Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

I wonder if the guy would be praising Chee if he knew he was probably the biggest EU fan that there is, and I am guessing if it were truly up to Chee he'd keep everything.

 

Somehow I doubt he even used wookieepedia. More like a google search and skim the results.

 

Remember when LucasArts collaborated with Timothy Zahn to produce that series called Thrawn, which was about a guy named Admiral Thrawn after the Empire had already fallen? That was the only EU work ever authorized by LucasArts.

 

How is Disney supposed to categorize the Star Wars canon now that they've closed down LucasArts with their database?

 

Maybe they'll have a brand new standard?

 

Oh look, another highly uninformed opinion. How refreshing. Seriously, for those still unsure if it is possible for an opinion to be wrong, take a browse through that "article."

 

Kindly exercise some quality assurance on these links you post please and don't bother with rubbish like this, your others were of far superior quality! This one is an exercise in hyperbole overload masquerading as reasonable opinion.

 

Suddenly a fleshed out universe is a bad thing? Like you said it's geeky minutia, which would mean that the writers who are actually writing legitimate stories and what not DON'T CARE and won't be hindered by them.

Heck, stories revolving around stuff like the Lightsaber forms, the establishment of Sienar, or establishment of the Hydian way are pretty much done in the Essential Guides already. It's not like we're getting a novella that'll delve into how Jedi saw blasters as uncivilized weapons or anything.

I'm willing to be that all this world building will not be erased once we get into the new EU and it'll be kept the way it is.

 

Has my snark been too stealthy for my own good...?

 

You're all terrible people and I'm embarrassed to have ever interacted with any of you.

 

What always irks me with that is how they only seem to hate it with Star Wars.

Marvel? People normally enjoy the idea of this big universe, links between films, etc.
Halo? Even the video games themselves have incorporated stuff from the novels at times.

But Star Wars? Bah! Expanded Universe! Hate! Hate! Hate!

Sure, Marvel and Halo have been more open to altering things, but the mainstream media have still enjoyed the idea of a big universe... something so many of these news websites so vehemently attack with Star Wars. (Sure, the EU has some clangers... but name me a franchise that hasn't?)

I never particularly enjoyed the idea the Master Chief wasn't the last Spartan... then Bungie went and made a whole spin-off game based off the Spartan III program that the novels invented. But journalists were perfectly receptive to that, when with any darksiders after Endor they cry bloody murder.

 

Harry Potter is slowly doing it as well with Pottermore and nobody has issues with that either.

I suppose it just boils down to the sad truth; people love to hate on Star Wars because they thinks totally da kewlest thang evar.

 

Didn't the concept of different Lightsaber Forms come from the RotS script - thus direct from GL? They were certainly mentioned in the novelisation, both during the Dooku boss-fight and when Mace was talking to Obi-Wan before he left to deal with Grievous.

 

Possibly, but I definitely remember first mention of Lightsaber forms in Insider #62. To my recollection that was the first time that the lightsaber forms were established to be seven and each have their own styles and whatnot

But I believe Vaapad as a name and variant of Form VII came around with the ROTS novelization. But Insider #62 also gave other stuff, like the names of the marks of contact, and why the Sith used red blades. Dun Moch also got its name here.

And I suddenly remembered why I love the Insiders. They gave so much awesome world building stuff.

 

In the event we lose everything post-ROTJ, I would like to hope that one of the upcoming TV shows would be an animated show that adapted the best stories from the old EU into the new continuity with any changes necessary to make them fit. Otherwise it is going to be this weird system where the names of planets and ships and other things are used in the new EU, but the source of those names may no longer be canon.

 

So, Waru may be a human in this new EU?

 

A much better take on the Story Group, one I think people will enjoy, compared to the train wreck from before
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57616851-1/who-decides-star-wars-canon-meet-the-story-group/

From FB

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The Cost of Star Wars Fandom shared Dark Horse Comics'sphoto.

7 hours ago
This is exactly why Star Wars movies will make more use of the Expanded Universe over the next few years, as Disney will use it in a way that Lucasfilm didn't.

Firstly, the practice of using expanded universe themes, story/character elements seems to be getting more common now in TV sci fi serials that command their own merchandise via books and comics.

Aside from the movies, SW has been generated for a long time now by its own EU plethora of stories. Whereas we probably won't see direct copies of say, The Thrawn Trilogy, there may well be elements that appear from them as Disney starts to really get underway with their era of SW.

From a marketing point of view, better to have a movie of which the hard core fans can instantly recognise a character or story element they've read. And to the casual fans, it's a new, original story, but also designed to encourage them to buy and read the comics.

Disney aren't investing in the switch to Marvel so they can just dump the EU in a garbage chute. Far from it. Dark Horse have produced much exellent work regarding their SW comics over the years. And Disney want a slice of the same. So why the switch? The cynical among us will be quick to point out that Disney of course invest in Marvel.

But it's also more generated by accessibility. Especially if they're to capture the attention for the casual fans. Not everyone will have heard of Dark Horse, but will be instantly familiar with Marvel. Especially as they're the spiritual home for SW comics in the first place.

So count on it that we're going to be seeing quite a lot of use in some form or another of Expanded Universe ideas in Disney's SW movies, and vice versa. It's the way things are being done these days after all.

 

Amusing thought, someone only now being able to find a Star Wars comic book because they didn't know Dark Horse but know Marvel.

 

Something we missed, an unreleased story from DHC
http://www.blastr.com/2014-1-10/there-was-almost-star-wars-comic-about-sith-leia-and-luke-love

 

Interesting that it comes out now, when the Infinities is over 10 years old.

It was mandated that the heroes have to win even if it was Infinities. If there had been prequel infinities, would Palpatine have won in all of them?

 

Leia as a Maul-make-up cover girl, written by the guy who wrote all those memorable-because-over-the-top-high-concept Trek novels. Yeah, that sounds like we missed out.

 

thats one of the few things i am happy about is the loss of LOTF comics

 

While I doubt it'd be a huge number, I must admit I wouldn't be surprise if there are some people who have been like that, and just think "Who are these guys? Don't know the names. Must suck."

Lots of people are like that with films, video games and novels if they're "only" a small indy release with no big star names, so I guess the same must apply to comics, even if only to a lesser extent (given comics are a smaller niche market to start with).

Obviously, the STAR WARS title should be its own pulling power... but sadly, I suspect there's a lot of truth in Darth Xalfrea's comment about how its "cool to hate EU" and people just thinking: "Huh? That lame Star Wars EU stuff? And this no-name publisher? Not Marvel? Screw wasting money on that." I've certainly had a lot of gaming friends who have loved KOTOR or Jedi Knight or TOR, but who won't touch the EU with a barge pole (yet they play TOR... ironic).

Outside people here on Lit, I know nobody who has even heard of the Mass Effect comics either, let alone read them. Even when they've been way bigger ME junkies than me, for whom it's just been a passing RPG interest that I've played and moved on from.

It's a shame Brian Wood has only done a OT series, as I was going to say "Maybe it'd be interesting to compare his figures with those by someone like JJM that most wouldn't recognise?" But Star Wood has the added mainstream attraction of when its set, so it becomes hard to pin down how much is Wood's name on the cover and how much the familiar movie setting. But if Brian Wood had been able to then go on and do, say, a Legacy spin-off or something tied to TOR? It'd have been curious how much his name pulled readers with it, even had he plunged into oh noes! That awful Star Wars Expanded Universe stuff! Yuck!