Was it a good idea for Disney to throw out the whole EU?

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Fandoms are too obsessed with what is or isn't "canon". Learn to take it all in stride like Dr. Who and embrace fanarchy.

They should burn it all to the ground, everything except Bea Arthur.

[SuccubusYuri]

I mean, it's the same rule, basically, that Lucas used. "I won't be beholden to any of your artsy fartsy books." And, like Lucas, when they see something they want, they're quick to incorporate it and "re-canonize" it. Slash, throw you a bone so meaningless it's just polite, like "Palpatine".

Of course both Lucas AND Disney love teasing "will they or won't they?" with KOTOR, throwing in just enough that's obviously KOTOR, but no one specifically mentioning Revan (save that one alpha-episode of Clone Wars, but since that's not final-cut...)

[Winter]

Short answer, no. Long answer, why throw away decades of continuity? I've heard that they didn't want to take on the rather convoluted plot of the original EU, which is understandable as characters were rather inconstant writer to writer but the direction Disney has taken the series is, IMO, not an improvement.

One of my issues with the current films is that they're pretty much undid the character development of the original Trilogy cast with all of them regressing or acting like completely different people. Luke being more of a hermit who sees the worst in everything and everyone and has to be forced back into the role of the hero, Han aborning everyone he loved, and Leia being more cold and detached did not to the characters any favors. Not helping matters is that Lando was suppose to appear in Last in the role of DJ which included him betraying everyone making his entire character arc in the OT completely pointless.

And the thing of it is, the EU was guilty of this as well. There were tones of stories where Luke either fell to the dark side or pretended to and all of them, like hermit Luke in Last, didn't ring true to his character. And like Last these stories were controversial and often criticized by fans for not sticking true to the characters. How does the old saying go, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Well it looks like Disney didn't learn form the EU's mistakes as they've made the newer series just as convoluted only where it took the EU over 20 years to get to that point it took Disney all of 2 years and three movies to reach that point.

I honestly think Disney should have waited on making the rest of the films until they got a idea of where everything was going before they decided to make the newer films. Read through the entire EU and Lucas' ideas and plan the whole Trilogy out instead of just making it up on the fly and releasing one or two films a year.

[Karha of Honor]

KOTOR is nice but it's gone off the rails since The Old Republic.

Besides, John Jackson Miller has said they're releasing a Omnibus collection of his books soon so KOTOR the comic and other material aren't going away.

I think of the Legends universe as not "thronw away" but an alternate canon now.

They are just not going to be continued.

It's dead minus SWTOR.

Yes, but not for the previously mentioned reasons.
Disney is big on keeping control of their narratives and don't want to be hemmed in by lots of 'soft' canon. The old rule Lucas used was. Sure it is canon, till something he put on the screen said otherwise. The Thrawn trilogy was basically scrapped the moment the clones turned out to be the Republic's troops and not an enemy's.

So what did did Kotor and SWTOR do to deserve this?

Yes.

Primarily because I don't want to see the galaxy ravaged by Space Aztecs.

You can have your cake and i can have my Kotor era stuff.

A video game with different endings and an MMORPG were never going to be true canon anyway. But with Disney at least giving a nod with 'Legends' they exist. But not necessarily as we see them.

Why would it matter that it has multiple ending choices?

Short answer, no. Long answer, why throw away decades of continuity? I've heard that they didn't want to take on the rather convoluted plot of the original EU, which is understandable as characters were rather inconstant writer to writer but the direction Disney has taken the series is, IMO, not an improvement.

One of my issues with the current films is that they're pretty much undid the character development of the original Trilogy cast with all of them regressing or acting like completely different people. Luke being more of a hermit who sees the worst in everything and everyone and has to be forced back into the role of the hero, Han aborning everyone he loved, and Leia being more cold and detached did not to the characters any favors. Not helping matters is that Lando was suppose to appear in Last in the role of DJ which included him betraying everyone making his entire character arc in the OT completely pointless.

And the thing of it is, the EU was guilty of this as well. There were tones of stories where Luke either fell to the dark side or pretended to and all of them, like hermit Luke in Last, didn't ring true to his character. And like Last these stories were controversial and often criticized by fans for not sticking true to the characters. How does the old saying go, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Well it looks like Disney didn't learn form the EU's mistakes as they've made the newer series just as convoluted only where it took the EU over 20 years to get to that point it took Disney all of 2 years and three movies to reach that point.

I honestly think Disney should have waited on making the rest of the films until they got a idea of where everything was going before they decided to make the newer films. Read through the entire EU and Lucas' ideas and plan the whole Trilogy out instead of just making it up on the fly and releasing one or two films a year.

