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What do you LIKE about the EU? — Page 12

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Tyrphanax said:

There's a comic featuring BoShek, actually. I don't know much about it aside from the fact that exists.

*opens up link*

*sees BoShek riding away from an explosion on a speeder bike with a hot chick*

Cool.

<span style=“font-weight: bold;”>The Most Handsomest Guy on OT.com</span>

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I liked the Han Solo novels but that's about it.

The Expanded Universe has never really interested me.

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I hate to admit this, especially since it is a prequel era thing, but especially  since it is so nerdy...

(takes a deep breath)

...I like the notion of different lightsabre styles.

 

Now awaiting sarcastic comment from Frink.

 

“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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TV's Frink said:

*speechless*

 You are sending me into a shame spiral.

“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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theprequelsrule said:

TV's Frink said:

*speechless*

 You are sending me into a shame spiral.

Exactly!

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That's one of the few prequel ideas I actually like. Of course, it was developed in the books and not the idea-less films.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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 (Edited)

TV's Frink said:

*speechless*

*shocked*

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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 (Edited)

I also like the idea of multiple lightsaber fighting styles. Of course, I don't like how the idea was developed in the EU; their concept doesn't even really mesh with what is shown in the films anyway, which limits lightsaber technique down to the overchoreographed gynastical PT shit and the more down-to-Earth OT style.

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 (Edited)

 

Finished the last three stories.

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Doctor Death: The Tale of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba, by Kenneth C. Flint

This is about the "he doesn't like you, I don't like you either" guys and has a sort of 1950s horror movie feel, but in a Star Wars setting.  It has nothing to do with the cantina scene other than a name-check to establish that the film scene took place some time in the past, on a different planet.  Not one of my favorites because I'm not really a 1950s horror movie fan, but it kept me interested, if for no other reason than it wasn't really Star Wars per se.

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Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer's Tale,  by M. Shayne Bell

I didn't think it was possible for one of the stories to pass the Tonnika Sisters as my favorite, but this one did.  It's about a moisture farmer on Tatooine, almost completely unrelated to the cantina scene.  This is one of the longer entries in the book, as well as being one of the longer stories, taking place over the course of about two months.

This is a much more cerebral story than Hammertong and for me a nice bookend to the action and suspense of the Tonnika sisters' story.  A look at what it's like for all the moisture farmers and how they have to deal with Tusken raiders and Jawas.  This is another excellent example, maybe the best, of expanding the Star Wars universe. A definite reread.

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One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid,  by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

The Wolfman's story.  I thought this was an interesting take on the guy.  It's very much a Star Wars story, but the writing structure had a very Star Trek feel.  He comes across as a fairly likeable guy, which I didn't expect, and the story kept me interested. It references all three OT films pretty heavily.

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So anyway, that's it for Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina.  If I were to rank them;

Enjoyed;
When the Desert Wind Turns
Hammertong
Swap Meet
At the Crossroads
We Don't Do Weddings
Play It Again, Figrin D'an


Didn't enjoy;
Soup's On.

Everything else falling somewhere in between.

 

Next up is Heir To The Empire. I waited too long to order it, so it won't be here until next week.  In the interim, I've started Death Star.  I've caught a mention or two of prequel events. 

I'm interested in the story of the construction and maiden voyage of the Death Star, but not from a prequel point of view.  That's a tie-in I don't care to make.  If the mentions become too frequent or become more than just name-checks, I'll have to bail.

