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thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

A Long Time Ago, in a Another Thread Far Far Away...

(Yeah, that was a cheap way to start the thread, but I couldn't resist.)

What started back in March of 2007 as a Geeky Star Wars Questions thread evolved over the years (and a few threads) into the Star Wars Book thread. A place where Star Wars nerds could come to talk about Star Wars books and exchange recommendations and theories. Because unlike a lot of other Expanded Universes (EU from here on out), the Star Wars EU was entirely canon. This wasn't true for something like the Star Trek EU, where books could reference or ignore other books. In Star Wars, if it was in a book, it counted. Everything was interconnected. Sure, it wasn't perfect, and occasionally George Lucas came in and stomped all over it with a movie and the EU would have to course correct, but for the most part it worked and a massive EU tapestry was created of some great books, and a lot of lovely books, all weaving in and out of each other. And everyone was happy and no one ever fought about anything.

And then in 2012, something happened...Lucasfilm, and everything it owned, including Star Wars, was purchased by Disney. And, as a part of this buyout, an announcement was made. The EU of old would be rendered non-canon, to make way for a new trilogy of movies. The response from the fans for this was...well let's say it was split. Many people were upset to think that their favorites like Thrawn, Mara Jade, Jaina and Jacen Solo, Kyp Durron, Exar Kun, the Wraith Squadron, etc. were no more, and that we wouldn't get any more stories from them. That all the time and emotional investment they had put into them had been wiped out to make way for the new. Personally, I don't see that Lucasfilm had any choice. If the new trilogy was to include Han, Luke, and Leia (whether this was a good idea in hindsight is a different discussion, they were obviously going to include them from the outset), there was no way they were going to try to cover all that history. "So, okay, Chewie is dead. Someone dropped a moon on him. Han and Leia had 3 kids. 1 was killed by a masochistic race of aliens who were invisible to the Force. 1 went evil and was killed by the 3rd. Luke has a kid. The kid's mother? She was killed by the evil Han and Leia kid. All caught up? No? Doesn't matter. Let's go!" But no matter what you thought, it happened, and the old EU was dead.

Why am I giving this long recap? To explain why we're here. The old Book Barn OP (which I will link below) is from 2010, before the Disney buyout, and references things that are no longer canon, and had become basically useless. People coming to the thread would have to ask for the same recommendations people had already asked for a few pages ago, so I felt it wise to go ahead and try to consolidate some info and recommendations on the current(ish) state of Star Wars books. I'll try to keep it somewhat current, but let's be honest, that won't last forever.

What Books Should I Read?
New EU
This list is the generally accepted list of "Good New EU Books." If I left anything out, please let me know and I will correct it. I will try to make this OP be a work in progress.


Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
Tells the story of a boy and a girl growing up during the events of the Original Trilogy, and is generally accepted by most people as the first great book of the new EU. Technically a Young Adult novel, but it didn't bother me at all while reading it. Thoroughly enjoyed this novel, great characters, well written.


Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn, one of the originators of the old EU, was asked to bring his most famous old EU character, Thrawn, back into the new EU. This tells the story of his early days in the Empire. There are more Thrawn books written by Zahn after this that have a mixed reception, but this book is solid.


Alphabet Squadron Series by Alexander Freed
The spiritual successor to the Rogue and Wraith Squadron books of the old EU, this tells the story of a group of New Republic pilots hunting down an Imperial group called Shadow Wing.


Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston
Tells the story of Ahsoka Tano after the fall of the Republic and the end of the Clone Wars, and what she was up to before showing up in Rebels. Has a very Western feel to it, and, to me, matches well with the tone of The Mandalorian. Also, if audiobooks are your thing, it is read by Ashley Eckstein, who voiced Ahsoka in both Clone Wars and Rebels, so that feels very cool.


Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson
Tells the origin of Captain Phasma prior to the events of The Force Awakens. I know, who gives a poo poo about Captain Phasma, right? You, after reading this. Described by forums user Teek as "kind of like a Mad Max meets The Long Walk tale of Phasma as a teenager". It's biggest sin is making you care about a character that is ultimately wasted by the movies.


