Star Wars

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."

– Star Wars opening text

Star Wars is one of, if not the, most influential media franchises of modern times, let alone its effect on science-fiction and fantasy. Indeed, among nerddom, it is challenged by only a few others, like Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings.

The incredibly ardent fandom is spread worldwide and has a strong presence in popular culture. Many of the characters, like Darth Vader and Yoda, are iconic even to the general public. John Williams' score for the original trilogy is one of the best-known film scores of all time, right up there with greats like Jaws, Jurassic Park (also composed by John Williams), Indiana Jones (John Williams again!), Shrek, Harry Potter (there's a reason Hollywood often relies on John Williams for their soundtracks) and the Avengers. The universe has spawned numerous video games, hundreds of novels, multiple TV shows, one of the largest merchandising franchises ever, and, relevant to /tg/, a whole bunch of board, card, and roleplaying games. It is also the current leading world source of Skub.

The Basic Concept

Star Wars was originally a series of epic science-fantasy "space operas" that roughly followed the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. They're set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," [Note: this makes the entire series a fairy tale] where a mysterious life force called (reasonably enough) the Force permeates everything. This, in turn, can be wielded by certain people, giving them pseudo-magical abilities; thank the Emperor (no, the other one) there were no Commissars in that galaxy. Those who use it for good become mystical, selfless warrior monks called Jedi, whereas those who use it for evil are ruthless, self-serving bastards called Sith. However, the Force must always be in balance, so any time the Sith arise to cause imbalance, the Jedi have to pull together and take them out to restore the natural order (so we are told in the prequels).

A financial, critical, popular and cultural success, these movies are basically the filter through which Generation X perceives the world... for better or worse.

The so-called Original Trilogy (made up of films IV through VI, released from 1977 to 1983) follows a young man named Luke Skywalker as he learns the ways of the Jedi. Meanwhile, the Rebel Alliance is fighting to end the oppressive Galactic Empire which Darth Vader, a Lord of the Sith, serves. The first movie (initially known as just Star Wars upon release in 1978 - if you can track down an increasingly rare copy of the original cinematic release, you can see there was no subtitle in the opening crawl - but retroactively tagged Episode IV: A New Hope in later re-releases and remasterings as sequels were made and the series expanded) posits that the military imperium holds the Emperor as figurehead leader of a Senate, soon to be abolished; as the movies continue, we learn that the emprah is secretly Vader's master. Luke's Rebel companions in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi defeat the evil Emperor, but along the way Luke discovers who's his daddy - ME! Darth Vader! I'm yo daddy because I did this to yo mama. The third movie's novelization, at last, names the emperor: "Palpatine".

In between we got an "ExtendedExpanded Universe", which LucasArts commissioned, and some leaks of variants of the movies' scripts. We learned from the early drafts that "Starkiller" was the first floated name for Luke, that a "padawan" is an apprentice, and so on. We learned from a RotJ leak that the Empire's base is Trantor Coruscant, a city built over an entire planet. The canonical 1996 All-But-The-Movie multimedia Shadows of the Empire - which was naff despite being canon, you totally don't have to deal with it yourself, excepting Joel McNeely's soundtrack which was awesome - has scenes on Coruscant. The Expanded Universe goes far, far beyond just this; beyond what the movies demand as canon - as it should be, because by Aristotle we shouldn't need to assume facts not in evidence. As for all the masses and masses of extra lore here, see below.

The so-called Prequel Trilogy (made up of films I through III, released from 1999 to 2005) explained how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and how the Galactic Empire was established. This involves a lot of convoluted politicking in the Republic, which is then torn apart in the Clone Wars, where the Republic (with an army of clones led by the Jedi) fights against the Confederacy (with an army of robots led by General Grievous) with both sides secretly being controlled by the Sith. It was not as well received as the first trilogy, for reasons we'll talk about below.

There's also a so-called Sequel Trilogy (made up of films VII, VIII, and IX), which started in 2015 and picked up the story some three decades after the Emperor's defeat with a new generation of heroes taking on the remains of the evil Empire, which is a group of extremist former Imperials calling themselves the First Order. However, Episode VII aka The Force Awakens, was directed by J.J. Abrams, who's mostly known for the skubtastic Star Trek reboot and was widely criticized for ripping off Episode IV (the whole trilogy apes the original trilogy a lot but none as much as VII) and a Mary Sue protagonist. Meanwhile Episode VIII was written and directed by Rian Johnson who was a young director known for plot twists and genre experimentation on a handful of movies and television episodes that openly said he wanted to "subvert expectations" and make half of viewers dislike his work, then got pissed when half of them disliked his work. The result managed to fracture the Star Wars fan-base over issues of dull rehashing for VII and a whole laundry list of reasons for VIII (ranging from small ones such as it being too different, to major issues like half the movie being filler and the plot not even making basic sense), as well as those who still enjoyed them and very little common ground between the three groups. Abrams returned for Episode IX which got a mixed reception from both those who liked VIII and those who didn't.

The general issue with the sequels is that, unlike prior films, with long lead-times between releases so every film felt special and the creative forces had lots of time to think and drink in reception, Disney wanted to crank out a Star Wars film every year and a mainline installment every two years, but didn't want to do the legwork. As a result, because there was no plan on what to do in each part of the trilogy and they came up with everything as they went along, but unlike Lucas didn't have time to work things out between it really shows. It really feels like the whole trilogy lacks direction, as it was directed by two guys with conflicting visions, yet almost complete freedom to do what they wanted, including undoing stuff done in the other guy's movie.

Finally, there are the so-called Anthology movies, standalone one-shots involving characters and plot lines that aren't a part of the main "Saga" films, except they kind of are. The first, Rogue One (2016), is an immediate prequel to Episode IV that follows those Rebel spies who stole the Death Star plans. The second film follows a young Han Solo and pals Chewie and Lando. A third rumored one follows Boba Fett Became a series.

There are also four separate TV series. The first one, Clone Wars, was based on traditional animation, whereas the later one, The Clone Wars, was a weird 3D animation. They're both pretty good. There was also a terrible theatrical release that was basically just an advertisement for The Clone Wars, but, since it's quite bad (hint: babysitting Jabba the Hutt's kid), nobody talks about it much. The third series is Disney's "Rebels" which is set between Episodes III-IV and it takes itself far less seriously than either Clone Wars did, and is more of a homage to the original trilogy since not every character in the series is the owner of a lightsaber nor are they constantly talking about grown-up politics, senators and trade embargoes, which played a large role in the prequel trilogy and found their way to The Clone Wars as well. Finally there is Resistance, which only lasted two seasons (for comparison, Clone Wars lasted 7 and Rebels lasted 4) and wasn't particularly well received by the fans, largely due to general lack of interest in the fluff of the sequel trilogy.

And so, after voicing a Mandalorian character one time in an episode of Clone Wars, Jon Favreau’s ego boner couldn’t contain itself any longer and gave birth to the first live action Star Wars TV series, The Mandalorian - building on the Disney version of Mandalorians as a sort of weedy, neo space Viking, which seems feeble when compared to the old EU version of Mandalorians, who were more like space Maoris. Still, it ended up being pretty good; good enough for Disney to go ahead with another two four live action series (because if there is anyone who loves to rub skub into their pores, they are Star Wars fans). The first is a prequel to the Rogue One film, y’know, to build on the backstories of people you never needed to know about in the first place. The second series will focus on Obi Wan Kenobi’s time in exile after saddling Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru with a kid, though which fans have been begging for for a while. There’s also gonna be a one season series on Ahsoka (from 3D Clone Wars) and one on Boba Fett.

