I mentioned in the very first post of this fence that I have been a massive Star Wars fan since I walked out of a cinema, as a nine year old, in 1977. I secretly hope that of all the ways I could shuffle off this mortal boil, (I know...but that sounds funnier) that I'll manage to go out with Alzheimer's so that I can re-experience the movies again for the first time...over and over.
I can only begin to imagine the damage I can do with that bedpan when I'm re-confronted with the various moments in the movies that still give me goose bumps. Therefore, I'd like to take this moment to apologize, in advance, to any of the nurses that may be attempting to govern me in my later years.
To you wonderful people that give your time to make ours more pleasant...
I'm currently aware that you have probably seen the movies. I'm also aware that you are not being paid enough to listen to me prattle on about Chewbacca or to clear up the remnants of the bedpan that I've expertly distributed throughout the ENTIRE room.
I'm also aware that you were probably just as freaked out about "The Kiss(es)" and were as stymied as myself that despite Anakin being a great strategist, he didn't grab the whole concept of "higher ground" and it's advantages...even after being warned.
It's important to me that you grasp that I CURRENTLY understand, but will have no idea "what the frack you're on about..." after someone leaves me in the dumpster behind your building and you are forced to deal with me.
I'm so..SO sorry. *Wookiee Hug* in advance. Feel free to call me whatever names you'd like. I won't remember. ;)Back on point, way back in 2011 my friend Heath invited myself as well as mutual friends onto his podcast "The Film List" to have a four part in-depth conversation about all six Star Wars movies when they were first released on Blu-Ray.
When he asked, I leaned back within my overly large, "Bond Villain" chair as my cat jumped up onto my lap. I knew full well that Heath had no idea the size of the Rancor he was about to unleash upon his listeners.
You see, as my friend Heath will attest, I am complete rubbish with names. I have and will continue to confuse the work of Liev Schreiber and Liv Tyler. Not because they look similar, but simply because the names are so close. (at least to me) It's completely beyond me how Eva Longoria can work as much as she does yet still have time to play third base for Tampa Bay. THAT'S talent, people.
Yet these podcasts were going to be about Star Wars. I know Star Wars. I can muggle my way through this. I pushed up my glasses, adjusted my pocket protector and agreed. The conversations were long and very in-depth, we all had fun and there were some excellent talking points.
In 2014 we again gathered to talk The Force Awakens teaser, trailer then the feature. I've linked all of the episodes at the bottom if you dare to listen.
Last week, Lucasfilm released a full interview with Pablo Hidalgo from the Star Wars Story Group and something he said reminded me of a question that came up within our podcasts. If you listen around seventeen minutes in you'll hear him talk about canon vs not canon.
The point he makes is that it shouldn't matter if it's canon...is it fun? "Canon" is a tool for the storytellers working with Lucasfilm and for those of us that live out past the Dune Sea and try to predict what is around the Ben(d) for us from those storytellers.
Star Wars Canon is not a judgement on value or worth. It's a tool for the creators.
FINALLY! Mr. Hidalgo, THANK YOU! I just could never put my finger on how to explain it so perfectly. I now have my answer for the future.
Admittedly, if you are brand new to Star Wars, it can be overwhelming on where to jump in, so I always tell my nurse (over and over actually) to start with the movies. Then it's up to you where you want to go it's a huge universe. It's ALL fun! (and games)
Personally, I recommend the animated series "The Clone Wars" (movie first, then the show) then "Star Wars Rebels" they are fantastic shows. In fact the season two finale of Rebels is some of the best Star Wars we have been given to date.
Somewhere within those previously mentioned podcast conversations I was asked if I felt the Expanded Universe was worth reading anymore since it's no longer considered "Star Wars Canon". The Answer...YES!! Definitely! There are amazing stories in there! Just because they are EU or "Legends" as Lucasfilm now refers to them doesn't mean that you won't enjoy the heck outta them.
Do you want to know why everyone was so excited about that "blue guy" coming up in season three of Star Wars Rebels? Then read "The Thrawn Trilogy" by Timothy Zahn. Want to read a story that tore my guts out and ran away with them? Then read the first book of the "The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime" by R. A. Salvatore. Want to find out what Hoojibs are? Go read the Marvel Comics Star Wars #55 from 1981.
Need some advice? Feel free to shoot me out a tweet. The folks over at the Full Of Sith podcast are very cool Star Wars fans as well and I'm sure they would be glad to give you recommendations if you shoot them out an email or tweet nicely. ;)
Most of the books now will state "Legends" at the top, but you can always go to Wookieepedia to find out if something is canon or not. They very clearly mark the items at the top of the page Canon or Legends or in some cases both.
Just PLEASE don't let the "Legends" banner scare you off of the enjoyment you may get from these stories of lore.
...that's all for now, the podcast links follow. I gotta go see a man about a Tauntaun...