Bloodline by Claudia Gray
From the author of the previously mentioned Lost Stars, Bloodline takes place 6 years before The Force Awakens, and tells a story of Leia dealing with threats to the Republic, both internal and external. It's a really entertaining look at the state of the galaxy leading into the sequel trilogy, which those movies tend to gloss over, unfortunately. Some major events, which should have been covered in the movies, happen here. And Gray really is at the top of her game.


Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp
Do you want to read about Palpatine and Darth Vader tearing some poo poo up on Ryloth? Well, look no further! Pretty simple, but good, fast paced fun.


From a Certain Point of View series
A series of short stories set during A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi using view points of various minor background characters throughout the movies. The quality of each one varies, but overall fun stuff. And the ESB one has a goon writer for one story!

I heard about the Aftermath trilogy? What about those?

Ugh. Okay, so the Aftermath books are...different. They were the first new EU books, and set post Return of the Jedi, so we were all very excited to get them to get our first glimpse at what this new EU galaxy would look like! And then we got them.

First thing you should know is that they're written in the present tense. That can be a huge hurdle for some people to climb, as this is different than most novels people read, and can be very jarring for most readers. Just want you to know that going in. The books also occasionally jump away from the main storyline to cut to "interludes", which are basically moments of checking in on the galaxy at large to see what it's up to. Some of the interludes connect to each other, some don't. It gets weird.

They're mostly god awful bullshit, with slight glimmers of wonderful. They introduce Sinjir, who is one of my favorite new characters ever. He’s great. And honestly, the depths of which they’re bad reach a level that I think has to be seen to be believed. And some of the Interludes they do are fun. An older Jar Jar comes up in one of them! If you listen to podcasts a lot, I’d recommend giving the audiobooks a listen as a change of pace for a laugh. Then the present tense doesn’t bother you as much either, because it sounds like a radio play, with sound effects and score and all. But seriously, they’re loving nuts. Some people will disagree with me, and they can feel free to do so. But I feel like the general consensus on the books is, "...ugh." Also, it's my OP, so there.

That being said, if you ever wanted to know why all that wreckage was on Jakku, here's where you need to look.

Ongoing Series

The High Republic
The biggest thing going right now is The High Republic, which is a multimedia, and multi-phase, project, spanning both books and comics, telling one cohesive story set two centuries prior to The Phantom Menace. It's...a lot, and I haven't kept up with it all. Luckily, forums poster Teek is here with this great breakdown of where we are right now!

Teek posted:

https://www.starwars.com/news/every-star-wars-the-high-republic-book-and-comic-series

Your mileage will vary, but I've been reading most everything except for some of the High Republic Adventures comics, and I think I've gotten pretty much everything down. I'm just starting Phase 2, which is in the process of wrapping up. Here's my recommendations, marking + next to ones I recommend. It's a lot, and you could stick to the main adult novels, but you will be missing out on some context:

Phase 1:
+ Light of the Jedi (Start of the series, an adult level novel. Introduces main villains)
+ Into the Dark (Young Adult novel. Introduces secondary villains)
+ A Test of Courage (Young readers novel. Introduces some of the main characters going forward in the HR, including one who will later show up in The Acolyte tv series.)

+ The High Republic Marvel Comics (Events get referenced a lot in the books, and serve to introduce and wrap up some plot beats. Available on Marvel Unlimited)
High Republic Adventures Comics (A bit tangential but features a young cast dealing with all the events. Later play a bigger part in Midnight Horizon YA novel. Released by IDW, so not on Marvel Unlimited)
There are a couple of other HR mini-series comics like Trail of Shadows that are worth checking out if you happen to have Marvel Unlimited.

