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Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






How do!

This is something I’ve been pondering for a decent while, as I’m not at all familiar with The Old Republic stuff for Star Wars. I mean, I know who Revan and Malak are (had their figures. Which I sold. Do I regret selling them? Yes, yes I do), and that The Rule of Two kicked off in that era with the fall of a (the?) Sith Empire. But beyond that, just assume I know nothing, so passing and fragmentary is my knowledge of it.

The reason I ask is that after the slate was wiped, and pre-Disney stuff consigned to Legends, various bits have been brought back in one form or another. Ship designs, characters, even events have been retconned and reinterpreted. Thrawn being one of particular note (and it seems his song is not yet done).

But as I know eff all about the era, I couldn’t spot something re-canonised from it if it wore a big neon sign and kicked my up the hoop.

I think that’ll do as a thread topic primer, as I can’t go much further. But before you post, please do be aware that opinions on the New Canon and it’s media aren’t terribly relevant to this thread. I want to know what might’ve been brought back, what you think of it not so much

   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





Whilst I'm only aware of stuff from the two Kotor RPGs and the base MMO games some of the ideas have been leaking into newer stuff, both KSO and Landos lady bot clearly have HK snark chips and grumpy Unka Luke was a hamfisted swing and miss at Kreia

I suspect we'll see more either purposefully to reflect that SW history is an ever repeating cycle or idea starved hacks pilfering and hoping nobody spots it

"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED." 
   
Made in us
Purposeful Hammerhead Pilot




United States

It was my understanding that The Old Republic wasn't included in the decanonization of the EU because it was so far back that it didn't really affect or influence the rest of the EU. Also the Old Republic MMO was still actively putting out updates when the EU got killed so I think they just kept that game and its base canon. but I may be wrong.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I mean, I know who Revan and Malak are (had their figures. Which I sold. Do I regret selling them? Yes, yes I do), and that The Rule of Two kicked off in that era with the fall of a (the?) Sith Empire. But beyond that, just assume I know nothing, so passing and fragmentary is my knowledge of it.


Just as an explanation, in the old EU, and at least in part this seems to hold in the new EU to a degree because the events involved have been hinted at and Bane is still directly referenced in The Phantom Menace, the Rule of Two is from a later era. I'm not sure what it's called, can't remember (In my head it's the "Golden Age of the Republic" but I can't remember if that's what it was called then). During the Old Republic era, the Sith were still a somewhat new threat relatively speaking, and were persistently attacking the Republic from the Outer Rim and Periphery because the Republic hadn't fully stretched that far yet. They usually took the form of an empire or a rebel movement within the Jedi.

But as I know eff all about the era, I couldn’t spot something re-canonised from it if it wore a big neon sign and kicked my up the hoop.


Almost none of it save some bits a pieces have come back. Bits I can remember;

Spoiler:
Several of the principal figures of the era have been re-canonized, if only in name. Exar Kun for example.

Tython has gone from being a jungle world where the Jedi first started to just a place that the Jedi consider important. It was reintroduced in The Mandalorian.

Korriban was for some reason renamed to Moraband in the Clone Wars (I think out of spite by Lucas on his way out the door) and Exegol fills a similar role to the old EU planet Dromund Kaas (a place that is hidden away and that the Sith used to rebuild). The same episode that renamed Korriban to Moraband seemed to hint at the Hundred Year Darkness (the civil war that split the original order of force users into the Jedi and the Sith) and it's been hinted at in a few other lore heavy episodes of Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, Rebels, and some books. Because of this, the basic history of the Sith is considered to still be true in the new EU.

Tarkin, the novel, reconanized the Sith wars against the Republic in this era, as well as re-established that the Temples on Yavin IV were built by the Sith.

Bendu rather than one of the groups that would become the Jedi became the name of a space monster with force powers.

Revan was on track to be canonized in a Season 5 and Season 6 episode of Clone Wars, but was nixed both times because Lucas hated anyone but him having an opinion on how the force worked. He finally got mention (he's probably too popular a character for Disney to leave in limbo) is a guide book or something last year but his canonization consists solely of his name appearing in the book thus far.

