Philotic Web

I've changed my mind, Brad Bird is my number one choice as director

Rian Johnson is number 2.

They've confirmed the Zahn trilogy will not be adapted and that it will be an all new story

As far as the EU, I think they might lift some EU-ness--the way that George lifted stuff like Coruscant from the EU. So I think some continuity will be maintained, we'll still have an Anakin, Jacen and Jaina--especially as they're great candidates to take over 2/3 of the new story. With Old luke and Cranky Han/Leia as 1/3 of the story.

whether or not we'll keep Mara Jade is another matter entirely, that's a difficult story to explain.

Also the EU-ness of having Jedi marry doesn't exactly square with the prequel trilogy Jedi-don't-love storyline.

I think they might try and squeeze the story in between the Zahn duology and NJO? I'm not really sure on the timeline, but I figure they have to age the characters at LEAST 25 years, maybe they go for 30 years and skip over the NJO?

If they wind up going with two 'timelines' the NJO could easily be an alt-universe Star Wars, and have the divergence point be the movies or NJO, this would split the difference of canon and EU, be able to incorporate a big chunk of EU ala Coruscant but not interfere with the timeline too much.

I mean, hell, they managed to figure out a way to 'square' the EU trilogy with the White Currant and Luke's Mother with the prequel trilogy and they managed to figure out a way to get Splinter of the Mind's Eye to work somehow, so I imagine the canon-lords and gods-of-timeline will figure something out.

Regardless, everything in the movies stays at a L-Canon level that overrules all the other canon tiers.

never seen the original trilogy, was forced to watch episode one.

I'm so so so sorry.

Oh. My. Gosh. He LIT UP. I've never seen him that excited over a toy. Obviously, he's too young for it,

Quite right too, Jedi training doesn't begin until 3 years old, and it takes several years before the younglings begin combat training and get their first training lightsaber.


I remember my little brother running up to the TV and punching Darth Vader in the face the first time he watched Star Wars. Probably 3.5 or 4.

They've confirmed the Zahn trilogy will not be adapted and that it will be an all new story

Do you have a linky?

Also the EU-ness of having Jedi marry doesn't exactly square with the prequel trilogy Jedi-don't-love storyline.

That could be explained pretty quickly as one of Luke's decisions in founding the new order.

I think they might try and squeeze the story in between the Zahn duology and NJO? I'm not really sure on the timeline, but I figure they have to age the characters at LEAST 25 years, maybe they go for 30 years and skip over the NJO?

If they wind up going with two 'timelines' the NJO could easily be an alt-universe Star Wars, and have the divergence point be the movies or NJO, this would split the difference of canon and EU, be able to incorporate a big chunk of EU ala Coruscant but not interfere with the timeline too much.

If they had to split, preferably between the Zahn duology and NJO? After NJO would leave a lot of characters dead with a ton of backstory to work in. After the original movies would be too upsetting for me to handle.

Regardless, everything in the movies stays at a L-Canon level that overrules all the other canon tiers.

Sure, but how often has it ever contradicted anything in T-Canon or C-Canon? And now that Lucas is out of the picture and it's a team effort across the board, there should be no reason not to collapse at least the top three tiers of canon.

Also the EU-ness of having Jedi marry doesn't exactly square with the prequel trilogy Jedi-don't-love storyline.

That could be explained pretty quickly as one of Luke's decisions in founding the new order.

Yeah, this has been addressed in the EU. Luke founded a New Jedi Order. Emphasis on the new. The Old Jedi Order fell not just because of Sith plotting, but because over the centuries they became complacent, and bogged down by dogma and tradition. Luke's Order discarded many of the isolationist and dehumanizing elements of the jedi, including the prohibition of marriage, and taking kids barely out of diapers from their families to be trained.

Of course, that's the "retconned" explanation, as much of the EU material was written before the prequels came out, so the authors didn't know that jedi weren't supposed to have families, but it makes sense nonetheless.

In any case, even before this whole Disney thing happened, I've always had mixed feelings about a much speculated sequel trilogy. I find it very unlikely that they will make an effort to maintain EU continuity. It's too restricting, and probably 95% of Star Wars fans, even some pretty hardcore ones, are only familiar with the movies anyway.

For those of us in the 5%, while sequels will continue the story of the films that we love and they represent a very exciting prospect, they will almost certainly be a total reboot of a VERY big part of the saga.

For those of us in the 5%, while sequels will continue the story of the films that we love and they represent a very exciting prospect, they will almost certainly be a total reboot of a VERY big part of the saga.

