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Forget ROTJ. It's the '80s, the classic trilogy is complete, and WEG is about to make the gamebooks. Vitech (allegedly) has begun planning out Dark Empire. One would assume that Zahn has some ideas in mind...

So how would you guide the EU, or alternatively, how would you make it had you have Q powers?

I'd keep most of the bigger parts of the EU (Thrawn trilogy, DE, Rogue Squadron), but streamline them and have the suckier parts not suck. Having actually read Dark Empire (and keeping in mind the anecdotal praises Lucas sang about it), I would keep the Reborn Emperor idea, but make sure that Anakin has a big role in it, and close it off with him sacrificing himself a second time to drag Palpatine into Space Hell. Redundant? Maybe, but at least you'll get to see more of adult Anakin outside of his mech suit.

Alternatively, if we got rid of DE altogether, I have in mind an alternate course for the Dark Side post-ROTJ. First off, the remaining would-be Sith who Palpatine trained briefly pull together, but they end up splintering as badly as the military and government does. There are two Palpatine Scares, but no actual Reborn Emperor. The first one occurs at a time when the New Republic is still trying to edge out the warlords, and a lot of people getting tired of the NR's ineffectiveness. Cue requisite sentiment for Palpatine and the old regime. Lots of Dark Side influence abounds, cults spring up etc.

What ends up happening is that members of the Inquisitorius, the Dark Side Prophets, and the Royal Guard create a massive hoax of the Emperor returning, based around the highest ranking Sith at that time. Their hoax is revealed by the heroes, the NR fights them, and the Sith remnant is badly defeated. They run away to Byss, leading to the Second Palpatine Scare, where Luke and Co. basically go to Byss, some spooky things happen, and they find out that the remnant of the Sith remnant are trying to resurrected Palpatine.

Luke fights off some failed clones (who are mindless but naturally wankily powerful), and in a neat aside you find out that Palpatine's spirit has become so corrupt that he's basically a blind, insane, babbling Force ghost. However, he's still insanely powerful, so he's more of the ravenous rampaging wraith instead of a doddering old spirit. He may or may not show up for a scene at the end, but suffice to say the Sith remnant is defeated, and perhaps Byss is heavily destroyed at some point. Force Storms!

Then there's the core to my idea- the Fourth Sith Civil War happens. You get a lot of younger Dark Jedi pissed off at the Sith for leading them to their deaths. And the 'Sith', who aren't even true Sith anyways but just Palpatine's most powerful students who maybe played with some holocrons before aren't that many- maybe a few dozen, definitely less than a hundred. And so you get a tiny shadow civil war between the traditional Sith wannabes and Darksiders who are simply tired of the Sith, believing that their hierarchy and philosophy have screwed up the Dark Side. They declare themselves completely lost and freed by their emotions, become all attuned to their own wildness, and experiment with the Force like hippies with acid.

So what you end up with is the old school Sith who are a complete ghost of their old glory, trying to bring it back by resurrecting Darth Bane or the next ancient Sith Lord of the day- Ragnos, or even Palpatine. And you have True Darksiders, who revel in the Dark Side without the discipline of Sith teachings, do not crave galactic dominion, and have their own distinct culture(s). They're greater in number, and mostly weak and inexperienced, though ironically they're led by whoever's in charge of the Shadow Academy. In old World of Darkness terms, the New Republic is the Traditions, the Imperials are the Technocracy (albeit completely weakened and splintered), the Sith wannabes are the Nephandi, and the Darksiders are the Marauders).

So, that's my idea. I don't think anyone has read this.

I don't care for Rogue Squadron; Stackpole's model for the post-Endor war up-to-and-including the capture of Coruscant is hopelessly minimalistic, stupid, and unrealistic. We're talking about a galactic insurgency developing into a credible opposition state to the Galactic Empire and challenging it for its capital in conventional warfare. Of course that's all nerfed by the magic naval aviators of Rogue Squadron.

