I tried Star Wars' Extended Universe thanks to friends sharing what they love

Star Wars Legends, or the Extended Universe (EU), has always been a gaping hole in my Star Wars lore. I didn't grow up with the EU like many fans in the 90s did, mostly because I didn't fully become a Star Wars fan until college. I am a weirdo, and The Clone Wars movie made me love Star Wars for the first time.

The animated series was my first try with the EU. I picked up some of the comics with Ahsoka Tano or, my personal favorite, Defenders of the Lost Temple by Justin Aclin and Ben Bates, which is about a clone trooper named Glitch who thought he was force-sensitive. When Star Wars Rebels revealed Grand Admiral Thrawn, I gave the original Heir to the Empire trilogy a try.

Still, the Legends universe never really grabbed me for two big reasons.

First, it was so big! I never knew where to start. Release order? Chronological order? Favorite characters? The books? I ran a comic book store for five years and there were always Legends comics in our back issues. Whenever we got a #1, it was somehow always in the middle of the story with people I didn't know, leaving me immediately lost. I had a couple of friends who were into Legends video games. As I didn't own the systems to play them and these buds would lore dump on me about characters I had no idea who they were, it wasn't piquing my interest. Hearing the entire history of Kyle Katarn was no different from sitting in a boring class in school, listening to a teacher ramble on, which is saying a lot because I loved history class... in the topics I cared about, which I'll come back to in a minute. Legends always felt so daunting, and I never knew quite how to approach it.

The main reason, though, was thanks to the loud and, frankly, negative voices on the internet over the last few years. These people came from the anti-Disney group who put Legends up on this pedestal, like it as something sacred and untouchable. Something that George Lucas himself would cherish despite it being well documented over many years that George never really cared about the Extended Universe and ignored it when he made The Clone Wars, which pissed off many fans during its original run on Cartoon Network.

These fans made getting into Legends a nightmare. They had this "You must love the Extended Universe and hate Disney Star Wars! No objections!" kind of mentality. As someone who liked the series coming out, especially the animated shows like Star Wars Rebels and Resistance, this mentality of having to like one thing only and nothing else was asinine. Star Wars is so massive. It's perfectly normal not to like everything. There are parts of the franchise I've been highly critical of (looking at you, Season 3 of The Bad Batch), but I would never put down a fan who loved it. I want people to like the Star Wars I hate because that's how we keep getting more Star Wars! Seeing these anti-Disney fans propping up Legends to almost a level of religious zealotry, bemoaning anything from the House of Mouse, really put me off from wanting to give the Extended Universe material a try.

Over the last couple of years, that began to change for me thanks to two people:

Charles, one of the hosts of Gold Squadron Gays, and Colton, a contributor to the gaming network Nerdsmith.

The three of us, with three more awesome content creators, began working on a Star Wars TTRPG podcast together in 2022. Charles and Colton are both massive fans of the Extended Universe. During the SAG strikes in 2023, Charles did a series of deep dives on several Legends books on his podcasts. Colton often joked about references in their streams, especially when painting figures that might have reminded them of EU material. The two on our own show would kid around, with Colton lobbing Charles' "hatred" of the Yuuzhan Vong at him. Unlike how the anti-Disney people talked, it was never malicious because Charles always respected Colton's enjoyment of the Vong.

And I found myself listening. It was interesting to hear two people talk so positively about Star Wars Legends. Whenever I ventured a question about this unknown area of Star Wars, my friends would answer simply so as not to info dump the entire history of a topic until my eyes glazed over. Both were frank about Legends, warts and all, from the 90s cheesiness to the xenophobia and lack of well-written women. On more than one occasion, I've heard Charles cry out, "Maris Ferasi, get behind me! I'll save you!" regarding how she deserved better writing. The EU had flaws, something they could healthily criticize while still loving it.

One night, I had them both on my own podcast to discuss The Acolyte, as I knew they would both be able to discuss Darth Plagueis in a way that I couldn't. Of course, the usual suspects were bashing the series for all the usual suspect reasons. So, I wanted two people who loved Legends and understood it could exist alongside the current canon, both still being viable and important for Star Wars storytelling.

When the topic of Plagueis came up, Colton went off on a tangent about the Sith Lord's history, calling him a weird little nerd who fell upwards into leadership thanks to accidentally dropping a ship on his Sith master. I LAUGHED! I had never heard this take before! It wasn't the holier-than-thou discussion I'd seen about Plagueis that he was some great villain who was being ruined by a three-second cameo. Colton and Charles took the character off that daunting pedestal, making him seem incredibly accessible.

"I want to try reading more Legends," I told Colton and Charles in our group chat. And they both jumped at the opportunity. However, unlike the past times I've given the EU a try, they did something that no one had done for me.

They listened. They listened to my concerns about how I failed to get into it. They listened to which stories I liked, like Defenders of the Lost Temple, and why I fell off other stories (I did not actually finish the Heir to the Empire trilogy). Based on that, Colton and Charles offered some suggestions, though none of their selections grabbed me. These EU chats went on right around the time Tales of the Empire came out, so my work here at Dork Side of the Force required me to research. This included digging up the origins of the Nightsisters in The Courtship of Princess Leia by David Farland.

"It has 'Courtship' in the name!" I excitedly dropped into the group chat. "It has romance, right?"

"Yes, but it might not be what you think it is," Colton said very honestly. "Keep in mind it's very 90s and written by a man."

Charles agreed, but then added, "Is that the one you want to try?"

"YES!" I eagerly typed back, already putting the book into my digital cart for my Kindle.

"Then we're here if you have questions," Colton answered.

And in a message that is saved on my computer, Charles added, "I love this journey for you."

It has been a journey, one that I've been able to continue, thanks to the support of my two friends. While The Courtship of Princess Leia was not their first choice, they supported it because it was my choice. They wanted me to find things I liked so I could share in their excitement about what they loved! My friends made Legends fun, not daunting and would answer my questions when they popped up.

Sure, they were right on a lot of things. This book is very xenophobic, and I have never wanted to dump Han Solo into the garbage more than in this novel. He is so misogynistic and colonizing, sometimes at the same time!

I'm still having the BEST time reading it. I'm sharing where I am in our group chat, the three of us laughing at the 90's cheesiness. We swap notes back and forth like my "This matriarchal society would be so interesting if it wasn't written by a man," for Colton to answer, "This applies to most legends books unfortunately."

For the first time, I'm having fun reading Star Wars Legends! I'm even considering going to Legends Expo in 2025! It's a convention for fans who love the Extended Universe without being jerks about it (I know because Charles attended the last one and is working as a volunteer for 2025). I never thought I would want to attend a Star Wars convention that was all about the EU. It's thanks to my friends who were willing to listen and meet me on my level. Because the EU and the current canon can exist together for all Star Wars fans. My friends showed me this in the most Rose Tico way:

They didn't bash what they hated; my friends showed me what they loved and helped me find my path as well.