Which is frustrating when you have invested as much or more time and emotional energy in the part that is being thrown away. Thrawn, Mara Jade, and the rest of them have been part of Star Wars canon longer than the prequel trilogy has.

You're preaching to the choir, dude...



And I've gained a few more volumes since this pic.

ETA:
My copies of the Jedi Academy Trilogy and Darksaber are even autographed and personalized by Kevin J. Anderson.

But they won't be thrown away! They'll still be there, waiting to be read and enjoyed.

I think you're all missing the point that now it's a possibility to make "Muppet Star Wars." Talk about epic!

My copies of the Jedi Academy Trilogy and Darksaber are even autographed and personalized by Kevin J. Anderson.

I'm jealous. On the other hand, Michael Stackpole is a Vermonter.

But they won't be thrown away! They'll still be there, waiting to be read and enjoyed.

Ender's Game novels won't all be thrown away if Boothby's worst case scenario of a musical crossed with a kung fu movie comes to pass, but it won't be anything that we fans want to see, or that would lead other people to read Ender's Game.

apparently GL met with Carrie Fischer and Mark Hammil in July to discuss Episodes 7-9.

But they won't be thrown away! They'll still be there, waiting to be read and enjoyed.

I understand that, and I've made that point to other EU fans who are more upset at the prospect than I am. But it won't be the same knowing that these stories simply don't count within the larger mythos anymore. I know that in the strictest sense of canon only the movies are untouchable, but for most of my life, in my mind, after "Return of the Jedi" Han and Leia get married and have 3 kids, and Luke founds a New Jedi Order before marrying and having a son himself.

It will be strange, to say the least, after all these years for someone to come and say, "that whole world that you watched being built story by story over the last 16 years of your life... the world that introduced you to sci fi literature and online message boards... we're going to start it over from scratch and pretend like it never happened."

But they won't be thrown away! They'll still be there, waiting to be read and enjoyed.

I understand that, and I've made that point to other EU fans who are more upset at the prospect than I am. But it won't be the same knowing that these stories simply don't count within the larger mythos anymore. I know that in the strictest sense of canon only the movies are untouchable, but for most of my life, in my mind, after "Return of the Jedi" Han and Leia get married and have 3 kids, and Luke founds a New Jedi Order before marrying and having a son himself.

It will be strange, to say the least, after all these years for someone to come and say, "that whole world that you watched being built story by story over the last 16 years of your life... the world that introduced you to sci fi literature and online message boards... we're going to start it over from scratch and pretend like it never happened."

(but more like 10 years, here).

I've been reading summaries of the end of NJO and the post-NJO books.

I am blown away that the characters from the 'throwaway' books Young Jedi Knights and Jr. Jedi Knights were retained and so f****** crucial to all the things that followed. I must have read like thirty books from those two series when I was young, wow, they actually mattered.

I think after a lot of review, that Episode VII should be set 20-25 years ABY, and set at roughly the same timeframe as the Hand of Thrawn duology. This would establish an important divergent point, where you could retain the EU in between ROTJ and Ep VII and have a parallel universe timeline that is equally valid. That's a good place to put it, because Luke and Mara had arguably not sealed their relationship up until this series of books, and it's important because it would retain the Solo kids, but not really invalidate any of their character development/worlds/companions from the 30ish books about them that are pre-NJO. This way you don't have these characters tied to anyone but their families, there's no angsty-ness over Tenal Ka or Tahiri. As the twins would be about the age of Luke in ANH, this is a good age for the movie to take over and continue the arc of the first three movies as the kids and their hermit-uncle Luke begin their new adventures. Presumably the overall part of this story would be the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, as the Eps 1-3 are the rise of Anakin, eps 4-6 are the fall of Anakin and eps 7-9 would be the redemption of his name. :-p

This is unrelated to new movie issues.


Today in E&M, my professor looked like a vaguely-hipster Obi Wan Kenobi and kept saying things like "have patience, this will show you the force", and holding his dry erase marker in a way as to be suggestive of those "come-at-me-bro" lightsaber-pointed-down-like-a-fencer hero poses the new Star Wars media have been so fond of. Best part is, I'm pretty sure this was all unintentional.

Rumor has it that it may very well be Matthew Vaughn, as I hoped for up there -^

Someone on the internet half-jokingly suggested VII should be about Kyle Katarn.

Someone else seriously suggested Wil Wheaton should play him.

I don't exactly dislike Wil, and watching TNG is definitely helping endear him to me, but that is a horrible pairing.

