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EU Canon being discarded for new movies

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Tamer:
Here is the quote that gets me from the official site:

"In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe."

So because we have all read the EU Novels its not new and we won't like the new movies as much if they used established and previously approved Lucasfilm storylines? What the hey!

wraithnine:
puts me off Ep VII already ,this is what i fear ,that Disney A)doesn't understand the fanbase or the rich tapestry of stories in the EU ,an B) don't care cos all they see is $$$.
either way i don't have a good vibe about Disney.

CheesyKNAC:
I've been a huge Star Wars fan, like most people here, since early childhood having grown up with the original trilogy. I'll play Devil's Advocate here and say this, the one thing that I did hear in the video that seemed interesting is that they have a storyline department now that will keep the vision of everything and everyone on track with creating a unified storyline amongst the movies, books, games, shows, etc. I've been collecting and reading Star Wars novels for a few years now and you can even see the differences amongst all of the different books how different authors will try to get their own vision across of what they think Star Wars should be. I notice it every time I pick up a new book from a different author than the last book I just read. I'll admit I finally got into reading the Star Wars books when I picked up Star Wars, Republic Commando "Hard Contact". From that point I was hooked and bought that entire series and then began watching The Clone Wars and collecting as many of the books as I can (and am still collecting). Of course I can't read them all as fast as I've been buying them, lol. So of course after reading Imperial Commando "501st" I'm thinking "AWESOME!!!" and can't wait for the next book to come out. Now for me anyways this is around the same time that they introduce the planet Mandalore into Clone Wars. I watch it and I'm thinking "Wait, this isn't the Mandalore I've been reading about. These aren't the Mandalorians that I've come to love and admire from the novels. What the hell is going on here??" I start doing a little digging and come to find out that Karen Traviss had (at that time) recently decided to not continue writing the next novel in the Republic/Imperial Commando series due to a conflict of interest with what the Clone Wars story writers and show producers have put forth out there as it totally contradicted what she had written. Now at the time being a HUGE fan of the novel series I WAS PISSED!! How could the show's producers totally go against what was (for me) written fact/history? For a little while I then had a love/hate relation with Clone Wars because of this, but as Clone Wars was a great way to get my nieces and nephews involved in the Star Wars universe and teaching them all that I knew. I still love Clone Wars even if yes admittedly there are some serious contradictions between what the show's producers put out there as opposed to what we've all come to learn as what we thought the Star Wars universe should be from what we've all read already.

So I guess this is the part where I play Devil's Advocate here. Maybe it might not be such a bad idea to have the collective mind of all of the writers, producers, designers, toy manufacturers, illustrators, etc, etc, all having to be on the same page from this point forward as to what the Star Wars universe should be. I know a lot of people will hate me for saying that because like me, they have invested a lot of time and money into buying and collecting anything and everything that we could get our hands on from the Star Wars universe, and we all hate the idea that someone else is coming in and telling us that we've wasted all that time, effort and money on it as the storyline is heading off in a different direction. Now here's the thing, Star Wars and all of the EU material have been great for one or more things, especially for those involved in the customizing community, it has sparked our imaginations to create different things and different versions of what we think the Star Wars universe should be. We can own that! We can be proud of that! It doesn't make what anyone has created any less valid because our beloved franchise is being taken into a different direction that what "we" think it should be taken. The things everyone have created are still as cool as ever, and no one says you have to stop creating what you want because of any changes.

The thing I like about the reigning in of the storyline is that possibly it could end some of the in-fighting amongst a lot of fans that I've seen happening over the years due to what one person's vision of what the Star Wars universe should be based on whatever form they've been exposed to it has been. Remember back when I said I was a huge fan of the Republic/Imperial Commando series of novels? Well I still am, and that will not change with a possible change in where the new Star Wars stories may lead. For the longest time I was a huge defender of Karen Traviss and her vision of SW/Mandalore and even maybe hated the powers that be at SW/Clone Wars for taking the story and tweeking it for the show, and as far as I thought I had learned, that was her reason for leaving writing for SW. I got into a pissing match on a comment thread on facebook recently over something posted that was SW related. It delved into territory of Karen Traviss and her reason for no longer writing due to the changes made in the show. Of course I jumped in and voiced my opinion and stuck up for Karen. This pissing match went on for what seemed like way too long, when another Karen Traviss defender also pointed out something that made me step back and think. He was a fan of her work as well, but he also pointed out that she did kind of seem to be having the idea that the whole Mandalorian thing was HER creation and that she owned the Mandalore folklore that we'd all come to love. When in reality she was just a hired gun, a writer hired to write stories for SW, that's it. And that possibly she shouldn't have had such a hissy fit and run off on the fans in the way she did. This was like hitting a brick wall of realization for me. He was right. At the end of the day it wasn't her creation. In reality it's George's creation and we have to respect that. Yes we the fans should have a major say in it too, but therein lies the problem, the same as when you have too many different venues/outlets for everyone else's vision of what SW should be...... there are going to be contradictions and fighting over different visions and opinions. So for me the setting up of a department to oversee the future of SW and where the stories will lead is kind of exciting for me, and a little bit of a sigh of relief that there may be some more continuity in things across the board and less fighting and bickering amongst fans and that everyone can get along and get into loving Star Wars again for what it is, an escape for all of us into a galaxy far far away!! :)

Okay, I'm done ranting..... I think, lol ;)

smeagol92055:

--- Quote from: wraithnine on April 27, 2014, 05:17:38 AM ---puts me off Ep VII already ,this is what i fear ,that Disney A)doesn't understand the fanbase or the rich tapestry of stories in the EU ,an B) don't care cos all they see is $$$.
either way i don't have a good vibe about Disney.

--- End quote ---

I hear your concerns, and I understand them, but I don't necessarily think that dumping the bulk of the EU canon is a terrible idea. There are a lot of things in the EU that are just terribly written, clunky, and outright contradict other things in the EU. Plus, they're not dumping everything; they stated already that they were going to be using the EU as a library to draw from, and they named some pretty obscure EU stuff as examples.
To me, this is the same as when Disney bought Marvel. Everyone predicted doom and gloom and six months later The Avengers came out and blew the doors completely off the joint. Now, I'm NOT a fan of J.J. Abrams, and if I hear the name Orci or Kirkman I'm going to flip a table over... But I don't think that this will be ALL bad.

Just gotta wait and see.

Goldleaderone:
Not only do I feel bad for the fans but I also feel bad for the authors and the hard work they did. All that work, just thrown out the window basically? Such a shame.

I'm a little confused though. What about other EU material, such as Shadows of the Empire and Splinter of the Mind's Eye, are those still canon or being discarded as well? Basically anything in the OT timeline is what I'm asking, up until Ep. 6.

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