Star Wars EU

[Duke Togo]

For all the SW fanboys out there who have bought every piece of SW expanded universe crap there is, I would just like to see their reactions if Lucas ever decided to do Eps 7-9 and disregarded all of the EU books & comics. I wonder how many of them would crap their pants?

I think alot more people would crap their pants if he did follow the EU with 7-9. Alot of it is not good, and makes a mess out of the established filmverse.

[Mr March]

Have you guys read the 'Conquest' fanfic?

No, haven't read it. I really liked all the technical conversations the fans came up with for Star Wars but I generally tried to stay far away from the "Versus" debates. The Star Wars Technical Commentaries by Curtis Saxton is a lot of fun to read, if you're into that kinda of stuff.

[baronv]

I read the Heir to the Empire series, Dark Force Rising, and some of the New Jedi Order stuff in the mid-90s when the Star Wars hype got me excited when the Special Edition movies were re-released. Some of the books were o.k., didn't get too into them for long once the hype died down. Reminds me of the Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the novels on Han and Lando that were made between ESB and ROTJ movies. The Dark Empire comics I thought was bad and the Shadows of the Empire stuff so-so. Once in the books Hand and Leia had 3 kids and the Anakin became some super-jedi to-be I gave up on reading anymore.

[Hurin]

They don't feel like Star Wars because they aren't. Star Wars was the story of a Civil War and the Rebels eventually coming out on top. Instrumental to this was the re-emergence of the last Jedi.

The EU makes SW more like Star Trek. Especially the emergence of "alien" threats (uh, why is that scary in a galaxy crawling with all-different aliens). . . They're "episodic" rather than "epic" as the movies were (originally). SW originally had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And the characters were geared around that arc. To add intermindable further episodes to their arcs doesn't really work all that well.

Of course, the same thing happened to the movies via the prequels. Rather than a civil war with a re-emergent Jedi, the movies retroactively became about the villain (Vader). . . and how he wasn't actually the villain but just a misunderstood guy who had something to do with every other major character in the original movies. Oh, and there's a civil war.

I'd argue the books, like the prequels, explore characters and go into areas where the original movies do not. And the characters of the originals really don't stand up too well under that sort of "scrutiny" (or "stretching"), and the appealing tone of the originals are lost in the translation.

H

[Vermillion21]

Well put Hurin. I think that for many of us the original SW trilogy had such a major impact storytelling and FX wise, that it's extremely tough to capture that same magic. That's why the recent "prequel trilogy" could probably never have met SW fan expectations ... although the 3rd act: Revenge of the Sith came pretty close.

My 2 cents.