Why Star Wars "Saga Fans" should not celebrate the end of the Legends Era Expanded Universe

NOTE: For the purposes of this article, I will assume to bring balance to the force is to destroy the Sith.  This is the assumption if one takes an extreme purist interpretation of the films and TCW as the only source of canon and focuses on the battle between good and evil presented, the Light Side versus the Dark.  Personally through this is not my opinion, as my personal worldview is that I think the Jedi Order has misinterpreted the prophecy and in order to truly balance the force, we need the destruction of both a increasingly dogmatic, stagnant and hypocritical Jedi order AND the Sith Order so something new can spring up.
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Secondly, before we begin, I would like to make it clear that the goal of this post is not to argue that the post-ROTJ SWEU is inherently "good".  I myself have seen a decrease in that aspect of the EU after the earlier writers left, along with legitimate problems with how some storylines are presented, and I feel the Legacy storyline in the novels was poorly executed despite its premise and buildup; not to mention I feel that the Vong were given too easy victories and too much plot armor so the authors of the NJO can push through the unification storyline ASAP.  I do agree with the assertion that darker storylines in the post-ROTJ EU is problematic in regards to the "uplifting" ending of Episode VI, however this in my mind is less because the stories are dark and more because the EU always focuses on the next big storyline-there is little room for smaller-scale storylines starting with New Jedi Order.  In my mind, had there been smaller-scale threats/filling in between the big ones that are resolved by minor characters, which are set at least a decade or two between each other instead of jumping from one dark storyline to another, people will complain less about the darker stories and try to appreciate the EU more.  Nevertheless, as I add here, this does not mean that all the themes of the EU should be discarded or that it "violated" the storyline to constantly create conflict, nor should it be used to indict the better storylines of the EU as part of the problem. 
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"The post-ROTJ novels did their best to destroy any happy ending for the saga, but EU fanboyz insist that that “deepens” the saga and makes it more “realistic.” If I want realism, I’ll watch the news. And misery, torture, and endless death are not “deep.” They’re just depressing."
-Anonymous saga purist

"This is totally worth FINALLY getting rid of that stupid clone palpatine and that ridiculous and painfully obvious and contrived resurrection of the Empire and the stupid contrived character Admiral Thrawn (which I always hated) ALL of which were only created in order to give Luke Han and Leia something to fight against…ya know…endlessly. ALL of which have always COMPLETELY undermined the PT and the Official Completed Star Wars Saga!"
-Anonymous saga purist on Disney's overhaul of the EU 

A worrying aspect I have noticed in the Star Wars fandom is as evident by these quotes above, as it seems, denial and outright rejection of the now-defunct Expanded Universe by several Star Wars saga fans as "not canon depressing paid fanfiction", and as such celebration for it's demise with Disney's overhaul to make way for its "Star Wars Cinematic Universe".  There justification for this school of thought has been belief that the Legends-era EU contradicts the ending of Return of the Jedi and is as such, irrelevant to the story of Star Wars as a whole.  When any relevance is brought up, they respond with the belief that the Clone Wars does enough to tackle the themes established in the Prequels.

This post will assess the validity of these claims of the EU as contradictory and irreverent and will argue that rather than pass the EU off as "paid fanfiction", Saga fans should have respected the canoncity of the Legends-era Expanded Universe while it was still canon, and that is because the EU did not truly contradict the Prophecy of the Chosen one in any shape or form, that the EU has in fact, added themes justifying the worldview of the Prequels, and as such created the foundations for the Clone Wars to further expand on these themes.  Therefore, instead of expressing happiness at the destruction of the Expanded Universe by Disney, they should instead view the destruction of much of the foundation established by the larger Star Wars universe for the films as having weakened, not strengthened our understanding of the Saga.       


Accusation 1: The Expanded Universe contradicts the "fulfilling and happy" ending established in Return of the Jedi and the Prophecy of the Chosen One

The most predominant charge against the Expanded Universe by anti-EU saga fans is that the Expanded Universe contradicts both the "fulfilling and happy" ending established in Return of the Jedi and the Prophecy of the Chosen One.  They do so by having the Empire survive past the Battle of Endor, having Palpatine return through a clone, having Jacen Solo turn to the dark side, and having another Sith Empire take over the galaxy centuries later.  To be fair to this accusation, one can easily argue that the EU does significantly diminish the happiness of the ROTJ ending through Jacen's fall to the dark side and the deaths of Chewbacca, Anakin Solo, and Mara Jade(the latter two aren't film characters), but does this accusation necessarily mean that the the EU has essentially spat on the gains of the Rebel Alliance AND the Prophecy of the Chosen One to tell one "depressing" story after another?

