I've always been of the mind that any new Star Wars story, even if it was bad, was inherently a good thing. After all, it's chance to take a fresh trip into that world, even if it doesn't tell a story with the same magic and excitement that the Original Trilogy.
I suppose that is why it's always been easier for me to overlook the flaws of the Prequel Trilogy, and yet be so harsh on those of the EU. The prequels were, at times, bad story telling, most of which I lay at George's feet. I had quibbles with the world — for example, I never liked the fact that most of the human Jedi on Coruscant dressed like they were on Tatooine. Oddly enough, my favorite Jedi uniform came from a comic book, which showed Obi-Wan Kenobi in a flashback to his days as a Jedi Knight. His dress? The same black outfit that Luke wore in Return of the Jedi.
If you will allow me a brief side-trip, I will always think that George missed a great chance when he based the Prequel Jedi uniforms on what Ben Kenobi was wearing on Tatooine, rather than what Luke was wearing as a Jedi Knight in Return of the Jedi. Ben was wearing that because he was on Tatooine. It would be silly in the extreme that a man hiding out from the Empire walk around in the same outfit he wore as a famous Jedi Knight. I think George missed two "oh, cool" moments in the prequels — the first, when we see that the old Jedi are dressed like Luke Skywalker did at the end of the first trilogy; and the second, when we see Obi-Wan leaving Luke with the Lars family garbed as Ben.
But, like it or not, the Prequels are Star Wars, so whatever we are not comfortable with in those stories must somehow be reconciled. Not so the EU. I won't waste time recounting what I found troubling in the EU, since I've already done it elsewhere. But in the end, it doesn't matter; all of those many tales were never part of the official story, painful as that is for the people who loved them. I never thought they were part of the "real" story, even though there were some in the Lucasfilm world who have said so.
For better or worse, that changed a few weeks ago. The announcement that the now non-canonical EU would be rebranded under a new Legends banner was a welcome development for me. I stated in my earlier blog post why I never thought those stories were canon; to have that authoritatively in print was a welcome development.
That announcement was coupled with a second one: that a second EU would be created: one that absolutely would matter, and which would bear equal weight to the films. At first, I was encouraged by this; I always had a sense when I was reading a Star Wars novel that I was, in some sense, wasting time because, in the end, it didn't really matter. It was fun, but it didn't really count — only the movies did. This is a lesson that was brought home to me rather early on, with the first EU book, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I loved Splinter when it was released. It was both the priceless gift of new Star Wars, and it was absolutely the way I wanted the romantic triangle of Han/Luke/Leia to pan out. Plus, it was enormous fun, or so I thought at the time. Despite that, I had no trouble jettisoning it as a harmless bit of fun when Empire was released a couple of years later.
So it sounded like a good thing when Disney said that, from now on, the books were going to join the films as part of a larger story. It would, I though, be nice to read a book and have it be part of your experience with the films. Do you have a hunger for more Star Wars after the last movie? A book can now add to that experience. For example, the first New EU book is a prequel to Star Wars: Rebels. I may not be interested in it before I see the first episode of that series, but if I like Rebels enough, you can be sure I will be seeking it out after the fact. How much more will this be the case after a new Star Wars movie, when I am seeking out as much to do with that movie as I can afford to lay my hands on (as George's accountants know all too well).
Then a couple of things changed my mind; or, at least, made me think twice.
The first was a comment that a couple Del Ray book representatives made during an interview on RebelForce Radio. To paraphrase, he said that everything counts now — movies, television shows, novels, comic books, games, and even children's books, are all on equal footing. What happens in one now affects the other.
As I listened in the car, that sentence kind of echoed as I mulled the implications.
Movies...
Well, yeah, sure — the movies have always been canon. For most of us, anyway. If you want to throw away half of them, that's your affair.
…television shows…
Okay, sure, I guess, if they're done well enough. Clone Wars didn't strike me as canonical back when it started (Anakin with a padawan? Really?), and I still haven't seen the bulk of it. But it was really, really good when it left the air after the Disney acquisition, and if anyone can do canon-level Star Wars now, it's my fellow Pittsburgh boy, Dave Filoni.
…novels…
Umm, okay, if you say so. I've been burned a lot in the past on this score, but I'm just going to have to trust you.
…comic books…
Seriously? With the sheer volume of comic book stories, that's a lot of plot line to have to keep straight.
…games…
Uhh...no. I still remember the scene in The Force: Unleashed where the main character pulls a freakin' Star Destroyer out of the sky by using the Force. A STAR DESTROYER!!! None of the other characters in the movies, not even the Chosen One or Master Yoda, even hinted at abilities of this scope, yet this character whose name I can't even remember could do it. Yet it worked within the game, because games are supposed to be fun, and big-league Force powers were a big part of that game.
…children's books…
Okay, you've left the planet on this one. Who drops a key plot point in a children's book?
For me, the idea that The Force Unleashed could hypothetically be on an equal canonical footing as The Empire Strikes Back is beyond ludicrous, and somewhat frightening. I don't know how Disney plans to make this work, but there is a huge margin for error looming on the horizon that, frankly, frightens me.
I am also concerned by the shape of things to come in what I'm already seeing going on the Marvel Universe. As you may have heard, the excellent show Agents of Shield is now tracking the same storyline as the Marvel movies. This was brought rather forcibly home with the April 8 episode, which tied in with the also-excellent film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Fans of the show were given precisely one week from the April 1 episode, which ended with a scene from Winter Soldier, to go out and see the movie before key and crucial elements of the plot were laid bare in the next episode. Watch that episode, and you would be completely and irrevocably spoiled for Winter Soldier.
Fortunately, my wife and I were warned in time, and endured a six-week hiatus from that show until we could manage to make it to Winter Soldier before it left the theater altogether. If we hadn't, we would have had no choice but to delete all of the episodes we had DVRd, and wait for the release of both Winter Soldier and the Agents of Shield boxed set before we could catch up.
It felt more than a little like narrative blackmail — to enjoy this story, you must go out and purchase this one. If you don't, well, you won't mind knowing every big surprise that's in it, will you? After all, you didn't see it as soon as it came out, so you must not care.
Disney has practiced this sort of thing before. I'm still annoyed at the forced demand created by their "back into the vaults" practices with the DVD and Blu-Ray releases. If I'm remembering correctly, an average of seven years elapses between these releases. Want your five-year-old to see of Beauty and the Beast but didn't buy the DVD release two years before she was born? That's too bad. Maybe she'll still want to know about Belle when she's older.
Don't get me wrong: I truly love Disney. I think the people who are a part of it really, passionately care about quality, and giving their audience a good experience. But they are a corporation whose goal, at the end of the day, is to make money. And if they can do something like they just did with Captain America, it's only a matter of time before they do it in Star Wars.
