So it's official, save the 6 movies, the Clone Wars film and TV show, each and every SW story ever told so far in books, comics and TV films/cartoons is now non-canon, bearing the label "Star Wars Legend" for any future rerelease.

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This won't be of any importance for most people. This is a hard pill to swallow for hardcore SW fans who've been inversting a fortune in those books and comics (hundreds of them since 1977). This is kind of a good news/bad news situation for casual SW fans like me.

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Obviously the Expended Universe, as it's called, was full of junk alongside a few great stories. I myself, after having read a certain amount of novels and comics, gave up on the whole thing a long while ago, because no so much was worth my time and money. Nonetheless, I have very fond memories of some novels that made my SW experience bigger and better.

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When Lucasfilm and Disney announced a few weeks back that a new team had been assigned to decide what would remain canon and what wouldn't, this seemed a good opportunity to do some clean-up and obviously at least everything that had happened after ROTJ had to be wiped out to make room for Episode VII.

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Still, it was a bit of a shock when they finally announced that they wiped out EVERYTHING. Instead, everything published from now on (including books that were started before the decision was made) will be supervized by a team of continuity experts to make sure they fit the new continuity (i.e. future movies).

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I have to admit I'm quite puzzled. Some stories such as the novels chronicling the youth of Han Solo could perfectly be kept I guess, so did the novels and comics that directly prequelled or sequelled the existing movies. Those gave depth to the canon material without going into total insanity. And despite a few inconsistencies the whole Clone Wars franchise had provided a solid, cohesive corpus of books and comics that for the most part could have been kept.

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But no, all of it is now trash. They'll remain in print but as "Legends" stories.

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Well, OK, so what's my problem? My problem is not so much that all these stories are now non-canon than the fact that all the upcoming books and comics will. They could have done like Star Trek, i.e. only films and TV series are canon and the rest is just for your entertainment, a parallel world of sorts. Fine. But no, they said each and every new book and comic-book will be canon. What makes the next Darth Maul novel, which had been planned for months, better than the books I used to love? What makes it belong to the new canon more than the old Darth Maul novels? Nothing I guess.

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On the other hand what was the logic of this big cleaning up? It was just to make sure the people writing future movies and TV shows could tell whatever story they wanted to without being annoyed by ANY past continuity save the one from the movies and TV shows. OK, makes a lot of sense.

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OK, so while some past books/comics were totally able to fit in the new movies continuity, it was too complicated. This I understand. But what happens if, in say 2022, some movie scripter wants to tell a story for a 200,000 million dollars film and that story contradicts one comic book or novel story from 2015? Are we really expected to believe that plans will be changed in the script of a 200,000M film because it's contradicting a 4 bucks comic or a 8 bucks novel? I don't think so. It won't. They won't let it happen. On the other hand by 2022 the new canon will be overcrowded by dozens and lby 2032 hundreds of new comics and books telling just as many stories, and I fail to see how movie writers will manage to keep checking the "bible" to make sure the story they want to tell won't be contradicted by a single 22 pages comic story from 10 years ago. They won't. And therefore, while keeping tracks of the movies/TV shows continuity will be relatively easy if the people at Lucasfilm do their job, the new EU will soon become a burden as heavy to bear as the old EU, and I bet that it won't take 10 years for Lucasfilm to say "scrap it" and annonce that finally everything outside of the films and TV shows is non-canon because it would otherwise contradict their new 200,000M bucks movie.

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Is it possible that professionals at Lucasfilm haven't thought of this and that I have? Either it ain't or those people are complete amateurs! What's happening is that SW fans are being looked down as milk cows and idiots who may not buy the new books if they're non-canon and just buy them if they believe they're telling the TRUE story.

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So I don't really mind if those books I loved 10 years ago are now non-canon but I don't see why that next book that was in the works for months suddenly would, neither do I see why I should care for it more than for my old books because I know it will be decanonized just as well anyway.

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The only sane approach would have been either to keep the whole EU canon and try to make sense of it with the new movies or, more likely, to decanonize everything that wasn't on screen (big or small).

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Disney's huge mistake wasn't to decanonize the EU. It was to think we're all idiots and pretend the new EU is canon when it's, technically, impossible.

I honestly don't see the EU getting exciting til after episode IX (in 2019).

I'm not deep into all this, but I read the Thrawn-books back then. These were great, maybe I should dust them off again.

it's complicated

while the PRE-Episode I EU has literally 3.000 years of open fields to create dozens of sagas and adventures (the Tales of the Jedi, Old Sith Empire and The Old Republic stuff) which end with the creation of the Rule of the Two Sith and the birth of Yoda (roughly 800 years before Ep I), the POST-Episode VI EU is TOTALLY rooted on the legacy of Luke/Leia/Han Solo; if I'm not mistaken, the post-EpVI EU has only stretched like 120 years after the battle of Endor, finishing with the (awful) comics featuring the (dull) adventures of the grandchild of Luke (Ben Skywalker, ugh!).