To be honest, I haven't read the series. I just named it as an example of one that was rather prominent in establishing the post-Endor EU, was very popular, and had many installments. I'd keep some elements from it, though, such as Zsinj, and of course the iconic squadron. Aside from DE, the Thrawn stuff, and Rogue Squadron, the only other series that are prominent in the NR Era are all the Jedi Academy books, which I'd probably keep anyways. Some of the one-shot books (such as Truce at Bakura) definitely merit keeping, but the elements that should be kept should be picked and chosen on a case-by-case basis.

Such as Courtship of Princess Leia. Why the hell would Han win an entire planet in a sarlaac game. Which just happens to be in the middle of Imperial territory. And populated by Force witches.

But I'd get rid of the NJO stuff, though, and try to chart out a different future from there.

A clean slate after ROTJ... The prequels have no bearing as well? The EU doesn't get to touch Luke, Leia, The Old Jedi or The Sith as far as making them main characters in their stories. Leia will be a figure in all the stories as she is going to be High Chancellor. Luke especially is not to be touched as he is going to be MIA until the last of MY prequels come out.

Luke: He will get stories occasionally written by ME. (Am I GL in this scenario, or do I just have control?)
These stories will consist of Luke's search for the Jedi and their history, as well as other Force using groups. Even the Sith. As these stories progress and get closer to the completion of the movie saga a NEW Jedi Order will begin to take shape. Luke's role in this Order will be much like Yoda's in the Old Order, and he will not be bouncing around the galaxy responding to every little crisis, but instead be a steadying force at the head of the New Order.

Han and Leia: They split for two reasons.
A. Leia will be rebuilding the Republic, and making it one that works again, and just will not have time to be a wife and have children at all.
B. Han, while he loves Leia, doesn't want to sit around watching her rebuild the galaxy, and returns somewhat to his old ways. I'm imagining him in a Talon Karde type role as he was when he was helping the NR, or working with someone of that type and helping Leia in his own way, but still having adventures.
They will eventually get back together and have children. Still 3, but only one of them, Bail Solo, (Yeah, Leia is going to name a son after the man that killed BILLIONS when he destroyed her home PLANET) will be Force sensitive. His training will be undertaken by Luke and Luke alone.

More later...

Keep the Thrawn Trilogy, follow it up with Garm Bel Iblis building the Darksaber as a superweapon to use against the Imperial Remnants, with the New Republic on the verge of a civil war while Luke and Han trying to convince Bel Iblis to scrap the Darksaber. Later, Luke faces a powerful Sith Lord-- maybe a clone who's under the delusion that he's Darth Vader-- who makes the Imperial Remnants a credible threat. Delete Admiral Daala and Kyp Durron-- they're too damn lame to be entertaining characters.

Battlehymn Republic wrote:Some of the one-shot books (such as Truce at Bakura) definitely merit keeping, but the elements that should be kept should be picked and chosen on a case-by-case basis.

I haven't read 'Truce at Bakura' yet, but from what I've heard about the heroes and villains, I'd delete the book-- the idea of evil aliens who drain human souls to power their technology is too damn ridiculous, and the "Imperial officer who rejects his faith in the New Order" bit is too damn cliche.

Such as Courtship of Princess Leia. Why the hell would Han win an entire planet in a sarlaac game. Which just happens to be in the middle of Imperial territory. And populated by Force witches.

Delete 'The Courtship of Princess Leia' as well. I'm sick and tired of hacks portraying Luke as a dumbass who was apparently lobotomized after the Battle of Endor.

But I'd get rid of the NJO stuff, though, and try to chart out a different future from there.

I second that.

havokeff wrote:(Yeah, Leia is going to name a son after the man that killed BILLIONS when he destroyed her home PLANET)

More later...

She wasn't going to name her kid Wilhuff...