Anyway, that's the basic concept. As to how it's been handled in the interim, and especially since Lucas dropped the reins . . .

Why is it so popular?

"Ted, the only people in the universe who have never seen Star Wars are the characters in Star Wars and that's cause they lived them Ted. That's cause they lived the Star Wars."

– Marshall from How I Met Your Mother

Star Wars is as accessible as science fiction gets. It doesn't require extensive knowledge of a fictional world (a la The Lord of the Rings or Warhammer 40,000) or cultural background (as Star Trek sometimes does) to make sense. Those elements are present for those who want them, but they largely stay in the (very rich and vibrant) background. It has well-shot action and good enough dialogue to make it interesting for both kids and adults (as well as allowing parents who grew up with it to watch it with their children, thereby hooking the next generation of viewers). It has simple, good-vs.-evil themes that resonate with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. The science fiction elements are generally handled well if you don't obsess over making science fiction realistic and hard (or at least they WERE handled well until Episode VII). It's a prime gateway drug for sci-fi which still holds up to the experienced eye, Isaac Asimov saw and rather enjoyed the films. All in all there’s fourteen hours of cinema, plus optional sides for those who want it.

There's a ton of merchandise that is, of course, really cool. Also, given it's crossed over into the mainstream, many people feel comfortable being part of the community without feeling judged as "nerds" (as they might with Lord of the Rings, D&D, Star Trek, Warhammer, etc.).

Again, they roughly follow the mythic cycle that's been around since Homer. If you think about it, 6 of the 9 films can be summarized as: hero begins his journey under the tutelage of a wise (more or less) man, they encounter a threat which has captured/enslaved a princess/girl, who was in one way or another connected to an important secret (usually a superweapon but could be the identity of a political figure or the location of someone); the heroes save the princess/girl but someone dies tragically in a battle against the villain while someone else is blowing up a space station or a spaceship afterwards they are happy, they celebrate and mourn the loss of the poor bloke who died.

Additionally, the first film can be summarized as a samurai and a gunslinger team up to save a princess from Nazis in space. That is multiple cinematic genres at once, following the style of the epic myth.

Setting

Due to article bloat Star Wars Setting is now its own page.

Movies

Also due to article bloat the Star Wars Movies are also their own page.

Expanded Universe

It can be said what makes a franchise into a long term lasting thing is when a wealth of extra story and background is created that expands on the original story far beyond what there was. It could be argued Star Wars leads the race in this, as the sheer amount of extra novels, graphic novels and games based on Star Wars can and does overwhelm the ordinary fan.

The original EU/Star Wars "Legends"

The waifu was so strong with Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker himself decided to wife her up

The background has expanded into the distant past before the founding of the current Jedi and Sith orders and into the (not-quite-so) far future looking at the descendants of Luke Skywalker and other popular characters. Uniquely, especially considering other franchises' track records, the Star Wars Expanded Universe is remarkably sorta sometimes internally consistent, both with other sources within the universe and with the films themselves, at least in comparison to other comparable settings. Of course, it's got plenty of its own problem children that slipped through, and the skub mine of it all isn't much shallower than that of 40K. Good portions of it do hold up well, largely due to the efforts of Lucas' company's continuity department leaning on everyone to hold it together. One thing that greatly helps is continuity books and articles aren't afraid to make small retcons to make even the most obscure and shitty sources (like that terrible PS1 fighting game) seem like part of an organized plot.

Particularly well-loved parts include characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (a rare alien officer in the Empire and popular enough that Disney brought him back to the canon from the EU) and Mara Jade (pictured right, a Force-using former agent of Emperor Palpatine who later turned good, became a Jedi Master, married Luke and had a son with him) - interestingly both were created by the same author Timothy Zahn.

Upon their acquisition, Disney said "fuck it" and threw out everything but the films and the Clone Wars cartoons... But since so many of the guys they kept around are the same guys who made the old stuff, they just keep bringing back the Legends stuff they liked. Some popular old stuff got mentions or appearances (and Thrawn got to be a major character), but the overall quality is even lower than the old EU(at least, the cool parts we care to remember). What was set up as a major book contains phrases like "The TIE wibbles and wobbles through the air" and random virtue signalling. As though to top the previous, Disney literally published a book with an entire chapter about mass wedding farts (Yes. Really.). The only good stuff is from established EU authors writing stuff far away from era of the Sequel Trilogy.

The rage over the EU's scrapping was major among many fans of it, but for all Disney's shortcomings, they were in a tight spot. Towards the end all that continuity and consistency got thrown out the airlock for increasingly dumb and disjointed narratives and garbled plot threads to the point that the Star Wars logo was just about as much a sign of quality as the Nintendo approval stamp on shitty SNES games.

Another problem was that Disney is mostly family-friendly, and some of the Star Wars EU could get really dark. As in Warhammer 40k levels of grimdark. Examples of this are the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong - forcenull space-Druchii (no no, not Comorrites though they have the pain and body modification fetishes for it, space-Druchii, riding enslaved tyranid bioships) from another galaxy, Mnggal-Mnggal - mindraping gelatin lost on its way to Star Trek, and Abeloth - an ancient (she predates the Jedi and the Sith) yandere Force entity more like something from the Cthulhu Mythos and is so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith joined forces to fight her. It's difficult to envision how Disney could have kept the EU when even before all that it was struggling to find a market beyond the most dedicated fans.

The Old Republic era that takes place millennia before the movies is technically part of the EU as well. But as it doesn't intrude on it, not to mention one game set in it is still receiving new content, almost all fans treat it as canon.

The Books

The Good EU

Heir to the Empire (1991): The book that started it all

• The Thrawn Trilogy: The origination point for the EU despite not being the first Star Wars books published, and focuses on the conflict with the Imperial remnants left over after RotJ. Named for one of its two main villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who went on to become one of Star Wars most well-loved characters. Basically the story "The Force Awakens" wishes it was (also introduced the character Mara Jade, a sexy redhead that's everything Disney wishes Rey was and more). Revealed Lucas' ideas and concepts from abandoned drafts like the Republic capital planet Coruscant, later put into the Prequels.
• The Han Solo Adventures: Star's End was the second spinoff book written and the first good one. Hit store shelves before Empire Strikes Back was even in theaters. Han and Chewie are trying to get some work done on the Falcon and get volun-told to bust out some political prisoners to pay for it. The Z-95 Headhunter fighter comes from this one. Would have made for a better film than Solo did.
• The Darth Bane Trilogy: The origin of the Rule of Two for the Sith, along with a compelling protagonist and his apprentice.
• Cloak of Deception: Luceno's prequel to the prequels, a political thriller, much more focused than The Phantom Menace. Foreshadows Clones characters.
• Shatterpoint: The Mace Windu spinoff, Heart of Darkness style with Samuel Jackson playing the Charles Marlow role. Windu cracks off lines like "we're going to beat him like a rented gong".
• Revenge of the Sith: The novelization is actually considered a serious improvement over the movie itself (which is already widely considered to be the best of the prequels themselves). Provides brilliant views into Anakin's psyche and motivations over the course of the film, culminating in the single best description of what it is like to be Vader ever.
• Jedi Apprentice: That Qui-Gon / Obi-Wan series for kids, started by Dave Wolverton and continued by Jude Watson over a near-flawless run of eight books, until Xanatos (Qui-Gon's apprentice before Obi-Wan gone bad) bites it and there's no focused villain anymore. What a waste we barely got to see this relationship in the movie.

