What is your personal canon? — Page 10

I still don’t have a personal canon. But if I did, it would include everything released 1976-1998, starting with the publication of the SW novelization, ending with the Hand of Thrawn duology. No prequels, no Yuuzhan Vong, no Darth Caedus or Krayt, and no Disney. Only Star Wars at its most organic and varied (though no less commercialized or messy).

I’ll try to give a more proper answer to this. This list can still change if I read/play more EU stories. Also, there are some stories I enjoy (like SWTOR and Rogue One) but that won’t be in this list for various reasons.

KOTOR
KOTOR II
Darth Plagueis
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Labyrinth of Evil
Revenge of the Sith
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
A Hunter’s Fate: Greedo’s Tale
We Don’t Do Weddings: The Band’s Tale
Hammertong: The Tale of the “Tonnika Sisters”
Play It Again, Figrin D’an: The Tale of Muftak and Kabe
The Sand Tender: The Hammerhead’s Tale
Empire Blues: The Devaronian’s Tale
Swap Meet: The Jawa’s Tale
Trade Wins: The Ranat’s Tale
Drawing the Maps of Peace: The Moisture Farmer’s Tale
A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper’s Tale
Let Us Prey: The Whiphid’s Tale
Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade
And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard’s Tale
Goatgrass: The Tale of Ree-Yees
And the Band Played On: The Band’s Tale
Of the Day’s Annoyances: Bib Fortuna’s Tale
The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays
A Free Quarren in the Palace: Tessek’s Tale
Tongue-tied: Bubo’s Tale
A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett
Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer’s Tale
Payback: The Tale of Dengar
Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM
A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Shadows of the Empire
Return of the Jedi
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command
Specter of the Past
Vision of the Future
The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett

Omni said:

Isn’t Last One Standing at odds with AOTC? Regardless, solid list.

Shoot, I forgot about that.

Jaster Mereel killed that snot-nosed clone brat and stole his identity.

I have three different Star Wars universes.

The first universe consists of everything from the old Legends universe that was published between 1991 and 2014 and that was officially labeled as Canon, minus TCW, Dark Empire, Crimson Empire, The Force Unleashed II, and everything post-NJO. This universe includes my fan edits of the Prequel Trilogy, the despecialized editions of ANH and ROTJ, and Hal 9000’s Custom Special Edition of ESB. Besides, in this universe the Clone Wars Multimedia Project and the Republic Commando novel series replace TCW.

The second universe is the same as the first universe, but with the addition of Dark Empire, Crimson Empire and the Legacy comics. In this universe the Denningverse still doesn’t happen, but the Chosen One Prophecy was misread and had a different meaning than the one that’s shown in the Prequels, thus allowing Palpatine to come back and the Sith to still exist after Return of the Jedi through Darth Krayt and the One Sith.

The third universe is the same as the first universe, but without KOTOR II, the Revan novel and SWTOR. So, after the first KOTOR game the universe jumps directly to the Knight Errant stuff. This way there’s a happy ending for Revan and Bastila, and the Republic can have a very long period of peace and prosperity until the New Sith Wars. Therefore the Old Republic Era is much more simple, Vitiate doesn’t exist, there’s no Sith Triumvirate, etc.

I tried to rewrite the Prequels and to create a new, rewritten Star Wars universe, but in the end I decided to abandon the project.

My personal canon are:

• OOT
• Classic LucasArts games that aren’t based on the PT up to Jedi Academy (so X-Wing series, Dark Forces series, KOTOR I-II, Rebel Assault I-II etc.)
• Al Williamson’s classic comics (B&W + Marvel)
• and as an epilogue but more of an addon than actual canon maybe, the Thrawn trilogy

Probably forgot something but basically most good stuff surrounding the OT without any PT or Disney tarnishing.

