Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Lest anyone confuse the issue (reported on first by Lightsaber Rattling and, today, The Hollywood Reporter) Star Wars Insider short stories are canon from the current story, ‘Blade Squadron’ on. The first part of the story, in Insider #149, came out shortly before the official announcement regarding the Expanded Universe.
Wookieepedia has posted their new canon policy. Unsurprisingly, they seem to be keeping the (pre-Legends) status quo, using a modified version of the old canon hierarchy. The coming years are certainly going to be ‘fun’ for them.
(No, I don’t think the breast article is going anywhere.)
The argument against ‘canon.’ On The Mary Sue, April Daniels argues that the concept actually does fandom, properties and stories more harm than good.
Today on Twitter, Del Rey says the movie novelizations are part of the core canon. So thus I guess Owen Lars is Obi-Wan’s brother, Luke had a dog as a kid, and ducks exist in the GFFA. (I am partial to the ducks, because ducks.) Some doubters are waiting on word from the story group, so we’ll see. In the meantime, what other contradictions do you remember?
UPDATE: “To clarify, movie novelizations are canon where they align with what is seen on screen in the 6 films and the Clone Wars animated movie.” Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I don’t really have a whole lot to say on Friday’s Expanded Universe news, mainly because I pretty much wrote that post a couple weeks ago.
Naturally, I’m pretty happy with the decision. That doesn’t mean I’m not a little apprehensive about the new films, but the ‘salad bar’ mentality is something I’ve been preaching for a long time, and I think it’s for the best that Lucasfilm has the ability to pick, choose, or just entirely ignore elements of the existing EU.
But that doesn’t mean the stories themselves are dead. If you like a book or a character or a series, than they still count to you. And that is what’s important, or should be: The stories. The people. Not their canon status. Lucasfilm can dictate that, but they can’t tell you what to enjoy.
If this took you by surprise, it’s okay to mourn, but remember: This isn’t a guarantee that you won’t see your faves – or some version of your faves – ever again. They may show up in Rebels, or the new canon books, or even Episode VII or one of the standalone films. They may show up in ways you don’t expect, but Lucasfilm, like their stepsister Marvel, knows their own products. They know what they have, and I don’t think they’re going to forget it. As they mentioned in the original release, they’re using EU elements in Rebels, and I doubt that’ll be the last.
But me? Yes, I’m excited. Of course the new trilogy could still be awful, but if it is, it won’t be because they’re not following the EU. All this latest development means is that the new films are not beholden to storylines and character developments made while being half blind. The many stories that are, themselves, as imperfect as anything else in this franchise is imperfect.
But there are a lot of reactions to this out there, and head below the cut for my favorites.
Yeah, we’ve got us an alternative universe, StarWars.com has announced: “In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe.” However, the EU as we know it is not going away – some of it is being re-released under the ‘Legends’ banner. And Star Wars going forward will be using many of it’s elements.
On that note, we have several adult Rebels, novels on the horizon, the first of which, A New Dawn, will be by John Jackson Miller. (On his own blog, Miller wrote about his trip to Lucasfilm to film the video.)
As an EU fan? This is more or less what I expected, and I welcome that there’s now a greater freedom for the films to explore the post-ROTJ era… And leave a lot of the EU’s less savory aspects behind.
Simon Kinberg: “The canon is the canon, and the canon is the six films that exist.” In this brief IGN interview, Kinberg implies, as we’ve guessed, that the existing Expanded Universe will serve more as inspiration to the movie/TV universe going forward. via
I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was barely 13, and became an Expanded Universe fan only days later. My entire experience of falling in love with Star Wars was prompted and is because of the Expanded Universe; I ‘first’ saw the movies on VHS over Christmas break in 1991. And we wouldn’t have even had those copies in the house if not for the release of Heir to the Empire in the spring of that year.
I owe my entire fandom to Heir to the Empire and the Thrawn trilogy. The Expanded Universe, which was pretty much all there was back in those days, formed the nucleus of my fandom. They hooked me, and they hooked me well enough that I sit here, 22 years later, running a fairly popular blog devoted to the franchise, with those same worn copies of Heir, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command not four feet away.
I love the Expanded Universe. It’s a weird kind of love that you get with this sort of fandom; I kept with it through some of the absolute worst fiction I have ever read, and many books that could I barely bring myself to call mediocre and, yes, even those rare gems that make it all worth it.
But I’m also okay with letting it go.
The Star Wars Books Facebook page held a chat with Pablo Hidalgo today, one of Lucasfilm’s resident continuity experts and author of The Essential Reader’s Companion.
So his most popular answer, naturally, addressed the relationship between the movies and the rest…
I think the EU will always continue to be part of the Star Wars experience, in that there are stories that are best suited for books, comics, games. etc.. The relationship between cinematic content and expanded universe content will continue to be what it is today and has been in the past. What happens on screen is one thing. What happens in the books is another. How they connect and interact is something I’m really eager to see.
More answers below the cut!
Star Wars Books held a chat with Leland Chee, Lucasfilm’s ‘Keeper of the Holocron,’ about canon and continuty and all that stuff. It went… Well, it went about as you’d expect. Skip the newbies and avoid the facepalming with our recap, below the cut.
Continue reading “Recap: Facebook chat with Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee”