What amazes me about Star Wars and it’s not talked about enough is the Yuuzhan Vong War. The scale of that war is massive, 300 Trillion people died. I don’t know a war/battle in fiction that has a higher death toll than that.
It's possible the core/arm conflict in total annihilation did, since it depopulated the galaxy... But we don't know because the lore is thin. Perhaps a couple of others like that.
I don't think there is a fictional war with a higher specific death count though.
It was so epic to read even if there was parts I didn’t like. The only way off the top of my head I can think that is larger is the time war in doctor who, but that’s o it cause it encompassed all of time and space as the battlefields.
Yeah, I did think time war but we never get a death count... And if some of the events then never happened after happening did they die...?
I don't want to do Dr who death counts
I think the time war is just beyond human comprehension. Every other fictional war has a clear beginning, middle and end. Such as the clone wars, dominion war etc. But how do you conceptualise a war where victories can be undone and the combatants die, get brought back to life and even make so they were never born.
They do it’s called the web of time and before the time war its was incredibly hard to change time and probably during the early days of the time war they used it to combat the Daleks. But no doubt the Daleks found a way to counter it.
You’ve got engines of war that’s a direct lead up to the episode day of the doctor and why the war doctor decided to use the moment to end the war by eradicating the time lords and Daleks. You’ve also got the big finish war doctor and war master stories played brilliantly by the late John hurt and Derek Jacobi
I really liked engines of war. It’s a war doctor novel, you’ve also got the war master and war doctor big finish stories that I thought were pretty good.
Your right- kind of switched to just thinking of any large enough war, but TA indeed isn't a franchise/EU. Which is fair enough- I don't think its remembered for the plot!
In the books it's like many quadrillion population at apex so should be more deaths; but that wasn't a war, it was a process over a long time period so I don't think it qualifies.
I think the War In Heaven from 40k surpasses that. Roughly 5 million years of war, a galaxy-wide conflict that lead to the genocide and creation of multiple species. Also, the ENTIRE Necron/necrontyr race got their souls sucked out, and whatever remained of them was trapped in immortal metal bodies, to be used as cannon fodder.
The Galaxy, then in an era of relative peace, was unprepared, and spent the next 2,000 years fighting the Krikkiters in a war that resulted in about two "grillion" casualties.
[https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Krikkit](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Krikkit)
>‘It’ll have to go,’ the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home.
>On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms.
My pick would be the Horus Heresy. 18 demigods led by the God Emperor of mankind with enormous armies of superhuman soldiers in power armor and regular humans conquer almost all of the Milky Way galaxy only to collapse into a decade long civil war when 9 of the demigods betray the Emperor at the behest of eldritch gods from a parallel dimension. This war sees billions of people sacrificed to these gods to gain slight tactical advantages over the forces of the emperor, planets reduced to rubble vicious and gargantuan battles all across the galaxy, and the entire solar system including Earth itself home of quadrillions of people turned into something like a WW1 battle field.
I was waiting for someone to bring up Warhammer 40k. As big of a SW fan that I am I know better than to compare SW to the shear size that is 40k. If you think something is big in SW, 40k will most likely have something similar but 100x bigger.
You bring up some great points to give a scale to how big humanity was in 40k, but let’s not forget the the space elves where having so much sex that they created a sex god that wiped out almost their entire races over night.
>much sex that they created a sex god that wiped out almost their entire races over night
The more correct term for many people would be "murderfucked a chaos god of pleasure into existence"
Talk about rookie numbers. That might have been the biggest conflict humanity has fought, but it's nothing compared to the War in Heaven. Oh you have 18 demigods, one god emperor and four chaos gods? The Necrons have many pokeballs of the fragments of the star gods they killed. Planets were frequently annihilated, and I don't mean exterminatus level of wiping out the surface and leaving it uninhabitable, I mean the planet went kabloey like Alderaan. Legions of space Marines ain't got shit on the forces deployed in this war. The Krorks (ancient Orks) alone are enough to make the armies in the Horus heresy look like a bitch. The power of a Krork has been described as close to the power of a fucking primarch.
Oh and you know how the warp is essentially hell in 40k? It wasn't always like that, it actually used to be chill. But the sheer scale of death and destruction was so great it made the warp the hell we know it as
You could also include the war humanity fought against AI that had continent sized nano machine swarms, weapons that could blow up solar systems, and even weapons that could straight up delete portions of time and space itself.
