Something that baffles me are the people who think Hayden in AOTC and ROTS is the worst thing ever but are also glad that Shaw was replaced with Hayden in ROTJ and want the Shaw ghost ending erased from existence.
I would want to develop the years in between ROTS and ANH, the Core Worlds during the events of the Original Trilogy, and the Old Republic era. I would look to what was planned for Underworld and hire James Luceno as a writer. I would make all the planned The Clone Wars episodes. Legends would continue. I would release all versions and sound mixes for all the movies and complete soundtracks for all the movies.
2012: I would declare movies and tv series going forwards to be a “Star Wars Cinematic Universe” and Legends to be “Coruscant-616”.
Now: I would establish a policy that anything that isn’t labeled as canon isn’t canon. I would make Solo 2. I would make everything less secretive.
The Sith use red lightsabers in honor of the Sith species and the surface and sky of Korriban.
Many believed that Darth Vader was of the Sith species.
Palpatine used mind-tricks on his advisors to make them think that he was a puppet ruler and that they were in control.
One of the plays performed at the Galaxies Opera House is “Shen and Rahasia”.
The Nagai call Palpatine “Emperor Sheev I of Skyriver”.
Sion and Nihilus were training each other in the Trayus Academy when the Mass Shadow Generator went off and turned them into the undead beings we know them as.
Hego Damask was known as “The Wolf of Muunilinst”.
Duel of the Fates is Dathomir’s national (planetary?) anthem.
There’s a holofilm called “Night of the Living Rakgouls”.
The Tales of the Jedi comics are the contents of the Jedi Holocron seen in Dark Empire and Jedi Academy: Dark Apprentice.
The Korriban Sith don’t recognize the Banites as “Sith”, but Vader went through the trials and got knighted by them on his own, hence the scene in Empire’s End.
Exar Kun let the Rebellion use his temple as a base because he hated Sidious.
Shortly after ROTS, Vader built E-3PO to do the things that C-3PO did for him when he was Anakin.
There is an Imperial propaganda film called “Clone Madness”.
Tessek was Tikkis’s accountant. When Tikkies died, Tessek fled to Tatooine.
New information has come to light suggesting that Lucas never approved Dark Empire for publication:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/vso18w/lucy_autrey_wilson_creator_director_of_the/
Lucy Wilson, who was in charge of the EU in its early days, says that she approved Dark Empire without talking to Lucas and Lucas wasn’t happy when he found out that a comic with Palpatine surviving in clones was published.
Personally I feel like Vader/Anakin shouldn’t have shown up as a Force ghost at the end of the movie at all.
Agreed. Star Wars (1977) and ESB both make it clear that Vader doesn’t know about Force Ghosts, so it doesn’t make sense for him to become one.
Anyway, Shaw.
The new Canon has taken many of the worst aspects of the old EU and brought them back in even worse ways.
Sometimes it isn’t even the worst aspects.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ulic_Qel-Droma
If this article’s accurate, Disney Ulic has the same exact history as Legends Ulic. Tom Veitch originally intended Ulic to die unredeemed. Why couldn’t the new writers honour Veitch’s vision and provide longtime readers a fresh, new take on an old character? There’s a painful dearth of creativity at play.
Wookieepedia counts an RPG that began before the end of Legends and Italian magazines as “canon”, so I think they’re too quick to declare things canon and I wouldn’t go by them. In fact, the “canon” Ulic Qel-Droma article you linked to lists the RPG I mentioned as its only source.
The Star Wars Legends EU is full of dumb stuff, contradictions, and retcons, but the internet seems to be hell-bent on defending it.
The thing with that kind of argument as well as there’s no real good answer for it. To paraphrase Mauler from EFAP, “Vader could cut Obi-Wan’s arms off in their duel and fanboys could say naw it’s fine, he probably had robot hands in ANH.” At a certain point it becomes nonsensical just to excuse the clear contradictions the show provides for the sake of maintaining cohesion in a very superficial way.
When a tvseries requires so much explanations from the viewer to make sense of everything, it might indicate the show isn’t that well done. It reminds me of the fans explaining every inconsistency between the PT and the OT: at some point it’s easier to accept it’s not consistent. We can still enjoy the various entries of the franchise (no longer a Saga) in spite of that. There is the inner logic and the franchise logic. With OWK we get it failing on both sides however 🥲
Also reminds me of Legends EU fans who deny that that there’s any inconsistencies or retcons whatsoever within the Legends EU or between the movies and the Legends EU.
