Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

[binkleywalker]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I seem to remember in the original novelization of 'Star Wars' they used 'droid a lot. Droid led by an apostrophe. Is that short for android?

 

[Lutso]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I'd always assumed that was the case. Android was a fairly popular term in sci-fi literature in the 70's, so I'd always thought Star Wars was simply putting a slang spin on the full phrase. If it's led by an apostrophe in the book, that seems to back my theory.

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Funny. That's how I feel about killing off Han or any of the other OT characters.

Maybe messing with the OT stuff is just a bad idea all around. Yet another reason to have their inclusion be relatively minimal.

I agree with the previous poster who said Han's death would have been more dramatic much earlier on. But now that he's reached this ripe old age, why even bother? There can be as compelling a story with the OT cast alive as not; just involve them sparingly.

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I agree with the previous poster who said Han's death would have been more dramatic much earlier on. But now that he's reached this ripe old age, why even bother? There can be as compelling a story with the OT cast alive as not; just involve them sparingly.

Exactly. Killing him just for the sake of killing him is stupid. Killing him because Ford wants him to die is equally stupid. Killing him purely to hit some emotional beat in the film would be stupid in the same way as killing Wash was. Even killing him to advance the story, to me, seems unnecessary. It's like, the OOT has already been crapped on enough. Can we not just leave it the hell alone at this point?

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

It's like, the OOT has already been crapped on enough. Can we not just leave it the hell alone at this point?

Bingo! :thumbsup

Although the concept of Han's death actually has nothing to do with the EU, but rather something forwarded by Harrison Ford himself, it seems to appeal to those who tend to side with the EU view of things. I'm not chuffed about either one.

Edit: An interesting take on the topic: Mike Ryan: Do Not Kill Han Solo In 'Episode VII'!

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Well written piece. And it provides a good storytelling aspect to this. They had a perfect moment to do it. Doing it at this point would just be pointless and manipulative, not to mention anticlimactic and ineffective at anything other than pissing people off.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Right I don't want to see Han killed especially if their kids are involved. They should just be there to guide the new people and maybe provide CAS with the Falcon because that would look cool. :lol Also Chewie is not dead, maybe he hid in a refrigerator? (A moon fell on him for the people who don't read the EU. And yes it was as dumb as it sounds)

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

(A moon fell on him for the people who don't read the EU. And yes it was as dumb as it sounds)

That's what I'm talking about. Perfect reasoning to keep the EU well out of sight of the sequels...

 

[Bigdaddy]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I can honestly say I don't know anyone that has read any EU besides myself and daughter, and that was only 3 comics books that I bought just to get the action figures! :lol The more I hear about it, the more relieved I am to know the studio is not paying attention to it.

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I've read plenty of EU stuff. some of it's genuinely entertaining. Much of it is dreck. The original three Timothy Zahn books were terrific. Some of the pre-ANH stuff with Han Solo that Brian Daley did was fun, if not particularly great literature. The KOTOR comics were pretty good, too, as were the Goodwin/Williamson comics, although I wouldn't necessarily treat them as canon. The good stuff about the KOTOR comics is taht it has zero impact on the films we know.

Most of the novels I read outside of that stuff was pretty weak, though. Some of Michael Stackpole's X-wing series wasn't bad, but I didn't get that far into it. Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy was...ok. Had some good, had a LOT of not so good.

But yeah, eventually the EU just got...silly. Very very silly. I'd be fine with them retconning the lot of it.

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I'll have to give it to Timothy Zahn and the Thrawn trilogy; not only were they good at a time when there was such a dearth of Star Wars, but they were genuinely good story treatment. And oddly enough, they even "felt" like Star Wars. But after that, I didn't pay much attention. I read a few books and they were so enthralling that I really can't remember what they were about... I did fairly recently buy and read the Darth Plagueis novel and I thought it was pretty good, but that about does it for me.

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I liked the post-ROTJ EU and would like it kept as much as possible (at least up until NJO) Or short of that, at least the characters. The EU, flawed as it was, had many many great characters.

I can honestly say I don't know anyone that has read any EU besides myself and daughter, and that was only 3 comics books that I bought just to get the action figures! :lol The more I hear about it, the more relieved I am to know the studio is not paying attention to it.

The studio has said no such thing. All they said was they would not be adapting existing EU stories for the sequel trilogy...beyond that nothing has been said one way or the other about the EU.

 

[Edraven99]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I've read plenty of EU stuff. some of it's genuinely entertaining. Much of it is dreck. The original three Timothy Zahn books were terrific. Some of the pre-ANH stuff with Han Solo that Brian Daley did was fun, if not particularly great literature. The KOTOR comics were pretty good, too, as were the Goodwin/Williamson comics, although I wouldn't necessarily treat them as canon. The good stuff about the KOTOR comics is taht it has zero impact on the films we know.

