So we've got a thread talking about the SW universe in general more relating to the movies, but nothing to discuss New Canon with freedom to discuss spoilers and such of what they've released so far.

At first I was pretty much over with the "Expanded Universe". I've got so many "Legacy" books now that I was quite peeved off to find that they were all now void.  I get why, there was a lot of trash and it would have been impossible to fit a new movie in (unless Thrawn Trilogy anyone). I just wish that they also continued the Legacy Universe. . . I was quite invested in what was going to be happening with the Lost Tribe and Allana Solo, and what series of events would have led to the Legacy Era (omg different "Legacies" ) comics. From what I've seen about that Era everything looked a bit poo (give the Jedi/Repubic a break. . . ), but I was still interested in seeing how they got there. That's gone now though

Onto the new canon though.  So far I've saw all of the TV stuff (Clone Wars + Rebels), and read most of the "Adult" Novels, except Dark Disciple, which I'm not sure I'll bother about because I'm not that interested in Ventress or Quinlan Vos, especially after how they totally changed his character in TCW.  I've not hit the comics or any of those "young adult" novels or anything like that, but I'm still quite happy to discuss.

TV Stuff:
Clone Wars was actually okay. It's something I wish Lucas just wasn't involved with though.

I get that it's "His" universe so he can do anything he wants, but I'm left with the opinion that he was just a danger to the franchise. The total culture change to Manadlore was wtf (Seriously why change it and not just make a new planet with a new culture? There was no need to ruin something that already exists) and I'm pretty pissed off at him decided to change the name of "Korriban" to "Morraband". He did a lot of other changes, but those stick out. They have been major places of note in the existing Star Wars lore, and if he was unhappy he should have gotten involved at the time, rather than sticking his middle finger up at all of the people that have worked on establishing those places and the fans who have absorbed that content.  He made the choice to give away creative control to other people without his oversight, and I don't think he should have been coming back in DECADES later (first mention of Korriban was 1994, first mention of Mandalore was 1982) and saying SCREW THAT, WE'RE DOING IT THIS WAY. If I'd watched clone wars before the Disney takeover I'd have been celebrating them taking creative control out of his hands.  Some his stories I felt also negatively effected the universe. I feel like the clone control chips was pretty much another midiclorians, and it would have been better left unstated, especially as we already had multiple novels about order 66 being put into effect and suddenly they are all wrong.

The way episodes were aired was horrendous as well. He just seems to feel the need to go back and explain things that happened ages ago, even though they didn't need an explanation. Just look at the chronological Episode Order. It's insane. There's also never a mention that we've went back in time during the episodes so I was often watching wondering "wtf this guy is dead" or "I thought this dude was in jail" until it clicked that we'd went back in time to something that happened before an event 2 seasons ago.

The stories and characters were alright, although we really didn't see much of Anakins fall to the Dark Side as I'd hoped. Grievous was also a joke in it. It's a shame as the Clone Wars Cartoon which came out first, although ridiculous, managed to achieve both, as well as Anakins Jedi Knight trials.  I started off Disliking Ashoka but she grew on me, and I'm very satisfied with how she came to leave the Order.  Some of the stories were totally silly (Anything to do with the droids, jar jar or younglings. Seriously that entire younglings-vs-hondo stuff was ridiculous), but it's a kid show so it's quite forgiveable, and it hits more than misses.  I also do think it's pretty much a must-watch before seeing Rebels, especially for Season 2.

Rebels:

First off, pretty much all of the characters are great. Ezra looks exactly like a Blue Haired Slyfox. The crew is awesome, and I think the droid is my favourite droid in the entire universe.  The Inquisitor was pretty cool, although I think the Agent guy is a bit bland (and has awful facial hair). One of the newer lesser Inquisitors is a Mirilan Female... I'm thinking it's possibly Barris Offee, especially as she seems to have it in for Ashoka, we'll see.

Storywise I'm really enjoying it. There's not really much else to say. It's good, it's fun, and for the most part it makes sense.  The only criticism I've got is the Imperials at times seem to just be acting bad for the sake of being bad. This is something that happens a few times in various novels and the reasoning behind it is made clear at some points. Again, kids show, it gets a pass.

Hondos return in one of the more recent episodes was totally awesome. In the clone wars I thought that his existence beyond the first encounter was dumb, even though he was an awesome character. He came up way too often and it's silly no one stamped down on him, the entire jedi youngling raid was stupid for him to do, but it was also a stupid story arc all together (why was it just Younglings and Ashoka, an apprentice, on that ship unescorted???).  Seeing an older, wiser, but unchanged version was awesome. He's pretty much what I imagine a "High Charisma" character in D&D or something would be like

Honestly there's not much to say about Rebels, it's really really good.

Onto the books:

Lords Of The Sith:

Good. The start of Hera's story in a way. I really enjoyed it, we got to see some of the Emperors power and how he operates. It was nice seeing Vader get tested and tormented, you really start to sympathise with him.  I don't think there was much depth to this story, the plot was light, it was pretty much pure character building with some rebellion overtones around it. The rebel side follows Heras (from Rebels) dad, and how they almost succeeded in an epic galaxy changing plan and how everything goes to crap. What I found interesting was hearing Vaders internal thoughts and things like him lightly defying Sidious in quite jedilike-with-a-dark-side-justification ways, with Sidious catching on and giving out very suitable punishments for it.