I hope you guys will understand my pain.

I picked up a Darth Vader costume on clearance for Brayden as a Christmas present. He's gonna love it. That boys spends the majority of his constantly humming the Imperial March as he goes about his activities for the day. It's pretty cute.

There will be no Brad Bird. Moment of silence.

George Lucas Will Use Disney $4 Billion to Fund Education

First he creates Star Wars, now this. Can George Lucas be any more awesome?

I want one. (It would go with my Chewbacca and and Yoda mugs.)

I've been introducing my just-turned-3-year-old girl (February 18th was her third birthday!) to Star Wars, bit by bit.

I weaned her in with YouTubed episodes of the old 80's DROIDS cartoon - which made her a fan of R2-D2 and C-3PO. From then on, she was excited to watch A NEW HOPE, because Artoo and Threepio were in it.

A few weeks ago, we finally watched ANH. Her reaction at the end: "I think...this is a good movie."
The next day, we had her recap what she watched:



For Valentine's Day, I finally opened up my 1995 Power of the Force R2D2 and C3PO figures, and gave them to her. She carries them with her everywhere, and had them read books. She has perfected the "Artoo Scream".



So yesterday, she watched ESB. Her responses were awesome.
When I asked what she thought of it at the end, she said, "That was... fantastic."
When Vader revealed his paternity, it spawned a discussion. "Vader is luke's daddy? No he's not. He is?! Oooooh. I never knew that!"
"Where is Yoda taking Luke?" "To his home" "Oh. To meet Yoda's mommy and daddy?"
She talks all the time now about Threepio getting blown up by the storm troopers, and Chewbacca fixing him.
She also runs around now making Vader breathing noises, and saying, "No. I am your Father.", and then making me scream, "Nooooooooo!" - she then has us reverse it, and she screams "Nooooooooooo!".

Between movies, she's been watching the Ewoks cartoon, and the Ewoks movies. To get her prepped for ROTJ.

I have the coolest 3-year-old girl ever.

Yea you do.

I think this gives me a whole new reason to have children.

I have the coolest 3-year-old girl ever.

Yes. You really do.

Ewoks movies

These were my favorite movies growing up. I still remember all the commercials, because Dad recorded the whole thing through when it originally aired on ABC. (Keep the hot hot! Keep the cool cool! McD.. LT!)

Anne and Star Wars update - Last week, we watched Return of the Jedi. Her one-word review: "Hilarious". The scariest part for her? The fact that Yoda died of Old Age. Another observation: "Oh! So Anakin was just hiding in the Darth Vader costume this whole time!"

And then we watched Episode 1 this morning. When it ended, she immediately wrapped her blanket around herself like a cloak, declared herself Darth Maul, and started doing lightsaber acrobatics. We tried to convince her to be a good guy. Maybe Obi-Wan? Instead, she chooses a Battle Droid ("Hey! Their batteries ran out!"). Eventually, we convinced her Queen Amidala is also pretty cool. When she's shooting battle droids.

Dave, we need more Star Wars wisdom from Anne!

It's fun to listen to Brayden while he sits on the toilet. He usually sings the Imperial March. The other day, he sat in there chanting "I do, I Do, I DO believe in Star Wars!" When he came out, he told me "Mom, I believe in Star Wars. I know it's not just a story. It's REAL!"

Steph, that's amazing. I hope my kids are like that.

unrelated to Star Wars, but I want to know what happens when Anne watches studio ghibli movies.

You'll be hearing the totoro song for a long time, is my guess

I'm not a huge star wars fan (not the way I am with Ender anyways...) but I felt obligated to post here since star wars is part of our families history in a way. My dad used to work for Lucas Arts designing starwars games and can recite every line of the first 3 movies from memory. I was totally touched by the video because I think my dad would have loved to see me do that. So sorry to my father that I was never a huge star wars fan and at least you can be glad that I am a Enders fan

So, I learned yesterday that one of my wife's coworkers (mid-20s) has never seen Star Wars.

That just blows my mind.

*cough*... It's not that uncommon...

Yesterday, we picked up Star Wars Lego: The Empire Strikes Out. It was $7.50 and came with a Darth Vader Minifigure.

The boys have watched it several times since then (it's only 20 min long) and it has me rolling with laughter! It's so funny! Very well done, in my opinion.

There is one part when R2 and 3PO show a bunch of fan-girls a picture of what Darth Vader looks like under his helmet. (A picture of Hayden Christensen.) Tyler thought it was Justin Beiber.