EU: Pronounced "Ewww."
EU: Pronounced "Ewww."
Apr 16I was so damned excited as a pathetic nerd boy for last year’s Star Wars: Episode III that I actually did something I never thought I’d ever do again: I read Star Wars fiction.
You know of what I speak. Those paperbacks that have their own set of shelves at Borders and inevitably find their way onto paperback racks at Rite-Aid and the airport…just like Harlequin romance novels. It’s the Expanded Universe, the world beyond George Lucas’ imagination that an army of hacks have been exploring for decades.
I’ve always hated the EU. Star Wars toasts my bagel because it’s a mythic, epic story that sweeps and swashes with the buckle. It is NOT interesting to me because someone thought it would be a good idea to decide that Boba Fett should be the best man at Dengar’s wedding. (True story.)
In other words, it’s all too damned incestuous. In three movies, I can buy that we only follow the same handful of characters; in hundreds of thousands of pages of comics and novels and short stories, it seems silly. And when they wander off onto Weird Alien #3 from the cantina sequence to explore his backstory, I don’t give a shit.
Last Wednesday, I was so. Very. Tempted. I was thinking about buying the first issue of the latest Star Wars comics series from Dark Horse, Star Wars: Rebellion. I was thinking about it because I am weak, and shameless, and like to give money to others in exchange for goods.
I’m proud to say I didn’t buy it. Not quite so proud to admit that I actually LIKED some of the EU dreck I read last year. But I’ll take what I can get.
WikiWikiWhack: Expanded Universe (Star Wars), Dengar
