With a few hundred novels and comics, the Star Wars EU (Expanded Universe) is a mess at the moment. The mess is that two-thirds of these were written before the prequel trilogy was finished. And this creates some massive gaps and inconsistencies.

The past of the Jedi being the biggest of those, and Imperial past (post-RotS, pre-ANH) as well. As a Star Wars loyalist (aka freak), it just rips me apart when I think of the whole Callista and White Current and Luke's supposed mother.

Inconsistent lines include:

• The past of the Jedi ("Children of the Jedi", for example)
• The White Current deal ("Black Fleet Crisis", I think)
• Creation of the Empire, Palpatine's rise to power
• How lightsabers work (eg, in some stories they work underwater, but not in others - "Splinter of the Mind's Eye")
• Missing Planets (Where the heck is Naboo in the new generation?)

In the more high profile works of Zahn, Denning, and Stackpole, some inconsistencies have been ironed out.

There are also many minor inconsistencies because these books are not published in a linear timeline, but more like all over the place.

As a programmer, when you're dealing with legacy code you have usually two options: Create a go-between app that acts as a liason between the old and new code, or rewrite the old stuff with new tech.

I think the latter is the answer for Star Wars books. Not EVERYTHING has to be rewritten. For example, in Star Wars X-Wing: Solo Command, there is a line: "I couldn't prevent Senator Palpatine's rise to power..." could be changed to "I couldn't preven Chancellor Palpatine's rise to power..."

Some good stuff can be rewritten if the author wishes and can, which would just give them pure new sales for a book that people like me bought. It would be much better than the mix and match efforts they are trying to put up with right now.

At the time of writing, I have read 192 novels (24+ re-read more than 3 times), and over 380 comics.

Star Wars

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