Chat corner 4: Legendary

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

 

Optional chat prompt

Lets make this week about Legends, or what was formerly known as the Expanded Universe. (For others equally baffled as me, here’s the Wookieepedia page.)

Do you have any Legends stories/media that you particularly like? Something you wish would get pulled back into canon, like a few characters and plots have been? Opinions about the retcon itself? (Just a heads up, this might need to go to the Dark Side post depending on how ranty you wanna get.)

 

Comments

[annathecrow]

Here is the Dark Side post for this chat corner, if you need it.

The Heart of the Jedi

[fleurviolette]

I finished reading the cancelled EU novel. Overall, it was a fun read. It definitely had OT vibes to it.

Re: The Heart of the Jedi

[annathecrow]

Now that I've read the behind-the-scenes story of this book... ouch. I can't imagine how horrible it must have been, to get screwed over like that. Especially when it's something you're a fan of!

For anyone else interested:

• The backstory, as told by the author
• The book itself in online version. (There was supposed to be an Amazon epub version, but apparently it's gone.)

Re: The Heart of the Jedi

[fleurviolette]

It’s interesting that now the author is getting recognition from the fans. If the circumstances were different, it would have been nice to read a sequel to his story.

I’m glad I ordered the paperback copy on Amazon before they took it down.

Re: The Heart of the Jedi

[annathecrow]

Yeah, I think he deserves the attention. I sort of wish he'd put the book on AO3, even though it technically isn't fanfiction, him having been paid to write it and all. I can tell why he wouldn't (AO3 is a different part of fandom from where he's at, I think), but I'd like it.

Re: The Heart of the Jedi

[stellar_dust]

Oh, I’d never heard of that and I’m excited to read it!

Re: The Heart of the Jedi

[fleurviolette]

It’s good! A bit cheesy in some parts but over all a fun Star Wars book.

[stellar_dust]

I so wish Mara Jade were still canon, but I don’t see a good way to fit her into the new canon that wouldn’t be even more tragic and depressing than legends.

[annathecrow]

Oh, yeah. I can imagine Mara Jade in current canon as a character, just not as Luke's love interest. But honestly... I'd like her there anyway. She was such a great character in the Thrawn Trilogy.

(Oh lol, I wanted to double-check the series' name because my memory is a mess, and I found on Wookieepedia that George Lucas doesn't like Mara Jade because, Wkp says, her and Luke's marriage is against the Jedi Code. On the other hand, yesterday's research into the Wkp Official Viewpoint (TM) on the Jedi Code for my current fic has told me that romantic relationships are not prohibited. Sooo... huh? Not sure how that's supposed to work. 😆️)

[extrapenguin]

IIRC it's that romantic relationships are okay, but a Jedi is supposed to be "married" to the Order and bigamy is prohibited. :P So it's an issue about commitment and priorities rather than morals per se. The Order and the cause must come out first, and getting married generally means putting one's spouse first, hence the prohibition.

[annathecrow]

Jedi is supposed to be "married" to the Order and bigamy is prohibited

okay that's hilarious. XD

Only now I kinda want to get some non-traditional marriage practices into Star Wars. I should borrow something from Heinlein - I'm not entirely a fan, but "marriage will be weird in Space" was an idea of his I always liked.

That, and "Jedi Order is recognized as a marriage for legal purposes on planet X, Padmé Amidala is technically a Jedi now" is now living rent-free in my head.

(...and that makes only 4 weeks to this comm's first Attachment Debate. Gotta reset the clock. XD I can't believe it was me who brought it up.)

[extrapenguin]

Yeah, I think I've seen at least a "shared commitment to the light" informal-type "marriage" between Jedi in a few fics. I don't think I've seen much that delves into marriage practice worldbuilding, though that might just be me not chancing upon those fics in the deluge.

Jedi Order is recognized as a marriage for legal purposes on planet X, Padmé Amidala is technically a Jedi now"
Not what you meant, but I'm now imagining a last-minute line-up change on a diplomatic escort mission meaning Padmé is furiously comming Anakin all "Why am I legally married to Mace Windu/Yoda/EVERY JEDI IN THE ORDER???" - especially if a Jedi had decided to get past various bureaucratic hoops wrt clone rights by adopting the GAR, and the cat came out of the bag on that so some of them started calling her "mom" for the humor value.

WRT attachment, it's become pretty clear to me that it's used in the Buddhist sense where it basically means "obsession", rather than in the "connection" sense. I doubt this knowledge would stop anyone from wanking, though. (Insert "No-one hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans" meme, knowledge of how fandom loves to wank.)

[annathecrow]

Oh lol, that Padmé idea is hilarious and really close to what I imagined. XD Such a great source of crack, honestly!

As for the second, I threw it over the fence into the other side of this comm because I needed to be mean to The Man Himself a bit. ;)

[extrapenguin]

(Side note: thank you for putting up these prompts! It's always nicer to get prompted to chat, instead of having to scour the depths of one's mind for something to say.)

My largest Legends love is for the Old Republic-era video games, as is probably obvious. I got into the ancient archaeology and was hooked! I don't know who at Bioware came up with the Rakata, but I really want to buy them a beer. The whole sense of ancient mysteries was great. Revan is also a really cool character as presented in KOTOR, even if the Revan novel sort of ruined that. I think they brought Revan sort of back into canon with the Sequels, but if they're going to canonize Revan, I think they should go for female Revan. (Star Wars, like many properties, already has some pretty drastic gender balance issues. Why make them worse?)

[annathecrow]

I'm so lost on what from the KOTOR/SWTOR timeline is currently canon, tbh. Which bit in the Sequels do you think hint on it?

Otherwise, I'm glad the prompts work for you! I absolutely stole the idea from melagan - she ran a "Plot bunny dust-off challenge" on her blog in April, and it was such a nice, low-effort way to talk to people that I thought, huh, that would be a great way to run a comm.

She also had funky pictures, but I'm a disorganized mess so we're gonna have to survive pictureless for now XD

[extrapenguin]

I think Kylo had Revan's mask somewhere? So like, prop canon potentially elaborated upon for a few paragraphs in a tie-in or something. The rest of KOTOR/SWTOR is all solidly Legends AFAIK.

[annathecrow]

Oh, whew, I was afraid I'd missed something big :D I'm useless at catching easter eggs.

Given how often new canon material draws from Legends, I wouldn't be surprised if KOTOR/SWTOR bits would filter into it over time. Probably not whole storylines, but as worldbuilding, definitely. It's easier than building an entirely new backstory...

[sathari]

Oooh, Legends! And there's already been a Mara Jade mention! YAAY!

At this point, it is completely my headcanon that Rey's mother was a Mara-Jade-type character--- Force sensitive taken as a kid to be trained to serve Palpatine... then she met his son, and they had this glorious bittersweet childhood-sweethearts thing, and Palps' effort at conditioning her broke because she saw how he treated his own kid. And then when the Empire fell, they took a bunch of cred from the black-ops accounts she would've had access to and went bashing around the galaxy for a while and figuring their shit out before they had Rey (which is what Han and Leia should have done instead of having a kid while Leia was in the middle of Jedi training and rebuilding a galactic government and and and.... sorry, that's a topic for another post, and probably needs to go on the Dark side at that). So anyway.

[annathecrow]

...oh, I like that headcanon. I have to admit that I'm not a fan of that whole, uh, thing, but this totally works for me.

[annathecrow]

I promised, I think, a (subjective) rec list for the fics in this year's May the 4th Challenge Collection, and I finally deliver: May the 4th Exchange: My recs