George Lucas's New Issue: Colossal Retcons

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I just returned from Celebration 5 which was the largest Star wars Convention in the history of the universe. I really enjoyed it, despite that I only got to go on Sunday when nothing was happening and no one was there. However that is not the issue.

On Saturday, Season 3 of the Clone Wars was extensively detailed. It looks awesome, and yet it ticks me off. If you are not a big, big time fan of Star Wars and the Expanded Universe, leave now or you will not understand. GIT!! !!

TRAILER: http://www.starwars.com/video/view/001074.html

The trailer and the panel in which it was shown detailed all the new things in store for us in Season 3. But the problem is that GL is again steamrolling established canon, a practice that I find extremely disrespectful. Star Wars was established as a shared universe soon after it's release. But George Lucas has lately been drastically changing established canon in ginormous series of retcons. Especially with The Clone Wars. First, he changed the timeline so that Anakin passed his trials 4 months after AOTC Ahsoka was also introduced. This made a couple of Clone Wars novels noncanon. Then, in season 2, he rewrote the history of the mandalorians enough so that Karen Traviss, one of the best writers who has contributed to the series, could no longer write her Republic Commando books. And now, Assaj Ventress's past has been rewritten when it was fine as it was. Instead of being born on Rattatak to warriors, she's a nightsister. Also, Dathomir is also home to a bunch of Zabrak Iridonian men who are oppressed by the Nightsisters. I'll get to the Zabrak in a sec.

Assaj Ventress's past was fine as is. I haven't read the comic featuring the origin story in years, but I'll try to recount it. Rattatak was disconnected from the rest of the galaxy pretty much and was home to multiple species. The two primary species were these badger people(Don't remember name) and the Rattataki which are pale near-humans. These two races were constantly at war, and Assaj's parents who were prominent soldiers, were killed in front of her eyes. One day, a Jedi Knight crashed his ship. The badger people immediately tried to off him, but he escaped and met Assaj when she was a little girl. Sensing she was a force-sensitive, he took her up as an apprentice. Together, they became heroes among the Rattataki. And then, the prime warlord of the badger people assassinated the Jedi Knight and this drove Assaj to the dark side. She became a major warlord of the Rattataki, weilding her blue lightsaber and her deceased master's green one. Soon, she met Dooku and recieved Komari Vosa's sabers.

That has been established canon for 6 years, yes, 6. I remember going to my book store when I was 11 and buying that comic. The story was great, and doesn't need to be changed. But Lucas's daughter, who wrote the arc of Clone wars episodes about Assaj insisted, so now another thing is screwed over. Not only Assaj's character and history, but Dathomir and it's people.

And here's the worst part. Count dooku goes to Dathomir scouting for a new Dark Acolyte. The Nightsister leader recommends a tall, buff Zabrak. Guess who he is: Darth Maul's Brother. What is this? An awfully devised fanfic? And his name is Savage Oppress, only pronounced different. When I first read about it, I thought it was a joke. No. So what do you guys think about all this? I personally think GL should be kept away fro TCW. But I wanna hear your opinions.

Last edited by ShenLong on 16 Aug 2010, 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

George Lucas's Issue is that he's a liar. He promised a 9-part saga in the 80's.

Yeah that too ^_^

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers that. Then again, he may have given us three more movies with Jar Jar Binks.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

He already killed the Darth Vader myth, I am not sure I want to see 3 more episodes.

Here's an excerpt from the Expanded Universe for Palpatine taken from StarWars.com Databanks.

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No one is quite sure how Palpatine was first introduced to the power of the dark side, or how he came to be Darth Plagueis' apprentice. He is the most powerful practitioner of the Sith ways in modern times. He studied the ancient ruins on the Sith mausoleum world of Korriban. He unlocked secrets of the Force from a captured Jedi Holocron. The dark side energies flowing through Palpatine's body were so intense, that they ravaged his mortal frame. The very source of Palpatine's strength was killing him.

To counter the dark side's consumption, Palpatine turned to a bizarre combination of technology and Sith magic. Palpatine used Spaarti cloning cylinders to create a store of younger bodies, and employed an ancient Sith technique to transfer his consciousness into a waiting clone. Thus, Palpatine could avoid death indefinitely -- as long as his supply of clones remained intact. He would change his form again and again, prolonging his life. Palpatine constructed a secret throne-world deep within the galaxy's core, on a shadowy world called Byss. Here, he kept his clones safe, protected by a loyal cadre of Dark Side Adepts.

Although Palpatine called for the extermination of the Jedi and any Force-sensitives who could conceivably challenge him, he did keep a few loyal agents who were trained in the Force. Darth Vader was chief among them, as his primary lieutenant and Sith apprentice. Palpatine also had a string of loyal, deadly agents referred to as his "Hands." Mara Jade was foremost among these dedicated enforcers.

