11/17/2025
All that they say are infidel drivel
Star Wars was at another peak in the late ’90s with the re-release of the original trilogy Special Editions in theaters and the impending release of The Phantom Menace and the prequel trilogy. After years of Expanded Universe stories attempting to tell the history of the franchise, fans were on the verge of a fresh return to theaters. This left those writing books within the Extended Universe looking to take the series in fresh directions away from the Empire.
The result was Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, a series of novels that debuted in 1999 to much fanfare. A Star Wars novel hadn’t received this type of attention since Shadows of the Empire was released as a missing piece of the original trilogy. New Jedi Order would make waves by killing off beloved characters, changing the nature of the galaxy, and introducing a horrifying new villain from outside the galaxy.
The Yuuzhan Vong invaded around 22 years after the Battle of Yavin, and almost immediately overwhelmed the New Republic. These invaders were part of an extra-galactic race of nomadic religious zealots who reject technology as blasphemy and use organic creations and experimentation to make their spacecraft, weapons, and other forms of “technology.” The Yuuzhan Vong didn’t arrive as grey-clad fascists or dark Jedi that hid in the shadows; they were a race of brutality and pain, with demon-like faces and technology unlike anything Star Wars had seen to that point.
Then Disney came to town, The Force Awakens was announced, and the Expanded Universe was firmly removed from the canon and renamed to Legends. The Yuuzhan Vong would be stored away for future use, which did come in a way with the introduction of the Grysk. But they’re still far away from what makes the Yuuzhan Vong appealing.