No more Republic Commando

Television, Movies Games and Books Star Wars
#1

I know it’s been a few weeks since this broke but I was away for a bit and have been catching up on podcasts and found about Karen Traviss leaving STAR wars. Apparently with the Clone Wars animated series and the upcoming live action series she was told that her novels fall too far outside the Star Wars canon and would have to be massively overhauled and retconed.
I have beem thiking about this for about a week and a half now and I am pretty bummed by this as the Republic Comando series is my favorite EU storyline. What do you guys think, She could have stayed and retconed the crap out of her stories but she left the Star Wars family (which she did) and preserve her story. Now I have mixed feelings about this decision. On one hand you have to respect her integrity to say enough, I won’t rewrite this. But I’m afraid that this will turn the Star Wars EU into what the Star Trek novels are, OK stories that in no way fit into the bigger picture. I enjoy Star Wars because of it’s epic scope, not for stories that do not mesh with the rest of the universe.

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Karen_Traviss_Bids_Farewell_To_SW_Novels_125555.asp

#2

My take is that if you really enjoyed the books at the time of reading, then they are as legit as anything with the official stamp of “canon.” Now I say this as someone who thinks terms like continuity and canon are some of the most overrated concepts ever, so take it as you will.

#3

A good point, and it’s an argument that has been bouncing around over at the rebelscum forums and the forcecast lately. I have been leaning that way myself otherwise I would loose all faith in the investment that I have made in the EU in time and money.

#4

See here’s the thing i always think you should never get rid of a good story. So one should simply have two kinds of licensed property , one cannon and one not. so if you want the giant over arching story just read the cannon books and if you simply want to read a good story set in the universe. you still have the option.

problem solved

#5

I was a little upset about this when I heard she was leaving. But I can see why Lucas is starting to pull the reigns in on the EU. Personally I am not a fan of anything past the Thrawn series. However I do enjoy reading the Old Republic and Clone Wars era EU. It’s just some of the things I have heard, that the writers have been allowed to get away with after “The Return Of The Jedi” EU are a joke and down right lame. I mean using the force for some for time travel…wtf???

The problem with Karen is, I don’t think people expected the Clone Wars to be as popular as it has become, and the Mandalorians are going to start to play a much larger role in the clone wars series TV. So Lucas is now starting to put the breaks on the EU stuff that being thrown out there.

Personally I think the whole EU after ROTJ needs a reboot. I gave that era a shot and loved the Thrawn books, but after that it turned into a heap.

It’s sucks to see Karen go, I enjoyed her books. But it’s also good to see Lucas starting to pay attention to the other garbage that is being released under the Star Wars name.

For the record the only EU book that should EVER!!! AND I mean EVER!!! Considered canon is, ‘Heir to the Empire.’ As it is the only book endorsed by Lucas. The inside flap even has the following test;

Heir to the Empire, Lucas’s authorized canon sequel, begins five years after the end of Return of the Jedi: the Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet back into barely a quarter of the territory that they once controlled. Leia and Han are married and have shouldered heavy burdens in the government of the new Republic. And Luke Skywalker is the first in a hoped-for new line of Jedi Knights.

#6

If you seek a largely non-canon body or work, Trek is for you. This is the way the Trek franchise IP has been managed, and you’ll find many novels (and some comics) that contradict the shows and movies.

Star Wars, on the other hand, takes a different approach, essentially managing the whole body of work from a central location, creating a true EU – meaning you can explore the EU without everything turning into single authors’ visions of the universe.

Is this better? Not necessarily. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Personally I’m glad they’re both around.

As to everything after Heir being a mess, I’m afraid I can’t agree. The Thrawn series was essentially the first EU, hence the bit inside the cover. All SWEU goes through the same process and Lucas “approves” of every piece. There’s a lot of awesome history post-ROTJ. I’m enjoying the Legacy comic series, and you’ll find many fans who love the “ends” to the stories of movie-era characters.

#7

In my mind everything in the EU is Canon until it is proven not to be by an official Lucasfilm work. The people at Lucasfilm try their hardest to keep inline with the EU. Some awesome things have come out of the EU into the G-level canon of the Star Wars universe, Courscant and Aura Sing come to mind. I love the work of Karen Travis but i think she was starting to think of herself as an original creator of Star War lore and that her stuff was more real than GL’s. But when it comes to SW GL is the god. He does not keep track of or for that matter really read the EU stuff so he does not know whats happening so when he creates a story line it can contradict what is happening and that’s ok with me.

