockquote]

That's quite vague, and fits quite nicely with the retconning.... but maybe the original version said more? :-?

- The Imperial Ewok

 

But that's the sort of guy Han is, besides Han doesn't really fall for Leia seriously until some time between ANH and ESB so there're a couple of years to play with there. Before that he just thinks she's annoying but hot.

 

Didn't Thrawn describe the Clone Wars being between the "Clone Masters" and the Galactic Republic? Was that ever retconned?

 

My least favorite retcon is "Star Dreadnought"

Why? Because it sounds silly.

It's a silly name.

Vader kills people who calls his Star Destroyer that.

Why?

Because people laugh at it. Dreadnoughts are iddy bitty, tiny craft because they built a bunch of 'Dreadnoughts' then built a LOT bigger ships.

 

Several people reference the havoc the "clone masters" unleashed on the galaxy. I think it was always implied and assumed from Lucas' scant notes for the prequel era (he admit that he had nothing more than some backstory on a few characters in the ANH commentary) that the Clone Wars was a war against clones.

I don't recall Zahn ever saying that it was clones v republic, just about the dangers of what the clone masters did.

I'm not sure if it has been retconned or not, but that's one I thing I find upon perioditc readings of the Thrawn Trilogy - the only major issue(s) involve C'baoth's backstory, and some dates.

I think however that having the "preserve two stories" mentality can be especially problematic because it feels, in some cases, like a lame shot at our collective intelligence (or, see also: Dooku's clone!). I can't imagine why some games need to be canon, like Empire At War (except for the A-Wing. Take that, Spearhead!), Rebellion, GBG, New Droid Army, etc when so much effort is devoted to fitting them in. Given the amount of bending over backwards, sideways etc we do just to explain why in a GB game that most players wouldn't think too deeply about Dooku is killed, it seems like a waste of time to me.



E_S

 

The beginning of Heir to the Empire. Pellaeon reminesces somethign along the lines of "the Republic fleet squaring off against the clone armies of the Dark Jedi."

 

Really? I'll have to check again...

E_S

 

Any and all retcons created for the sole purpose of winning a debate other than conceding a point, which throws established canon to the....what's the "Mando'a" word for dogs?

And of course, the worst offender that's trying to be pushed into continuity, the alleged THIRD Death Star. You know, the Death Star from "Star Tours"? The one that has the exact same design flaw the FIRST Death Star had, and the SECOND one lacked?

 

The worst retcon was Vader turning out to be Luke's father. I mean, you gotta be ****ing kidding me!

 

Pellaeon's HttE remeniscense is about the mental instability of "The early clones -- or at least those the fleet had faced", which could mean pre-Kaminoan clones. I have another far-out retconn though here, but this is one I'm just going to wait and see what happens with...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

While I'm all for include games in canon WHEN IT MAKES SENSE, this nonsense about including the New Droid Army, the SNES games, and all aspects of Battlefront II and EaW needs to stop. Ditto for toys. Is a Darth Vader Transformer cool? Yeah, kinda. But I shudder to think at any kind of serious explanation that may be offered for that.

Favorite retcon? Might be C3P-X, just for the zany factor.

Least Favorite: Does Plaugeis "creating" Anakin count? The NEC had some other rough spots to (along with some absolute gems. Nothing's perfect, after all).


P.S.

Star Tours? Seriously?

 

Whoah, whoah, whoah. Sure, GBG was a half-assed Age of Empires mod. Sure, it had nonsensical game mechanics inherited from that engine. Sure, the graphics could be politely called iffy. And sure, the voicework was abysmal, the parity between factions silly, and the mothball-spewing bombers eyebrow-raising.

But GBG is, however inadverdently, pretty much the only source outside of the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook to acknowledge the presence of Rebel Alliance factions besides that of our Heroes of Yavin. That alone means it's not referenced nearly enough.



(Prays that his WTS submission makes the cut...)

 

Other things I don't like...

* That there were entertainers on the first Death Star.

* The idea of "two" clone wars.

* That fans should change things to make them fit 'their view'

* The whole clone nonsense business to begin with.

Is it so hard to assume there's enough clones and droids in whatever the author's choose to do and forget about specifics?

 

Ehm, Charles, isn't this like one of your favorite things to do...?

 

No I'm a strict EU canoncist (AND ITS SPELLED RIGHT!)

I didn't buy hundreds of EU books to just say "This is stupid, they should change it."

WEG is still my guide for fleet info.

 

Clearly, you missed the opening post

The ugliest is clearly the original 12.8km SSD length, which raised more questions than answers and satisfied nobody.

The best one, IMO, was anything that invalidated anything in Splinter of the Mind's Eye. And there were lots of those.