What Makes the Star Wars Original EU So Special?

[Winter]

To clarify I don't mean what made what made it great as there are plenty of stories with, to be nice, questionable quality (there's a reason many fans were overall okay with the reboot when Disney bought the series back in 2012) but to this day the Old EU, refereed to here on out as Legends for simplicity, so special?

It's not like there's never been Supplementary Material before Legends and the EU's are something that is always going to pop up no matter what when a series becomes truly popular, with games, novels, comics being pretty much a given. But Star Wars' Legends is often singled out as the Standard to which all EU's are measured against, even after almost 30 years and a massive reboot Legends still holds the title of The Expanded Universe. Why is that?

Well that's actually pretty easy to answer, it's the most critically and financially successful EU to date. Again, plenty of bad or just okay stories were bad during the Lucas Era but the hits are were all main steam hits with critics and audience alike that impact on the series and pop culture can still be felt to this day. The biggest hits in question are, of course, The Thrawn Trilogy, the X-Wing Series, Dark Force/Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Shadows of the Empire, Knights of the Old Republic and The Clone Wars. All of these were very popular with fans and as a result Lucas and others integrated a number of elements from Legends into either the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars 3D series.

I can't think of Any other EU that's had such an impact in pop culture. Even Star Trek which, as has been pointed out before, has a arguably larger EU yet I can't think of a single novel, game or comic that managed to engrave itself on pop culture like Star Wars Legends did. Hell, more often then not the Star Trek Shows and Movies outright retcons or de-canonizes its EU and almost no characters from said EU are never mentioned or appear in the shows or movies. Not saying those stories aren't good but it's just a fact that Trek's EU isn't as well know as SW's.

Even after the Disney Buyout Legends influence on the series was still being felt. Thrawn joined the new canon in Rebels, Jacen's story very likely had some influence on Kylo's story, Rian Johnson stated that he got the idea of Force Projections from an EU story and Mara Jade has been hinted at to be in the Disney Era.

Again, Legends was by no means perfect and I would argue that Legacy of the Force is one of the Worst stories in Star Wars but as Expanded Universe go the Lucas Era's EU is still the Gold Standard.

[Captain Crimson]

While I can't help but feel very flattered you were inspired by my thread to start your own, friend, and I found it a genuinely good read as well, there is one thing I wanna single out amongst what you wrote. Call it nitpicking if you want, but true geek culture is about nitpicking, so let's dive in!

Even after the Disney Buyout Legends influence on the series was still being felt. Thrawn joined the new canon in Rebels, Jacen's story very likely had some influence on Kylo's story, Rian Johnson stated that he got the idea of Force Projections from an EU story and Mara Jade has been hinted at to be in the Disney Era.

There is a big issue here, which I think is entirely self-reflective to their management style. That Mara Jade may still be alive in Disney. I mean, ignoring my own biases because while I do love Mara I prefer Mira from KOTOR 2, the question becomes this: Is it just more easter eggs that are really kind of shallow, watered down references that don't mean a hill of beans in this half-Legends, half-reboot universe? If it is a true recanonizing, however, then I tend to suspect something is lost in translation. LF employees have a point when they say the fans obsess too much about canon, but if they were not led by such incompetent liars, it would be nowhere near the issue it is which many feel hinders them in their storytelling and approach to interaction with fans.

Mara Jade has no place in the Disney canon for the Luke Skywalker who became the man he is. The context for why the fans fell in love with her has shifted, subtly reconfigured, and I think that's what many of them find so jarring, that they are unable to articulate competently. The context is messed up. Granted, if this were a legitimate alternate timeline, a parallel reality set outside of the Legends universe, then it could very well be a change in the sequence of events. Yet further indictment which betrays their kind of approach is that many such writers are confused by what you say when you bring up the "golden age of SF," such as Ms. Carson on Twitter. It's not a changed timeline. They tell you to ignore canon because they don't even know what it is.

I've even seen speculation Mara Jade is shifted further back into the timeline so that she could marry Obi-Wan Kenobi. Really. I mean, how is that so far removed from fanfiction? You tweak around a few dates, remove and alter events and settings as you see fit, so that characters are born earlier or later that is diametrically opposed to any semblance of coherence? Admittedly these are the fans who are speculating on this, but I think it is a dangerous way to be thinking. Yes, it gives you a short-term fan high, a nerdgasm if you will, but then it's also detrimental to a sustainable long-term approach. That's what I mean when I keep harping on how I think long-term continuity is going to break down.

And like I've said, maintaining consistency between TV shows, comic books, novels that include adult literature as well as YA books, video games of all genres, and the movies is way harder than it seems. That doesn't mean we should just abandon the attempt however.

