George Lucas has done some pretty amazing things in his life. He's written and directed some great movies, one of which spawned the largest fictional universe in the world back in 1977. I'm referring to, of course, Star Wars. If you're not a Star Wars fan, this rant really isn't for you. I recommend that you stop right now and go read my EVula Snores Rant instead, in which you'll find out how EVula's nose is more powerful than the Death Star.
If you are a Star Wars fan, however, keep on reading... just keep a few things in mind:
This isn't a rant about whether or not George Lucas has the right to do whatever he wants with the Star Wars universe.... this is a rant about whether or not he should.
For those of you who's only seen the Star Wars movies, this rant may be a bit difficult to fully comprehend, because my major beef with George Lucas deals with the expanded Star Wars universe, not just the movies. StarWars.com says it best: If your experience with Star Wars has been just the movies, you're only getting a fraction of the entire tale. Since the start, the Star Wars saga has been expanded through novels, comics, and games.
For nearly 30 years, the Star Wars universe has grown far beyond George Lucas's original dream. The extended Star Wars universe does not provide a purely alternate version of the original movies, but instead it expands and greatly develops ideas and characters that were either featured in the movies, barely touched on in the movies, or weren't in the movies at all.
The question is... should George Lucas respect this extended universe that he legitimized and gave authorization for? The answer is yes.
I think the most amazing thing about the Star Wars universe is the fact that most everyone who participates in it makes a conscious and careful effort to maintain the highest degree of consistency possible. The result, then, is not just a bunch of spread out stories that contradict each other... but a massive, overarching story line that is told in many different mediums. Characters that weren't even mentioned in the movies have had comic books, novels, and even video games made about them. See the novel Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry for example, which spawned comic books, toys, cards, video games...and even a classical soundtrack by none other than John Williams.
I've heard several people say that the extended universe is completely irrelevant, and that the movies are the only legitimate Star Wars. Maybe George Lucas thinks this way as well, which is very unfortunate. I think, however, that one of the characteristics that has made Star Wars so popular over the years is its enormous scope. Since the extended Star Wars universe is so huge (bigger than the Lord of the Rings and Star Trek universes combined), there are infinite possibilities for creating stories within it.
And many stories have been written. Apart from the movies, there now exist literally hundreds of full-length Star Wars novels. Contained within these books are tales that reach far beyond the domain of the original films and explore entirely new territory, both in characters and locales. These novels were originally authorized by George Lucas himself in 1991. He gave a select group of authors permission to expand the Star Wars universe. These authors then worked carefully with one another to maintain a cogent story line that flowed as clearly as possible. Authors borrowed and expanded on characters created by other authors, referencing and building upon events that were created in past novels, so that everything fit together and made sense.
Now, you'd think that since Lucas specifically gave permission to these authors to expand on his creation, that he would at least make some effort to respect the stories that the authors told. But... he hasn't. Not even a little. Now, I wouldn't expect Lucas to follow the extended Star Wars novels to the letter... but he hasn't even come close to them. He's totally ignored and contradicted the novels, after such a great effort was made to avoid such inconsistency. There's a lot of evidence of this, but the classic example is that of Boba Fett.
In the late 90's, Boba Fett had a novel trilogy written entirely about his character, which detailed his past and how he became a bounty hunter in over 1,000 pages of story line. In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, all of that history was completely contradicted in just a few scenes. An entirely new history was written for Boba Fett (one that is far less interesting, in my opinion). When asked about this, Lucas said that he had had his version of Boba Fett's past in mind for over a decade before he wrote the script for Episode II.
Okay, that's fair. He knew what he wanted. However, you think he could have at least let the Star Wars authors know this before they wrote multiple novels about it. I mean, it would have taken a 30 second phone call from Lucas just to say, "Hey, I have plans for Boba Fett's past, don't write about it." But he didn't do that. He gave specific permission to the authors to write about his characters, but he didn't let them know what was off limits. So here's poor K. W. Jeter and Kevin Anderson, two authors who have invested years of their lives and countless hours writing thousands upon thousands of pages of material on Star Wars bounty hunters... and all of their work is now officially invalidated by George Lucas himself. Don't get me wrong, the stories are still great... but now they have no real place in the Star Wars universe.
So why didn't George Lucas even make a small effort to let the authors know about his 'vision' for the Star Wars prequels? To be completely honest, I have come to the decision that it's because he just doesn't care. Lucas collects the royalty checks from those novels and just walks away, consistency of the Star Wars universe be damned. In more and more articles leading up to the release of Revenge of the Sith, Lucas has talked about his 'vision' for Star Wars. I know some people in the Star Wars community won't be happy with certain things, but it's my vision,
he's said a few times.
Yes, George. It's your vision. You created Star Wars originally, and we all owe you a great debt for that. But just because you created it doesn't mean you should completely ignore the very people who made you rich and famous. You don't care about us, the millions of fans that have made your universe what it is by loving it and expanding upon it. Yes you created it at first, but we're the ones that have made it what it is today. The Star Wars universe has expanded far, far beyond your original vision, but you still think that you know what's best for it. Clearly, reading the reviews of the prequel films, you don't. You've become an egomaniacal prick, too self-absorbed in your own legend to care what the fans think about some of your completely shitty decisions (Medichlorians? Way to completely destroy the mystique of the Force, douchebag).
Indeed, you can pull your I'M THE CREATOR, BOW TO ME
trump card on us, and legally, we have to respect that... but that doesn't mean you should, Lucas. That doesn't mean you should.
...
Oh well. Chewie still thinks you're an ######, anyway.