zombie84 said:
Um, the EU really isn't up for debate on its definition, its the "expanded universe" which makes it everything that isn't the films. You can chose to ignore whatever films you like, for instance the OT is clearly a seperate story reality from the PT to some, but this is a different matter. To say defining something that is "EU" as "EU" is "following the herd" is a bit stupid since LFL are the ones who coined the very term "expanded universe" to describe the extra-film stories. I mean, by this logic using the very term "EU" is following the herd since you are abiding by the company terminology. What you really mean is that you acknowledge certain story elements and not others. EU is just the label ascribed to the merchandise that isn't an episodic film.
Expanded universes are an idea that exists outside Star wars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_universe We can thus acknowledge the existence of a Star wars eu without having to follow Lucasfilm's definition of it. We can draw our own lines dividing EU off from core material without following theirs. To many people, the PT is eu, which I think is being quite generous to it. As it stands, the eu's definition is often debated and its boundaries are not universallly seen as being so clear-cut as you describe them. The status of novelizations and ewok movies and whatnot is much debated in Star wars fandom. Also relevant here is that there's a personal conflict involved here in that this comes on the end of a weeks-long conflict between me and TV's Frink on the off-topic board. Being used to sneers from him, I took his post to be a sneer at me, implying I didn't know what I was talking about while deliberately ignoring the obvious fact that I was clearly rejecting the official definition of the eu. Hence the herd-following comment.