Buzz
For decades, enthusiasts of Star Wars have immersed themselves in a vast expanded universe, where most Star Wars books, comics, and games shared a common storyline. Yet, director J.J. Abrams has stated that the upcoming Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, will disregard this extended universe and establish a fresh narrative. While some fans mourn the loss of beloved stories, there are a few tales we’re relieved won’t be part of our beloved galaxy anymore . . .
10. Chewbacca Gets Crushed by a Moon
One commendable aspect of the extended universe stories was their reluctance to casually kill off characters from the original trilogy. However, this changed dramatically with the novel Vector Prime.
Vector Prime brings together iconic characters like Han and Chewbacca with new additions such as Han and Leia’s children, who battle extra-galactic invaders called the Yuuzhan Vong. In one harrowing scene, Anakin Solo, one of their children, narrowly escapes death after being blown away from the Millennium Falcon just before a planet’s destruction. The cause of this chaos is extraordinary: the Yuuzhan Vong deploy a device to crash the planet’s moon onto its surface, obliterating all life.
Chewbacca rescues Anakin by bringing him to the Falcon but is himself swept away by the chaos. Anakin, now at the Falcon’s controls, realizes saving Chewie would doom them all and makes the heartbreaking decision to flee—leaving Han Solo devastated as he witnesses his Wookie companion crushed by a moon.
9. Luke’s Spectral Love Interest
While Luke Skywalker’s love life in the original trilogy was limited to his sister, the expanded universe introduced him to several romantic interests. The most notable is Mara Jade, a former Emperor’s operative who eventually marries Luke. Yet, the most bizarre of his relationships is undoubtedly his affair with a ghostly companion.
Luke demonstrates that Jedi transcend earthly concerns when he falls for Callista Ming, a traditional Jedi who evaded Darth Vader’s purge by transferring her consciousness into a computer. Just as it seems Luke is destined for a scenario reminiscent of Spike Jonze’s Her, a morally ambiguous opportunity arises. One of Luke’s students, wishing to reunite with her deceased lover, offers her body to Luke. He accepts, seemingly unbothered by the ethical implications of assisted suicide or the unsettling idea of his former lover inhabiting the body of his young apprentice.
However, the transfer goes awry, leaving Callista unable to wield the Force. This leads to their eventual separation—or perhaps they simply acknowledge the disturbing nature of their situation.
8. Clones Unleashing Chaos Across the Galaxy
For years, fans could only speculate about “clones” based on Leia’s brief reference in A New Hope to Obi-Wan fighting alongside her father in “the Clone Wars.” The prequel trilogy later revealed this was a galaxy-wide conflict involving clone soldiers. However, before this clarification, many believed it was a war where the galaxy battled against rogue clones.
In 1986, this idea nearly became a reality when Kenner, a toy manufacturer, planned to release figures based on their own version of the Star Wars saga. Among these was Atha Prime, the mastermind behind the Clone Wars in Kenner’s narrative, who would lead a new clone army. However, the toy line was ultimately canceled.
The most well-known portrayal of the “clones versus the galaxy” concept came from Timothy Zahn. The acclaimed author launched the official Star Wars expanded universe with his trilogy, where the heroes face off against Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn and the deranged Jedi clone Joruus C’baoth. Zahn not only embraced the idea of evil clones but also provided a rationale for their existence.
Grand Admiral Thrawn uncovers a critical flaw in rapid cloning: clones grown too quickly become unstable due to a Force resonance caused by multiple identical minds existing simultaneously. To counter this, Thrawn devises an alien solution by encasing his cloning cylinders with Ysilimiri, creatures that nullify the Force. This allows him to swiftly create a new clone army, sparking fears of a resurgence of the Clone Wars.
7. Palpatine’s Endless Clone Reserves
In a universe where the Force enables mind transfers between humans, computers, and more, Emperor Palpatine’s vast resources and mastery of the Force lead to one of the most comic book-esque twists in the expanded universe. As depicted in the Dark Empire comics, Palpatine maintains a collection of clone bodies, allowing him to transfer his consciousness into a new vessel whenever necessary.
This proves useful because, as the comics suggest, the dark side’s corrupting influence was quite literal, with the dark energies Palpatine wielded rapidly deteriorating his body. When Luke confronts an aged Palpatine, he makes a morally questionable decision to destroy all the clone bodies to stop Palpatine from transferring his consciousness. However, this plan backfires, forcing Luke and the galaxy to face an even more powerful Emperor than before.
6. Han Solo Takes Princess Leia Hostage
Historically, Star Wars has struggled with portraying romance convincingly. The prequel trilogy is infamous for its stilted dialogue, particularly Anakin’s cringe-worthy attempt to turn his disdain for sand into a romantic overture. While Empire Strikes Back handled its romantic subplot with charm and wit, Return of the Jedi reduced Han and Leia’s relationship to a clichéd teenage love triangle, with Han obsessing over whether Leia would choose him or Luke.
A similar dilemma lies at the core of The Courtship of Princess Leia, which begins with a plausible premise. A wealthy prince offers his vast resources to Leia and the New Republic in exchange for her hand in marriage. For the pragmatic Leia, this is an enticing proposition—securing a significant advantage for her forces by marrying a charming, attractive, and immensely wealthy suitor.
Before she can make her decision, Han takes drastic action, abducting her to the planet Dathomir and vowing to win her love within seven days. While the novel delves into elements like Force witches, its most striking aspect remains Han’s controversial actions, which include kidnapping, issuing ultimatums, and displaying behavior that borders on coercion.
