Breakup of the EU... (No Spoilers Please) of Star Wars

[Rezzy]

With the recent death of Carrie Fisher, I've been thinking of Star Wars recently, and it made me think of Disney's decision to nuke the EU (Expanded Universe) and make everything except the movies non-canon.

Back in the day, when I had time to read, I read a few of the EU books, and it was fun to find out what the heroes did, outside of the films. They had varying levels of quality. The Glove of Darth Vader series had a bit of narm to it, but I was in like 4th grade when I read it, so I enjoyed it. Later, we got video games like KotOR, which combined two of my loves of D&D and Star Wars.

Now, I'm a bit unmotivated to read any EU material. I know in the world of fiction, nothing's really "real", but the EU used to have at least some sort of connection to the canon movies, but now the EU is more on the level of fan fiction, officially. So it almost seems like a waste to read anything else from the EU.

Star Trek had a similar reset with the new movies, but they tried to keep the best of both worlds by going the alternate dimensions route. Although, I half expected them to reset the timeline to normal at the end of the first movie.

I haven't seen Rogue One yet, but hope to when I can get a babysitter and not be sick, so please no spoilers for that.

That was just a random thought I had today and was wondering others' opinions.

[Augestein]

No, I completely understand, you're essentially reading a story that exists in its own void, and as of now is nothing more than "fan fiction" really at this point. It's no longer a collection of something bigger, but rather a piece of history that's not even tangential to the movie plots that you were / and are still invested in. As a fan, I'd understand why you'd be less motivated to read them. They'll never be referenced in any of the newer material, and essentially have no purpose.

I was pretty sad when I found out some of the things were purged. Although, with all of the crazy retcons, I understand why.

[Phoenix Wright]

i understand your frustration.

however, you could pretend they're canon. i loved metal gear rising, but the story was a tad too ridiculous for me to accept it as "canon," so i don't lol.

[Res]

I also agree; I'm no longer interested in EU stuff - at least in stuff that has been contradicted by the new movies.

Personally though I was never a fan of much of the post-movies EU stuff, and I prefer The Force Awakens anyway. I *was* a fan of the Rogue Squadron series, particularly Aaron Allston's books, and I'd probably re-read those. I also loved the KotOR games, and I still consider those canon.

[blah the Prussian]

Have you read the Thrawn Trilogy? At least read those; Grand Admiral Thrawn is considered one of the greatest magnificent bastards ever with good reason. Also, the stuff surrounding the Fel Empire is good, although I'm biased because I'm a Monarchist.

[Etrurian emperor]

It was probably a wise move of Disney to declare the previous EU non canon. Its to much for the average joe to keep track off which could be a problem if you have Luke and Co be prominent in the movies. Getting everyone up to speed would require to much exposition and I doubt Disney bought Star Wars because they really wanted to film the EU stuff.

It did have a lot of interesting stuff though and its a shame that those things are now gone forever.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Etrurian emperor

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

It was probably a wise move of Disney to declare the previous EU non canon. Its to much for the average joe to keep track off which could be a problem if you have Luke and Co be prominent in the movies. Getting everyone up to speed would require to much exposition and I doubt Disney bought Star Wars because they really wanted to film the EU stuff.

It did have a lot of interesting stuff though and its a shame that those things are now gone forever.

I hate what Disney made with Star Wars. I know they bought it, getting rid of the EU let them more room for placing their products and all, help to keep things more coherent (even if it's a company, that's not the image we would expect from Disney which is supposed to sell "magic" to children). But making the first The Force Unleashed not cannon whereas George Lucas himself stated it as cannon really drives me crazy (but that didn't stopped them from using the hero's name twice in the latest films...). And I'm not talking about their attitude to suck their series to the core. Even if I love Star Wars, and was glad they "resurrected" it on the big screen (which I find very correct), I'm not really happy about seeing a new film every year, what happened to the "exclusivity" ?

Edited January 2, 2017 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[geraq]

I was upset too that some of my games were made non-canon. I was expecting they fould fit nicely in the world (galaxy?) of The Force Awakens, but Disney had other plans. Nevertheless I enjoyed Rouge One very much, more than TFA, so I will have to deal with the idea of having separate continuities.

[Rezzy]

No, I completely understand, you're essentially reading a story that exists in its own void, and as of now is nothing more than "fan fiction" really at this point. It's no longer a collection of something bigger, but rather a piece of history that's not even tangential to the movie plots that you were / and are still invested in. As a fan, I'd understand why you'd be less motivated to read them. They'll never be referenced in any of the newer material, and essentially have no purpose.

I was pretty sad when I found out some of the things were purged. Although, with all of the crazy retcons, I understand why.

