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Yora
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 Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 1:07 pm Post subject: Are the Rebellion era and Galactic Empire underrepresented? |
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I'm working on various ideas for adventures set during the Rebellion and it ocured to me that there are actually very little in the way of major storylines that are taking place during that time in the "mainstream EU". Back in the 90s it was all about the New Republic, and then since the 2000s it all seemed to be about the Clone Wars and the years building up to it. Knights of the Old Republic also got a pretty good thing going for itself with the videogames.
The only prominent example that takes place in this time period that made a notable splash that I can think of is Shadows of the Empire.
The Marvel Comic series took place between the movies, but for some reason it went almost entirely ignored and unacknowledged when the EU really got kicked of with the RPG and the novels.
Which all seems really strange to me. The Rebellion against the Galactic Empire is the core of Star Wars from which anything else is suspended. But it's mostly the Old Republic and the Imperial Remnant that actually appear in most stories.
There seems to be a bit of a remembering of the original period in Disney Star Wars of all places, with Rogue One, Fallen Order, and Rebels. Which is a lot more than I can think of in the EU. We had plenty of Star Wars videogames in the 90s, but they weren't really much in the story department.
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Whill
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| Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 3:28 pm Post subject: Re: Are the Rebellion era and Galactic Empire underrepresent |
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| Yora wrote: | I'm working on various ideas for adventures set during the Rebellion and it ocured to me that there are actually very little in the way of major storylines that are taking place during that time in the "mainstream EU"... The only prominent example that takes place in this time period that made a notable splash that I can think of is Shadows of the Empire.
The Marvel Comic series took place between the movies, but for some reason it went almost entirely ignored and unacknowledged when the EU really got kicked of with the RPG and the novels.
Which all seems really strange to me. The Rebellion against the Galactic Empire is the core of Star Wars from which anything else is suspended. But it's mostly the Old Republic and the Imperial Remnant that actually appear in most stories.
There seems to be a bit of a remembering of the original period in Disney Star Wars of all places, with Rogue One, Fallen Order, and Rebels. Which is a lot more than I can think of in the EU. We had plenty of Star Wars videogames in the 90s, but they weren't really much in the story department. |
Although I agree that they are underrepresented in the form of adult novels, there are some novels that include a Rebellion v Empire aspect to them. I think part of the reason is because this era is chock full of continuity in general from the RPGs, comics, and youth novels. And authors may largely shy away from wanting to write for Leia, Luke, and Han due to a feeling of being constricted as far as character growth in between the films.
I'm not totally sure what you target time period here is, but I'm guessing you are going for the time from the formation of the Alliance to the Battle of Endor. I didn't bother listing all the youth novel series and comics stories, but there are many. WEG was under instructions from Lucasfilm to ignore the OG Marvel Comics series, but EU canon policy was later updated to canonize all elements of it that are not contradicted by other continuity. Dark Horse had a lot of comics taking place in this era, and Disney Marvel is back to filling in this era too.
Here is a partial list of adult Rebel/Empire novels:
6 BBY - 3 ABY
Battlefront: Twilight Company
0 ABY
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad
Heir of the Jedi
Allegiance (Zahn)
Choices of One (Zahn)
1 ABY
Honor Among Thieves
2 ABY
Splinter of the Mind's Eye
Razor's Edge
3-4 ABY
Shadows of the Empire
These all could have inspirations. Out of these books, I personally have only read Allegiance (didn't care for it), Splinter of the Mind's Eye (decent despite film-defying continuity), and Shadows of the Empire (loved it).
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_books#Rebellion_era
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_canon_books
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Yora
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Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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I had to look most of them up, and turns out they are mostly fairly recent DSW works, with the exceptions of Allegiance that was in 2007 and Splinters of the Mind's Eye which was all the way back in 1978. (Thought that one was really meh when I read it 20 years ago.)
This is really weird. Feels almost like there was an official policy to have nothing set parallel to the original movies.
For all their failings, I admire that the Story Group seems to have decided to go back to source after 35 years. (What was made out of it is a completely different story.)
