C3PX said:
TheBoost said:
C3PX said:
Why does it matter if it is considered canon or not? If you enjoyed it, then it wasn't a waste of time and brain space.
Sometimes I think some of you guys forget that NONE of this stuff EVER happened. It is all made up anyway. What difference does it make if Lucas' lackeys tell you it did or didn't happen? All that matters is what you enjoy it.
I do find the idea that if something is 'real' has some bearing on its quality to be confusing.
Then perhaps you misunderstood the point of my post? Or perhaps I am misunderstanding what you are trying to say now? Either way, I will try to clarify.
I was merely stating that this whole "canon" business is more than just a little bit silly, considering it is all just a bunch of made up stories anyway. I think it makes more sense to enjoy what you enjoy, and don't give a bother about the rest or what other people, whether they be fellow fans or GL himself, have to say about the matter.
This was in response to the previous poster bemoaning the fact that they wasted "time" and "brain space" reading all this EU, only to later be told that it never really took place in this fictional universe.
I guess I just really have a hard time seeing the significance of whether or not a fictional story is considered "canon" of a fictional universe or not. Though Zombie made a good point about it making it hard to suspend disbelieve with things like Boba Fett's backstory and other aspects of the galaxy constantly changing; for some reason I just really have a hard time caring about it at all. All that matters to me is my own enjoyment of the book I am reading.
Well, you and TheBoost are of a like mind in this, but not everybody is. To many people, if something is in some way less "real" then suspension of disbelief is harder and the emotional conent is dulled because you feel it's not "really happening" in the fictional universe. Of course none of it really happens anywhere, but enjoying fiction depends on pretending it does, to an extent. And we can do that a lot less if we are aware something is just an imitation or counterfeit. For some people it's enough if Lucasfilm guves something the rubber stamp and says it happens. For these people that is enough to assure these people that it "happens" in the Star wars universe. Others require a more real innate inherent sort of realness in the nature of the thing itself. Which is where I stand.
TheBoost said:
Vaderisnothayden said:
It's self-evident that the eu isn't the real Star Wars and thus shouldn't be considered canon. Sure, some guys at Lucasfilm will tell you certain EU things are canon, but that's just for internal consistency of EU products and for selling stuff.
They wont tell you anything. You need to log onto their forums and ask.
The liscening department at Lucasfilm only has authority if fans give it to them, and the fact we're having this discussion about 'canon' shows we take these glorified bloggers far too seriously.
Let creators create (Lucas, Zahn, Stover, Tarkovsky) and let liscencing departments liscence.
The point is a lot of fans believe in the authority of Lucas Licensing as regards canon and as long as that is the case we are constantly confronted with situations in which the making of some point requires us to detour into arguing that this stuff is not canon. The existence of the myth that this stuff is canon is an oppression. And not just because we have argue with people who believe in it, but because it is an oppression to have an offensive lie shouting us all over the place when we're reading about Star Wars. The canonical version of ROTJ's ending has Hayden as the ghost they say. Like hell it is. And that untruth, expressed with such confidence, bothers me, particularly as I know it has many fanatical followers who would like lecture me on how Anakin's ghost is not Sebastian Shaw if I dared mention how I liked how Luke saw the old guy at the end.
I loved the old Marvel comics, and if they are not 'real canon' according to some glorified blogger Lucasfilm hired to manage their websites and lisecning, that doesn't effect me in the slightest. If "Crimson Jack" gets a mention in the next illustrated Star Wars encyclopedia or not doesn't imporve the stories or detract from them.
Well, the Marvel comics have a different sort of realness. The films are the real thing and merchandising is not, but amongst merchandising EU things, some have the special status of being true relics of the era in which the films were current. They are often marked by being more true to the spirit of Star Wars (even when doing weird silly stories) than more recent stuff is. Star Wars, the OOT, the real Star Wars, is very much a thing of its time and that is its spinoff material from that time. In that sense, the Marvel comics are more real Star Wars than the 90s EU or later stuff.