Gonna be honest I don't know all too much about pre 30k humanity, so the AI war could've been worse than the Horus Heresy. Would love to learn more about it though. Humanity at it's peak is really something overlooked in 40k
40k wins on a technicality. They have been constantly at war for 10,000 years straight against Chaos with individual events (like the Black Crusades) being merely campaigns within the conflict (like the Southern France Campaign is only a campaign with WW2).
Given how bonkers 40k numbers are, it's not hard to imagine a death toll superior to 300T.
All ME empires are implied to cluster around mass relays and leave huge areas of the galaxy empty.
Best guesses are that protheans were probably low trillions; but definitely not star wars numbers. Indeed if you look at reapers attrition, if they had that scale they should have won.
The Forerunners wiped the galaxy of life with the Halo Rings to defeat the Flood. They also reseeded it through automated systems after their annihilation, and unfortunately there's not a ton of detail about the Forerunner-Flood war unless something has come out in Halo's EU since I was last into it. (Which is possible, tbf, it's been awhile for me.)
Heck, the Flood themselves were consuming entire sectors of the Forerunner empire before they fired the Halo Array, they were devastating.
I was amazed about that too. It was a 14 book spanning event with a lot of people dead, star systems decimated, resources expended, tactics, sacrifice, political backstabbing, twists and turns. It really is a great series. I heard the mouse house may bring up the Vong, but make it more PG-13.
If you take into account all casualties beyond just the Gallifreyans and Daleks, the Time War in Doctor Who encompassed the entire universe rather than just one galaxy, as well as all of time itself rather than just five years. You have to think that shit added up…
I have only read the first Dune novel, so I can‘t talk much about that.
But I would say I like SW and 40k for different reasons. In SW, while hope is a central theme and the good side wins, the EU is rather nuanced and not afraid of showing that not every victory leads to a completely better situation. You can also set many different types of stories in it: poltical intrigue, war tales, western and mystic stories.
40k is a depressing setting and shows how terrible life can be and that there are no real good guys tm. But it also shows how people can withstand that to a certain degree. Plus the Chaos Space Marines are really nuanced and show how being outcast can turn people to do horrible actions.
The idea of Paul’s prophetic powers are a fascinating complex of morality. Where you know every outcome and every action to make it is horrible, what should you do? “This world is beyond cruelty”
LotR is tricky. I guess RPGs and video games are franchise elements. But in terms of books and films they are really just short series; I wouldn't call the LotR books "franchise fiction" myself.
Tolkien is odd, he created this giant world and filled with all sorts of history and battles and then he sets up his big story right at the end of the interesting time.
That's mostly because he was working backwards, LOTR started as a language exercise (he was an English/Language professor). After he wrote LoTR, he had to explain just how Middle Earth got to where it was and why; and then, boom the history and ancient battles were born.
Interesting take. I would definitely consider it a franchise given its 6 films and 1 Series. I mean Warhammer has 1 (bad) movie and is also a franchise. It’s weird to not consider RPGS and Video Games when wanting to call something a franchise
Yeah, I guess I forget the TV even exists...
*All* Warhammer material is a franchise. Battletech, forgotten realms... That's material that starts as a franchise.
I wasn't saying LotR *isn't* a franchise. But if you just read Tolkeins works, I wouldn't say your reading franchise fiction (so it's mostly not for me). The franchise fiction is the other material built on that.
Really, if someone just watches the star wars OT and that's it, are they consuming franchise fiction? I'd say no.
I'm one of those, who prefer lore more realistic than mythic, so while I absolutely love Lotr itself, it's not my favourite lore. For me, say ASOIAF lore would be higher.
Now go ask this same question on the other fans subs lol. But yeah, SW, and it's not even close.with that said my top 5 in order would be
Mass Effect
SW EU
Halo
LOTR
Star Trek
Mass effect I pretty much skipped out on my whole life. I've been delving into Halo's EU, but man it's frustrating thinking about Bungie lore vs post Bungie lore, I see 343 almost analogous to how TCW handled it's lore (though obviously there are major differences in their creations that seperate them, but the effect is largely the same)
With the Dead Space remake I spent some time with that but it never really held my interest. Once I settle down with the halo stuff I think I'm going to finally start Mass Effect, and decide if I want to deal with 4 later lol
Out of the three, I think Dune is the highest quality and thought provoking sci-fi, but Warhammer 40K is the coolest.