+ The Rising Storm (Second adult novel)
Race to Crashpoint Tower (Happens concurrent to The Rising Storm. I think you can skip this one)
+ Out of the Shadows (Second YA novel. Picks up on characters from A Test of Courage at a now higher reader level)

+ Mission to Disaster (Young reader novel, follows Out of the Shadows)
+ The Fallen Star (Final adult novel of this phase and helps close it out)
Midnight Horizon (Last YA novel of this phase. Features characters for the High Republic Adventures comics and Race to Crashpoint Tower. Is concurrent to The Fallen Star. Some people are really high on this novel, I didn't care for it)

Eye of the Storm Comic (2 issue series that wraps up this phase with some villain backstory, which leads into the "prequel" Phase 2. Available on Marvel Unlimited)

Phase 2:
+ Path of Deceit (Young Adult novel that introduces the main villains for this phase. I think it's a really strong start to what this phase is about.)
+ The High Republic Marvel Comics (Big part of the narrative hook for this Phase)
High Republic Adventures Comics (Now released by Dark Horse, so not on Marvel Unlimited)

By this point I think you can probably judge how invested you are in what's being released and can go from there.

What about Legends?
As the old EU became non-canon, those books were rebranded as "Legends". So they're still out there and can still be purchased and enjoyed. Just because they're not canon doesn't mean you shouldn't read them. Here's a quick list of recommendations that I won't put much effort into, but if you're interested, check them out, or feel free to ask questions!

The Thrawn Trilogy
Shatterpoint
Revenge of the Sith Novelization (better than the movie itself)
The Han Solo Adventures (the Brian Daley ones)
The Lando Calrissian Adventures
The Hand of Thrawn Duology (once you've read the above Thrawn Trilogy)
X-Wing Series, but basically just the ones by Aaron Allston, so:
-The Wraith Squadron Trilogy
-Starfighters of Adumar
-Mercy Kill

Links
Wookieepedia - Silly name, very useful for an insane amount of Star Wars info.
Last Geeky Star Wars Book Thread
Let Us Read Terrible Star Wars Books For You (Archives Needed) - Something silly I started years ago that turned into a fun huge group goon project where we all read terrible Star Wars books and made fun of them. Originator of the Bounty Hunter Wars backstabbing chart (seen below) that I wish I could take credit for.
The Whole Thread was also zipped by Rochallor here!


Presented into the official Senate record!

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Sep 27, 2023

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thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

jivjov posted:

You're gonna namedrop the backstab chart but not actually link it in the OP? That thing belongs in a museum!

Also, I'd highly recommend tossing Bloodline in the OP if for no other reason than it gives a good overview of the political state of the galaxy in the lead-up to the Sequel Trilogy, something that TFA only glosses over in vague detail

I couldn’t find it! If anyone has it, I’d love to put it in the OP, so it’s easy to find moving forward.

And yeah, that’s a good point about Bloodline. I’ll add that in later today.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Hazo posted:

Kyp Durron was nobody's favorite character, OP.

It is with great shame that I admit I liked him a lot back in the day. He hit that exact right teen angst, angry at nothing spot for me when I read those books back when I was a lovely teenager.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Okay, OP updated to add Bloodline and the backstabbing chart. Also some slight tweaks to the Legends recs (just adding the Allston books mentioned). Thanks everyone!

VaultAggie posted:

Anything by Claudia Gray is as good as gold.

I'll admit I couldn't get through her Princess Leia book. Just something about her and young Holdo in the junior Senate bored me to tears. Does it get better? It's still sitting on my Kindle, I just stopped wanting to keep going with it around 1/3 the way through it.

But Lost Stars and Bloodline are both fantastic, yes.

surf rock posted:

For the Legends section, those are some pretty good picks. I would add Traitor, but it's smack-dab in the middle of a 500-book series so I understand leaving it out.

Yeah, while Traitor is good, I find it hard to just drop a recommend for anything in the New Jedi Order without giving a massive explanation for what the gently caress was going on with that, and really you'd have to read the whole series to get why it was good, so it's hard to recommend it.

