star wars superfan/erotic fanfic author das_flute has vivid childhood memories of lounging on the couch at his grandparents’ house for hours on end, enthralled by space opera. the point is that he wasn’t watching the original trilogy, he was reading the books.
yes, the books. after all, technically speaking, star wars was a book before it was a movie, as george lucas’ novelization of the original screenplay (written by alan dean foster) sold over 100,000 copies six months earlier even from the movie. he left. But Foster did more than just adapt Lucas’ script into a book, he fleshed out much of what would become the world of the franchise, from its planets to its technology to its history.
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my “almost complete” collection of starwarsbooks
more importantly, after return of the jedi hit theaters and lucas seemingly hung up his lightsaber for the foreseeable future, the books were the only new star content wars available. (hundreds of them were published). In the process, they ventured further and further out into the galaxy, creating new heroes and timelines in the Star Wars extended universe, far, far away from the most popular characters in the franchise. . but unfortunately, because they lacked an idea of what the upcoming movies might entail, they failed to gain much traction with the mainstream star wars fanbase, except for a small faction of people like das_flute who They consider themselves more fans of the books than the movies.
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Are the movie novelizations worth reading? from star wars
then, the truly unthinkable happened. In 2014, Disney bought the rights to Star Wars and, in one fell swoop, removed the books’ extended universe from canon. das_flute and his ilk not only lost all hope that their favorite star wars novels would be adapted into movies, but those stories were suddenly stripped of whatever relevance they had, or would have, to future movies. star wars stories. not that it was something new. “Books are, and always have been, seen as much less ‘important’ than movies,” das_flute tells me. “But I think that’s what makes them better. they are allowed more depth and freedom to tackle topics and stories that would not be touched on in a movie.”
struggling to consider what is not a movie as canon: starwarsbooks advice needed
The 16-year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace, says das_flute, was “the golden age of books.” “Without any other star wars media being produced, main stories were being told. but that was the last time the books seemed to ‘matter’ as much as the movies.”
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For better or worse, another long drought of star wars content isn’t happening any time soon. “disney is clearly trying to make the star wars universe a copy of the marvel cinematic universe, and once again, the books are relegated to filling in the blanks of stories that already exist ”, continues das_flute. Disney alone is making so many new shows and movies that also fill in the blanks, so now the books are even less important.
the expanded universe is better than the star wars movies. from star warseu
And so, as always, fans of the star wars books remain the underdogs. “Ultimately, the books enhance the enjoyment of the movies,” says das_flute, adding that he knows “a lot, a lot of people” who love the revenge of the sith novelizations and the last jedi despite hating the movies. So if future movies or miniseries leave you confused or seem to be skipping details, venture into the expanded universe. It will give answers to questions you didn’t know you had and add depth to things you didn’t know were missing.”
may the literary force be with you.
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