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

[Yozozo]

Another thing to remember, the crew behind Star Wars Rebels (like the CG Clone Wars show) is also bringing in a lot of elements from the old cannon and tying them back into true cannon. (An example being the ISB, an organization that was created in the West End Games for their SWRPG, is going to be in the show). This gives them an opportunity to kinda soft reset the Expanded Universe, which let's be honest, certainly needed it. Even though we do lose a lot of really good gems in there.

I stopped reading the EU novels about 3 books into they shitstorm that was the Yuzvong series. Pretty much most novels taking place post 10years after DS2 I have an intense distaste for, since they try to kinda stick with the same fucked up universe that previous authors have made, and it's just been spiraling out of control ever since.

Poll is missing a better but similar option to #5. "It kinda sucks, but it was a smart business decision on Disney's part and good for us."

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Like a lot of folks I had my favorite bits from the EU but as a whole the entire thing was a bloated mess that wasn't likely to ever really influence the core canon anyway.

In the interest of progressing forward I'm fine with a Star Wars universe without Dash Rendar, Tag and Bink.

 

[loc978]

Honestly, I stopped caring about what is and is not G, T, C, S, N, or D canon a long time ago... about when I started running SW D20 campaigns in the New Republic era. Axing the official seal from any form of canon means very little. The works are still there, We'll still use the Thrawn trilogy, Jedi Academy and X-Wing as gospel while discounting the Holiday Special as the LSD-fueled nightmare it was... and treating the Dark Forces games as something in-between, with their contribution of Star Wars Chuck Norris... something along the lines of Darth Darth Binks and his Jar'Jar'Kai light-tire-iron.

I guess I need a poll option along the lines of "As a huge Star Wars nerd, I don't give a damn what's official and what's fanfiction." I've read some actual fanfiction of higher quality than episodes 1-3, so the distinction is pretty meaningless.

 

[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.