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Post #1502695

Author
Darth Malgus
Parent topic
You're Disney, what do you do with Star Wars?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1502695/action/topic#1502695
Date created
3-Sep-2022, 10:09 AM

What would I have done if I had bought Star Wars in 2012? Well, to understand it, you first need to understand how the Canon of the time was structured. Before the decanonization of the EU there was a very precise Canon hierarchical system in place, which included five levels:

  • G Canon: The Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy
  • T Canon: The Clone Wars (2008)
  • C Canon: The majority of the EU
  • S Canon: The stories written in the 70s and 80s, before the Thrawn Trilogy
  • N Canon: The non-Canon stories, such as the Infinities comics, the satirical stuff, etc.

Anyone can see that this hierarchical system is very complicated, and that many people can get confused. So, if I had bought Star Wars in 2012 I would have kept the EU as Canon, but at the same time simplifying the hierarchical system by eliminating the S Canon and the T Canon tiers.

The stories that were part of the S Canon tier contradict the post-Thrawn Trilogy EU, so they were not considered entirely Canon, but only partially Canon. That is, the parts of those stories that didnt contradict the post-Thrawn Trilogy EU were considered Canon, while the parts that did contradict it weren’t taken into account. Now, since the S Canon stories were never considered entirely Canon to begin with, then keeping the S Canon tier is completely useless. So, if I had bought Star Wars in 2012 I would have simplifyed the Canon hierarchy by completely erasing the S Canon tier, and moving all the stories that were part of that tier into the N Canon (non-Canon) tier. Furthermore, I would have allowed TCW to have a satisfying ending to make the fans of the series happy. However, since TCW contradicts much of the pre-2008 established EU, then I would have eliminated the T Canon tier from the hierarchy, moving TCW and related media into the N Canon tier, thus allowing the Clone Wars Multimedia Project to retake its original place between AOTC and ROTS.

By doing all this, the Canon hierarchy would be much simpler, since it would only include the G Canon (the films), the C Canon (the EU) and the N Canon (the non-Canon stuff), and there would be much less confusion among the fans.

But my plans don’t end here. If I had bought Star Wars in 2012 I would not only have simplified the Canon hierarchy, but I would also have decanonized some works that before 2012 were considered part of the official Expanded Universe (that is, of the C Canon). Specifically, I would have moved the Dark Empire Trilogy, the Crimson Empire Trilogy, The Force Unleashed II, and the post-NJO novels from the C Canon to the N Canon. They are, in my opinion, works that doesn’t deserve to be part of the official continuity.

So, after fixing and simplifying the Canon hierarchy and decanonizing the stories that never deserved to be Canon in the first place, I would have started designing a film trilogy set during the Old Republic Era. However, to make sure that there are no continuity errors between the new trilogy and the KOTOR/SWTOR stuff, I would have made sure that the new trilogy followed secondary and marginal characters, characters that are involved in the galactic wars of the past, but at the same time aren’t related to the main characters of that Era (like Revan, Bastila, Vitiate, Malgus, etc). I mean, the galactic wars against the Sith were galactic conflicts, indeed, and the Galaxy is huge, so we wouldn’t have had any problem in creating a good Old Republic Trilogy without contradicting the already established stuff. And, of course, in addition to the Old Republic Trilogy, I would also have allowed the EU to continue to expand, allowing authors to write new stories set across all the Eras, and most importantly, making sure that the post-NJO period is completely rewritten, without other Skywalkers falling to the Dark Side, without the return of the Sith, but with new enemies and original conflicts. I mean, Darth Vader and Darth Sidious were the last of the Sith. The authors would have had to adapt to this reality and invent new, non-Sith enemies after the NJO, instead of retake an already extinct threat.

Finally, I would have placed Leland Chee and Howard Roffman in charge of Lucasfilm, to make sure that everything remained as consistent as possible and that the universe and individual works had as few contradictions as possible.

However, if I bought Star Wars today then I would apply a double Canon system. That is, the New Canon would continue to exist and I would allow it to continue to expand according to the already existing projects, but at the same time I would also continue to expand the Old Canon (Legends), applying to it what I have just listed for my 2012 plans.