The Star Wars EU has been the source of much debate amongst nerds on the internet (I use nerds affectionately, as I count myself amongst their number. I am, after all, writing a blog about the Star Wars EU), especially after a blogger claimed that Luke Skywalker, who many consider the face of Star Wars, must die in a Star Wars EU novel. This prompted some very heated discussion amongst many people on podcasts and internet forums, especially on the ForceCast which caused a couple of people to completely stop listening to the podcast and swear off one of the hosts of the ForceCast, Jason Swank, has a name calling hack who has no right to host a Star Wars podcast.
I personally think that calling someone a name calling hack is a bit of an oxymoron; however, it does make me realize just how touchy a subject like this is. I can’t promise I’ll tread especially lightly, but I promise this is only my opinion and in no way do I think it invalidates yours. Just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean that you’re wrong, just that we disagree. With that said, I’ll get onto the actual post.
The good old days...
The Star Wars EU has become a convoluted mess, and the stories have, accordingly, started to collapse under the weight of their own continuity. As such, I’m of the opinion that the Star Wars EU timeline is in serious need of a reboot. Either that, or authors need to stop feeling the necessity to pay such close attention to the overall timeline. It’s keeping the stories from being great, and it keeps new readers from jumping on for fear of being lost.For the most part, their fears would be justified.
While Luke Skywalker’s death would be a good way to shift the focus of the Star Wars EU away from Skywalker and let the other characters that have been created in the Star Wars EU a chance to shine, I think that a back to basis approach, similar to what DC is doing with their comics timeline, is necessary. I think that the Star Wars EU needs to go through a refresh. It needs to be streamlined, cleaned up and improved upon.
The improved upon part I think is the most important. The editorial staff at Lucas Books needs to set up a clear path for where the Star Wars EU is going to go. They need to go through the Star Wars EU timeline and decide what to keep and what to pitch, if they’re going to keep anything at all. While time travel might not be a good fit for the Star Wars universe, an event to end the current continuity and provide a starting point for the new one would be a good idea. Given how crazy the Force powers in the Star Wars EU have gotten, I don’t think it would be that out of the ordinary for there to be some big bad that has the power to change the universe in the way that could reset a lot of the stuff that has happened in the EU.
Then, people need to stop caring so damn much about canon. It’s waste of everyone’s time. Character development over time is good, but the idea that “this can’t happen here because according to canon something else is happening at this time, so this has to happen at a different time so we’ll have to move the time that this happens to that it all fits and then we’ll have to explain it for two paragraphs in front of the thing in the story we actually want to talk about.” It’s dumb. Have books happen, keep them to single books, duologies, or trilogies and have anything happen either before or after the stories that are already in place. You don’t need to know that the character went through something 2 months, 4 days, and 16 hours ago, just that they already went through it or they haven’t yet. That’s all that matters.
The nitpicking needs to stop and the timeline needs to be streamlined. They can keep some stories, like the Thrawn books or even just the basic beats from some stories to keep certain characters and events in place, like the solo children being born, but everything else needs to be fluid, and redesigned to fit into a universe that actually has room for more stories in it, because the current Star Wars EU simply doesn’t.
-WC