The Bad EU

• Jedi Academy Trilogy: Luke sets up his academy on Yavin IV and tries to teach Kyp Durron. Imperial remnant superweapons hit ludicrous territory with the Sun Crusher. This was the beginning of Kevin J Anderson (already infamous for fucking up Dune's EU) hammering out a couple dozen Star Wars books over about four years. As for Kyp himself, he would go on to become a polarizing figure in-universe and out.
• Young Jedi Knights Series: Set between Jedi Academy and New Jedi Order, mostly follows Han & Leia's kids. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, Jaina Solo was frequently saddled with a damsel in distress role despite being the daughter of one of fiction's most famous feminist icons.
• I, Jedi: A retelling of the Jedi Academy Trilogy (see above) with more of Corran Horn from the first set of X-Wing books. Less derp in general but significantly more Mary Sueage of Horn.
• Legacy of the Force: The survivors of the Yuuzhan Vong War are trying to rebuild the galaxy, but Jacen Solo turns Sith and becomes the main villain. The book series is infamous for nearly killing the Star Wars brand and issues between various writers years before Disney went down the same road (Jacen Solo was also a major influence for Kylo Ren). The biggest complaints were Jacen killing off Mara, villains having plot armor, heroes acting out of character, poor dialogue, long-winded writing and the story being overstuffed with allusions to post 9/11 US culture and politics. Given that Star Wars (especially under Lucas), has always been informed by political events of past and present, that last one could have been interesting, but a better writer was needed. Overall, the only things this series usually gets any credit for is Jaina Solo finally getting out of her damsel in distress role and becoming a badass worthy of her parents, and her brother turning into a solid Sith villain in Darth Caedus.
• Revan Novel: More "disappointing" than terrible, but for a novel centering on one of the most beloved EU Star Wars characters of all time, it was generally seen as a huge letdown. Problems include a dearth of action (including for Revan himself), the Jedi Exile getting killed off in a way that felt tailor-made to piss off as many KotoR II fans as possible, and with almost none of Revan's companions from the first game getting more than a simple mention. Revan even decides not to bring Jolee and HK-47 on his mission because the former is a Jedi who would be obligated to report him to the Council, and the latter is too "unstable", even though HK is totally loyal to Revan and so wouldn't do anything Revan told him not to do, while Jolee is established as being a maverick who doesn't agree with the Council and so wouldn't just tattle on Revan. That the novel was written by the lead writer of the first Knights of the Old Republic game just makes the disappointment sting even more.

The Skub EU

• Shadows of the Empire: This multimedia earns pride-of-place as the most-canon of all the EU content, and as being an unfocused mess. Shadows fills in the details of where the Rebels got the Death Star II's plans and found where Han was taken; it also had Luke building his own saber, etc, as if it mattered. Since there was a game involved, and since Lucas' team didn't think things through very well, we got introduced to some bounty hunter by the name of Dash Rendar who is just another Han Solo except one we don't care about (he's no Katarn, that's for sure). It was all a Major Multimedia Event at the time (being thought of by the folks behind it as "a movie without a movie"), including a soundtrack and an uneven video game which we'll get to. The game was why Rendar even exists: he's your avatar. The Special Edition rerelease of A New Hope added the Outrider to the background of one scene. Oh right: and there's a book. Steve Perry wrote it. It's notable for Xizor the ultra sexy crime boss; he comes close to porking Leia, but she evades his wiles. We guess that's why LucasArts didn't pick Crispin to write it. Told an interesting story, and helped expand the criminal underworld aspect of Star Wars. It just needed more cohesion and consistency between the different mediums.

The Yuuzhan Vong, either badass and interesting or grimderp canon-defiling villains

• The Paradise Snare: AC Crispin's first book (1997) in a new Han trilogy, an ANH prequel this time. Han escapes his Oliver Twist youth ("F8GAN", LOL). He ends up in a "spice" (LOL) operation because it was the late 1990s and we were all reciting "D.A.R.E., Drugs Are Bad Mmkay" in school before heading off to raves at night. Young Harrison Ford shuts down this particular hacienda; with the help of Crispin's self-insert, who then gets to bounce on his lap. Those readers who could ignore the cringe, and we admit there was a lot of cringe from several directions, were generally entertained. It was all a bit episodic for a film but, again, that didn't stop the Rat House from scrapping it and filming what they filmed instead... which was also episodic and full of cringe.
• New Jedi Order: The longest-running Star Wars book series (19 books long) and about an extragalactic invasion and the Jedi's role in fighting it. Luke and his wife Mara are training new Jedi, including Han and Leia's kids, while Han and Leia build bridges between the New Republic and Imperial Remnants. Cue the invaders, the Yuuzhan Vong - Force-null religious fanatics with organic technology and a fixation on pain and body modification. The resulting war sees a body count rivalling anything in Warhammer 40k including Chewie's death (they dropped a fucking moon on him), Han and Leia's youngest son going nuclear and Admiral Ackbar. Mara gives birth to Ben Skywalker and overcomes a terminal illness. The Vong take over and terraform part of the galaxy, including Coruscant, and lots is learned about the Force. A real love-it-or-hate-it series, some parts are good, some are bad and some are weird.
• Dark Empire: Palpatine's back to save a dying franchise decades before Disney tried it. He even uses clone bodies to do so (but unlike Disney, Dark Horse didn't flip-flop on the lore), wrecks a fleet of enemy ships using the Force and at some point has his power reflected back at him. Starts off good, falls apart fast. Known for its love-it-or-hate-it artstyle and dialogue. Original version of Episode 9.
• Courtship of Princess Leia: The queen of a star cluster that could ally with the newly reformed Republic against the Imperial remnants offers a deal which hinges on Leia marrying her prince son. In response, Han sorta-kinda kidnaps Leia. Luke teams up with the prince in question (who's a bit of a Jedi fanboy but basically a competent officer) to track them down. Along the way he finds a crashed Jedi training cruiser and its library of holocrons. This one introduced the planet Dathomir and the force witches the Nightsisters, which were ultimately adapted to be Maul's homeworld.
• X-Wing: A long running series that passed between several authors that followed Wedge and his squad post RotJ. Initially focused on the liberation of Coruscant and was solid if formulaic, but eventually spiraled off into skub territory. Generally speaking, the action sequences and space battles are quite good but the characterisation falls flat, ranging from 'three-words stereotypes' to 'utter cringe'. Also tends to over-abuse Deus Ex Machina shenanigans to allow the good guys escaping the villain's Perfect Plan One-Billionth To Ensure Their Bloody Demise™. Did have some clever ideas like fitting a station with hundreds of torpedo targeting sensors to bluff a star destroyer into surrendering.
• Fate of the Jedi: Want some Cthulhu with your Star Wars? Luke, his son Ben, Leia and the remaining Jedi work to counter anti-Jedi backlash following the events of LotF while Han takes a bigger role in politics. Things go from bad to worse when several Jedi suffer mysterious shared bouts of psychosis and an ancient Sith tribe emerges from hiding. Things then go from worse to cosmic horror when both sides encounter Abeloth, a yandere, Lovecraftian Force entity so dangerous the Jedi and the Sith have to team up to fight her (yes really!). But Abeloth escapes her prison, and both sides have to stop her before she plunges the Force and the galaxy into chaos. During these events, Ben Skywalker finds himself in a Batman/Catwoman situation with the Sith apprentice Vestara Khai. While being an OoM better than the preceding book series, FotJ has a very divided opinion among SW fans.
• Darth Plagueis: Shows how Palpatine becomes a Sith Lord under his mentor. Less Star Wars than Star Politics, which is a good thing for this particular story. Very much a "by the fans for the fans" type book, in that it is filled with easter eggs, lore dumps, and other things that, if you're a hard-core lore buff, you'll love, and if you're not, you'll probably be confused as fuck. So a great novel for the die-hards, but a lot denser/harder to get into for the casuals.