My plan for the beginning would be to keep the Zahn books intact, except that we will replace the Katana fleet with the Death Star prototype. The New Republic and Empire are scrambling to find where this weapon is. Some elements of the Jedi Academy trilogy MIGHT be incorporated but only minor details such as the Maw Installation, and a less retarded female Admiral who agrees to work for Thrawn.

The X-Wing series will be launched with a ban on force sensitive characters, editors will be instructed to limit the fighter jock wank and the series will have a greater focus on Wedge Antilles as he tries to adapt to being a Colonel or General in charge of a much larger group, Rogue Squadron included. Corran Horn meanwhile is the person trying to lead the squadron in Wedge's place and is not a complete tool with latent Jedi ability. Luke Skywalker is depicted once as a spectacular pilot who has abilities no one else in Rogue Squadron can touch and is still a member of the military at this point.

The Wraith series will be left intact, but Wedge Antilles will not actively take part in Missions, Tycho Celchu (whose dumb brainwashed subplot will be removed) will take over for that.

As for the immediate aftermath of RoTJ, we will scrap Truce at Bakura. In the wake of Endor and the death of Palpatine we will keep the resulting split in the Empire. All of the major political figures are killed at Endor in what is recognized as a spectacular blunder. The Rebel Alliance establishes a free territory centered around Mon Calamari and more uprisings spring across the galaxy, with the Empire still largely in control.

Instead of rampant Warlords carving out territories, The military assumes direct control over all affairs, installing a high ranking official of great respect (unnamed) as Supreme Military Commander. This commander will be widely reviled by political figures and non humans as martial law is declared throughout the Empire.

A story arc of five to six books depicting the Rebel Armed Forces dealing with cowed worlds takes place. The institution of Martial Law has an adverse effect on sentiments toward the Empire and thus the Rebels are able to expand their insurgency. At the conclusion, the Empire largely falls with the exception of the remaining Imperial territories kept under control by Grand Admiral Thrawn, thus leading into the Thrawn trilogy.

We replace the New Jedi Order series with a short arc tenatively titled "Jedi Archaeology" until a better idea comes out. Where Luke Skywalker is sifting through the remains of the Jedi Order. This will give fans clamoring for a tie in to the prequels something to masturbate over a little bit while giving Luke the opportunity to lay the groundwork for a Jedi Order that isn't completely retarded. At some point Luke will have the revelation o his own accord that he needs to do things differently than the Jedi of Old, while at the sime time restoring them. Perhaps while at the same time debating whether or not the Jedi should even be restored, especially once he learns of the old prophecy.

Eventually the now restored Republic needs to come under a galactic threat of some sort. But not in Luke Skywalker's time, we'll have extra galactic invaders set further into the future and a Skywalker descendant of some type will be a main character. The invaders, instead of being organic bullshit, will be entirely artificial intelligence, posessing technology of a similar scale. The big challenge will be to make them not like the Cylons I guess.

None of the Solo kids will turn into Emo Dark Jedi, but one of Luke Students will turn eventually. Perhaps corrupted out of a misguided need to bring balance to the Force and counter the Jedi. OTher Jedi will have a hard time stopping him, with Luke coming in at the end to curbstomp the threat.

Kevin J Anderson is banned from writing any books period, KAren Traviss as well. any author who proposes devloping a unique Star Wars language will be insta-banned.

The prequel EU? I do not change very much of it save for the removal of the Jangowank.

I would not let the EU writers use the characters from the movies except as the once-in-a-blue-moon cameo, but such cameos have to approved by ME. 99.9% of EU would not be allowed to be created. It sucks out loud.

Are we referring to just post-RotJ EU or the entire EU? In which case, KotoR would be the first victim of mine. No Darth Gary-Stu in my franchise.

