Star Wars Expanded Universe/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


These things about Star Wars Expanded Universe are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • It's a common game to find proof Luke's on the dark side. Citing Dark Empire is cheating.
    • Palpatine's running of a brutal dictatorship and commission of numerous atrocities and superweapons: preparing the galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, or convenient excuse-mongering from the losing side?
    • Recycled and pumped up to the point of Omniscient Morality License with Darth Revan.
    • Vergere is made for this, because she deliberately refuses to be pinned down as any one thing. Is she a heroic Trickster Mentor, a scheming evil Chessmaster, a broken individual trying to make up for the mistakes of her past, a loyal but unorthodox Jedi of the Old Republic, a Sith Acolyte, or just crazy? You can find support in the text for all of these, though admittedly some more than others- the reader is left to draw their own conclusions. Recent books have been trying to hammer in the "Vergere was a Sith!" interpretation in order to support the Legacy of the Force storyline; this was of debatable success.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Ben. Even after being trained in the dark side, tortured by Caedus, and molested by Tahiri, in addition to his mother's death, the worst thing he's done is snark about his father.
  • Archive Panic: That's putting it lightly.
  • Anvilicious: Luke constantly telling Cade that drugs are bad.
  • Better Than Canon: When Children of the Jedi came out, most fans preferred Luke with Mara. Of course, this later became canon. Also, some fans would like to leave Chewie's death and everything afterward out of canon.
    • Ironically, Chewie's death was green-lighted by Lucas himself. There's a rule that the death or marriage of any of the major characters from the movie trilogy had to be run by Lucas first, one of the few times Lucas even deals with the EU. Luke's marriage was something snuck past Lucas at the last minute, after Lucas had already turned it down. Needless to say, he wasn't happy about it when he found out.
  • Black Hole Sue: here's one blogger's analysis of how and why Luke's continued presence in the EU is simply bogging things down.
    • And, of course, the Mandalorians in anything written by Traviss.
  • Broken Base: There are several wars going on over the quality of various parts of the Expanded Universe.
    • Even more violent and vitriolic than the argument over the quality of the Expanded Universe is the argument over the canonicity of the Expanded Universe. How bad did it get? Let's put it this way: when the Non-Canon side of the argument pointed out that George Lucas himself, the creator of Star Wars and the Presumed Voice of God when it comes to Star Wars (at least one would think, anyway), doesn't consider anything other than the films to be canon, the Pro-Canon side of the argument's response was to marginalize Lucas's opinions as unimportant in the overall scheme of things since "he really has no say in the matter", a view Lucas apparently finds rather funny and, naturally, dismisses out of hand as ludicrous.
      • Of course, then the prequel trilogy came out, and many of the film fans had their own turn at "George Lucas doesn't know what the hell he's doing and I'll decide what's proper Star Wars canon for myself!"
    • Lucas has stated that the Expanded Universe is valid unto itself. He clarified this when he stated that the Star Wars Expanded Universe is a separate entity from "official" Star Wars material, and has a canon and internal consistency all of its own outside of "real" (his words) Star Wars canon. The Pro-Canon EU fans didn't take being told that the EU was essentially a "side project" very well, either. (The Pro-Canon EU fans can be overzealous sometimes).
  • Complete Monster: Has it's own page.
  • Crack is Cheaper: So many books, comics and video games, that if you're not selective your wallet will have a strong bond with The Force.
  • Crack Pairing: In fanfic, Mara is paired with any male she spends significant time with. This includes Emperor Palpatine (borderline Parental Incest), Karrde, Lando, Kyle, and Corran. But it also includes both of Luke's nephews.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Lucien Draay's destiny is to become Darth Sion...but then he decides to Screw Destiny and kick Haazen's ass.
  • Designated Hero: Cade is forced to take this role by virtue of his bloodline only. If he had his own way, he'd still be smuggling and racking up bounties in the Outer Rim with no worries.
  • Designated Villain: Vestara is seen as this by some, because she has good intentions, and hasn't been shown doing much actual evil. Both in-universe and fan arguments that the Jedi are Not So Different, certainly don't help.

I am Vestara Khai, daughter of a proud heritage. I have what is necessary to command the dark side and bend it to my will. To use it for the good of the Tribe, and the People.

