Several years on, are you happy with the new Canon?

[Norsehound 2,740]

A thought occurred to me the other day after Rogue one that, yeah, I'm happy with Galen Erso and Krennic being the architects of the Imperial superweapon. I'm happy we traded away the Secret installation at the center of a black-hole cluster and Bevel Lemilesk('s constant death and resurrection for his failures) for this. I didn't think I'd like the new canon but as more installments come out, I'm liking how it looks.

 

Yeah I'm missing some of the old mainstays... particularly when I look at some of the pilots in Armada and wonder what happened to them (Farlander was supposed to be in that Y-Wing at Yavin, Now it's Evaan Verlaine) and if they'll ever come back in canon.

 

But I'm also liking the fresh faces, and wondering what further stories they'll tell us now that the canon is wiped. Some of those mainstays that we're missing have been there for too long.

 

And the conflict of Resistance vs First Order feels refreshing. Of the post RotJ era, only the Legacies era really stood out to me as something I wanted to see more of. The Resistance vs First Order state of the galaxy feels much better.

 

How about you guys? Are you happy with the canon reset now that we have something to go on, or would you trade all of that in for more stories out of the old?

[thecactusman17 3,192]

I think more than the reset, the insistence that everything produced is now canon that must be included or accounted for in the films is probably the biggest improvement.  With the potential that any throwaway line in a book could now be the basis for a full film, it is making Disney really carefully consider what they'd be willing to let influence their film franchise.

This isn't to say that they can't also make mistakes, but it feels like they're being really careful about ensuring a certain quality standard with their new stuff.  No more cheeky 9 year olds winning dogfights in old starfships, for example.

Edited January 14, 2017 by thecactusman17

[Dedmanzhand 258]

There was some great stuff in legends, but an equal amount of rubbish. New Canon seems good so far, and they seem to be choosing good stuff to make canon, so all good from me.

[emmjay 319]

The thing is, I grew up on Legends.  Way back in grade school, the Thrawn trilogy is what got me interested in reading in the first place.  I loved getting to know the stories of Kyle Katarn, Dash Rendar, Mara Jade.  Now?  All that is gone.

[AegisGrimm 284]

Yeah, screw Disney. Anything by Zahn or Stackpole should have stayed canon. Even the craziest parts of the X-Wing novels (a certain hidden SSD comes to mind) were still pretty well done. That same SSD ended up in a pretty awesome space battle.

[mcworrell 810]

Yeah, screw Disney. Anything by Zahn or Stackpole should have stayed canon. Even the craziest parts of the X-Wing novels (a certain hidden SSD comes to mind) were still pretty well done. That same SSD ended up in a pretty awesome space battle.

 

Loved almost all of those x-wing books.  Would have loved to see some of them as a movie.  Great stuff.  

 

BUT...for every Zahn or Stackpole there were quite a few really bad books and authors (Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyer and The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch).

 

I am happy what they have picked and brought into canon so far.

[Drasnighta 26,831]

On the Zahn (+ Stackpole) issue...

 

 

I like how Zahn is re-writing Thrawn.  That even he is taking the best of what he wrote and making it better.  I am still looking forward to his continued presencein Rebels, and the New Book to be Released...  I liked a lot of the Thrawn Trilogy (Cloaked Asteroid Threat, Basic Battles, etc), but hated a lot (Everything to do with C'Boath) at the same time.

 

 

Stackpole is notorious for making his own decisions in contravention to accepted fluff and rules...  He did so in BattleTech, and the phenomenon was actually named after him. (The Stackpole Effect).

 

So I'm glad, if nothing else, that the constant approval process will make things consistent.

[mcworrell 810]

Absolutely...the consistency has been and will be fantastic, but from an entertainment aspect those books were a lot of fun to read.

[Dedmanzhand 258]

Thrawn trilogy and X-Wing series are the best Star Wars books by far, but yeah, c'Boath sucked!

Got a load that I picked up cheap and still haven't read yet. The New Jedi Order series any good?

[jscott991 103]

I disliked the old EU and literally shrieked for joy when it was swept away, but the new canon is only marginally better.

 

I wish they had stuck with their guns and said the only canon stuff will be in the films and the rest is just for fun.  The novels, the tv show Rebels, and (even more so) the comics are just introducing the same consistently problems the old EU created.

[outerrimrebel 316]

Thrawn trilogy and X-Wing series are the best Star Wars books by far, but yeah, c'Boath sucked!

Got a load that I picked up cheap and still haven't read yet. The New Jedi Order series any good?

 

Depends if you like them talking about how nothing can enter or exit the 'star wars galaxy' and then boom... Extra-galactic aliens invade and want to wipe out everyone, but especially the new Jedi.

