When JJ Ahrams belittles the EU, that is when he lies. Without the EU would there really be the '97 special edition and prequel trilogy? Without the EU would Star Wars be known as much as it is? No. My first experience with Star Wars, as I remember it, was discovering the EU (either 'The Last Command' or 'X-wing: Rogue Squadron'). I hadn't seen the Original Trilogy yet but I was still hooked. It is only in the last few years when the latest Clone Wars series began overriding elements of the 2002-2005 Clone Wars multimedia project that my faith has began to waver. When Abrams claims that most of the fandom doesn't know about the EU I call osik!
But the games are part of the Expanded Universe, in both Star Wars and 40k, and that means the gamers, even if they know nothing else, know about the Expanded Universes. "Dawn of War" and "Fire Warrior" are canon and official within 40k after all, regardless of their popularity or the calibre of the gamers.
My point was, a lot of the people who play 40k games don know novels or TT even exist. On the flip side of the coin, a lot of people who watch the Star Wars movies don't play video games or read the books.
I figure the reason for the elimination of the EU is the same as the reason why the story was shallow, laziness. For one, Disney needed to pump out a product to pay the bill for those IP rights, and Abrams clearly doesn't feel rich plotlines are necessary to the story. It was entertaining sure, but also formulaic with shallow character development. Rey was a textbook May Sue, I mean really, if you want to Trope it it's pretty spot on. Fin had an interesting premise but it felk short of what it could have been. You'd think indoctrination from childhood would take some time to deal with, rather than the immediate 180 Ima good guy now. Perhaps have a smidge of an interal conflict when fighting the dudes he'd spent his life to that point with, they wouldn't all be nobody Stormtroopers to him afterall. Such kind of character development could have been done gradually. Really he's not even using all that much continuity between the movies itself, may as well just gone ahead and remade A New Hope. If they hadn't been lazy on the story it could have been better, but as it stand I rate it better than Episode I and II at least, they didn't exactly set the bar high though.
Lies? You just proved my damn point. His only statement here is a vague mention of "if we have similar ideas we might use them, but the rest of it isn't known by anyone and we can't be bothered to research that". If you can cite a source where he admits directly that his film was an adaptation of Legacy of the Force, The New Rebellion, The Corellian Trilogy, KOTOR and about a dozen other stories, then i'll agree. This? This is a non-committal statement of him up and admitting he'd be stealing ideas at will. Not adapting them, just up and taking them as and when he felt like it. Please do not defend a talentless scumbag and a thief.
But still I call osik. Maybe it is just me but I can't quite believe it. Once you become a fan of a franchise I believe that it is natural to seek out more about it and get involved in the other aspects. For example: a Games Workshop store has a Black Library section, a Black Library novel used to have an ad-page for the Table-top game (a free model and a free introductory game) at the back. For a Star Wars example: Episode III easter eggs included trailers for Empire at War and/or Battlefront II, both successful video games of the Expanded Universe.
