Yes,
it is the same day. Yes, I should probably be doing something else.
However, here I am and here I will stay. For the moment.
Yesterday
Paul sent me a link to a craigslist ad for eight Star Wars books. Of
the eight, and one of them is a trilogy of the books from the
original movies, I had seven of them. One of them, Heir to
the Empire I had actually wanted
to read because at some point in time, Paul picked up the third book
of the series of which this is the first. I first read the book when
Laura was less than two (it was published in 1991) while we were
house-sitting for Vaniman's. Bret had the book; I read it. And thus
began my love for the Expanded Universe. Oh yeah.
I
read a few pages last night but I was very tired and had done a lot
of reading during the day (when I most likely should have been doing
other things) and needed to go to bed (to do more reading before
actually attempting sleep). This morning I read a few more pages
because, you know, I just can't resist. And there, on page 15,
Coruscant is named. It is not named in the original Star Wars movies.
It is named in the prequels (which obviously came out after
this book). It is
named by Timothy Zahn who wrote Heir to the Empire.
Just out of curiosity, I did a search: “how did Corusant (yes, I
spelled it incorrectly) get its name”. I suspected that I knew but
I wanted to be sure because it's nice to be right.
I
was right. Stack Exchange says, “Regarding
Coruscant appearing in the prequels, Timothy Zahn had this to say at
Celebration
III:
"Just
to make it clear, I did not invent the planet…George Lucas had
invented the planetwide city a long time ago. When I was starting the
Thrawn Trilogy, they told me to coordinate with the West End Games
source material, and they had it listed as the Imperial Planet. Well
nobody names a planet 'Imperial Planet,' so I thought it needed a
name, so I picked the word that means glittering: 'Coruscant.'
Apparently, when it came time to choose a name [for the films],
people persuaded George to go with Coruscant and be done with it. So
I felt very vindicated -- the tail wagging the dog. It was an honor
to be slipped into the movies this way.”
Wookiepedia
has this quote: "Over the years, many artists and designers
have contributed to the articulation of the various universes of
Lucasfilm. Taking their cues from the minimal words of description on
a script page, these talented men and women have sketched, drawn
and/or modeled creatures of magnificent breadth, unimaginable terror,
and mind-boggling eccentricity. Some of these creatures have made it
into film, while others, because of the way stories unravel, have not
(so far). But this does not mean they do not exist. For once
something is created, no matter what the context, it takes on a life
of its own."
My
point? Just that George Lucas had a good thing going—he created
this vast universe and people loved it so much that they took it ran
with it. And it appears that he was okay with this. Okay enough to
use some of what was created by others to use in the movies.
According
to an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Lucas isn't crazy about
what has happened with Star Wars and says that he would have done
things differently. In fact, while he was still involved, he was
approaching The Force Awakens
differently. (Legaspi, Althea. "George Lucas Is Not a Fan
of "Retro" "Star Wars" Approach."
Rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone, 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 8 Jan.
2016.)
It
appears that Disney didn't think the story George Lucas wanted to
tell would make fans happy. It appears that Disney wanted to do a
space opera while Lucas wanted to do a soap opera. People may argue
that once a piece of art is created, it belongs to the viewers.
(Libbey, Dirk. “George Lucas Finally Reveals Why He Broke Up With
StarWars.” cinemablend.com.
Cinema Blend, LLC., Nov. 2015. Web. 8 Jan. 2016.) And while I agree
with this in part, I believe also that George Lucas created the darn
Star Wars universe and as such, he could bloody well do whatever he
wanted to with it. If I am a composer and create a piece of music and
it is performed, the people who listened to it would have no right to
tell me that I could no longer make changes to the piece of music.
Disney
thought that fans wouldn't want to hear the story that Lucas had in
mind? What kind of a load of crap is that?
When
Disney bought the franchise,
they announced initially that they would be sticking to the story as
Lucas envisioned it. Then they, being the omniscient beings they seem
to think they are, changed their minds because they felt that fans
wouldn't want to hear the story that the creator of the Star Wars
universe had in mind. Because of this, all Expanded Universe material
with the exception of the six original movies and the Clone
Wars TV show and
movie have been renamed Star
Wars Legends and are considered
non-canon. That is a load of crap, especially since they will remain
as reference material for the new Expanded Universe which will
consist of the original six movies, the Clone Wars
TV show and movie, and anything else that is published after April
24, 2015. (Wookiepedia) If they aren't going to stick with the story,
then they shouldn't be allowed to use any of the material.
In
spite of the fact that I really detest what Disney has done, I am
still somewhat torn. I really like the characters Rey and Finn in The
Force Awakens. And BB8 is cute
in a puppy-dog kind of way. The story is only somewhat okay—there
are many plot holes; the old characters are only somewhat okay—many
of them behave in ways that are completely out of character (Han
wouldn't have lost the Millenium Falcon, Threepio wouldn't have
sounded like a...whatever he sounded like, I mean, seriously?, R2
wouldn't have gone into hibernation, Luke wouldn't have run away to
hide).
So,
I will continue to collect the OLD Expanded Universe and might very
well ignore the NEW Expanded Universe. If I don't ignore it, it will
become, in my home, something other than Legends—Disney crap,
maybe? Yes, I like that idea. If I have anything from the NEW EU,
I'll call it Disney poop and will warn people to be wary of the
stench.
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