Everything Star Wars!!! Even the new Disney Bantha food. That's not Star Wars, but oh well*

The Force Awakens is my favorite movie

There needs to be more love for it in this thread

Also



And some made Darth Vader barbies boyfriend ... aka me



They would be cute ok

Hoth has the best quotes of any battle in the EU.

"No one ever complained about the cold on Hoth. We never felt it. Even though we were blinded by blizzards, we could see the final end of the Rebellion in our blaster sights. Was it only a mirage? Perhaps; but on that day, on that planet, our blood ran hot with dreams of victory, melting the ice that stood in our way."

"There is no tomorrow, men. Today, we crush the Rebellion, once and for all."
―Unnamed Imperial officer during the Battle of Hoth

Hey Rey! You're a god-damn mary-sue and indicative of ev...

I better stop before I say something I'll regret here about female protagonists...

Because it gets set aside creatively by the franchise powers-that-be and no longer has any bearing on the plot. As I've said before, the movies were always secondary to my experience with the Universe. To me, the heart and soul of the series was in the universe, and its vast, different, and complex interpretations from various points of view that showed just how big the galaxy far, far away really is. 

And yes, the new canon COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY destroys every bit of canon post-Episode III. How much of the EU was left intact after Return of the Jedi? None of it! Seriously, tell me which parts of the EU were kept intact without being picked and clawed at like some vulture chewing on carrion. For that matter, how far back does the retroactive purge go? How much more in the past doesn't make the cut?

Stories exist to make sense. They exist to follow a lineage set to make internal consistency within themselves, and when they can't develop or keep that consistency (especially after so much development), they lose their value. It sets aside characters, stories, events, and lore that were developed over decades of work for new characters and events of which we had no bearing or knowledge before. It takes away the purpose of the story, the exposition that it will lead somewhere, and changes it into a direction of 'but it all didn't really happen at all'. I'm not a fan of the changing of an entire universe. To you, it might be a momentary chance to live in universe you love. To me, it's not even the same universe. I've lost my connection to that universe. I have no involvement or love for it anymore, since what I have nobody I identify with anymore. All of what I like is little more than fanfiction.

I don't follow 'unofficial' stories. There's no truth in them, nothing to be gleaned from the universe since the rules it was written under no longer apply. The breakthroughs, insights, developments, and changes that are brought about by the book don't have anymore but the esoteric of the esoteric value (which isn't substantial to me).

By the way, they actually aren't going to be there for decades. Disney has stated that as they release each wave of novels of theirs, they're slowly going to retract the number of Legends content available and phase it out of service. Also, any non-Legends book has already been pulled (like table-top games, comics, etc). 

A last thing on this issue: You know something? I really think they could have continued the Legends books. They could have let that series run on its own as a 'non-canon' continuation of the old EU. The cost of making/commissioning a work isn't as expensive as one might imagine. In fact, there's even been an idea to make a series e-read only to save on material resources (getting even more returns back). I'd be fine if they continued the old universe in the shadow of their new one. They'd make a healthy buck, and they wouldn't lose a 'fan'. But instead of letting it go, run it's course, maybe quietly fade out of existence, they just stopped it in the middle of its tracks, and it was setting up for some particularly big plots to come, in the comics, post-war era, and events in the past (far past, at the formation of the Jedi order). 

Suffice to say, we fans of the EU didn't get any closure. We didn't get an apology, or an end to existing plots, or something to allow us to reconcile everything from the old to the new. We just got left in the dirt.

As for the Thrawn trilogy, that's fine. Maybe I'm seeing through rose-tinted glasses, but I also appreciate a developing story or strategem such as how the Thrawn trilogy played out (which is ironic because prior to the cancellation of the EU, I always thought the trilogy was overrated.) Things weren't rushed. They took their time to grow and develop, and we were introduced to new characters that had complex motivations and developments. Thrawn gave us an Imperial villain who wasn't just another space-Nazi madman. He, and Gilad Pellaeon gave us a look at an Empire that might not be a bad place to live, and showed that not everyone or everything involved with the Empire was inherently evil or malicious. We had Talon Karrde, as you say, a complex man who toes the knife edge of intergalactic crime boss and legitimate businessman who's loyalties and values are always in question (is he just another mercenary/smuggler looking for a credit without a care for the balance of galactic power, or does he have some further agenda that we don't know about? Is that agenda benevolent, or is it self-serving?) We had Mara Jade, a woman who has a serious issue with Luke Skywalker, and for a time back in the 90's, a big question was whether or not Luke was going to survive the trilogy (they hinted heavily at his death, which if you've read the trilogy, you know what happens), and what role she had to play in his life and possible death. We were realistically introduced to the next generation, with the birth of Han and Leia's twins, Jacen and Jaina (both of whom are leaps and bounds better characters than Kylo and Rey, unless of course you're one the 'WOO GIRL POWUH!' fans of Rey). 

Episode VII just plain sucked: Rey was a mary-sue, Kylo was a whiny-emo kid, the Empire was regressed to be an lol-evil group of space supremacists (I can't say white human male supremacists, which is what they were in the EU and books (seriously, no females were really allowed in the Empire save for Daala, and they make a particular plot out of that.)) They just make a rehash of episode IV, and then Disney turns to make the series into an annual cash-cow franchise like Marvel. How long until they release 2 or 3 movies a year?

Pretty silly, isn't it. But it's small scale stuff. David - Goliath material. And tbh: That armour is just for show anyway.

Force Awakens takes it just a tad too far with - no not a death star battlestation - now it's a whole death planetary body. After a point, grandeur just becomes unbelievable. Especially when some splinter group tops the efforts of a galactic imperium with some plot device. Yes, there were no gungans and it wasn't a fucking kid story wasting a whole episode, I'll give credit for that. But how you gonna top that? Hurling suns through the galaxy? Mr Villain physically eating the galaxy?

It's subjective dude, just because someone considers something stupid doesn't mean that it is inherently moronic. To quote someone, a thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing. People appreciate and find value in things differently especially in something as subjective as art or entertainment. I might not laugh at the same jokes as you do but that doesn't make the joke bad now does it? 

Also star wars isn't exactly sci-fi, it's more of a fantasy setting mixed with some cool space stuff Imo. So to compare it to the likes of Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke is kinda weird in that their works are different and have different aims. 

I wrote some impressions about episode VII after leaving the cinema. Pasting them here:

Last night I went with a friend to see the new star wars movie. I will now talk about it in depth because I'm that big of a nerd.