But yeah, it’s been so long since I’ve read/seen anything involving them that I had to second-check the spelling, lol…
Last I read was “Legacy”, which is excellent, by the way, if you haven’t yet…
Dark Horse is my jam, dude. I literally go out of my way to find copies of the rare old shit (thanks, Disney. Not…), just so that I have it, to… “Hold onto” the canon, before Disney ruined it…
Most of my EU knowledge comes from reading stuff on the internet as a poor teen. Now I just pile up shit to read I never manage to actually read because there's always something I'm thinking about. I need to get used to reading again.
I know about the Thrawn trilogy but I remember very little except Luke being cool and that part about the Clone Wars that was super weird because they had no idea what the Clone Wars were supposed to be.
I basically have this vague knowledge of most of the EU but I haven't read basically anything. Still enough to understand how bad the new canon is.
I was very, very into this as like, a young tween/teen, so I can help you out a bit, lol...
The two most interesting EU time periods are post-ROTJ and (much more so) the Old Republic era. Interestingly, being Star Wars, the best "media" for anything outside the "saga" is anything that isn't movies or animation, so depending on what you are into, there is likely a game, comic/graphic novel or book for that continuum and time period...
KOTOR (the first one) is probably just about my favourite game ever. It is excellent. So is Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which came out a couple of years earlier. The first Star Wars Battlefront (and the second one, I'm told) was pretty decent, and definitely fun, too.
Comics-wise? I recommend anything from these three, in descending order: Knights of the Old Republic (same time period, but different storyline to the games), Legacy (set 100 years ABY, after the Yuuzhan Vong) and Tales of the Jedi (any of them). Tales of the Jedi is older, and much, much rarer (hence more expensive, if you can even find it, largely) and more... Dense. But it gives pretty much all the context for much of the shit that Disney has poached, since, and also which inspired KOTOR, about a decade later...
Books-wise? You need Thrawn (as we just talked about), Legacy of the Jedi, Young Jedi Knights, Splinter of the Minds Eye (the first ever EU thing, which was pitched as an alternate sequel to the original), Bane, Revan and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, which was, I think, the first "adult" Star Wars novel I read. Oddly, the "novelisation" of the prequels is actually also much better than the original movies ended up being (for various reasons, including internal dialogue. Plus they weren't authored by Lucas himself, of course), especially for the Phantom Menace...
That should get you started and keep you going for at least a few months, depending on your mileage, lol. Feel free to ask more, if you want specific time periods/contexts, lol. There's a whole UNIVERSE out there, after all!
But seriously, I would suggest grabbing as much as you can, in physical form (Dark Horse, and of course Ebay and the like, are your best bets), before Disney quite literally "cancels" it all... Sadly. At least grab a couple of KOTOR, Legacy and "Tales" omnibuses, if you feel like spending some money on this stuff, while you still can, lol.
Apparently I forgot Star Wars: Empire, and specifically Crimson Empire. And also the "Rebellion" series. All of these came out right when I was into buying comics at newsagents and book stores (like all good nerdy kids, lol), and I remember Empire in particular being excellent, but also really hard to find, at the time...
Newsagents here (this is Aus, right) would do like, a limited run of the first few issues, and then it would just... Disappear. As is fairly standard/"normal", I think... Or used to be, at least.
This was just before Sith came out, though, so Star Wars/Prequel "mania" was pretty much in full force, lol. And it was back when people still bought things, in person, too, so it was everywhere...
Do you have Happy Meals at McDonalds where you are?? Anyway, in Australia, Happy Meals are kids meals at what we call "Maccas". They come with toys/collectibles (or rather, they used to), and they were fucking massive, when I was young. So, if something like Star Wars made it into a line of Happy Meal toys, you knew it must've been popular, heh.
I bought a thing called "classic daily strips from Russ Manning" which is like a collection of comics a while ago because it look super cool, I don't wanna open it tho.
Ikr?
Old EU fans here rise up, lol!