I haven't looked into it since the purge, but will Disney make or license new EU material? It seems odd that such a ripe universe (no pun intended) would be limited to strictly movies.

i understand your frustration.

however, you could pretend they're canon. i loved metal gear rising, but the story was a tad too ridiculous for me to accept it as "canon," so i don't lol.

Yeah, I could pretend, but there's still the official stance. I sort of like what Star Trek did, but at least letting the original continuity exist in its own dimension.

I also agree; I'm no longer interested in EU stuff - at least in stuff that has been contradicted by the new movies.

Personally though I was never a fan of much of the post-movies EU stuff, and I prefer The Force Awakens anyway. I *was* a fan of the Rogue Squadron series, particularly Aaron Allston's books, and I'd probably re-read those. I also loved the KotOR games, and I still consider those canon.

Come to think of it, for stuff like KotOR specifically, which took place thousands of year before the movies and wouldn't have issues coexisting with the new continuity, why can't those still be canon? They hit the EU with a pretty wide nuke, when they didn't really have to.

Have you read the Thrawn Trilogy? At least read those; Grand Admiral Thrawn is considered one of the greatest magnificent bastards ever with good reason. Also, the stuff surrounding the Fel Empire is good, although I'm biased because I'm a Monarchist.

Unfortunately, no. I'm a little familiar with it, just from following Star Wars in years past, though.

It was probably a wise move of Disney to declare the previous EU non canon. Its to much for the average joe to keep track off which could be a problem if you have Luke and Co be prominent in the movies. Getting everyone up to speed would require to much exposition and I doubt Disney bought Star Wars because they really wanted to film the EU stuff.

It did have a lot of interesting stuff though and its a shame that those things are now gone forever.

I've seen the argument used for a lot of the continuity resets in comics, but it often just puts off old fans who put a lot of invested time into the old stories.

I hate what Disney made with Star Wars. I know they bought it, getting rid of the EU let them more room for placing their products and all, help to keep things more coherent (even if it's a company, that's not the image we would expect from Disney which is supposed to sell "magic" to children). But making the first The Force Unleashed not cannon whereas George Lucas himself stated it as cannon really drives me crazy (but that didn't stopped them from using the hero's name twice in the latest films...). And I'm not talking about their attitude to suck their series to the core. Even if I love Star Wars, and was glad they "resurrected" it on the big screen (which I find very correct), I'm not really happy about seeing a new film every year, what happened to the "exclusivity" ?

I thought Awakens was okay, but I haven't seen Rogue One yet, so can't speak for its level of quality.

I was upset too that some of my games were made non-canon. I was expecting they fould fit nicely in the world (galaxy?) of The Force Awakens, but Disney had other plans. Nevertheless I enjoyed Rouge One very much, more than TFA, so I will have to deal with the idea of having separate continuities.

One solutions they could have done was keep all the "old" stories canon, with stuff up until the end of Jedi, then starting fresh with Episode VII, but it seems they want to do a bunch of prequels and in-between-quels, as seen with Rogue One and talks about things like a Han Solo movie, which is good, I suppose, but I wish they had done new movies in the same universe, since there's more than enough material to work with without axing all the old stuff.

[solrocknroll]

Rebels and The Clone Wars are the new EU. Thrawn himself has been retconned into Rebels itself.

[spoiler=Minor Rogue One spoilers]Two Rebels characters are either mentioned or appear in Rogue One. Likewise, Saw Gerrera was in Clone Wars beforehand.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Freyjadour

[geraq]

One solutions they could have done was keep all the "old" stories canon, with stuff up until the end of Jedi, then starting fresh with Episode VII, but it seems they want to do a bunch of prequels and in-between-quels, as seen with Rogue One and talks about things like a Han Solo movie, which is good, I suppose, but I wish they had done new movies in the same universe, since there's more than enough material to work with without axing all the old stuff.

I haven't read much of the EU but I know a good part of it happens after the end of Ep VI, so cutting up to Ep VI end is not a solution. For instance, the Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy games I was talking about could have co-existed with TFA without having to be declared non-canon. I don't want to spoil anything to you, so once you see Rouge One we can keep discussing about it if you want.

Even if they do it only for the money, I trust (and hope) they will keep producing high-quality material. Besides being very fun, another thing Rogue One does well is bringing the original trilogy closer to younger fans, like Ep III did over ten years ago.

[Parrhesia]

Yeah, it was an overreaction - they could've and should've just cleared the board of all the EU that happened from SW1 onwards (since there's probably the bloated canon of what happened right after SW6, and ... well, SW7 happened afterwards) but stuff like KOTOR/SWTOR, that happened literal milennia beforehand? It's like, in a way it doesn't matter, but it does kinda remove some of the lustre of it.