    • Basically, any Jedi espousing the Potentatum philosophy gets retconned as this, or falls to the Dark Side.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Vestara shows signs of becoming this.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Cronal has appeared in one old comic, one novel, and a handful of online and gamebook articles- but is widely regarded as one of Palpatine's most powerful and chilling minions.
    • Nom Anor, probably the most popular new character introduced in New Jedi Order.
    • Vergere.
    • Nen Yim. Though not so much as Nom Anor, she's pretty popular among a certain subset of the fanbase (especially among the general Vong-fans).
    • Darth Talon probably has the most merchandise and publicity of all the Legacy characters. Here's a hint, it's not because of her winning personality.
    • Emperor Roan Fel.
  • Fan Dumb: "George Lucas's opinion on what is and is not canon in Star Wars might be an interesting piece of trivia, but in the end Lucas has absolutely no say in the matter. It's not up to him what is an is not Star Wars." Yes, this was actually said. By Chad Barbry, founder of Wookieepedia. When George Lucas heard this, his response was simple: "Well, everyone's entitled to be wrong at least once in their lives."
    • Of course, it's now a few years later and George Lucas has sold Star Wars to Disney. Meaning he now literally has no say over what's canon and what isn't. So apparently Barbry wasn't completely wrong, he was just a little early.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Fans preferred Mara/Luke over Callista/Luke.
  • Fetish Fuel: Jarael, Chantique, Darth Talon.
  • God Mode Sue: Jacen, especially blatant when you compare his twin sister.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Hoth chocolate. And before you ask how cocoa beans can grow on Hoth: It's just regular hot chocolate with tauntaun milk.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Sith Emperor spent almost 1300 years developing his plans and managed to deliver quite a beating to the Republic and the Jedi.
    • Thrawn is the definitive example of this trope in the Star Wars EU.
    • Warlord Zsinj
    • Lumiya is personally responsible for nearly everything that happened in Legacy of the Force. Her motivation is never stated outright, but it's implied that she did it all just to fuck with Luke Skywalker and ruin his life. Talk about Evil Is Petty!
    • Vergere
    • Darth Wyyrlok III
    • Moff Calixte
  • Mary Sue: There are a few that may, but mostly they're Depending on the Writer. One of the main base-breaking examples is Mara Jade, who exhibits many of the required traits: She's important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, is ludicrously and irrelevantly over-skilled (pilot, slicer, tactician, combatant, spy, dancer, Jedi master - even surpassing Luke in sensory perception) and has an over-idealized nature (being all at once snarky, physically tough, warm, beautiful, calm under pressure, devoted wife etc). Most infuriating however, is that her very existence as the "Emperor's Hand" diminishes Darth Vader, who was always thought to be the Emperor's main Badass...until she came along. She also has a highly Sue-ish name, as well as having the rarest color combinations found in humanity.
    • Other EU contenders for this title include Corran Horn, who at one point was inserted into other EU canon events and made instrumental in their success, but is also given special Jedi powers (with thin canon references as excuses) and a special heritage (he's from a long line of revered Corellian Jedi). Wedge gets accused of this due to some authors apparently buying into the character's statements of ego as instead being statements of fact. And then there is, of course, any character that counts as a Mandalorian when written by a certain infamous author.
  • Memetic Badass: In- and out-of-universe.
    • In-universe, Jaina went so far as to have all transmissions refer to her as "goddess", to help her impersonate the Vong trickster goddess!
  • Memetic Molester: Jacen. Indeed, at points, his attempts to turn Ben to the dark side start to look like pedophilia, albeit without the sex.
  • Memetic Mutation: Anakin Solo had the hots for his aunt?
  • Memetic Sex Goddess:
    • Fanon states that Daala is completely incompetent and only got her admiralty by sleeping with Tarkin. In the books, she is portrayed as remarkably incompetent, with the occasional Take That to the audience who thinks that way.
    • Tahiri is both one of these and a Memetic Molester.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Chantique
  • Moral Event Horizon: When Ulic Qel-Droma kills Cay. Which then causes him to cross the line back from the other side almost immediately.
    • Chantique mocking Zayne after Snout's death. And her manipulation.
    • The Mon Calamari massacre to Darth Krayt.
    • Raana manipulating Shel into trying to kill Zayne. After that pretty much any sympathy the audience had went out the window.
    • Acenscion contains a rare example of a character crossing their own Moral Event Horizon. After several books of UST, Vestara Khai finally starts a relationship with Ben Skywalker and expresses interest in turning to the Light Side. Later in the book, she, Ben, and a Red Shirt are sent on a mission, during which an alien predator goes after Ben. Vestara saves him by feeding the Red Shirt to the monster. This causes her to label herself as irredeemable.
  • Narm: Not nearly as much as in the movies. Even so, it's there, though of course Narm Charm applies.
  • Nightmare Fuel: How C'Baoth kills General Covall.
    • Aboleth.
    • Raana's appearance after she and Zayne get Lacerated.
  • OT3: Denning likes to imply as much about Jenna, Zekk, and Jag.
  • The Scrappy: There are many, as expected from such a large verse. Jacen in particular can't seem to catch a break -- in the early NJO he got fan hate for being ineffective, whiny, and totally unlike his YJK personality; mid-to-late NJO got him accused of being a God Mode Sue (though this was probably the period where he had the most fans); Dark Nest through early LOTF was where he started being an epic Knight Templar and Jerkass; and now fans are angry he got killed off before having a chance to make his mark as a villain (well, he did kill Mara, but that just made fandom hate him even more).
    • Creator-wise, Kevin J. Anderson gets a lot of hate for Darksaber (and, frankly, pretty much anything else he's written, especially involving the pathetic Admiral Daala. But don't take our word for it — go ask a Dune fan.). Also, Karen Traviss gets a lot for talk about clone slaves and her hatred of Jedi.
    • Actually, the Mandalorians, as written by Karen Traviss, qualify as a Creator's Pet. 1. They are not particularly likeable to the readers. 2. Karen Traviss loves them to death, and everything she does with them boils down to shilling, as well as using this group as her Author Avatar. 3. They butted into a lot of big scenes, and the reasons for that were very weak at best - the three books written by her in Legacy of the Force are the most egregious examples. The other authors out there are well aware of her protrayal of this group. This is evidenced by the fact that their protrayals of the Mandalorians show them as either a Complete Monster group or - as Han Solo artfully puts it - MESFACs (Masters of Every Single Flippin' Aspect of Combat).
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: And how!
  • Squick: Ghost sex! Force rape! Pedophile Sith! Huttese pornography! The Brain Bleach is over there if you need it.
  • Villain Decay: Darth Nihil was very intimidating in his first appearence. Ever since then he's become more and more of a whipping boy.
  • Villain Sue:
    • Despite Daala's track record of getting her own ships destroyed at little cost to the enemy, she's somehow become regarded as the second coming of Thrawn. By the end of Legacy of the Force, the government apparently thinks that giving her the most powerful position in the galaxy is a smart move.
    • Tarkin blew up a planet? Kyp blows up a whole system! He's actually presented as more powerful than Luke, though Word of God changes that.
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