'nother post to fill in the interim...

[Naja]

...until we get that interview. Argghh.

 

Right. Where do you think the EU should go, now that the war with the Vong has ended? It seems that the novels are falling into the same pattern:

 

- Something's not quite right

- A disturbance in the force

- Oh no! We have to defeat these new aliens/this new superweapon/the next incarnation of Palpatine/this new Imperial warlord/this Sith conspiracy!

- Phew! Resolved!

 

What ideas do you think would freshen stuff up for a post-Vong universe?

 

- For one, besides avoiding the above formulas and not being dependant so much on the emergence/reemergence of a villain for a good storyline, perhaps some different perspectives would be in order? I mean, seriously, how many stories have there been from the perspective of an Imperial? Or of Palpatine himself? Or just regular denizens of the Star Wars galaxy, like they did in Tales of the Bounty Hunters & Tales From Jabba's Palace? The epic good v. evil stuff is fine in the movies - the movies are created for the sole purpose of the classic struggle between those two forces. But an expanded universe would benefit immensely by shedding some of it, methinks.

 

- What's with this rapid shifting of governments?

 

Rebel Alliance -> New Republic -> Galactic Federation of Free Alliances?!

 

You've won. There is nothing left to piss your pants about anymore. Pick a goddamn name and stick to it!

 

- And yes, it is possible to tell compelling stories without having to resort to a backdrop of an epic war, or anything like that. Mysteries of the Sith did that just fine!

 

- There's also another span of time that hasn't been given much, if any, light. And that is the founding of the Republic. Before the Sith, before the Jedi, before any of that. That would be a very potential-laden area to write about.

[Foshjedi2004]

So have you read the Unseen Queen yet??? If not then I won't post a series of massive spoilers.

[Swiftdraw]

It would be cool to see the galaxy just split up into the different sectors and go into another dark age. I mean come on, war has be going for decades straight, hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions of lives have been snuffed out, planets and entire star systems have been utterly annihilated and people are dis-illusioned with a Republic. It wouldn't be that much of a strech of the imagination for a lot more planetary systems not to join any central goverment and just keep some trade and protection alliances with the bigger sectors. Heck, maybe they don't even have to do that, maybe they just all go isoslationist and really plunge things into a dark age. Maybe a revolt or two in the old alliance planets like Mon Cal to shake up the foundation.

 

Oh, and to keep it intresting, Luke and compny can't manage to bring everyone together again. The galaxy just drifts apart and goes dark (figurativly, not literally.)

[Naja]

...yeah, sort of like in the Dune universe - Leto II's Golden Path, where the Great Human Empire balkanizes, unbeknownst to the fact that it is the only possibility by which humanity will survive.

 

Setting the stage for a NEW Republic sort of government to come pick up the pieces, tens of thousands of years later, rinse repeat...

[Swiftdraw]

Exactly. Except, maybe it'll be another Empire...

[Gen.Vader]

what i would like to see happen is what if the force dissapated? no more lightsabers, jedi etc. how would they live and refind the force?

[Naja]

Or maybe in that dark age, everyone becomes disillusioned with government, and with the Jedis' seeming ineffectuality, and abandons their faith in the Force.

[Teradyn_pff]

This is my problem with the EU. The premiss of the whole idea of "wouldn't it be cool if" governs it, so you have things like Chewbacca getting killed by a moon! WTFHITS? I would be more than happy to leave the entire Star Wars story in the original Trilogy, especially when we see what Lucas is willing to do with his own back story.

 

It would be nice to have a more fleshed out group of stories that told the behind the scenes stuff to the story in the trilogy and the stuff leading up to it, but apparently the creator can't even do that so I say leave it alone.

 

I think it is a sickness of our society that creates this, the whole hollywood movie/story/flashy game/etc crap. Anyone ever read the books of the Lord of the Rings? Did you see the movies? Wierd things in there huh? Like the ever-sickening pustulent saturation of the maggot-ridden pox that is Liv Tyler? Lets make sure we sell these tickets so stick her in there and put her in every single movie all over the place when her character was barely mentioned until the END of the Return of the King?

 

I mean come on! It was her brother that rode out to meet Aragorn and the hobbits and he put Frodo on his horse and Frodo rode past the river! And the river was enchanted by ELROND! You didn't have Liv F'ing Tyler there to summon up the power of the F'ing river against the Ring Raiths. And oh how strong she was yelling at them wasn't she? WTFGDFHWTS? Did we need some modern age equal rights message in there? Is that why they replaced her characters brother with Liv F'ing Tyler? I would have thought that that craq would have been satisfied with Aowyn and her defeat of the Witch King that no MAN could defeat. UUUGH.

