Carnor Jax was definitely a predictable piece to be paired with Kir Kanos. I'm okay with it. It already seemed that Hasbro was headed down this path when they made the bodies of the ROTS Royal Guards the way they did. My only gripe with the Guards is that I think they should have included the force pikes as accessories, otherwise I think they're great figures.
Crimson Empire is definitely one of the better storylines to come out of Dark Horse. This particular TPB held my attention more than some others. I guess if we have anyone to blame for the difference in the armor of Kir Kanos and Carnor Jax, it's Dark Horse. It's a little too ying/yang (or like that silly Star Trek episode) for my tastes, but whatever. I don't think we're going to see a line populated with Kir Kanos and Carnor Jax reissues for years to come. Rather, it's a one-off kind of deal and that's it. And this particular product isn't even going to mass retail. It's an online exclusive and that's it. This one won't be the source of any pegwarming or shelfwarming.
As for the backlash against the EU? That was bound to happen. Some people are into it and others aren't. Arguing back and forth about it gets us nowhere. Either you're going to buy it or not. But looking at the track record of the EU at retail does get as somewhere. Sure, SOTE was a stinker. I remember seeing Snoovas sitting around, and SOTE Slave I's. It wasn't good. But then there was also the EU line. And how many people are still clamoring for Space Troopers and Dark Troopers to this day? And then there's the biggest of all EU projects: Clone Wars. I think we can say with some degree of certainty that Clone Wars was a success. Especially when you consider that the Basic Figure assortment barely had any army builders in the lineup, ie it wasn't driven by army builders. The EU really is here to stay. Clone Wars proved that the EU can work within the overall scope of the line.
I have no doubt that the Star Wars line is still going to be anchored by characters from the movies. But as we get more and more characters from the PT and OT made, there's going to be a need for new characters to fill out the line. There's just a finite number of characters in the Saga. I think that we're going to see more EU characters filtering their way into the line bit by bit.