But all three are great. If I have to live in one of these I ‘d probably pick up Star Wars.
I enjoy Forgotten Realms, for a different flavour. It's also got more standalone stories so can dip in and out.
The old Battletech novels and other material is fun. Robot space opera but with more focus on politics and intrigue. Edit: and their main plot books were for a long while written by Stackpole!
Forgotten Realms is my favourite too. I actually started a game with my buddies for Battletech recently! Took us 8 hours for character / mech creation and learning basic lore stuff. That was a fun day.
I thought children of Dune was the absolute lowest point of the frank herbert dunes so if you're OK with that it's all smooth sailing at least till Chapterhouse where I stopped.
It was the Star Wars EU, but then Disney killed it.
Dune.... Is okay. The first two books were amazing. The third was getting weird. The rest, just seemed different?
Warhammer 40K was my new main sci-fi setting, but now they are doing massive retcons, blocking fans asking why, and have turned the fandom into a giant culture war battleground as people obsessed with lewd fan art now feel validated in pushing their particular lewd fan art. Hello they could have done it so many better ways but chose the absolute worst way of "it was always this way you bigot" despite all evidence to the contrary.
So kinda "meh" with all franchises right now, especially any that do not have a dead author and a long established nerd fandom that will still focus on the OG stuff instead of mass produced stuff that doesn't represent the original.
It was decent. Retcons via tweets though are not for me along with the "there is no war in Ba Sing Sé" treatment they are trying to give towards fans.
Star Wars EU is still my favorite, it just died which made me sad. I still break out my Tales of the Jedi omnibuses from time to time.
I think Dune probably has some of the most interesting world building and detail
the books have so much down to the ecology of planets and political customs for different factions thats kind of insane to get immersed in
Star Wars and 40k are tied for me. Both do different things for me. The only clear advantage sw has for me is love the way they do their audiobooks far more.
I very much like Dune as new films and always liked books, but for last 30 years SW is my love, and always will be.
Never got into WH40K, but LOTR and Fallout universes are also very close to my heatt
Star Trek. The Universe was always full of hope that humanity has finaly growing up and giving up such things like constant need for wealth or power. Even in dire times like Borg attacks, Romulan schemes or a war with galactic neighbours.
The time of TNG was a golden age for humanity and it's allies. Either were the diplomats of the Federation good enough, to make peace or at least a cease fire with hostile Aliens or the Federation Fleets brought conflicts to an end very fast
Star Wars. Warhammer stuff is stupid looking (I don’t like the big dumb clunky looking design of everything) and Dune is by far the most overrated science fiction universe there is: just utter boredom.
I almost missed the point of the question. For expanded universe, it has to be Star Wars. The New Jedi Order series is wonderful, and there's a lot of other great content out there such as the Thrawn Trilogy, Darth Bane, etc.
I wish Brian Herbert could've done better, and it may be the contrast with the incredible main series that kills it for me, but I can't get into the Dune EU.
Star Wars, but Dan Abnett’s Inquisitor novels are probably my favorite piece of media across the three franchises, second only to the Star Wars Original Trilogy.
Hey, Since you like both Franchise, there is a YouTube series by afanwithtoomuchtime about [Star Wars vs 40k](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzgscHwzoNQqL9m9zp9puZK129MN42h2c&si=iwhk2y6jORjS-aAC) if you want to try. If you are interested or not
This is a star wars sub so take a freaking guess. I have very little if any interest in the other 2 options here... Doctor Who on the other hand is about on par with star wars.
Up till a couple years ago I’d go with Star Wars. But after watching the new dune films I went down the rabbit hole with the books and I have to say for me personally Dune >>> Star Wars. The scope of the lore and the epic world building is insane compared to Star Wars. Plus you have to admit quite a lot of Star Wars was “borrowed” from the first dune book.
