Poll: StarWars Expanded Universe Getting Axed and If People other than me and a select few "SW Nerds" Care

[jademunky]

Sorry mate, I bet a lot of EU guys feel like Disney pulled the rug from under your feet. But let's face it, most of that stuff was just cashing in on name recognition, freeloading off SW nostalgia & fandom.

Well, I am just glad that Disney is not interested in cashing in on name recognition and freeloading off nostalgia. Really dodged a bullet on that one.

Kidding, but speaking as a fan of the EU. I never actually expected any film sequels to follow it. It would just limit the plot too much and honestly, the star wars EU is just too frikkin huge: video games, novels, comic books, more novels, Sith Lords hiding behind every other asteroid. Honestly, if all that stuff became cannon, movie fans would start to wonder how Palpatine stayed in power for 20 years considering genocidal alien fleets and lovecraftian abominations seem to account for most of the galaxy.

 

[NateA42]

I've mostly stopped caring what they say is canon anymore now because of what other told me how I can look at things. My real thought now is since they axed a lot of the universes species what happens to them?
Are a lot of species going to be replaced with Disney friendly stuff? I mean I think we can all tell that the Zeltrons aren't coming back (not that they really matter) but as of now there was no Sith species; then again there was no Sith species once the movies came out either.

Also is SWTOR canon under this new thing? I can't find anybody who knows for sure, that and I'm pretty sure Sony doesn't understand anyways.

SWTOR sucks by the way, it's a crappy WoW clone with sub-par story telling skills but some cool/interesting/intriguing side stuff you can find that plays NOTHING into game at all.

 

[NateA42]

Sorry mate, I bet a lot of EU guys feel like Disney pulled the rug from under your feet. But let's face it, most of that stuff was just cashing in on name recognition, freeloading off SW nostalgia & fandom.

Well, I am just glad that Disney is not interested in cashing in on name recognition and freeloading off nostalgia. Really dodged a bullet on that one.

Kidding, but speaking as a fan of the EU. I never actually expected any film sequels to follow it. It would just limit the plot too much and honestly, the star wars EU is just too frikkin huge: video games, novels, comic books, more novels, Sith Lords hiding behind every other asteroid. Honestly, if all that stuff became cannon, movie fans would start to wonder how Palpatine stayed in power for 20 years considering genocidal alien fleets and lovecraftian abominations seem to account for most of the galaxy.

As a fan of the EU I never thought there were gonna be any other movies

 

[jademunky]

like how the Marvel Animated Universe ends in a giant apocalypse and everyone dies.

Just knowing that, and trying to go back and watch old X-Men cartoons. All that struggling, all the conflict and pain and it was all for nothing. They LOSE in the end.

Wait! What?!?

Seriously? I never heard that one. Are you taking the 90's animated universe or the more modern one?

 

[Ratty]

Let's not forget that, prior to Disney's involvement, the Star Wars Holiday Special was considered part of the official canon.

Say what you will I'll always maintain that the SWHS is superior to the prequel trilogy. It's certainly not good in the conventional sense [footnote]Except perhaps for the animated segment, if you dig the extremely 70s artstyle. I wonder if voicing this is what got Mark Hamill thinking about voice acting in general?[/footnote] but at least it feels like Star Wars for the most part.

 

[Reaper195]

Sorry mate, I bet a lot of EU guys feel like Disney pulled the rug from under your feet. But let's face it, most of that stuff was just cashing in on name recognition, freeloading off SW nostalgia & fandom.

Unfortunately, this. I'm a fan of the universe of Star Wars (I like the action scenes in the movies, but the main story can get fucked. Lucas can't write for shit), and there have been a few things here and there where the writers/developers have had some real passion for it. And most of that stuff was simply ignored by most EU fans.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Seems to me like a bunch of fanfiction, and while I have no want to see Disney do anything with Star Wars, I don't particularly believe in the sanctity of the extended universe either. Enjoy it for what it is, non-canon material.

 

[TheSYLOH]

I was somewhat mad. The EU was a big part of my childhood, but I understand the business standpoint of the decision, you don't want to pay those guys royalties.
Still, with the EU gone, that means that all that remains are the abysmal prequels and the original trilogy. Previously in my accounting the EU balanced out the prequels. Now that they are gone I can just leave the franchise entirely. I've seen Abrams' Star Trek films, I'm pretty confident that they won't counter act how bad the prequels were.