NJO was so loving weird. I both appreciate what they were going for and hate how it turned out.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Dec 17, 2020

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Cross-Section posted:

:actually:

The first EU book released was A New Dawn, a pretty solid Rebels prequel that introduces us to Kanan, Hera, and noted recurring Imperial Rae Sloane.

Also known for reasserting bathroom over refresher as the preferred terminology

edit: Also if I could add a Canon rec: Lords of the Sith

320 pages of Vader and Sheev wrecking poo poo on Ryloth, it's simply written but fun nonetheless

My mistake, Aftermath was the first announced new EU book if I remember correctly, but A New Dawn was the first released, you are right. A New Dawn was...fine, but nothing really all that interesting.

Also, holy poo poo, I can't believe I forgot about Lords of the Sith. I honestly really enjoyed that book. Tons of fun.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

Obviously this thread is going to try to avoid bitching about wiping out the old EU, but is it okay to still reference or discuss the Legends stuff? I recently read the original Thrawn trilogy a few months ago and got my hands on "Spectre of the Past" or whatever. I really enjoy them.

Oh absolutely. Talk about it, praise it, bitch about it, go crazy.

Specter of the Past is clearly the first part of what was never originally intended to be a two part book (Zahn has confirmed this), but it's decent set up, and Vision of the Future is really good.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Sham bam bamina! posted:

Saw the new thread and became curious about the goonsensus on I, Jedi, a book that I very clearly remember passing over at the library as a child in favor of Ben Bova's Mars, which was hard SF for adults and smart kids like me.

I, Jedi is a curious book. It fixes a lot of the problems with the Jedi Academy books, while indulging in a lot of the problems with the Rogue Squadron books, like making Corran into a super important Jedi, when he should have just stayed a cool fighter pilot who was part of a larger group. But on the whole, I remember liking it. Especially when it would "Yes, and..." a literal scene from Jedi Academy to make it better, which it did more than once.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

MazelTovCocktail posted:

Good to see Lords of the Sith on the list. It’s a great audio book too.

I only added it when someone reminded me of it. But yeah, I really enjoyed it.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Horizon Burning posted:

along those lines, i've heard the new disney eu prevents people from using or mentioning bothans

...why?

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE posted:

Mercy Kill is also pretty good and should go on that list in the OP. It puts a cap on Wraith Squadron and gives most everyone their deserved happy endings. As opposed to the dogshit the rest of the franchise turned into for the heroes.

Never got around to reading it, but added it to the legends OP list.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Dec 22, 2020

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Now it’s a Star Wars Book Barn thread!

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Arcsquad12 posted:

Takes place during Invincible when Tahiri Veila was working for Jacen Solo because he let her have time travel Force Sex with Anakin Solo before he died. She straps Ben Skywalker down to a Vong Torture rack, puts on a leather dominatrix outfit and shoves her hand down his pants.

She's in her thirties, he's fourteen.

This is also the book that wants us to feel sorry for Tahiri later on and ends with Daala becoming president of the Alliance and Jacen Solo getting thrown into a vat of used syringes before his whole family watches his corpse get dumped into an incinerator.

...wtf?

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

I just read the full plot description for Invincible, and that whole thing sounds like a series of yikes followed by wtfs, one right after another. The whole series was like that?

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

chaosrefined posted:

Don't forget Denning throwing casual sexism around. Paraphrasing here, but there's a section where Jaina and Jacen had a fight, but Luke was projecting his image over Jaina's. When the illusion broke, Jacen was surprised to see his sister. Later on, she talks about this with the OG 3 and talks about the surprise Jacen had shown. Han, for some loving reason, chalks this up to the fact that Jaina was a girl and thus couldn't possibly best Jacen in combat.

Yup, that was one of the wtfs.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Angry_Ed posted:

Luke having a permanent 1970s haircut that makes him look like a Jedi Eric Foreman because nobody doing work on the games or the novel covers were allowed to imagine him looking like anything else or something. At least TLJ let him hobo it up a bit.

