I loved Labyrinth of Evil. Luceno is so good as prequels. Cloak of Deception was a great prequel to TPM. I haven't read Catalyst (prequel to Rogue One) but I've heard a lot of praise for that one as well.
Labyrinth of Evil and the ROTS novel are both excellent and work really well together.
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader was a good follow-up as well.
Those novels did a better job of developing Anakin (and Obi-Wan) than the entirety of The Clone Wars.It is a bit upsetting that the great work by James Luceno and Matt Stover trying to deepen the characterization of Anakin Skywalker and his transformation to Darth Vader has been excluded as non-canon.
Those novels did a better job of developing Anakin (and Obi-Wan) than the entirety of The Clone Wars.
They're the only novels I've rebought for my iPhone/iPad and reread.
but what was their reasoning for the PT era EU? It doesn't make sense to erase super important novels that fix a lot of the flaws of the prequel films.
I thought that was decided before Disney bought the company and early on during The Clone Wars.I guess I can understand why Disney chose to cut off the post-episode 6 EU because of the ST, but what was their reasoning for the PT era EU? It doesn't make sense to erase super important novels that fix a lot of the flaws of the prequel films.
I don't know how this aligns with the way current Old Republic canon is set up, but an interesting thing to potentially come out of the High Republic stuff would be watching the Jedi's transition into that hubris mindset. At some point complacency crept in and made these guys oblivious to what was happening under their feet, and it would be cool to integrate that into some future movie's (or some other thing's) story. By the time the PT began that hubris was already a fait accompli but the Jedi couldn't have always been shit.
I thought that was decided before Disney bought the company and early on during The Clone Wars.
And the ROTS novel was always a lower canon than the movie anyway.
Because they want to do things in that time period too.
They can't just pick and choose which novels and comics are canon because everyone has a favorite and it becomes extremely confusing to the general audience. "We got rid of everything" is more easy to explain.
I thought that was decided before Disney bought the company and early on during The Clone Wars.
And the ROTS novel was always a lower canon than the movie anyway.
Because they want to do things in that time period too.
They can't just pick and choose which novels and comics are canon because everyone has a favorite and it becomes extremely confusing to the general audience. "We got rid of everything" is more easy to explain.
I thought that was decided before Disney bought the company and early on during The Clone Wars.
And the ROTS novel was always a lower canon than the movie anyway.
But @Drewton could you link something from back in the Lucas days that stated that Clone Wars negated the EU in between AOTC and ROTS? Just curious to see what went down back then.
Filoni basically said the microseries was non-canon back in 2008:It would've been easier to just have the usual approach that was previously established: that whatever happens in the EU, let's say Labyrinth of Evil, remains valid until negated or disproven by a subsequent entry. Then they could've just easily disregard what takes place in Labyrinth of Evil if they ever wanted to tell a story set right before ROTS begins.
But Drewton could you link something from back in the Lucas days that stated that Clone Wars negated the EU in between AOTC and ROTS? Just curious to see what went down back then.
Apparently Lucas edited the ROTS novel line-by-line so it's so weird how it came out so much better than the movie.I remember back in the old EU there was a whole canon-hierarchy. The movie adaptations were supposedly almost Lucas level canon (G-Canon) because Lucas personally selected the authors and worked with them on the books.
It would have been totally ridiculous to not give themselves that space and to be restricted by post-ROTJ stories by a bunch of different authors over decades.Yeah, people keep forgetting this but Lucasfilm was already going to erase the EU when Lucas made his own sequel trilogy.
Apparently Lucas edited the ROTS novel line-by-line so it's so weird how it came out so much better than the movie.
To me Ahsoka has never fit in naturally at all and Anakin having an apprentice never made sense.Thanks Drewton and CrichtonKicks for the elaboration. And I see that Ashoka, for instance, is a really big testament to how the TCW EU makes little sense.
However, I'd say that the same goes for the ROTS film itself, since she's entirely gone.
The Tartakovsky micro-series wasn't non-canon. It was retconned to being Holonews dramatizations of the Clone Wars, which was actually pretty smart.
That said, I think it was far superior to TCW. Just about the only thing I didn't like in it was how they wasted Durge. But it includes Asajj's introduction and the lead-in to ROTS, so it's got everything I need.
Cool that 2D animation still exists in the Star Wars galaxyThe Tartakovsky micro-series wasn't non-canon. It was retconned to being Holonews dramatizations of the Clone Wars, which was actually pretty smart.
To me Ahsoka has never fit in naturally at all and Anakin having an apprentice never made sense.
Stuff like Grievous's original backstory was better before TCW too.
Thanks Drewton and CrichtonKicks for the elaboration. And I see that Ashoka, for instance, is a really big testament to how the TCW EU makes little sense.
However, I'd say that the same goes for the ROTS film itself, since she's entirely gone. So the logic of trying to retcon TCW EU because of the television show because of new characters that they fail to mention seems a bit off.