Really if Disney doesn't care about what I liked about Star Wars why should I care bout Disney's Star Wars products?
If you like the new Star Wars, good on you, but I'm not going out of my way to see it.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Besides a few things, it's not that big of a loss.

 

[NateA42]

I was somewhat mad. The EU was a big part of my childhood, but I understand the business standpoint of the decision, you don't want to pay those guys royalties.
Still, with the EU gone, that means that all that remains are the abysmal prequels and the original trilogy. Previously in my accounting the EU balanced out the prequels. Now that they are gone I can just leave the franchise entirely. I've seen Abrams' Star Trek films, I'm pretty confident that they won't counter act how bad the prequels were.

Really if Disney doesn't care about what I liked about Star Wars why should I care bout Disney's Star Wars products?
If you like the new Star Wars, good on you, but I'm not going out of my way to see it.

Yea that's the only reason I liked the prequels, they laid out more structure for people to do EU stuff. And I also don't think the new movie will be able to counter the prequels.

Seems to me like a bunch of fanfiction, and while I have no want to see Disney do anything with Star Wars, I don't particularly believe in the sanctity of the extended universe either. Enjoy it for what it is, non-canon material.

I was going to make a clever joke by half quoting you but I don't want to insult. The whole thing is it WAS canon; now if you want to say Lucas was just being nice/humoring/profiteering the authors by allowing it to become canon then that fine but it was canon and saying it was fanfict is wrong.

Also from what I get out of Disney is that Legends is they want to say it is quasi-canon as to not upset people but if it's going to take a backseat the a crappy new movie (I meant that as saying IF the movie is crappy) then was it really worth it?

 

[Something Amyss]

Technically that really didn't change much. The EU's status as canon was always very tentative at best and there was an implicit understanding that Lucas could overthrow their works at any time directly ("No wookiee jedi") or indirectly (If a new movie contradicted an EU book, the movie won the canon contest by default). They even had a tier list for it.

The announcement really only canonized what was already treated as a given.

Yeah, almost nothing has changed.

May I suggest the wonders of fanon discontinuity? [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanonDiscontinuity]

I stopped caring about what was "officially canon" long ago, opting instead to cherry pick the stories I liked. I found this approach to be far more enjoyable in the long run. It's all fiction anyway, so why bother agonizing over what is and isn't "official" as dictated by a distant and arbitrary party? Let's not forget that, prior to Disney's involvement, the Star Wars Holiday Special was considered part of the official canon.

Not to mention, it's not like it erases that material from existence.

And since StarWars EU stuff was such a mess, there was probably no way to reconcile it anyway.

 

[OrokuSaki]

Isn't the Star Wars EU the thing where everyone's favouritest characters all become super jedi and Bobba Fett totally survives and turns out to be the last heir to an extinct race (and also gets a lightsaber) and Chewbacca gets killed by someone smashing him between two planets?

Yeah, I'm calling "and nothing of value was lost" on this one.

Ten bucks says they're bringing Boba Fett back anyway.

This has always bugged me: Why do people like Boba Fett? I've watched the original trilogy many times and I've never seen him do anything. Why do people talk about him like he's the greatest bounty hunter ever? All that I remember is that when he tried to do something he was eaten by a giant worm. That's it.

 

[PirateRose]

The whole reason they did it is so J.J. Abrams can take more "artistic" liberties with the lore in the new movies. They know the fans hold the lore very dear and the expanded universe just doesn't fit into whatever Abrams has planned. So they think saying it's all invalid will lessen backlash.

 

[NateA42]

The whole reason they did it is so J.J. Abrams can take more "artistic" liberties with the lore in the new movies. They know the fans hold the lore very dear and the expanded universe just doesn't fit into whatever Abrams has planned. So they think saying it's all invalid will lessen backlash.

Just realized that now they have the power to bring Jar Jar back....

 

[lunavixen]

I think for the most part, it was actually a good move. The EU had become such a bloated mess that some elements or parts were indescernable from others, that being said, there are some parts I felt should have been kept, such as the Jedi Knight series and the KOTOR games as they actually worked with the main canon in mind, and there is nothing to stop Disney re-adding certain elements of the old EU.

 

[Ravinoff]

I'm mixed on it. On one hand, I can think of no better decision than retconning the Yuuzhan Vong nightmare out of existence, and wiping out the whole "dozen clones of the Emperor" nonsense is pretty handy too. But some of the EU stuff was great, like Republic Commando (the only thing I've seen that shows the darker, gritty side of the Star Wars universe). Overall, I'd call it a loss, but not a huge one.

