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

[Silvanus]

My feelings on this subject aren't entirely represented in the polling options. I'm aware of some cool EU stuff, and I'm also aware of some godawful EU stuff (like Boba Fett surviving, and Darth Maul coming back with robo-legs), so I'm not really sure if this is good or bad for the lore on balance.

Mostly, I'm just waiting for the rageful discussions, so that I may read them and be mightily amused[footnote]This is not to say I have a snooty attitude towards canon-purists or people who get upset over fictional stories-- I'm one of them! It's just that I'm not terribly invested in Star Wars, and I love angry discussions of this kind above all.[/footnote].

 

[DaWaffledude]

The EU was a mixed bag. Lots of good stuff, lots of stupid stuff, and above all else, lots of conflicting stuff. Honestly, I'm glad it got a hard reset. Maybe they can keep it under better control this time.

 

[Keystone]

I'm sad to see a lot of my favorite characters um, gone? It's hard to describe exactly what happened to them; from an ontological perspective, Disney's decision is pretty fascinating.

With that said, it's pretty cool that they get to rebuild a continuity from the ground up, having already created a long-running previous continuity. I know that whenever I work on any kind of project, I always feel like I could do a much better job the second time around, and I'm excited to see what they'll do with the new EU. Also, I know some people were pissed at how Star Wars: The Clone Wars didn't stick to the canon, but I liked how the cartoon drew on existing sources as inspiration, and I hope that that will continue going forward. Finally, this was imho the right creative decision in terms of allowing Abrams and crew the creative freedom to create the best possible film trilogy.

I'm also kind of hopeful that some pre-ROTJ stories will remain in continuity. I'm much more attached to the post-ROTJ stories, but de-canonizing all of the stuff set in the Clone Wars period feels unnecessary and unfair to the people who did read those stories.

 

[Dansen]

My feelings on this subject aren't entirely represented in the polling options. I'm aware of some cool EU stuff, and I'm also aware of some godawful EU stuff (like Boba Fett surviving, and Darth Maul coming back with robo-legs), so I'm not really sure if this is good or bad for the lore on balance.

Mostly, I'm just waiting for the rageful discussions, so that I may read them and be mightily amused[footnote]This is not to say I have a snooty attitude towards canon-purists or people who get upset over fictional stories-- I'm one of them! It's just that I'm not terribly invested in Star Wars, and I love angry discussions of this kind above all.[/footnote].

robo-legs maul is still cannon bro, and its kinda awesome. He gets a chance to be an actual bad guy.

 

[Magnus Greel]

In short fuck Disney, fuck their new continuity, and fuck whatever turgid garbage Abrams and co pull out of their arse.

 

[seaweed]

Honestly, with something as vast as Star Wars I think it's best to just have a headcanon.

There's a lot of great EU stuff out there but there's also a lot of schlock.

 

[Zipa]

Honestly it needed to happen so that Disney can move forward with the SW franchise, while some gems have been lost like Kyle Katarn and KOTOR a lot of shit has also been cut. Plus there is nothing stopping them re adding bits that were good.

 

[INVALIDUSERNAME]

Since I'm pretty sure they'll just reintroduce KOTOR back into the canon with a new, remastered version of the game or something, I'm really okay with this change. And even if KOTOR and, like, Kyle Katarn do go the way of the dodo, 90% of the EU was Mary Sue and fan pandering trash where basically every one of the characters from the main movies doesn't die, goes on to become godtier Jedi, and live happily ever after. No thanks.

 

[TheIceQueen]

My feelings on this subject aren't entirely represented in the polling options. I'm aware of some cool EU stuff, and I'm also aware of some godawful EU stuff (like Boba Fett surviving, and Darth Maul coming back with robo-legs), so I'm not really sure if this is good or bad for the lore on balance.

Mostly, I'm just waiting for the rageful discussions, so that I may read them and be mightily amused[footnote]This is not to say I have a snooty attitude towards canon-purists or people who get upset over fictional stories-- I'm one of them! It's just that I'm not terribly invested in Star Wars, and I love angry discussions of this kind above all.[/footnote].

Wow, they actually made that canon? Years ago, that was just meant to be a silly Infinities story, which is non-canon. I haven't been keeping up. Seems as though they took that idea and put it into an actual canon story.

 

[Redd the Sock]

I'm of the mind the EU as it stands needs to end. I'll be the first to admit little was good for anything but schlock entertainment, though I'd say it's less a whole convoluted mess so much as a long soap opera with a couple of major continuity tangles centered around the clone wars and original trilogy. Still it had enough to be enjoyable around travesties like The Crystal Star.

Still, we've moved the forward timeline ahead to having the characters in their 60s and 70s and have filled most of that time making it hard to cover new material. Even as schlock entertainment, things have dropped in quality in recent years, and with the death of Aaron Allston I can't even count on any Wraith Squadron books anymore. The opposite side has covered almost all history anyone cares about with the exception of Yoda's life story and has gotten boring.