KJA and KT will both be banned from book writing, the Jedi will be less of an insular monk group that obeys or disobeys orders as it pleases, katana fleet will be changed to an imperial fleet that was lost when rebel saboteurs irradiated the ship mid-transit, killing the crew. The clone emperor would show up, rebuild the empire by bringing in the warlords, (who would have defected because the emperor deliberatly insured the empire would collapse until his return, to stop anyone from getting a firm grip on power while he was dead.) and generaly gather the cool characters of the EU together for a massive war with the NR, who would have gotten better ships by that point. the NR would be collapseing before the imperial fleet, but would eventally launch a massive assault towards Byss, and then Luke and the jedi trainees would break into the new imperial palace while a ground assualt was going on, and fight through a number of Dark Jedi mooks, losing the stupid/ annoying jedi along the way, then luke would fight palpatine, partly lose, then have a suprise assist from a noghri Dark Jedi, and be able to finish the fight. the noghri dark Jedi would turn out to have been generally tricked and unaware of the worst of Palpitines crimes, and get to be a Jedi, after a long time in prison.

1. All authors will be required to take a test in basic physics and mathematics and watch at least one documentary about D-Day before inventing any hard numbers about anything military.

2. Ancillary characters will die regularly. With a few notable exceptions, no pilot or commando will appear in more than three books.

3. Mara Who?

Hmm...

Purely organic technology is banned as a possibility. In fact, I will have anybody who suggests anything even remotely resembling organic tech as anything more than an annoyance fired immediately and without warning.

All writers must pass any numbers they come up with by me, and give a detailed explanation of how they determined them upon request, should I disagree with their assessment. Should I still disagree at this point, I will have to divine a reasonable number of the correct order of magnitude.

Main characters from the trilogy may not be written about at all without my express permission.

Superweapons may not be written about without my express permission. And there had better be a bloody good explanation for why they're there.

Fighters may not harm shielded warships under any circumstances. No exceptions. Don't even bother asking. Snubship pilots attacking a capital-scale warship suffer 90% casualties or worse, no questions asked.

As a general rule, Imperial personnel are better trained than their rebel counterparts.

The Empire is more technologically advanced than the Rebellion. They can accept that, and represent it in their fluff, or they can find someone else to work for.

Anything even remotely related to the Force absolutely must pass by me for approval.

Continuing....

The Empire: Like the Old Republic, it ceases to be and Leia and Mon Mothma work with who is left to reform it back into a Republic. Basically a communique goes out that goes something like this... "To all Imperial forces. We have killed your Emperor and Darth Vader. We have destroyed TWO Death Stars. We have Jedi. You are welcome back into the fold of the Republic that we will now establish or you can fall back to the unknown regions and remain there. You have one standard week to answer."

The Yuuzhan Vong: I like these guys and they get to stay in my EU, but they aren't quite so different from us and none of this "We lost the Force" BS. They will come in at a later period and will be more of a threat than the Clone Wars.

Other Characters: There are quite a few characters that I like from the EU so they can stay and most with their current back stories. Some have to go though.

To be continued....

The ysalamiri are, at the most, Force-sensitive creatures with only the power of interfering with the senses of other Force-sensitive creatures. They don't get to be anti-magic fields. This is assuming I wouldn't eliminate them entirely from the continuity.

The Vong strike me too much as Star Trek villains. Lose them.

Jango/Boba Fett would no longer be the last remnant of an ancient race of uber-warriors. They get to be scrappy humans with cool gear. End of story. Something resembling the Mandalorians will remain for the sake of the Sith Wars/KOTOR, but they don't get to be the ancestors of the Fetts.

I like the idea that heavy bombers can affect sheilded warships, and rouge squadron&co will be protecting them from fighter attack. The Y-wings will be changed to light bombers used for ground attack and killing frigates, plus smashing capital ships that lost shields. Heavy bombers will be the K-wing and mini-corvettes. Tech will be equal, but the empire stuff will have a better and more expensive design.

I propose using fictional units of measurement for ALL NUMBERS given regarding the performance of certain vehicles and weapons, so we won't get idiot Trekkies arguing over them in ST Vs SW debates.

