Lucasfilm clarifies the future of the EU — Page 2

Well, the canon is being rewritten, so I imagine that Wookieepedia will be starting over, for the most part, as well. Hopefully they'll just put the non-canon stuff separate from the canon material instead of deleting it.

It would be better to keep them in the same database. Star Wars' canon will still include books and comics, just not the past ones. Star Trek's canon includes only movies and TV episodes. I think the best way to go would be to have a separate section for Legends material, with the main canon being the focus (everything on the front page would be canon, etc.).

Another thing I was gonna say is that this isn't entirely without precedent. I remember feeling a bit annoyed when the 2008 clone wars was set only a couple months after AotC, creating a continuity mess. Chee and Hidalgo said they'd eventually make a revised clone wars timeline, but then five seasons of the show happened and it became its own thing.

Even back in '05, at the end of the grand clone wars multimedia project, there was a kerfuffle over Labyrinth of Evil and part 2 of Genndy's cartoon not quite matching up like the official site said they would. It was either Chee or Hidalgo (can't remember now) who bent over backwards to make it all work.

What about the handful of old books and comics that brought up stuff George would later do his own way in the PT (Boba Fett's backstory, young Kenobi, etc)? Did that stuff get retconned or was it rendered non-canon? The Bounty Hunter game and the Open Seasons comic reference Jaster Mereel and Concord Dawn, so some of it was clearly repurposed even if it wasn't retconned.

One of the dark horse clone wars comics (from '02-'05) even used the chemical spill on Honoghr mentioned in the Zahn books as a jumping-off point.

Oh, and someone was wondering about the character from the Marvel comics that eventually made their way to higher levels of canon? That would be Lumiya, who was brought back for the Legacy of the Force novels.

Honestly, what's happening now is doing the same thing regarding post-RotJ continuity as The Clone Wars was to the existing '02-'05 stuff: they're doing their own thing, but also feeling free to incorporate EU elements as they like.

Obviously we won't really know where the chips have fallen until the movie is finished and released. Obviously the official policy is now "No previous material is canon except the movies and TCW," but that doesn't mean some of the existing EU can't still count (until something comes along to contradict it, that is). Even if a story is rendered non-canon, it doesn't suddenly cease to exist.

Besides, as someone in the comments section at badass digest put it, personal canon is the only one that should ultimately matter.

If you liked a story more than the official one that contradicts it, so what?

I don't know, I kind of like the idea of having a unified universe, rather than having something like the Star Trek EU, which is full of contradictions and doesn't maintain a consistent story from one book to another. That's actually one thing I like a lot about the Star Wars EU. I can still ignore what I want to, but there's some degree of consistency throughout.

I loathe the whole notion of "official" canon, so consider me one of those people who aren't pleased with the idea of making the films and the NuEU 110% compatible with one another. Continuity should be an option, not a prerequisite.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I loathe the whole notion of "official" canon, so consider me one of those people who aren't pleased with the idea of making the films and the NuEU 110% compatible with one another. Continuity should be an option, not a prerequisite.

Seconded.

imperialscum said:

I don't care about official canon but I think that discarding old books as non-canon and labelling new books as canon is a hypocritical favouritism. If they wanted to be fair, they should just label any kind of EU non-canon.

 Hypocrital how?

DuracellEnergizer said:

I loathe the whole notion of "official" canon, so consider me one of those people who aren't pleased with the idea of making the films and the NuEU 110% compatible with one another. Continuity should be an option, not a prerequisite.

 And what a weird way to go about it, right?

"Hey, Everyone. Remember 20 years ago when we said this was the official continuation of the story? Well, we're making a new movie now, so any and all of that stuff may or may not be official anymore, sorry. But we're gonna be writing more stuff and starting right this moment it's officially official. We promise."

After re-reading the story on the official site, they are still being unclear (for obvious reasons) as to whether or not Episode VII will actively overwrite the existing EU. They probably just want to get this announcement out of the way now, before they head into main unit photography in a few weeks and story details inevitably leak out.

Like I said, this isn't without precedent. The Clone Wars movie/show is barely compatible with the older clone wars (lowercased) stuff. Maybe instead of making promises they know they can't keep, they're simply saying up front "there is no direct connection between the new material and the old. If old stuff gets contradicted, the new stuff trumps it every time, no retcons."

Anchorhead said:

I've taken a glance around the nerdosphere since the news release and there are plenty of fans who are put out or upset that the stories they love aren't official anymore. 

Which, as I said in the "EU like" thread, we don't even know LFL is technically saying. All they've said is that VII-IX won't tell the same story as the EU. They might simply be clarifying that this won't be an adaptation of an existing storyline, which we already knew prior to this news.

Then again, the part about "in order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers" certainly seems to imply they don't want continuity to bog them down.

I don't see how this is anything but good. All I care about, really, is the new films. If they had to fit with old canon, that would have sucked, plain and simple. No creative freedom there. This is much better.

And new EU stories will not be 110% canon. The thing they're saying about every new thing having the same continuity for the first time is just them making the new EU seem better than the old EU. I imagine them having as much bearing on the new films as the old EU had on the old films.

And anyway, old EU stories will still be in print (they're not rewriting history like someone we know), and new content can and might still take inspiration from them.

Wins all around, I think.

DominicCobb said:

I don't see how this is anything but good. All I care about, really, is the new films. If they had to fit with old canon, that would have sucked, plain and simple. No creative freedom there. This is much better.

And new EU stories will not be 110% canon. The thing they're saying about every new thing having the same continuity for the first time is just them making the new EU seem better than the old EU. I imagine them having as much bearing on the new films as the old EU had on the old films.

And anyway, old EU stories will still be in print (they're not rewriting history like someone we know), and new content can and might still take inspiration from them.

Wins all around, I think.

 This. Completely and absolutely.

I dunno, I think they should at least try to fit Episode 7 in the "old" continuity. I don't see any scenario as "too constraining" for the filmmakers. If anything, having parameters in which to work might actually breed creativity more than a blank slate would.

Jaitea said:

Darth Maul....back from the dead....with Robo-Legs is canon

 The canon nazis deserve it. They've bullied me so much on TFN.

I just wish the PT was being tossed out, too, especially since it deserves the garbage heap far more than any entry in the old EU.