At the Battle of Endor, Palpatine found himself facing death yet again. Betrayed by Vader, Palpatine's body was destroyed aboard the second Death Star. Separated from his clones, Palpatine was forced to survive in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void. Through sheer will he retained his identity, crossing the gulf of space to again take residence in his clone body. He barely survived Darth Vader's treachery. Palpatine remained sequestered at Byss while he rebuilt his strength, and his Empire.

Palpatine's rule was so absolute that his apparent death at Endor fragmented the Empire. With no obvious heir, opportunistic moffs and warlords set out to carve their own private fiefdoms where they could. Years of infighting worked to the advantage of the fledgling New Republic, who proceeded to reclaim three-fourths of the galaxy. One warlord who succeeded where imitators failed was Grand Admiral Thrawn, the only non-human to hold that rank. His cunning tactics and unerring strategies brought the Empire to the brink of victory five years after the Battle of Endor. Only a last minute betrayal spelled his defeat.

Spurred on by Thrawn's victories, the remaining Inner Circle of Imperial warlords staged a devastating attack on Coruscant. Whereas Thrawn sought to take the capital world intact, these Imperials attacked without compunction. Much of Imperial City was laid waste by the fighting, and the New Republic was forced to evacuate. Once on the surface, the Imperials splintered yet again, and skirmishes dragged on in amongst the ruined skyscrapers.

It was then that the resurrected Palpatine struck. Using his dark powers to invoke a Force storm of great magnitude, Palpatine swept Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to Byss. There, he revealed himself to Skywalker, and unveiled the true strength of the dark side. Faced with an immortal enemy, Skywalker did the unthinkable -- in order to defeat the dark side from within, Skywalker knelt before Palpatine, and declared himself his new apprentice. In these dark times, it seemed the Emperor had finally won.

Skywalker was too enmeshed in darkness to successfully rebel against his master. Although he sabotaged some of Palpatine's military ventures -- namely those involving immense war factories called World Devastators -- he still could do not draw himself from the pall of the dark side. It was only his sister, Leia Organa Solo, that gave him the extra strength he needed. With her presence, the two Skywalker twins were able to temporarily repulse Palpatine.

Unabated, the Emperor continued his scourge. Armed with an incredible new superweapon, the Galaxy Gun, Palpatine forced numerous New Republic worlds to capitulate to Imperial rule. Despite his growing Empire, Palpatine was again growing frail. His clones were failing him. He needed new blood. Palpatine targeted Leia's newborn son, Anakin Solo, as the next receptacle for his dark spirit. During an attempt to possess the child, Han Solo shot the ailing Palpatine in the back. Before his soul could enter Anakin's body, Palpatine was intercepted by a newfound Jedi, Empatojayos Brand. Cut off from a host body, Palpatine's essence dissipated, to be consumed by the madness that is the dark side. After so many years of bloodshed, the Emperor was truly dead.

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That's how episode 7, 8 and 9 would've played out without Darth Vader. Unfortunately George seems content with the ho-hum conclusion in ROTJ. Maybe one day when George's kids inherit the Skywalker Empire they'll want to finish what George started, and maybe, just maybe, this time they'll hire a really great screenwriter and director to make it happen.

Much more detail can be read within the Thrawn trilogy, where much of the above Extended Universe information is gleemed from...

Heir to the Empire (Book 1)
The book is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, and driven out the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins. Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited new line of Jedi Knights. Meanwhile thousands of light years away, Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last of the Emperor's Warlords, has taken command of the shattered Imperial Fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. Thrawn is searching for a Dark Jedi and is succeeding in restoring the Empire.

Dark Force Rising (Book 2)
The citizens of the capital planet of the New Republic believe their battles against the remnants of the Empire are going well. But Grand Admiral Thrawn, the most brilliant of the Emperor's minions, is preparing to crush the New Republic with nefarious schemes involving smugglers, political rivals, a well-placed mole and even a Jedi Master. Can evil genius outflank the Force? Distracted by threats to Leia's unborn twins, domestic infighting and other upheavals orchestrated by Thrawn, the heroes of the New Republic summon up all their resources to fend off galactic disaster.

The Last Command (Book 3)
The embattled Republic reels from the attacks of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial forces and driven the Rebels back with an abominable technology recovered from the Emperor's secret fortress: clone soldiers. As Thrawn mounts his final siege, Han and Chewbacca struggle to form a coalition of smugglers for a last-ditch attack against the empire, while Leia holds the Alliance together and prepares for the birth of her Jedi twins. Overwhelmed by the ships and clones at Thrawn's command, the Republic has one last hope -- sending a small force, led by Luke Skywalker, into the very stronghold that houses Thrawn's terrible cloning machines. There a final danger awaits, as the Dark Jedi C'baoth directs the battle against the Rebels and builds his strength to finish what he had already started: the destruction of Luke Skywalker.