Star Wars: 15 Things The Movies Stole From The Expanded Universe

2. The Force Awakens Ditches The Force Being Sides

Although it didn't alter the Force anywhere near as much as the other new trilogy starter (in fact, midi-chlorians were shockingly completely absent), The Force Awakens did mess with the status quo of the magical energy Force a little bit.

Besides adding in some cool new tricks to characters' arsenals (Kylo Ren's laser catch and intense mind-invasion tactics were a standout), the whole balance between the Light and Dark Sides (one element from Episode I that did make it through) became a bit more complicated; Kylo Ren fears the sliver of Light in him, while expanded material reveals Rey felt the pull of the Dark during their climactic duel.

Those are fairly new abstract concepts for the films, but not Star Wars as a whole; there's been shades of grey throughout the EU (given the limited Sith, there's a lot of conflicted Dark Jedi). But, beyond that, there's also the complimentary idea of calling them "Light" and "Dark" (sans side); something that's actually pretty new, introduced in The Clone Wars animated series.