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KnockBack, Episode 15: The Star Wars Expanded Universe (Patreon)

Published:
2018-05-24 16:00:01
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

In 1978, a year after Star Wars: A New Hope came to theaters, a book quietly found its way onto store shelves. It was called Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and it took place in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. And thus, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was born, storytelling from A Galaxy Far, Far Away done outside of the films themselves. Spanning across literally thousands of books, comics, cartoon episodes, video games, and on and on (and on), the Expanded Universe founds its footing in the early '90s, reached fever pitch in the early aughts, and was snuffed out and built again during this New Era of Star Wars. So let's chat about it, shall we?

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Comments

Quinn

Oh heck yeah. This is gonna be glorious.

Owen

I've been reading the Thrawn trilogy recently. This started from reading the Thrawn book Zahn wrote last year (which is excellent). So decided to go back to the "Legends" and am now on the third of the trilogy. Zahn is an amazing author. -- My favorite as a kid was the Jedi Academy trilogy where Luke starts a new temple on Yavin. Great stuff. Highly recommend. I eat this shit up, don't even care if it's not canon anymore. Lot of good stories out there.

Owen
>>12561055

Also when Dagan mentioned the delivery man I was like "Oh no! The Waterman has returned!"

Andrew

oh man, I'm so psyched to listen to this... I've been working my way through the new canon books since the "old ones" are now referred to as Legends. Started from before Episode 1 and right now I'm at the books that take place between ep 6 and 7... I'm really looking forward to the new Thrawn book coming out this year that's a sequel to a book that came out a year or two ago.

Marcus Brown

I love when it when the audience is expected to be a certain age to understand certain bits of a discussion. Because I'm only 22, and I'm catching all the jokes, and references. Thanks to my awesome parents. Just to let you know you have young guns (No pun intended) in your audience lol🤘Journey Rocks🤘

LastStandMedia
>>12566282

That's always been my confusion with some of the negative feedback I get for KnockBack; that younger people can't enjoy it. I couldn't agree more.

Micheal Boudreaux

I love that this topic was chosen. My dad convinced me to read as a young kid still reeling from our family breaking by first introducing me to Star Wars comics and then the Heir to the Empire novels. The EU was a huge part of my refuge as a kid in a small town, being raised by a single dad. I was definitely crushed when they stripped the EU away.

Micheal Boudreaux

I would still recommend I, Jedi and the X-Wing series, as well as Zahn's works, to anyone who loves Star Wars. Rogue and Wraith squadrons are SO much fun.

Tyler Laurin

Thrawn is one of the most compelling villains of not only the SW universe but all of Sci Fi/Fantasy. Super stoked to dive into this episode during my commute tomorrow!

Will Hahn

My gosh, I freaking loved this episode. I loved both of your perspectives on the expanded universe, but I also loved how you took a dive into Disney’s role in Star Wars and all of the corporate BS that’s been going on with them (in my opinion, of course). They are seriously running this franchise into the ground. I can’t even imagine what the franchise is going to look like within the next decade or so.

Isaac Cynova

Finally got around to this. As a devoted extended universe reader, it was an awesome episode to listen to. I still have a hard case around my Mara Jade card from the Decipher CCG, and I remember what a big deal it was that the CCG got to give that character a face. If I could have one thing from Legends in current SW lore, it would be Mara. Thanks again guys.

Christopher Hopkins

Read all of the books and I mean all of the books up to 2012-2013. Can’t wait to listen to this later today perfect for the weekend road trip!

Tyler

Colin - 1. Just picked up the latest Thrawn book on Audible. Very excited! 2. Before you guys do the episode on Star Wars toys, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the Netflix show The Toys That Made Us. Ep 1 is all about the Kenner line of toys and is only 1hr. Really cool show!

LastStandMedia
>>12568157

I have a hard time truly recommending anything pre-2012, because they technically "don't count" anymore.

BlueBomber

Going to listen to this first thing tonight! Legend universe, the only universe to me. Utter disgrace what Disney did to Luke!! Going to re-read the Yuuzhan Vong war books. All 19 of them!!

Brock Thomas Walsh

Absolutely loved this episode. Can't get enough of you two talking about Star Wars. Hoping to hear your thoughts on Solo soon!!

LastStandMedia
>>12726392

Thank you! Should all go according to plan, the next episode of Fireside Chats will be a Solo review with Dagan and I.