That was annoying. The cover artists were always trying to imagine what older Luke would look like, and I remember thinking, "Um, Mark Hamill is right over there, guys" until I learned about that weird, "We have the rights to the OT Luke image and nothing else, so we can age up that image and NOTHING ELSE" thing. Same for Han and Leia.

So weird.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

jivjov posted:

There was an interview I remember reading over on TheForce.net from someone involved in the old Legends stuff--I don't recall if it was an author or a publishing person or what, but they addressed that very issue in a surprisingly frank manner. Han, Luke, and Leia--or Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé--sell books. Random characters that originated in the books didn't, even if they're descendants of those characters or something. The Big Three almost always had to be the leads, becuase that was how you got a book into the hands of someone who only looks at the cover or only reads the blurb. They got around it from time to time with a gimmick like "but this one has zombies!" (And even that had Han and Chewie show up) or something, but it was The Protag Show first and foremost. Big multibook series helped a bit--get them hooked in the first couple books and people come back to see the ending, but then when that series ends, they always had to do a bit of a time skip and some manner of reset to status quo.

Anything that deviated from that mold had to have something justifying it. The republic commando books launched with a video game tie-in, for example. It's honestly a minor miracle how much the NJO was allowed to gently caress up the galaxy...but then there's a soft reboot going in to LotF where only the barest lipservice is paid to the Vongforming of Coruscant and the like

That both makes a lot of sense, and really sucks.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

chitoryu12 posted:

I read Black Spire recently and noticed that there was a really weird disconnect in the content where you could tell that the author was trying to put her own desires into the book. It's the big tie-in for Galaxy's Edge at Disney so it exists mostly to establish the storyline present in the park, like how the Resistance base got set up on Batuu and how Vi Moradi got Kylo Ren flying in personally, so a lot of the book is a huge marketing thing where she has to visit every store and talk about how all the named food items and cocktails are so amazing and you should totally try them (I do agree, Ronto Wraps are awesome).

And then every so often it suddenly swerves into really dark or adult territory. Oga is introduced murdering a Wookiee who was sleeping with one of her Rodian girls (not exactly a pairing most of us think about). Most of the characters suffer from PTSD and one is a former First Order officer who's still dealing with his indoctrination's effects on his mind and freaking out when he doesn't have anything to do because he was trained to consider himself worthless if not constantly giving a purpose for his existence. There's a smuggler who seems like a classic swaggering rogue but is actually a terminal alcoholic who wishes for the sweet non-existence of death to get out of his misery and summarily executes captured First Order troopers even when they would be valuable to keep because he wants revenge for his partner getting killed. They recruit a bunch of local farmers to help them beat the First Order and the ones who don't get killed run away because you can't just give a bunch of dudes on Mad Max contraptions old pawn shop blasters and defeat a unit of stormtroopers.

It's also one of the few works to actually have stormtrooper armor be useful. Unless you've got a heavy blaster pistol like a DL-44 or a rifle, the armor actually works. All the people with little civilian handguns need to shoot for the gaps in the plates.

I live in Orlando, had Disney annual passes for the family before the pandemic hit, and loved going to Galaxy's Edge (and was there for opening day), but for some reason, I refuse to read Black Spire. It just seems like the most brazen attempt at, "THIS IS MARKETING" yet. I know that's not fair when I went all in on the Disney/Star Wars park experience. But I think it crossing over into the books like that really offended me, for some reason. Like I hated those quick moments in the Thrawn book when they went there, but at least there they were quick. A whole book about it rubs me the wrong way.

Again, I know this isn't all that consistent of me.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

George Kansas posted:

Instead let's just make this thread the combination star wars books thread and halo books thread, imho.

Uh, let's not. I mean, talk about what you want, but I'm not putting Halo in the OP, that's for sure.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Dec 28, 2020

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Just so we’re clear, I made a typo earlier. I’m not putting Halo in the OP here. I’ve never read any Halo books, and I don’t really see a reason to link Halo and Star Wars books. But talk about them in here all you want, whatever floats your boat.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Gripweed posted:

Did Avatar get any tie-in novels?

