I may be wrong but I thought the Andor show is the result of two things:
1. Disney trying to make a buck from thirsty women who want to ride Diego Luna like a new Harley. I was expecting a Kylo Ren show to be honest but the Latino lead gets more woke points on Twatter. This usually gets the job done by the way. I've seen knockouts flock to capeshit films because of Reynolds, Hemsworth, Momoa, Cavill or Evans.
2. Disney assuming that the sequels would turn way more normies into fans by now who would adore space GoT. Because we were normies once too.
I'm not going to say Andor is good or bad because I haven't watched it and have no intention to
(mainly because, aside from just being sick of looking at the disney logo, I don't like Diego Luna or his Katarn expy, Rogue One and its bloated human cast never appealed to me, and Disney's insistence on tying their Disney+ shows to pre-existing disney shitters or film and EU characters for them to butcher instead of making a brand new character with no ties to anything while actually using races and visuals from the setting so as to start fresh like they did with Mando before they quickly fucked that up with Filonitism), so I won't really discuss its actual writing quality, but as far as I can tell based on the data alone, the real reason the show flopped badly in viewership and nielsen ratings seems to be due to several factors, although only the first two seem to be the central reasons:
1 - The most obvious one as Screamer pointed out is Disney's idiotic insistence on releasing episodes weekly instead of just releasing them all at once like Netflix does for binging. They think this will draw in more people and raise suspense, but all it does is kill the pacing while failing to capture the incredibly short attention span of the average joe and their kids who just want everything quickly and be done with it as soon as possible.
2 - Disney has spent years re-conditioning and further bastardizing the franchise into a Disney Princess-spinoff with a wholesome image through all of their promotions and marketing, with extra emphasis on the "just turn off your brain and no more yucky politics or serious things like in those nasty prequels because continuity is silly, just focus on this adorable green turd baby" (like if a gayer version of SW Detours or Bombad Racing had been promoted as the new image and formula for SW going forward), so when they finally make a more dramatic show with more serious characters and lots of curse words and mature themes, the average short-sighted concerned parent and manchild Disneyphile run away due to the male-oriented themes, the lack of bright autistic colors and the absence of Star Wars babies. Hell, the only reason Rogue One made as much money as it did initially among the average consumer was because of the Star Wars label slapped on it along with the Vader/nostalgia wank, while the RO toys, merch and spinoffs all flopped hard because hardly any kids liked it and they weren't colorful enough for parents and childless consoomers to want.
3 - Disney really shot itself in the foot with
Book of Bob and
Kenobi Meets Sister-Sister being mediocre products that only got by on nostalgia value and making pathetic parody-driven messes out of more iconic characters, to the point where even the SW reddit of all places (shill central itself) had a hard time defending them once the hypepium wore off, and you'll even find more redditfags and even youtubefags admit that they're burned out. In short, trust has been damaged... again (you think they would've learned after the first couple of times), mainly among fence-sitters. The casual or non-SW fans with normal and above average attention spans seem to be the only ones still watching this because they hardly ever gave a shit about Star Wars before disney came along or they heard good things about this show from their friends because its more like a higher budget SyFy channel original with Rogue Juan's version of Rebels and the Empire.
4 - The marketing and promotion for the show has not been the best, especially with those mediocre trailers. I can only assume this is due to Chapek's inherent cheapness, in which case I can at least salute his attempts to sabotage everything Iger "achieved" while in charge.
5 -
Most Filonifags, which make up a large bulk of Disney Wars' followers, only like it when Filoni Wars and Ahsoka references are shoved into everything in excess, something Andor has apparently note done at all afaik (kudos). To add further fuel to the fire, Andor fans (and this is something I really like about them) have been doing a pretty fantastic job of pissing off Filonifags and insulting their wolfaboo messiah at every turn after they wouldn't shut up about their Ahsoka theories by pointing out that Andor apparently doesn't rely on constant Filoni Wars and Ahsoka cameos. This has caused some Filoni cultists to be turned off by the show as well as causing some sort of schism in Disney Wars communities and reddit shitholes which are mostly passive aggressive but you'll see no shortage of whiners asking "Why is everyone making fun of our beloved Wolf-Emperor of Wolfkind now?" I just love infighting.
