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Dear Lucasfilm: A Billboard

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Star Wars fans are among the most passionate in all of geekdom, and one group has certainly proved it with its latest endeavor. After raising nearly $5,000 on crowdfunding site Indiegogo, the group known as Give Us Legends has erected a billboard in San Francisco, politely asking Lucasfilm to continue the old Star Wars expanded universe.

The billboard looks like it was ripped straight out of the original movie’s opening crawl and reads “Dear Lucasfilm, Please continue THE ORIGINAL EXPANDED UNIVERSE — The epic story that existed from 1976-2014. Thank you.”

The billboard then links to the group’s official website, Giveuslegends.net, where the group’s message is expanded upon. It’s there that heartfelt personal messages of fans writing about what the expanded universe means to them can be found.

The original Star Wars expanded universe was discontinued in 2014 by Disney in preparation for the new era of Star Wars movies, games, books and comics that would be ushered in with The Force Awakens. All of the existing expanded universe tales were then rebranded “Star Wars: Legends” to distinguish the stories as no longer official canon.

Give Us Legends isn’t seeking a restoration of the old expanded universe as the true Star Wars gospel, but is rather asking Disney and Lucasfilm to simply continue the long-running expanded universe storyline alongside the new Star Wars canon. It’s not a completely unreasonable argument by any means. No doubt, there are plenty of fans who are still not happy about Disney tossing out decades worth of material and would gladly continue to support the old expanded universe. Give Us Legends even points out that many fans who enjoy the new films and books can still enjoy the Legends subseries as well.

That being said, it seems unlikely that Disney will listen. Part of the company’s strategy with Star Wars is to have everything (including books, comics and TV shows) form one cohesive, canon universe. For Disney to then turn around and authorize the publication of non-canon stories alongside new canon stories would muddy the waters the film company has spent the last three years attempting to clean up.

Good afternoon Lucasfilm. The fans would like a word! Please continue the #SWEU and #GiveUsLegends

Thank you! pic.twitter.com/1ekEFvfgsC

— Give Us Legends (@GiveUsLegends) April 18, 2016

Still, it’s admirable to see the fans of Give Us Legends organizing to have their voices heard. Perhaps their wish will come true. When it comes to Star Wars, stranger things have certainly happened.
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Why didn’t we ever get a billboard?

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Yeah why can’t there be a billboard for something that actually matters?

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I thought that even the people who didn’t want the old EU to be decanonized thought the entire thing had been falling apart for a while now.

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I’m not convinced one billboard in SF is going to sway Lucasfilm one way or the other. (Is it even anywhere near where Lucasfilm brass are sure to see it?) And 5k would go a lot farther on projects around here.

We would be better off flying over Skywalker Ranch, and releasing thousands of Sebastian Shaw Anakin figures on tiny parachutes. 😉

And the EU began in 1976? Splinter of the Mind’s Eye wasn’t even published until '78.

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Where were you in '77?

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They’re including the original novelization which was published November 12th, 1976.

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Tobar said:

They’re including the original novelization which was published November 12th, 1976.

Is that not still technically canon?

.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

How cute – they actually believe there was only one original EU.

And that’s one of the problems with Legends, they took EVERYTHING seriously, even when the writers didn’t. Trying to keep the original Marvel Comics canon with Dark Horse Comics with books with sidebars in RPG manuals…

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SilverWook said:

I’m not convinced one billboard in SF is going to sway Lucasfilm one way or the other. (Is it even anywhere near where Lucasfilm brass are sure to see it?) And 5k would go a lot farther on projects around here.

We would be better off flying over Skywalker Ranch, and releasing thousands of Sebastian Shaw Anakin figures on tiny parachutes. 😉

And the EU began in 1976? Splinter of the Mind’s Eye wasn’t even published until '78.

George would probably just melt them down in some perverse sadistic ritual.

Edit: actually, he’d probably chop off their heads and superglue Hayden heads on them.

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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I want to get a witch to write RELEASE WOLFMAN in broom-smoke.

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doubleofive said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

How cute – they actually believe there was only one original EU.

And that’s one of the problems with Legends, they took EVERYTHING seriously, even when the writers didn’t. Trying to keep the original Marvel Comics canon with Dark Horse Comics with books with sidebars in RPG manuals…

Yeah it was a disgusting bloated mess filled with horrible sloppy retcons and terrible stories.

They did it a favour when they put it down.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

END OF LINE

(It hasn’t happened yet)

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Since it was a book designed to be a low-budget sequel to the original movie, where the author was asked to reuse props, not include Harrison Ford’s character, and cut out a space battle so they wouldn’t have to shoot additional miniatures in case they wanted to make it a movie. Yeah, it sucks.