The Not EU

• Splinter of the Mind's Eye: By Alan Dean Foster, apparently short on cash at the time, it’s the now-aborted sequel to Star Wars before anyone, even Georgie himself, knew what was coming in Empire Strikes Back. Therein lies a tale. A long time ago, in the far far away production of the first movie, no one knew that Star Wars would be a hit, with many seeing it as a bloated costly flop, and even Mr Lucas expecting a mid-level success at best. So the flannel-wearer mooted multiple sequel plans: [proto-]Empire was one, if he'd been allowed the budget; while Splinter was much smaller in scale, with a single planet with only a few locations, a much simpler plot, etc. Since novelization usually starts during or before production (the New Hope novelization includes deleted scenes!), this book represents a C-tier movie that never was. So: what did we get? chemistry between Luke and Leia, and Darth Vader being defeated by being tripped into a pit. So this was one of the first EU stories, although with Empire and especially Return of the Jedi it's been retconned off-canon entirely. It tends to be read by SW autists who wonder What Could Have Been.
• Dark Forces: The novelisation of the games, starring Kyle Katarn. Pretty good writing except for the action scenes, which are rote accounts of the missions in-game. At the time Katarn wasn't considered a canon character and the first game, proposing yet another heist of the Death Star Plans, was explicitly disavowed as canon. As time went on LucasArts warmed up at least to Katarn who, unlike Dash Rendar, acquired a personality.
• Heart of the Jedi: One of the earliest post-ROTJ books to be commissioned by Lucasfilm after the success of Heir to the Empire, it was cancelled due to publisher issues sometime in 1993. Rereleased in 2021 to tremendous sales success for what is essentially fanfiction. Takes place immediately after the events of ROTJ (so, replaced by Truce at Bakura both in the timeline and the publishing schedule) and features early takes on many later EU novel staples.

Disney Canon

This article or section is about a topic that is particularly prone to Skub (that is, really loud and/or stupid arguments). Edit at your own risk, and read with a grain of salt, as skubby subjects have a bad habit of causing stupid, even in neutrals trying to summarize the situation.

Love it or hate it, they are now official Disney Princesses.

It's still debatable whether or not the new Canon holds up to the old EU, or learns to fix the problems that plagued it. We probably won't see what comes of it for decades to come. Disney Canon, as of 2020, seems to largely be built around the nine main movies though there have been growing rumors of a shakeup that may render the Disney trilogy non-canon due to severe backlash and financial losses. There's also shows like Rebels and Clone Wars alongside anthology movies fleshing out stories that had been told in comics and books back before the Disney buy-up, but can now be seen on film.

Another curious thing is that elements of the old EU are being annexed into the Disney Canon. Plotlines like the Emperor returning, the Death Star plans heist and Han's path to become the smuggler we know him as all have bits and pieces from EU canon in them. In some cases, whole characters are ported in; the best example is Admiral Thrawn, who appears in Rebels. Other times, popular characters has their traits or stories ported into new ones (Finn and Cassian are both expies of Kyle Katarn, for example). This gives some credence to the argument that Lucasfilms and Disney wanted to wipe the slate with all the stories that had been told in the EU, so they could create their own, fully realized canon Star Wars setting that one could make movies - many movies - from. Considering the amount of shitty fan-fiction-esque stories the EU had, this may be for the best, but of course, good storylines that people have loved for ages are also thrown out with the bathwater.

Detractors of Disney-era Star Wars often talk loads about how many cool characters are either cannibalized for story elements (like Kyle Katarn) or completely removed from canon (like Mara Jade). These are semi-valid arguments of course, but they ignore some of the biggest issues with the EU originally - it wasn't written by George Lucas and Lucasfilms. They were sponsored fan-fiction in a sense, semi-canon from the outset and not really something that could be considered a part of the Star Wars setting, though George Lucas did work with the writers to a point, such as with the New Jedi Order book series (he gave them permission to kill off Chewbacca in the story). In fact, George never really considered them part of the universe; more like a parallel universe of his own Star Wars works. He accepted it because they bring in the big bucks when people would beg to have the official Star Wars logo on anything they produced, and occasionally lifted neat ideas like Coruscant from them.

The biggest universal complaints have been around story telling. Operation Cinder and the Battle of Jakku have been a nightmare of lore and sooo many retcons exist because of the lack of creative focus and control on the part of post-Endor lore. This has been fixed partially by the Mandalorian but it has been a shit load of retcons. One example being the multiple changes between books, with some stating Palps could not come back, but also he can, but he is also a clone..... and you can see why people think this has been a disaster.

Toxic fan groups have also been a problem with the Sequel Trilogy Fans and Sequel Trilogy Haters picking fights. Other toxic fan groups exist such as a really annoying and pretentious group of fans who do not believe in redemption (a key concept in Star Wars), and no interest in stories around morally grey groups (Bounty Hunters and Criminals). Then you have that one group of really hostile fans who think anyone who likes Imperials like Pealleon and Thrawn are "Simperials", "Holocaust Deniers" and Nazis. On the flip side, you also have those faction extremist groups which believe in either pledging themselves to the Empire or the Rebels despite them being fake factions from a fictional universe. Some people do these things ironically but then you have people actually believing the kool-aid they drink, resulting in flame wars, pointless vitriol, and the occasional bit of IRL harassment when the hardcore nutters go at each other. Both sides have normals, but crazy and stupid fans cause a lot of problems and some dumb discord, reddit, and general fan groups are really fucking annoying. Generally speaking it is not a major problem but it is simply more trash popped on top of a waste pile.

One case for the sequel trilogy is that, as underwhelming as it may be, was George's idea in broad strokes. The series was always going to have a sequel trilogy, and George Lucas was in fact putting the production for it together, having secured Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to reprise their roles when Disney made the offer. The outcome isn't exactly what he (or we) wanted, but some of it is. Luke being an exile on a far-away planet, who has to be roused to fight by a new, female Jedi? George's idea, not Disney's. A son of Han and Leia struggling with the Dark Side? Also George's idea (though Disney lifted a lot form the original version - Jacen Solo - for Kylo Ren). With that said, a lot is different between the two, so the argument only carries one so far: the central conflict is scrappy rebels vs empire again instead of taking back the republic infrastructure from organized crime and warlords led by a galactic kingping (originally intended to be Maul). Luke doesn't train the new female Jedi, just gives her a quick fact-check, keels over in 8, and not only does not rebuild the Jedi Order but essentially has to admit to ghost of Yoda he was never much of a Jedi to begin with, his character so completely different it made Mark Hamill spontaneously christen the character Jake Skywalker, a name some parts of the fandom embrace today. Leia abandons the Republic in disgust instead of becoming the Supreme Chancelor, and the Republic stops active resistance to the Empire only to get the Alderaan treatment.

