May the 4th Be With You

[Lee47]

It's that time of year again, when Star Wars fans everywhere commemorate the release of the original film, back when there were no "Episodes", just a movie called "Star Wars" that Hollywood thought should never have been made and would never succeed.

Boy, were they ever idiots.

Now apparently we're gearing up for Episode 7 (working title: "I Thought We Were Only Making Six Episodes") and I personally am hoping that a new Battlefront game is coming out for PS4, so I can get back to blasting those annoying Ewoks, this time in high definition.

A new Star Wars trilogy; are you looking forward to it, or not?

Remember- the 4th will be with you... always.

 

[IrishTickle1]

I'd say there'll be footage of the new Battlefront game at E3 (they teased it last year).

I'm looking forward to this. I think they can't go as badly wrong as they did with the last three and they've an excellent cast and crew put together for this. I don't think it'll ever have a chance of replacing the original trilogy in my heart, but it's nearly guaranteed to be a lot of fun. I think it may be because I really had high hopes for the last trilogy that this time I'm playing it cool and just willing to let it happen and enjoy it for what it is.

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

Truth be told, no, I'm not looking forward to it, and for a very good reason. Disney universally declared the EXPANDED UNIVERSE of Star Wars (aka all the material that fans, authors, and gaming companies had made) to be NON CANNON. They could have just said that this newest trilogy takes place in an alternate universe in the Star Wars setting. They didn't have to kill decades worth of awesome material. That's what they did though so to be perfectly blunt, Star Wars is quite literally DEAD to me now. To be honest, out of all three prequel movies, the only one I enjoyed was Revenge of the Sith and even then I only liked the battle/conflict scenes. Lucas never should have been allowed anywhere NEAR the script and Christianson's/Portman's acting throughout all three movies borders on the insanely bad. So, yeah, to me there will always be the original trilogy and the expanded universe and that's about IT!

 

[Senshi1]

I'm not as fanatical as some people, but I loved the Star Wars universe as a kid, and still have a big soft spot for it. I may well see Episode 7, but I'll have to get around to seeing Episode 3 first.

But in the spirit of the day, May the Fourth be with you all! 😛

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

May the schwartz be with you!

 

[IrishTickle1]

Truth be told, no, I'm not looking forward to it, and for a very good reason. Disney universally declared the EXPANDED UNIVERSE of Star Wars (aka all the material that fans, authors, and gaming companies had made) to be NON CANNON. They could have just said that this newest trilogy takes place in an alternate universe in the Star Wars setting. They didn't have to kill decades worth of awesome material. That's what they did though so to be perfectly blunt, Star Wars is quite literally DEAD to me now. To be honest, out of all three prequel movies, the only one I enjoyed was Revenge of the Sith and even then I only liked the battle/conflict scenes. Lucas never should have been allowed anywhere NEAR the script and Christianson's/Portman's acting throughout all three movies borders on the insanely bad. So, yeah, to me there will always be the original trilogy and the expanded universe and that's about IT!

The thing is, the expanded universe is so big, that they can't control it. It would be insane for them to follow the original trilogy with a story that either completely copies something already written, or that has to have the viewer read something else to make sense of it. It makes sense to keep the films and everything else separate, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

[Rox_My_Sox1]

The thing is, the expanded universe is so big, that they can't control it.

No offense but Disney is also big and yet they have no problems keeping control over their own product. I doubt the expanded universe would pose much of a challenge to Disney.

It would be insane for them to follow the original trilogy with a story that either completely copies something already written, or that has to have the viewer read something else to make sense of it.

If you'll look at what I typed earlier I said they could just say that these next three films take place in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE of the Star Wars setting. If they could do it with Star Trek they'd probably have no issues with Star Wars.

It makes sense to keep the films and everything else separate, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I completely disagree. The fans helped contribute to the setting and to say all of a sudden that none of it actually happened is like giving the "middle finger" to a shit load of hardcore star wars fans.

 

[Lee47]

Knowing absolutely zilch about the EU (could be Expanded Universe, could be the European Union), did Lucasfilm consider it "canon" either? Or did they just not really care since all the films had been made as far as they knew? I get the impression from a friend of mine, who is deeply into all this stuff, that the books are contradictory to each other; the technology does different things depending on what it needs to do for the story; the Force is different from one author to the next, and so on. (The Star Trek expanded 'verse is just as bad I am told, and this same friend hated Abrams' reboot in 2009 because it contradicted something an author had written in a backstory about where Spock and Kirk had met- disregard the fact that the story in the reboot had history change on the day of Kirk's birth. My friend, I love her so, is not always perfectly rational...)

