Fandom Apocalypse?

EUC Staff Joined: 15 Sep 2010 Posts: 1137 Location: Kansas

I don't have an apocalypse, just a tiny fire I need someone to douse water on. Hearing fans complain about other fans is draining. We're all adults here. I think that should be enough for us to solve our problems within the fandom without villainizing others who simply disagree with us.

To people who posted here before, has your opinion changed at all?
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Observation: Life would be cooler if everyone spoke like HK-47.

Communications Coordinator at EUCantina.

My only gripes with Star Wars right now is that they canceled TCW and shelved Detours. Otherwise, I'm happy with the books and comics.
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Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4434 Location: Korriban

I've honestly just resigned myself to the fact that since things are getting cancelled I'll probably just see my EU that I'm invested in go away and I'll just see how the new continuity (if there is one) goes.
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Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

Honestly, I don't have that much interest in Star Wars right now. The recent books haven't interested me (there were a few releases I had been looking forward to, but it's hard to be into the EU right now, knowing that it will likely be tossed pretty soon) and the canon wars/politics have turned me off. We'll see what happens with the new movies.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Master Joined: 21 Mar 2010 Posts: 816 Location: Maryland

I will always love Star Wars.

In many ways, my interest in the product has never been higher. I'm all caught up on the books, and eagerly looking forward to the next release. This summer, Legacy and KOTOR will start being collected in Omnibus format, and I can finally enjoy two of the most critically acclaimed Star Wars comics that I've never read and know virtually nothing about. When it comes to EU consumption, life is awesome.

That said, I no longer feel as though I have anyone to share my love of this stuff with. My sense of community with the Star Wars fandom no longer exists.

Knight Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 436

Yeah, I'm getting tired of all the bashing, too. It's really gotten ugly. Someone jumped on me on the TF.N boards, accusing me of being apathetic about the state of the EU and continuity. Maybe I did come across that way a little bit.

Here's my post from the TFN Television thread:

All of you that are saying Disney is destroying SW, the ST will suck, ect. need to CHILL OUT. It's only been 5 months since the announcement of the buyout and you're already bashing Disney for the cancellations and dumping on the ST when we don't even know anything about it? Geez! I agree that the constant news of cancellations are becoming tiresome, but Disney has their reasons. Personally I've never cared much for video games and wasn't too interested in Detours.

As for the biggest can of worms, TCW, really, how much longer could it have gone on without running into problems with LOE/ROTS? I freely admit that I was one of the TCW skeptics, especially regarding Maul's return after TPM. To date I haven't watched much of the show, but my perspective is changing. I'm going to watch TCW this summer while on school vacation and see how I like it. Also, if they get the CW timeline worked out to incorporate old and new stuff with minimal fuss, that's a good thing.

Regarding the ST, I'm taking a wait and see approach to see what they do with it and how it effects the post ROTJ EU instead of blindly following only one or the other. If the ST works around the EU with minimal continuity clashes and almost everything is kept, great. If some EU works are tossed out while others are kept, I'm keeping the non canon works AND buying the ST anyway. If the entire EU is wiped out, same thing.

My point is, quit making a mountain out of a molehill and don't judge so rashly; no one knows precisly what Disney has planned for the future.

The reply I got:

@Skywalker8921 I think your comment is a little bit presumptuous. Given that Disney are currently cancelling everything, this is the sort of reaction to be expected. Would you rather people didn't care? I recommend waiting to see what Disney has in store for us, but I'm not surprised by the reaction.

Secondly, just because you didn't like 1313 or Detours doesn't mean others didn't, and to have 3 or 4 projects cancelled is worse than 1 or 2. Personally, I didn't care for Detours, but I know others were looking forward to it, and you can't expect people to be apathetic just because you are.

The third paragraph is apathy at it's finest - you're basically saying however it goes down, you don't care, you'll keep buying new stuff. I'm undecided as to my reaction to the ST vs. EU outcome, but I know I won't be reacting the same to each potential outcome.

I agree with you, I'm waiting to see what Disney has in store. But you can't expect everyone to do so. Humans tend to focus on the "now", rather than the "two years time".

my follow up reply (note: my usage of "friend" was something I should nMt have done in the manner I did: I was exasperated and tired and let my courtesy slip.):

Presumptous, 07jonesj? Look, I'm sorry, but I think some people are overreacting, badly. I understand that having so many projects canceled at once can gobsmack people; it does me too. But there's absolutely no need to bad mouth Disney for that or trash talking about the ST and predicting it'll be a failure, because Disney is not going to bow to the fans' whims on everything just because the fans want the EU preserved.

Secondly, who are you to call me apathetic? That's a very strong assumption to make, "friend." I'm not apathetic, I can assure you. I won't be very happy if the post ROTJ EU is wiped out by the ST, but should I let that stop me from enjoying either those books or the new movies and their tie-ins? Or worse, should I whine about it like so many other people seem to be doing? They're focusing too much on the negatives and not on the positives. Ever heard the saying, "Every dark cloud has a silver lining?"

I think Brian at Tosche station was spot on in an earlier post: both the movie and EU purists need to relaize that the universe is changing and it won't go away. They can stick to what they like and skip what they don't like.