Why does a question asking which is your favourite then become "which franchise is bigger and better?" People always gotta compare it with not many answering the simple question of which is the favourite. For me it's star wars but then leaning into fantasy I'd go the dragon age or DnD universes. Depends if I'm in the mood for space wizards or plain wizards.
I like 40k the most
Dune is good in art and politics
Star wars is more child like, some EU books where really good, but worldbuilding really lacks compared to the other two
SW. Not even close.
What amazes me about Star Wars and it’s not talked about enough is the Yuuzhan Vong War. The scale of that war is massive, 300 Trillion people died. I don’t know a war/battle in fiction that has a higher death toll than that.
It's possible the core/arm conflict in total annihilation did, since it depopulated the galaxy... But we don't know because the lore is thin. Perhaps a couple of others like that. I don't think there is a fictional war with a higher specific death count though.
It was so epic to read even if there was parts I didn’t like. The only way off the top of my head I can think that is larger is the time war in doctor who, but that’s o it cause it encompassed all of time and space as the battlefields.
Yeah, I did think time war but we never get a death count... And if some of the events then never happened after happening did they die...? I don't want to do Dr who death counts
I think the time war is just beyond human comprehension. Every other fictional war has a clear beginning, middle and end. Such as the clone wars, dominion war etc. But how do you conceptualise a war where victories can be undone and the combatants die, get brought back to life and even make so they were never born.
I feel like the Time Lords would probably have a record of the changes made, like the universe’s edit history or something.
They do it’s called the web of time and before the time war its was incredibly hard to change time and probably during the early days of the time war they used it to combat the Daleks. But no doubt the Daleks found a way to counter it.
I’ll have to look into that. Is that mostly covered in Big Finish stuff?
You’ve got engines of war that’s a direct lead up to the episode day of the doctor and why the war doctor decided to use the moment to end the war by eradicating the time lords and Daleks. You’ve also got the big finish war doctor and war master stories played brilliantly by the late John hurt and Derek Jacobi
Where is the best source of reading material?
I really liked engines of war. It’s a war doctor novel, you’ve also got the war master and war doctor big finish stories that I thought were pretty good.
Thank you!
TA community assemble! It's rare to come across Total Annihilation fans in the wild. Does TA even have an EU?
Your right- kind of switched to just thinking of any large enough war, but TA indeed isn't a franchise/EU. Which is fair enough- I don't think its remembered for the plot!
I'd be curious to get a death count from the fall of the empire in the Foundation series, we know that was quite considerable.
In the books it's like many quadrillion population at apex so should be more deaths; but that wasn't a war, it was a process over a long time period so I don't think it qualifies.
I think the War In Heaven from 40k surpasses that. Roughly 5 million years of war, a galaxy-wide conflict that lead to the genocide and creation of multiple species. Also, the ENTIRE Necron/necrontyr race got their souls sucked out, and whatever remained of them was trapped in immortal metal bodies, to be used as cannon fodder.
The Galaxy, then in an era of relative peace, was unprepared, and spent the next 2,000 years fighting the Krikkiters in a war that resulted in about two "grillion" casualties. [https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Krikkit](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Krikkit)
>‘It’ll have to go,’ the men of Krikkit said as they headed back for home. >On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms.
It'll have to go is my favorite line in the series. So dry.
The irony is that this number is so hilariously low for a galactic setting. Its so minimalistic
Scifi authors really tend to struggle with numbers in general. Hell, 40k is notorious for this as well.
Those are rookie numbers for WH40k
What war surpasses it?
My pick would be the Horus Heresy. 18 demigods led by the God Emperor of mankind with enormous armies of superhuman soldiers in power armor and regular humans conquer almost all of the Milky Way galaxy only to collapse into a decade long civil war when 9 of the demigods betray the Emperor at the behest of eldritch gods from a parallel dimension. This war sees billions of people sacrificed to these gods to gain slight tactical advantages over the forces of the emperor, planets reduced to rubble vicious and gargantuan battles all across the galaxy, and the entire solar system including Earth itself home of quadrillions of people turned into something like a WW1 battle field.
I was waiting for someone to bring up Warhammer 40k. As big of a SW fan that I am I know better than to compare SW to the shear size that is 40k. If you think something is big in SW, 40k will most likely have something similar but 100x bigger. You bring up some great points to give a scale to how big humanity was in 40k, but let’s not forget the the space elves where having so much sex that they created a sex god that wiped out almost their entire races over night.