To see how it holds up we have to first look at the Prophecy of the Chosen One, which is to bring balance to the force and destroy the Sith.  I have always had a ambiguous view of this Prophecy, but let's look at its literal sense of it being fufilled when a redeemed Anakin Skywalker throws Palpatine/Sidious towards a reactor shaft by the end of Return of the Jedi, thus destroying the Sith and so on.  Let's assume the Jedi were right in that only the dominance of the light side represented balance because that's what these extreme fans seem to think.  So what do we get from this prespective?

Instead of endless war between Rebels vs. Empire with no end in sight, we have a New Republic gradually rising out the ashes of the old, with the exception of Coruscant, the planets that celebrated the destruction of the Empire easily taken by the New Republic.  What we see after ROTJ is the war moving more and more in favor of the Rebel Alliance and the Empire decaying into warlordism.  The battle changes from Rebels vs. Empire and Sith to Rebels vs. a decaying Empire(ie: X-Wing series) along with Warlords trying to create their own Empire(ie: Thrawn trilogy) and minor Dark Side users trying to resurrect the Sith(ie: Dark Forces Games).  Eventually Luke revolutionized the Jedi Order by allowing attachments when before there was none, the New Republic makes peace with the Warlords, now liberalized into the Imperial Remnant under saner leadership, and together they unite into the Galactic Alliance and fight the Yuuzhan Vong, aliens from another Galaxy that thrive on pain and cannot feel the force.  Therefore, it cannot be said that the EU destroyed the Prophecy of the Chosen One as a lot of things happened such as the restoration of the Republic that needed the Sith and the Empire to have been destroyed.

Extreme saga fans may point out that the Sith were able to return through a resurrected Palpatine and later Darth Caedus, which they believe is a stark contrast to Vader's redemption becomes the act of the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Chosen One, and thus the Sith should have never returned.  However, even if the ideal interpretation of the prophecy is the most extreme interpretation of the Light as balance, you could argue that the Sith of Palpatine are a very specific lineage, and a very specific tradition set fourth by Darth Bane that is unbalancing the force.  By contrast Lumiya and Jacen/Caedus' Sith may borrow aspects from that lineage or even act as a Rule of Two, but interpret them differently to the point where they can be seen as distinct, not a continuation.  With that mindset in consideration, the prophecy of the Chosen One holds more weight in the EU than one could believe in the sense that while Sith continued to exist, the lineage of the Rule of Two was finally destroyed, and any sort of imbalance or any sort of Sith Order that follows it or would have followed it had someone like Caedus, Jerec, or even a resurrected Sidious had their way would have been different than what was presented by the Rule of Two(the worldview of Palpatine post-resurrection, or an imitator/defective clone if you choose to believe this, is clearly based on a Rule of One in which he rules forever as a God King and the only Sith, surronded by an army of lesser Darksiders and Inquisitors worshipping the Sith).      

Still, a resurrected Palpatine might raise eyebrows.  Yet by whining on how resurrecting Palpatine ruins the story we neglect that Dark Empire was written before the Prequels ever were conceived(so it didn't really contradict anything) and that the Expanded Universe in itself offers "an out" for people who do not like this story(of which there are many).  According to the works of Timothy Zahn(who didn't like the story), the writer of some of the best EU post-ROTJ, the Palpatine seen in Dark Empire might not be the true Emperor but a clone with delusions of grandeur created by Imperial scientists to replace Palpatine, or a Inquisitor whom has cloned himself beforehand that decided to take up the mantle and assume the identity of Darth Sidious to rule over the Empire.  This was evident when in the Hand of Thrawn duology, the subject of the Emperor's return comes up and Mara Jade - who was his Hand and could hear his instructions from across the galaxy - doubts that this Emperor was really Palpatine.

And if you are one of the fans that still like the story but wanted it to fit with the Prophecy, there is another way out. Dark Empire contains it's own prophecy of Luke and Leia facing down an evil Sith Lord, with Luke turned to the Dark Side and Leia redeeming him--all of which happened in Dark Empire.  With this in mind, would it be fair to instead of dismissing this story outright, either dismiss the story with what the EU provided the reader, or view this prophecy as an extension of the Prophecy of the Chosen One, in which the Children One's descendants are to finish the work of their father and destroy the Rule of Two lineage for good.