The claim wasn't helped by J.J. Abrams' and Rian Johnsson's repeated assertions that they were given free reing over 7 and 8, nor the fact that Bob Iger's autobiography had him admitting that the story treatments of Lucas were abandoned, and that Lucas felt betrayed by it (meaning any similarities between the two are likely just coincidence). Multiple writers and directors not working together led to the suicidal Rise of Skywalker where even the actors were just lost. It also emerged that John Boyega got side-winded along with Oscar Isaac - especially in the versions edited for China (compare and contrast) - which is ironic/hypocritical from a company claiming to promote diversity. There are a lot of problems none the less. (Although according to Boyega, it was Disney racial treatments shafting him and Kelly Marie Tran's characters developments and social media attacking his race character.)

It should be noted that the TV shows below are either now part of the Disney canon (such as the 2008 Clone Wars series), or made by Disney. There is also a major Star Wars project called Star Wars: The High Republic. It's an upcoming multimedia project spanning books and comics worked on by various writers including Claudia Gray and Cavan Scott (yes, that Cavan Scott). The stated goal is to tell one cohesive story set in the High Republic Era, two centuries prior to Phantom Menace. It was slated for a 2020 release but was pushed back to 2021, purportedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic (purportedly because they could still work on the story from home in this day and age but have chosen to extend the deadline) and the first comics were released to tepid reception. However so far less interest has existed around the High Republic because of a combination of lack of trust with fans and the fact its not a time frame anyone cares for (which granted, is due to it being a newly established time frame). More people are interested in Post-Endor, Clone Wars Era, Imperial Era, and the Old Republic Era. Still, some are glad that they are finally doing something new. Overall, High Republic has been mostly under the radar, not really generating strong feelings either way (definitely not compared to things like The Mandalorian or The Sequel Trilogy). The release of a video game set in the timeframe called "Star Wars: Eclipse" might help to give this era more exposure and popularity, assuming the game's any good.

So for better or worse, the Disney Canon is the first time the wider setting of Star Wars beyond the series and movies have become irrevocably canon, rather than "kinda-sorta-canon". Much, but importantly not all, of what we've gotten that is new is based roughly on George's own work as well. Remember this when discussing EU vs Disney in Star Wars - Either setting is cool for their own reasons, but the Mouse got little to do with it - and if you don't like it, bring it up with big man Lucas.

Whatever the case, CEO Big Iger briefly resigned in 2019... before being brought back in 2020 following severe financial and PR losses for Disney due to comparatively poor reception of the Disney canon, controversial statements from Disney staff against fans and shutdowns related to the global coronavirus pandemic. Disney preceded to rebuild that goodwill and hope with The Mandalorian, only for two later events to undermine it.

The first big problem was Disney's controversial handling of a situation involving leading actress from "The Mandalorian", Gina Carano, culminating in Gina being fired for political reasons regarding a social media post (not her first controversial post or her last, but other actors - including ones from Disney projects - have posted similar or worse things from the opposite side of the political aisle without being punished for it...); even comparatively neutral news outlets like Newsweek and Forbes called foul on Disney's treatment of Gina. The second was several poor quality media projects such as a comic series where one of the characters is an alien who's essentially a rock named "Geode" that crews a spaceship named "Vessel". There have been massive rumblings of change and even a civil war in Disney-owned Lucasfilm between factions of staff supporting producers/directors Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau and staff supporting Lucasfilm president/film producer Kathleen Kennedy. Recent hints and events have suggested that Kathleen Kennedy's influence has been restricted, with Filoni and Faverau spearheading projects.

Things have also been not helped by evidence of fan art being stolen by Marvel Comics writers who then used them lazily in comics, posters, and other media. The fan relations are still very low with the exception of people like Timothy Zahn, Dave Filoni, and Jon Favreau. Common speculation on the major develops include rumors of a retcon of sequel trilogy but little evidence exists except for the planned project combining Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Rangers of the New Republic, The Bad Batch, and possibly Andor and Obi-Wan.

So far most fans are excited for the following:

• The Bad Batch
• Ahsoka
• Thrawn
• Mandalorians
• Anything not involving the First Order. (Seriously this group is just not liked by the fans at all, not even Sequel trilogy fans in a "Love to Hate" kind of way)

Speculation has emerged around why these TV Shows and series are doing well and a few theories exist. Some point to the presence of a Old Guard from the days of George Lucas and his apprentice/Protégé Dave Filoni, though some fans dispute this believing Filoni was a hack. Others point to a presence of care for the lore and the characters. Stormtroopers in the Mandalorian are not stupidly incompetent (They actually hit Mando even though he has literal plot armor) but decent troopers who are only beat by lucky and sheer offensive capabilities, characters like Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, and Darth Maul are given more development and respect as characters, and the stories feel like Star Wars. This leads to the generally accepted theory, which is Star Wars stories from these series are based on classic film styles. The Mandalorian is a Western with some episodes taking a more Japanese and Asian Fight film with Samurai style fight scenes and themes. The Bad Batch bases itself on Old War films and with elements of Westerns present. Overall a pattern emerges where the star wars presentation of classic and traditional story themes, motifs and concepts allows it to keep itself Star Wars and good quality overall.

Notably, the mini-wars over what in Disney Star Wars is good and what isn't is not as clean-cut as one might assume. While it is true that the thoughts on the Sequel Trilogy (mostly) fell along fan/critic divides, this isn't true of other things. Book of Boba Fett for instance, got flak from both corners, as did Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Episode 9, which got the worst critic reviews of any Skywalker Saga movie, is also plenty hated by a lot of the fans. This makes complaints by both groups about the franchise pandering to the other side somewhat ironic, as many fans and critics actually like and hate some of the same stuff.

December 2020 announced several new films and TV series, as well as further information about already announced things. The stuff already out includes:

• The Mandalorian: Live-action series that started in 2019. Unsurprisingly, Season 3 is on it's way and will release in 2022.
• The Bad Batch: Animated series and a spin-off of The Clone Wars. Focuses on the titular clone commando unit that was introduced in the last season of The Clone Wars, set during Republic's transition into the Empire. They are forced to look after “Omega,” which has the potential to bring back the cloning project at the cost of her life. For full details, see its page.
• Visions: 2021 Anime anthology-series made by different anime studios across Japan. 10 episodes, two by studios Trigger and Science SARU and the other episodes one for each studio. Released to a strongly positive reception from critics and fans, showing that the non-divisive nature of The Mandalorian was not necessarily a fluke. Getting a second season, one that will not be strictly Anime like the first but instead have animation styles from all over.
  • The Duel, the first episode of Visions, is a must watch for deliberately trying to mimic the old Kurosawa era Samurai films.
• The Book of Boba Fett: 2021 live-action series, revealed post-credits in the last episode of The Mandalorian Season 2, which had Boba Fett returning to Jabba's palace, kill everyone inside and then sit on his old boss's throne. Out of the things that have come out after the sequel trilogy, it proved to be the most skubtastic thing thus far.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi: Live-action series featuring the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith. Proved to be somewhat skubtastic (not in small part due to the original pitch being for a 2-hour movie, which would have been more than sufficient), though not to the degree of The Book of Boba Fett.
• Andor: Live-action series and a spy-thriller focusing on the titular character who was introduced in Rogue One. Has a more grounded take on Star Wars, focusing on life under the imperial regime from the perspective of regular citizens instead of Jedi or soldiers, with villains also fairly ordinary like corporate security officers or Imperial Security Bureau agents.
• Tales of the Jedi: A collection of six CGI-animated shorts about Dooku and Ahsoka.