Darth Fanboy wrote:My plan for the beginning would be to keep the Zahn books intact, except that we will replace the Katana fleet with the Death Star prototype. The New Republic and Empire are scrambling to find where this weapon is. Some elements of the Jedi Academy trilogy MIGHT be incorporated but only minor details such as the Maw Installation, and a less retarded female Admiral who agrees to work for Thrawn.

Raising the stakes for the New Republic? I like this idea. Let's have acquiring enough fuel/hypermatter/whatever to power the Death Star prototype be one reason Thrawn is launching a campaign of conquest.

I almost agree with Sidewinder, except, NO MORE SITH.

Better have a huge rift among the Jedi, a new Jedi Civil War of sorts if you wish somewhere down the line (New Jedi Order?), that could be interesting.

Also, please something better than Vong invasion.

Stas Bush wrote:I almost agree with Sidewinder, except, NO MORE SITH.

The problem with the Sith is that the people who write about them, write badly. The movies have shown that the Sith can be very effective villains.

Better have a huge rift among the Jedi, a new Jedi Civil War of sorts if you wish somewhere down the line (New Jedi Order?), that could be interesting.

Basically, Kyp Durron's rebellion written realistically? I support this idea.

Also, please something better than Vong invasion.

How about Unicron as the main villain? At the very least, having one big strong enemy instead of an army of sadomasochistic self-mutilating nutjobs as the enemy, means the storyline won't drag on and on and bore the hell out of the Warsies.

Hmmm, well, I would like to keep the main characters in it from time to time, but they will usually serve the role of a mentor to the newer characters. KOTOR will still be kept (It was damn good compared to most of the UE IMHO, and it shall serve as a backdrop for an invasion of what Revan and the Exile went off to fight, instead of the freaking YV), as will the Mandalorians. However, the Mando's will get a slight tweaking. For one, while it will be established that their armor and equipment are better than the norm, the main reason they're such badasses will be that they fight *smart.* Their language, for example, will not be spoken in public, instead used on the battlefield as a means of code communications, so that if a transmission is intercepted, the opposing forces will have not a bloody clue what's being said. There will also be a heavy influence on use of combined arms doctrines, etc. Pretty much, all authors will be required to have their combat scenes reviewed by trained military personnel, who will get the final say in what happens.

The Jedi will also get an intelligence upgrade, as Luke, learning well the lessons for the Jedi purge, starts having them wear armor. It doesn't have to be anything big and fancy, but just something so that if they're overwhelmed by enemy fire, they've got a better chance of getting out alive. Also, they may start to carry ranged weapon, but I haven't made up my mind regarding that.

Lastly, there will be at least one story in which an Executor is present, and it will be observed to beat the utter crap out of the NR/Rebel fleet its up against. This will serve the purpose of firming establishing in the mind of other authors what the movies stated: that this was a big bloody ship designed to go toe to toe with enemy fleets and come out on top.

Fuck this 'New Republic are pussies' shit. The cat is out of the bag. The New Republic will immediately start building The Tarkin type vessels, its own star dreadnoughts, and such, just as soon as its budget can support it. If a superweapon is introduced, the Republic will have it. It may not use it, but it will have it. If I allow a Dark Empire type story, Byss will be destroyed by a New Republic planet buster, with the Emperor on it.

One of the things that always annoyed me about the post-Endor EU is that the good guys were never militarily. The New Republic is meant to be a restoration of this:

Star Wars Novellisation wrote:Another galaxy, another time.

The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that ... it was the Republic.

Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awesome, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match.

So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside.

I see no reason the New Republic shouldn't prioritise defence spending and, once it's the established government, be able to kick the shit out of the Empire or the Vong, or at least fight them on equal terms. Refusing to send massive forces to engage the Vong immediately, or perpetually ignoring every Dark Jedi threat is just moronic...

In my EU, yes, we'll see Excecutors fight. We will also see them get the shit kicked out of them by Mon-Cal ships with twice their volume.

