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The Death of the Expanded Universe

The Death of the Expanded Universe
December 13, 2015 Ho‘oulu Staff

Why I Won’t Be Seeing ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

By Nick Brooks HTTE-Legends

In less than a week, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will be released in theaters, and a tidal wave of new “Star Wars” content will flood the Internet. Indeed, people have already begun lining up with their toy lightsabers in hand to see the movie on opening night. So, I think now is the best time to voice my opinion on a part of the Star Wars franchise that won’t be talked about over the next several months: the Expanded Universe, now rebranded as Star WarsLegends. While Disney seems poised to reel in hundreds of thousands of casual fans of the movies with their latest addition to the films, they are leaving behind a multitude of other fans that aren’t quite as enthusiastic about Disney’s brand of Star Warscontent – fans of the franchise who, for years, have spent their time reading the many books and comics of the Expanded Universe have much less reason to watch “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” when it releases.

On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm announced that none of the content of the Expanded Universe would be featured in the upcoming films. This was disappointing for longtime fans the Expanded Universe, which added a huge, decades-spanning story that went beyond “Return of the Jedi”, but not as disappointing as the announcement that all content, outside of the present six films and the “Clone Wars” and “Rebels” animated series, was no longer considered canon. Hundreds of pages of original content, taking places thousands of years before and after the Original Trilogy, were thrown out in favor of just a handful of stories that Disney wanted to continue.

Of the enormous world of “Star Warsrelated content, the movies and TV shows made up very little compared to the Expanded Universe content, which included novels, comics, artwork, and video games. It added a galaxy’s worth of species, planets, and lore that added scores of depth to Star Wars universe. It named alien races seen in the movies and added new characters, such as Aayla Secura, who appeared in the Prequels. It told the complicated history of the noble Jedi and the elusive, menacing Sith. It gave a comprehensive look into the horrors of war and the complex nature of good and evil.

Granted, not all stories in the Expanded Universe were works of art. Indeed there are many that are best left forgotten: the Yuuzan Vong War, Luke Skywalker and company’s battle with an extragalactic alien race that doesn’t seem in the least bit plausible; the countless run-of-the-mill Sith Lords and clones of Sith Lords, along with evil cyborgs and slug-people; and most of all, Chewie’s death, which involved being crushed by a moon (yes, a moon.) However, there were many other stories, like Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy or Kevin J. Anderson’s “Tales of the Jedi” series, which deserve to be staples of the franchise.

Now, with so much content being erased from the continuity, it’s hard to know what even matters in the Star Wars universe anymore. Is the 12-minute lightsaber extravaganza between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the middle of a volcano more important than the Jedi Exile’s battle with Kreia in the heart of a dead planet in Knights of the Old Republic II”? While the latter was less visually impressive, the philosophy of the confrontation was much deeper than Anakin’s “Jedi are evil” debate. But it makes no difference to Disney.

Disney has no reason to care about the 7,000-year lineage of the Sith, or the story of Vader’s secret apprentice. It won’t make them nearly as much money as having an old, tired-looking Han Solo deliver a few one-liners on the big screen. And, really, they’re not wrong in assuming that the Expanded Universe would put a damper in their plans for a more marketable franchise. It would be difficult to ask a screenwriter to navigate through 30 years worth of content to create a movie that would appeal to all fans. Yet, Disney and Lucasfilm could have created something much greater if they had handled the franchise with more care, if they had chosen to keep parts of the Expanded Universe that didn’t contradict the new canon, rather than wiping the whole slate clean. Will their choice impact ticket sales next week? Doubtful, but it’s still worth considering what could have been.

As a fan of the Expanded Universe who got more out of playing Knights of the Old Republic than watching George Lucas make a mockery of the original films, I’m not very excited for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. From the trailers, it looks to be a good movie, the movie many fans have wanted since Return of the Jedi ended. No matter how good it is, though, it will never hold a candle to the “Star Wars I care about. So I won’t be joining the legions of lightsaber-wielding kids and adults on opening night. Instead, I will be cracking open James Luceno’s “Darth Plagueis, a Legends novel which I hear is fantastic. I’m sure it will be just as enjoyable as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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