5. The Galaxy’s Ultimate Fighting Championship
For better or worse, Star Wars has often adapted to trends in the video game industry. LucasArts observes popular genres, crafts its own versions, and tests their appeal. Iconic games like Jedi Outcast emerged from the decision to develop the first-person shooter Dark Forces—a Star Wars twist on Doom. Similarly, the classic X-Wing and Tie Fighter games were inspired by the success of the Wing Commander series.
However, this strategy of imitation doesn’t always succeed. A notable failure was the PlayStation game Star Wars: Master of Teras Kasi.
The mid-’90s saw a surge in popularity for fighting games, with titles like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat dominating the scene, while 3-D fighters like Tekken pushed technological boundaries. Teras Kasi is a fighting game featuring Vader and his assassins battling Luke, Han, and other heroes. The game was criticized for its slow-paced combat and the odd choice to include hand-to-hand combat (Luke isn’t exactly renowned for his boxing skills). From a narrative perspective, organizing non-lethal timed battles seems like an inefficient way for Vader to eliminate his foes.
4. The Logic Behind the Kessel Run
“Is it a fast ship?” Obi-Wan Kenobi asks skeptically. Han confidently replies about the Millennium Falcon: “It’s the ship that completed the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs.” This line has sparked decades of debates among fans, as parsecs measure distance, not time.
While George Lucas likely intended parsecs to represent time, many have attempted to rationalize the discrepancy. Author A.C. Crispin addressed this in her Han Solo trilogy. She explains that the Kessel Run takes smugglers dangerously close to a cluster of black holes called “The Maw.” During a particularly daring run, Han navigates perilously close to these black holes, surviving to boast about completing the route in 20 fewer light-years than the typical smuggler.
However, in classic Star Wars fashion, this explanation introduces a new issue familiar to fans of Interstellar. The time dilation caused by Han’s proximity to the black holes during his record-breaking run would mean he’d be significantly older than Obi-Wan Kenobi. Forty years would have passed since Han began his smuggling career as a young man.
3. Luke Embraces the Dark Side
Yoda is renowned for his cryptic, convoluted sayings and fortune cookie-like wisdom about the Jedi way. Yet, one thing he emphasizes clearly: “Once you begin down the dark path, it will forever control your fate. It will consume you, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.” If Yoda’s Force ghost were to create a meme, it would likely feature a charred Anakin Skywalker with the caption: “Dark Side: Just don’t.”
However, the Dark Horse Star Wars comics quickly contradicted Yoda’s teachings. In the Dark Empire series—the same one that introduced the cloned Emperor—Luke falls to the dark side and becomes the Emperor’s apprentice. With the subtlety of a moral lesson, Leia redeems Luke, turning the Emperor’s wrath against himself. This fury manifests as a galaxy-devastating Force storm, which ultimately engulfs the Emperor.
The redemptive conclusion aims to evoke the same heartwarming feelings as the Ewok celebration. Yet, subsequent books and comics depict Luke emerging from the dark side unscathed, seemingly contradicting Yoda’s warnings. As Obi-Wan might say, Yoda’s words could be true “from a certain point of view.”
2. Han Solo’s Space Tyrant Offspring
One thing is evident when exploring the expanded universe of Star Wars: certain narratives are destined to recur. A more charitable interpretation is that Star Wars intentionally taps into timeless archetypes, making its story resonate even with those unfamiliar with it. The saga of a young man wielding a mystical sword, mentored by an aged sage to rescue royalty, is essentially King Arthur set in space.
A glaring repetition in these tales is how the dark side often emerges from noble intentions. Jacen Solo, another child of Han and Leia, evolves into a formidable Jedi whose encounters with war and torture lead him to dabble in the dark side. While his brush with darkness might have ended after escaping captivity, his attempts to foresee the future reveal a vision of himself slaying Luke Skywalker and igniting galactic conflict.
To prevent this grim future, he embraces the Sith’s teachings and—predictably—ends up plunging the galaxy into war regardless. Although he never kills Luke, he succeeds in murdering Luke’s wife, Mara Jade, and torturing Luke’s son, Ben Skywalker. Eventually, he adopts the name Darth Caedus, but before you can question the familiarity of this plot, he is slain by his twin sister, Jaina.
1. Trillions Slaughtered by Religious Extremists
As time passed, the expanded universe of Star Wars encountered an inevitable challenge: it exhausted its supply of traditional narratives—rebels versus the Empire. Consequently, the collective Star Wars writers crafted a new saga featuring a fresh galactic threat called the Yuuzhan Vong.
In a galaxy now populated by Jedi trained by Luke, the Yuuzhan Vong’s ability to evade Force detection made them exceptionally lethal. However, these stories left readers with two unsettling impressions. One was the staggering death toll inflicted by these invaders—while the cinematic Star Wars often focused on narrow escapes and minimizing casualties (Alderaan being the exception), these books depicted the Vong annihilating over 300 trillion sentient beings.
The second discomforting element for some readers was the implication that the Vong symbolized groups like Al-Qaeda. The aliens adhered to a rigid religious code, branding those they killed as “infidels.” Additionally, plotlines involving hijacked ships crashing into Coruscant’s defenses were seen by some as a distasteful nod to the events of September 11, 2001. Coupled with the Vong’s occasional use of suicide attacks, the galaxy “far, far away” felt eerily reminiscent of the early 21st-century wartime atmosphere.
