I'm not sure why you keep putting all the EU novelists down. I said a lot of them produced stories that ended up not working, not all. Just more proof you didn't actually read what I said. As a writer yourself, I'm kinda disturbed you feel the need to bash fellow writers with such gusto.
The EU was around 36 years.
36.
Years.
There were tons of talented people who worked on it.
So here are serious creative people, who were part of a 36 year experiment,
with more creative freedom than what Disney would ever give, and yet you're dismissing the results like it's nothing. That's idiotic.
If the attempts of a professional 36 year experiment are poor,
that's more than likely indicative that the source material you are working with does not lend itself to expansion.Meanwhile, take a series like Star Trek. With ST, you DON'T NEED phasers, people shooting at each other, spaceship combat, or big bad guys to make it work. ST is an example of a series with TRUE potential for expansion. Batman is also like this. Take the B-Man story The Long Halloween. TLH has barely any fighting or gadgets in that story. Yet it works.
Those types of series' lend themselves to expansion. You can plug literally anything in them, and it will work. That's why I call them "utilitarian stories". That's how flexible those types of series' are.
SW is not flexible like that.Case-in-point:
Rian Johnson tried completely new things for movie SW.
- No lightsaber duels
- Very little shooting
- Main villain is killed early
- Kylo and Rey having a bond, potentially setting up a story where there is no fighting, just Rey and Kylo rebuilding the galaxy together
Did people like it?
Nope!
Because it didn't feel like Star Wars.
People want the lightsaber action, they want the big bad guy, and they want people shooting each other, because those are the only things that make-up the SW feeling.
And as you can see, it's a very small group of things that make-up the SW feeling.
That's why, from a business and creative standpoint, that's all SW can do. To make money (to get people to see it), it has to be variations of those things. And to feel like SW from a creative standpoint, it has to be variations of those things.
So, why did people like Solo?
- A final duel in a bad guy's lair
- People shooting each other
- Familiar OT aesthetics like stormtroopers, the Falcon, and Western motifs
- A story about a group of heroes who have to contend with an evil villain
You may not have noticed it, but your brain did.
(In b4 "But Solo didn't do well!"
That's because people were mad at TLJ.
Because TLJ didn't feel like SW.
Do you think Disney will make that mistake again with TROS?)