On Facebook I am a member of a few Star Wars groups that are strictly pre-Disney or EU/Legends related. A post came into my feed as a suggestion that showed a picture of Luke and Mara Jade together and I assumed it was an EU page but I was wrong. Mostly modern Star Wars fans and one lady was attacking anyone who liked it or said anything good about because it wasn't canon and George Lucas said it wasn't canon. I told her that I was aware of what Lucas said but that it is my head canon. She then went off on me calling me a hater and that I am not a real Star Wars fan since the EU was nothing but glorified fan fiction and I shouldn't criticize what lucasfilm is doing now.
I asked her why she is so bothered if people like the old EU and she simply said I was a hater and that Star Wars wasn't for me (despite the fact that I've been a fan since as long as I can remember and I got Heir to the Empire for my 12th bday in 92 and have been reading the books/comics ever since). But she just kept saying "bye hater".
I am sure George Lucas is under some sort of deal where he can't totally trash what disney does but it is common knowledge that he wasn't happy with the direction they went. I should've brought up that if she was such a canon purist then isn't the sequel treatment that GL gave them the official canon? Comic books have taught me that everything is canon..... until is isn't and I feel that once George Lucas dies his real feelings will become known and he will be attacked like his ex-wife was when her feelings about the sequels became known after she died.
I know Lucas told the EU writers back in the day that they could write in the OT timeframe and in the future as well as the distant past but to leave the prequel era alone since he was going to one day do another trilogy but those books and comic books kept Star Wars relevant for a long time along with the games when there were no movies or anything coming out.
I guess I'll chalk this up as a lesson on the importance of gatekeeping because I definitely was pushed out because when Disney bought it, it was amazing how fast the shills popped up or sites that had a lot of praise for the EU all of a sudden talked about how crappy it was. Of course the funniest was how ridiculous Dark Empire was with the Emperor coming back. I honestly wish Disney wouldn't even take ideas from the EU and just use their own since they have so many "talented and diverse" writers.
"The eu is nothing but glorified fanfiction"
As opposed to the disney stuff which is glorified fanfiction that's also terribly written?