Forum:SH:LelalMekha's retirement

I've been toying with the idea for some time, but always backpedaled in the last minute. Now, however, is the time for my big Star Wars breakup. The demotion of the EU to a pile of expensive fanfiction salvageable at will, the fact that Lucas' sysnopsis for the sequels were discarded, the unwillingness of EU authors to fight for their past creations... All that has damaged my enjoyment of the far away galaxy too badly. Many fans never asked for sequels. I, for one, didn't. Between the original and prequel trilogies, the EU was the real Star Wars, and to this day, it's still the bulk of it, regardless of what you may think. (Not its foundations, of course, not the "main" thing, but the bulk.)

Of course, we've all read that official argument everywhere: "Those EU stories are going nowhere, you can still enjoy them." Of course they're still there. The best proof of that is that they're still sold under a new Legends banner. But that's not very surprising, is it? It doesn't really matter whether a story counts or not if you can still obtain money from it.

What the people who use that argument can't seem to understand is that the stories being still there is just not enough for people like me. Of course, the pleasure they gave and still give me is intact. But you see, the Star Wars franchise had that rare particularity of being compelling and very inclusive. Of course, continuity was sometimes shoddy, but it's to be expected with so many novels, comics and games. In the end of the day, most continuity problems ended up being retconned smoothly thanks to the clever work of people like Dan Wallace, Abel Peña and Jason Fry. I couldn't thank them enough for what they've done for all the Star Wars scholars around the world. Nor could I thank enough all the Tim Zahn, James Luceno, Ann Crispin, Sean Stewart, Barbary Hambly, Aaron Allston and company...

I unfortunately can't fully appreciate something when it doesn't count. I consider myself, you see, a self-styled Star Wars scholar. You can't understand my point of view? Well, I can't understand yours. How all those authors, some of whom have contributed so much to the EU, have been able to see it demoted to non canon without a word, I cannot understand. And I feel let down. Betrayed, even. And when a fan feels betrayed by his favorite franchise, he quits it. And this, people, is what I'm doing today, I'm abandoning ship, at least for now. Who knows what lies in the future? Maybe there will come something that can change my mind? We'll see. But for now, I shall retire. One day, I may come back, but not without a significant change.

So long then, dear Han and Leia. Don't you guys worry too much, though. You'll do well without me, with the new movies and all those things.

Since I'm about to leave Wookieppedia, I didn't want to do it without explaining why and saying goodbye. Given my feeling toward the new Star Wars, I have ceased to be useful here. However, I wanted to thnak you all for the nine great years I spent on this wikia. I've been Wookieepedia of the month twice, and I was very proud of what we were doing as a community. I wanted Wookieepedia to become the university of SW scholarship, but now all pretense of that has gone. -- Lelal Mekha  (Audience Room) 13:40, January 25, 2015 (UTC)