 

And then they had to put a F'ing environmental message in the second one about how the poor Tree Ents didn't have a GD F'ing clue about what the F was going on with their own trees (being tree herders, talking with the trees and all)? I am sorry, but not only did the Tree Ents know exactly what was going on, they took several days to decide that YES THEY WERE GOING TO HELP! Not oh my! Look what the evil Corporate Machinery did to our precious rain forest! I guess we are lucky we didn't have Capt. Planet show up about then.

 

Sorry, I really shouldn't talk about the LotR movies. If you ever wondered whether the saying "makes my blood boil" was figurative or not... it isn't.

 

Anyway, my point is that a story as good as the original Star Wars is somewhat sacred, I guess you could say. Like the Tolkien stories also. What burns me up about the new LotR movies is that he isn't alive to defend his work. Lucas did it to his own which is still bad but not as abhorent a desecration.

 

Got to go turn on a fan to cool myself off.

[Foshjedi2004]

*Fan*

 

Calm down mate. Its all Ok.

[Swiftdraw]

EU is basiclly a collection of semi-official fan-fics. Thats pretty much understood I believe, so I always treated them as such.

[Naja]

Uhhh, some of the EU is pretty damn good, actually.

 

The main problems are when bad authors write corny, formulaic storylines, just like in any other series.

 

Maybe once all this Episode 3 aftermath calms down, people will give less of a shit, and the novels will become good again?

[Gen.Vader]

This is my problem with the EU. The premiss of the whole idea of "wouldn't it be cool if" governs it, so you have things like Chewbacca getting killed by a moon! WTFHITS? I would be more than happy to leave the entire Star Wars story in the original Trilogy, especially when we see what Lucas is willing to do with his own back story.

 

It would be nice to have a more fleshed out group of stories that told the behind the scenes stuff to the story in the trilogy and the stuff leading up to it, but apparently the creator can't even do that so I say leave it alone.

 

I think it is a sickness of our society that creates this, the whole hollywood movie/story/flashy game/etc crap. Anyone ever read the books of the Lord of the Rings? Did you see the movies? Wierd things in there huh? Like the ever-sickening pustulent saturation of the maggot-ridden pox that is Liv Tyler? Lets make sure we sell these tickets so stick her in there and put her in every single movie all over the place when her character was barely mentioned until the END of the Return of the King?

 

I mean come on! It was her brother that rode out to meet Aragorn and the hobbits and he put Frodo on his horse and Frodo rode past the river! And the river was enchanted by ELROND! You didn't have Liv F'ing Tyler there to summon up the power of the F'ing river against the Ring Raiths. And oh how strong she was yelling at them wasn't she? WTFGDFHWTS? Did we need some modern age equal rights message in there? Is that why they replaced her characters brother with Liv F'ing Tyler? I would have thought that that craq would have been satisfied with Aowyn and her defeat of the Witch King that no MAN could defeat. UUUGH.

 

And then they had to put a F'ing environmental message in the second one about how the poor Tree Ents didn't have a GD F'ing clue about what the F was going on with their own trees (being tree herders, talking with the trees and all)? I am sorry, but not only did the Tree Ents know exactly what was going on, they took several days to decide that YES THEY WERE GOING TO HELP! Not oh my! Look what the evil Corporate Machinery did to our precious rain forest! I guess we are lucky we didn't have Capt. Planet show up about then.

 

Sorry, I really shouldn't talk about the LotR movies. If you ever wondered whether the saying "makes my blood boil" was figurative or not... it isn't.

 

Anyway, my point is that a story as good as the original Star Wars is somewhat sacred, I guess you could say. Like the Tolkien stories also. What burns me up about the new LotR movies is that he isn't alive to defend his work. Lucas did it to his own which is still bad but not as abhorent a desecration.

 

Got to go turn on a fan to cool myself off.

i wish, EDIT SCRIPT

TreeBeard: We have decided to help you agai---

*captain planet theme song* Earth!Wind!water!fire!heart! captain planet hhes our hero...gonna take pollution down to zeroe dun dun dund dund dun......*

it would make the movie alot better, even so capt.planet was good

capt planet vs saruman? capt.P of course.

now i have totally ruinesd the lotr experience for you...sorry

[Evilwookie]

that's what directors cuts are for, directors cuts should have everything people "think would be cool" or they could just advance the movies graphics, in my opinion every directors cut should have ninjas, imaging lord of the rings, "well frodo we did it, and-ohmygodninjas!!!!!" one day i'll get my way