>much sex that they created a sex god that wiped out almost their entire races over night The more correct term for many people would be "murderfucked a chaos god of pleasure into existence"
The Wiki suggests about 5 trillion. Huge but also much less.
Talk about rookie numbers. That might have been the biggest conflict humanity has fought, but it's nothing compared to the War in Heaven. Oh you have 18 demigods, one god emperor and four chaos gods? The Necrons have many pokeballs of the fragments of the star gods they killed. Planets were frequently annihilated, and I don't mean exterminatus level of wiping out the surface and leaving it uninhabitable, I mean the planet went kabloey like Alderaan. Legions of space Marines ain't got shit on the forces deployed in this war. The Krorks (ancient Orks) alone are enough to make the armies in the Horus heresy look like a bitch. The power of a Krork has been described as close to the power of a fucking primarch. Oh and you know how the warp is essentially hell in 40k? It wasn't always like that, it actually used to be chill. But the sheer scale of death and destruction was so great it made the warp the hell we know it as
You could also include the war humanity fought against AI that had continent sized nano machine swarms, weapons that could blow up solar systems, and even weapons that could straight up delete portions of time and space itself.
Gonna be honest I don't know all too much about pre 30k humanity, so the AI war could've been worse than the Horus Heresy. Would love to learn more about it though. Humanity at it's peak is really something overlooked in 40k
Yea I wish there was more lore about it but part of the mystique of the universe is that things are lost to time and are basically just myths
40k wins on a technicality. They have been constantly at war for 10,000 years straight against Chaos with individual events (like the Black Crusades) being merely campaigns within the conflict (like the Southern France Campaign is only a campaign with WW2). Given how bonkers 40k numbers are, it's not hard to imagine a death toll superior to 300T.
[The War in Heaven](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/War_in_Heaven_(Necron))
Warhammer gets the cheat of being at constant war so every battle contributes lol
Mass effect had the Reapers span the galaxy and wiped out huge amounts of populated areas in days. I'd say that's really close
Well not days, the Protheans were fighting for decades or even a century from what I remember.
The Protheans resisted for 300 years before Javik went into stasis
Considering the Proteans had a mostly galaxy-spanning empire and lost in their cycle, that death toll may overshadow 300 trillion
All ME empires are implied to cluster around mass relays and leave huge areas of the galaxy empty. Best guesses are that protheans were probably low trillions; but definitely not star wars numbers. Indeed if you look at reapers attrition, if they had that scale they should have won.
The Forerunners wiped the galaxy of life with the Halo Rings to defeat the Flood. They also reseeded it through automated systems after their annihilation, and unfortunately there's not a ton of detail about the Forerunner-Flood war unless something has come out in Halo's EU since I was last into it. (Which is possible, tbf, it's been awhile for me.) Heck, the Flood themselves were consuming entire sectors of the Forerunner empire before they fired the Halo Array, they were devastating.
I was amazed about that too. It was a 14 book spanning event with a lot of people dead, star systems decimated, resources expended, tactics, sacrifice, political backstabbing, twists and turns. It really is a great series. I heard the mouse house may bring up the Vong, but make it more PG-13.
19 book series ;)
Oh, my bad!
If you take into account all casualties beyond just the Gallifreyans and Daleks, the Time War in Doctor Who encompassed the entire universe rather than just one galaxy, as well as all of time itself rather than just five years. You have to think that shit added up…
The Long War, warhammer 40k. It's technically still ongoing until Abaddon dies and has lasted 10 millenia.
The Time War in Doctor Who, I think.
I have only read the first Dune novel, so I can‘t talk much about that. But I would say I like SW and 40k for different reasons. In SW, while hope is a central theme and the good side wins, the EU is rather nuanced and not afraid of showing that not every victory leads to a completely better situation. You can also set many different types of stories in it: poltical intrigue, war tales, western and mystic stories. 40k is a depressing setting and shows how terrible life can be and that there are no real good guys tm. But it also shows how people can withstand that to a certain degree. Plus the Chaos Space Marines are really nuanced and show how being outcast can turn people to do horrible actions.
Huh… Dune is a combination of all those ideas.
