An article entitle Are you outraged by the current Expanded Universe? was recently posted on the Star Wars LiveJournal community.

I must say I'm tired of the overall bashing of every new part of the Star Wars universe. After a period of avid prequel bashing, the EU bashing seems to be the new venue for a small but very vocal part of the fandom.

The fans behind this list doesn't like the recent direction of the EU, particularly the (excellent for me) Legacy of the Force series. So, now that they know they don't like it, they still read it because obviously they want to bash it. If not, why bother?

But with every bashing come the obvious dishonesty, only there to publish a bigger list of bad things and try to hide the lack of research behind the article. I have two prime examples:

Point #17: The humans in the Star Wars universe live longer than on Earth, it's a fact but not as long as indicate. Obi-Wan, was an old man in ANH and he was in his sixties. Same with Qui-Gon and they both were human Force users, clearly in the second part of their life. So by G-level canon, a human Force user will never live 250 to 300 years. So Luke being dead by 150 A.B.Y. is somehow logical.

Point #25: The argument in the article is really a lack of understanding of a G-level canon point. The Prophecy talk about bringing balance to the Force, not to end the Sith once and for all. We only know that the Prophecy was accomplished by Anakin when he killed Sidious. All other element, from a G-level canon standpoint, is open to interpretation in the C-level canon. Abel Peņa essay Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties is the perfect embodiment of the interpretation done in the EU.

You could certainly don't like this interpretation, but the fact is it makes sense. A bad point for some yes, but not a contradiction in the overall universe like this article seems to point out.

By the way, there will always be some Sith in every time period of the Star Wars universe and rightfully so, because the confrontation Jedi/Sith is the perfect embodiment of the good/evil theme of the Saga.


So, in short, I disagree with almost every point of the article and I'm really sick and tired of bashing. I'm all for constructive criticism, but to do that you need to like some part of the work. If you really don't like it at all, don't buy it and don't read it. It will save us from the bashing that is really unnecessary.

Edit: To be fair, here is a link to the reply of the person behind the original article. Check it out if you want an insight of the reasoning behind his list.