On Star Wars EU, and Kotaku’s Post

http://kotaku.com/it-s-an-awkward-time-to-be-a-star-wars-fan-1734751595

I have feelings about this article.

First off, the EU was NEVER cannon. Ever. It was always its own thing, separate from Lucas’s official cannon, separate from the role playing games, video games, etc.

But they were never the official cannon.

And they were a mess. The EU had a Han/Leia/Luke problem, which despite efforts of the X-Wing series and I, Jedi, was never broken.

You have an entire galaxy, and apparently only three people ever do anything in it.

Chuck Wendig’s book is good. it is fun, and avoids this problem by having some new characters get into new adventures.

The difference now from the EU is Disney has made EVERYTHING cannon. So now the stories in the comics, books, movies, video games, etc, are all linked, and ‘real’.

Should everything have been thrown out? Maybe. Maybe not. The Vong was not Star Wars. But the peace treaty in Vision of the Future between the remains of the Empire and the New Republic opened up some interesting political opportunities.

The old books didn’t go away. And while I agree that the writers of the new stuff should grab some of the West End Games RPG books for references there exists now nothing but bright open future, where Chewie is alive, where Luuke doesn’t exist, where Han doesn’t go off every other book and decide to become a smuggler again.

That said, I did like Death Troopers.

The Final Days of an Image

Pluto_hubble_photomap

We are in the last days of this image. What is it? That is the current best image we have of a small body known as Pluto. These images were taken with the Hubble Telescope at its clearest resolution. And yet, with all of that, this is still the clearest image we have.

That will all change this week. On May 15th the resolution of the onboard instruments on the New Horizons probe will exceed that of Hubble’s. This means every day from the 15th on we will be seeing Pluto for the first time.

All will come to a head on 15 July, 2015 when the probe makes its closest pass by the planet and its five moons… maybe even more will be found.

Already we have images coming in of Pluto and Charon. Soon, the other four, found about the time New Horizons was launched, Nyx, Styx, Hydra and Kerberos, will come into view too.

OpNav3_barycen_v7_lowres

Downgraded from “planet”, maybe, Pluto is no less a wonder, and this new moment of exploration will be as important as Voyager and Pioneer before it.

More info, and more images will be appearing on the official site for the probe:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/