TheBoost said:
Imagine a world where some dude from LFL liscenscing had never posted on the "Star Wars.com" mesage board any mention of 'canon.'
No "C" "G" "D" levels. Nothing.
I can't guarantee that "Star Wars" would make just as much money without a canon system, but you know what makes a crapload of money with no canon system? The X-Men.
They have a move series, multiple cartoon series, mangas, novels, actionfigures, tabletop games, and even comicbooks, and no one is having apoleptic fits trying to make those all tie in together into a seemless chronology. They don't even try to keep it consistent between properties.
Even single properties, like the X-Men comics, in the run of one editor might have continuity issues, but no one goes on Marvel.com and says "Well, X-Men #234 page 8 has been lowered from D-Canon to V-Canon."
So, since I'm not convinced that a Star Wars canon policy is in place to somehow increase sales, it must be in place to please a certain sort of fan, the sort of fan who cares about official canon. Its ironic that these sorts of fans are the very ones who get their panties in a bunch about canon.
"So, since I'm not convinced that a Star Wars canon policy is in place to somehow increase sales, it must be in place to please a certain sort of fan, the sort of fan who cares about official canon."
I already demonstrated how that's not necessarily the case. There are other reasons for canon policies other than pleasing fans or making money. Such as pleasing the people in Lucasfilm who are doing it and keeping internal consistency in the fiction.
"Its ironic that these sorts of fans are the very ones who get their panties in a bunch about canon."
Even if the canon policy was there to please fans, that's no reason while all fans should love it. It would be there to please those fans who want the eu to be some sort of canon, not there to please those fans who think the eu doesn't belong in canon. There's no reason why the latter group should be happy with a canon policy designed to canonize works they feel are not canon. And then there's the people who want some eu to be canon but don't agree with the canon choices of Lucasfilm. Why should they be happy if stuff they like is defined as not counting by the people at Lucasfim? Or if Lucasfilm counts some awful bullshit as canon? Why should they be happy with that? Since when does everybody need to be accepting of everything Lucasfilm does?
As for X-Men, fans of X-Men do bother about canon and I believe Marvel does have a canon policy, even if it's not as developed as the Star Wars one. But rules that apply to Marvel properties don't necessarily apply to the Star Wars franchise, nor do the people at Lucasfilm necessarily believe they apply.