I assume you don’t mean The Last Airbender, in which case I don’t think so, because when I google it, all I find are Last Airbender tie in books.

They may be waiting for James Cameron to make his 4 insane sequels that no one is asking for.

Unless you did mean The Last Airbender, in which case google tells me I have good news for you...

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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Why am I just finding out about this now?!

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
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Sector Corrector posted:

Just finished the extended universe + WATCHING the Mandalorian. One question. Who's Grand Admiral Thrawn?

I bid you Dark Greetings.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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Angry_Ed posted:

Also he was a major character in the TIE Fighter PC game from '94 so even people that hadn't read the books may have learned about him there.

Which is where my avatar comes from. (Except for the whole American flag part. Obviously.)

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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Sector Corrector posted:

Just finished the extended universe + WATCHING the Mandalorian. One question. Who's Grand Admiral Thrawn?

When you say you just finished the extended universe, what are you referring to? Not trying to be an rear end, genuinely curious.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
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Sector Corrector posted:

I just finished it.

That doesn’t answer...never mind.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

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T___A posted:

I find the IP rights involved in Star Wars fascinating, like how KoToR 1 had to undergo minor rewrites because of trademark dispute with Jeep of all people.

Arquinsiel posted:

Sorry, it had to what?

Yeah, that one is new to me, and I'd like to know more.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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SirPhoebos posted:

It's still a lol that Disney de-canonized the EU only to bring back the dumbest aspects in the movies.

This has come up before, but they de-canonized them so they didn't have to just recap them in some sort of "previously on", not because they didn't like any aspect of them. "Did you know Luke has a kid? Yeah. With who? Doesn't matter, she died. Who killed her? *sigh* Sit down, this is gonna take a while."

"Please don't ask where Chewie is."

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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Van Dis posted:

Is that attested somewhere official? Because it does not pass the sniff test: the sequels begin in medias res of the dominance of the first order and sequestration of Luke etc

Oh it's entirely an assumption on my part, but I feel like it's a safe one. If they were going to include the original characters in any way, which, let's face it, they were always going to, they were going to need to set it around 30 years after the OT to explain the age difference. At that point you could either include the old EU or not. If you included the old EU, you could ignore certain parts of it because who cares about the Truce at Bakura, for example. But some stuff you just couldn't ignore. Like where's Chewie? Oh, he was killed by a race of masochistic aliens who were invisible from the Force who dropped a moon on him. Han and Leia? They had 3 kids. One of which was killed by the aforementioned masochistic aliens, one of which turned evil and was killed by the 3rd kid. Luke has a son. His wife? Killed by the evil Han and Leia kid. And that's just for starters, before your first movie even gets started. It was so much easier for them to just say, "Forget it, the entire EU is gone, we're starting over."

Now, how they handled it after that point is not something I'm debating here. But I totally get why they did what they did. They wanted to attract more than just the fans of the old EU, so rather than explain what the hell happened there, they excised it, and pull from it when they want to.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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jivjov posted:

On a different note--the Mandalorian original novel got cancelled

https://twitter.com/delreystarwars/status/1369332524288212997?s=21

Cynically, I wonder if it's because Cara Dune was going to be a major character in it

That's certainly possible. But I think it's more likely that they didn't expect Mando to be so popular, so they figured why not have a tie in novel. But now Mando is going to be the centerpiece to, like, a dozen (hyperbole, I know who I'm talking to) new shows, and the fact is that the books are always going to be background and second class citizens in Star Wars, so the "adults in the room" are going to handle Mando moving forward. So any books will be figured out later, after they lay the groundwork with the new shows.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
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Humerus posted:

Maybe I'm misinterpreting this in a major way but the Rogue Squadron movie is going to be post episode 9, isn't it? They said it was leading into a new era for Star Wars.

As far as I know, we have no idea when Rogue Squadron is set.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Apr 8, 2021

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

fartknocker posted:

Where did that come from? I thought everything we heard so far was vaguely saying “moving into a new era” or something that could be taken to be either moving past episode 9 or just the nature of the movies and whatnot. I don’t recall it being explicitly stated yet that it’s definitely going to be set post-Rise of Skywalker, but I haven’t kept up on every rumor related to it yet since it’s still over 2 years away.

