I suggested starting a conversation, and you turned that into people randomly discussing it because you couldn't grasp the idea of starting a conversation.
I did not. This is what I initially responded to.
Go try to strike up some water cooler conversation at work with a star wars "fan" they won't have any idea who the fuck Revan, Bane, Exar Kun, etc. are.
This was my response.
I dunno, when someone tells me they're a star wars fan there's usually a 50/50 chance that they actually are pretty familiar with the EU. Usually the ones that aren't are younger zoomers who grew up when the EU was getting overshadowed by Filoni Wars or boomers/gen xers who were too old to have kids when the prequels were coming out.
Everything since then, I hope, seems to have been the result of us misunderstanding each other.
I suggested starting a conversation, and you turned that into people randomly discussing it because you couldn't grasp the idea of starting a conversation.
Conversations can start and flow randomly, especially in an office environment where people have to come and go. The last time I talked about Star Wars at work was with some people talking about old RPGs and we got on the topic of Kotor. Shockingly you don't have to start a conversation to be involved in one.
It absolutely does, and that I was not the only person who responded to you who thought that was the point you were making is proof enough.
I said older casual fans wouldn't,
Sure, and no one was arguing that the people who considered being a fan of Star Wars as just liking the OT were.
but at the same time zoomers and gen alpha fans likely aren't going out and reading the 90s books at this point either.
I am a(n older) Zoomer. I first read the Thrawn Trilogy in 2017. A younger coworker of mine got them for Christmas two years ago. Are most casual moviegoers going to read them? No, and that was never the argument. Again, my point is simple; when I talk Star Wars with someone who calls themselves a fan and they're younger, there's usually a 50/50 chance they're familiar with the EU. Because people rarely call themselves a 'fan' of a massive franchise with some movies they watched once or twice a decade ago, even if they really enjoyed those movies.
es, the Thrawn trilogy sold 15 million combined, if we assume the buyers bought all 3 books, that's 5 million buyers. That number is practically nothing when just considering the theatrical runs of the original trilogy estimated 80-120 million tickets each(ep 4 was apparently the highest of the 3). Even if we use the lower 80 million number for ROTJ, the thrawn trilogy sales are still only 6% of the ticket sales for the movie.
1): The 15 million number is from when the novels were new. This does not account for the multiple later reprints, graphic novel adaption, e-book conversions or the Disney knockoff trilogy. The number is certainly higher now.
2): Sales is not a good way to measure how many people read a book, except as a baseline. Libraries buy books. Parents read books to their children. People share books (this was how I lost my first copy of the Thrawn Trilogy). Etc.
Now, sure, you can say that even if we adjust upwards that's still a fraction of ticket sales for the movies. And absolutely! In fact I already said as such:
The Thrawn Trilogy alone sold something like 15 million copies when they were new. Is that a fraction of the people who watched and liked the movies? Sure. But people who just liked the movies probably aren't going to be interested in gushing about Star Wars in a casual conversation to begin with.
Odd you didn't quote the full sentence and then reiterated my own point while accusing me of only reading half of what you post.
but you're the one insisting that I was wrong about most fans not bothering with the EU when the number of percentage of thrawn trilogy sales compared to again just theatrical run ticket sales isn't even in the double digits.
My point, to restate it for the third or fourth time, is that most younger people who would identify as a fan of Star Wars are probably aware of some of the most prominent parts of the EU. Yes, the boomers who grew up with the OT probably don't know who Revan, Bane, Exar Kun, etc. is. I never argued that. But a lot of millennials and zoomers did grow up with Kotor.