[chaos42]

i think the reason its so popular is that it had good stories, and it was well advertised. Something you don't see with a lot of expanded universe materials, the star wars eu had toys and other products made for them and was official. Plus while some stories were bad like the black fleet crisis some were fairly good, though there were inaccuracies and poor editing

[Captain Crimson]

i think the reason its so popular is that it had good stories, and it was well advertised. Something you don't see with a lot of expanded universe materials, the star wars eu had toys and other products made for them and was official. Plus while some stories were bad like the black fleet crisis some were fairly good, though there were inaccuracies and poor editing

Inaccuracies are always inevitable in a long-running brand. And in this case, that they were able to keep it consistent spread across so many disparate multimedia projects is frankly testament to all the points I'd made, and how far we've sunk since.

Take the KOTOR games. Now, it doesn't really enhance anything to bring up what amounts to trivia from the JA (Jedi Apprentice) books by Ms. Watson, like the Room of a Thousand Fountains and Telos, but it does way more than amount to shallow easter eggs like they are in the DC. It contributes to the overall sense of a lived-in universe, with history to it. That's what SWL was all about. Mythology and history. It feels like the IP has strayed as far from those roots as possible.

And frankly, the special thing about geek and nerd culture is how we are deep into lore and continuity, it's how you could get into debates, fights even, about such trivialities that wouldn't matter to the vast audiences of casuals modern LF really wants to cater to. And I don't care what anyone says, we all care about continuity. It's what makes geek culture unique. We all just have different areas where we draw the line.

[chaos42]

That was kinda the point i was making even with inaccuracies and such the story is whats important and a good story sometimes can over come poor continuity. Though for a while star wars had fairly good continuity the problem was it started to slip. though its not as bad as some of the writing ive seen in star trek novels, ouch there are some bad ones.

But the thing im getting at was the advertising and the fact that it was promoted a lot more than most other novel series, there a shadows of the empire sound track for the novel and until recently id never seen that ever again, and i work in a book store, of course the thing that got a sound track was 10 shades of grey, -before the movie, and im not going into how much im not interested in that book.

[Captain Crimson]

I guess the overall point I've made by now is that it's also very difficult spread over so many divergent media without a singular vision, which is what the old EU had. I think the new Disney creators have seen for themselves how hard it is, though they'd never admit that. Well, people like Mr. Martin will admit how hard it is, but the top brass never will.

[MerelyAFan]

Honestly I've always loved the range of stories and tone the old SW EU had. The corny but somewhat charming Young Jedi Knights, the effective action and drama of the Thrawn trilogy, or the darker space horror stuff of the Yungzon Vong era. Even absolute silliness like the Glove of Darth Vader with its Moffrences and utterly 90s save the whales plot; I loved that something like that just existed with all the aforementioned plots.

What's notable I think about this particular Expanded Universe was that for a long time so much of SW prior to the prequels (and to some degree after) was on the margins. A lack of specific guidelines about a universe can lead to some awful stories, but it can also make for some genuine inventiveness in settings. The early Star Wars Marvel comics are both goofy as hell and incredibly fascinating to go through because there was no rules on what it was supposed to be and thus writers just let their imagination go wild.

Its why Jaxxon is one one my favorite ancillary SW characters, because his existence is at the same time absolutely absurd and incredibly memorable. I can barely remember various Prequel and Disney characters, but the giant green space rabbit who teamed up with Han Solo? I can never forget him.

[Wargriffin]

I think it was the sense of progression

Luke grew up

Han grew up

Leia grew up

They had new relationships, kids and things to move on, up till Legacy of the Force there was no real hard attempt to get Star wars but to that OT status quo or That "Classic" Star wars feeling


though then again with the end of the Vong War and a new influx of creative minds suddenly the OEU became largely regressive trying to be a mix of ot and pt elements

Then again I can understand the thought process, The Vong had been a far outside the box/comfort zone approach. Suddenly the the NG of the OEU had lost its main character in Anakin Solo and while Grafting Anakin's hero arc onto Jacen had for the most part kept the story on track, that was just for the Vong war... Anakin's story ending so abruptly pretty much threw the what happens next process into complete disarray... leading to the Swarm War to be a stop gap

and a 3 year long continuous story arc was draining so a Back to basics approach made sense... The problem is you had Troy Denning and Karen Traviss in the mix...

and then there was the ultimate Game Changer

Dark Horse was gonna launch Legacy and Del Ray panic'd the hell out.

[chaos42]

the vong war was were i stopped reading star wars novels, it was bad. there was good stuff but the direction was poorly handled the characterization was inconsistent. I think that the problem became that it got too popular and the demand to make more novels caused a drop in quality.

[Captain Crimson]

the vong war was were i stopped reading star wars novels, it was bad. there was good stuff but the direction was poorly handled the characterization was inconsistent. I think that the problem became that it got too popular and the demand to make more novels caused a drop in quality.

I'll see you the Vong, and raise you the Darth Bane novels. Other users like Mecha82 seemed to think they just went downhill and left around that time, but there was plenty good left. The Bane novels are still highly regarded, the current crop of authors say they're looking to them for inspiration. They'll do that, yet they won't tell more EU stories under the Legends banner. Oy vey...