Edit to add: that said, I'd absolutely love it if they brought back the Vong and played it into a fan theory I recall reading, in which Palpatine and the Empire weren't actually the bad guys.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Isn't the Star Wars EU the thing where everyone's favouritest characters all become super jedi and Bobba Fett totally survives and turns out to be the last heir to an extinct race (and also gets a lightsaber) and Chewbacca gets killed by someone smashing him between two planets?

Yeah, I'm calling "and nothing of value was lost" on this one.

Ten bucks says they're bringing Boba Fett back anyway.

This has always bugged me: Why do people like Boba Fett? I've watched the original trilogy many times and I've never seen him do anything. Why do people talk about him like he's the greatest bounty hunter ever? All that I remember is that when he tried to do something he was eaten by a giant worm. That's it.

A combination of toys and fanfic magic.

 

[Brian Tams]

I enjoyed the Extended Universe while it lasted, even the war with the Vong.

However, I am excited for a fresh take, so I'm not mad, maybe just a little sad that the EU won't continue in at least book form.

 

[Hap2]

At times like these, I really wish people would read carefully instead of flying into a panic because a few moronic journalists couldn't bother to do so (goes to show how lazy some journalists are getting too - instead of reading the source material carefully, they copy each other, and end up spreading their mistakes all over the internet).

All Disney has said is that they won't be following the EU books that came after the Return of the Jedi - they might incorporate some elements, but they won't be adhering to that particular storyline. They did not say they were discarding the entire EU.

I quote from the press release itself: "Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe."

http://starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page.html

How journalists pulled "the entire EU is dead!" out of that, I'm not sure.

Particular games, such as KoTOR, Republic Commando and The Force Unleashed are still, for all intents and purposes, canon. Particular books following the Return of the Jedi, however, are not.

 

[Jingle Fett]

snip

This again? The EU is not necessarily getting the axe, not all of it. Let me quote myself from MovieBob's original article here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.848364-Lucasfilm-Makes-It-Official-Star-Wars-Expanded-Universe-Is-Dead?page=1]

C'mon people, learn to read

they will now do so in the context of an official unified canon maintained by an official Lucasfilm Story Group, which will also decide which characters and concepts from the former EU can be repurposed by future filmmakers and authors

This means that not necessarily all of the EU will be dropped. A lot of it may be, but they can cherry pick what they like and leave out what they don't like. This means if they feel like it, they can keep characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, Admiral Daala, etc....And drop the stuff they don't like (like the Yuuzhan Vong or some of the weirder/crappier stuff).

They're basically saying that Star Wars is not constrained by the EU. The new movies can go in whatever direction they please. However, if there's some fan favorite characters or some aspect of the EU the Lucasfilm Story Group wants to keep, they can make whatever changes to that character's story needed to make them work within the context of the new movies.

For example, if they want to include Mara Jade, they have the freedom to adapt her storyline to take into account the 30 year difference between the movies and books so that it all fits together. Maybe they change it so she was in carbonite for 30-40 years when the empire fell and when she gets out she's finding out what happened during the gap. So maybe she still holds the initial grudge against Luke, but never ends up marrying him because he's an older man. That sort of thing. Likewise, Grand Admiral Thrawn could also be set to appear 30 years later than he did in the books and the filmmakers make the adjustments to his story so it works with the timeline of the new movies.

Now obviously the Lucasfilm Story Group might or might not do that, for all we know they might scrap everything. But that's just an example of the sort of thing they can do. They have the freedom to pick and choose what they want to keep, change, and drop, which in turn allows them the freedom to make better stories. They have the freedom to choose how closely or not closely they stick to the EU.

Secondly, all the EU stuff will continue to be made available under the label of Star Wars: Legends. So it's not gone, it's not being erased, it's not disappearing, it's still there. Furthermore, nothing says it can't continue to grow in it's own little non-canon environment parallel to the actual canon. So if there's some ongoing EU series, it will most likely be able to continue under the Star Wars: Legends label. So if you want to plug your ears and pretend the new movies don't exist, you can do that. In other words, Disney gets to have its pie and eat it too. Allowing the EU continue is just smart business, it's more money for the mouse. So overall, I don't think there's much need to be upset.