Patrick A Crone

I remember seeing Heir to the Empire at an airport gift shop in June of 1991. I had about an hour to kill so I sat in the store reading the prologue and first chapter. When I finally got into Sky Harbor in Phx, I’m sister and brother in law were waiting for me. As we drove off, I casually mentioned how I read some of the new Star Wars book and my brother in law slammed on the breaks. He had no idea that there was a new book available. Instead of heading directly home, we had to make a detour to the mall so he could see if B. Dalton had the book in stock. He literally got the last copy. I really wish I could recapture that kind of excitement, but those days are long gone. Great hearing you guys talk about what the EU meant to you. Brought back this fond memory.

Haydyn

The new canon may cop a lot of crap these days but Thrawn's portrayal in Star Wars Rebels is top notch. You talked a lot about Timothy Zahn understanding Star Wars, Dave Filoni is his modern day equivalent. The Filoni-verse of Clone Wars and Rebels is fantastic.

Eric S

I have to say for me listening to this brings feelings for me of how I just really do not like Star Wars 7 and 8 and actually like Rogue One and Solo better than the main movies. I have tried to like 7-8 but for me the characters just don’t make me care about them. I of course care about Luke, Han, Leia etc. but the new characters are just for some reasoning not resonating with me. I really liked this Knockback because it gave me some good Star Wars reads to look into.

Alexander Dean

For anyone interested I’d definitely recommend the Republic Commando novels (True Colors is the best). They’re part of legends now but I feel they make the prequels slightly more acceptable.

Ryan Hurley

As someone who jumped into the EU pool about 10 years ago, here's my feedback: - It was my understanding, even when I first started reading the EU, that the EU was never canon and could always be overwritten. I'm not sure where I got that from, maybe from SW podcasts. - After you jumped out, they still created some great books in the EU before becoming "Legends". Checkout the Kenobi & Darth Plagueis novels, both of which haven't really been overwritten. - As far as the new novels go, there are some hits and misses, just as in the EU days. Avoid the Aftermath trilogy. Checkout the new novels "Thrawn" (by Tim Zahn) and "Phasma". The Canto Bight novel was pretty good too as it made me appreciate that section of TLJ. Also, "From a Certain Point of View" was entertaining. - When George started up the Clone Wars series, he simultaneously created his own animation studio. This is why the animation at the start of the series was not the best. However, the animation and stories continued to get better throughout the series until its conclusion. Checkout the Mortis Trillogy (S3,Ep15-17), the Darth Maul Mandalore trilogy (S5,Ep14-16), and the Order 66 Arc (S6,Ep1-4). - The Rey animated show that was mentioned is a show called Forces of Destiny which is a series of shorts that was created to 1) highlight all of the female characters of SW, and 2) sell a new series of SW dolls of the female characters. The animation for this series is outsourced to a small 3rd party company. - One final thing that wasn't mentioned, is that current creators from Lucasfilm are trying to bring back EU characters and locations as much as they can where it makes sense. The biggest example is Thrawn becoming a very big character on Rebels and getting a new novel (which is also getting a sequel).

Colin Moriarty

Wow, Colin had some real salt over the EU on this one! Very fun episode!

LastStandMedia
>>12790693

Yeah, the characters in the new trilogy are severely lacking. Half of them don't serve the plot whatsoever.

LastStandMedia
>>12857201

See, that's the thing. I can't dedicate myself to something that doesn't "count" anymore, as it were.

LastStandMedia
>>12893312

That may have been the understanding, but I don't think it was explicit, and I still think what they did was wrong, and done without much thought or concern for older and more invested fans. That's my two cents, anyway.

Rob Aitken

Hi Colin, longtime fan and new proud Patron. This is the third Knockback I have listened to and I have to say these are amazing. As an '84 gentleman Timothy Zahn came at the perfect time to combine with my love of SW to help Kickstart my love of reading, continuing all the way through College. However I couldn’t help but notice in later years, pre Disney, there was a distinct business shift. Where previous novels like Heir to the Empire where almost self-contained stories that ended in cliffhanger fashion to be continued in a possible future novel. The new model called for an entire story to be chopped into a series of 5+ sub 200 page hardcover books. Glad I got off the train before the Disney EU Axe. Will always have my memories of the X-Wing Books sustaining me into High School - Wedge being my top fictional Character so I really appreciated your brothers last line on podcast. Speaking of your brother, what an amazing duo you guys make, makes me wish my older brother was still interested in these subjects, could make for great discussions. Anyway enough chit-chat on with the day,, Cheers. -Rob