he greatest fans of the Expanded Universe (the collective name for the hundreds of Star Wars novels, thousands of Star Wars comics, and countless video games and other media that have developed characters and storylines outside of the Star Wars films themselves) are the first ones to tell you how much of it is self-contradictory and just plain sucks. And many lovers of Star Wars are intensely partisan about—and protective of—the films themselves. Fans of the original trilogy (Episodes IV to VI, released 1977 to 1983) have stewed obsessively over every change in Lucas’s upgraded versions (tweaked for rerelease in 1997, 2004, 2006, and 2011) and remain bitterly divided over the prequel trilogy (Episodes I to III, released 1999 to 2005.) These twin passions, love and hate, are as constant companions to Star Wars fans as Jedi and Sith, or as the twin suns of Tatooine.