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What feels most Star Wars

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If only the original, original trilogy is “Star Wars”, what else does feel most Star Wars to you? It can be other movies in the series or not, and it doesn’t have to be your favorite SW thing (for example a worse game can have a better SW feeling than TLJ but you can enjoy the film more). I also don’t mean any objects, like a toy or a lightsaber, but something that tells a story in one way or another. It can be even one picture. Only what captures most just the feeling for you. Canon or EU, if you’re in to those definitions. Name your top 5 or 10 or whatever. Could be fun to see, maybe we can learn what do people expect from any SW material.

Mine are:

X-Wing game series (X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, X-Wing Alliance)
Knights of the Old Republic game
Al Williamson’s comics
Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork
and I’d like to say one of the Jedi Knight game sequels but it’s been a long time since I played them…

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

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Zahn’s first five books and the X-wing and KOTOR videogames.

And Boorman’s Excalibur and Mass Effect 1.

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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I’m tempted to say The New Jedi Order, because I always think of that when people mention the franchise, but that feels so un-Star Wars and I love it for that.

Not enough people read the EU.

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The most Star Warsy thing I can think of, aside from the movies themselves would probably be a musty paperback of, oh, I don’t know, Shadows of the Empire or some other EU novel that isn’t far removed from the events of the films.

EDIT: Woooow, I really just did NOT read this thread at all beyond the title before posting. Well, I think that’s enough OT.com for tonight.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Despite their weirdness and ‘deviation’ from what would become established SW tropes and lore, I still think the original Marvel SW comics from 1977-1986 (especially the Goodwin/Infantino ones) feel like SW. The lightsaber colours may be wrong, and Star Destroyers have “warp-speed”, but the narratives and the characters felt like they belonged in the SW universe.

Despite not liking TPM, I do think it feels like a SW movie. I often joke that about TPM saying that out of the three PT films it does have the redeeming feature of being a bad SW movie. AOTC and ROTS, barely, if at all, feel like SW to me.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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It’s honestly hard to recapture the old feelings I have towards things like KOTOR, Dark Forces 2 and the TIE Fighter series. It’s been so long and unlike movies I can dip into any time they don’t age the same way. It’s that kind of stuff which fits the bill in my memory, but I haven’t touched it all for years.

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Hmm, things that really stood out to me over the years as feeling very distinctly “Star Warsian” in that they capture that same feeling I get from the OOT would include:

Rogue One

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight video game (this might be one of the most “Star Wars” things outside the films for me)

Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast video game (this one captured the OT “look” better than almost anything but the story isn’t as good as the previous entry)

X-Wing Alliance video game

X-Wing Rogue Squadron novel (I’ve recently been seriously thinking about tracking down the other novels and comic books from this series)

Star Wars Battlefront video game (the one on the PS4. It had major issues at launch but once they updated it to allow more single player options it has been pretty awesome)

Heir to the Empire novel trilogy

JEDIT:
I didn’t read much of the Dark Horse comic run in the 90’s (another thing I’ve been seriously thinking about delving into) but Dave Dorman’s artwork in the mid 90’s (much of which was for comic and novel covers) is absolutely deserving to be on this list. I have a big softcover coffe table book of his Star Wars art and it is amazing!

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To me it is everything before 1997. All the films, the novels, the Sourcebook. And then selected content like the video games on consoles and PC, Rogue One, Solo (Han shoots first!), Andor. Visions too in just being fun Star Wars based stories.

I’d have to include the Sequel Trilogy films in this too. The quality of them, despite the incoherence and lack of planning. TROS fails as a film to me, but does have some moments in them that feel Star Wars. Scenes such as Han and Ben, Leia with Rey and her passing. They are too few to salvage the film, and whilst TFA and TLJ has more Star Wars “moments” in isolation, and I can appreciate TLJ for taking a risk in trying to progress and take risks with the Saga.

The other content, can be fun, interesting, or simply good, but doesn’t feel like Star Wars to me.

Some of it also poor, weightless, cheap, lazy and with a feel of expensive fan-made films or shorts. That’s not to shit on fan-made films either. But you would expect more from highly budgeted, and supposed planned content, from professionals and Lucasfilm.

I am hoping The Acolyte series will have that great Star Wars feel too.

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The Jedi Knight Games are the only Games that really feel like they are in the same World as the OT Movies, Shadows of the Empire too and Knights of the Old Republic 1 Video Game is a better A New Hope Reboot than the Force Awakens