The upcoming stuff includes:

• Ahsoka: Live-action series by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni (the chads responsible for The Mandalorian, the latter also responsible for The Clone Wars, Rebels and the character of Ahsoka (and Resistance but let's not talk about that)) featuring the titular fan favorite character who made her live-action debut in The Mandalorian Season 2, starring Rosario Dawson and is a spin-off of The Mandalorian and will have cross-overs with it. It also features the live-action debut of Thrawn as a major antagonist, who was name-dropped by Ahsoka in The Mandalorian as her quarry. Release date unknown but is confirmed to run only for one season. Her Lekku will actually be the correct length after fan complaint from the Mandalorian. Trailers show it will have the first ever orange lightsabers in live action courtesy of the Dark Side bad guys.
• Rangers of the New Republic: Live-action series and another spin-off of The Mandalorian, again by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and is said to have cross-overs with The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Not much is known at the moment but the name tells us at that it would focus on the titular galactic government, something we still don't know much about due to the world-building fuck-up of the sequel trilogy. Release date unknown. Cancelled / put on hold, likely due to ties being cut with Gina Carano (who was expected to have a major role) after controversies regarding her tweets.
• The Acolyte: Live-action series set during the High Republic-era, a thus-far unexplored era 100-300 years before the original movie during which the Republic was at it's peak. Release date unknown.
• A Droid Story: Animated series featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO and a new character, possibly a droid as well. That is all we know for now but will likely be targeted towards kids, just like the animated series Droids from the 80s that it seems to be inspired by. Release date unknown.
• Lando: Live-action series focusing on the titular character. Not much known aside from that at the moment, not even will it feature Billy-Dee Williams or Donald Glover. Release date unknown.
• Rogue Squadron: Live-action film, the first one after the sequels. Will feature the titular elite starfighter squadron and is directed by Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman (but also writer and director of Wonder Woman 1984). Will it focus on the Rogue Squadron from EU led by Wedge Antilles or will it be completely different remains to seen. Release in 2023. Cancelled (at least for now), so it looks like we'll never know (but if it was anything like WW84, maybe for the best).
• Film by Taika Waititi: Nothing about it is known at the moment except that it is happening, it is live-action and will be directed by Taika Waititi of Thor: Ragnarök-fame who also played IG-11 in The Mandalorian and directed the last episode of the first season. Makes fans nervous because his latest project, Thor: Love and Thunder, was trash. Release likely in either 2024 or 2025.
• The Skeleton Crew: Just announced at the 2022 Star Wars Celebration, it will feature Jude Law and be about a bunch of kids who are stranded somewhere in the Galaxy and trying to find their way back home. Nothing else is known yet, but we're sure we haven't seen this idea before.
• The Rian Johnsson Trilogy: Announced during the hype-up to The Last Jedi, we have been repeatedly assured it is coming, but it seems to be stuck in Development Hell.
• New Rey Movie: To the horror and despair of her haters and the mild surprise of everyone else, a new Star Wars movie starring Rey (played again by Daisy Ridley) was announced at Celebration 2023. Will take place 15 years after Episode IX, and focus on Rey trying to succeed where Luke failed in restarting the Jedi Order.
• Dave Filoni Movie: Also announced at Celebration 2023, it's basically meant to be the "Avengers" style crossover film that The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and upcoming Ahsoka have all been building towards. Presumably, this means Thrawn will be the big bad.
• James Mangold Movie: The last of the three movies announced at Celebration 2023, this one will be set in the distant past and serve as an origin story for the Jedi Order, explaining how the first Jedi came to be. Mangold has directly compared it to old-school biblical epics like The Ten Commandments, making this potentially the most Awesome of the bunch...if it actually releases that is. With so many announced projects over the years ending up getting quietly cancelled or plunging into Development Hell, fans have become a little cautious about any of these actually seeing the light of day.

The Fan / Critic War: Overhyped?

Ever since The Last Jedi came out to rave reviews from most critics and the complete opposite from most of the fanbase, a popular narrative has been that fans and critics are completely and utterly at odds and can't agree on anything. But while this is definitely true in the case of Episode VII and VIII, how true it is outside of that is kind of questionable when you think about it. Pretty much everyone hates Episode IX for instance, and The Mandalorian has been a hit with critics and fans alike (as was Star Wars: Visions). Meanwhile, Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi got mediocre responses overall from most critics and were not generally loved by many fans either, with only some positive responses from both camps. Rogue One is usually seen by most critics and fans as either "good but not great midquel" or "fantastic and edgy masterpiece", with folks who outright hate it being in the minority for both, while Solo: A Star Wars Story got a tepid response from most critics and isn't most fan's favorite Star Wars movie. Finally, the more recent Andor has done well with critics and with fans overall.

This seems to extend to video games as well: critics called out EA for its bullshit when Battlefront II launched with microtransactions, and gave Jedi: Fallen Order overall good reviews, which lines up with how most fans felt.

In all, it doesn't seem like there's actually that much of a gap between the two groups outside of the Sequel Trilogy itself. In theory, this should mean it's possible to make more stuff everyone likes, but the feud is likely to keep going anyway.

Wookieepedia

One of the largest fan wikis ever created, this bad boy is extensively cited, has enormous variety, and has page upon page of talk. It was if Lexicanum, the 40k fan wiki, and our own glorious site were fused into a terrible beast. Is well cited, but is most notable among fan circles for having a picture of Aayla Secura top naked under the article "Breast". Any attempt to remove the page for relevance reasons is met with appropriate responses.

In all seriousness, the website is great. It is full of ads, but adblocks are easy to get and you can spend hours reading about characters, planets, and weapons from all over the star wars universe. Has an entire non-canon section, much like Wikitroid.

Impact on 1d4chan and associated games etc

Star Wars has had subtle and clear impacts on a number of other franchises and genres and it can be incredibly hard to gauge the extent of it all. Certainly it didn't create the concepts of sci-fi, space battles, sweeping storylines, and a blending of mystical and scientific ideas, but it certainly popularized them during the years of the original trilogy and influenced many people that would go on to have interests in sci-fi, fantasy and epic adventure today.

Hell, look me in the eye and tell me that the lightsaber didn't give us the power weapon. But then again, magic weapons.

Sabacc and Pazaak

When a damn fool bets the ship, nothing beats the smugness in laying down an Idiot's Array

A rather unusual entry here but it's well in line, Sabacc is an actual tabletop card game from the Star Wars universe which is basically a hybrid of Poker and Blackjack. A Sabacc Deck has 80 cards, most of which in four suits of 16 cards numbered one to 16 (two suits positive, two suits negative), plus 16 wildcards that could be positive/negative or (in the case of the Idiot) Zero. The goal of the game is to have a set of three cards who's total as close as possible to, but not over, 23 or -23. If you got 23/-23 (Pure Sabacc) which could only be beaten by an Idiot's Array (the Idiot, a Two and a Three, thus 23). The stakes are raised every cycle until the cards go down or one player is left standing who gets the pot. Like most card games there are variations, such as a single suit hand beating a mixed hand of equal value, light beating dark, dark beating light, instant tiebreaker with new hands in the case of a tie; one variation even uses dice (presumably to set a handicap the hand has to overcome).