@GlenEwing
GE
~
Be forewarned, this was in the earlier days of podcasting and the audio may take getting used to. Additionally there is no editing done with these. You can find them on iTunes as well, I've included the dates for reference. Here ya go:
09/21/11 = Part 1 - The Phantom Menace & Attack Of The Clones w/ Heath, Matt & Wendy
10/05/11 = Part 2 - Revenge of the Sith & A New Hope
10/26/11 = Part 3 - The Empire Strikes Back & Reutrn Of The Jedi
11/30/11 = Part 4 - Special Features and George Lucas influences
12/07/14 = The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer w/ Heath, Axel, DJ Timmy & Wendy
04/29/15 = The Force Awakens Full Trailer & Star Wars Celebration
12/22/15 = The Force Awakens talk w/ Heath, Axel, Wendy, Hispanic Chris & Donald
Audience #1: You got a rapid fan base, it seems like nowadays the way Disney handles Star Wars canon, very well controlled, very tight, but back in the ’90s when it’s a blueprint of books and games and other things, how did … Do you internally manage —
ReplyDelete"That was one of my mandates, when I began the spin off publishing program it was a sacrosanct rule that everything had to relate to each other, be consistent with each other and be consistent with the movies, 'which were canon.'
We were pretty religious about doing that, our biggest problem was a guy named George Lucas, because he didn't buy into the spin off fiction and the game program and all the 'alternate universe' we were creating."
We wanted it to be one universe, we felt strongly that that's what it needed to be, but George as the filmmaker didn't want to be beholden to somebody else's creative vision.So we would have very interesting skirmishes because we had a bunch of stuff that became, for the fans, pretty much canon [head-canon]* about what happened after Return of the Jedi, what different places in the galaxy were called, lots of different things and if he was proposing to do something in the prequels that contradicted that we would have long debates which usually ended at least after the first session with "I don't care this is what I'm doing" , and maybe after the *4th or 5th session sometimes "Alright 'maybe' we can change it this way"
Now that everything is controlled by one central committee [Lucasfilm Story Group] we can have canon that applies to everything.
Messing with a Classic — Howard Roffman, Lucasfilm, 2017 interview. -
[12:40 mark]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMKHgwH-gY4
"There's this notion that everything changed when everything became Legends. And I can see why people think that. But, you know, having worked with George I can tell you that it was always very clear -- and he made it very clear -- that the films and the TV shows were the only things that he considered Canon. That was it."
ReplyDeleteDave Filoni interview on 'The Star Wars show' [41.40 mark]-
https://youtu.be/hcNXPNXOv2A?t=2500
..
"I get asked all the time, 'What happens after "Return of the Jedi"?,' and there really is no answer for that," he said. "The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends.""
- George Lucas, Flannelled One, May 2008, "George Lucas: 'Star Wars' won't go beyond Darth Vader", interview with Los Angeles Times
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"And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married."
~ George Lucas,Total Film Magazine Interview, 2008
https://ibb.co/x5q1RrQ
..
"I don't read that stuff, I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world. But I do try and keep it consistent. The way I do it is they have a Star Wars encyclopedia. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it and see if it has already been used. When I said other people could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have TWO universes: My Universe and than this other one. They try to make THEIR universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."
~ George Lucas Starlog Magazine Interview, 2005 - https://ibb.co/Km1CcNs
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“There are two worlds here,” explained Lucas. “There’s my world, which is the movies, and there’s this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe – the licensing world of the books, games and comic books."
~ George Lucas, Cinescape, 2002
..
"But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he directly oversees. […] Though these [Expanded Universe] stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are depicted cinematically in one of his projects.”
~ Pablo Hidalgo, Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion, 2012
..
"I think people over emphasize the importance of the canon level. The intent of the canon levels was, as the main intent was 'if someones looking for the ships from a film, they can than use those fields to check for them only in the films,and thus seperate that from what was in the EU. So we can look at it case by case. I think there is an over emphasis of what those fields mean and what they represent".
~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator for Lucas Licensing
"That 'level of canon' thus helps in terms of bookkeeping. Those 'canon levels' are for the holocron."
~ Pablo Hidalgo
ForceCast #273: The Galaxy Is Reading - Interview with Leland Chee and Pablo Hidalgo, 2013 Approximately the 1 hour mark so 1:00 - 1:02 mark
http://www.forcecast.net/story/home/ForceCast_273_The_Galaxy_Is_Reading_154431.asp
..
ReplyDelete'In 2014, Disney declared the Expanded Universe was no longer canon. It became ‘Legends’. What do you think of this, seeing all of your work suddenly become non-canon?'
“Those of us writing the EU were always told, all along, from the very beginning (have I stressed that strongly enough?), “Only the Movies are Canon.” Sure, it was disappointing.”
~ Kathy Tyers, EU author [Truce at Bakura, Balance Point] Interview, 2018
http://starwarsinterviews.com/various/authors/kathy-tyers-author/
..
Podcast Interview with Steve Perry, Author of Shadows of the Empire from the Expanded Universe -
Interviewer - 'So what are your thoughts about your book and all the ones that came other than this last year are no longer part of the Official Star Wars Canon ever since Disney took over?
Steve Perry - "Ohh they never were! Nothing was ever canon other than the movies."
The Ritual Misery Podcast with hosts Amos and Kent, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2569&v=opbMcVJolSA&feature=emb_logo