Current Events > Yearly reminder: The Star Wars EU was never canon

(+) Yeah! (+)

Since there still seems to be confusion about this. The only thing officially decanonized after the Disney buyout was the Force Unleashed games. Although one of them is a great game it's no great loss to the Star Wars story. Lucas gave the stamp of approval for people to play in his sandbox but did not accept anything else as part of it.

I don't think anyone thought it was canon. But it had its own canon that was cancelled and scrapped when Disney took over, and fans of the EU obviously didn't like that

It's not that the EU wasn't canon, it was that anything in the EU was given the caveat that it could be ignored should Lucas choose to do something that contradicts it in the future. There were even certain subjects that weren't allowed to be used for stories because Lucas wouldn't allow it. So everything in the EU was canon until it wasn't and then Disney came along and the "wasn't" happened for all of it.

I see it as a separate timeline. The two timelines are based around one key event. The Legends Timeline is the Light Side ending in Knights of the Old Republic. The Canon Timeline is the Dark Side ending.

If you enjoy it, who cares if its canon? That only matters when trying to use something as evidence in a debate. It should have no effect on your ability to enjoy something.

None of Star Wars is real.

Canon is such a funny concept when you think about it. It's a statement about what fictional events really happened.

Looking back, a lot of it wasn't even that great anyway. I tuned out about a quarter way through the Yuuzhan Vong story because they sounded like something a 14 year old thought was cool and badass. I actually didn't care for how they made Luke sooo powerful to where he could pull Star Destroyers down from space while he's on a planet or something like that. The Goku comparisons were kinda valid after a while.

I never cared much about what was hard canon or not anyway. I'm a big believer in head canon and making it whatever you want it to be.

Tbh I would have much rather seen something like the Yuuzhan Vong conflict depicted as opposed to literally every other plot from any Disney era SW.

There were levels of canon. Anything at a higher level applied to lower levels, but lower level stuff didn't have to apply upwards. The movies were at the top and could ignore anything else, but there were dozens of authors and hundreds of stories that remained consistent to each other. The term "canon" applies in a meaningful way. Disney does things differently. If they label it as official, promo material you view waiting in line for a ride in Disneyland Japan can have just as much impact on the eventual Episode 10 as The Mandolorian would have on a potential "The Young Jedi Adventures: Holiday Special."

The Book of Tobit isn't canon to most sects of Christianity, but most Christians believe Rafael is a legitimate angel despite that.

PeteyParker posted...

It's not that the EU wasn't canon, it was that anything in the EU was given the caveat that it could be ignored should Lucas choose to do something that contradicts it in the future. There were even certain subjects that weren't allowed to be used for stories because Lucas wouldn't allow it. So everything in the EU was canon until it wasn't and then Disney came along and the "wasn't" happened for all of it.

Yes, that's what not canon means

Dark_Arbron posted...

If you enjoy it, who cares if its canon? That only matters when trying to use something as evidence in a debate. It should have no effect on your ability to enjoy something.

I only ever bring it up because people still like to shake their fists at Disney for "destroying" the EU when it never existed to begin with. They just like being mad.

PeteyParker posted...

It's not that the EU wasn't canon, it was that anything in the EU was given the caveat that it could be ignored should Lucas choose to do something that contradicts it in the future. There were even certain subjects that weren't allowed to be used for stories because Lucas wouldn't allow it. So everything in the EU was canon until it wasn't and then Disney came along and the "wasn't" happened for all of it.

So it wasnt canon.

The whole secondary canon nonsense was just a bone that Lucas threw to nerds to get them to keep buying books. Things were ignored, contradicted, and thrown out left and right from the EU every official release prior to Disney bought the franchise and ended the charade.

Kyle Katarn lives.

specialkid8 posted...

Yes, that's what not canon means

I only ever bring it up because people still like to shake their fists at Disney for "destroying" the EU when it never existed to begin with. They just like being mad.

Fair. Its just when Ive seen people shit on Dragonball GT they often add its not even canon as another insult, even though that should have nothing to do with its quality.

Most of it was also not very good.

I've felt the argument about "destroying the EU" forgets a few things.

1. Generously, 90% of it was mid-to-garbage.
2. There were no real "unanswered plotlines" that needed resolution (yeah sorry Force Unleashed, but no). All things considered, the old EU could be considered "complete".
3. Expecting a casual fanbase who had not seen a Star Wars film in ten years to suddenly be caught up on dozens of books and video games is way too big of an ask if your intent is to just have the next adventure slot in right after, say, the Fate of the Jedi storyline.