Accusation 2:  The Expanded Universe is irrelevant to the themes of the films

Even if extreme film-only saga fans concede that despite the darker nature of EU stories starting with the New Jedi Order story arc; that for the most part, the Prophecy was respected in the EU and that on a closer look, the Empire was gradually dismantled as the New Republic gained more ground in contrast to an endless stalemate that was initially perceived; they may still ask, what is the point of the EU, what themes in the Prequels do they keep and make consistent?  Well a key theme that they keep consistent is the need to reform the Jedi Order that was established in the Prequels.  While many of the stories with a New Jedi Order were written already in the years leading up to Episode I, in hindsight, they work because we know what the Jedi were in the Prequel Trilogy; which is that their failure to understand that attachments may be a force for good have sown the seeds for their downfall--while Anakin may have turned to the Dark Side because of his inability to let go, Luke redeems Anakin through his love for his father.

The EU than builds off of this by revealing that Luke establishes his New Jedi Order as the New Republic consolidates power on Yavin 4 with just 12 students.  In the new Jedi Order, emphasis was placed on learning through experience. While formal classes were held, students were also asked to develop their own individual approaches to the Force over following scripture and dogma.  There is a focus on individual responsibility over control by a central council, and masters were encouraged to train as many apprentices as possible and take them on missions.  But the biggest change was the fact that for the first time in millenia, Jedi were allowed to marry and have their own families.  When this is compared to how the Prequel Era-Jedi conducted themselves there is already a marked difference than Luke just immediately establishing a new Jedi Order on Coruscant and, again, just repeating the mistakes of the past with the council as "Central Command" and the adherence to outdated codes. With all the prequel saga in place, it would seem ridiculous to simply repeat the mistakes that have befallen previous generations.

With this in mind, we should also consider the character of Mara Jade, an Imperial Hand Agent who develops a relationship with Luke from enemies to friends to husband and wife.  When you look at the failure of the Jedi order to understand attachment, this being dealt with in the films and the Clone Wars, the idea that Luke should get married and pass his teachings to his children is pretty much essential to the themes as built up between I-VI, as it was the outright rejection of attachment as opposed to teaching responsible attachment that helped lead them to the downfall of the old Jedi Order.  Therefore, when we look at the major events of the Expanded Universe, we see that the stories rather than having no relevance to the saga, reinforces several of the key themes presented in the saga regarding the fall of the Jedi Order in that attachment, if handled responsibly, can be a force for good and not harm in the galaxy, and that part of the old Jedi Order's stagnation and fall is their failure to understand that factor.

And this expansion on the themes of Episodes I-VI isn't just limited to the Jedi, but also the Sith as well.  Some may be baffled that only two Sith may exist at once but the EU makes the case for Darth Bane's lineage by revealing that Bane thought in response to what he viewed as inevitable, self-destructive infighting within the Sith Order. The Rule of Two states that there would be only two Sith at one time, a Master and an Apprentice, guaranteeing that when the Apprentice becomes powerful enough in the ways of the dark side to take the title of Master, only then would they be worthy of the title by slaying their master.

Later EU material such as the Knights of the Old Republic MMO creates justification from this belief; in that we learn the Sith of the lineage of Emperor Vitiate--of which the Galactic Empire has modeled itself on under Sidious, was often prone to infighting without a strong leader to guide them--the storyline of both of the Sith classes end with a battle with a major Sith Lord and as does the Bounty Hunter light Side route ending; not to mention that when Vitiate's physical body was destroyed by the Jedi know as the Hero of Tython, that lineage falls into Civil War when the Dread Masters-whom are only loyal to Vitiate-turn against the Sith Empire and that Darth Malgus, one of the reformist Sith Lords in that lineage, use this opportunity to rebel against the Sith Empire to create a new Empire of his own.  Therefore, with this in mind, it can be seen that rather than wallowing in irrelevance at the themes presented by the movies, the Expanded Universe has instead expanded on their relevance; in particular in the inner workings of the Jedi and Sith Orders. 

Accusation 3: We do not need the Expanded Universe to tell relevant themes in Star Wars, the Clone Wars does that already.

Even if extreme Saga purists recognize the use of relevant themes in the EU towards the Star Wars universe, they might downplay it's importance by saying that Clone Wars 2008 already covers this theme or that theme regarding the Force or the nature of Galactic conflict.  However, when you look at this assertion, we can see it is not fully correct and that while the Clone Wars can perfectly stand on it's own as a series, there are-despite various retcons the Clone Wars undertook by itself-many references towards the EU tying it back to the greater Star Wars Universe.

These references to the Star Wars mythology can be seen very early within the Clone Wars when the Dark Acolyte(Dooku's apprentices) Ventress appears in 1x16, which is chronologically 1x02, we see Anakin and Obi-Wan acting as if they know her from somewhere.  Likewise Grevious, with his earliest chronological appearence in the series in the Malevolence Arc, is presented as a threat the Jedi have known about for some time.  So how do we know where they come from if not from thin air?  We watch the early 2003 Clone Wars microseries to understand how the Jedi are aware of these threats.