If these 3 new movies are going to be based about Luke, Leia and Han, it's only LOGIC that Disney and Lucas Inc have decided to start from scratch; and hey, I couldn't care less, other than Mara Jade I DON'T GIVE A DAMN about the (now obsolete/non-canon) post-Endor EU; the Thrawn novels bored me to TEARS...and as I said in anothet thread, the Yuzhan Vong stuff was STUPID, an insult to the legacy of the Force... (sorry PurpleJedi); the less said about the Clones of the Emperor, the better

something tells me that Mara Jade will be featured, probably with a new background, but she will be there, perhaps just a ginger love interest for Luke (not necessarily called Mara Jade)

anyway, this new trilogy may suck, not sucking like Jar Jar or teen Anakin...but maybe just...a new trilogy not compelling at all in terms of story...

we'll see

[Edited 6/9/14 7:44am]

databank said:

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The only sane approach would have been either to keep the whole EU canon and try to make sense of it with the new movies or, more likely, to decanonize everything that wasn't on screen (big or small).

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Disney's huge mistake wasn't to decanonize the EU. It was to think we're all idiots and pretend the new EU is canon when it's, technically, impossible.

Good post overall. It will be difficult to the extent that Lucasfilm's television efforts explicitly worked to incorporate the EU into the so-called canon. The initial Clone Wars series was a tie-in to Episode III (it literally ended with the opening battle scene of Episode III. The follow up actually wove departed canonical characters into the mix (Darth Maul).

It must have something to do with extraneous broadcast and licensing rights. This is a troubling move for the franchise moving forward.

So...are the Organa-Solo kids still named Jacen, Jaina and Anakin? Is there a Mara Jade and Ben Skywalker? If not, that royally sucks.

In Lucas's mind, Luke never got married. Since he approved of the story treatment I'm sure it will be that way in the new trilogy.

UncleJam said:

So...are the Organa-Solo kids still named Jacen, Jaina and Anakin? Is there a Mara Jade and Ben Skywalker? If not, that royally sucks.

I remember back in '97, during the early days of mainstream Internet (and the re-release of the original trilogy in cinemas), when there was this huge SW poll, and more than half of the fans said that they hated the Thrawn/Cloned Emperors story-arcs and the new characters they introduced, Mara Jade included; then Episode I arrived and pretty much everyone forgot about the post-Endor EU... (of course, they hated Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd even more, but that's another debate)

those novels/comics are ONLY popular by the fans who were like 14-20 during the early '90s...

as I've said, I'm glad this new trilogy will start from scratch

no more "buuuh, my daddy Han Solo is sooo rough, I'm gonna join the Dark Side to make him suffer and care about meeeeee!" wtf

[Edited 6/10/14 8:34am]

I completely understand if they omit the Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker storyline (though I really dug Mara Jade as a character - her backstory, not so much), but they are obviously introducing the Organa-Solo kids in Episode VII. New names for the Jedi kids?

ufoclub said:

I considered it all non canon since Splinter of the Minds Eye. Actually I only consider Star Wars 1977 canon.

hehe, kinda radical, so you never accepted the fathership of DV?


but I know what you mean, the "classic" Star Wars for me ended with this scene

I so vividly remember the shock and disbelief I had, when I first saw it in the cinema in 1980. shit, what was that?? flying stuff? WTF???

maybe I should have left the cinema right then

but on the other I also enjoyed many of the things that were yet to come, but it was NOT the same SW we had in '77, I have to agree

I am glad the dumped the EU! I have read several (maybe 10) of the EU books. But I never saw them as being official. I too remember the old RASS/RASSM days people were pretty divided on them in terms of canon.

What I want now is a remake of I, II, and III

Phishanga said:

I'm not deep into all this, but I read the Thrawn-books back then. These were great, maybe I should dust them off again.

Yes the Thrawn novels, that basically take place almost right after Return of the Jedi I superior books, very mysterious, very revealing, exposing us to the shadows of the Empire/Sith ie Mara Jade the Emporers Hand and the cloned Dark Jedi Cboath

the Children of the Jedi was a good one as well

OldFriends4Sale said:

Phishanga said:

I'm not deep into all this, but I read the Thrawn-books back then. These were great, maybe I should dust them off again.

Yes the Thrawn novels, that basically take place almost right after Return of the Jedi I superior books, very mysterious, very revealing, exposing us to the shadows of the Empire/Sith ie Mara Jade the Emporers Hand and the cloned Dark Jedi Cboath

the Children of the Jedi was a good one as well

I think there were 4 or 5 years later.

The Truce At Bakura starts the day or so after. (I think Luke is still hurting from being shocked)

OnlyNDaUsa said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Yes the Thrawn novels, that basically take place almost right after Return of the Jedi I superior books, very mysterious, very revealing, exposing us to the shadows of the Empire/Sith ie Mara Jade the Emporers Hand and the cloned Dark Jedi Cboath

the Children of the Jedi was a good one as well

I think there were 4 or 5 years later.

The Truce At Bakura starts the day or so after. (I think Luke is still hurting from being shocked)

I wish instead of every SW series being about some universal threat, that they took us on more personal journey's with the characters and rebuilding of the Jedi like the book I, Jedi. I would have loved to see more with the 2nd Emporers Hand introduced to us in the Children of the Jedi and that whole shadowy world of the Imperial Courts. I definately want more from the Empires period from the inside:dark Jedi, Sith, Darth Sidious & Vader dealing with other Dark Jedi, the Emporers Hands, Moffs and such

UncleJam said:

I completely understand if they omit the Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker storyline (though I really dug Mara Jade as a character - her backstory, not so much), but they are obviously introducing the Organa-Solo kids in Episode VII. New names for the Jedi kids?

Humpty and Dumpty

Dee and Dum