Saga If Star Wars was "Make your own canon"?

Something that would be a game changer for the divergent canons would be the storyline for Star Wars: Underworld. This series sported a more direct involvement from Lucas, and actually had many scripted episodes. While I think it’s a stretch to say that Lucas’ rough ST treatments are exactly how it would have went down, having scripted episodes is much more final. Since the series would deal with young Han Solo and Palpatine, I expect some conflict with Solo and ROS.

Also, I’ve mainly discounted TCW because Dave Filoni has basically called it “legends.” When there’s canon conflicts, he says it’s because it’s just the same event being told from a different point of view (or something to that effect). He doesn’t let the films or especially the EU get in the way of his story, which is fine, but overall makes it a more disconnected medium.

 

Consumption of Star Wars and authentication of what constitutes canon can also be loosened up a bit by perceiving that the signal we receive from a galaxy far, far away, from a long time ago, through one guy from Modesto, is necessarily going to be under sampled, clipped, degraded, and have artifacts and aliasing. The real sequence of events that really really occurred back then requires teasing out, extrapolation, interpolation, reconstruction. Don't just take someone's single word, or single sentence, or even single paragraph, for it.

 

I'd take I-VI, The Clone Wars, Solo, Rogue One, and The Mandalorian at the moment. I suppose all of the old-EU stuff that takes place before the prequels could come back too as long as it doesn't contradict much.

 

I count Clone Wars 2003, Dark Horse Republic and Dark Times comics, Clone Wars Adventures and books like Jedi Trial, Dark Rendezvous, and Shatterpoint as canon too.

TCW is tough. It technically fits under both Legends and Canon. I think some material from TCW is strictly Legends like the Gambit books and the Dark Horse TCW comics. That said, I do think some liberties taken in TCW were done for appealing to people who didnt like the era in the first place, so some of it I take with a grain of salt (like Anakin adopting his ROTS persona only like 2 months after AOTC).

 

I strongly prefer the original clone wars cartoon, but I will readily admit that I haven't given TCW an actual chance. I've not even seen many complete episodes.

 

- Episodes I-VI
- The Clone Wars (including Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple, and Crystal Crisis, along with all the unreleased arcs)
- All known details on the Sequel Trilogy as envisioned by George Lucas
- Underworld unreleased scripts
- The Force Unleashed
- Parts of Rebels
- Rogue One
- Most of Solo
- The Mandalorian
- Assorted EU novels, comics, and video games (looking at you KOTOR, SWTOR, and Darth Plagueis!)

The bolded are the only things I consider "True Star Wars" and override everything else. I actually made a timeline to keep it all straight a few years ago that I keep updated.

 

I'm not sure I consider the original Clone Wars micro-series to be canon, but it's the one piece of film or television content outside of Episodes I to VI that I would have little problem considering canon if Lucas deemed it canon. It doesn't live up to my standards in some aspects (sometimes too black and white, focussed on the war, for children (these three points are understandable, considering that it aired on Cartoon Network), Anakin and Obi-Wan are too much in Clones mode until Anakin is knighted (also understandable, since Tartakovsky wouldn't have seen Sith yet and would be working off what he knew from Clones), Anakin and Obi-Wan don't really look right, nor does the voicing feel right (the script is fine, it's just the way they're voiced and their expressions shown that's a little problematic), and I dislike the part with Obi-Wan recommending that Anakin be knighted without taking the Trials), but it generally gets it: it maintains continuity excellently, the story doesn't feel ridiculous, nor do the characters feel out-of-character. I'm not sure I can say the same about significant parts of the 2008 The Clone Wars. (Although, to be fair, like you, I haven't seen many complete episodes of TCW either; this is just from the little I've seen of it. I was recommended to watch the Yoda arc for a sense of Lucas' ideas about the Force and the Whills, and wasn't impressed by those TCW episodes.)

A short digression: I find it amazing how packed the original Clone Wars micro-series is. Judging from the reaction to the announced Kenobi show being transformed from a film into a television series, many people seem to think that "longer = better". As someone who usually doesn't have the time to watch television series, I can't emphasise enough how much I prioritise quality over quantity.