I think their prequel reviews helped spread awareness of people’s complaints about the prequels and created demand for a de-prequelfied Episodes 7-9.
I do agree with you otherwise though. It’s a shame that Lucas’s revision of history has been so successful. The majority of Star Wars fans my age don’t even know about the original versions, and those who do just see the campaign to officially release them as whiny fanboy complaining. I’m glad that I was able to find this community and the fantastic preservation efforts going on here, but the chances for an official release of the theatrical cuts are looking more and more slim every year.
I wish Red Letter Media/Plinkett made videos about their desire for the original versions to be released in addition to their prequel reviews. That they didn’t made people think the prequels being bad were the entire problem, so when Disney bought Lucasfilm, people thought Darth Ownership of Lucasfilm had thrown Emperor Lucas into a reactor.
If I had to give Palpatine a backstory, as much as I liked his characterization in the Darth Plagueis novel, if it were up to me, I’d probably go with the “ancient being” angle. Have him be this eldritch, demonic entity where no one knows how long he’s existed.
Maybe he could be the one who ruled the galaxy 1000 years before the movies?
The prequels went with him being part of the ancient “Sith” lineage. What would you have done? Something similar? Ex-Jedi? Self-taught? Ancient being?
Dave Dorman’s art
Plo Koon’s lightsaber being yellow.
The fans who argue “If it wasn’t supposed to be canon, Lucas wouldn’t have allowed it to be published.” Based on that logic, Lego Star Wars is canon.
Plo Koon having a yellow lightsaber.
So pre-1978:
- Who are The Sith?
I suspect that when The Emperor was intended to be the puppet head of state described in the novelization, “the Sith” were intended to be Jedi who joined forces with the empire, but when The Emperor became a master of the Dark Side, it raised the question of who trained him, leading “the Sith” to become ancient rivals of the Jedi.
The Sequel Trilogy definitely could have been worse if they listened to certain fans. I’m glad they didn’t have Kylo Ren just be someone who found a Sith Holocron and then declared themselves a “Sith” and I’m glad they didn’t continue from where the Expanded Universe left off.
Tarkin stealing the idea for a spherical space ship rather than coming up with it: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Expeditionary_Battle_Planetoid
My thinking is for there to not be an MMO and for the following rewrites to KOTOR and KOTOR II:
Move KOTOR to 2000 BBY and make Revan the Sith “founder” from the TPM novelization. This would flesh out the Jedi-Sith history mentioned in the TPM novelization, reduce the amount of redundant Sith rebirths, give time for technology, the Jedi, and the Mandalorians to change from what we see in Tales of the Jedi to what we see in KOTOR, explain why we don’t see characters from TOTJ in KOTOR, and allow the characters of TOTJ to have a happy ending. I also feel that it would make sense for the “founding of the Sith” referenced in the TPM novelization to be the beginning of the “Darth” title and red lightsabers.
Move KOTOR II to the Republic Dark Age. Kreia’s cynicism fits the Republic Dark Age, it would be a chance to flesh out the Republic Dark Age, removes redundant events in the timeline, and it taking place 900 years after KOTOR I would explain why Kreia sees Revan as a messiah rather than as a contemporary.
Remove all the references to Vitiate and his empire from the KOTOR games.
Initially, Tom Veitch wanted to write a comic set in the prequel era, but when he was told that prequel movies were more likely to be made than sequel movies, he switched to writing a comic set after ROTJ.
Luke and Leia saying “Ben Kenobi” rather than “Obi-Wan Kenobi” when they meet on the Death Star while Leia says “Obi-Wan Kenobi” in the hologram before that.
Anakin becoming a Force Ghost. ANH and ESB both make it clear that Vader doesn’t know about Force Ghosting.
Jerjerrod telling Vader he needs more “men” rather than using a gender-neutral term.
The Tales of the Jedi comics developed the Jedi and the Sith.
There was only one Dark Lord of the Sith at a time and it was Vader, not The Emperor.
Jedi and Sith had all different lightsaber colors.
“Darth” would remain a first name that Anakin used as part of an alias rather than a title.
Boba Fett was Jaster Mereel.
The Jedi were implied to be more secretive. It seemed that the average person wouldn’t know who Yoda, Obi-Wan, or Anakin were or what “The Force” is.
Owen and Obi-Wan being brothers is only in the Kasdan drafts of ROTJ’s script and not in the movie itself, so I think it’s a Kasdan idea that Lucas didn’t go with.
Don’t forget “Star Wars fans are mean and deserve to be denied the unaltered versions as punishment.”