I disagree. I don't believe that the New Republic should be militarized at all on a scale comparable to the Empire; since that fact was one of the very things Mon Mothma and co. criticised about the Emperor. If I controlled the EU, the Empire would always have the better military, since it's pretty much all they do.

Fighters may not harm shielded warships under any circumstances. No exceptions. Don't even bother asking. Snubship pilots attacking a capital-scale warship suffer 90% casualties or worse, no questions asked.

Wait. This goes against "the fighters are so small, they're evading our turbolasers." It also makes one wonder why one would bother with fighters during fleet engagements. In the presence of heavy cap-ship support at Endor, fighters appeared to tip the balance and inflict serious damage on cap-ships at least twice.

Anguirus wrote: Wait. This goes against "the fighters are so small, they're evading our turbolasers." It also makes one wonder why one would bother with fighters during fleet engagements. In the presence of heavy cap-ship support at Endor, fighters appeared to tip the balance and inflict serious damage on cap-ships at least twice.

That's because those were MTL/HTL's that were firing on the fighters, not LTLs designed to swat them down like AA guns. However, I woudl agree, it should be made that a fighter's only true purpose in a battle like that is to slip in through the tiny holes after the cap ships have blasted the crap out of each other.

I think we've seen the Empire get the shit kicked out of them for far too long in the EU. Immediately post-RotJ, greater detail will be put into how the Rebellion gains a major foothold in on the galactic playing field. But I would also make damn well sure to display the sheer size and potency of the Imperial war machine. I'll likely paint it so that even a decade after RotJ, the Rebellion will still have to rely primarily on Ackbar's tactics, the Bothan Spynet, sabotage and subterfuge to last against the remnants of the Empire -- perhaps Borsk Fey'la (sp?) will make several attempts to incite the feuding warlords against one another, depleting Imperial resources.

On the other hand, in most cases that the Rebellion does outright fight, they'll get their ass kicked. Hard. Often. They'll still be woefully outnumbered and outgunned. If they take Coruscant, it will be through massive casualties -- not Ackbar mass pwning Imperial starships (though it will be made explicitly clear that he is one of the reigning tactical gods).

I enjoy dramas and struggles in which the heroes take massive casualties. Either that or kill off a main character: it's the best way to represent the threat posed by the enemy. Much as Harry Potter takes a lot of crap, J.K. Rowling is brilliant when it comes to that. Sometimes, even heroes need pointless, stupid deaths to remind us of the fact that they can be beaten.

Thrawn will appear to kick some Rebellion ass and then attempt to unite the Empire under his own banner, at which point, he will be assassinated by an elite faction still loyal to the late Emperor Palpatine.

I will allow a Dark Empire-esque story to take place, though it won't happen for a great while after RotJ. Luke Skywalker, by that time, will have quite a few fledgling Jedi apprentices to represent a worthy challenge. I might even merge this story with that of Jedi Academy (where the Cult of Ragnos uses Ragnos's scepter to siphon Sith energy to restore the Dark Lord), only this case, instead of attempting to resurrecting Ragnos -- they band together with the Imperial Remnant to restore the Emperor.

I will not neglect the prophecy. So something will have to happen. Perhaps it will be his encounter with death (via Anakin) that will break Palpatine's sanity. Or I might have Luke interrupt the ceremony to revive him so that he doesn't come "all the way back", if you get me. Either way, Palpatine's spirit, lying dormant, has been building his strength and coupled with the Sith energy provided by loyal cultists, he will essentially be in pure Wank-form.

By this point, Luke would have also logically increased dramatically in power (though by increasing the scale of the drama to DE proportions, it will prevent him from singlehandedly pwning the Empire).

I will compare Palpatine's devolution from the brilliant and calculating overlord to an utter psychopath to the Prophet of Truth's "change" from H2 to H3. He's not stupid or retarded, he just -- for whatever reason -- will lack the capacity or the patience or the stability to engage in plots anymore. He'll still have a brilliant mind that will prove useful in sidelining Skywalker and conquering the galaxy, he just won't be making plans for twenty years in the future and so forth.

