TheBoost said:Vaderisnothayden said:This is not about "personal canon", this is about the issue of what's the real Star Wars. I do not pick and choose to suit myself and then call that canon. I studied Star Wars works and the overall sitaution and then made my judgement on what I believe to be the real thing.
So, Vaderisnothayden, I'm very curious; after your extensive study, what is canon?
Since forums like this is the closest the Star Wars community is going to get to the Council of Nicea, I'd love to hear your conclusions, which are in no way based on your personal preference.
If the OOT is the only thing that can be considered canon, then it leads to the next question 'canon in regards to what?' What's the purpose of defining 'canon' in a fictional universe if it excludes everything but the original work?
And since ROTJ and ESB both invalidate parts of SW, contradicting much of Lucas's original backstory, are they canon?
Canon is the OOT. Like a rock, it is the hard truth of Star Wars.
If my views on what's canon were based on my personal preference, I would include various other things in the canon. But my priority is to follow a canon that's real, based on what's the real thing.
If the OOT is the only thing that can be considered canon, then it leads to the next question 'canon in regards to what?' What's the purpose of defining 'canon' in a fictional universe if it excludes everything but the original work?
I would think the purpose would be obvious. The purpose is to define the real thing off from the apocrypha that is not the real thing. As with any canon, really. And the canon is not just the original work. The original work is ANH. The canon includes all 3 OOT films.
And since ROTJ and ESB both invalidate parts of SW, contradicting much of Lucas's original backstory, are they canon?
They are not consistent with the original intentions behind ANH, but they fix up things well enough so that ANH works with them. Most canons have some inconsistencies. The thing is not to have huge gaps like the total change in the nature of Anakin. The OOT films work well enough together with each other. As for Lucas's backstory, that's not canon (potential canon maybe, near canon maybe, but not canon). It didn't make onto the screen until the prequels and the prequels are a bogus version of it. So going against Lucas's backstory is not a problem. Nor is it a problem that ESB and ROTJ reinterpret ANH. There has to be some allowance for freedom in a canon's development. Later works can reinterpret earlier ones. However, they shouldn't be reinterpreted in a way that is totally destructive. The OOT's reinterpretations were by and large constructive. The PT's were destructive. And there is a lot more than reinterpreation separating the PT from the OT, such as their whole mentality and how seriously they take their reality. The PT is a Roger Rabbit universe in which cartoon characters hobnob with live action characters. That is not within the parameters of the original Star Wars universe.