Edited January 14, 2017 by outerrimrebel

[Mikael Hasselstein 6,898]

I also loved the Thrawn trilogy. I haven't read it in twenty years, but I've listened to the audiobooks read by Wedge and C-3P0.

 

The Stackpole novels.... sorry, I found them to be boring. Other things, like the works of Kevin J. Anderson, I found insufferable. 

 

I can't say that new books have been exceptionally riveting either. I read Tarkin and Aftermath, but... it was homework trying to get through them, and I know a thing or two about reading homework.

 

I really did like A New Dawn, though. I also really like SW: Rebels and I loved Rogue One.

 

Overall, I am excited by what Disney is doing, though I wish they would slow the book production down a bit. I can't keep track of all the books that are out there, and much of it seems to be of marginal quality.

[Green Knight 9,732]

I disliked the old EU and literally shrieked for joy when it was swept away, but the new canon is only marginally better.

 

I wish they had stuck with their guns and said the only canon stuff will be in the films and the rest is just for fun.  The novels, the tv show Rebels, and (even more so) the comics are just introducing the same consistently problems the old EU created.

 

^This. Also, I've yet to read a good SW book from the new canon.

[Sbloom141 751]

The main thing I miss is the Dark Forces / Jedi Knight story. I loved those games.

I went to a LOt of trouble stealing those Death Star plans, now it's all for nothing!

Seriously though the new 'canon' doesn't really bother me. You can still enjoy all the old stuff just the same. It was all fiction to begin with so it seems a bit ludicrous to get uppity because some fiction didn't happen.

[outerrimrebel 316]

 

I disliked the old EU and literally shrieked for joy when it was swept away, but the new canon is only marginally better.

 

I wish they had stuck with their guns and said the only canon stuff will be in the films and the rest is just for fun.  The novels, the tv show Rebels, and (even more so) the comics are just introducing the same consistently problems the old EU created.

 

^This. Also, I've yet to read a good SW book from the new canon.

 

 

Read Twilight Company, it's the only one I've read so far and I couldn't put it down.

[Mikael Hasselstein 6,898]

Seriously though the new 'canon' doesn't really bother me. You can still enjoy all the old stuff just the same. It was all fiction to begin with so it seems a bit ludicrous to get uppity because some fiction didn't happen.

Star Wars is kind of like religion in that sense. If you accept some of the myths, but not others, then you are a heretic, and must be destroyed.

[Greatfrito 188]

I thought the wipe was interesting, more than anything. A few years on and, yeah, I'm about in the same place.

I don't really feel like the quality of the new stuff is particularly better -quality-, but I can see a bit of how theyremanaging things better.

[Frimmel 2,593]

Seriously though the new 'canon' doesn't really bother me. You can still enjoy all the old stuff just the same. It was all fiction to begin with so it seems a bit ludicrous to get uppity because some fiction didn't happen.

I can however get uppity that the continuity for all its good and all its bad that I'd followed for some not inconsiderable time has been left to wither on the vine for the sake of the garbage they foisted on us with JJ's latest crapfest. Those stories are now finished because a group of people who had no interest in them in the first place might get confused about where it fits with the new movies and the new merchandising tie-ins to those movies. I'm allowed to be uppity about my enjoyment being taken away for the sake of people who aren't going to read the new canon either. 

[Vykes 1,927]

And then there's me who's the opposite of Frimmel: pleased as punch that we did away with the EU and got the glory of JJ's latest work. Not that I don't sympathize with the sentiment (Elder Scrolls and a happy go-lucky online stuff mucking up all the good background stuff, sickening).  That sort of thing does suck. 

 

Yeah, I'm going to miss some of the EU stuff, but that basically amounts to 'the entirety of Tie Fighter' and that's it.

Edited January 16, 2017 by Vykes

[Norsehound 2,740]

I myself have been enjoying the refeshing re-start of the canon material. The problem with anything new in Star Wars before the re-set was that... anything new had to come with the "baggage" of all the old stuff that didn't interest a lot of people. Even Legacies had to drag along the aftermath of the Yuuzan Vong invasion, and anything that had to do with Imperial power structures post RoTJ had to navigate the minefield of major key players, even including some of them to participate in on that (like where in relation to Thrawn nearly Every Imperial story was).

 

But as I said in the OP I miss some things that we were taking for granted... particularly Hardware. The Victory Star Destroyer has been in the canon forever that I took it's existance for granted. So far it's reappeared in only one place: The Tarkin Novel, mentioned in passing that it deployed a ground base. I would love Rebels or a future anthology movie to give us one in a moving picture to legitimize the design and actually show us that it had some prominence in the universe. Hopefully it stays connected to the VSDs we have here as well, though something like a long-necked ISD called a VSD would be acceptable. I just want to see that class return, and there's frankly no reason why it shouldn't.

