Category: Opinion

Why Star Wars: The Old Republic Needs a “Legends” Expansion

Posted on December 1, 2014by Guest Editorials

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On April 25, 2014, Lucasfilm announced that in preparation for the upcoming Sequel Trilogy, the Expanded Universe would not be in any future material and would be declared non-canon.

As a fan of the Thrawn trilogy and other Star Wars books & comics such as John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi, Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane: Path of Destruction John Ostrander and Jan Duursema’s Star Wars: Legacy and the critically acclaimed Bioware RPG video game Knights of the Old Republic, I was disappointed in the announcement. The idea that we were getting brand new Star Wars stories was exciting, but a lot of fans did not see it that way.

Most of you by now know of the “Give Us Legends” groups, and the many “Disney is ruining my childhood” posts. And the constant bashing of new Star Wars content on official Star Wars Facebook pages. Dark Horse finished its Star Wars run in August, and Del Rey has published two official Star Wars canon books, A New Dawn and Tarkin. There isn’t anything that’s non-canon in Star Wars that’s still ongoing – except Bioware’s MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic (Or SWTOR for short). SWTOR is still running and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere for a while. I had an idea, which I thought was silly at first, but the more I think on it, the more I like the idea.

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The Tragedy of Del Rey’s Star Wars

Posted on November 26, 2014by Obiwomble's Outlook

As discussion over the Great Reboot has raged these past few months, one particular strand of thought has become noticeable. This argues that the books that comprise the Denningverse – Dark Nest, Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi and Crucible – practically ran the Star Wars Expanded Universe into the ground. It made such radical moves with the central characters – killing off a wife and a son for instance – that those developments could not possibly be upheld by Episode VII! I am reasonably convinced by it too.

So, if that is the case, then what is so tragic about Del Rey’s running of the Star Wars franchise? What is tragic is that those 22 books over the course of 2005-2013 have come to define the entirety of DR’s run and it is manifestly is not the case. Why does this matter? Because the evaluative criteria people are favouring in looking at the new books is with reference to that infamous set of books. With such a comparison standard in place the new cannot fail to be better than the old! But what if there were other books issued by DR that enable a very different contest? What then? It would be quite, quite tragic for those to be eclipsed by the Denningverse! Read More

Analyzing the Emotional Response to the Great Reboot, Part II

Posted on November 24, 2014by Feature Articles, Guest Editorials

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(Editor’s Note: comments on Part I of this piece have been disabled—feedback is welcome here on Part II, though readers are strongly encouraged to read both halves before commenting.)

Why should people NOT be upset about the reboot? Because not everything new is bad!

Despite my personal position on the severe mishandling of the Expanded Universe, there’s one thing that I’ve come to find significantly more annoying over the last few months: many of the other fans!

Facepalm - apply directly to the face!
Facepalm – apply directly to the face!

A lot of the arguments start off as “I don’t like what Disney/LFL/other power-that-be is doing”, and I start to think, oh interesting, why doesn’t this person like the reboot? Then they go off into “they changed this minor detail and it sucks because they changed it”, even though if the exact same decision had been made in the Classic EU they’d have loved it.

Though the reasons behind rebooting the universe are questionable, not every decision that has been made is a bad one. With anything that is created, either in the Classic EU or the new Canon, things will change. In fact many of the things that are complained about are not an issue: 1) Cosmetic Changes, 2) EU Accurate Characterization, 3) Respect for Existing Material, and even if you ignore all that 4) Constructive Criticism is better than directionless whining. Read More

Analyzing the Emotional Response to the Great Reboot, Part I

Posted on November 21, 2014by Feature Articles, Guest Editorials

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Statement from the Editor: I don’t like seeing people get shouted down. Regardless of my own feelings, if I perceive a reasonable opinion as being forced out of the conversation, I will generally go out of my way to give it a fair hearing—I mean, broadly speaking, that’s what this whole site is for.

So a couple months back, I reached out to the #GiveUsLegends people.

“Open letter to the ‪#‎GiveUsLegends‬ campaign: while your cause is not abundantly interesting to me personally, I do admit that there is a fair case to be made here. That being said, ETE has an open submissions process, and I pride myself on a willingness to engage unpopular opinions. If anyone associated with #GiveUsLegends wants to pitch me a piece making the case for continuing the Legends universe in a way that meets our format and tone guidelines, it would be given fair consideration.”

Well, I didn’t hear back from them. About a month later, Anger Leads To Hate arrived—Eric Geller’s compelling, exhaustively-researched, and vital exposé on the movement for TheForce.Net. As the backlash against this, frankly, childish campaign of hashtivist harassment against Del Rey (of all people) reached its height, one person did express a desire to speak up: two-time Eleven-ThirtyEight guest contributor Lance Henning, who sympathized with #GiveUsLegends’ cause while nevertheless lamenting their methods and public image. Read More

So Let’s Talk About Zare Leonis Being Black

Posted on November 19, 2014by Scotch Tape and Popsicle Sticks

While I read Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy in preparation for my latest interview with author Jason Fry (not that I wouldn’t have read it anyway), it so happens that I didn’t write an official review of my own, nor will I now. Jay’s piece from last week more or less speaks for me, but I will quickly say this myself for the record: it’s great. I’m the textbook example of a Star Wars fan who turns up his nose at the notion of a sports story, but EotG excels at making its extensive sports content easy to follow, compelling, and most importantly, in service of the larger themes of the book. I can’t wait to read Rebel in the Ranks and see Zare’s appearance in Rebels from his point of view, and to see where his story goes from there. It’s not a good Young Adult story, it’s a good story, period.

One of those themes, crucially, is prejudice. The Empire of the new canon is still xenophobic, but not in an over-the-top, moustache-twirling way; aliens can exist in this system, even prosper, but it’s not enough to just do well—you have to be excellent. Athletic Director Fhurek claims not to be prejudiced himself—heavens, no—he’s just concerned about how other people might see those two aliens on Zare’s team, so better to get them out of the way, y’know, to placate those other people.

It’s a pitch-perfect subplot, and sets just the right tone for how I hope this sort of element is handled in future stories. It’s also a decisive part of Zare’s burgeoning anti-Imperial sentiment, without being preachy or oversimplified. He wants to stand up for Frid and Hench because they’re his friends, but doing so could sabotage the lives of his several human teammates, and they’re his friends, too. Fighting a prejudiced individual is easy; fighting a bad system is infinitely more complicated. Read More