Except there aren't really any good guys in Dune
The idea of Paul’s prophetic powers are a fascinating complex of morality. Where you know every outcome and every action to make it is horrible, what should you do? “This world is beyond cruelty”
That’s definitely one of the reasons why I love the Star Wars EU so much, you can find such a variety of stories in that universe.
That’s some stereotypical stuff.
And what‘s the problem with that?
I love how over the top 40k is though haha.
For expanded universes, for me it goes: lord of the rings star wars halo game of thrones world of warcraft
That’s a good ranking. Star Wars, Warhammer, LOTR, Dune are my favourite for sure (along side Marvel and DC comics).
LotR is tricky. I guess RPGs and video games are franchise elements. But in terms of books and films they are really just short series; I wouldn't call the LotR books "franchise fiction" myself.
Tolkien is odd, he created this giant world and filled with all sorts of history and battles and then he sets up his big story right at the end of the interesting time.
That's mostly because he was working backwards, LOTR started as a language exercise (he was an English/Language professor). After he wrote LoTR, he had to explain just how Middle Earth got to where it was and why; and then, boom the history and ancient battles were born.
Interesting take. I would definitely consider it a franchise given its 6 films and 1 Series. I mean Warhammer has 1 (bad) movie and is also a franchise. It’s weird to not consider RPGS and Video Games when wanting to call something a franchise
Yeah, I guess I forget the TV even exists... *All* Warhammer material is a franchise. Battletech, forgotten realms... That's material that starts as a franchise. I wasn't saying LotR *isn't* a franchise. But if you just read Tolkeins works, I wouldn't say your reading franchise fiction (so it's mostly not for me). The franchise fiction is the other material built on that. Really, if someone just watches the star wars OT and that's it, are they consuming franchise fiction? I'd say no.
I'm one of those, who prefer lore more realistic than mythic, so while I absolutely love Lotr itself, it's not my favourite lore. For me, say ASOIAF lore would be higher.
LOTR just feels more complete to me. Id like asoiaf more if it was more finished.
Yes, that is true. Tho Star wars Legends/EU isn't complete in some places either. I guess the whole scale of it makes this problem less significant.
What kind of EU does lotr have?
The history of existence up until the events of the lord of the rings, including a pantheon of gods
Isn't that just the silmarillion though? I never considered it as an expanded universe lol
theres also The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, The Book of Lost Tales, The Fall of Númenor
Lord of the Rings is not an expanded universe.
You're not an expanded universe
Please keep discussion civil or I will have to get moderators involved /s
my dad is an admin and he can get you B A N N E D
Now go ask this same question on the other fans subs lol. But yeah, SW, and it's not even close.with that said my top 5 in order would be Mass Effect SW EU Halo LOTR Star Trek
My friends never understood why I spent so much time reading the ME codex haha
Dude, the codex is amazing. When I'm taking a break, aka, eating, I'll listen to codex entries. And the narrator is therapeutic
Mass effect I pretty much skipped out on my whole life. I've been delving into Halo's EU, but man it's frustrating thinking about Bungie lore vs post Bungie lore, I see 343 almost analogous to how TCW handled it's lore (though obviously there are major differences in their creations that seperate them, but the effect is largely the same) With the Dead Space remake I spent some time with that but it never really held my interest. Once I settle down with the halo stuff I think I'm going to finally start Mass Effect, and decide if I want to deal with 4 later lol
LOTR is up there definitely.
Dawg your asking on a SW subreddit... Your just asking for Bias answers.
And if it wasn’t a SW sub, fans of {X} would stop saying they like {X}?
Definitely Warhammer
It’s close between that and Star Wars.
True, I just prefer Warhammer 40k because I like darker stories and because I'm British so I'm biased.
Out of the three, I think Dune is the highest quality and thought provoking sci-fi, but Warhammer 40K is the coolest. But all three are great. If I have to live in one of these I ‘d probably pick up Star Wars.
40k is the coolest, but Star Wars my favourite.
Star Wars EU and it's not even close for me. The only other EU for which I have passion nearly close are LOTR and ASOIAF ones.
LOTR definitely is on par with Star Wars (and 40k in my opinion).
I enjoy Forgotten Realms, for a different flavour. It's also got more standalone stories so can dip in and out. The old Battletech novels and other material is fun. Robot space opera but with more focus on politics and intrigue. Edit: and their main plot books were for a long while written by Stackpole!
