Expanded Universe Fans

At first I was in a bit of "shock" (exaggeration) upon hearing the change... but then it quickly donned on me that it was the correct choice.

I'd read a bit of the EU, but as you stated some of it was just too unbelievable. Some of it just revolved too much around the same characters. Some of it just seemed like making stories just to make stories, not thinking about what it made the EU seem like.

Overall I'm glad they decided to "redo" the convoluted tangle that was the EU, and I might get back into it with this.

 

I debated posting this or not but yeah I agree with everything you said. The fact that the EU that they know and love is gone sucks, but it did need to be done. I enjoyed many EU novels, some of which contridicted the PT, TCW, and sometimes the OT itself. It was too crazy to try and fit 3 new movies, let alone spin-offs, into this universe. The EU or Legends universe is still there but not the main universe.
Let's compare this to Marvel or DC, both of which have an insane amount of universes in their own Multi-Verse.
DC rebooted their main universe a few years back and I like it better so Star Wars can obviously do the same.
Let's call the mainstream Star Wars universe Galaxy-77 (the year Star Wars originally came out.) and the Ledgends universe Galaxy-95 (the year the EU truely started with Heir to the Empire).
If the LucasFilm story group doesn't want to release anymore novels, comics, games, etc set in Galaxy-95 then they don't have to.
Galaxy-77 is where the movies, The Clone Wars, Rebels, A New Dawn, and all the other upcoming movies, games, comics, and novels take place.
The old EU fans just need to get overthemselves and realize that the ones in charge made this decision for a reason, to bring total unity to the Universe.

 

I moved this thread to the Expanded Universe sub-forum.

 

I used to follow the EU up until the novel Vision of the Future; by that time I'd gotten tired of the endless barrage of comics and novels, assumed they ended with the novel I cited. When Del Rey announced a new ongoing series, it was one step too far and burned me out - so far as my collecting habits were concerned. I'm not possessive about any aspect of SW lore outside of the films, and if The Clone Wars had failed to be declared canon when Disney bought Lucasfilm, it would not have bothered me despite how much I love that series. They still exist and can be enjoyed endlessly. My favourite SW stories from the comic-strip universe - the Marvels and newspaper strips - were long consigned to the canon scrapheap and derided by some fans, but are they less fun and inspirational to me? Certainly not.

Despite what the Lucasfilm Story Group considers material fit to be continued, or mined or cherry-picked or scrapped, we as consumers can make our own choices what we enjoy and thanks to digital media we can enjoy them regardless of their withdrawal from official retail circulation. I'm not terribly bothered about canon in any form, and it can often be a detriment to fresh ideas and experimentation. So long as I enjoy a story, it becomes my personal 'canon'. It's no different to fans who pretend one of the movie trilogies doesn't exist, or ignore the existence of the Gungans, Ewoks or Special Edition changes; we focus on what we enjoy and blur what doesn't suit our tastes.

 

I never actually thought of it in the comics-style mutli-verse version. That's actually a very good way to put it. Though I still don't think it'll sate the hardcore EU fans.

 

Probably not but it's a good theory I think, not to toot my own horn... *toot toot*

 

I have read all the EU novels and most of the comics. I Thought most of it was good. Some...... not so much.
that being said I have never stated that I want these EU stories made into movies. I read them and enjoyed them but I am excited to see new stories not something I already read.
I do think it would be a good idea to pull certain elements from the EU. There were some good ideas that could be expanded on or re imagined.
No biting from me about the new canon.

 

Re-imagined is the key word there.

 

Yep..... others need to get used to the idea the EU is done in its current state let's move on and enjoy the new stuff coming out that is canon

 

Anything before rotj should at least be considered. Maybe not all of it needs to be in there but some of it would provide lore for the saga.

 

To all you EU fans out there I'm relaying a message from Disney, Here's what they said
"Let it go, Let it go!" (If you don't get it think Frozen)LOL

 

Was never Canon eh?
the quotes provided are all easily found on Wikipedia/Wookieepedia

"Star Wars canon was first defined in the first issue of the Lucasfilm magazine, Star Wars Insider:

"'Gospel,' or canon as we refer to it, includes the screenplays, the films, the radio dramas and the novelizations. These works spin out of George Lucas' original stories, the rest are written by other writers. However, between us, we've read everything, and much of it is taken into account in the overall continuity. The entire catalog of published works comprises a vast history—with many off-shoots, variations and tangents—like any other well-developed mythology.""

"Along with the six main films and long-running Clone Wars series, there is an absolute ton of Star Wars canon spread out everywhere from comic books to tie-in novels."

Quote
from Leland Chee
"You're never going to know what George's view of the universe beyond the films at any given time because it is constantly evolving.”'

“It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it. Lucas approves every important addition to the canon. The ambitious story beats contained in the new game The Force Unleashed were permitted only after he signed off—and spent hours talking to the developers about the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor.”

Seriously GL specifically said the EU is not Canon?
i dont think the man has ever used the words Canon or Expanded Universe in the same sentence
GL will also refer to the EU as being some other universe but that doesnt automatically make it non Canon, also refer to that quote from Chee

How about that cohesive timeline in the EU?

“Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died."”

“"The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer."”

“The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny.

"The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions."”


“The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong."”

“Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another.”

“The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong."”

A Quote about the Holocron

"It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward."