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That last bit where he brings up the harassment they’ve perpetuated is what always rubbed me the wrong way about the campaign. Ever since the Legends announcement, they’ve been up to some pretty bad stuff.

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doubleofive said:

Since it was a book designed to be a low-budget sequel to the original movie, where the author was asked to reuse props, not include Harrison Ford’s character, and cut out a space battle so they wouldn’t have to shoot additional miniatures in case they wanted to make it a movie. Yeah, it sucks.

I actually enjoyed it a lot except for a couple character deaths at the end. Vader’s way of dealing with an Imperial officer he felt had failed him makes all the Force choking in ESB tame by comparison.

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

Vader’s way of dealing with an Imperial officer he felt had failed him makes all the Force choking in ESB tame by comparison.

Pray tell? Or is there an EU spoiler policy :p

TV’s Frink said:

I would put this in my sig if I weren’t so lazy.

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CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

SilverWook said:

Vader’s way of dealing with an Imperial officer he felt had failed him makes all the Force choking in ESB tame by comparison.

Pray tell? Or is there an EU spoiler policy :p

The book has been out long enough, (as has the comic adaptation) so here you go…

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Where were you in '77?

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Disclaimer: Whoops. I didn’t mean to ramble on for as long as I did.

Short version: Who cares?

Really.

Who cares.

Um…I just spent the last fifteen minutes following links and digging around some of this stuff. The way some people talk about Star Wars…it’s just Star Wars, you guys. Go read some better books (try some Gene Wolfe out). Almost makes me not want to be a fan. I guess it’s a good eye-opener, as even this site has its more zealous contributors.

As for people crying over legends…I just re-read Dark Times. It’s a great comic, and when it gets REAL good, it rivals Star Wars and Empire (in my opinion). And the fact that it’s a fake story that’s somehow considered MORE fake than the other fake stories (that are most all written and dictated by committee) doesn’t make it any less entertaining. Hell, my favorite comics are the old Marvel ones, and I think they got scrubbed from “official continuity” in 1991.

Star Wars is fun popcorn stuff. Safe and predictable. I hope some of these people know that it’s not real and that there’s a lot of other things for them to be passionate about (and they can still keep some for Star Wars). It’s a damn licensed product. Yeesh.

(Off topic, I saw some reviews for the new Marvel comics, and man, some people are really into this stuff and are really dissecting it. I can’t even remember any specifics about the last issue of Darth Vader which I read a few days ago. 😛 )

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I find it a shock that people believed the EU was going to be kept intact or considered when they announced the Sequel Trilogy and the Anthology films. Like JJ was going to follow hundreds of books and comics and not use Chewie. Everyone freaking loves Chewbacca, even the British Royalty forwent custom and hugged the crap out of him.

I loved the Daley Han Solo books, Shadows of the Empire, X-Wing and the Thrawn Trilogy. I enjoyed playing Rogue Squadron, and Jedi Knight. But I would give it all up again, because I got a 4th good Star Wars movie and several more promising ones on the way. The books were going up their own ass anyway.

It seems like people are really embracing the new characters. In fact, the big question people ask me now about Star Wars is, “Are Finn and Poe gay lovers?” And really how the f*ck would I know? My second husband left me for a man, so my gaydar isn’t exactly what you’d call Death Star level quality. ----Carrie Fisher

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The Brian Daley books are pretty good too. 😉

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Where were you in '77?

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Brian Daley and Archie Goodwin are my absolute favorite Star Wars writers. They perfectly captured the feel of that galaxy far, far away. In a way that no one else has.

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eiyosus said:

Um…I just spent the last fifteen minutes following links and digging around some of this stuff. The way some people talk about Star Wars…it’s just Star Wars, you guys. Go read some better books (try some Gene Wolfe out). Almost makes me not want to be a fan. I guess it’s a good eye-opener, as even this site has its more zealous contributors.

Yep, you’re absolutely right.

Some months ago, I decided to call it quits in regards to SW novels; once I finish the Han Solo Trilogy and a few of the post-Hand of Thrawn Zahn books, that’ll be all she wrote; I won’t pick up another SW novel ever again. I have a crap-ton of books sitting on my shelves which I haven’t even taken a peek at yet, and it’s about time I stopped pushing them aside for The Ever-Diminishing Returns of the Expanded Universe.

(I will continue to read the comics from time-to-time, though; those are quick and easy to get through.)