Man, it has been a long time since I touched this site. I guess that what happens when you try to give up on SW altogether. While I don’t know if I can say I’m a SW fan anymore (at least as much as I used to be), I couldn’t get this out of my head:

What would have happened to SW and the EU if Lucas and Lucasfilm in general never made anymore movies after the OT (no prequels, sequels, Rogue One, Solo, etc.), instead allowing stories in the SW galaxy to be told through the books, comics, games, and even cartoons (good ones, that is)?

Immediately, I thought the EU would grow to the point it could possibly become as well-known as the original movies (given time and good stories), taking a lot of elements and maybe in the style of the 90s EU. I was very fond that kind of EU content (aside from stuff like Palpatine coming back from the dead), since we got to see not only how the New Republic and the new Jedi start but go into millennia before the OT (before the craziness of the Del Ray books). As such, these types of stories I kinda liked would continued to be told and maybe even make SW into a full-on multimedia project that could become as well known as the OT to a general audience.

Going off this idea, there are potential stories to tell. This could happen around the start of the old Jedi to millennia after the OT (to actually show how long the Jedi has lasted). I actually thought of a couple stories to tell in this hypothetical universe:

Repurpose the NJO books-what with major characters dying, worlds being ravaged, etc.-into telling the Clone Wars. The Vong would be replaced with the clones and the Clonemasters mentioned in the Thrawn trilogy, attacking worlds and destabilizing the Old Republic. They would devastate the Republic, leaving its remnants to eventually form the Empire (or what would becoming it with its former enemies (in place of the New Republic and Galactic Alliance, respectively). Luke Skywalker and his Jedi would be replaced with Obi-Wan Kenobi and his fellow Jedi, which can include Anakin Skywalker and another Jedi student (named Vader?). Speaking of Anakin, he would meet a female clone spy, who would become Luke and Leia’s mom as she and Anakin would have a forbidden (off-and-on again?) romance. Maybe Beru (acting in place of Jaina from NJO) and the Vader character (acting in for Jacen) confront Anakin, who could wound the latter in his anger. Obi-Wan could be shown as defeating the Clonemasters’ head, but Anakin defeats the real leader. Obi-Wan is the one recognized, leaving Anakin in his shadow and hinting at the young Jedi’s eventual fall to the Dark Side.
Going off the initial concepts for the NJO series, the Jedi and New Republic would have to face the return of the ancient Sith (the red-skinned Sith from the Tales of the Jedi comics who are native to Korriban, that is). It was the initial concept for the NJO books, but I think it could done different here. I did gush about 90s EU, but I’d probably take certain aspects or themes that stories like the KotOR/SWTOR games share and played around with. Perhaps, the old Sith Lords fear that the returning Sith Empire is too sadistic, or perhaps because the new Sith have learned ways of possessing people’s bodies (think Callista Ming), an abomination to the old Sith ways and to the Jedi. Fighting them would more or be Han and Leia’s adult kids of Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin (at least in their 30s), aided by their own children, student, and allies in the New Republic and Imperial Remnant. Perhaps end it with an alliance with both becoming protectors of the galaxy, similar to how the Jensaarai were brought into the Jedi. This would separate the new Jedi from the old by their ideas of the Force and how to use it.

Would these stories turn out good? I dunno.

Would I ever really write any of this this? I want to say “heck no,” but who can tell.