[jscott991 103]

But as I said in the OP I miss some things that we were taking for granted... particularly Hardware. The Victory Star Destroyer has been in the canon forever that I took it's existance for granted. So far it's reappeared in only one place: The Tarkin Novel, mentioned in passing that it deployed a ground base. I would love Rebels or a future anthology movie to give us one in a moving picture to legitimize the design and actually show us that it had some prominence in the universe. Hopefully it stays connected to the VSDs we have here as well, though something like a long-necked ISD called a VSD would be acceptable. I just want to see that class return, and there's frankly no reason why it shouldn't.

 

I think the Victory is kind of a goner.  The films are always going to use their own ships (unless they are using the ISD), for both merchandising and "coolness" purposes, so I don't think we will see a VSD in something like the Han Solo movie.  And Rebels is already using the ISD extensively, with the light cruiser and other Clone Wars designs thrown in when they need something older or smaller.

 

The Victory kind of missed its chance when Lucas's people created the Venator. 

 

I love the Victory and am not a fan of the Venator, so I wish it had gone the other way, but I think the Victory is likely to be limited to novel mentions.

 

Edited January 17, 2017 by jscott991

[BiggsIRL 6,717]

Thrawn and the Defender are cannon.

Make Wraith Squadron cannon as well and everything will be perfect.

Edited January 17, 2017 by BiggsIRL

[martok2112 373]

I'm reading the Thrawn Trilogy now, and am enjoying it.  I also love the novel "Death Star".  

That they are now in Legends status doesn't bother me in the slightest.   They're now an alternate Star Wars universe.

There are also the Star Wars Radio Plays from the 80's and early 90's.  The extended material written which expands the movie material for the radio plays by the late, great Brian Daley is now non-canon.   But that's ok.   I was pretty happy with how Rogue One handled the "get the Death Star plans" aspect before A New Hope kicks in.  I still fully enjoy the Radio Plays' expanded material, and I am even doing an animation project adapting some of that.

 

Legends are Legends now.  Non-canon.   Alternate Star Wars universe stuff.  Still highly enjoyable, at least, the few EU books and comics I've read.  (Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Death Star, The Dark Empire trilogy).

The movies, the animated series (The Clone Wars and Rebels, both of which I enjoy immensely), those are the canon.

 

When I do my animated projects though, I don't let "canon" constrain me.   I'll use what I'll use and tell the stories I want to tell.

 

That's the way it is, and I'll accept it happily.  (Advantages of being a non-fan....of anything...and everything. )

Edited January 19, 2017 by martok2112

[Ironlord 933]

 

There are also the Star Wars Radio Plays from the 80's and early 90's.  The extended material written which expands the movie material for the radio plays by the late, great Brian Daley is now non-canon.  But that's ok.

it might be non-canon - but that doesn't mean canon sources won't draw on it. The newcanon junior novelization of ANH has included a few bits from the radio play. Not the Lord Tion stuff though.

[martok2112 373]

 

 

There are also the Star Wars Radio Plays from the 80's and early 90's.  The extended material written which expands the movie material for the radio plays by the late, great Brian Daley is now non-canon.  But that's ok.

it might be non-canon - but that doesn't mean canon sources won't draw on it. The newcanon junior novelization of ANH has included a few bits from the radio play. Not the Lord Tion stuff though.

 

Completely agree.   Just like Rebels has made Thrawn a canon character now.  

 

Believe me, I really do hope that some Legends material continues to get promoted to canon status.

 

All I was saying was that I don't allow canon to constrain my stuff.   

 

Example:   In one project I was working on, I had an ISD fire ion cannons at the classic battlestar, Galactica, to disable her.    Ion cannons were listed as part of her armament in all the specs I've ever read on it.    However, there are some canon-freaks who would favor the classic Galactica over an ISD out there who will say: "You can't do that!  No ISD ever fired ion cannons on screen, so an ISD cannot conveniently disable the Galactica and get the edge on her!"

 

Thing is:  I love BOTH ships.   Sometimes you have to fudge the rules for a bit.   Galactica might have gotten disabled by IC's in my project....doesn't necessarily mean that the Galactica can't have the means to recover quicker than the ISD might expect.   There's less "hard material" in regards to the classic Galactica's armament and capabilities.  After all, I wanna see the Galactica give as good as she gets.

 

Back to your point about the newcanon ANH junior novel... would've been interesting to add the Lord Tion stuff.  I liked that material.   Of course, they'd have to switch out the Tantive IV at Toprawa stuff for the events of Rogue One.   (The animation project I am working on is actually a visual adaptation of the Tantive IV at Toprawa events from Chapter 3:  Black Knight, White Princess, and Pawns.   )

Edited January 20, 2017 by martok2112