Tarkin:

I really liked this one, getting to see Tarkins new (and pretty interesting) Origin and Rise To Power stories. I always felt he was an cool character and it was awesome to see the new lores viewpoint of things like the Tarkin Doctrine. We also got to see him building his relationship with Vader, and we learn why Vader respects him enough to listen to his commands.  It was good to see the Imperials properly utilising some ends-justifying-the-means type behaviour. I enjoyed this all the way through.

A New Dawn:

The SW Rebels Prequel, our first (non comic) introduction to Kanan and Hera.  Also the first appearance of Captain Rae Sloane (who in some ways appears to younger female new lore Gilad Palleon), who will end up being a fairly interesting character. The BBEG, Count Vidian, started off as a decent bad guy with the "efficiency drive" and ends-justifying-the-means, but through the novel it yet again they seemed to fall into the IMPERIALS DO BAD THINGS FOR NO REASON with him. Later on they justify it in a satisfying way though, and we're left with the feeling that being a dick for no reason is not the standard practice.   We also got a bit of a look into the Imperial information gathering systems which was something totally new.

I found this an interesting prequel for Rebels, and it's left me with a desire to learn how they met the rest of their crew, and perhaps see some of the people from the book later turn up in the TV series.

Battlefront: Twilight Company

This was pretty much different from every other SW book I've read. It primarily follows a backworld trooper who is part of a rebellion infantry battalion which always volunteers for the worst possible assignments, with a small focus on an Imperial Stormtrooper.  For a SW book it's quite dark and there's a lot of needless death.  I quite liked Governor Chalis as a character, a woman with an incredible mind and intimate knowledge of the Empires Logistics (good to see this getting notice, for it's size it seems an obvious weakness), and basically just wants to be recognised for her talent and left with enough free time and resources to practice her art. I liked seeing a character, especially an Imperial one, who wasn't all about gaining power or trying to push their agenda.  The encounter with Vader on Hoth was suitably dramatic and awesome, as was her finale moment against the Prelate who was chasing her.

Following the stormtrooper character was interesting as well, especially in terms of learning the policies and behaviours that the trooper corps have to follow. Some of them seemed a bit silly, but others although perhaps "inhumane" in a weird way make sense. I thought the "no social talk on duty" kind of rules were a bit pointless. I get the intent, but it's also completely unrealistic to expect the troopers to stand on shift for 8 hours and not talk with each other, especially if they are meant to work as a team in combat and such... there needs to be that element of trust beyond training.  They did have good justification for it though, as well as good reasons to call them all by their ID number instead of their names and such.

I enjoyed this one, watching things from the grunt side was a nice change.

Heir To The Jedi:

Follows Luke Skywalker just after EPIV on a mission to rescue a super duper slicer from the Empire. There is good character development and we get to see him reflecting on his whininess and his struggle to try become a Jedi without a tutor.  There was a love interest in this which was obvious a mile away, as well as how it ended, and it felt pretty unsatisfactory. I think the relationship would have been better as a strong friendship (they could have made the girl gay and keep the awkwardness that was the beginning of the relationship forming, they seem to be happy to do that for pretty much every other supporting character in the new novels).

The story felt a bit like a video game... the characters had to solve a couple of side quests to unlock the main one. It was an enjoyable read but most of the plot details were pretty forgettable. I feel like it was much more of a peice to try and transform Luke from Mr Whine to the Rebel Leader that we see in EPV

Aftermath:

This was the book that got me actually got me loving the new lore, but I'd recommend reading A New Dawn first so you get some history of (now) Admiral Sloane.    It's the only thing of substance so far that takes place after Episode 6. We get to see new canon Wedge in action, as well as a few other new rebels.  The main focus though is Sloane is leading a group basically trying to determine the future of the Empire now that the Emperor and the Death Star are gone (this feels appropriate).  It feels like the start of the "Warlord Era" breakdown of old canon, and this is Sloane predicting it happen and trying to stop it.  Bad luck and difficult people pretty much ruin this for her whenever she starts to make any progress, and she ends up I believe being the sole survivor.

That final chapter was like a massive jawdropping moment.  We think the entire Novel that Admiral Rae is pretty much the top military leader left, and she's basically trying to regain control of the the civilian and political arms of the Empire. We end with her having a conversation with a superior, unnamed Admiral about how she failed, to which he says no. Although having those people aligned would have being beneficial, them dead also achieves his purposes.  All we know about that Admiral is that he's cold and calculating, awards initiative in his underlings (even if due to events said initiative doesn't work out), is a master strategist, and has a love of Art.  Sounds like a particular someone in old lore may still be a thing   If it's not him, it's quite likely our first appearance of some important person for Episode 7, and we can gleam that said person is at least in part inspired by this old EU character so he could be pretty interesting.

So what are others feelings on stuff which we've seen so far in new EU? Anything to add to or discuss about above?  Perhaps some talk about the other books or even getting into the comics and such. From what I've seen of them they seem pretty interesting, I just find them to be too expensive.

New canon is actually quite exciting so far