6 - Disney just isn't producing anything unique or interesting (aside from Andor which I know nothing about beyond what's said itt), just more Rebels getting terrorized by Imperials or more Filoni-wank shows. They had a pre-disney treasure trove of audience-tested ideas and stories from the past to choose from and adapt that broke away from the mold and had room for expansion, and a whole galaxy of possibilities spun off from those concepts or hire some genuinely creative people (hell they even had Alan Dean Foster on their payroll for a bit and before driving him away) to make new things for them, instead they hired more Wendig clones to write for them, just kept rehashing the same OT ideas, or only focusing on Filoni's crap and his shittier twist on pre-disney stuff, or making new ideas cringy and queer-centered as they did with High Republic. Even Andor is still weighed down by tying itself to a horrid continuity that no one (except disney, Ahsoka fans and vs battle autists) wants to be a part of anymore instead of just starting fresh with a completely new character in the familiar setting free of the contrivinces disney has shoved into it, although it wouldn't help since any production quality this show may have now will disappear once the first production under Chapek begins.
7 - This one is a bit dubious since its based on my own personal assumption rather than something I've seen online or irl, but its possible that there might be a change going on in terms of public perception of Disney, what with all its recent blunders and financial failings. It doesn't help that the disney parks have also been hiking up prices and looking worse in the public eye as if purposely trying to alienate even the most devout drones. There's also the recent awareness of adult disney fans on social media and how emotionally obsessive they are towards the characters and the park, that and the pedo vibes they give probably alienates parents. Also kids are more interested in Microsoft and Nintendo games than anything disney these days, and most are focused on the opening of Universal's Nintendoland now more than ever.
Also unrelated to any of this nor is it a criticism of Andor itself since again I haven't watched it and have no intention to do so, but I think Diego Luna's accent is atrocious. Just putting that out there.
2013- "That old Star Wars EU? It was crap, it had no consistent continuity whatsoever. But this Disney EU will be perfectly interwoven together just watch us".
2022- "Yeah the Disney EU is just to big man... It's like a myth or a narrative or something".
Its kind of ironic how people happily shat on it at the time and still do, or even dismissed it solely on the grounds that George didn't personally handwrite every single piece of SW media that came out despite needing his stamp of approval first, while they hypocritically take in everything Disney makes with zero input or approval from George and making crap that's cringier and even more inconsistent than anything in the past. Those canon tiers ain't looking so bad now, eh Hidalgo? You fucking fat stiff.
I'm thinking of getting into the old Star wars EU. My only real experience from that is reading some of the wookipedo articles, reading some of the books and playing some of the video games when I was kid.
Where should I start?
Anyway, depends on what you want to start with or what you find easier to take in. Games? Comics? Books? Tabletop? Short stories? Audio novels? Radio? Animation? Or just some reference books filled with mini stories and bios? Or do you want to start based on the in-universe timeline? The real world publishing timeline? Or just from best to worst with limited order?
Be warned though, a lot of what wookieepedia writes is exaggerated, poorly described and not always accurate, especially in recent years with how much bogus info or fan interpretation gets added, as well as the lack of references and uncited images.
If you want some in-universe timeline references, here you go :
I should mention that it doesn't include tabletop RPG events, trivia articles or references books, nor the unreleased and cancelled novels like Jedi Heart, Cult Encounters and Supernatural Encounters (the latter two acting as both a finale and mythology/history compilation which can only be enjoyed if you actually know anything about SW). Also this should go without saying but the radio plays and novelizations for the films are a must and were based directly on George's scripts and overseen by him, with the A New Hope radio play basically being Star Wars unabridged. There's also the rough drafts and scripts for the early versions of SW if you want to read those or
The Star Wars comics which are a cohesive and illustrated compilation of said scripts.
