Via Techtimes.com:

When I first learned that Disney planned to obliterate the Star Wars Expanded Universe in a way not so different from how the first Death Star annihilated Alderaan, I don’t remember being upset. There was no disturbance in the Force. In fact, the opposite was closer to the truth.

You see, I never enjoyed all that much of the Expanded Universe, which mostly existed in book form but was also comprised of various video games and comics. For every cool addition it introduced to Star Wars canon, it seemed to have a knack for introducing far more negatives. There were exceptions, of course. I loved the X-Wing series. Knights of the Old Republic I and II are among some of my favorite games of all time. Here and there I found aspects of the EU to love.

But for every Knights of the Old Republic there was a Masters of Tera Kasi. For every Heir to the Empire, there was a Darth Maul with robot legs (which is, bizarrely, still canon). It still baffles the mind that the character of Luuuke is actually a real thing. Over the course of the EU’s more than 20 year life span, the bad stuff started to pile up.

So when Disney announced that the EU would be rebranded “Legends” to distinguish it from new certified “canon” stories told outside of the films, I was actually relieved. No more EU stories would be published, though the old books would still remain in print under the Legends brand. Everything would make sense once again, and it would all be under one Star Wars banner. This is what Star Wars needed, I thought. A blank slate. A fresh starting point. A new hope.

Now, two years after the EU as fans knew it died, I realize I was wrong. Though the books, games and comics that made up the EU were far from perfect (believe me, some weird, weird stuff happens), for many years they were the only new Star Wars stories being told. In the early 1990s, fans didn’t know if a new Star Wars movie would ever be made. More than a few fans latched onto these new tales with a passion never before seen as a result. To many, the EU is Star Wars.

Click below to read the full article.