Star Wars Expanded Universe Discussion. -

[Mulligan]

I don't like Star Wars at all but you guys love talking about it, so I made this thread to keep all EU talk out of the Community threads. Have fun and discuss

 

[Just a Doormat]

Nobody came....

 

[Dane]

Boba Fett is an embarrassment and literally every other Mandalorian other than his dad is infinitely cooler.

Discuss.

 

[Cynosura]

Boba who?

 

[ASoulMan]

Boba who?

Boba Tea

 

[Autistic Illuminati]

All star wars fans are lolcows without exceptions and this is not a community watch thread

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

I fucking hate the Expanded Universe. Forty goddamn years of brainless nerds stretching out every little thing to an illogical extreme. Every mystery must be explained. Every gap must be filled on. Every line and reference must have its roots in some shitty fan fiction.

We never needed to "learn" Darth Vader shits by sitting on a fucking serated metal cone.

 

[Tookie]

 

[ICametoLurk]

 

[RumblyTumbly]

Its funny. When Episode VII was getting hyped, people started buying toys and shit, but I dove back into the EU and the books. They might not be canon anymore, but alot of them are still fun reads.

One of the reasons I liked Rogue One is because it really did feel like an EU novel come to life, right down the anagram sounding names and tons of ties ins to the OT movies.

My Top Ten Favorites:

Spoiler: SW Books!

1. The Thrawn Trilogy = It doesn't matter what Disney did with the movies. This will always be 7, 8, and 9 to me. Had I been the one making the Disney Sequel Trilogy, I literally would have started with Episode 10 because in my head, these books would have happened in whatever story I came up with. I mean this trilogy gave us Thrawn (one of my fav SW villains) and Mara Jade (the best addition to the main cast since the OT movies) and also continued from Return of the Jedi in a way that was exciting and made sense. This is Star Wars literature at its finest, and author Timothy Zahn's greatest contribution to Star Wars.
2. Kenobi = One of the last books released before the Disney buyout of Star Wars was one of its best. As I've gotten older, I've liked smaller more character driven stories, and this one really helped to scratch that itch. We get to see Kenobi settle in on Tatooine and get involved with the personal lives of some of the people that live there. It is a great look at Obi-Wan's situation and how he came to be the hermit that we see in A New Hope.
3. Tales of the Bounty Hunters = There are several "Tales of" anthology books (Tales of Jabba's Palace is also quite good). These really lived up to the potential of the EU by giving us additional context to all those side characters that only had a few seconds of screen time in the movies. The Bounty Hunters stories are the best of the bunch though as we get to see IG-88, Bossk, Boba Fett, Dengar, and the duo of 4-LOM and Zuccus all being awesome. Boba Fett's story in this book is a personal favorite of mine, and what they did with Dengar and IG-88 is nothing short of insane good fun.
4. Shadows of the Empire = Any SW fan that was around in the 90s really got their fill of Shadows back in the day. Between the N64 game, the comics, the toys, and this novel, it felt like we had everything except a movie (I remember being convinced that an Animated movie would be made...no such luck). But for something designed to fill the gap between Empire and Jedi, it is quite good. The novel is great mainly for Prince Xizor, his interactions with Darth Vader, and the trouble he makes for the heroes. This story also highlighted the best of what the EU was capable of: Telling complete stories to fill in the gaps between the movies.
5. Old Republic: Annihilation = Of all the Old Republic stories, this one doesn't have any of the major characters or hallmarks. (No Revan, No Darth Bane) However, this book is a bit of a hidden gem. Reading it gave me the feel of something that would make a great movie if given the chance. It had the fun and excitement of Star Wars with the benefit of a completely different set of characters in a different era of the timeline to make it all feel fresh and unique.
6. Death Troopers = I love horror so getting something that set a horror story in the Star Wars Universe while also giving us so awesome and silly as zombie Stormtroopers was purely delightful. This is a great one to read at Halloween time. Also, if you're like me and felt Han Solo kind of got the shaft in the EU most of the time, this one makes good use of him without overshadowing the other characters in the story.
7. The X-Wing Series = Authors Stackpole and Allston gave us fun action/adventure stories about the new Rogue Squadron, the best of the best, and the Wraith Squadron, the good guys' band of misfit pilots. The end result was a very fun series of books with fun characters, and an expansion on Wedge Antilles, a character who benefited from the possibilities explored in the EU.
8. The New Jedi Order Series = 19 friggin novels are in this series! That's a big commitment but worth it if you're willing to take the dive. Sure its not without its lulls, but having read all the books now, I can't help but feel like Disney messed up by not having the Yuzzhan Vong as the bad guys of their new movies. Empire off shoots and rehashes dominated the books early on, so to get this series involving a brand new threat or aliens with organic based technology, a hatred for machinery (especially droids), and the weapons to give the New Republic a run for its money, and I'd say the Vong proved to be quite the threat. It was also nice to see the Solo kids get to be developed into active participants rather than the kids in danger we were used to seeing in the EU. (The Young Jedi Knight Series helped change that perception of them as well)
9. The Dark Lord Trilogy = The Prequel films have a ton of issues. Nobody would deny that, but there was some great material surrounding the prequel films. The Clone Wars animated shows stand out of course, but this set of books represent some of the best material the prequel era had to offer. We get "Labyrinth of Evil" which feels like it was written to address some of the holes in the prequel films (like why we never saw the Jedi investigate the existence of Darth Sidious), the middle entry which is the novelization of Episode III (one of the best of the novelizations to be honest) which provides additional context to what we see in the film, and "The Rise of Darth Vader", which basically serves as Darth Vader's Year One as he gets used to his new body and hunting down lost Jedi.
10. Allegiance = Another work by Timothy Zahn, this one follows Han Solo, Mara Jade, and a wayward group of Stormtroopers on their separate journeys as they struggle with their own understandings of duty and loyalty. Its a very nice character driven piece that provides different perspectives from all the characters being observed.