Some of the final events of the period have been losely referenced in some present material. The Army of Light, the last big event of the Old Republic Era in the old EU, I think has been hinted at a few times though I'm blanking on the specifics. Wookiepedia says it was referenced in a book. In the old EU, Darth Bane was the sole Sith survivor of the war against the Army of Light and would refounded the Sith on the Rule of Two. This was considered the end of the Old Republic Era and the start of the Golden Age of the Republic (now called the High Republic?). Thus far these events have yet to be connected to my knowledge in the new EU, but both do exist so we could assume they're meant to still be connected.


It is worth noting that Palpatine's plan in TRoS, was basically just a rip off of Sith Emperor Vitiate, who was pulling similar immortality/possession shenanigans in the Old Republic Era and is a principal villain of the MMORPG by EA. He is not a fondly remembered villain. Disney probably should have taken that as a warning sign XD

I think the High Republic was intended to be some of a call back to the Old Republic, but some exec somewhere got nervous about the complete absence of established film characters for some reason, so instead the High Republic is just the period immediately before the Republic's fall. That way they could ram Yoda into the books and seriously shoehorn their own creativity XD Thus far the only thing keeping The Old Republic alive is the MMO, and not sure how much longer that'll last or what the fate of this period will be when it's gone. The Old Republic imo has a distinct flavor in Star Wars as an era of foundations and new frontiers. It went to the heart of the Star Wars Universe to explain how it all began, and had some great and iconic stories in it. I'd still like to see that, but there seems to be little interest in exploring it aside from occasional references here and there.

If you want to hunt down some of the old Dark Horse comics, many of them are quite good. Star Wars: Force Wars, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Tales of the Jedi all had stories relating to the Old Republic, some going all the way back to the very beginning.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2021/02/20 14:49:15


   
Made in us
Member of the Ethereal Council






With Star Wars operating on pure fanservice right now, and with the Old Republic being highly loved, i suspect we will see the Old Republic come in at one point.

5000pts 6000pts 3000pts
 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






There was news a while back they were actively exploring it as a source - but that was before The High Republic was announced, so I suspect someone might’ve misinterpreted?

   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

I think High Republic is what Disney was looking to make, and it shares some of the tone and style of the Old Republic. It's just not that old, nowhere near as foundational, and from what I've heard not particularly good XD

   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






Possibly. Certainly I think for General Public and his massed rank, Old Republic is perhaps a bit too disconnected from the universe they’re familiar with?

I’m probably wrong on that count though.

Now, possibly a dangerous question....if/when (and it is probably a when) they do revisit The Old Republic, is there anything folks feel could do with a spit and polish?

   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

Realistically a lot of things could afford polish.

The plot of SWTOR ultimately went very very sideways when Vitiate became Palpatine but better. Everything was about fighting him and the stakes were always somewhat nebulous. I think how Revan's story ended in the game was also something many were happy to see decanonized when Disney came it. It was a bad ending.

The Force Wars comic hasn't held up well either but took place in an era I think could really afford more exploration (before the split of force users in Jedi and Sith).

In general, I'd also just love for Lucas to stop being the dictator on the force. I know not everyone liked the idea of the Grey Jedi, but I think the canon was a lot more interesting when there were other bands of force users with their own ideas and philosophies and everything wasn't completely turning around conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Lucas' insistent single mindedness that the Force work in a way that barely makes sense hosed a lot of potential for story telling.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/02/22 16:48:43


   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




The Great State of New Jersey

The Old Republic era, like everything pre-Disney, is non-canon. Like a lot of non-canon/Legends content, the writers and creators of the setting have been mining the Old Republic era for content and references to include in the new canon, which is why you see canonical references to Old Republic characters, places, technologies, etc. Thrawn is an example of the same thing being done in the original trilogy era, like the Old Republic era he was rendered non-canon... until he wasn't, but canon Thrawn is not the same as original pre-Disney/Legends Thrawn, they share the same name and to an extent the same personalities, but otherwise have completely different histories. The same should be assumed of the Old Republic era going forward in the new canon - the character names may be identical, certain events and places and things may be identical, but overall they are not the same thing,

balmong7 wrote:
It was my understanding that The Old Republic wasn't included in the decanonization of the EU because it was so far back that it didn't really affect or influence the rest of the EU. Also the Old Republic MMO was still actively putting out updates when the EU got killed so I think they just kept that game and its base canon. but I may be wrong.