Leland Chee has one job to do at Lucasfilm (that being to maintain continuity between the films, TV shows, Books, Comics and Games) so i seriously doubt he is slacking off on his ONE JOB. Also the EU may be hard to follow but that does not make it contradictory.

 

EU is not needed.

 

Let me start by saying that I am a huge EU fan of old, but that I am still enjoying the new direction things are going within the new Canon.

The question of EU and canon was always kind of complicated, and would change somewhat throughout time. I found it simpler just to boil it down to, its canon until it is contradicted by George Lucas himself through his films or television shows. People who simply state that it was never canon are frankly oversimplifying the issue and aren't entirely correct. For an example of the confusion check out these quotes from George Lucas and Leland Chee.

An August 2005 interview in Starlog magazine:

STARLOG: "The Star Wars Universe is so large and diverse. Do you ever find yourself confused by the subsidiary material that's in the novels, comics, and other offshoots?"

LUCAS: "I don't read that stuff. I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world. But I do try to keep it consistent. The way I do it now is they have a Star Wars Encyclopedia. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it up and see if it has already been used. When I said [other people] could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."

Lucas' statements in Starlog were commented on in a December 7, 2005 post on the starwars.com forums by Leland Chee, who maintains Lucas Licensing's continuity database:

CHEE: "GL is certainly not bound by the EU, though he's certainly open to using things created in it (Aayla Secura and the Coruscant name, for example). On the other hand, the quote you provide makes it sound like the EU is separate from George's vision of the Star Wars universe. It is not. The EU must follow certain tenets set by George through the films and other guidelines that he provides outside of the films."

Easy to see how people could get a little confused about the situation. Conversely, the EU was still beholden to anything that happened in GL's movies or shows, as soon as something happened to contradict the EU, then all EU going forward to reflect those changes. Sometimes this could be fixed with some clever retconning, sometimes old stories would have to be disregarded, and unfortunately, some ongoing book series would have to be cancelled as was the case with the Republic Commando book series after major plot points were invalidated by episodes of TCW.

Also of interest is the fact that GL would give the EU writers and editors guidelines on what they could and couldn't do with major plot lines in the EU. For instance see number 10 in the list on this website, GL gave the ok to kill Chewie but wouldn't let them kill other main characters.
http://io9.com/5813935/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-star-wars

He and Lucasfilm would also give them direction from time to time when they were developing new aspects of the EU, for some interesting details check out the series on the creation of the first Old Republic Era comics in recent issues of Star Wars insider. Also GL didn't want Anakin Solo to be a prophetic hero in the manner of his grand father Anakin Skywalker, so the EU folks decided to switch directions, killing of Anakin since they had to change his role anyhow.
http://tosche-station.net/mythbusting-did-george-lucas-order-anakin-solos-death/

So ultimately the EU was canon(with occasional guidance from GL and Lucasfil) until GL decided he wanted to go in a different direction. Just dismissing it as always being non canon does a disservice to people like Leeland Chee(the keeper of the Holocron) and all the writers and others who strived to maintain overall consistency within the EU.

Here are some great links for people interested in how the old EU was managed:

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...opinion-about-post-episode-vi-star-wars-stuff
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...anded-universe-material-in-the-prequel-trilog
http://screenrant.com/star-wars-extended-universe-explained/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_canon

All of this explanation of the EU aside, I don't blame Disney at all for starting fresh with canon, and I frankly expected a continuity wipe of some sort as soon as new Star Wars films were announced. While I loved the Expanded Universe, people watching the new films shouldn't have to have a degree in the EU to understand what is happening in the films. I can just imagine them discussing the death of Chewbacca in the film with a little asterisk at the bottom of the screen that says Read Vector Prime For More Details!

Another nice thing about the continuity wipe is that even us EU fans get to be genuinely surprised by the state of the Star Wars Universe in the new films. Also, despite the fact that EU material is no longer considered canon, I don't regret reading and experiencing all of the great EU stories that I did through the years. The fact that the story in games like KotOR or books like the X-Wing series are no longer considered canon doesn't make me regret experiencing them at all, and I would still recommend them to other Star Wars fans.

 

Thanks for all of this. I'm a little unusual in that I never read any of the old EU, though I was certainly aware that it was out there. It was hard not to look at it from a distance and see sort of a giant mess. But what you're saying here clears a lot of that perspective up.

 

Always happy to help other Star Wars fans with EU questions .

 

I've written a lot about this and I see both sides of it. Personally, I never considered any of it canon, aside from the Heir to the Empire trilogy and Shadows of the Empire. The only reason being was George Lucas being personally involved with them. He gave nots to both authors, and Timothy Zahn was even told the initial rough drafts George had for the sequel trilogy (whatever iteration they were at that point).

I spent many hours of my youth pouring over those books, simply because they were Star Wars. I never paid much thought to canon or non. They were simply Star Wars stories; most of them good, some mediocre, and a number of them bad. I just saw them as good sci-if adventures taking place in an already established universe. I knew what the Force was, a lightsaber, and Jedi Knights.

I still think they can throw a bone to fans that are upset by this "Legends" turn of events. Maybe an anthology of reworked stories that fit into the canon, anthologies even. There is a lot of material pre-prequel/OT they could make canon. Hand some of them over to Marvel. Unleash James Luceno or other authors as editors in reworking the stories. A lot of possibilities and a lot of $$$ to be made. I hope something like this is in the pipeline.