#8

I agree. It’s true that GL probably has never heard of Jacen Solo, he has better things to do like working on the live action show (can’t wait). As far as EU being introduced into the OU and becoming G-level don’t forget about Ayla Secura, Quinlan Vos and from the episode of Clone Wars, Storm Over Ryloth, Asoka’s tactics with the star destroyer were straight out of The Heir to the Empire ( pitching her star destroyer onto it’s side to present the belly of her vessel, thats pure Thrawn baby.)

Quote by Chuck:
As to everything after Heir being a mess, I’m afraid I can’t agree. The Thrawn series was essentially the first EU, hence the bit inside the cover. All SWEU goes through the same process and Lucas “approves” of every piece. There’s a lot of awesome history post-ROTJ. I’m enjoying the Legacy comic series, and you’ll find many fans who love the “ends” to the stories of movie-era characters.

Alot of it is good but more of it lately is becoming just plain bad. I told the Force Cast crew on a call in show that it is just getting to expensive and inversley epic. I don’t care about Jaina Solo and a bunch of space cows (excuse me, nerfs). I have been a die hard EU fan since Heir came out but over the last few months I have been growing disilusioned with it. I own virtually every EU book out there (except Young Jedi Knights) but when this new Fate of the Jedi series came out I picked up the first one and was not impressed. I bought the second book (Omen), and for the first time ever I returned a Star Wars novel to the store Without reading it. I read the first couple of pages and it was terrible. It was expensive (they are all hardback), there will be nine more of these. I could not do it.

I am done picking up everything from the EU now simply because it is Star Wars. This is why the Republic Commando thing hit hard because they are some of my favorite books. Period. Right up there with Honor Harrington.:frowning:

#9

I checked out when the Hut’s were buliding a Death star. But I got back on board a few months back and didn’t make it thru more than 12 books. I was misreable thru the task.

the EU get’s kinda crazy. I found that MOST, not all, of the authors were simply making bad high school RPG-like storys in their novels. ( hutt’s deathstar, sun crusher, the prototype deathstar in the maw, Palpatine clone comes back, then dies, then comes back, then dies, then comes back, ) they just seem very contrived and poorly paced in many cases.

There are standouts, but not as many as there are failures, or at least juvinile plots. ( I don’t mean juvinile as in being FOR kids… but plotted out by your dungeon master from 10th grade. very predictable, very lame )

BUT… the Republic Commando stuff, ( and most of the EU from clone wars era ) is pretty good. I hate that those books are going away… cause those are the good ones.

#10

I did enjoy the Legacy books. They had a pretty good story. However i probably wont be picking up the Fate of the Jedi because i hear its not great. I do hear Millennium Falcon book is really good. I also started to read the book where the Hutts were building a death star but after reading some of the dialogue in it that was really not very star warsy i put i down. But i have enjoyed many of the stand alone stories. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is really cool.

#11

As a VERY avid EU fan, I’ve been of mixed opinion over this. I really do like her books, faults and all but I’ve had an issue with how she treats Star Wars fans and canon for a while now. Seriously, calling someone a “Talifan” when they don’t agree with you? That’s something a kid would do. I loved her portrayals of the clones since I’ve loved the clones since shortly after Ep. 2 came out, but I vehemently disagreed with her portrayal of Jedi and disregard for EU canon–she stated in an interview somewhere that she had no desire to familiarize herself with it, and it’s clear in a few books where she got things very wrong.

As to the EU canon vs. G-level canon stuff, I’ve started to take an approach very much like what I’ve been led to understand Warhammer 40K does: Everything has happened, even the stuff that’s contradictory :stuck_out_tongue: I really do like watching the patches the authors put on things, it’s like seeing someone’s brain work in action. Then again, I’m probably weird.

FotJ has some really, really good parts–Han and Leia interacting with their granddaughter, Luke and Ben being all father and son, and I love seeing how it’s hurtling towards the situation the galaxy is in during the Legacy comics. But if you have a problem with too many real-world influences in Star Wars (for instance, a TMZ-like group hounding the Jedi–some find it annoying, I find it an interesting look at how an order that has only just found its feet is portrayed during peace times) then it might not be for you.

…</star wars geek mode>

#12

You should check out Death Star, it’s by the same author as the Darth Maul books. Also Dark Lord, The Rise Of Darth Vader by James Luceno is one of the few books that have come out in the last five years that seems to nail the essence of what Star Wars should be.

#13

Yea i read Death Star and really enjoyed it. I have been meaning to read TRoDV