The notable thing about Sabacc that sets it apart from real world card games is that the Cards can change value every turn. A Pure Sabacc can easily become an instant lose 25 and an absolutely lousy hand can become an Idiot's Array. They can be stabilized to fix their value, but everyone knows when you do so. This feature has so far prevented Sabacc from being released in tabletop form as of yet. (Of course, there are ways to deal with this, such as simply re-dealing unfixed cards, but never let it be said that nerds will choose practicality over purity.)

It should also be noted that you CAN buy a version of Sabaac from Disney (this writer got his set at Disney World) but it plays differently in that cards do not change value and the goal is to be as close to 0 as possible. It has cool cards too.

In universe, Han Solo won the Millenium Falcon off Lando in a game of Sabacc.

Pazaak is an older game from an in-universe perspective, similar to Blackjack but its player versus player rather than player versus dealer and also has some aspects of a collectible card game. Goal of the game is to raise cards from the main deck until their total value is 20 or they can also choose to stand if they get close but don't want to risk it. Best out of five wins.

CCG-aspect of Pazaak comes from the sidedeck: both players collect ten cards for their side deck and then randomly take four cards from their side deck to their hand in the beginning of the game. Hand cards are used to either lower or raise the total value: so if the player raises cards from the main deck to the total value of 25, they can prevent dropping out if they have a -5 card or higher in their hand. Cards which only either raise or lower the value are the most common of the side cards. More rarer are cards which can be used to both raise and lower the value. Then there are flip cards, which change certain main deck cards on the table to negative ones. So if the player plays a 2&4 flip card, all 2:s and 4:s on the table become -2:s and -4:s. Flip cards exist in 2&4:s and 3&6:s. Then there is the double card, which doubles the value of the last played card. So if the player raises a 5 from the main deck, playing the double card would turn it into a 10. Finally, the rarest side deck card is the tiebreaker, which grants the player a win if the game would otherwise end in a tie.

Tabletop games for Star Wars

Role-playing Games

West End Games made a Star Wars role-playing game called Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game AKA Star Wars D6. Like many West End products, it's a good game with the great misfortune of being published by West End Games.

Wizards of the Coast picked up the license later and made two distinct RPGs based on their d20 System, called Star Wars D20 (imaginatively). Could be fun, but generally broken as hell, much like its parent game. It was then utterly revised that into what they called the Saga Edition, which is relatively balanced and pretty good.

Fantasy Flight Games is presently selling a whole line of Star Wars-themed RPGs, each one focusing on a specific style of play. You want to play a bunch of scruffy space outlaws (Edge of the Empire), members of the nascent Rebellion (Age of Rebellion), or exiled Jedi Knights (Force and Destiny), then they got you covered. Unlike their Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay games, which are all juuuuust different enough from one another to completely buttfuck any attempts at blending, all three gamelines use identical mechanics and are fully cross-compatible. Uses symbol-counting dice pools with ludicrously overpriced custom dice. Like the other RPGs they decided with the retardedly similar name, and thus this one is sometimes called Star Wars FFG to avoid confusion.

FFG have kept milking the franchise and in summer 2017, decided to reanimate the Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game with a "30th Year Anniversary Edition" print of the original game. It finally shipped in July 2018 after spending a year in limbo.

Unofficially, a fan overhaul of the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition system exists, called Star Wars 5e. To put it short, it is a considerable rework with a good lot more features and more customization when compared to 5E but is ultimately constrained by some of the system's inherent limitations.

Card Games

The big card game set in the Star Wars universe is the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. It's no longer produced by Decipher, but there is still a sufficiently large player community to organize annual tournaments, rule on cards, and so on. SWCCG was radically different from the norm of card games, being divided into light and dark side cards with different backings, with light and dark always playing against each other. For tournament play a player would need both a light and dark deck. The gameplay was also radically different from most CCGs; in Magic terms the closest analog would be that every SWCCG deck was fundamentally a mill deck, with some hard to assemble insta-win combos themed to the plots of the movies.

Wizards of the Coast made the Star Wars Trading Card Game. It is now dead.

Fantasy Flight Games made Star Wars: Destiny CCG. It is also now dead.

Obviously, nobody is capable of creating a Star Wars card game with an interesting name.

Aside from the real, physical, games there was also Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game. It was a real, functioning, card game within the MMO that used all virtual cards. Unfortunately no server emulators have implemented it yet.

Miniature Games

The first Star Wars miniatures game was Star Wars Miniature Battles released by West End Games in 1989. It and the minis were readily available through the early half of the 1990's, although the line was never particularly diverse. Even accounting for vehicles the whole line was only a couple dozen figures and you could get all the rebel heroes in a single box if you just wanted them for the RPG, plus a another box for Vader and a mix of imperials.

Concurrent to this, Galoob managed to get their hands on Star Wars for their Micro Machines toy line, and released an enormous line of minis which conformed to no consistent scale but were at least cheap, durable, and prepainted. Homebrew adaptations of other systems to use them were a thing in the 90's but vanished as they became scarce.

Wizards of the Coast did a tabletop battles game imaginatively called Star Wars: Miniatures, based on an extremely dumbed down version of the D&D ruleset. The figures were meant to tie in with the Saga edition RPG, it wasn't terrible on its own, just impossible to collect for competitive play since figures came in random booster packs so you never know what you were getting for what faction. Who could possibly stand for that?

Fantasy Flight Games is producing the X-Wing miniatures game based on individual starfighter combat (because, let's be honest, that's what Star Wars is all about). They have also released Star Wars: Armada which is a larger scale "fleet" combat simulator, using capital ships and squadrons of starfighters.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

The latest Fantasy Flight Games addition to its Star Wars related games is a mix between a miniature board game and a skirmish wargame. It has two play modes:

One for campaign play where 1-4 players control a team of Rebel heroes and another player has the role of the DM, who controls the Imperial forces. The campaign, as the name suggests, focuses on character personalization, xp gain and the like, which you can find in any light RPG-esque (board)game. The main goal is to get a few friends together and casually play through the missions. Think of it as a Star Wars version of the original Hero Quest.

The other play mode is skirmish play, where two players each get to assemble a team of miniatures plus a command deck (cards that have specific effects when played) and play against each other in an open-play scenario. The play area is still very limited to a few game tiles (as in a campaign mission) but players are free to bring whatever they want (with a few limitations of course). The skirmish part of Imperial assault is as close as you can get to an actual Star Wars skirmish wargame, but it is a missed opportunity from Fantasy Flight to create a true skirmish wargame (ala Infinity), not based on tiles and so confined spaces. Who knows what they have plans for though...

Star Wars Legion

And Fantasy Flight have now given us a fully fledged wargame, complete with AT-ST in the first wave. (They're 32mm scale, which means no reusing your Imperial Assault miniatures.) Legion has an integrated turn system, and the usual FF custom dice and forest worth of dead trees in cards and tokens that will be familiar to X-Wing and Armada players. The miniatures are PVC, reasonably detailed, easy to assemble pieces. A standard battle is 800 points, which could be anywhere from half a dozen to 16 units on the field, with an average army fielding 8-12 units comprising 30-ish models.