Nope, it was de-canonized with everything else. The Old Republic was explicitly stated by Luasfilm as being the only continuing source going forward for "Legends" content, up until such time that the game is ultimately shut down.

CoALabaer wrote:
Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
 
   
Made in ca
Preacher of the Emperor






I had a long talk with a friend about this, trying to go over the bits of worldbuilding that had been presented in Light of the Jedi thus far against what he knew about TOR because I was also curious about what, if anything, had been retconned in the High Republic worldbuilding thus far.

So far... I haven't really found anything solid. There's explicit mention that Bacta has not been adopted by the galaxy at large because effective cultivation hasn't been figured out yet and I had thought it was available in TOR, but apparently they use a different substance that works the same way, narratively speaking.

That was the 'gotcha' I thought we had showing that the Old Republic era had been implicitly retconned, but I ended up being completely wrong about. The rest is more circumstantial and open-ended: The Outer Rim has some population but is outside of Republic influence and hyperspace routes to and from aren't as thoroughly mapped, there's a mountain on Coruscant that generations of city planners have all elected not to build towers on, Jedi don't seem to be nearly as strict about relationship management as they are in the PT, stuff like that which isn't explicitly supported or denied by the Old Republic lore in certain terms.

By and large it seems to me they're taking care to avoid retconning Old Republic stuff, but are more than comfortable to wiggle around in that ~2000 year gap between them.

   
Made in us
Terrifying Doombull




 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Possibly. Certainly I think for General Public and his massed rank, Old Republic is perhaps a bit too disconnected from the universe they’re familiar with?

I’m probably wrong on that count though.

Now, possibly a dangerous question....if/when (and it is probably a when) they do revisit The Old Republic, is there anything folks feel could do with a spit and polish?


Well between KotoR, KotoR 2 and the Old Republic MMO, there are...4 or 5 layers of 'Sith Empires' that apparently...aren't... the same thing? Except some of them were really run by the same guy? Or a front man he had used, sometimes, or sometimes they just didn't know about him at all but he was still in charge. And that doesn't include the even older Sith Empires that were founded by the Sith species and corrupted by fallen Jedi in the even longer 'long ago.' That whole thing is kind of a mess. And each expansion seems intent on digging that hole deeper.

Efficiency is the highest virtue. 
   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




The Great State of New Jersey

 Captain Joystick wrote:
I had a long talk with a friend about this, trying to go over the bits of worldbuilding that had been presented in Light of the Jedi thus far against what he knew about TOR because I was also curious about what, if anything, had been retconned in the High Republic worldbuilding thus far.

So far... I haven't really found anything solid. There's explicit mention that Bacta has not been adopted by the galaxy at large because effective cultivation hasn't been figured out yet and I had thought it was available in TOR, but apparently they use a different substance that works the same way, narratively speaking.

That was the 'gotcha' I thought we had showing that the Old Republic era had been implicitly retconned, but I ended up being completely wrong about. The rest is more circumstantial and open-ended: The Outer Rim has some population but is outside of Republic influence and hyperspace routes to and from aren't as thoroughly mapped, there's a mountain on Coruscant that generations of city planners have all elected not to build towers on, Jedi don't seem to be nearly as strict about relationship management as they are in the PT, stuff like that which isn't explicitly supported or denied by the Old Republic lore in certain terms.

By and large it seems to me they're taking care to avoid retconning Old Republic stuff, but are more than comfortable to wiggle around in that ~2000 year gap between them.


In The Old Republic era it was "Kolto" iirc, but iirc as of the KOTOR games bacta was already figured out and Kolto was slowly losing "market share" to bacta as the costs of Kolto production were increasing and it was generally less effective than bacta was. So it is in fact a bit of a "gotcha", but not a particularly big one as the Legends continuity isn't entirely clear as to which point in the legends timeline Bacta superceded Kolto.

By and large it seems to me they're taking care to avoid retconning Old Republic stuff, but are more than comfortable to wiggle around in that ~2000 year gap between them.


More like a ~3800 year gap, High Republic era is 300 BBY to ~80 BBY, with the events of the current books and comics, etc. being set about 230BBY, whereas KOTOR is ~3900-4000 BBY

CoALabaer wrote:
Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
 
   
 
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