Yeah, I don't know where jivjov is getting that it's going to be post Episode IX from. "Moving into a new era" could mean a lot of things. There was some speculation from the logo that it featured a T-85 X-Wing, so it was around the time of the sequel trilogy, but then people pointed out that it was a trick of the lettering hiding the circles, and it could also be the old school X-Wings. The fact is, we don't know, and I certainly haven't seen anything from Lucasfilm about when it's set. They're doing their standard, "We're not saying anything until we have to."

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

jivjov posted:

I guess I got tripped up by internet speculation--I retract my certainty about timeline placement

No joke, legit, thank you for admitting you may have been wrong. It happens so rarely these days. With everyone.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Apr 9, 2021

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

jivjov posted:

At this point I'm just trying to track down what gave me that certainty. I had similar incorrect feelings about High Republic being 400 years BBY

I know the Jenkins reveal trailer has an old school X-Wing as well, which would hint to some time around the OT as well. If they've even decided on a timeframe yet.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Dapper_Swindler posted:

i assume its after yavin/before hoth type timeline.

Assume away. My point is that we have no idea. The teaser trailer implies OT timeline, but they may not have actually decided anything at that point, and were just throwing a bone to OT Rogue Squadron fans. I mean, maybe.

We really don’t know yet. Which is fun! Enjoy this period of uncertainty!

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Casimir Radon posted:

I’ve never watched an episode. It looked like such a visual downgrade from TCW or Rebels, and aimed much more at kids. Now after the Sequel Trilogy has concluded I can’t really be made to care about poo poo that’s very tied into it.

It's not good. You're fine not watching it. Like, there's a couple of decent episodes, but really, you're fine. It's mostly just, "Random hijinks set during the sequel trilogy era, a couple times we reference the events of the sequel trilogy", and those random hijinks are so loving silly and stupid.

It's not a Filoni show, and it shows. Clone Wars and Rebels are kid's shows that rise above their genre. Resistance is a kid's show that...doesn't do that.

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Apr 16, 2021

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Arcsquad12 posted:

If Podracing was noncanon we wouldn't have gotten Darth Vader using the Force to ruin Luke's Podrace record so that Anakin wouldn't be topped as best human racer.

I obviously missed something.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe


Well this is very silly.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Arcsquad12 posted:

Bit of a weird question but do we know who was the first Star Trek actor to appear in a Star Wars product? I was watching Clone Wars season 1 on Disney and I remembered the big fuss back in 2008 when George Takei showed up in the episode with the Irish Peace Lemurs. But I also know for a fact he wasn't the first, since Armin Shimmerman and Ethan Phillips both did voice work for Knights of the Old Republic.

So who was first? Barring genre actors who jump around everywhere, otherwise it would probably be Carolyn Seymour.

I'm not really ready to delve into time frames on which appearances happened when, but this article is probably a good starting point if you want to investigate.

Actors Who Were In Both Star Trek And Star Wars

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Casimir Radon posted:

I feel really dumb now because I somehow missed that it was young Kanan

I liked it so far. Rebels never really came close to achieving the same greatness TCW did. I’m hoping this trends closer to that.

If I had to guess about Omega, She looks like a young Satine. Not sure what benefit that would have unless it’s ultimately going to have something to do with the Mandalore succession issue that The Mandalorian season 2 was hinting at

Oh, that's an interesting idea. Not sure I buy it, but it's interesting. How old would she be by Mandalorian time, when Bo Katan is about to try to lay claim to the throne? That would be, what, I think about 23 years after this? How "old" would we say Omega is supposed to be?

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thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

In the old EU, I remember the food always sounding like some form of Creole, so because of that I pictured some mix of New Orleans and the Old West (the latter due to the descriptions of the cities themselves).

thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 13:24 on May 10, 2021

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