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I have to say that what I like best about the EU is what I feel at liberty to accept and what I feel at liberty to discard.  I think the idea that virtually any Star Wars product contributes to the continuity and cannot conflict with anything else is idiotic.  For instance, I remember playing Rebel Assault as a kid and enjoying the game, as the purpose was to make you feel in a sense as if you were Luke Skywalker, getting off of Tatooine and ultimately destroying the Death Star.  Come to find out years later that the nameless "Rookie One" is forever enshrined in Star Wars canon, with only the directly contradictory material being ignored just bugs the heck out of me.  Moreover, there are so many stupid stories out there that i can't help but cringe that they were ever approved (Ooh, I have a brilliant idea for a story! Let's have the Hutts build their version of the Death Star because Star Wars doesn't have enough superweapons.  And they could call in Darksaber because it's like a lightsaber in shape, and the superlaser is like the saber beam, but since the Hutts are bad, they'll replace the "light" in lightsaber with "dark"! Sheer brilliance!).  On the other hand, I love the Thrawn trilogy and have read it multiple times.  I'm finally giving the Jedi Academy trilogy a chance after avoiding it for over half my life, and though inferior and cheesey in a number of ways, I'm still getting enjoyment out of it.  So looking introspectively, I realized what I like about these stories.  Sometimes I'm in the mood for classic Star Wars, the OT, nothing else, and that to me is my universe.  At other times I want more of the same characters, and I start to believe in some of the EU, but at the same time, I ignore most of the crap out there (sorry, I know some people like it all, but to me I just can't take most of it).  And if I want something else, I believe in the PT and OT, and nothing else.  See, I just realized that I do that internally.  I have three parallel Star Wars universes: OT; OT/PT; OT and limited EU (notice, the EU and PT never jive in my book).  In the end, I find Star Wars can be deep and rich, or simple and pure, or just plain fun, and I enjoy it from each angle.

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darth_ender said:


I have to say that what I like best about the EU is what I feel at liberty to accept and what I feel at liberty to discard.


Amen to that! Personal canon trumps the malignant tumour that is the "official" canon every time.

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DuracellEnergizer said:


 Personal canon trumps the malignant tumour that is the "official" canon every time.

 

That perfectly sums up my entire Star Wars universe.  From what my imagination came up with in 1977 - to what it's still coming up with in 2011. For the past 30 years, uncle George hasn't even been a blip on my radar. 

 

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I forgot to add that even when I incorporate EU into my personal canon, I am selective.  For instance, as I'm currently reading the Jedi Academy Trilogy, I'm considering it real enough.  But when I'm done, I'll probably just disregard it once again.  My next book will be Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which I haven't read in quite some time.  This time I will likely be reading it as an alternative path for the Star Wars universe, like the potential low-budget sequel George asked Foster to create.  I will probably see through the lense of the only Star Wars tale besides ANH, just to get the feel of how it originally could have played out.  To clarify my first statement, I like to look at the EU somewhat similarly to the Star Trek EU.  Possible stories that don't necessarily exist in the real canon, but that you can incorporate as much as you like in your own mind.  I like that the EU gives me the freedom to expand upon the tales that I enjoy so much without the binding nature that the EU narrative seems to create for others.

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Now I have a dilemma. 

Heir To The Empire just came in the mail about five hours ago.  But - I'm a few chapters into Death Star now and I'm really digging it.  Dammit, why didn't I just take a week off from reading?  Man, I bought Death Star specifically to toss in my suitcase for my next flight.  But no, as soon as I'm done with Tales  it's - "I'm out of Star Wars books...let me go in the closet and get Death Star out of my luggage.  Not having a book  to read gives me a tummy ache" 

Heaven forbid I read Smithsonian, National Geographic, or Motorcycle Consumer News before I go to bed.   Oh well, I guess I'll proceed with Death Star and see what happens.  It gets to Prequelly - I move on to Heir.

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The problem with EU books is once you get one you don't want to stop.

Damn now I have to go read some because of this thread. But only after I finish Bourne Legacy.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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captainsolo said:


The problem with EU books is once you get one you don't want to stop.


And the problem becomes a nightmare when you start forcing yourself to read as much of the EU material as possible just to create a definitive personal canon.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

captainsolo said:


The problem with EU books is once you get one you don't want to stop.


And the problem becomes a nightmare when you start forcing yourself to read as much of the EU material as possible just to create a definitive personal canon.

