It's a good thing none of us here expects it to always be neat and consistent then.

The way people on here talk about it sounds like everyone expects the NewCanon to remain totally consistent. Everyone is going on and on about how Disney's story group is doing something different than was done with the EU, when really the EU had continuity oversight as well and still went off the rails.

You assume a lot about what I am thinking. That's annoying as we do not know one another in any way outside of the posts on these forums.

The only way I'm looking at it is that there was inconsistencies that required a five tier canon to be created to fix the issues in the past. With Disney cutting out the majority of previous canon, it allows the story group an easier time of keeping all the new stories consistent and free of continuity errors.

Sorry if I've offended - my assumptions simple stem from what you've said and the fact that I've never seen anyone who's actually read the EU in more detail say that it's a convoluted mess. I get that it's daunting, sure. But where you see a daunting universe and no clear jump-in point - I see boundless riches. I see a universe that so full of different things, of different stories. There's games, novels, tabletop stuff, comics. There's horror, comedy, grand-scale space opera or pure pulp adventures. There's military novels and jedi novels, there's books about starfighter pilots and smugglers, about imperial agents and sith. It's not a daunting task - it's exciting how much stuff there is. If you're unsure where to start - there's a million and one smartasses like myself who would be more than happy to help. You just have to ask, dude You've tried the Marvel comics - those are badly written and drawn, as far as I've heard. Dark Horse has always been the go-to comics brand for Star Wars, anyone can tell you that. Try the X-Wing comic books, for example - or the X-Wing novels, for that matter. Considering the message board we're on - you'll like those Just ask people where to start

Cause, here's the thing. Lord of the rings has 50 years of story behind it. Would you reset that ? My favourite author of all time - Terry Pratchett - has around 50 or 60 books in his Discworld series, published over a period of 30 years. Should we scrap them and start anew, because they all have (vaguely) connected storylines and the continuity is weird ? How many times have DC & Marvel attempted to reboot their series ? Hell, if you want a convoluted continuity - Marvel has like a thousand alternative version of Earths. You have Ultimates, regulars, the MCU, a billion comic universes in paralel. Like, I had no idea where to start reading Marvel. So I jumped on a message board and started digging - and having read Civil War, House of M and Age of Ultron based on recommendations - I'm happy for it

I do get it - it's a hassle. I prefer the MCU in Marvel, for example, because I know what's going on and I have some idea of the background continuity, but I know that me not knowing the details isn't bad. It's much easier this way. Presumably you want the same thing with Star Wars - with the reboot you'll be able to start with everyone else from the beginning. And maybe 30 years down the line, when they reboot it again - you'll be in the same boat as me But if you haven't read it - don't say that the EU is a mess, that it's full of contradictions and different canon tiers Personal choice is one thing - but outright throwing the EU under the bus is silly when you don't know what it can offer

Actually I would do away with the Silmarillion. It's incredibly boring and unnecessary to document the entire history of Middle Earth. To me, it ruins the mystery and interest I had in wizards like Gandalf, lessens the real victory feel of Return of the King when you find out that Sauron not only wasn't the baddest of the badguys but he's somehow immortal and had been defeated like 3 times previously to The Lord of the Rings.

DC also has a multiverse except they actually use that as a plot device whereas Marvel just uses it to keep certain stories that seem non-canon out of the official universe and Earth 616. I feel like DC uses their multiverse a bit too much in their cosmic level events but it still makes things interesting when they bring all these crazy versions of their heroes and villains together.

If I read Marvel or DC comics, I'm often reading the comic events on Marvel Unlimited or reading some DC events though after 60 of the 100+ issues of Civil War I got burned out on that as it drags on too long.

I've certainly read enough to recognize that there's flaws to having hundreds of writers take on one IP and attempt to keep things on the same level, it's what happens with comics all the time. I'm happy that for now they have shortened the list to a story group of individuals that collaborate with one another to keep things working smoothly.

I know there are things in the EU that are genuinely cool and hope just like anyone else they are somehow put in the new movies but I'm not naive, they made it all Legends so they weren't constrained to telling stories that people have been reading for the last 30 years (also because money). Then again, Star Wars Rebels is pretty much a different take on the Original Trilogy so far, so not much difference.

It's so funny when people assume the EU began out of the blue with he Thrawn trilogy. Marvel comics and several novels in the 70's and 80's as well as other materials (WEG being the bulk, not with 2 whole freaking TV series and 4 TV movies/specials) didnt deserve to just be thrown away in favor of the 'writer of the month' and the bloated multimedia projects simply because they were 'old'. They might deserve it on content, but they simply shouldn't be ignored without acknowledgment, especially the Radio Dramas which included ALOT that has been incorporated into nearly every bit of canon since. If you weep for that stack of paperbacks gathering dust you should also weep for those stacks of comics gathering value since the 70s.

EU is EU. Dark side and all.

For me, the magic of star wars was in the universe without a constant timeline - the only things truly canon were the movies - everything else was a "this could be, this could have been" - and it fuelled multiple RPGs - and still does - the theme, the universe, was alive with possibility.

The mythos was huge because the galaxy was huge - the conflicts in story or events were in the retelling through others - some heard the story one way, others a different way - but there was no all seeing eye capturing events in a single timeline - it was gritty, and fabled, and you had to choose what you believed, what you kept, what that meant to you - now it feels partially sterilized and has lost that "star wars is what you make it" magic.

The problem with the EU is you had so many authors telling the stories *they* wanted to tell regardless of how it fit in and conflicted with other stories. Zahn came out with the first real boost with new, well thought out stories (ok...Luuke excluded) and then you had Kevin J Anderson who came in and drop a deuce on everything. Suncrusher? Boba Fett is an ex-cop who stole the armor? IG-88 the "brain" of the second Death Star? F that guy. It became an arms race to have the biggest superweapon of the week and became so diluted. As much as it kills me to lose Thrawn, Mara, Cade and Revan, Chewie's not crushed by a moon (?), there's no giant intelligent planet flying around or magic space lizards.

Lucas had the idea of do whatever you want but I can always retell it the way I want. Disney is saying *everything* coming out is part of a larger puzzle so if you read a comic, go on a ride, watch a movie or play a game, it's all the real deal. None of that its good until we decide better crap.