There were several times during the movie that it came across as Fanfiction'y "You're Han Solo, oh my god this is the millennium falcon I've read all youe poetry and bought all your CDs" "It's a Death Star. but ten times bigger, ach cha cha" Strong independent female who aint got no time for people touching her hands in warzones can pilot a ship first attempt better than trained TIE fighter pilots. can pick up a Lightsabre and best someone trained in the art without having either experience or training and knows about the Rebel Alliance and the First Order along with myths such as Luke Skywalker whilst living on a desert ball selling junk for food. Meanwhile, Fin, a Stormtrooper indoctrinated and brainwashed since youth with propaganda and had no prior record of insubordination or offences, deploys with hundreds of other stormtroopers and is the only one to turn traitor for literally no reason what so ever, other than someone got blood on his visor. Kylo was also quite disappointing, took his mask off way too early revealing himself and losing all fear factor and any hope of him being intimidating, I was expecting grey pale skin or some level of bionics and implants, not Weird Al Yankovic who's obviously insecure about not being as strong or as worthy as Darth Vader. OOM-9 was a better commander and character than Phasma. The beginning of the film was better in my honest opinion over both the middle or the end, I saw it in Imax after Midday showing and I was growing quite bored halfway through, I took time to look around the cinema on multiple occasions and people were quite disinterested with what was going on with a steady drip of people leaving and not returning, at the end when the credits rolled only five people down in the front row seats applauded
Not going to lie, I was pretty damn angry over it. Oh, not over the film itself, that was actually alright, but that's only because more or less everything had been copied and pasted from expanded universe stories. Honestly, i'd suggest making a drinking game over it, but it would rival the Steven King one in risking blood poisoning. Really, it was bad enough that JJ Abrams - and yes, he's confirmed he had a say in it along with Disney - made the EU non-canon, but after all that bullshit about needing to wipe it away to tell his own story, he just goes and steals from a dozen authors. The fact he's being praised or defended from this is the sort of thing which just makes me bloody livid. Oh, also, i'll just drop this here.
The same thing has been done with 40k lore, maybe not to the same extent. The old lore about an imperial guardsman saving the emperor was retconned, now we have an old army perpetual doing it. Was it right of them to get rid of the EU lore? No, that was a bad move, but at least they are showing some homage to it.
No. There's a world of difference between those two examples, and they are most certainly nothing alike. The Ollanius Pius follows the same lines, same events, involves the same characters, and is largely a reworking of what came before. It honours its past events without being bound to it, but reinstates past ideas. It's sticking to one source, one point and retelling the same events. Abrams, by comparison, spent a lot of time defending his idea that the EU needed to be destroyed. He argued that he needed to have it freed up for his film and what he was going to tell was nothing alike from what came before, and didn't want to be weighed down by continuity (a lazy excuse if ever there was one). Disney backed this up by claiming the new universe was going to be 100% better and 100% different, with brand new concepts, ideas and elements all showing up. Well, after repeatedly shitting on the Expanded Universe over and over again, they started plagarising sections of it and slapping them together in some Frankenstein's monster of a plot. The new superweapon is simply Centerpoint Station with a few Death Star elements tacked on, but without the history, role or meaning from before. This is then jammed in with elements of the Jedi Outcast series as an overall plot, mashed together with A New Hope and a villain who is a cross between Jacen Solo and Kueller, and characters who are previous figures but with the names and faces changed. The 40K event you describe was a respected re-write of the same event to re-introduce older elements. Most importantly, Dan Abnett never claimed it was solely his creation. The Force Awakens was plagiarism, shitting on old stories, stealing ideas from authors and then re-writing the names - claiming they are entirely new characters and events so Disney won't need to pay royalties for their use. This isn't the only time Abrams has done it either, just look at how he copied and pasted major parts of Wrath of Khan for his version of Star Trek Into Darkness. The kind of people who pull this off, and are praised for this are scum, and it is a sign of just how far the fandom has fallen that he's being praised for stealing the work of other people. Or, if you want an even shorter version: Dan Abnett re-wrote the same event of 40k lore from scratch, but never claimed he was the original creator. JJ Abrams ripped pages from multiple novels, crossed out a few names, and claimed it was a wholly original script for his film. After, claiming the same novels he stole from never mattered.