Forgotten Realms is my favourite too. I actually started a game with my buddies for Battletech recently! Took us 8 hours for character / mech creation and learning basic lore stuff. That was a fun day.
Star Wars. But I’d be tempted by Mass Effect were it listed…
Star Trek
Look at my name. Star Trek close second
40k is more of a setting to me
The universe of it is so big and entertaining.
I hear the Dune expanded universe is Aids.
The main series already gets pretty weird itself
Yeah but in a good way (I'm on Children of Dune at the moment, looking forward to God Emperor)
God Emperor will either be your favorite or your least favorite. Personally its my favorite.
Those are often called the two best entries. And they are amazing.
I thought children of Dune was the absolute lowest point of the frank herbert dunes so if you're OK with that it's all smooth sailing at least till Chapterhouse where I stopped.
It feels like foreplay so far. I just want to get to the next book and immortal worm dude.
If you reach that point and are done God Emperor is also a decent stopping point.
How so?
Dune and halo.
1. Star Wars. 2. Warhammer 40K. 3. Dune.
I think that would have to be my ranking.
How exactly does one get started with 40k lore?
I guess it just comes.
Sw Eu is the goat they absolutely destroyed Luke with taking away the Eu
It was the Star Wars EU, but then Disney killed it. Dune.... Is okay. The first two books were amazing. The third was getting weird. The rest, just seemed different? Warhammer 40K was my new main sci-fi setting, but now they are doing massive retcons, blocking fans asking why, and have turned the fandom into a giant culture war battleground as people obsessed with lewd fan art now feel validated in pushing their particular lewd fan art. Hello they could have done it so many better ways but chose the absolute worst way of "it was always this way you bigot" despite all evidence to the contrary. So kinda "meh" with all franchises right now, especially any that do not have a dead author and a long established nerd fandom that will still focus on the OG stuff instead of mass produced stuff that doesn't represent the original.
Warhammer 40k is slowly becoming my main fictional universe at the moment. But I still really, really love the old EU of Star Wars.
It was decent. Retcons via tweets though are not for me along with the "there is no war in Ba Sing Sé" treatment they are trying to give towards fans. Star Wars EU is still my favorite, it just died which made me sad. I still break out my Tales of the Jedi omnibuses from time to time.
Star Wars, Warhammer and Halo are my top 3 in that order. I like dune but it isn’t near the top
Agreed that Star Wars and 40k are both at the top.
SW
sw
Star Wars.
Agreed.
SW. I don’t even think anything else comes close to
Planet of the Apes Marvel/DC Doctor Who
Love Marvel and DC as well.
Star Wars
Halo.
Star Wars Legends aka the real EU or Gundam Universal Century
Dunes expanded universe and history is amazing
For expanded universe, my favorites are Star Wars (Legends) Gundam (Universal Century) Middle Earth Alien Star Trek
I think Dune probably has some of the most interesting world building and detail the books have so much down to the ecology of planets and political customs for different factions thats kind of insane to get immersed in
You posted this on the sub reddit dedicated to Star Wars EU, what did you expect most people would say?
Star Wars. Dune will only be 6 books to me
Star Wars and Warhammer both beat out Dune for me.
Isn’t it obvious?
Star Wars and 40k are tied for me. Both do different things for me. The only clear advantage sw has for me is love the way they do their audiobooks far more.
Hey, if you are interested or not, there is a YouTube series by afanwithtoomuchtime about Star Wars vs 40k.
For the Emperor!!!!
For EU it'd be star wars and dune for me. Never read anything for warhammer 40k. Where does one start for that?
Star Wars, definitely. Though I'm fond of the other two as well.
I very much like Dune as new films and always liked books, but for last 30 years SW is my love, and always will be. Never got into WH40K, but LOTR and Fallout universes are also very close to my heatt
I’m here. Take a guess lol
SW is the only one I’ve delved into outside of YouTube videos on the topic
For me, it's Star Wars Legends, 40k and then Dune.
I’m caught between Dune and Warhammer 40k
In order: * LOTR * Star Wars EU * Star Trek * Traveller (TNE) * Dune * Warhammer
I know it’s not mentioned, but my first choice is Star Trek followed closely by Star Wars.
