Star Wars

Far too many fans devote far too much time, energy, and YouTube bandwidth to complaining that everyone in the Star Wars Universe is either a Solo or a Skywalker, but reading the first offerings of Disney's Official Expanded Universe just drives the point home that that's exactly how it should be.

The Legends stories were all Skywalker/Solo stories precisely because those were the characters we'd already invested in. All of the world-building was done through the framework of "New stories, old characters," and any new characters were introduced via their connection to the old (Luke's new Jedi, Han and Leia's children, etc.).

The Legends authors didn't bother with "Let's spend a day on Ithor."
Instead they would write such a story as "Luke/Leia/Han/someone connected with them goes to Ithor, and we explore it through their interactions".
Choosing this technique means that the audience CARES about the new people they meet and the new places they go.

Even the X-Wing books, which focus on side-character Wedge Antilles and barely mention Luke at all, develop their new cast of characters through the one we already know.
Wedge personally recruits his team in the initial effort to reform Rogue Squadron, and we experience each person's individuality and backstory through the lens of Wedge's interactions with them.
Then, once the characters have been sufficiently developed in the existing framework and readers connect with them independent of the older characters, they can be let loose in their own stories like I, Jedi without the risk of a disconnect.


The Disney-approved EU books seem so focused on being Not-Skywalker/Solo stories that they're losing the original human connections to this universe that Lucas, Leigh Brackett, and Lawrence Kasdan poured so many years and so much effort into building.

I compare it to the more recently developed martial arts.
One can receive a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but if one cannot trace the line of masters back to the Gracie Family, one cannot be certified to teach the art in one's own gym.

An author can write a book and say "This is set in the Star Wars Universe," but even if he/she uses all the right jargon and references/visits familiar places, it will require much more effort to form a connection between audience and characters if the established cast is never mentioned.

Not to say it is impossible, but Star Wars in particular is infamous for overloading readers and audiences with planets, technology, and politics (an infamy the new set of EU authors seem set to continue), instead of the kind of character studies that "realistic" fiction authors do all the time.

The new trilogy is following the same basic format as pretty much all of the Legends stories, which has been proven to work over and over again, but fans still complain that "There's just Skywalkers and Solos everywhere! We want a bigger experience of this universe!"

Well how did you supreme intellects experience this universe in the first place?
Especially given that Finn's character is basically an answer to "What is Stormtrooper #3's story?" so branching out IS happening.
It's just happening, again, in the framework of new characters introduced via how they relate to characters we know, have already connected with, and are already following.

In my opinion, we need more Skywalkers and Solos, not less.
We need more of that original sense of adventure instead of getting bogged down in worldbuilding.

If you want Skywalker/Solo-free exploration of the Star Wars Universe, WRITE SOME!
And then edit in some known characters so we know what the hell you're talking about.