What are some of your favorite EU books?

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Star Wars is gay

 

[Remove Goat]

nice necro you two

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

Star Wars is gay

Yes I know, it's fun.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

How deep is the spiritual void caused by Disney when this failed lich of a thread has come back to life? How much more will the necrosis eat out the souls of those who loved this series of entertainment as D&D rape arguably the most beloved offshoot of this old continuity? Most importantly for our sanity, who was the best waifu?

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

Star Wars is gay

I still hate you but it's nice that we can agree on something

 

[Dom Cruise]

It looks like he's stroking his Wookie.

 

[Memento Malum]

How deep is the spiritual void caused by Disney when this failed lich of a thread has come back to life? How much more will the necrosis eat out the souls of those who loved this series of entertainment as D&D rape arguably the most beloved offshoot of this old continuity? Most importantly for our sanity, who was the best waifu?

Mara Jade. Strong female character, so of course we couldn't get that on screen.

Death Troopers = I love horror so getting something that set a horror story in the Star Wars Universe while also giving us so awesome and silly as zombie Stormtroopers was purely delightful. This is a great one to read at Halloween time. Also, if you're like me and felt Han Solo kind of got the shaft in the EU most of the time, this one makes good use of him without overshadowing the other characters in the story.

X-Wing Series = Authors Stackpole and Allston gave us fun action/adventure stories about the new Rogue Squadron, the best of the best, and the Wraith Squadron, the good guys' band of misfit pilots. The end result was a very fun series of books with fun characters, and an expansion on Wedge Antilles, a character who benefited from the possibilities explored in the EU.

It's funny that you liked Han Solo in Death Troopers; I thought his presence really added nothin to the book but fanservice, but different tastes for different folks. X-Wing was my lead-in to the EU, and remains my favorite books. This series is probably why I like Star Wars stuff without Jedi in it almost more than the rest.

 

[XYZpdq]

This series is probably why I like Star Wars stuff without Jedi in it almost more than the rest.

It strikes me sometimes how much Gundam and Star Wars EU content can parallel the "uhh yeah so that magic shit yeah nah" approach of using the source material.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

Mara Jade. Strong female character, so of course we couldn't get that on screen.



It's funny that you liked Han Solo in Death Troopers; I thought his presence really added nothin to the book but fanservice, but different tastes for different folks. X-Wing was my lead-in to the EU, and remains my favorite books. This series is probably why I like Star Wars stuff without Jedi in it almost more than the rest.

I would kill for a good mini series that followed Rogue squadron. Kinda like Band of Brothers but with x-wings. The books are great and I doubt Disney could do them service.

I agree. Han Solo is a fun character but he didn’t need to be in Death Troopers.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

Mara Jade. Strong female character, so of course we couldn't get that on screen.



It's funny that you liked Han Solo in Death Troopers; I thought his presence really added nothin to the book but fanservice, but different tastes for different folks. X-Wing was my lead-in to the EU, and remains my favorite books. This series is probably why I like Star Wars stuff without Jedi in it almost more than the rest.

Mara is awesome and has a full arc over the course of the books. Take notes people who try to force strong wahmen into everything.

As for Han in Death Troopers, yeah it was fan service but it was nice to see Han do something. Sometimes in the EU, he would kind of get left with nothing to do but tag along with Leia. Not all the time but of the top 3, he was the most likely to get left out.

Also it was kind of nice to see Han’s line of “I’ve seen a lot of strange things” get a little extra context, haha.