Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe

Well, seeing as everyone else is talking about this, I might as well throw my hat into the ring.  For those who don't know, JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, the big-shots behind the new Star Wars movies, have declared the entire Expanded Universe null and void.  What is the Expanded Universe, or EU, you may ask?  Simply put, it's the large collection of novels, comic books, video games, and TV shows made for Star Wars that take place outside the events of the films themselves.  Fan debate over their quality is large, filled with rage, and often hilarious to those with a bit of sanity, but suffice it to say that there's so much of it that there is at least one part of it out there that you can probably enjoy.  If you read my blog post on Timothy Zahn's book, Survivor's Quest, then you already know that I'm fairly familiar with the EU.  As such, here's my take on what's going on.

The EU is a vast, complicated web of ideas and stories.  It's filled with lots of great things, and lots of horrible things, much like the movies themselves.  However, I do still hold a lot of love for it, and I know many other people do too.  And that's why I don't care that it got rejected from canon.

Yes, you read that right, I don't care.  It doesn't matter to me either way.  Why?  Because at the end of the day, 'canon' doesn't really matter.  Anyone can say these stories didn't happen, and they're right.  None of these happened.  The books didn't happen, the shows didn't happen, and even the movies never happened.  Does that stop these stories from existing?  No.  It just means that they have no bearing on the movies to come.  So what?  The games, the books, the shows, they're all still out there.  Their quality hasn't been affected by the fact that they're not a part of the new stories.  The effect they had on you can't be undone by simply saying they never happened, because you know what?  If you enjoyed them, then they happened for you, in your personal story.  Because a good experience, even if it has no tangible effects, still has the effect of entertaining you.  It still makes you happy.  Disney can tell me all they want about how the Thrawn Trilogy has no effect on their movies.  They can tell all the fans that The Force Unleashed is null and void.  They can shout from the heavens that Knights of the Old Republic never happened.  But they can't say the enjoyment I got out of them didn't happen.

My first video game was Knights of the Old Republic.  My Dad got it for my Mom when I was seven, and I loved watching her play it.  Once she beat it herself, she let me try the game, though she was the one manning the controls.  But I got to select my class, my dialogue, and my attacks, so essentially, I was the one calling the shots.  I loved it.  It was a unique world that I could affect in my own way, and I got to share the experience with my Mom, and we had fun together.  That's why I became a gamer in the first place.  It's why I played Mass Effect, which I now consider to be one of the greatest sci-fi franchises ever, horrible ending notwithstanding.  It's why I read the fun, elaborate, complex KOTOR comics.  It's why I discovered the rest of the EU at all.  That can't be taken away from me by words on a manuscript, or pictures flashed in front of my eyes at high speeds.  The only one who can invalidate that experience is myself, and that won't happen anytime soon.  Canon doesn't matter.  What matters is that the high-quality works of the EU are still high-quality, whether they affect the new movies are not.  The enjoyment we can have from them won't change.  The memories, entertainment, friendships, and happiness these things created are still there.  Because that's the thing about art: it's beauty lies with the beholder.