Dan abnett has claimed for the push to have ollanius back in the lore, and for him being a perpetual. He liked the old, retconned lore, and worked off it. I dont see why its such a big deal for star wars to do the same. Yes, it was wrong of Abrams and disney to claim it will be 100% different, but then again, that would have been a terrible idea, after all the nerd rage that the prequals received. You claim that the ollanius pius example follows the same plot lines, which is not true. The old lore had a normal guardsman who happened to be on the flag ship, the new lore has oll person, a perpetual, who has a mission to go to save the emperor. Very different. In the force awakens, Kylo Ren is hans son, much like the EU(tho he had a different name) and Rey could be either hans daughter or lukes daughter. If she is hans daughter, then it seems "brother vs sister" will be the theme, much like in the EU. Does this not seem to follow the same plot structure? Dont get me wrong, Abrams has a habit of.....not being original, but it makes perfect sense for the first film of the new trilogy. The prequels failed so badly, that it was too risky to venture to far from the original films.I think its best we wait till the next two films are out before we start flipping out over how the story in the films will be.
The confusion over who is present during the duel between the Emperor and Horus is, in-verse at least, due to 10,000 years of mis-interpretation and false information. The event is myth from the 40,000k perspective, allowing for multiple versions. I would be surprised if 40k novels only refer to the intervener as Oll Pius/Persson, instead of the half-dozen that could easily fill the same space (Custodian, IF Terminator, Army Trooper, etc) In the case of Star Wars it would be like Games Workshop rereleasing False Gods, the change being that Horus refuses the Chaos Gods. They then tell you that the 29/30 novels, novellas, audio, etc don't matter and that you should buy the new Heresy novels. Many of the events/characters will still be there, tweaked just enough to appear different to the existing material. This is what Disney/JJ has done. It would be better to have had Lucas' script, considering that he had, at least, overall control and an overview of the EU. He basically gave the NJO authors permission to kill Chewbacca after all.
Oh, im in total agreement that the EU should not have been touched. Its a massive kick in the balls to those who spent years reading it.
Abnett never claimed to be the original creator of Ollanius and never claimed the original story was worthless. He never retconned the entirety of the original lore, never made sure it was to be shunned and ignored, and never pushed to have all mention of the original lore be removed from his work. He was open about it influencing his writing and used that as a starting point, sticking to the core basics of what had made up the original tale. His version was a re-envisioning of the old lore and he was very open about that, but is working to preserve and ensure the original lore is remembered. Abrams, by comparison, is stealing things. He is taking the works of other authors, claiming they are his own, claiming they are wholly original concepts only he came up with, and being praised for it. He isn't even paying lip service to his inspirations, and the few times he has spoken about the EU he has shown little more than contempt for it. He pushed for it to be utterly ignored and only his version be remembered. Imagine, for a moment, Peter Jackson retconned The Hobbit. I mean really retconned, wiped it away, made sure it never existed, and that it had no place in his films or any of Tolkien's works. He went the extra mile to ensure it would be ignored by the public and only gave a slight concession claiming it would exist under the "Elseworlds" brand or something. Now, imagine if he then created a film called The Halfling, featuring Tom Largefoot, who follows Grimwald the Grey and joins up with Gimli (who is there only for fanservice) to kill a dragon and finds a ring which links into Sauron's power. Imagine if he then claimed this was an entirely original story, and that The Hobbit was complete crap which should be ignored. This is ultimately what Abrams has done, spitting on the original works so he can claim that his ideas lifted from other people are purely his. Abnett worked to maintain the original spirit of the lore despite his deviations, and never claimed to be the creator of Pius. Abrams seals and sets fire to the original lore, re-naming the characters of other people's works so he can claim sole ownership. That's the difference between these two.
Man, that whole bit about Abrams stealing things and claiming they are his own just arnt true.. From jj Abrams himself “I thought ‘If ideas that come up feel like they overlap and feel like they work? Great. But we can’t adhere to something that is as vast [as the EU], and frankly [is] lesser known than the films.” This is him talking about the EU. He clearly states he used material from it, if it worked in the context of the new film. Please, do not create lies. Read this article for the full story http://dorksideoftheforce.com/2015/12/10/j-j-abrams-talks-expanded-universe-and-the-force-awakens/
