I voted both. First of all, I am of course a big fan of the Thrawn trilogy, which I'm sure many of us consider the
true Episodes 7, 8 and 9. I also loved the Hand duology, and basically I'm a sucker for Thrawn and the Empire of the Hand. However, although this point is not to do with story quality, I am glad that the new canon means we get more Thrawn now, and just more content generally, especially more films.
Now, I enjoyed The Force Awakens, and I said to people "it's a good film." Shortly followed by "because it didn't dare risk
not being one." It stuck to formula too strictly. It was Star Wars' Greatest Hits - Episode 4 with a little 5 and 6 thrown in for good measure.
The backstory of the 30 years leading up to it is ridiculous. First of all, Palpatine leaves posthumous orders for the Empire to commit suicide. What? The Empire cedes defeat in 1 year. Yeah right!
And then there's Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order that gets wiped out when Kylo turns to the dark side and kills them all. So basically, the key event of the prequel trilogy happened
again off-screen!
The Imperial Civil War is a much more realistic take on what would happen after the death of the Emperor - splinter factions and 15 years before the final Imperial Remnant ceases hostility.
However, I do have to praise Rogue One. It was what The Force Awakens
should have been - taking the familiar elements and telling a new story with them, rather than the
same story. It had the maturity to touch on moral complexity, showing us that the Rebels aren't always goody two-shoes. Now it of course had its flaws - the lack of characterisation and certain characters just doing weird things. But I am thankful for the fact that we now know
exactly how the Rebels got the Death Star plans, as opposed to either having to pick one of many options or trying to work around it with "they each got a fragment of the plans".
And that's what happened in the Legends - a multitude of authors or producers with either a lack of research, getting ahead of canon (when works were made before the films and the films then contradicted them) or just plain retconning led to the Legends getting a bit messy in places. With conflicting accounts and varying quality between pieces, you had to pick and choose the bits you like. Perhaps that may be a strength in some regard, almost like Doctor Who's expanded universe policy of "canon is what
you decide", but not when the authors are trying to hold a semblance of continuity.
I've yet to read any of the new novels, but I hear
Tarkin and
Thrawn are excellent, and I am actually interested in reading the new accounts of the fall of the Empire.
But all in all, you have to take the rough with the smooth of both continuities, and with the canon, they've really only just got started, there's more content to come.
Thrawn is better in the canon book. I love him in legends, but he pulled some stuff out of his a** that just wasn't believable. The writers group better not have him defect to the Rebels or some crap like this. And they better not kill him in season 4 of Rebels. That show does not do him justice, and he's too good to throw out so soon.
My suspicion is that they're going to adapt the Legends - with the Death Star at completion, the Emperor will believe that Thrawn isn't necessary for defeating the Rebels any more and 'banish' him to the Unknown Regions to explore territory for the
First Order to eventually establish Empire to colonise.
Poll
Topic: Disney Star Wars cannon? Or EU (Legends) (Read 37295 times)