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Whill
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| Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 6 BBY - 3 ABY
Battlefront: Twilight Company
0 ABY
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad
Heir of the Jedi
Allegiance (Zahn)
Choices of One (Zahn)
1 ABY
Honor Among Thieves
2 ABY
Splinter of the Mind's Eye
Razor's Edge
3-4 ABY
Shadows of the Empire |
| Yora wrote: | I had to look most of them up, and turns out they are mostly fairly recent DSW works, with the exceptions of Allegiance that was in 2007 and Splinters of the Mind's Eye which was all the way back in 1978. (Thought that one was really meh when I read it 20 years ago.)
This is really weird. Feels almost like there was an official policy to have nothing set parallel to the original movies.
For all their failings, I admire that the Story Group seems to have decided to go back to source after 35 years. (What was made out of it is a completely different story.) |
All but the first three books above are EU books, and even the later released ones were all in the works before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Heir of the Jedi was actually originally written as an EU book but hadn't been released as of the time of Disney's transition to the new Canon, so the book was tweaked and it was released as part of the new canon. It was originally conceived of as part of a set of EU novels called the Empire and Rebellion "trilogy" that each focus on one member of our classic trinity: Razor's Edge is the Leia novel, Honor Among Thieves is the Han novel, and Heir of the Jedi is the Luke novel. From our general SW Novels thread, I think garhkal said he read Heir of the Jedi.
I don't see how there was ever an official policy to have nothing set in the classic era because there was tons of the stuff set in the classic era. It was mostly comics and youth novels.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_comics
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_Legends_books
I do not know if decisions on franchise era focus are completely up to the story group, but they probably do have input. As far as Disney seeming to focus on the classic era more, a big factor would be that reboot canon freed up the era from the giant continuity mess that the era was in the EU. That is the main reason for the reboot for all eras.
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TauntaunScout
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| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:25 am Post subject: |
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| I have always (well, since 1999) felt the GCW era gets virtually ignored by the powers that be. |
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Sutehp
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| Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Yora, I'm probably going to be the odd man out here, but if you're looking for classic era works in the canon EU, you could do worse than take a look at Lost Stars. Yeah, it's a young adult novel, so others might pooh-pooh it, but I actually enjoyed reading it. Say what you will about the on-off friendship/romance between the main two characters, but the book gives a really good ground-level look at attending the Imperial Academy on Coruscant as well as a lower-deck perspective of serving in the Imperial military from the time of A New Hope on, and serving in the Rebellion from the time of the Battle of Hoth.
A number of characters serving the Empire really do think that they're on the side of justice and they offer (justified in their own minds) explanations for why they fight for the Empire.
You might find some inspiration for that era in that book.
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:41 am Post subject: |
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| Sutehp wrote: | | Yora, I'm probably going to be the odd man out here, but if you're looking for classic era works in the canon EU, you could do worse than take a look at Lost Stars. |
I really enjoyed the book, as well.
There's also a couple good junior novels... they are very light, but
Weapon of the Jedi (about Luke going to a planet after Yavin to learn about the lightsaber)
Moving Target (about Leia getting the command codes and shuttle for Endor)
Smuggler's Run (Han and Chewie post-Yavin, pre-Hoth)
and, from a different series
The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (which is ANH, but told from a close 3rd person POV of the characters... starting with Leia's version of the attack on the Tantative IV, then moving to Han, and then Luke). It fills in some details of ANH, stretches out the timeline a bit (not unreasonably, just having it be a few days v. a few hours), and really reinvigorated my interest in the series.
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Yora
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:53 am Post subject: |
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I never heard of that one either. Is it a more recent one?
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MrNexx
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 12:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Yora wrote: | | I never heard of that one either. Is it a more recent one? |
Last 5 years, I think.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25067046-lost-stars
They were mostly published in the run-up to The Force Awakens.
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Sutehp
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| Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, I was just about to post that I didn't see how much Lost Stars actually had to do with The Force Awakens...then I remembered that the climax of Lost Stars takes place at the Battle of Jakku.
Oops. 
But yeah, remember what I said above about the Imperial characters from Lost Stars justifying their service to the Empire? One of those characters is from Alderaan. It's amazing (and terrifying) to see him use Insane Troll Logic to justify staying loyal to the Empire after witnessing the destruction of his own homeworld from on board the Death Star. Open fascism is a terrifying thing.
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