If you want to go in order of real world release dates, here you go:
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_media (wookiepedo is sadly the only decent and mostly complete publishing list)
Almost everything ever released in chronological order since the first piece of SW media in 1976 before the films and teasers were even out (again and fair warning, the majority of the 70s comics fall into S-tier, so don't expect a lot of continuity or cohesion, with one issue even implying that they had Sunday School in a galaxy far far away, although I think it adds to their charm in a campy sort of way and there are goodies mixed in if you don't care too much about continuity).
If you just want something good to start from randomly, I suggest either the Truce at Bakura or Heart of the Jedi which take place right after ROTJ, Dark Horse's Empire series or any of their prequel or OT stories really, Star Wars Tales if you just want to read a bunch of one shots first, the Thrawn Trilogy books or comic adaptations which are usually seen as the true sequel trilogy, the X-Wing Novels are also considered the best SW fiction out there, NJO is also excellently written and acts as a sequel series (despite that I still have apprehensions towards it, but I would still choose it over anything by Disney), and the Courtship of Princess Leia is also a good choice which probably had the most influence in terms of continuity by introducing many series mainstays and featuring the definitive marriage of Han and Leia, although its best not to jump right into that one (but that's up to you). Also Battlefront I&II (not the EA ones), the Podracing games, along with Dark Forces, Republic Commando, TIE Fighter, KOTOR and the Rogue Squadron games are considered the best in terms of video games, and the Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy game in particular has the best and most realistic lightsaber combat of any game out there. I would also personally recommend the Tales of the Jedi comics if you want to start on an early period of the galaxy that helped to inspire a lot of the jedi/sith lore, as well as many Sith and Jedi stories and KOTOR. As for first reference books to jump into, I suggest the 2nd editions of the Galaxy Guides in order (although the 1st editions also have something to offer). Or if you simply want to know the full Tragedy of the Darth Plagueis the Wise and Palpatine's past, then I suggest James Luceno's Plagueis novel.
If you want anything in particular, just PM me and I'll point you in the right direction to any pdfs, magnet links or whatever you might need if you don't want to give Disney any cash for their gaudy Legends labels (this offer is available to anyone who's feeling
tricurious).
Also of note is that SW was divided into continuity-tiers that served to tell what was part of the in-universe history and what was an in-universe talltale or exaggeration. These are divided into four categories: G, C, S, N.
G-tier means George, anything directly written or supervised by him, specifically the OT, PT, the Radio Plays, the Novelizations of the six films and their direct tie-ins (ie novels that take place right before the start of the films like Labyrinth of Evil), the Ewoks films, the Holiday Special (despite his denial of it and trying to avoid blame) and possibly Force Unleashed which was left ambiguous but did receive the most supervision from George than any other game. Some also like to place Filoni Wars in the G-tier but George regulated it entirely to its own continuity called the T-tier (TV) so anything could be done with the show to exercise creative liberties and those of others without it needing to be restricted by G-tier or C-tier (or making it feel less important by shoving it in S-tier) but still borrow from them when needed, hence the drastic shift in Anakin's character to appeal to younger audiences and the more regular contradictions, and due to the Filoni Wars' irksome popularity Leland Chee admitted that Lucasfilm was considering going back to edit old novels and comics just to make them fit with Filoni Wars, but thankfully that never transpired, although future reference books did go out of their way to use Filoni retcons back and forth... (like replacing Wroonians with Pantorans but at the same time also retconning Filoni Wars retcons like the changes made to Ryloth and Mandalore) Star Wars Underworld was iirc also supposedly considered for T-canon but how much it would differ from G and C beyond expanding on Boba's teen years is entirely up to speculation. You could also argue that the game SW 1313 might've been either G or C due to his input but I'm inclined to think it was going to be in C. The 80s Droids cartoon has never been clarified afaik even in the context of the old sw forum, but personally I treat it as C-tier but that's just me. Shadows of the Empire is also debatable, but it could go either way.