Most of the novels I read outside of that stuff was pretty weak, though. Some of Michael Stackpole's X-wing series wasn't bad, but I didn't get that far into it. Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy was...ok. Had some good, had a LOT of not so good.

But yeah, eventually the EU just got...silly. Very very silly. I'd be fine with them retconning the lot of it.

I'll echo this sentiment... I got hooked on the Thrawn trilogy and went a little obsessive on the novelizations for awhile there since this was the time when the Special Editions were released in the theaters and before the Prequels came out and this was giving me my Star Wars fix so I've read quite a few of the books.

There's A LOT of meh in the books... some are just poorly written and most are only 'ok'... but there are certainly some gems in the mix.

As many have already mentioned the cream of the crop is the original Timothy Zhan Thrawn trilogy... I would highly recommend this to any any die-hard original trilogy Star Wars fan. Actually all of Zhan's subsequent novels, while never quite as good as his first three books, are all still worth reading as he's arguably the 'best' writer out of all of the 'EU' writers - he just gets it.

The next would probably be "Shadows of the Empire" which is set in between Empire and ROTJ and there are a few one offs such as "I, Jedi" and the afore mentioned "X-Wing" series... though that series was hit and miss as well.

The ones I would stay away from would be the "Jedi Academy" series and the "Corellia" series as well as the multi-novel "Yuuzhan Vong" series which was a) went on for far too long that it was hard to give a damn about near the end of it, b) fell into the plot trap of building up a virtually unbeatable foe in the first few books, and then have them somehow 'beatable' by conventions that were previously established as ineffectual ala the "Super Vampires" in the Last season of Buffy.; and lastly, c) they killed off characters like Chewie in the attempt to create 'gravitas', but in the end failed to build on any of that drama and they all sort of came up as pointless.

I actually kind of stopped reading the books after that series as I needed a bit of a break from the 'EU' after that....

 

[GeneralFROSTY]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I completely disagree. There are two groups of fans, my generation falls in to one, the group that wants the OT back the way it was and dislikes the prequels. More likely than not we're pretty "ho-hum" about the Clone Wars. This group of fans isn't where you're making your money on new films. You pay a bit of lip service to them but they're not your target market as there's no growth potential.

The second group is the young (born after 1990 let's say). More likely than not they've never seen the non-SE OT, they don't see what the problem is with Jar Jar, they prefer the PT because the effects are better, they love the Clone Wars and know all about Asoka (sp?) and their favourite character is likely Anakin or Captain Rex. THIS is your market, these are the ones you care about. Why? Because they're the ones you're most likely to be able to please and sell a boat load of crap to.

Long after my generation of fans is dead and gone this other generation will still be buying merch.

New fans are far from the icing on the cake, they ARE the cake.

Agreed with everything said here.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cboath]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I liked the post-ROTJ EU and would like it kept as much as possible (at least up until NJO) Or short of that, at least the characters. The EU, flawed as it was, had many many great characters.


The studio has said no such thing. All they said was they would not be adapting existing EU stories for the sequel trilogy...beyond that nothing has been said one way or the other about the EU.

Actually, when announcing that they'd let others write novels, Lucas/ILM said then that if they were ever to do movies again (this was before the prequels) that they were not beholden to the novels in any way shape or form. And seeing as the story is being based on treatments from george, i wouldn't expect anything EU to make it.

 

[seelsa73]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Actually, when announcing that they'd let others write novels, Lucas/ILM said then that if they were ever to do movies again (this was before the prequels) that they were not beholden to the novels in any way shape or form. And seeing as the story is being based on treatments from george, i wouldn't expect anything EU to make it.

Be that as it may, that was 15+ years. And it's disney/KK's decision now, there's no telling how they are approaching the EU now until they say specifically.

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I have probably read 80% of the EU novels. I have not read any of the comics. It is a mixed bag but in general I enjoy them. Having said that I have no expectation that any part of the new films will or should have any connection to that EU.

 

[Riceball]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Actually, when announcing that they'd let others write novels, Lucas/ILM said then that if they were ever to do movies again (this was before the prequels) that they were not beholden to the novels in any way shape or form. And seeing as the story is being based on treatments from george, i wouldn't expect anything EU to make it.

That's what I remember hearing too so I don't know why some people are up in arms about the idea of Disney possibly ignoring the EU. It's always been established that although the EU is technically canon anything shown onscreen, esp. in the form of the movies, trumps all of that.

 

[rodneyfaile]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Can the prequels and special editions be considered expanded universe so they can be disregarded?

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

^I think we're officially stuck with those.