Cue face-off between the (now) well established New Republic and the remnants of the Empire. They'll be evenly matched, perhaps, or evenly gunned -- but by this point, Palpatine is no longer concerned about "ruling" the galaxy rather than "consuming" it entirely, reversing the roles. This time, the Empire will hold no bars and will attack to completely and utterly KILL. So, initially, the New Republic gets the dogshit kicked out of it before Ackbar and co. discover a way to utilize Palpatine's insanity to its benefit.

Then, cue inevitable final showdown in which, again, Luke kicks typical ass. Palpatine goes berserk and owns... I dunno... a fleet/planet/star system and attempts to light the holy ring -- uh... I mean -- consume the galaxy. They fight and cue the spirit of Anakin Skywalker doing something completely uber and owning Palpatine for a second and very final time.

At which point, the Empire loses its will to fight and makes a surrender to the New Republic -- though they still represent a force to be reckoned with and the NR allows them to carve out their own bit o' space for themselves, though dominance will be completely in NR hands.

The New Republic will build an armed force that is pretty damn uber, but given the logistics of its establishment, will still be lesser to the Empire at its height.

No more Sith. Period. Dark Jedi? Maybe. Sith? No. Never.

The rebellion fleet getting much bigger than the imperial fleet runs into the problem that their new shipyards will be Kuat, Fondor, Moncal, Bilberingi, and every other imperial shipyards, minus any obliterated by the retreating Empire, after factoring in battle damage. Their navy will eventrally be bigger than what the empire has at that point in time, but that's more a factor of imperial losses. I will dictate that if we see a new ship type in mass deployment, It will show up again, unless it performs poorly in the book it shows up in. Finally, i will have to approve new ship types. And the vong will be replaced by a robotic race that has the presence of mind to vary their battle tactics. This race will be difficult to beat with computer attacks, because they were well programmed to protect against such things, and counter attack the hacking computer. No one will be stupid enough to try negotiating after it is learned that the invaders have come to conquer the galaxy at the order of their creators. The SW galaxy locals will win by destroying enough factory ships that the invaders retreat.

I felt like after ROTJ the story was "wrapped up" as far as the galaxy was concerned (others will disagree). I'd focus the EU on what happened in those three years between ANH and ESB, and the backstory that the prequels covered. You could just say "and they lived happily ever after" after the credits in ROTJ rolled, but you have a backstory already established as occurring before the trilogy, so focus on that.

I'd make where there was a writers bible based on strong scrutiny of the themes, characters, and original ideas behind the OT itself to ensure continuity.

Basically nothing would be assumed, and I wouldn't consult the video games or worry about incorporating the marvel comics stories that existed in '87 into it.

Of course if the prequels were going to get made anyway, that would complicate things. So we'd either have to work around that. But I think the prequels should have been different anyway, and all planned in advance, with stricter continuity to the OT itself.

If done properly though, with enough planning, the new movies wouldn't have to be such a radical departure from both the pre-existing EU and the OT. The end goal would be to have the EU be in continuity with itself, and also true to all the movies in spirit.

And finally, in 1987, it was a mere four years after ROTJ, so it would have been much more possible to make another trilogy of movies taking place after ROTJ. I know I just said that the post-ROTJ era was wrapped up, but if you really wanted to cover that period, doing it in movies with the original actors would have been the way to go with it. But no attention would be paid to the future EU, the story could go in any direction, so long as it wrapped up in three movies (ex. 1989, 1992, 1995). But then, as the "other" and sister has already been established as Leia, and the Emperor already killed, this wouldn't have worked so well. The next trilogy would have worked better if some things from ROTJ were not wrapped up so "neatly" and could be expanded and explained in another three movies, giving them more time to develop.