As the powers that be, determine what should be considered "Official" SW cannon and what should not, I'd like to present my arguement on letting the entire thing stay within the SW Universe.
First off, as long as JJ Abrams doesn't mind Chewbacca missing from the sequels he can have all the originals show up, have their adventure and STILL not have to mention anything about what's been going on in their lives since ROTJ. In books the characters are the exact age the stars are right now. Nothing further has been done with their story for years now so he can even fill the blanks from the past 2 years if he wanted to change any current settings the Expanded Universe had already set. (such as Governments and adversaries) It's practically a clean slate for him already!?
Secondly, this would only strenghthen the series as a whole for all fans therefore not leaving the EU faithful (who've spent hundreds of dollars and invested thousands of hours enjoying EU content) out in the cold like a red-headed step child.
Remember, Star Wars was DEAD in 1990. After 87' nothing Star Wars related was coming out. Marvel had stopped printing the comics, the Ewoks and Droids cartoons were over. Only a lone RPG company called West End Games were left fanning the dying embers of Star Wars content.
Then in 1991 their came the franchise's first spark.
Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" novel not only surprised everyone by shooting straight to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller's List but it also shocked the pants off Lucasfilm, who'd thought the genre dead and had only ordered 3 books be made with no more after that.
It ignited the desire in the hearts of every Star Wars fan of how much they loved those classic characters from the childhood and is still held in reverence by most fans to this day. But what most of those fans don't understand is that the series got better as time went on. The books "grew up" with it's audience and started telling darker tales with more realistic endings because in life, not everyone lives happily ever after. And over 30 years of the EU it's been a beautiful arc to watch grow into the mature story it is today.
We've gone from silly berry wines and clones called "Luuke" to the Vong and Lost Tribes of Sith and I've loved every minute of it.
Will Lucasfilm now cast away that which brought it back into the public limelight and made them into the mighty franchise they are today? I hope so because it would be a shame if the didn't. And no tale of "redemption" will ever come closer than to have the outcast of the EU be welcomed into the hallowed halls of "Cannon" which the Star Wars universe can provide.
Here's to hoping!
4 comments:
I think this is, at best, what you can hope for. That the new movies will not reference any previous EU novel, and if there are inconsistencies they would be minor. You *might* see a character/alien in the background of a scene that you may recognize from a book or comic.
I think, however, that we're gonna get exactly what we got when Empire came out, as well as when the prequels came out. The new trilogy will not concern itself with what's in the books, period. It will perhaps cherry pick aliens or characters and names, but don't expect them to be faithful to the books in the least. The troops of the clone wars never called themselves "Jaango", and Kamino is the only real place where cloning takes place. Even Piell died, then he didn't, then he did again. And if they want Chewie alive again, he will be.
Point is, no movie so far has contradicted them either. Evan Peill can easily be explained as a clone since palpitine has cloned Jedi masters before right? (C'Both) It was Zhan's silly idea to name clone with double values but no one realizes how many silly things were in those books is my point. Though definitely a significant series it was the "best" everyone claims it was.
It was because we were so starved for a Star Wars story at the time that people loved it so much. Now all I hear from folks is that they hope they keep that in the story but delete the rest. It's ignorance because they haven't read any further books in the series and have seen that happen ever since the New Jedi Order series.
They don't have to mention the series in the movies just move the story along like they always have. That's all I'm saying. Lucas was so controlling over the EU that he shot down ideas from them all the time. EVERYTHING had to go thru him so you can't tell me he never considered it just fan fiction because he made sure that everything could fit in the same universe if it had to.
Point is, it's easier than you think to combine the two. Not much effort would need to be done and everyone would be happy.
Though I'll be content to leave it all if they choose not to keep it and go their own way. Like I've said in the past, I know hundreds of people who drew the lines at the prequel movies and walked away so if they cross my line I'll walk away as well and be content.
I guess I'd much rather adapt than simply drop out of star wars fandom completely. I mean, I did it to the EU. Once things like Crystal Star and some of the crappier Bantam books started being published I knew I had to let them go. And again, VONG. Crappy Star Trek concepts do not belong in my Star Wars! Get the DS9 crew to handle the "extra galactic threat" (commence eye roll).
I'm sure there are some novels that do contradict the prequels, but expect that sort of retconning to take place.
Anyway, my point is, we don't need people abandoning Star Wars, I don't think people who left after the prequels should consider themselves true star wars fans, I mean, all through the 90s the hopes of the prequels kept the fire alive for me (and some of the EU I suppose). So for people to just leave fully because of Jar Jar (let's face it they weren't that bad otherwise). Is just that "too cool for school" mentality.
And if you do walk away know I'll still be here to welcome you back. I'm in it for the long haul.
Ha ha ha ha. I know you will my friend. But the main disagreement we have about the EU is I thought the Vong story was amazing. It started tying all the books together meaningfully and had a Wonderful story. I don't think you give them enough credit.
Anyway, I agree the EU wasn't always the best. (Crystal Star and I, Jedi to name a few) but the prequels had their moments and we loved them all the same too.
But it was EU that was there to nurture my love of Star Wars, I can't turn my back on it and pretend it doesn't exist anymore. It' my Star Wars universe and I'm happy to stay in it.
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