And no, you can't just "make movies that don't reference those old books" because a TON of stuff happened in them that would need explaining, such as:

1. A major supporting character being dead for years.
2. A main character having a kid by a wife who's now dead.
3. Another main character couple having three kids, two of them now dead.
4. The galactic government makeup changing TWICE in the time since the Fall of the Empire.

That's not stuff that can be swept under the rug.

Canon is irrelevant in fiction.

It used to be canon that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Canon is irrelevant in fiction.

It used to be canon that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSOBeD1GC_Y

The argument that most the EU was garbage so who cares could easily be applied to the new canon.

Trelve posted...

The argument that most the EU was garbage so who cares could easily be applied to the new canon.

Or Star Wars in its entirety.

What's to prevent an entirely new canon being made?

They did it for Star Trek, and countless comic books.

CyricZ posted...

I've felt the argument about "destroying the EU" forgets a few things.

1. Generously, 90% of it was mid-to-garbage.
2. There were no real "unanswered plotlines" that needed resolution (yeah sorry Force Unleashed, but no). All things considered, the old EU could be considered "complete".
3. Expecting a casual fanbase who had not seen a Star Wars film in ten years to suddenly be caught up on dozens of books and video games is way too big of an ask if your intent is to just have the next adventure slot in right after, say, the Fate of the Jedi storyline.
And no, you can't just "make movies that don't reference those old books" because a TON of stuff happened in them that would need explaining, such as:
1. A major supporting character being dead for years.
2. A main character having a kid by a wife who's now dead.
3. Another main character couple having three kids, two of them now dead.
4. The galactic government makeup changing TWICE in the time since the Fall of the Empire.
That's not stuff that can be swept under the rug.

To be fair, I expect that anyone legitimately complaining about how the EU was "destroyed" would recognize that anything taking place during and around the eras of the movies would have had to be totally supplanted for any new canon. I think people are more likely to lament the loss of all the stuff taking place before Episode I, primarily something like KOTOR. That era you could at least maybe argue for its existence in conjunction with a new canon.

But yeah, I agree with basically everything you said.

Trelve posted...

The argument that most the EU was garbage so who cares could easily be applied to the new canon.

I suggest we start doing this for Dragonball Super.

CyricZ posted...

Or Star Wars in its entirety.

What's to prevent an entirely new canon being made?

They did it for Star Trek, and countless comic books.

There's an easy explanation in universe for a complete revamp of the timelines though because they fuck with time travel and alternate universes all the time in Trek and comics. Hell DC had Super Boy punch the space time continium to change it's stuff around. Time travel is last thing Star Wars needs.

ScazarMeltex posted...

There's an easy explanation in universe for a complete revamp of the timelines though because they fuck with time travel and alternate universes all the time in Trek and comics. Hell DC had Super Boy punch the space time continium to change it's stuff around. Time travel is last thing Star Wars needs.

Oh Star Wars has one of those:

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/World_Between_Worlds

PeteyParker posted...

There were even certain subjects that weren't allowed to be used for stories because Lucas wouldn't allow it.

That's interesting, which ones?

The new content disney has created is also 90% garbage and they have plenty of money and people yet they couldnt cut the mustard.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

That's interesting, which ones?

I only really remember that it was primarily related to things that occurred prior to the original trilogy like Han and Chewie's early years, young Obi-Wan, etc that Lucas wanted to be able to touch or keep a mystery. There was the Han Solo Adventures books but that was only a few years before A New Hope. This was all before the prequels came out and once that happened, they became a little more open about exploring earlier eras.

The EU is canon.

And since I said so, it is. From a certain point of view (mine).

PeteyParker posted...

I only really remember that it was primarily related to things that occurred prior to the original trilogy like Han and Chewie's early years, young Obi-Wan, etc that Lucas wanted to be able to touch or keep a mystery. There was the Han Solo Adventures books but that was only a few years before A New Hope. This was all before the prequels came out and once that happened, they became a little more open about exploring earlier eras.

To my knowledge, after Chewie died, Lucas said to not kill off any more of the original cast. And I think the plan was to have Anakin go dark, not Jacen, but Lucas said he didn't want another fallen Anakin.

I think there's still a difference between "George Lucas can overthrow anything if he later chooses to" and "This book officially endorsed by Lucasarts which is (generally) consistent with all these other endorsed books is as valid as some rando's fan fiction" in terms of how we think about canonicity.

Though my feelings on it all are a little colored by the fact that my local library system only really had stuff through right before YV and even though there were a few stinkers in there, I think it hadn't yet reached the point where it felt "disconnected" from the original movies too much.

Anteaterking posted...

This book officially endorsed by Lucasarts

Lucasfilm.

Lucasarts was the game studio.

Kyle Katarn is still real to me dammit

CyricZ posted...

Lucasfilm.

Lucasarts was the game studio.

oh, good call