C3PX said:
Lucas seemed to intend this to be canon. Now, knowing him, I would not be in the least surprised if later he says it is not canon. But in the end who cares? To me, none of this is canon. I refuse to accept the whiny character portrayed in AOTC and ROTS is the man who became Darth Vader, I can come up with much more convincing backstories for him in my head than what was put to film. Books like SOTE and the thrawn trilogy I have enjoyed enough that I like to consider them as something that really happened in the SW galaxy I like to enjoy. Also in my own personal Star Wars canon, Han fired first, and he never had a redundant talk with Jabba.

Not just in your personal Star Wars canon, in the real canon too. The core of the idea of canon is what's the real thing, and in Star Wars the real thing is Han shooting first and Star Wars as a film that doesn't have a stupid cgi Jabba scene in it. That's the real canon. Just because Lucas says something is canon doesn't mean it is, not if it's not the real thing.

And you're right that AOTC and ROTS's Anakin can't be Vader. No way does that insubstantial personality fit with the Vader we're shown in the OT or the Anakin we meet in the end of the OOT. So quite simply that AOTC and ROTS Anakin can't be canon. Because the core of SW canon is the OOT, the real thing, and Hayden's Anakin is totally inconsistent with that. So Hayden's Anakin isn't canon. And since AOTC and ROTS revolve around Hayden's Anakin then their canonicity is totally shot too.

Video games built for a supposed canon that includes ROTS and AOTC aren't canon either.

I think the Star Wars franchise lost the ability to create new canon when Lucas massively violated the canon with the SE in 1997.

Thanks for the info on Farce Unleashed.