Well, it’s been a while since my last canon list, with a lot more new stuff out, so here I go again. This time, I’m not gonna create “tiers” of canon like I did before, and I’m just gonna focus on creating the most satisfying single timeline:

• Tales of the Jedi comic (as a distant, semi-canon prologue)
• The Phantom Menace
• Tales of the Jedi miniseries (only the Dooku episodes)
• Attack of the Clones (extended edition)
• The Clone Wars 3D (minus the dumb episodes)
• Revenge of the Sith (extended edition)
• Solo
• Andor
• Rebels (minus the dumb episodes)
• Rogue One
• A New Hope (theatrical, or Revisited when that comes out)
• Original Marvel comic (1977-1980)
• Empire Strikes Back (theatrical or Revisited)
• Original Marvel comic (1980-1983)
• Return of the Jedi (theatrical, or Revisited when that comes out)
• The Mandalorian (first two seasons only)
• The Force Awakens (first half of a distant, semi-canon epilogue)
• The Last Jedi (second half of a distant, semi-canon epilogue)

My final verdict for everything from Rebels onwards depends on how Ahsoka and Mando season 3 play out. If they turn out to be good, Rebels and the first two sequels stay in the list, with Boba and the new Mandoverse installments being added as well. But if they turn out to be bad, Rebels gets cut from the list, the Thrawn trilogy becomes canon, and the Hand of Thrawn duology replaces TFA and TLJ as the distant, semi-canon epilogue.

LexX said:

[…] but basically most good stuff surrounding the OT without any PT or Disney tarnishing.

I like your mindset. Actually that’s the one i’m trying to follow too. The one thing that lets me coming back to the Prequels from time to time is the behind-the-scenes drama (e.g. the documentaries, web-docs, etc.).

During the last months, I have changed my mind about a couple of things. Specifically, I have abandoned my Legends purism, and I have decided to include what is - in my opinion - the best material from Disney’s New Canon, even though the majority of my personal Canon is still made up of Legends material. I have also changed my mind about a couple of Legends stories, and I decided to eliminate the stories I actually never really cared about.

So, here’s my updated personal Canon:

• Tales of the Jedi (comics)
• Knights of the Old Republic (comics)
• Knights of the Old Republic I
• The Old Republic: Revan
• Knights of the Old Republic II
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• The Darth Bane Trilogy
• Darth Plagueis (novel)
• Republic comics (issues 1 to 6)
• Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• Bounty Hunter
• Jango Fett: Open Seasons
• Republic comics (issues 7 to 49)
• The Approaching Storm
• Episode II: March of the Clones
• Republic Commando (video game)
• Republic Commando (novel series)
• The Clone Wars (2002 video game)
• Republic comics (from issue 50 to 83)
• Star Wars: Jedi (comic series)
• Star Wars: General Grievous (comics)
• Star Wars: Obsession (comics)
• Jedi Trial (novel)
• Star Wars: Brothers in Arms
• Labyrinth of Evil
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
• Kenobi (novel)
• Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
• Star Wars: Purge (comic series)
• Old Wounds (comic)
• Star Wars: Andor
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Episode IV: A New Hope
• Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
• Shadows of the Empire
• Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
• The Thrawn Trilogy
• The Jedi Academy Trilogy
• The Hand of Thrawn Duology
• Star Wars: Union
• Junior Jedi Knights (series)
• Young Jedi Knights (series)

In case you are wondering, March of the Clones is my fan edit of Attack of the Clones. While I don’t entirely dislike the original version of the movie, I think it could be improved by trimming some dialogue, slightly modifying certain scenes, and restoring some of the deleted scenes. Therefore, I created my own fan edit, which is Canon above the original version of the movie in my head, because I personally think that my own version is better than the original version. I’ve come to accept The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith for what they are, so I will not create fan edits of those movies. But my edit of Episode II still remains.

I still don’t accept TCW as part of my personal Canon. Don’t get me wrong, I think that it’s a great show on its own, I find the characters to be relatable and the stories to be very entertaining. However, I don’t think it fits very well with the Prequel Trilogy, both stylistically and in tone. Therefore, I still prefer to replace TCW with the old Clone Wars comics by Dark Horse, because they feel more in line with the movies and the overall universe. I tend to view TCW like a “What If” scenario, which takes place in a parallel universe where the Prequel Trilogy happened differently. And along with TCW, I also don’t accept the original Clone Wars cartoon, not anymore. Yes, it is a great cartoon on its own, but you can’t take it seriously in the context of the Star Wars universe. Everyone is extremely overpowered, to the point of being ridiculous. It clearly doesn’t work as real, actual Star Wars. Not to mention, I prefer Labyrinth of Evil over the last episodes of the mini-series, and Anakin’s knighthood is already confirmed in Jedi Trial, therefore I don’t need to watch it in the original series (even though I loved the scene from the cartoon).

I don’t accept Dark Empire too, for obvious reasons.

And finally, I have decided to give up on The Force Unleashed. It is a great game on its own, but over time I have come to prefer the idea that the Rebel Alliance was created by normal people, who wanted to fight the Empire. Not every single organization in the Galaxy needs to be created by Force users.