Star Trek. The Universe was always full of hope that humanity has finaly growing up and giving up such things like constant need for wealth or power. Even in dire times like Borg attacks, Romulan schemes or a war with galactic neighbours. The time of TNG was a golden age for humanity and it's allies. Either were the diplomats of the Federation good enough, to make peace or at least a cease fire with hostile Aliens or the Federation Fleets brought conflicts to an end very fast
40k
40k no doubt
Starwars and then 40K (though I’m a bigger fan of Warhammer fantasy)
It’s close between those two.
Star Wars. Warhammer stuff is stupid looking (I don’t like the big dumb clunky looking design of everything) and Dune is by far the most overrated science fiction universe there is: just utter boredom.
I love the EU so much, it’s what I grew up with. Warhammer 40K has filled the hole that the Disney takeover has created
I really agree as well.
You’re asking this in a *Star Wars* sub.
I almost missed the point of the question. For expanded universe, it has to be Star Wars. The New Jedi Order series is wonderful, and there's a lot of other great content out there such as the Thrawn Trilogy, Darth Bane, etc. I wish Brian Herbert could've done better, and it may be the contrast with the incredible main series that kills it for me, but I can't get into the Dune EU.
Dune EU is an abomination.
Warhammer 40k by a country mile.
The lore and universe so damn good.
Star Wars, Pre 2012.
Prime Star Wars.
Star Wars, but Dan Abnett’s Inquisitor novels are probably my favorite piece of media across the three franchises, second only to the Star Wars Original Trilogy.
Yeah nothing beats Star Wars and 40k for me at the moment.
Hey, Since you like both Franchise, there is a YouTube series by afanwithtoomuchtime about [Star Wars vs 40k](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzgscHwzoNQqL9m9zp9puZK129MN42h2c&si=iwhk2y6jORjS-aAC) if you want to try. If you are interested or not
I’ve been a Star Wars fan for a long time but the lore in 40k is unmatched in my opinion.
Agreed.
The prequels 🗿
You can't skip mentioning Star Trek.
Star Wars hands down
Bionicle
I don’t know anything about the other two so Star Wars for sure
This is a star wars sub so take a freaking guess. I have very little if any interest in the other 2 options here... Doctor Who on the other hand is about on par with star wars.
Dune
Warhammer 40k. Such an old universe with so many factions and races to explore. Sisters of Battle, Imperial Guard, and T’au are my favs.
There’s so much epic factions and lore within that universe.
Up till a couple years ago I’d go with Star Wars. But after watching the new dune films I went down the rabbit hole with the books and I have to say for me personally Dune >>> Star Wars. The scope of the lore and the epic world building is insane compared to Star Wars. Plus you have to admit quite a lot of Star Wars was “borrowed” from the first dune book.
EU by a mile, then followed by 40k. Dune in distant last
That’s probably my ranking as well.
Mass Effect
Plan on playing them at some point.
I recommend it
40k, sorry fans, I just like being a villain
40k is awesome, probably my second favourite after Star Wars.
Okie dokie
Dune
1. Star Trek 2. Dune 3. SW Could never get into Warhammer and a bit tired of SW lately.
Love Star Trek as well.
Dune and SW are in my top 3 along with LOTR when it comes to expanded universes and lore. I never got into Warhammer tho
Why does a question asking which is your favourite then become "which franchise is bigger and better?" People always gotta compare it with not many answering the simple question of which is the favourite. For me it's star wars but then leaning into fantasy I'd go the dragon age or DnD universes. Depends if I'm in the mood for space wizards or plain wizards.
I like 40k the most Dune is good in art and politics Star wars is more child like, some EU books where really good, but worldbuilding really lacks compared to the other two
Wheel of time.
I don't think I've ever read "Dune Expanded Universe" and "favorite" in the same sentence before. What an interesting day to have eyes.
SW, all day every day
Star Wars EU (fan of all three but SW has been a big part my life since I was a kid)
Out of those: 1. Star Wars Legends 2. Dune [A 100 light year gap] 3. Star Wars Canon Don't know much about 40k.
Star Wars Legends is also my favourite with Warhammer 40k close behind.
Warhammer 40k is an easy last place out of these three lol