a lot of franchises over the years outside of comics have had multiverses, though.
if necessary, the book could come with some kind of disclaimer saying it takes place in an alternate continuity, and that could be part of the marketing anyways.
i understand the concern that it might be a little confusing for newer readers, but the concept of multiple universes isn't that hard to grasp.
edited 9th Jan '16 10:34:59 PM by wehrmacht
Legends is best to be left alone. Well, the post Rotj stuff, I don't really know enough about the Old Republic stuff to judge it, 'tho what I do know doesn't inspire much trust. However New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi were everything claimed to be wrong with the prequels up to eleven. Like seriously, who would ever think it's a good idea to write Luke freaking Skywalker utter the line "Compassion is for those who deserve it", or have him as the mastermind of thousands of highly public assasinations??? Christie Golden and Troy Denning respectively, of course. And sadly, both are allowed to work in the new canon... You know what? I take it back. Let them continue Legends, and leave the new canon to authors who can actually write Star Wars.
edited 10th Jan '16 12:28:52 AM by Werebazs
Yep. Luke has softer features though whereas Anakin looks dark and broody.
Appropriate.
There's also some shots in Mustafar in his final battle against Obi Wan where he looks almost exactly like an evil Luke Skywalker. Here.
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edited 10th Jan '16 1:47:57 AM by MadSkillz
The problem with extended universes and Multiverses and those types of things is that the priority of the universe in relation to its individual stories almost always begins to skew the wrong way.
Ideally, the extended universe is supposed to support and greater insight to the "main thing" it spawned from (in SW's case the original trilogy.) Inevitably, this gives way to stories that aren't really connected to the "main thing" but still provide more context to the universe, which isn't bad into of itself but eventually leads to people focusing more on the universe than the stories. People write stuff not with creating a good story as their first priority, but with adding such-and-such a THING to the universe. People stop focusing on stories and start focusing solely on world-building, which inevitably leaves only the most die hard of fans to give a shit about the entire life and times of some minor background extra carrying a box. There's this tendency for fandoms to thing bigger is better and assume that creating spawning universes for every godaamn thing must make it better when in really it usually adds pointless cruft to a lean and mean central story.
Compund this with the usual problems of having too many cooks in the kitchen and you end up with most extended universes resulting in mostly pointless world-building for the sake of world-building with a few diamonds in the rough.
Frankly I would've pulled the trigger on The Clone War's status as canon during the Order 66ing of the EU since I'd call it a prime example of the problem with extended universes.
edited 10th Jan '16 2:21:33 AM by RoboZombie
Awful idea because unless SW was going to re-make the Clone Wars, it gave greater insight and context to the PT which is just as important as the OT.
Also it fleshes Anakin out in good ways as well as Obi Wan. We like actually see them being friends.
( Also I love Ahsoka.)
edited 10th Jan '16 2:27:05 AM by MadSkillz
See, that is why when people say "George didn't care" I scoff. George Lucas had a great eye for detail. He understood the characters look, motivations, etc. What George tried to do was juxtapose two stories, one where the hero went down the righteous path, and one where the hero went down the evil path.
How successful he was at either is up to the person watching. But he had a clear vision for the story.
What I hope with these new movies is that they find the medium between the total cynicism of the prequels and the total optimism of the original trilogy. I doubt that'll happen but that's how it is.
@7932
: I can't believe I never noticed how 70's Luke's hair is until just now.
i posted about this earlier but i think a sith realizing how horrible they are and going through a redemption arc would make a pretty good story, and apparently even with the EU it's unexplored territory.
in the end he realizes that neither the jedi or sith is the right path for him/her so he just walks his own.
They shouldn't split their attention like that. They need to keep the old "we're preparing for a bigger threat out there" thing dead, get the better authors of the old verse back in, and have them write for the new one. And they need to keep each series in the hands of one author or a duo who work well together. Otherwise they get more competing stories that don't need to be told.
I can't say too much against Christie Golden. I liked her Starcraft stories and considering one of the early ideas of the franchise was Luke falling to the dark side, it's not actually entirely unacceptable that he'd lose his optimistic farmboy-turned-savior aspect. Hell, if what we know from the new verse is anything to go by, he DID lose that. Hard.
I thought anyone could write and publish a Star Wars novel.
I mean, how I thought it worked was a writer wants to write a Star Wars book, they contact Disney for the okay, and then they can just publish it.
If they want it to be part of canon, Disney has to deliberate with them, but otherwise they can write whatever they want.

For a while.
Before it imploded under the weight of its own suckiness last year.
...maybe not the best metaphor, yeah.
edited 9th Jan '16 10:15:41 PM by HamburgerTime