Alright, I’ve decided to commit myself to a personal canon. God have mercy on my immortal soul.

• The original unaltered Star Wars Trilogy. No bloody 97SE, 04SE, 11SE, or 19SE.
• The OT radio dramatizations.
• The OT novelizations.
• The Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson newspaper comic strip.
• The original Marvel comic – including most of the Alan Moore UK stories, excluding most of the post-ROTJ issues.
• The Tales of the Jedi comics, minus Redemption (I prefer Tom Veitch’s original concept of Ulic Qel-Droma dying unredeemed)
• The Thrawn Trilogy
• Dark Empire
• I, Jedi
• The Dark Forces novella trilogy
• Mara Jade – By the Emperor’s Hand
• Junior Jedi Knights
• Young Jedi Knights
• The Corellian Trilogy (chiefly for Leia’s boss ruby lightsaber)
• The Hand of Thrawn Duology
• Brendon J. Wahlberg’s Dark Emperor & Rise of the New Sith fanfic series

There’re various & sundry other stories in the pre-1999 EU that are compatible with my personal canon, but I exclude them for the sake of brevity.

Superweapon VII said:

Alright, I’ve decided to commit myself to a personal canon. God have mercy on my immortal soul.

Lol. May the canon gods judge us lightly.

Actually, this pretty much sums up my Pre-Prequel timeline. Though I’m still in the process of determining my personal Star Wars mythos, so far I have two that I hop between depending on my mood.

I’d like to suggest Storyteller from Star Wars Tales #19. It came out in like '05 or so but has no prequel references whatsoever and it’s just a neat little story anyway. (I recommend it to everyone who sees this comment!)

of_Kaiburr_and_Whills said:

I’d like to suggest Storyteller from Star Wars Tales #19. It came out in like '05 or so but has no prequel references whatsoever and it’s just a neat little story anyway. (I recommend it to everyone who sees this comment!)

Yeah, it’s a neat coda to the SW Universe. I generally eschew 1999+ EU, mainly because it’s a headache trying to parse through it, but there’re quite a few Tales stories which can slot in my canon with no problem.

I suppose I’m the only one who also accepts the post-1999 EU? Well, even though I still don’t like anything set after the Young Jedi Knights series. Lol.

Superweapon VII said:

Yeah, it’s a neat coda to the SW Universe. I generally eschew 1999+ EU, mainly because it’s a headache trying to parse through it, but there’re quite a few Tales stories which can slot in my canon with no problem.

I don’t blame you. It’s hard for me to reconcile all the pre-1999 and post 99’ stories too.

Spartacus01 said:

I suppose I’m the only one who also accepts the post-1999 EU? Well, even though I still don’t like anything set after the Young Jedi Knights series. Lol.

I accept quite a few post-99’ stories, such as Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Shadows of Mindor, Kenobi (with some slight modifications to chapter 35), Genndy’s Clone Wars, The Force Unleashed (mostly for nostalgia), some Prequel-era comics like Acts of War, some stuff from Star Wars Tales, etc.

Like I mentioned above, my issue is trying to believe it all works together. Some people take the six Lucas films and six seasons of Clone Wars as primary source material, while blending in EU stuff that works for them. Some do it with just the six films. Others just stick with the OT, or even the first movie. (Something I find incredibly interesting due to the infinite possibilities.)

For me, ultimately, I’d put most if not all of my favorite EU stories as myths or Legends about the Star Wars universe. So, something like Genndy’s Clone Wars happened, but who knows if it happened exactly as shown in the series. It’s similar to the view some fans of new canon have towards Legends material- it happened, but not necessarily how the events of the story depict it. This mostly helps explain away contradictions and tonal/thematic differences between stories.

And again, this is just when I’m viewing all the Lucas stuff as the prime directive- which, to be fair, is most of the time. I have a little bubble in my mind where all, or at least a fair chunk of, the pre-99’ stuff happens and it’s “real.” And to make clear, I rarely dabble with nu-Lucasfilm era stuff. One of the exceptions I have is the Legends of Luke Skywalker Manga. It’s a fun one for me as, again, the whole premise is that its a bunch of legends and stories- who knows to what degree of truth they are. At the end of the day, they’re all stories. I’m not too worried about any sort of official canon.

Oh, and also… anything past New Jedi Order is a no-go for me… (And I’m pretty on the fence about NJO as it is.)