TheBoost said:
Vaderisnothayden said:
Gaffer Tape said:
That's not saying I haven't enjoyed EU, but if you honestly think it's anything more than a marketing push, you're seriously deluding yourselves."but if you honestly think it's anything more than a marketing push, you're seriously deluding yourselves."
Yep. That's all the EU is.
I don't follow. If you enjoy it, how is it any different than any other entertainment venture out there competing for your dollar? If George Lucas slavishly followed every idea laid out in every novel, comic, and RPG supplement, would that somehow make it NOT a 'marketing push?'
Would ROTS have been one ounce better if it was more closely tied to the adventures of Jangotat, or the BattleStar Space Medics? Would the new Clone Wars be any more enjoyable is the prodcucers made sure it tied in better with the 1970's newspaper strip?
What would be the product Lucasfilm could produce that is somehow NOT a marketing push?
I don't follow. If you enjoy it, how is it any different than any other entertainment venture out there competing for your dollar?
Not the real thing. It's ersatz Star Wars. I prefer to stick with something that's a bit more real (even if it's just following something that only has the significance of the modern Lucas ventures). When something's just the subordinate merchandising supporting the main product, well... If it's not obvious to you how it doesn't count then I don't know how to explain it to you. I'm not interested in something that's not the real thing or doesn't have some sort of relevance. Life is too short for that. I can spend my time on other things rather than on NJO books or whatever. There are so many other things I can do with my time. Even just in the category of reading material -I can, for example, read fiction by Liam O'Flaherty or Kafka or literature from ancient Sumeria or Ugarit or read the Silmarillion or read about history or anthropology or psychology or politics or current events or any number of other relevant subjects or authors, fiction and nonfiction. When I read fiction, I can read original fiction rather than stuff by writers writing for a big company to support a franchise. I don't have to waste my time reading the non-original fiction churned out solely to make a buck off fans of a franchise long after such franchise passed its best before date. If you want to read it, feel free to. It's your time, your choice. I don't judge you. I won't claim to understand your choice, but it's your choice to make. Just as it's my choice to not waste my time with it.
If George Lucas slavishly followed every idea laid out in every novel, comic, and RPG supplement, would that somehow make it NOT a 'marketing push?'
That's a good question. Arguably yes, because he'd be taking it seriously and respecting it more. It wouldn't just be this money-maker. Because for him to do that he'd have to have a totally different attitude to it and it wouldn't be just this subordinate storytelling, it would be an equal partner in a big collaborative storytelling effort.
Would ROTS have been one ounce better if it was more closely tied to the adventures of Jangotat, or the BattleStar Space Medics? Would the new Clone Wars be any more enjoyable is the prodcucers made sure it tied in better with the 1970's newspaper strip?
Some people would think so. I don't need it tie in with that stuff. I just note that the degree to which the EU is not binding on the Lucas material underlines its irrelevant just-merchandising status. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling for Lucas to pay more attention to the EU than he does. In fact, I think I'd prefer if he'd quit paying it any attention at all and ignore it totally like the merchandising it is and do the decent thing and get his employees to quit calling it canon. This is not about whether the Lucas material would be better with added EU. This is about the EU's treatment by Lucas underlining its status and the very nature of what it is. It's just merchandising. It's not the real Star Wars story. Or even what passes for the real Star Wars story nowadays. Or even the subordinate merchandising story that was sold in the age when the real Star Wars story was current and alive to a degree it's never been since.
What would be the product Lucasfilm could produce that is somehow NOT a marketing push?
Some movie or tv series that was meant as mainstream Star Wars material rather than subordinate stuff just for making extra cash, something considered by Lucas and Lucasfilm as being on a level with Lucas's own efforts. But I'm not calling for something like that to be made. I'm just noting that the EU is not that.
Maybe you got my previous post wrong. The view that the EU is just merchandising and of lesser or no relevance is a view I strongly believe in, but most of the post was a personal rambling about how I treat it and how I feel, not about how anybody else here should think or act.