Discussions What is the one thing that you are most glad is no longer canon?

Disney can reintegrate whatever they want, but if they bring back the Vong, I'm done with the EU forever.

 

The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre. A trans-dimensional being from a parallel universe named Waru? Not in my Star Wars, thank you very much.

 

If they bring them back I'll throw my many criticisms of Disney out the window.

 

This thread has definitely reinforced my feelings for accepting the reboot. Makes Disney look like a godsend and the old EU seem neurotic. The new books aren't perfect but at least they haven't done anything that I would consider unStarWarsy.

Clone emperor, clone Luke, Waru all made me cringe back in the 90's when I read those books. The Vong seemed like something out of a Star Trek story.

 

Star Trek? I don't think the extragalactic aliens with organic technology, who love torture and worship dark gods, would really fit into the idealistic utopia of Star Trek. The Vong do seem like something right out of Warhammer 40K though.

 

Well, extragalactic aliens with organic technology was seen through Species 8472.

 

Voyager's Species 8472 were a bit like that - back in 1997, two years before Vector Prime - at least for the organic technology and "threat that causes former enemies to ally" bit. They didn't remain a major threat though.

EDIT: Ninjaed.

 

True, I didn't think of Species 8472. But to me it's the "dark gods and torture" stuff that pushes it into "Grimdark Warhammer 40K" territory.

 

Star Trek had "dark gods" of sorts too - the difference is, their powers were real - The Path-wraiths of DS9 fill the "evil gods" niche fairly well.

There's quite a few in TOS that might qualify as "sufficiently advanced alien is indistinguishable from minor evil deity" - Gargan, the crystal in Day of the Dove, the being in ST V: Final Frontier, etc.

 

It's not really the fact of their presence/absence in Star Trek - it's the nature of their presentation.

Species 8472 wasn't presented as a viciously bloody and psychopathic. Indeed, they were presented as technologically superior to virtually all previously encountered species, including the Borg.
And were they truly extra-galactic, or rather inter-dimensional, fluid space merely being another layer of space/time, more like the Devidians?

The Vong on the other hand were portrayed as masochists, with a distinct penchant for torture, bloody warfare and religious fanaticism. I'd say the Pah Wraiths lacked these Vong-like characteristics as well - in true Star Trek fashion, the villains were characterized as duplicitous, cunning and strategically deft, rather than as horror creatures.

Yeah, I'm pretty glad that the bad Bantam books are gone. There's a whole bunch of them, though - The Crystal Star stands proudly at the front.
Anything that wasn't part of the decent plot progression and string continuity from ROTJ to Legacy era - I'm glad to see gone. Too messy, too bloated, too much.

 

"Too messy, too bloated, too much."

But enough about the Hutts.

 

It's probably better that the original cause of Dengar's injuries is no longer canon. Han shooting Greedo first is understandable, but his actions during the swoop race put him straight over the moral event horizon, in my opinion.

 

...Wait - damn it, wrong thread.

 

The Empire playing around with the brains of Dengar and Terpfen.

 

Well, the resurrecting every character who the audience didn't want to die has carried over into the new Canon too, I mean Maul seems to be incapable of dying, I mean they cut the guy in half and he still survived. It's a similar situation with Ahsoka, though I really like her, I've heard rumors they want to bring her back and I was just disappointed, because she died an awesome death. Just let her be one with the Force for stars sake

 

I know. I alluded to that in my last paragraph.

 

The name, "URoRRuR'R'R", thanks to, "A Certain Point of View".

 

I was upset about the canon reset, but now I realize what a blessing it was. I am very glad that the Death Star II is no longer just IG-88's play thing. That was stupid.

This comic was the greatest thing to come out of the canon reset, I'm very glad to have snagged a copy of it

 

The 4 worst to me no particular order

1) Children of the Jedi - Luke falling in love with a computer, and then that computer going in the body of one of his young apprentices so he can date it/her

2) Crystal Star - Waru and Luke just acting all kinds of odd for fun and kicks...

3) NJO - b/c Luke was too wishy washy and Vong were to grimdark

4) Dark Empire - never read but why would I want Luke to go to the dark side and team up with the Emperor??

 

Read it. You might be pleasantly surprised; I was.

 

I know I'm one of the few but the new superweapon of the week never bothered me while I read those series, maybe bc I was younger, or I read them over a span of years instead of right behind each other, or just bc I accepted that was what SW was just like a tv show about cops is always going to be about solving some crime, h/e I do like the stories that are different and not about superweapons also

 

Dark Empire is a really fun read. But it's not very good.

 

There are a couple good ideas in Dark Empire. (I like the E-wings. The Rebels using captured Star Destroyers. Ewoks manning laser turrets! The Imperials having a civil war. And for a Imperial Superweapon of the Week, World Devastators are a bit creative, mobile factories that scoop up bits of planet to turn into weapons. And hey, at least they had Leia doing SOME Jedi stuff). But there are 3 main sins that in my mind make it a terrible comic:

1. Resurrecting a character who should've stayed dead, and having Luke once again struggle with the Dark Side even though he already did that in ROTJ. Oh and of course, the Imperial Superweapon of the Week trope. If you count the World Devastators, the two Eclipse Star Destroyers, and the Galaxy Gun, there are 4 planet destroying superweapons in that series. People say TFA is a retread of the OT (and it is) but it's got nothing on Dark Empire.
2. Shifting its date on the timeline from right after ROTJ to 10 years after. I understand why Zhan didn't want to include any references to this terrible story in The Thrawn Trilogy, which is why they ultimately shifted the date. But this ultimately harms the story even more. It makes Luke struggling with the Dark Side even less understandable, and the Imperials suddenly briefly dominating the galaxy again, (including retaking Coruscant basically off screen!) should have major consequences. It should shake the faith of the people of the galaxy in the New Republic. But it dosn't feel like it had nearly that impact. It feels like the story takes place just after ROTJ, and pretending other wise just makes it seem off.
3. The art is terrible. Whole pages are just splashed in green or purple. Green backgrounds. Green ships. Green people. It's hard to tell who is a human and who is a humanoid alien, because a lot of the time people's faces are just green blue. I mentioned that I love the E-wings. Later artists made them white with bright red stripes like an X-wing. In Dark Empire they're just light green. Some people will probably defend this saying its supposed to be abstract, but IMO it looks just awful.

 

I understand the first two points but I really haven't heard anyone hate on the art. It sounds like you just don't like the colors. Your opinion of course. I don't think anyone will try to argue against Cam Kennedy, though. The art wonderfully captures the scale of the scenes. It feels like you're actually there, about to be crushed by the Imperial machines.