So I say end it, but at least end it right. One last big series to cover the final fate of Han, Luke and Leia, cover any leftover plot threads, and send off thind while setting up the future.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

It was bloated, disjointed and difficult to reconcile every book unless you had a canon guide... That being said there were some damn good stories and what does it matter if Disney put those stories in a place where they technically don't exist. It doesn't stop the books from existing nor anyone from reading them and accepting them as their own personal canon.
Besides I'd rather not see the best books of the bunch reduced to movies that most likely wouldn't live up to the stories. This way we get to see new things and not have to worry that "Disney fucked up Thrawn" or some such bullshit.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I am still very depressed and upset about it. I read nearly every book set after Return of the Jedi, all the way up to Crucible. I have been reading them since I was still in grade school. To have twenty plus years of my life and characters that I literally grew up with (Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Zekk) thrown out the window hurts. I knew that, ultimately, this would be what Disney did, but still...
What really hurts though, is the fact that I will no longer get adventures starring my favorite characters. I will never get to find out what happens with Allana. I will never know how Ben tracks down Vestera. I will never know if Raynar is okay. Because there is no way Disney will ever greenlight another book set in Expanded Universe because they don't want to risk confusing the new blood that they hope to draw in.
And any hope I had of any of these characters showing up in the new movie was thrown out as well when I saw that casting list and heard that this new one is going to star the original three.

So yeah, I'm upset about it.

 

[RandV80]

You know the poll doesn't really give many neutral options.

I know some people are bothered by this decision and usually I empathize when a niche fanbase loses something, but I don't know I have a hard time understanding exactly what was lost here. If it means new creations of this storyline are being halted then yeah, but the thing people are moaning about is that is simply that it's no longer 'canon', which the op suggests basically implies they've been reading fanfiction all this time and it no longer matters.

Well yeah, it's basically always been fanfiction, except written by professional authors and given Lucas' stamp of approval. And what exactly is wrong with that? Personally I read the first two trilogies back in the 90's, along with a few standalone books. I loved the Thrawn trilogy, but if no one was paying attention when the prequel movies came out they basically implied it wasn't canon.

Those books rely heavily on the 'clone wars', which was loosely reference in the first Star Wars movie. In Timothy Zhan's books, this was a period of history where I guess 'cloning' tech was first discovered and/or used on a mass scale for war, but turned into a disaster because due to some imbalance in the force after a while the clones went insane. In the books there was even a cloned 'Jedi' who was secretly evil that began mentoring Luke for a bit. In the books, there was a massive fleet of ships that the clones used that was now derelict and lost somewhere in the galaxy. The basic premise of the book was Grand Admiral Thrawn leader of the imperial remnants figuring out a way to safely make clones that won't go crazy and challenge the newly formed Republic again.

If you haven't picked up on it by now, that is a completely different history from what we saw in Star Wars episodes II and III 10-15 years ago. How can there be an established 'canon' future for the Star Wars movies when the very first book series following episode VI gets immediately contradicted by the prequel trilogy?

Only thing I really wanted to see in the new movies from the EU was keeping Thrawn as the villain, because lets face it he's awesome and basically the best Star Wars villain since Darth Vader, but it's pretty damn obvious they were never going to use the books as outlines for scripts.

 

[Rariow]

I was always a huge Star Wars nerd, read a huge amount of the books, loved great part of them... but the canon a mess, and there was a lock of shlock there. I'm not sad about it going, because all of the good stuff still exists, I can still read it, but as the EU got bigger, it got harder to produce good material that fit in with the canon, as well as harder for new people to jump in.

I don't believe Disney won't have their own take on the EU (hell, they've even announced a few novels which are likely the jumping off point for the new EU. Besides which, they like money, and the EU has always been a good cash cow), and I'm going to see how that turns out before crying foul. It can really go either the way Star Trek did (which consisted of perverting the series' spirit and themes into the opposite of what they had been, making it unrecognizable as the same thing and upsetting me to no end) or it could turn out the way DC's new 52 has: A nice, cleaning-up type event where the clusterfuck that it used to be is neatly but respectfully put aside, providing new material with the same spirit and style as the original but without all the threads of the canon holding it back. If this reboot turns out as well as the new 52 is turning out, I'll be ecstatic. If it does something more along the lines of Star Trek, I'll probably spend the next decade bitching any time anyone brings Star Wars up, the same way that I do about Trek.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I don't think it matters, it wasn't going to be a part of the movies anyway, it never was to begin with. The moves always comes first and they always have. But that doesn't mean that people can't continue to enjoy their novels and whatever else counts as EU.

 

[NateA42]

I see what everybody what saying but I also forgot to say why I'm sad they it's all gone.

I love history, now while real life history can be boring at times Star Wars' history always seemed to be somewhat better, most likely because it is a Inter-Galactic scene created by people from one planet so watching how two countries fight being transmitted in how two planets, sectors, alliances fight etc has always been interesting to me.

Personally I could have given a crap about the stories of Luke and Liea persons as they effected the whole universe through the New Jedi Order etc.

I didn't really read it as wanting Boba to live or every damn Solo child be a jedi but more as how it progressed. Like the rise of the Corporate Sector, why Corellia had grievances with mainstay governments etc... I loved how the Republic had millions of systems in it, with millions of sectors with millions of planets and the planets have regions and there could be dissidents and rebels on every level of that.

My I loved Star Wars for the books like "The Essential Guide to Warfare" not really for the jedi Boba stuff (which never happened because he wasn't force sensitive)

 

[DudeistBelieve]

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.

Alternately, you could treat the "pre-Disney" EU as an alternate continuity [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlternateContinuity], different but no less valid than the "post-Disney" one. That way you can enjoy both without having to worry about trying to reconcile the inevitable inconsistencies between the two.

Ya know you say that, but certain things still bug me.

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.

 

[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.