But yeah, it’s been so long since I’ve read/seen anything involving them that I had to second-check the spelling, lol…
Last I read was “Legacy”, which is excellent, by the way, if you haven’t yet…
Dark Horse is my jam, dude. I literally go out of my way to find copies of the rare old shit (thanks, Disney. Not…), just so that I have it, to… “Hold onto” the canon, before Disney ruined it…
Clearly I do still care, apparently, lol.
You read Thrawn??
Most of my EU knowledge comes from reading stuff on the internet as a poor teen. Now I just pile up shit to read I never manage to actually read because there's always something I'm thinking about. I need to get used to reading again.
I know about the Thrawn trilogy but I remember very little except Luke being cool and that part about the Clone Wars that was super weird because they had no idea what the Clone Wars were supposed to be.
I basically have this vague knowledge of most of the EU but I haven't read basically anything. Still enough to understand how bad the new canon is.
I was very, very into this as like, a young tween/teen, so I can help you out a bit, lol...
The two most interesting EU time periods are post-ROTJ and (much more so) the Old Republic era. Interestingly, being Star Wars, the best "media" for anything outside the "saga" is anything that isn't movies or animation, so depending on what you are into, there is likely a game, comic/graphic novel or book for that continuum and time period...
KOTOR (the first one) is probably just about my favourite game ever. It is excellent. So is Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which came out a couple of years earlier. The first Star Wars Battlefront (and the second one, I'm told) was pretty decent, and definitely fun, too.
Comics-wise? I recommend anything from these three, in descending order: Knights of the Old Republic (same time period, but different storyline to the games), Legacy (set 100 years ABY, after the Yuuzhan Vong) and Tales of the Jedi (any of them). Tales of the Jedi is older, and much, much rarer (hence more expensive, if you can even find it, largely) and more... Dense. But it gives pretty much all the context for much of the shit that Disney has poached, since, and also which inspired KOTOR, about a decade later...
Books-wise? You need Thrawn (as we just talked about), Legacy of the Jedi, Young Jedi Knights, Splinter of the Minds Eye (the first ever EU thing, which was pitched as an alternate sequel to the original), Bane, Revan and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, which was, I think, the first "adult" Star Wars novel I read. Oddly, the "novelisation" of the prequels is actually also much better than the original movies ended up being (for various reasons, including internal dialogue. Plus they weren't authored by Lucas himself, of course), especially for the Phantom Menace...
That should get you started and keep you going for at least a few months, depending on your mileage, lol. Feel free to ask more, if you want specific time periods/contexts, lol. There's a whole UNIVERSE out there, after all!
But seriously, I would suggest grabbing as much as you can, in physical form (Dark Horse, and of course Ebay and the like, are your best bets), before Disney quite literally "cancels" it all... Sadly. At least grab a couple of KOTOR, Legacy and "Tales" omnibuses, if you feel like spending some money on this stuff, while you still can, lol.
Apparently I forgot Star Wars: Empire, and specifically Crimson Empire. And also the "Rebellion" series. All of these came out right when I was into buying comics at newsagents and book stores (like all good nerdy kids, lol), and I remember Empire in particular being excellent, but also really hard to find, at the time...
Newsagents here (this is Aus, right) would do like, a limited run of the first few issues, and then it would just... Disappear. As is fairly standard/"normal", I think... Or used to be, at least.
This was just before Sith came out, though, so Star Wars/Prequel "mania" was pretty much in full force, lol. And it was back when people still bought things, in person, too, so it was everywhere...
Do you have Happy Meals at McDonalds where you are?? Anyway, in Australia, Happy Meals are kids meals at what we call "Maccas". They come with toys/collectibles (or rather, they used to), and they were fucking massive, when I was young. So, if something like Star Wars made it into a line of Happy Meal toys, you knew it must've been popular, heh.
I bought a thing called "classic daily strips from Russ Manning" which is like a collection of comics a while ago because it look super cool, I don't wanna open it tho.
Also thank you.