One film every year could work if they had competence on the top.

[KashyBoy101]

My relationship with the EU is rocky. For me, it's a continuation of Star Wars from a time when Star Wars was just three movies. Whenever I go back and re-read the Thrawn Trilogy, that's kind of the headspace of put myself in. The fact that most of the EU prior to the release of the prequels is pretty non-contiguous those prequels makes it a lot easier. (Wait, the Clone Wars involved WHO now? I'm sorry, the formation of the Empire was WHEN? Pardon, you said Vader lost his right arm HOW exactly?)

Legends was fun for what it was, but it was a mess, and creating a whole new sequel trilogy with the whole thing in mind was an undertaking no one in their right mind would want. Even Lucas had no intention including it. To him the EU was always it's own separate thing.

[Nealithi]

Why would it matter that it has multiple ending choices?

Okay, who was the sith inquisitor? Human? Alien? Darth Imperius? Occulus? Nox? Male? Female? Sorcerer or assassin?

Now which is canon?
And that is just one of the player characters. Defining it to say; Twi'lek, female, assassin, Darth Nox. Now means anyone playing the game and not under the set definition is doing it wrong. I no longer want to replay Kotor because they defined Revan's gender. I am generally not alone in my opinions, ergo if you want sales to continue. You do not define it. And without definition how can you say it is full on canon?

[Karha of Honor]

Why would it matter that it has multiple ending choices?

Okay, who was the sith inquisitor? Human? Alien? Darth Imperius? Occulus? Nox? Male? Female? Sorcerer or assassin?

Now which is canon?
And that is just one of the player characters. Defining it to say; Twi'lek, female, assassin, Darth Nox. Now means anyone playing the game and not under the set definition is doing it wrong. I no longer want to replay Kotor because they defined Revan's gender. I am generally not alone in my opinions, ergo if you want sales to continue. You do not define it. And without definition how can you say it is full on canon?

If i have to bet i doubt you have any sort of significant numbers on your side.

My relationship with the EU is rocky. For me, it's a continuation of Star Wars from a time when Star Wars was just three movies. Whenever I go back and re-read the Thrawn Trilogy, that's kind of the headspace of put myself in. The fact that most of the EU prior to the release of the prequels is pretty non-contiguous those prequels makes it a lot easier. (Wait, the Clone Wars involved WHO now? I'm sorry, the formation of the Empire was WHEN? Pardon, you said Vader lost his right arm HOW exactly?)

Legends was fun for what it was, but it was a mess, and creating a whole new sequel trilogy with the whole thing in mind was an undertaking no one in their right mind would want. Even Lucas had no intention including it. To him the EU was always it's own separate thing.

Reread the the title. I am fine with a lot of it thrown out.

[Nealithi]

If i have to bet i doubt you have any sort of significant numbers on your side.

I may need you to clarify this response.
Do you wish me to get Disney's justification for not claiming a video game is canon?
Or the hard numbers of people that have quit specific video games due to them later declaring a certain ending that is disagreed with the 'proper' one?

Also the term 'significant' seems to indicate that I will need to vet the conclusions or they will be dismissed?

[Karha of Honor]

If i have to bet i doubt you have any sort of significant numbers on your side.

I may need you to clarify this response.
Do you wish me to get Disney's justification for not claiming a video game is canon?
Or the hard numbers of people that have quit specific video games due to them later declaring a certain ending that is disagreed with the 'proper' one?

Also the term 'significant' seems to indicate that I will need to vet the conclusions or they will be dismissed?

Or the hard numbers of people that have quit specific video games due to them later declaring a certain ending that is disagreed with the 'proper' one?

Just give me some speculation.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

For the most part, I like the way Star Trek handled things throughout its first forty years or so- try not to do things that obviously contradict what happened on screen and pay tribute to old legends occasionally, but make your priority telling new stories. If the EU has a good idea, go ahead and use it, otherwise just ignore it and let the people who are into it sort the details out themselves. Don't go out of your way to antagonize the people who love that material, but don't let it hamstring you either.

So to apply that to Star Wars, I don't think Star Wars has handled things well. I don't think they needed to officially "throw out" anything. In my opinion, they should have just ignored it, and gone into either the future or the past to tell new stories. If the EU was contradicted, to put it bluntly, that should have been the EU's problem. Instead they've chosen to intimately link themselves to the EU in ways that precious few are satisfied with, by officially decanonizing it and then playing almost exclusively in the EU's playground by rehashing the same thirty year period in every fricking way possible. They show no signs of slowing down either.

Star Trek has done the same thing as well with the reboot universe, Discovery, and possibly with the new Picard series.