I wish they'd just be more liberal about the lore instead of selectively erasing the stories that some of us have engaged in at the time of their release.
True, but wIth such a complicated universe like Star Wars with millions of cooks in the kitchen (and millions of consumers), I find it better to just be tolerant of contradictions and inconsistencies between different works. It makes for a healthier engagement with an interesting universe, where story A can exist at the same time as story B, despite both contradicting one another.
I mean, there's a lot of stuff we had to swallow in the prequel films, so it's more than fine for me to realize that Ahsoka exists solely because they needed a new character (and new toys and target demographics?) for the TCW television show. It was the same reason why Jango Fett and Dooku suddenly appear in AOTC, and then ROTS has Grievous.
I guess my initial point with the erasure of the well-written prequel EU was this: I just wish that its owners/creators would be just as open-minded and tolerant of inconsistencies instead of trying to establish one single coherent narrative across 40 years of corporate transmedia productions. Erasing media that fans have loved to engage with (and used their money on!) diminishes the importance of continuing engage with Star Wars media.
Ahsoka works fine IMO because they gave her an arc to have her out of the picture before ROTS.
In my perfect world we would have gotten a series of TCW episodes that run concurrently with ROTS showing the events of Order 66 with a focus on the characters from the show while also showing select re-enactments of critical scenes from the movie. I'd love to see some of the scenes with Matt Lanter's performance instead of Christensen (but not the balcony scene- nobody could salvage that).
The new TCW season will have several episodes that take place during Order 66 and the Siege of Mandalore, which they reference in The Mandalorian. We should get a reaction from Ahsoka when she feels the Jedi across the galaxy die. I doubt we'll get scenes from Revenge of the Sith but you never know. A reimagining of Palpatine fighting the Jedi Masters is actually quite possible, especially since they can splice it with Ahsoka's moments right before Order 66 goes off.
The Jedi have to fight somebody cool since we won't get any Sith.It would make sense for The High Republic movies to heavily feature the Mandalorians right?
The Jedi have to fight somebody cool since we won't get any Sith.
Maybe they could do the origin of the Darksaber?Retrofit Mandalore's story.
I got ya -- I wasn't really disagreeing with you, but I kinda like the fact that we as the audience missing the old Anakin get to share some of the same feelings that the characters themselves feel about his turn. I also like the dramatic irony of a guy known for doing his own thing, and chafing under anyone telling him what to do, ends up saying stuff like, "I must obey my master."Oh I get that, but I was wondering if anyone had hinted at those lost sides of him...like flipped the dark/light after Vader came into being. Like as Anakin, he had hints (if you count slaughtering an entire village a hint) of his dark side throughout the prequels and animated series, so I thought maybe in some of the writing someone worked in brief hints of his previous nature. It sounds like the Vader comics are worth checking out at any rate.
I will be shocked if we don't get Sith but not Sith in the High Republic. Like totally evil beings using force powers and red lightsabers but aren't technically Sith for some super picky reason. But are actually really Sith behind the scenes but the Jedi never find out so they can adhere to the line from TPM.
They could just ignore it, too. Or say, like, the Sith did come back but Yoda was forbidden to tell anyone because it would quite literally shatter any faith the Republic had in the Jedi Order and by the time Qui-Gon fought Darth Maul everyone else that had seen the Sith four hundred years ago was long dead.
Yep. If Lucasfilm thinks this period is truly the best era to explore in our next cycle of SW content they aren't going to be held back by a couple of lines in TPM.
While neither Disney nor Trevorrow have commented on the leak, we've spoken with another source who was able to independently confirm the legitimacy of the Trevorrow-Connolly script.
The Tartakovsky animations are sublime and possibly the best visual media to come out of all the prequel trilogy. I wish they'd do a bluray release.
Also, VileZero do you have a link to the retcon that it's Holonews dramatization?
Just got to season 4 of Clone Wars. Wow the animation is so much better.
I myself would be fine if we didn't see any red sabers in the High Republic.
I would hope, though, that there's a bit more color diversity in this era beyond blue & green sabers.
Pretty much. You can't establish this High Republic era where the Jedi are said to have an expanded presence in the galaxy and not have Sith. It just wouldn't make sense and you'd spend way more effort explaining why these dudes with red lightsabers and a penchant for electrocuting people with their fingers aren't Sith than if you just said they were Sith.
Although, if I'm honest, I don't know why they didn't just set this High Republic era a thousand years in the past - then Yoda wouldn't be born for a hundred years and we'd know the Sith have an active presence but at some point will be forced into hiding for a millennia. They'd have a totally blank slate to work with and could work towards a big event they know fans will love to see - the fall of the Sith. You could even have way more than a handful of Sith and whoever is left standing among them could enact the Rule of Two that allows the Sith to survive in hiding until Palpatine conquers the galaxy.
She played Leia in the TROS Luke-Leia flashback.I would love to see Billie Lourd play Leia in some way shape or form in the future.
I know.