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Darth Krawlie
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I get that, but still, you can't characterize a whole movement by the actions of a few. Especially on the Internet, where shouting seems mandatory in conversation.

 

Didn't think she'd be offended by the video, though. I thought the opposite would happen. (Didn't see what she said before editing her post, by the way.)

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Jacen: You should see mine. Matt keeps his comics separate; mine are right in there with everything else.

Were they separated? I thought they were mingled together in spots, at least.

 

I'm not saying this to be a jackass, but I really couldn't stand watching it. I skipped around a little bit to try to get the gist of what he was saying, but I just couldn't keep doing it. It has less to do with him in particular and more just to do with this type of youtube video to start with. I just can't stand watching people sit there and speak overly dramatically into the camera. Very few people can pull that off.

 

If he had just written it, sure, I'd have read it, so I could read it in a reasonable voice and go at the speed I want to. I also just don't care too much, really. I get people being upset about the EU being done away with and it took a little while to get used to that idea, but I just can't get upset about it. I'm also somewhat used to this from comics, too, so I have some experience with continuity getting wiped out. Plus, I've got too many other things to get upset about. That's not just confined to the EU, though; with as many good things that the internet provides, through social media, it has provided so many people the opportunity to be generally horrible and/or get irritated by every little thing. I know that message boards like Nightly can have the same effect, but it seems like it's even worse when people can actually say stuff on camera as opposed to writing it down.

 

:shrug:

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I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, I'd say anyone who takes the time to post about it on a messageboard is, but after watching that video it seems as if there is a whole layer of fandom that I had no idea even existed and am glad to not be a part of.

 

That video is somehow the funniest and saddest thing I've ever seen.

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Oh wow. I was expecting to some day see recaps of the new canon books. Guess that won't happen

Sorry, I wasn't aware if she had talked about it on the boards or not. Let's just say "no current plans" plus "never say never", and leave wiggle room for future developments, I guess.

 

Didn't think she'd be offended by the video, though. I thought the opposite would happen.

...

 

If. Only. You. Knew.

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I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, I'd say anyone who takes the time to post about it on a messageboard is, but after watching that video it seems as if there is a whole layer of fandom that I had no idea even existed and am glad to not be a part of.

 

That video is somehow the funniest and saddest thing I've ever seen.

That sort of condescension is to be expected, really, and I'm sure Mr. Wilkins is aware that many people would feel that way. But he doesn't care, which is admirable.

 

I'm actually thinking about doing my own little video on the EU, mainly for the people at my church who keep asking me what I'm talking about constantly on Facebook because they still don't get it, even though I thought it'd be crystal clear by now.

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Okay...it's taken me a long time to go through this and think about it because I have a big conflict of interest involved. I also want to say right off the bat, so that there's no misunderstanding, that what I'm going to convey here is not directed at anyone in particular. You all have opinions. They are not necessarily wrong opinions. You all have the right to feel the way you do. My opinions are mine alone. I don't presume to claim that my opinions or feelings are more valid than anyone else's.

 

  • First of all, NumberSix misunderstood me. I am not swearing off recaps of new material. I just can't think about the new material now while I'm in the middle of the old material which has taken years to get through. I've not read "Bloodline" yet, I'll probably get to it. I did read "Aftermath". It had its ups and downs, like most fiction.
  • Secondly, I have been picking up EU material since it first came out. I've got a 6-foot shelf full of SW books and am running out of room even with doubling up on space. I've been recapping the EU chronologically - as best as can be done - since 2005. Anyone who thinks I'm not an EU/Legends fan should recheck the last 11 years of posts.
  • I never dreamed it would take me 10 years just to get to the post-Jedi era that people seem to be most upset about when it comes to "Legends". I also never dreamed that Disney would wipe clean all relevance my work had when I first started. So, yes, I'm bummed about that. I'm also kinda glad that we never need to see a Barbara Hambly book translated to screen and that we will never hear Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher utter the names "Hold-Father Hethrir", "Zorba the Hutt" and "Alema Rar".
  • There are good things about the EU. I will miss those things. There are a lot of bad things that I won't miss. I feel sorry that a rich continuity has been wiped out. It's the same way I felt when I found out that Superman's parents were still alive and he was married to Lois Lane. Somehow it just wasn't the same that dingbat Lois knew his secret identity and wasn't constantly jumping over waterfalls to get that scoop! So it won't be the same without Jacen, Jaina and Anakin either. Ultimately, though, in the end, the only one I liked was the one they killed. And Silver Age Lois was an idiot.
  • And that was the problem for me. The EU started to get stale. By the time I read "Crucible", I just didn't care if they found the Father, the Brother and the Daughter that were cribbed from that "Clone Wars" episode. I was tired of Luke the Wishy-Washy Jedi Master who couldn't decide from one book to another whether the Jedi were part of the New Republic/Galactic Alliance/Whatever They Changed it to in the End and who bungled his way through teaching new Jedi until he finally watched his own nephew walk right to the dark side with his eyes wide open.
  • That being said, this doesn't mean I'm embracing the new continuity with open arms either. "The Force Awakens" was fine, it stole a lot from the original movie, it was blatantly predictable and made a few missteps that someone with a more critical eye at directing probably wouldn't have made. I didn't hate it. I'm just an old fogey with too much SW experience behind me.
  • I will not try to discourage people from being passionate about the things they love. I would ask them to exercise moderation and proportion. The sandbox is big enough for everyone who loves Star Wars to play. It was no fun as a kid when others held tightly to their action figures and wouldn't let me in unless I played by their rules. It's less fun watching adults do it. It's even worse when it degrades to name-calling, existential threats and other personal attacks. There are very few things in life that should require someone to communicate the possibility of physical violence to another person. An opinion about which Star Wars stories are best is not a good enough reason.