 And the nightmare becomes a night terror when you realize that, though you liked the first stuff you read, everything you're currently reading sucks.  Now you have to decide how far back to wind the odometer so that you can establish your 'personal canon' with only stuff that you "liked" or that was "at least mostly good".

The same thing happened to X-Men comics in the 90s.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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TV shows too.  The Simpsons being the prime example.  You have to wind the odometer a lot.

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I literally just finished Splinter of the Mind's Eye.  It certainly is a slower story and felt like it could be a Star Trek episode.  But I really liked looking at it from a different point of view than most EU.  I see it as an alternate sequel (as it was originally penned to be, had ANH not been such a hit).  When read from the view of Star Wars in 1978, it makes for a very interesting interpretation.  Forget that Luke and Leia are sibs.  Forget that Luke's dad wears black armor.  Relish in the concept that artifacts contain mystical abilities, that we are still uncertain about what lies under Vader's armor.  Enjoy the idea of alternate minor characters to replace previously established characters (a different rogue, and two muscular, hairty brutes to replace the Millenium Falcon crew, as Harrison Ford had not signed on to do a sequel at that point).  I would love to see this book made into something like a TV movie, emphasizing what could have been rather than what ended up.  Of course it would be outside of the true canon on any level, but it would be fascinating (though I'm 154% Lucas would never allow such experimentation with his universe).

This goes to illustrate my earlier point: the EU can sometimes be an opportunity to accept and reject other stories to look at the Galaxy Far, Far Away in a different light.  Sometimes that rejection  may even include films from the original trilogy for a brief time.  I don't like most EU, but those things that I do like allow many enjoyable opportunities for me.

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darth_ender said:

(though I'm 154% Lucas would never allow such experimentation with his universe).

He lets Dave Filoni and the Clone Wars crew get away with quite a bit. They pretty regularly canonize a lot of the good EU.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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darth_ender said:

Forget that Luke and Leia are sibs.  Forget that Luke's dad wears black armor. 

Which, by the way, is very easy - considering the FACT that in 1978 none of the three main characters were related.  Not - hadn't been revealed, not - didn't know within the story, not - unreleased Original Vision.  In the simplest of terms - they were separate characters from different parts of the vast mystery that is the endless universe.  A farmer, a princess, and a military leader.  Not the fucking Wizard Of Oz Uncle George morphed it into when he got writer's block.
[/rant]

 

Man, I haven't had one of those in a while.  Felt good.

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Anchorhead said:

One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid,  by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

That story was really hard for me to buy. The story of a romance between the Wolfman and a fleshy looking fanged sock puppet was a little more than my imagination could wrap itself around... not to mention thoughts of the logistics of Wolfman/Lamproid sex kind of short circuited my mind...

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CP3S said:

Anchorhead said:

One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid,  by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

That story was really hard for me to buy. The story of a romance between the Wolfman and a fleshy looking fanged sock puppet was a little more than my imagination could wrap itself around...

I agree.  For the sake of the story, which I liked otherwise (I dug the Trekian time shifts), I just had to let that part go.  Truthfully, I wasn't even sure what she looked like until I looked her up after the fact. 

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Question for the board, if I may.  

I'm currently reading Death Star and really liking it.  One of the chapters introduces the reader to a character named Roothes, who runs a bar on Coruscant.  When some stormtroopers come into the bar, she mentions just in passing that she remembers back when they used to be clones.

From seeing it mentioned in posts around here over the years, I know one of the two prequels I haven't seen establishes that stormtroopers are clones. Obviously that's not the case in Star Wars

My question; Is the fact that they eventually aren't clones anymore ever addressed in the last two films, or is the mention in Death Star just Reeves and Perry getting the book in line with Star Wars?  Which I have to say is great.  It's nice to have a book that hasn't been forced into the all-things-Prequel focus of the entire franchise.

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