Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee, of Holocron and Story Group fame, is on SyFy’s Fandom Files podcast this week, where he talks about Star Wars, his role at the company through the years and the challenges of canon and continuity.
Continue reading “Lucasfilm Story Group’s Leland Chee on canon, Legends and more”
Today’s talker: How slavish devotion to continuity can damage a series (and a fandom.) Continuity is important (and Club Jaders were big advocates for more of it back in the early days of the Expanded Universe) but when it outweighs and hinders the story and characters, it can become a problem. That’s something we saw in the waning days of the old EU. The solution? It’s somewhere in the middle.
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!
Let’s do the time warp again. Over at Tosche Station, Brian is the latest to weigh in on continuity and perspective in the Expanded Universe. If you’re with us in just shrugging at the latest Clone Wars kerfuffle (which Brian references – but he spends more time on Sword of the Jedi and Brian Wood’s Star Wars comic) you’ll enjoy it. If not… Well. I’ve already said my bit on all this.
Upcoming. Knights’ Archive spotted a brief blurb for Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void. (I’m a little surprised to see it’s a hardback, though I’m honestly not sure if we knew that already.) Also interesting is that Dark Horse is collecting the three Infinities mini-series into an omnibus… I’m hoping this will lead to one (or two) that collect all the best (funny!) bits of Star Wars Tales.
The blogside. Over at the StarWars.com blog, J.W. Rinzler talks about laying out The Making of Return of the Jedi, Tim Zahn shares some of his memorable experiences with books, and Daniel Wallace shares endnotes for the Book of Sith.
Reviews. EUCantina and Lightsaber Rattling take a look at The Essential Reader’s Companion.
Nonfiction. Matt Staggs reveals some of what Camille Paglia has to say about George Lucas in her upcoming book, Glittering Images.
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”
There’s been a lot of talk about continuity and canon in fandom lately. Well, there always is, but this latest round was prompted by the tail end of The Clone Wars S3 and the Petition of the 2000.
I mentioned the petition – and the reaction to it – in my last opinion piece on civility in fandom, but I didn’t really address the actual issues that prompted it. Mostly because, quite honestly? The whole thing bores the hell out of me, but the lack of casual/moderate voices bugs me even more. Go figure.
I’ve been reading Star Wars books and comics for nearly 20 years now: They have never been been perfect, and expecting them to be at this point strikes me as just plain naïve. The Expanded Universe is kind of like Millennium Falcon: It more than does the job, and many of us are awfully fond of it, but it’s not without flaws. Big, honking, flaws. And sometimes? It just flat-out sucks. Continue reading ““You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought.” Canon, continuity, and the Expanded Universe”
Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee, the Keeper of the Holocron, has started a new Facebook fanpage in the wake of Monday’s announcement that the StarWars.com forums are not long for this world. You can ask him questions, join a discussion, or find out how this stuff works.
Fear not: If you’re not a fan of the site, you can still bookmark and read the fan page. You will need an account to ask questions or join discussions, though.
Chee has also been on Twitter as @HolocronKeeper for some time now.
Why was the Riptide cover changed? Sue Rostoni answered a reader question on this the other day, saying “The sales folks at Random House weren’t sure it was strong enough — not as dynamic as they’d like.” Not sure I see it, but okay. (Personally, I’d rather they change up the Choices of One cover.) Compare them for yourself by clicking on the thumbnails at right.
In the future… J.W. Rinzler tweeted and then deleted about prepping for “a sequel of sorts” to The Jedi Path. Not a huge surprise in any case, though we all eagerly await details.
Canon, continuity, and The Clone Wars. A certain controversial event happened on last week’s Clone Wars. Leland Chee explains. (Spoilers for ‘Citadel Rescue.’)
Atlasery. Behold the sectors of the Mid Rim in the latest Essential Atlas extra.
Statistics 101. EU Cantina has a new staffer, Andrew, and for his first column he’s taken a look at the complaints that we’re getting less EU product lately.
Comics. Dark Horse’s solicitations for June include Lost Suns #1, Jedi: The Dark Side #2 and trades for Knight Errant: Aflame and the fourth A Long Time Ago omnibus.
On that note… John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant novel answers, part the second.
Zombies? Zombies! StarWars.com has posted the first chapter of Joe Shreiber’s Red Harvest as a PDF. Hopefully that will hold you zombie fans off until the tail end of December.
Let it go. There was much discussion late last week on Twitter over the appearance of a character in a Clone Wars preview clip who had been previously killed off in some minor video game several years ago. Y’all might have a case with the Mando stuff (though I still can’t bring myself to care, because Mandos) but this? This is why the phrase ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ exists.
Interviews. Going back a bit, EUC has summarized some notable bits from an interview that the Fictional Frontiers podcast did with Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro. She talks about Fate of the Jedi and links to Legacy. Also, Daniel Wallace talks The Jedi Path with StarWars.com.
Street date shuffle. I made a few tweaks to our book release schedule this weekend… Nothing particularly noteworthy, just a few minor adjustments in mid-2011.
Our own intrepid JawaJames is at the con, and he caught up with author Sean Williams, whose The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance has just been released. They talk about the NJO, continuity (pay attention, Wookieepedians) characters, The Force Unleashed and blogging!
(You can check out James’ SDCC photos, too!)