Last night I finished a reread of the original expanded universe Thrawn Trilogy. As I've mentioned before, I cancelled Disney Plus and when I'm asked if I am a Star Wars fan I specify I'm a pre-Disney fan. I heard that Disney Plus is going to do an Heir to the Empire movie (obviously bastardized) and it made me want to read that trilogy again since I hadn't read it in years. Heir to the Empire will always be special to me because I got it for my 12th birthday in 92 and I had no idea there were books that continued the story. Since then I have amassed a lot of EU books/comic books and still have many to go. My only regret is that I couldn't find the original covers so I had to buy the disney re-releases. I know there are some who say that shows Disney that there is interest in the EU but I doubt they care.
I would like your opinion on the following:
I always thought that it was a dumb move to totally get rid of the EU. I think Disney could've had their own canon while continuing the EU canon since there was a ready fan base. Another thing they could've done would've been to do animated adaptations of some of the EU stories like Old Republic, Solo Trilogy, Thrawn Trilogy, etc.
I've heard that if Disney had done that knowing what we know now about how crappy the sequels were it would've made them look very bad to have an adaptation for something like New Jedi Order showing a Luke that fans wanted or the Thrawn Trilogy showing Mara Jade and the rest of them. Maybe even Darth Bane or Revan. It would've been more money for Disney although I do remember Heart of the Jedi being taken off of Amazon after all the buzz it got (currently reading that now).
Do you think that would've made Disney look bad? Especially considering what we got.
I will say this was my first exposure to the shill media because when the EU got discontinued a lot of nerd sites I used to frequent were crapping all over the EU and saying it was a wonderful idea which confused me because those same sites used to praise it. Then after Ghostbusters 2016 came out and they were saying the original Ghostbusters was never that good, I understood what was happening.
Disney would never have kept the EU. KK and those with her wanted to put their spin on star wars, ignoring whether or not the masses would enjoy it. They crashed and burned with the sequel trilogy (something that I have an extreme love/hate relationship with), and the large amount of star wars shows on Disney+ have severely harmed the brand. I think it is possible for it to rebound, but I think putting SW to rest for a decade or two will definitely help the damage to subside.
Can’t argue there. I get that they wanted to do their own thing but I don’t get why they couldn’t just have a separate universe and continue stories in it.
How is it a love hate relationship? I hated it but it just seemed like they didn’t care. Although when it was first announced I was excited.
I like the first half of The Force Awakens. Then they bring in starkiller base and you can tell they completely changed the second half of the movie to have Death Star III. I also like some aspects of The Last Jedi, such as the space battles, the visuals, and actually Luke mentally fighting Kylo Ren, although I would have had him fight the Knights of Ren on his island at the same time, to show how powerful he was, as well as defeat them or draw with them. I hate The Rise of Skywalker, as if I wanted a better version, then I would just read the Dark Empire Trilogy again.
I wish Luke had fought him in person too. I do hate Luke being a grumpy hermit. I would’ve loved to have seen him training new Jedi. Also Rian Johnson is typical of todays movie makers in wanting to deconstruct and I guess I’m tired of it. A story about Luke becoming disillusioned and finding redemption could be great if written well but due to the vastly different directors that wasn’t going to happen.
I remember Disney fans crapping on Dark Empire. I liked it. I also think all my reading of the EU made me dislike the sequels. I really enjoyed reading their further adventures and the new characters introduced as well as the children. Making Han a deadbeat dad seems to be in line with modern Hollywood though
Han was never going to end well. Even in the EU, they killed of characters in terrible ways. Honestly, if they would have just put together a plan and executed it, even if it wasn't great, it would have turned out far better. TLJ, for example, feels like parts 2-3.5, as the last portion of the movie feels like the middle of the trilogy finale. TROS was never going to be good, but that final space battle is just so horrendous that the movie can never recover in my eyes.