Board Games

The most famous and arguably best one is Star Wars: Rebellion, an asymmetric two-player game that plays through the Original Trilogy in a wargame/worker placement-esque game. The Empire player must expand their already huge military base over the galaxy to build more ships and huge superweapons while searching for the Rebel Base, while the Rebels do their best to bite them in their heel, obscuring their movements and annoying the Empire until they have enough support to overthrow the Empire. As a FFG boardgame, it's filled with a ludicrous amount of bits and pieces (including sweet models of Star Destroyers, Death Stars and Calamari Cruisers), as well as the trademark filled-with-small-exceptions ruleset. It's pretty sweet and still considered one of the best board games of its kind.

Card Miniature Games

In the late 00's, WizKids produced a short lived construct-able miniatures Star Wars game based on their styrene card system for Pirates of the Spanish Main. Although the game sold well, when NECA bought WizKids from Topps the rights did not transfer and it went out of print.

Assorted list of Awesome From Star Wars

• X-Wing starfighters = spaceborne sex
• Fucking Lightsabers!
• The fucking OST
• What is likely the greatest duel in cinematic history, that takes place on a lava planet.
• Deathly Stormtroopers, heroic Clonetroopers or sinister First Order troopers; whatever they're called, stormtroopers are awesome! Contrary to popular belief, shot counts have proven they have ridiculously good aim.
• Darth Vader whenever he gets a speaking line or to murder rebel scum - that is to say, all the time.
• Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, TCW and Rebels.
• Lightsaber Rifles
• The entirety of the Umbara campaign, where Imperial Guardsmen Clone Troopers die in the dozens attempting to win some godforsaken planet, earning them balls of titanium that make the guard look ba- *BLAM* Heresy!, all while serving under a Commissar different Jedi, one who sees the Clone Troopers as cannon fodder.
  • It's basically Space Vietnam, on a world which is permanently nighttime. Seriously, fucking watch it.
• 97% of the Creatures.
• 98% of the Starfighter designs.
  • Hell even the bad ones are just a laugh riot. Except the (worse than) World War 2 bombers in 8, that was bad.
• Costumes that mix about every possible inspiration, Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Ancient Greece and Rome, Elizabethan, Moebius or Pulp Sci-Fi from the 60's, giving the whole series a distinctive style and gives Padme Amidala an excuse to show off with all her dresses.
• Boba (before his stand-alone live-action series) and Jango Fett, and the rest of the Mandalorians (unless they're written by Karen Traviss, in which case they're Skub).
• KOTOR (both games) plot making you think this shit is actually logical and has so much philosophical background. One of the creepiest depictions of the Universe. Everything is brutal, with big vibrating knives, blood, those machines for Sith snuff movies, more blood, bastards, badass bastards and so on. Everything while somebody is talking with you about existence.
• Our saviour Lord Revan. He's like if fucking Horus just became fucking bad enough (but not that bad) to fucking destroy the Dark Gods so he can solve his daddy issues.
• Double-bladed Lightsabers.
• Lando Calrissian.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• The High Ground.
• TIE fighters. They have the most distinctive scream of any fighter in cinematic history that just yells "I'm evil!". Tell me I'm wrong. I'll wait.
  • The fact that they managed to do that using what is essentially a shitty visual pun.
• Most of Episode 3.
• The entirety of Anakin's story, especially when you add the Clone Wars and prequels due to them expanding heavily on it. While you're at it, watch CinemaWins' perspective on it the series.
• Admiral Ackbar the Memeable!
• Palpatine getting into some Tzeentchian-level scheming and backstabbing in order to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
• Battle of Yavin.
• Battle of Hoth.
• Battle of Endor.
• Battle of Scariff.
• Grand Admiral Thrawn: So awesome that he rose to a high rank in the anthropocentric Empire despite being an alien and was one of the first things to be imported straight from Legends to Disney.
• Imperial Warlords: Groups of isane fuckers or tactical geniuses who formed Chinese style Warlord states. Famous ones include Ardius Kaine, Zsinj, and Trueten and Kosh Teradoc.
• Imperial Pilots get a mention, seeing as they fly literal garbage fighters against superior rebel fighters. Yes, we are talking about the the same TIE Fighters we mentioned before. By garbage, we mean despite how cool looking and sounding TIE Fighters are, they are actually a ridiculously impractical design and the standard TIE Fighters are mass produced extremely cheaply even if they don't look like it (except Darth Vader's, which is custom made and modified by Vader himself). Even 40k's Imperium has better fighter designs. At least the Imperium's fighters conserve the life of the fucking pilot. Also, clearly super skilled since they have roughly an equal kill-death ratio with the Rebels in the movie battles.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi. Again.
• The Millennium Falcon has a 3D chess board, secret compartments for smuggling space cocaine and a walk in closet specifically for capes.
• Princess, later Senator Leia Organa; the original badass-yet-hot boss lady in space. Ends up leading two separate, successful underground freedom movements against impossible odds. Did we mention she's a Jedi in both canons?
  • The women in the franchise in general. It would be easier to list the women in Star Wars who aren't badass, empowered warriors and/or leaders than it would be to list the ones who are.
• The trench run in ANH. Not cheering when Han flies in to save the day is heresy. Heresy is punishable by having the Death Star's main laser fired at you.
• Han Solo, who is so badass that hot Leia falls in love. He has the smuggler's best friend, a Wookie, who is also the worst opponent you can face in a Dejarik match.
• Just... Star Destroyers. When you see a huge, imposing warship from an evil Empire, this is the granddaddy they all look up to.
• The moon sized space stations that zap other planets to bits? They’re pretty neat.
• Werner Herzog, asking if he can look at your baby and assuring you that he will be quiet.
• Tyber Zann, the Galaxy's greatest crime boss.
• Star Wars: Visions. Even if you aren't big on Anime, nearly all of the Visions shorts are good to great, and were exactly the sort of "think outside the box" stuff that the franchise needed after the Sequels and Solo came under fire for being too nostalgic.
• Star Wars: Eclipse's trailer. Those drums...
• The Andor show, if you've got the patience for it.
• Oh, did we mention the lightsabers?

See Also:

• Darths & Droids: A webcomic, made using photo-stills of the Star Wars movies to tell a story about gamers blundering through each of the six movies in sequence... though not quite exactly how you might expect. Think DM of the Rings in overall visual style, though unlike DM of the Rings, Darths & Droids features several heavy twists on the actual events of the films, subplots about the players and their lives outside the game alongside the campaign, and a better overall quality of gamer. Whereas DM of the Rings features a railroading DM and players who are therefore somewhat antagonistic to him, Darths & Droids has a GM who adjusts his game to his players' actions and players who generally get along with both him and each other. The plot of DMotR is very similar to that of the movies (but avoids a few plot elements), but the plot (and, indeed, the universe) of Darths & Droids is only very loosely based on the Star Wars films. (For a somewhat spoilery example: "Darth" is a courtesy title for retired Jedi, such as Chancellor Palpatine.)

• "Endor Holocaust": An excellent example of the skub Star Wars can create. Rebuttal: " Endor Rebuttal"

• Timothy Zahn

Star Wars
About:	The Franchise, The Setting, The Movies, The Video Games
Television Shows:	The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, Disney + Originals
Star Wars Games
Miniature:	X-Wing, Armada, Legion
Tabletop:	Rebellion
Roleplaying:	FFG, WotC (d20), WEG (d6)