Sfdebris.net

No, really. Everyone on this forum knows I was pissed about it for a while, but to this day, it's not that they stopped working on the stories so much as the disconnect they displayed when declaring it "non-canon." Legends always had levels of canon, so to claim none of it mattered... well, that's just what I'd expect from corporate stooges. However, given how badly they've mangled the franchise as of late, I'm really reevaluating my old viewpoint. I'm really happy Legends has a definite end point, and that, as it stands now, it's still a sea of quality among a landmass of shit. My only beef, as I said, is that those in charge should just call it another continuity with levels of canon rather than saying none of it mattered, but I digress. Point being, if Legends were to come back under the new administration, I'm actually not very sure the quality would be any good. Gone is the era of James Luceno and Drew Karpyshyn and Matt Stover and other authors like Jude Watson (love Jedi Apprentice! XD). Now it's just people like Chuck Wendig, who may be the most condescending asshole I've ever seen. Bleh.

So what do you think? Is it actually a blessing now that Legends is no longer canon? At least those corporate greed-mongers can no longer get their filthy claws into it.

Does it really matter that much?

It does if you care about Legends, and I do.

Thing is I never considered it “canon” anymore than what’s supposed to be considered “canon” today. It’s all side stories that may or may not have happened outside of the films.

Whether or not its canon seems immaterial to me, the important thing is, do you enjoy those stories, and can you still enjoy them? The simple answer should be yes.

It seems odd to me that you're less upset about the fact that no more Legends works will be produced, since that's a far more material thing resulting from it no longer being canon. If instead they had split the timelines and said they'd be producing works for both universes, that probably would've satisfied every fan (albeit have it be really confusing for any newcomers).

Personally I think canon has a mix of good and bad stories so far, and Legends was really no different. Legends of course dwarfs Canon in sheer volume, but it's not like Legends had nothing but great stories in there.

I also think its hilarious you're characterizing Canon as being cynical moneygrubbing as if Legends was any different. Seriously?

@Makeshift Python "May or may not?!" Legends was a clear timeline unfolding with 30 years of world-building and a loose but still consistent continuity. So yes, I care. My point was just wondering if given how badly Star Wars is being written these days, if it's better off Legends is where it is - with a definite end. Also, why do I keep wanting to call you Makeshift Pylon?

@MixedDrops Just wait. At the rate the new "corporatized" Star Wars is pumping out the new EU comics and novels, it's going to surpass the old Legends canon in just five years when it took 30 years to reach that far. Also, Legends felt as if it was guided more by fans than out-of-touch business suits. The KOTOR games, many of the novels, and Lucas himself not being very sold on corporate money-grubbing, tells me he ran the company more for the art than the Benjamins.

You have this really consistent attitude of "if I like it, that means it was more made by fans than this new iteration". It's pretty conceited. I have little reason to believe (at least most of) the artists and authors working on the canon Star Wars loves it less than you do. The suits are cynical moneymaking machines, but that describes every big company...ever. If you're looking for "pure" projects then you shouldn't be looking at big franchises like Star Wars in the first place. If you don't like Canon works, just say they suck and move on, it's just a big pet peeve of mine that fans like you seek to delegitimize others because they don't do it exactly the way you want.

As for corporatism, are you actually going to accuse that of the same infrastructure that produced TLJ? For all the hate TLJ gets (and I've said it before, I'm not a fan of the movie myself), characterizing it as cynical is laughable. They gave writer-director control of their second big tentpole movie to some guy. TLJ was the closest thing to an auteur project something like a big franchise as Star Wars could've had, for better or for worse. The irony is that if they listened only to people who hate TLJ, they'd do exactly the opposite of it from now on and never take any risks again, ever.

Take a look at the behind-the-scenes material for the prequels for compare/contrast (or Chuck's excellent series about Lucas). No amount of reading about Lucas's life should make you think he never had at least some of his mind being business-oriented. It doesn't have to be all of one or the other, and even if it was, you could argue either way for Lucas.

Oh, Star Wars is popular and mainstream enough I don't doubt they're fans. But at the same time, have you heard some of what Lucasfilm is up to? They're really clamping down hard on some authors simply to "have a more consistent creative feel" to the EU, which is just one big word for "sterile." What I loved about the many books we had was they were overflowing with unique writing style. It WAS about art. Now it's about a bunch of control freaks wanting to dictate what THEY think Star Wars is. It's the worst aspect of fandom. Namely, "Now I control it, so I'm gonna do all the horrible things others will hate about it that I wish had been part of it in the first place!" And what use is a more "consistent" palette if there's still gonna be lots of plot holes - like with Last Jedi apparently contradicting some former EU elements? At least no one held Legends to that kind of degree, even when the prequels were coming out.

They threw the baby out with the bathwater in exchange for a new universe that...quite frankly, sucks donkey balls.

I've greatly soured on the decision over the years.

What's funny is that one of the reasons Disney decided to reboot the Star Wars EU was because the continuity Had become much to convoluted and if you went from Episode 6 to Episode 7 with the Original EU odds are good that anyone who hadn't been keeping up with the EU would be completely lost at the opening crawl. Chewie's dead, Han and Leia had 3 children, two of whom are dead with one of them falling to the dark side. Luke was married but his wife died who was killed by the Dark Side Solo kid and he has a son. There was a war with a new alien race who was "Immune" to the force and Luke has fallen to the dark side a couple of times and Han and Leia's last kid trained with Boba Fett to kill her brother.

That's a lot of information if we're to assume that TDST would take all that as canon. The problem is, Disney ended up doing that anyway by skipping over a number of major character arcs like Ben Solo's fall to the dark side, Luke losing his hope, Han and Leia breaking up, the rise of the First Order, the Rise of the New Republic and whoever Snoke is.

And they also ended up doing the "Need to check out this tie-in novel/game/comic/TV Show in order to get this character/plot point". For example, how did Phasma survive the events of TFA, explained in her tie-in comic, why does Leia trust Holdo, explained in Leia's tie-in novels, who is Snoke and where did he come from, hinted at in SW Lore books and so on.

Now you could still watch these stories in isolation and not get to lost but in the end the films are being made with the mind set that not only have you seen the other SW films, but also all the tie-ins to the films AND all the Legends stories.