Star Wars Expanded Universe

I wasn't sure where to put this since the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU) covers books, comics, cartoons and video games. I decided on books in the end because that's probably what springs to most people's minds when they think of the EU, but if you want to discuss the video games or comics or Holiday Special you can do that here too.

The Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known officially as Star Wars Legends) encompasses every one of the officially licensed, fictional background stories of the Star Wars universe, outside of the original six Star Wars films. It is derived from and includes most official Star Wars-related books, comics, video games, television series and other media. This material expands and continues the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from over 36,000 years before The Phantom Menace to 136 years after Return of the Jedi.

In 2014 the Star Wars Expanded Universe was declared non-canon by Lucasfilm in the preparation for the then-upcoming Sequel Trilogy. This meant that all EU material, with the exception of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was no longer considered part of the Star Wars canon. Most of the original EU material is still available, but under the new "Legends" banner. However, certain story elements from the EU have been reintroduced into Star Wars canon, the most recent example being Grand Admiral Thrawn who made an appearance in Star Wars: Rebels and has a new book coming out later this year written by original Thrawn author Timothy Zahn.

The announcement of the EU being non-canon was highly controversial, with some praising the decision and some being absolutely furious that Disney had "destroyed" so much storytelling (implying Disney went on some kind of book burning spree or something). We had a thread on the Farm set up to document the autistic fallout from the decision, but like with so many community watch threads, it devolved into talking about the EU itself rather than the rabid fans. Thankfully, this forum is geared more towards media discussion so I think this thread will work better here.

Personally, I'm very pleased the EU is non-canon because I think for the most part it was rubbish. There is some great stuff in there, but for every Heir to the Empire or Darth Bane Trilogy or Knights of the Old Republic there were ten Darksabers or Legacy of the Forces or Jedi Academy Trilogies. And as far as I'm concerned Knights of the Old Republic is still canon because The Old Republic is still running and Malachor is canon now, so most of what I liked is part of the new continuity.

Use this thread to discuss the good, the bad and the downright weird of the old EU. Whether it's author Karen Traviss calling Star Wars fans Nazis for not liking her work or Troy Denning's apparent torture porn fetish, I think we can get some good discussion going here.

 

I love Star Wars but never really delved that much into the EU, other than some comic or game here and there. But from what I know it indeed was fairly inconsistent in quality and had elements that clashed a lot with each other. Spaning for almost 40 years, works such as the comics went through pretty much any trend in the industry: From glam rock space opera heroes from the 80s to super edgy anti-villains from the 90s to gritty realism from the 2000s, and as the time passed and more works were added it became pretty much impossible to encompass, leading to all sorts of contradictions, plotholes and inconsistencies.

The good thing is that, unlike your average science fiction / comic book reboot, they keep the core works of the franchise: the movies (even if they pretty much didn't have a choice, since that was the most valious asset they had acquired and the Original Trilogy in particular is considered a true gem of cinematic history), which allows for a new world of possibilities and to do things better, while keeping some of the spirit of the original spirit. Besides, like Fart says there's always the possibility of keeping certain other elements that do fit in well.
Personally I think the new movies are fairly decent and I've enjoyed some of the new Marvel comics so I think we're off to a good start!

Having said that, I can sort of understand some of the resentment and the uproar from fans who spend decades keeping up with the franchise, but since I was either not born, too young or simply didn't care that much when most of the EU came out I can appreciate the opportunity of having a new, smaller, more comprehensible expanded universe.

 

It was when Karen Traviss was writing for it - she portrayed Mandalorians as being far more powerful than the Jedi.

Hey @Saney get in here. You know more about this than I do.

 

Ugh, fuckin' Karen Traviss.

Okay, so Karen Traviss was responsible for writing a series called Republic Commando. It was a tie-in to a standalone game of the same named that came out in 2005. The game was decent, the book series was not because it quickly devolved into a Mandalorian wank-fest and Traviss' mouthpiece would whine about how baaaaad the Jedi were.

Pre-Traviss the Mandalorians were a culture of warriors. Mercs who were above average in skill, but still just mercs. They tended to get the asses kicked by the Jedi because they really didn't pick their battles well and were pretty much extinct by the Prequels, Jango Fett aside.

Then Traviss comes along and she completely changes that. Suddenly, there's millions of the fuckers running around and they're all wearing lightsaber proof armour and they all brag about how Mandalorians are expert Jedi killers. Before Traviss, there was nothing to suggest that at all, especially since, well...


Went down like a bitch.

Not to mention that in a series called Republic Commando, the main character is an obnoxious Mando mouthpiece who never shuts up about how awesome Mandalorians are and how much better there culture is. Because nothing says "enlightened culture" like a love of child soldiers.

And then there's all the Jedi bashing. According to Traviss, the Jedi are child snatching, emotionless slave drivers who didn't give a shit about the clone army and used them as disposable cannon fodder.

Then she had a massive shit fit when the CGI show ignored all of her work. The rumour is that she was fired because she threw up a tantrum over it. She also called fans of the Jedi Nazis, which meant that most people didn't particularly miss her when she was booted out. http://www.karentraviss.com/page22/files/Is_it_true_you_hate_Jedi_.html

Don't even get me started on all the stupid Fett shilling. I have no idea how that character got so popular considering that the only thing he did was track Han Solo to Cloud City, Darth Vader did all the real work. Then he got his ass kicked by Han while he was blind and fell into a giant sand anus. But in every appearance since, he's portrayed as some kind of uber bounty hunter who never loses. Which is so stupid because...

Went down like a bitch.

...Rates self Autistic.

 

I wanted to get into the EU. The only books I ever read were the Thrawn Trilogy. They were ok, but I never quite understood the love for Thrawn.

 

I liked quite a few of the expanded universe books but understand why they had to make them non-cannon. It would be really inconvenient to write around the E.U.s cannon or adapt it into a movie. One think I didn't like about the decision was the decision to keep that crappy CGI cartoon cannon. I know it is intended for kids but it seemed pretty stupid.

 

Yeah, people worship that cartoon like it was the second coming of Christ when it really wasn't that good. Some of the episodes were okay, but it was tainted by being associated with the Prequels. Rebels is much better.

 

Didn't the Expanded Universe give us such gems as that "I bid you... Dark Greetings!" quote?

 

That was from one of the worst of all of them, The Glove of Darth Vader. It was intended for younger readers, but is still pretty bad even considering that.

 

Don't forget The Crystal Star where Luke has cybersex with a girl.

 

I wonder if that had anything to do with it being a best seller.

 

Well it sure as fuck wasn't the story that did it.

 

Isn't Star Wars officially supposed to be all "family-friendly?"

 

The EU got away with it because let's face it, kids weren't really the target audience of a lot of those books. Some of the later books had straight up torture porn in them.

 

officially is the key word there.

 

I'm not a star wars fan so take this with a grain of salt but I'm pretty sure it's because of the way they pushed Boba Fett merchandise when the OrigTrig was out. He was designed to be a cool toy more than an interesting character.

 

wait what

 

One of the authors, Troy Denning, has a bit of a torture porn fetish. There are several long torture scenes in his books which are gratuitous and go on for ages. What other conclusions can you draw than that the guy has a fetish?