Odd that I don't see that as fan bashing, but maybe just because I'm a h8er.

It's more of an entrenched issue that occurs whenever any event happens that created a schism among fans dating back to the original creation of the EU.

In other words:

*H8er bashes on Disney.

*SW loyalist defends Disney.

*H8er bashes on SWL for defending Disney.

*SWL complains about fan bashing.

I hate Disney for the way they run their company the same way I hated Lucas for the prequels and TCW. But I don't hate SW or loyalist fans. I just don't feel like my SW fandom means defending it no matter what. Other people who feel that way feel defensive because they feel like loyalists are questioning their fandom, but that is mostly just people on both sides projecting.
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They have taken the hearts and minds of our leaders. They have recruited the rich and the powerful, and they have blinded us to the truth! Our human spirit is corrupted. Why do we worship greed? Because, outside the limit of our sight, feeding off us, perched on top of us from birth to death are OUR OWNERS. They have us! They control us! They are our masters! Wake up! They’re all about you, all around you!

Here's where I am now: I'm going to continue to follow the post-RotJ timeline (e.g. Crucible, the "Sword of the Jedi" trilogy), but otherwise I'm giving the EU a break (though there are exceptions to this; I'll read anything Kemp or Stover writes just for the sake of a good story). No more reading every book that gets released. I'm also not going to be doing any re-reading. This means that the one and only SWEU book I'll be reading in 2013 will be Crucible. This is pretty much where I've been the last year or so anyway, but now it's official. Reading books is time consuming and there are other books and other things that I would rather devote my time to.

I'll look ahead to the new films with curiosity and see what happens. If there was ever a good time to take a break from the EU and still be a part of the fandom, it's now. If the EU miraculously survives intact, I might get interested in it again. And if the EU is rebooted, I really don't think I'll bother with it.
_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

I've read one new Star Wars novel in the past year, and honestly feel better about Star Wars when I'm revisiting old stuff that I haven't read in years, or at all, than the new stuff. I can count on one hand the new novel releases in the past decade that I think are truly worth re-reading, or that I would recommend to someone else to read. (seriously)

The only Star Wars fiction I've read in 2013 is a piece of short fiction by Daniel Keys Moran about two months ago that was published in 1996. It's one of the best pieces of fiction written in SW alongside Traitor and Revenge of the Sith.

I was raised with the idea that if you think someone in a position of perceived power is screwing something up, let them know what you think of them. It won't make you popular, and they can (often do) make life heck for the trouble, but for me, it's always been worth it.

I feel much the same way about the regular literary "classics" as you do (apparently) about recent SW, Reep.

Some of the most dreary\dull\etc books of all time were written about and\or during some of the most exciting\interesting events of human history, from the United States' Civil War to WWII.

I noticed the continuity slips in SW since the late 1990s, but they just didn't really bother me until they started creating big slips, seemingly because of Lucas having a bit of an ego issue\power lust after so long away from the wheel, with TCW.
I will grant that the books that supposedly happened after NJO are a mess (with a few exceptions), and the most recent Clone Wars tv series, with at least one episode a season, made that mess into a disaster area.

I did think that the portrayal of Mandalorians in their last few eps was well done. All portrayals up to that point in the series seemed to contradict, with Lucas' apparent blessing, the way that they were ALWAYS shown before that, including in the movies. I'll admit that I found His seeming inclination in CW to approve of stomping the EU into the dirt every chance he had to be exceedingly annoying, myself.

That line between finding something exceedingly annoying and being p!$$ed off would have to be crossed before I'd consider giving up entirely. I've asked myself over and over again the last few years: what would I do differently if I owned the franchise, and come up with many different answers, all of which are equally critical of the direction taken.

I didn't have a problem with the prequels, or the books\games\other pertaining to them. I didn't even mind Jar Jar, although I was the general minimum age of many of the haters when the character was introduced.

Other fans can say "Mr. Lucas' ideas in SW were absolutely perfect, because he created it," but that simple-minded, ideal Jedi-esque acceptance has always eluded me by design, the same as it did with Anakin Skywalker and many other more rebellious Jedi in the Order.

I think they're a lot smarter in many ways than those, like Knight\Master\Council member Obi-Wan, who thought the Councils throughout the story(-ies) told under the Star Wars banner were perfect.

I've always believed that the continuity of Star Wars shouldn't be based on a "this format is better than that one" attitude that Lucas has seemed to take for a long time. Instead, I thought it should be first come= first served, "This book came out before that show (for example), so the book takes continuity priority."

Hopefully, under Disney, SW can make a comeback to how it was for many more of us between the release of special edition OT and PT.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1846

Technically if we adopt the "first come, first served" attitude, then the Mandalorians were extinct at the conclusion of the Clone Wars with the last survivors being Fenn Shysa, Tobin Dala, and Boba Fett, per Marvel Star Wars #68. But if we disregard Marvel Star Wars as S-canon (or whatever), then Boba Fett isn't a Mandalorian at all, as established by the 90s EU in which he's just a bounty hunter that wears Mandalorian armor, but had a thoroughly established history that didn't involve the Mandalorians at all.

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