I’ve read/followed most of the extended universe, so I’m sad to see Disney discard it. That being said, I’m still interested in what they’re going to put out.
Really, this was the only way to do it and keep the next series of movies a complete secret.
This is the problem with a lot of serious geeks in general. People get so obsessed with a media, that it becomes a part of who they are. They’re not someone who like’s Star Wars, they are a Star Wars fan/Trekkie/Whovian/etc. They get so attached to their memory and vision of it, that any deviation is seen as a collossal betrayal. They get way too wrapped up in making it their identity. There are a ton of ‘Post Secret’ posts that are some variation of “I base my whole life on [science fiction show]”.
-Fans of supernatural obsessed the main characters are gay for each other, and actually hostile toward the actors’ wives.
-Bronies in their thirties convinced that Lauren Faust made My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for them and not for little girls and hostile to the idea that the show was mainly aimed at young audiences.
-People who still think Firefly will get rebooted someday.
You know, my wife and I watched the film Misery the other night on TV. My wife had never seen it. While watching it, she turns to me and says, "If they remade this movie in 2014, it would probably be Kathy Bates’ character as some massive Star Wars nerd holding George Lucas hostage 
"
Well, just because EU material isn’t canon, doesn’t mean the writers can’t take something they like from it, they’re just not obligated to. The OP’s article mentioned a couple things have found their way into the movies.
And the Borg Cube takes the Death Star. The Borg have sensors, would immediately see the big laser charging up, and simply move out of the way. It’s designed to hit planets, not track a ship that can pop in and out of hyperspace. A few drones transported onto the DS and it’s assimilation time. 
Oh, look, there’s a little space over here that no one has shat on yet. Here, let me:
I decided a decade or so back that I was being unbearably snobbish by sneering at Star Wars books when I hadn’t even read any of them. After doing some research, I found that the Thrawn trilogy was widely regarded as the best of the best of the books, so I picked them up and read them. I found them to be just barely located on this side of intolerable. Seriously - one typo might have been enough to push them over the edge and cause me to chuck them in the trash.
So not only is the extended universe not canon - it’s all incredibly poorly written, too.
…I’m pretty sure I’ve already addressed that. Lucasfilm hired someone who’s job it was to address continuity and canon. Which is what this guy did: and he did it extremely well until yesterday.
…I’ve already stated there is no problem! Are you unable to read my posts Bricker?
C-canon is no longer canon: so it is not going to be over-ruled. It is not canon any more. It previously existed in continuity, and now it doesn’t.
…what the hell are you talking about?
EU was canon because Lucasfilm said it was. They hired a guy to keep it all consistent and he set the rules. Obviously inconsistencies popped up over time: but that doesn’t “prove” that the EU wasn’t canon, or the films weren’t canon.
As of yesterday the EU is no longer canon. I’m not arguing for one way or the other. I’m explaining what the situation was: as people keep on getting it wrong.
Huh? They DO own the rights to them. They own the rights to the Star Wars franchise now, thus they technically own the rights to anything connected, like works published in connection with them.
As for the canon, the rule was always the movies came first, then the books (as long as they didn’t contradict anything in the movies). So yes, the books WERE indeed considered canon.
Like I said, not a HUGE deal, but it does mean that some loose ends won’t be tied up (Like the Mortis plot? Or possibly Ben finding out about his mother’s family? And no Wraith Squadron!) So this kinda sucks.
I don’t think the fans “own” the franchise. Just that it sucks.
On the other hand, in the extended Whedonverse (EW), everything is canon, even stories produced by different studios with no connection to each other. And in the end, it is all a plot by Dr. Horrible, as influenced by Don John, thereby linking the Whedonverse to the entire canon of Shakespeare and by thence to nearly all of Western literature. So…Shakespeare/Whedon (and by association, Akira Kurosawa, who Lucas has often attempted, poorly, to copy from/pay homage to) wins the thread.
What were we talking about again?
Stranger
Ewoks. And Jar-Jar. Can we make both of them not canon?
Actually, has anyone noticed the similarity between Jar-Jar and Jay-Jay? Huh? Coincidence? I wonder…
Never happened. They were both just fantastical hallucinations brought on by psychic oversimulation of midichlorians by Vita-Rays which the Emperor used to unsuccessfully attempt to breed a race of super soldiers. Instead, he ended up with the malformed creatures which were so defective he had to hide them underneath ineffectual plastic ‘armor’ and refer to as ‘stormtroopers’ in the vain hope that someone would be convinced to fear them despite their total inability to hit any target even with a barrage of fire and were so vulneranble to attack that even a glancing blow would cause the to explode like roman candle, no doubt due to the fact that their reactive armor plating was build backwards, resulting in a catastophic, cascading inward blast.
That Luke Skywalker, a marginally talented farmhand could defeat entire hordes of stormtroopers despite having only a paltry amount of training from a nearly blind, self-professed “Jedi Master” who allowed his entire school to be destoyed due to a complete lack of perception, argues for stormtroopers and the Empire in general being completely ineffectual and incompetent.
Stranger
The ewoks were awesome, and anyone who says otherwise I’d an imperial sympathizer
The Empire was only trying to subjugate the systems.
Ewoks go around trying to to eat people.
You-sa HUSH!
Cannibal Teddy ears.
Yup.
Yeah, fans like that have a curiously reactionary attitude in that they want more material, new sequels, except that the sequels have to be the same as they remember from the first time they liked it, or it’s *weird and strange and wrong. * There’s never any room for change or growth or new ideas or different interpretations, it all has to be preserved exactly as it was or they get all “Abrams, you have betrayed my [DEL]childhood[/DEL] [DEL]adolescence[/DEL] [DEL]twenties[/DEL] [DEL]thirties[/DEL] fandom!”
But is Splinter of the Mind’s Eye canon? Can we get some hot Force witches in the new movies?
I’m pleased as punch that they’re ignoring the Extended Universe. I’d be even happier if they ignored the prequels but I’ll take what I can get.
Lucas says a lot of shit. He says at various times that he always planned for nine movies, that he never planned for nine movies, that a movie about a trade dispute is for kids, that he always meant for Greedo to shoot first and if you don’t like that, fuck off, he’s already got your money. Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that the man owned the franchise, you could’ve said that George Lucas was the last person you should listen to when it comes to matters Star Wars.
Ewoks are fine, and Jar Jar was not even in the top ten of things that suck about the prequel trilogy. I’ve got my fingers crossed they take the prequels out of canon, though, for all of the other reasons that they suck.
Anyway, the angst over this decision is… well, it’s fun for me to watch, at least. As is the pre-judgment of the new flicks before we even have bare rumors, almost. Folks! We’re getting new Star Wars movies! George Lucas no longer has creative control! How is this not awesome? They may suck, but I’m going to be rooting for them not to until they come out.
Incidentally, had a thought while writing this post: Wookieepedia’s kinda fucked now, isn’t it? Heh.
If the choice is between JJ Abrams and Kevin J Anderson, which is the Scylla and which the Charybdis?