So, I feel for the guys in the video who are upset at 40-years of sometimes glorious, sometimes craptastic stories being tossed out of the [copyright]Disney-Lucasfilm[/copyright] sandbox. I really do. But the days of Bjo Trimble and her Star Trek-saving letter-writing campaigns are over. I'm not sure if I should thank her anyway because, if the show had been cancelled, we would have been spared "Spectre of the Gun" and "Spock's Brain". Put that Billboard money into an EU library or a resource site to compile data or information. Disney is going to do what Disney is going to do, predominately focusing on mainstream audiences that determine their bottom line.

 

One more thing. Sunday afternoon. I go to a restaurant. I see someone who just sat in the pew across from me at church browbeating the waitress over something stupid. Do I tell the waitress, "Sorry, they don't represent all churchgoers! hashtagNotAllChristians and all that"? Or do I pull the browbeater aside and say, "Dude, stop it. You're making us all look bad"?

 

The duty to confront bad behavior within our respective societal circles is everyone's responsibility. Whether someone's misrepresenting your religion, your politics, your workplace or your hobby.

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Well said!

 

I just had a sudden thought in reading it. A billboard cost thousands of dollars right? What if fans pooled their money and hired Legit EU authors to write fanfiction continuation of the stories? That doesn't break any laws right? You just can't sell such a story for money there's no law against being hired to write one

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Well said, Jedi Cool. I feel much the same way, with the exception of your (mild) interest in the new canon.

 

Believe it or not, I also though the post-Return of the Jedi EU was getting old and stale, and wished to see it discontinued. Certainly not the entire EU, mind you, but just that particular beaten-to-death era. The other eras that were being written about at the time of the decanonization were, for the most part, still quite interesting to me, and these included the Legacy and Old Republic eras. I wanted the EU to focus on other eras because the franchise is rich with lore (mostly from supplemental material) spanning hundreds of thousands of years.

Yes, I was tired of hearing about the hip-breaking adventures of old Luke, Han, and Leia, but there were better options than simply cutting everything loose. They could have killed off one (or all) of the Big Three and left it at that, retiring that era out of respect.

And what is wrong with the name Alema Rar? :(

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I don't see how I was being condescending. All I said was that as a big Star Wars fan I'm glad I have no part in the type of fandom that evidently includes threatening each other and using slurs on each other.

 

As for the funny/sad part, that's just true. I have no idea who this guy is and I have no idea of any of the people he talks about in the video are. However it seems to me like this whole argument is something that we'd see on the Simpsons with comic book guy arguing across the internet with the 3 nerds Homer met while in college. That's just funny. However it's also sad that something that should make people happy has seemingly led people to act in such terrible ways.

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And what is wrong with the name Alema Rar? :(

 

 

The name itself is fine. The character began to grate on me. I was relieved when Dark Nest ended and I thought she was gone for good, only to have her show up in the Legacy of the Force books as a Big Fat Distraction.

 

I loved the Republic Commando books and some of the Clone Wars-era novels. The Darth Bane books were excellent, too.

 

 

 

 

 

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Choc: Well, I don't want to be part of that either. Matt Wilkins is not, and neither am I. In fact, he produced a video scolding fans who gave new canonists a hard time at a certain event. Just because he and I are uber fans doesn't mean we're already associated with the crackpots.

 

Jedi Cool: Those were excellent books, yes. I also loved Darth Plagueis as well as pretty much anything by Matthew Stover. I love his deep philosophical musings.

 

The EU isn't just books, though! Empire and Rebellion were two (technically one, with a name change) of the best comic series in the franchise. And let's not forget all the great video game, like Knights of the Old Republic as well as all of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. And X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

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Well said!

 

I just had a sudden thought in reading it. A billboard cost thousands of dollars right? What if fans pooled their money and hired Legit EU authors to write fanfiction continuation of the stories? That doesn't break any laws right? You just can't sell such a story for money there's no law against being hired to write one

 

I don't think this would fly. Fanfiction is fine, but paying authors to write stuff wouldn't. And I doubt any Legends authors would want to do it, considering their advances are considerably more than a couple thousand dollars.

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