Whether it is Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, or another festival you celebrate at this time of year, we at Galactic Basic just wanted to wish you a happy and joyous holiday season.
Darth Santa has already stopped by here at GB HQ, although he didn't leave us the Star Destroyer we wanted (admittedly he would need a lot of wrapping paper)!
I know it is a very busy time of year for many people, but we'd love to see you of you get a spare minute or two.
Happy holidays everybody.
It's almost (insert your preferred holiday here), and I'm testing out using the blog feature for updates. Because why not?
Migration
GB has been migrated away from the previous hosting company, as we were outgrowing the package they provided. Unfortunately we weren't outgrowing them in terms of usage, but rather due to the storage space used. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a website this old takes up a bit of space!
Anyway, the new hosting seems to be stable now, but if you notice anything strange please do let me know.
Software update
IPS has been updated to the latest version and I have noticed a couple of oddities caused by differences in the default theme and the customisations that have been made. I'll be looking into this more soon.
A couple of new features to note are that there are more embed options available when posting, including Reddit, deviantArt, and quite a few others. Auto saved post drafts should now be improved also, and you should be less likely to be logged out if you browse GB on multiple devices.
There is also a new Leaderboard feature which shows things like top posters for the day, but it needs reskinning as it doesn't display correctly right now. It can be found under the Forum menu option at the top if you want to check it out.
That's all for now, once again please let me know if you spot any problems!
MTFBWY!
Unless you had been hiding under a rock this week, you should have heard about the revelation that the Star Wars Expanded Universe is no more. The EU has been reclassified as non-canon and rebranded as "Legends".
This puts many fans in a difficult situation, not least the dedicated editors of Wookieepedia who now have the tough challenge of recategorizing thousands of articles that have been suddenly been deprecated.
On a personal level I am quite fond of the EU, after all I started reading the New Jedi Order before I'd even seen the original trilogy (yes, really), and my early experiences with the online Star Wars fandom brought me to the Books & Comics section of the old official message boards.
The Expanded Universe was not perfect by any means; dubious plot lines and unbelievable characters ran alongside the inevitable continuity error, making the EU a difficult beast to handle at times. But the level of detail that took the galaxy far far away beyond that world we see in the movies made it a fascinating universe to explore, seemingly limitless and almost impossible to know every detail of.
When Episode VII was announced, EU fans everywhere were apprehensive about the future of our beloved franchise, and rightly so. There are many stories in the EU that would have made brilliant adaptations to film, but they wouldn't add any mystery or suspense for fans, which is part of what a good movie needs to work.
Now we need to look to the future and remember that the stories we have enjoyed over the years will always stay with us, along with the friendships we have made through our mutual love of the Star Wars universe.
Mourn them do not, miss them do not. The books will be with us, always.
Kicking off my Episode VII character wishlist is hero of the Alliance (or Rebellion, depending on which side you're on), Wedge Antilles. Why? Because he has two Death Stars etched onto the side of his X-wing starfighter. And if that isn't reason enough, his exploits in the Star Wars expanded universe are legendary, with an impressive track record from leading the New Republic's Rogue Squadron to name but one of his accomplishments. Despite being one of few characters to be present at both the Battle of Yavin and Battle of Endor, he's had surprisingly little screen time and surely deserves more.
Mon Mothma became Chief of State of the New Republic in the expanded universe, but we didn't get to see much of her in the movies. Aside from briefing the Alliance forces during Return of the Jedi, she was originally supposed to be introduced as one of the founding members of the Alliance in Revenge of the Sith before her scenes were cut.
While we are unlikely to see anybody from the expanded universe make an appearance, there are a plethora of original characters that have never been seen on screen. Episode VII writers could do a lot worse than choose to include one of the following.
If an Imperial remnant plot emerges, I would love to see the likes of master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn who rallied the disarrayed Imperial fleet in the wake of the Emperor's demise. He had a very different leadership style to Palpatine and Vader, encouraging creative solutions rather than executing harsh punishments for failure.
As for a new Jedi Order style story, you don't get much cooler than Kyle Katarn, titular character of the Jedi Knight series of classic LucasArts video games, who started as a rebel operative and learnt the ways of the Force after discovering his Jedi heritage. Katarn is not your average hero, and initially fell to the dark side until he accepted was invited to join Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Praxeum, and even then was often criticised for veering off the path of the light side of the Force.
I can't really mention characters without talking about one I, and probably most other sane people, am not interested in seeing again: Jar Jar Binks. I don't think I need to explain.
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