So I guess what I'm saying or asking is, did Disney maybe decide on Day 1 that since there is no way to reconcile all the sources in the SW EU, there was no point in even trying? Or did they decide that the stories already written would be a straitjacket that meant they couldn't tell their own stories? (The fact that J.J. is involved is telling to me, since that's the same reason he gave for rebooting Trek from Day One with a new universe where anything could happen.)

In any case, I thought there were multiple levels of "canon" in the Lucasverse anyway, like the Clone Wars cartoons vs. the films vs. the books. Or am I wrong?

 

[Violetta]

Lucasfilm never considered the EU to be canon alongside the movies. They were at liberty to ignore it with anything they considered to be top levels of canon, which consisted of the films and the TV shows, namely The Clone Wars and the upcoming Rebels. They were divided between G-canon, "George's canon," and T-canon, "TV canon." I think the Clone Wars mini-sodes might have been up there, but I'm not sure. The EU was part of something called "C Canon," the "C" meaning "continuity." They were part of an ongoing saga, but they weren't official.

Frankly, good riddance. The EU is atrocious. It's a million writers, many of them amateur at best, getting further and further away from the fantasy and mythological aspects that gave Star Wars its appeal. They try to pump in generic sci-fi elements, modern day allegory, or even just "space realism" that doesn't have any place in Star Wars. They sucked the fun out of it, and if there's one thing Disney is good at it's fun. I couldn't be more jazzed about new SW films. Bring 'em on! The sooner the better!

 

[IrishTickle1]

No offense but Disney is also big and yet they have no problems keeping control over their own product. I doubt the expanded universe would pose much of a challenge to Disney.

It would have posed huge problems. Even within the EU there's plenty of stories that cancel each other out. It would have left the writer's with very little to work with. As I said, forcing viewers to read other sources of information in order to understand what's going on in the film is just going to alienate them. And trying to match up the film to something that's already been written is going to alienate the fans of the EU, as they'll never be able to do it to the degree that fans want.

If you'll look at what I typed earlier I said they could just say that these next three films take place in an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE of the Star Wars setting. If they could do it with Star Trek they'd probably have no issues with Star Wars.

But the first Star Trek was completely about the existence of this new universe. Doing it in Star Wars would mean either devoting an entire film to explaining why there's another universe or skipping over it with a short explanation. And that's kind of a mad thing to do in order to appease a fairly small fanbase when you take the larger cinema going public into account.

The only reason Star Trek went with the option of an alternative universe was because they wanted to reboot the tv show and films. The alternative history line was just a convenient way to do it. The new Star Wars films is a direct continuation, so pretending it's an alternative universe doesn't work for it.

And anyway, just pretend that the EU is an alternative universe. Same difference.

I completely disagree. The fans helped contribute to the setting and to say all of a sudden that none of it actually happened is like giving the "middle finger" to a shit load of hardcore star wars fans.

But it's not. The fans did it off their own backs, most getting paid quite well for it. If you wrote a book and someone wrote a fan-fiction sequel, would you really be obliged to have your own sequel take into account the fan-fiction? That's essentially what you're saying. A lot of the EU is more conventional that fan-fiction, but in reality all it is is making stories up based on characters from 3 movies made in the 70's and 80's.

 

[Lee47]

Look at what I started......

 

[Violetta]

How could you!? This is a... a... a conversation! :scared

 

[dalekfire]

I' love Star Wars! Live long and prosper!

*runs away*


(btw, shame on you for targetting the Ewoks, Lee! You must be the only jerk who ever does that! :mad *cough*)

 

[Chris Prime]

I've just watched The Force Awakens. And to be short: it was pretty good. 🙂

 

[BlasterMaster]

Saw it. It was...decent...though I had some issues with it. I really wanted to see some new starfighters and capital ships based (even loosely) on Expanded Universe stuff. Instead we got the same old tech. Also, SNOKE? Kind of a corny name for a Dark Sider there Abrams...still...a decent flick.