Likewise mythological themes and elements of the greater Star Wars Universe often pop up across the series.  When we went into the backstory of Asajj Ventress, we discovered that she originally came from a clan  of Witches from the planet Dathomir, known as Nightsisters. This clan of witches first appeared in Courtship of Princess Leia and was known for being rancor-riding(through they never appear in Clone Wars) practitioners of the dark side of the force, and had used the force differently from what we saw in both the Jedi and the Sith in the form of "magic". We also see the Ventress was once the apprentice of a Jedi named Ky Narec, whose death pushed her to the Dark Side; this story also originating from the EU.  We also get the inference that the Nightsisters want to become a great galactic power-if not rule the Galaxy themselves, a nod to an earlier leader of the Nightsisters wanting to use an ancient artifact to access interstellar travel and to destroy Coruscant.     
And the appearence of the Nightsisters isn't the only key story arc with references to the aspects of the Star Wars lore originating from the EU, the legacy of the Mandalorian Wars is a key aspect of the storyline in Mandalore, where Pre Vizsla desired to guide Mandalore back to being a key galactic power and refers to a period of chaos where they stole a black lightsaber from the Jedi--that event being the sacking of the Jedi Temple by the Mandalorians and Vitiate's Sith Empire during the Great Galactic War.  The events of the Old Republic era are further mentioned through two passing references to the Planet Malachor V(one of them being very indirect and subtle), along with the appearence of Darth Bane himself in the series finale, where he mentions that the ancient Sith killed themselves in their own greed--another clear reference to the deficiencies of the Ancient Sith Empire and the Sith of Darth Ruin, both of which fell to infighting.  The final arc also alludes that at one point, Yoda fought a Terentatek, creatures which thrive off the Dark Side that we see in the Old Republic era.

All in all, with these nods in mind, it can be seen that while TCW can stand on it's own as a series, it cannot be fully cut off from the EU, and that is due to the fact that the existence of certain characters make it hard to seperate the show away from the EU(Ventress and Quinlan Vos both come to mind).  Saga purists who had cheered for every alteration-whether reconcilable or irreconcilable-to contradict more and more of the EU ultimately should look at the exact origins of these shout-outs and ties to the EU, of which now remain the only links to the original canon with the advent of a cinematic universe, and try to explain the justifications for their reasoning in the context of all these ties to the original Expanded Universe.   

Conclusion: 

Through "saga purists" may think the only canon to them are the films and TCW, the EU did not truly contradict the Prophecy of the Chosen one in any shape or form, that the EU has in fact, added themes justifying the worldview of the Prequels and building on the Prophecy of the Chosen One, in particular the nature of the Jedi and the Sith and lay the groundwork for their actions in the films and beyond. 

Of course this is not me telling the saga purists what they should do but to instead, point out that despite the darker nature of the EU combined with the tragic turn of events that have appeared among the Skywalker family with Jacen's fall, along with Chewbacca and Anakin Solo's death, the EU has not ruined the key themes of the films such as the prophecy of the chosen one, and in return, it has added new themes feeding into the Prophecy of the Chosen One and the Clone Wars.  It is thus a folly that an extreme vocal group amoung saga fans would shame or disenfranchise the saga fans that liked the EU or saw it as legitimatizing the themes of the Prequels through its existence.  Ultimately, instead of irrelevance being shown the door with Disney's reboot of the timeline in favor of its Star Wars Cinematic Universe,  what was being shown the door are stories relevant to the saga in favor of something diluted and probably blander.   And we all are poorer for its loss.    

ADDENDUM-What does George Lucas say: Despite claims to this by both extreme pro-EU trilogy fans(or anti-film, pro EU fans) looking for reasons to beat Lucas with a stick with and these extreme saga fans/purists, George Lucas has-despite noteworthy retcons in the PT and TCW-not stated the EU is wholly non-canon.  He greenlit either Han or Chewie to be killed by the Vong, wrote the intro for the Windu-centric novel Shatterpoint and plays SW video games with his children(so he is somewhat aware of the light-side policy, hence why Revan was omitted from the Mortis Arc), furthermore he was involved in Tales of the Jedi to a certain extent and he has stated that Dark Empire was his favourite Star Wars story.  All he said was that Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars exists both as a universe in itself, and a universe with the Expanded Universe.  Furthermore he had some input in the Force Awakens and Darth Plagueis, so it is thus hypocritical to say only canon are the films and TCW when he had some growing input on EU since the end of Revenge of the Sith as it ignores these stories.