Star Wars Canon

Part of the reason Star Wars is so precious to me is because of the world that has been created since, and even before, the completion of the films. For those who don't know, the story of Luke, Han and Leia did continue past the movies in other mediums like Comic Books, Video Games, and Novelizations. They have kids, they go on more adventures, its a very rich and awesome universe that has been created. 

And its not just the characters from the movies. 

Arguably some of the best storytelling to come out of the expanded universe has been about characters

 not even mentioned or made reference to in the movies. Stories like Revan and Malak from Knights of the Old Republic, Kyle Katarn from the Jedi Knight Video Games, the list goes on and on.

Star Wars has created such a rich and captivating universe that it was hard for writers not to find brilliant stories that flow so well in the universe.

Well here's the bad news... and the slightly good news.

Now this is slightly old news but I said that I would do a post on this and I want to give my opinions on it and see what yours are.

With the announcements of the new trilogy and more movies to come, Disney and the people in charge of the Star Wars universe have retconned, or thrown out all that Expanded Universe. All the stories outside of the major movies, and the Clone Wars television show have been deemed not canon, or not officially part of the Star Wars timeline.

Now I will go into the Clone Wars in another review, there is A LOT I can say about that. But I want to stay on this announcement for a little bit longer.

On one hand I'm really bummed. I am not an avid reader, especially of Star Wars novels. I don't really read comic books that often but I do love Star Wars videos games, especially the ones from the expanded universe. And even if I don't read, I still am aware of all the stories that have come out of stories. I know what happens to Han and Leia's kids, I know how Chewbacca is suppose to die in the expanded universe. And apart of me really feels bad for the men and women who have spent hours upon hours writing Star Wars stories just to have those stories be denounced as not apart of the official timeline. I don't think anybody at Disney wants to insult those authors who worked hard on that material but on the same token, it kind of is a slap in the face to them.

All that being said, it makes a lot of sense.

Think about it. If Disney hadn't retconned all this material, one of two things would have happened. Either they would have had their hands tied, telling stories that go in line with what has already been penned down. And there's very little wiggle room with that. I haven't read and seen it all but I know that the expanded universe has been thoroughly touched on. This may be an exaggeration but its almost as if they penned out the moments right after the camera stopped rolling and what Han, Luke, and Leia did right after they left Endor. That doesn't leave much room for creativity for J.J. Abrams and the writers penning out the new movies.

The other situation that could happen is that the movies are different than the expanded universe and you have a bunch of angry fans saying, "But that's not what happened!" Granted you still have angry fans right now who say that, but by officially saying, none of that happened, it clears the slate and puts everyone on the same page.

The silver lining with this announcement is that while none of the expanded universe beyond the movies and the Clone Wars tv series are canon, the material from the expanded universe can and might be used in the future. Now this was probably more to appease fanboys and give them hope that they might see a Grand Admiral Thrawn movie, but the point is that Star Wars is doing something very similar to comic book movies now. There's all this material in what is called the Star Wars Legacy now that writers can draw from. Grand Admiral Thrawn might show up, Revan could be referenced. Darth Vader could have a secret apprentice. At this time he doesn't but it could be referenced or used if the writers and Disney sanction it.

And I think that works out for the best. It gives Disney, Abrams, and everyone involved with Star Wars a clean state to do with Star Wars whatever they want. This provides new material and new routes that Star Wars could go and I think that's what I want. I want to see something new with Star Wars. I want to see Abrams take it to a new place its never been before.

That being said, it does open up to bring those beloved characters from the expanded universe and having something familiar about it but at the same time giving opportunity for new routes and stories with those beloved characters.

That may sound contradictory but I'd like to see something like a Kyle Katarn movie but taken in totally new direction.

For those that don't know, Kyle Katarn was a mercenary turned Jedi with a lot of different stories connecting to him. What I would suggest is take a character like that and try something new with them.

That being said, I want them to bring in original characters and have them interact with the old characters. Old and New.

Personally, I think they should change characters like Han and Leia's children, give us something new with that. But bring back some EU characters but give them different stories and backgrounds.

Overall, I'm looking forward to what they're going to do with these new movies and the clean slate they have with the canon. I want to see a good combination of characters from the expanded universe and new characters.

This is a topic I want to hear from you on. I want to know what you think of the new canon and how they should approach the material from the EU. Any other thoughts I'd love to hear.

I'll leave you with this. Its going to be pretty immature of me but here is the top 10 pornographic lines from Star Wars... Enjoy!