C means Canon and refers to anything that has a cohesive narrative that followed itself and the movies and went through George or his chief editor's approval. Mainly the placement of the majority of the video games, most of the Bantam novels, majority of Del Rey novels, Dark Horse comics, and editorials. C-tier was encouraged to not contradict G-tier or other C-tier works (especially during the Del Rey era when the tiers were heavily enforced). Earlier works made before the tiers were created that didn't contradict the movies or other later works heavily were made part of C-tier, like Zahn's books, most Bantam books (despite some of them containing a few S-tier issues down the line) and some reference books. The C-tier could also be retconned by George if he wanted to do something in the films that the C-tier wouldn't allow, however he would still listen to his editors on the matter, such as when he wanted a young Greedo in TPM or a young Han Solo in Revenge of the Sith (
) where he was being raised by Chewbacca and even met Yoda ffs but he was ultimately convinced against it due to how it wouldn't work with what was known about the character, among other things (George wasn't unreasonable to say the least, and it shows that he works best when working with others). Also stories that have minor inconsistencies are still treated as part of C-tier, as the minor inconsistencies (like characters having different colors, or characters getting dates and names wrong or something like that, or some factions being depicted as dumber or demeaning) can just be brushed off or abridged as in-universe errors or biases. A lot of the old SW.com short stories and lore blogs also fell under this category before the site got wiped in 2011 to make way for the disney overlords.
(Edit: Fucking TOR)
S means Secondary and its where a lot of the more apocryphal and older comics and books (mostly those of the 70s and 80s) fall under back when an established continuity hadn't yet been enforced by George and Kevin J. Anderson. Basically anything that contradicts G and C falls under S, as well as most of the mediocre and bad stories, like the 70s Marvel comics, the Jedi Prince kids books, the Ewoks comics, or ones that are outright stated to be in-universe tall tales, drunken ramblings or biased reports, like much of the Star Wars Tales comics which (despite how many idiots bitch about Skippy the Jedi Droid) has a fucking excerpt right at the start of each story that clearly says that most of said tales are rumors, or how Cracken's Threat Dossier, Illustrated SW Universe and several reference books clearly start with excerpts from the in-universe authors saying that they're probably wrong about certain things or were forced to edit certain truths due to imperial or republic censorship (unreliable narrator basically). Another way to think about S-tier is that stuff in said tier probably happened but not in the way it was told, with Jedi Prince for example being a fictionalized retelling of events that happened as told by Leia to her children when they were toddlers. As such, while events in the stories aren't referenced much (like the infamous Ken Palpatine), some characters, tech or aliens from them do become staples in the rest of the continuity, like Barabels from Zorba's Revenge.
N means Non-Canon, and its where most Infinities stories (alternate timeline stuff) happens, as well as the parody stories or anything outright stated to have never happened goes. Infinities stories are actually pretty damn good, especially if you love a good Yoda jihad, and its also where The Star Wars (George's early draft compilation) falls under, as well as any unfinished or altered scripts. Despite being the category for non canon stuff, stuff that exists here may rarely show up in mainline stuff, like Tag and Bink from the parody comics being alluded to exist in the main timeline but their adventures are likely far less outrageous.
There's also a D-tier, but we don't talk about D-tier.
Okay, lame jokes aside, D-tier was a bizarre new category that was invented like right before things went to hell in a handbasket for Lucasfilm. It was a weird new category that was made exclusively for the then new at the time cgi comedy cartoon Star Wars Detours which was never released and only one episode has ever surfaced. The category was placed below N, although why it exists when it could've just been placed in N-tier is beyond me.
The show was basically just a stretched out version of the Robot Chicken Star Wars sketches, which also had Seth Green and MacFarlene return for writing and voice acting.
The third episode in Season 1 of the cancelled series Star Wars: Detours has been found and released to the public on November 29, 2020.
archive.org
) where he was being raised by Chewbacca and even met Yoda ffs but he was ultimately convinced against it due to how it wouldn't work with what was known about the character, among other things (George wasn't unreasonable to say the least, and it shows that he works best when working with others). Also stories that have minor inconsistencies are still treated as part of C-tier, as the minor inconsistencies (like characters having different colors, or characters getting dates and names wrong or something like that, or some factions being depicted as dumber or demeaning) can just be brushed off or abridged as in-universe errors or biases. A lot of the old SW.com short stories and lore blogs also fell under this category before the site got wiped in 2011 to make way for the disney overlords.