An issue I take with TCW is the confusion of the likeability of a character with the quality of the characterisation. I see many people commenting that TCW Anakin is much more likeable than prequels Anakin, and claiming that this is the way Anakin should have been in the prequels, and this is my problem with TCW Anakin: I don't need Anakin to be likeable; I need Anakin to be Anakin! I feel for prequels Anakin, despite his faults; I don't feel for TCW Anakin.

Based on the Underworld test footage and what I read about it, I think I may have liked it enough to watch it and consider it canon, but it seems we'll never know now.

Like Darkslayer, all known details of the ST as envisioned by Lucas have become part of my personal canon.

The Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, Legacy of the Jedi, The Last of the Jedi and Rebel Force series of books are an integral part of my personal canon because they are related to my favourite EU character Siri Tachi in some way or another. There are many other excellent EU books that I consider canon, but none of them others are that important to me that I would object to them being decanonised had Lucas directly contradicted them in his version of the ST.

 

I don't think it's a question of IF Star Wars is make your own canon. The better question is what makes your canon?
For me, I accept the 11 movies as canon, but I only accept certain episodes and story arcs from The Clone Wars, and Rebels does not count for me at all. I'm withholding judgement on the Mandalorian until it's impact on the GFFA shakes out a little more.
Then I add in my own interpretation of what's within my canon. For example, because I feel it has become so distant from the original trilogy, to me, the prequels feel more like research material as opposed to an integral part of the overall saga, but it's still part of my canon.
Anything that contradicts the movies(Rebels....EVERY episode of Rebels) get dropped from my canon. I will also include EU items that do not contradict the movies.
I love the EU stories about the Je'daii, and how the Sith and Jedi were born from it. I feel it adds a good level of context to Sith vs Jedi conflict of the movies, and since it takes place some 30,000 years before the movies, I accept it as canon.
So what it all comes down to is, "To each their own"

 

I’m a cafeteria SW fan — I stick with the elements I love the most and consign the rest to in-universe legends. The only things that are strictly canon for me are the original trilogy and The Mandalorian — and truth be told, I’ll likely discard whatever of the latter becomes inextricably tied to the sequel films.

To be honest, I tend to watch the original and prequel films as separate trilogies — there’s too much visual incongruity between them for me to fully convince myself they’re unfolding in the same universe even with the excuse of changing social circumstances. My personal prequels canon does include the Jedi Apprentice books, if for no other reason than I liked them as a kid. TCW, enjoyable as it often is, remains thorny for me, and I’d be more inclined to keep certain characterizations than specific plot points.

The rest — Rogue One, the sequels, favored aspects of the old EU — I’m happy to feel mine for the elements I like and toss what doesn’t. Mine is a cobbled-together GFFA, I guess, but I’m fine with that.

 

Luke is sad and defeated instead of grumpy and unlikeable in TLJ. Luke joins the Resistance in person and does not die. Rey and Kylo do not kiss. Jar Jar is less goofy in TPM. The early rebellion scenes in ROTS are in the film.

 

Watched the Mortis arc today. wish they could have included that in ROS.

 

This is me.

Even though I love ROTS because the story breaks my heart every time I watch it, I would only make a small tweak to Anakin's fall.

 

Canon is whatever you use to make storylines for your action figures. Or your gaming group. I know I have my own cluster of a headcanon timeline for the franchise.

 

i find the distinction between sad and defeated and grumpy and dislikeable really interesting. Sounds like an issue with acting or maybe it was the direction..even if its an issue with the writing is i think its a very fine line myself

 

More the writing. The acting was good.

 

if it was that good (it was) im sure Mark could've changed grumpy to sad.. tho tbh he was probably grumpy about having no screen time in TFA

 

1. I would leave Maul dead, chopped in two, and splattered at the bottom of that shaft.
2. Prequels: The Descent of Anakin; Classic: Redemption of Vader; Sequels: Fall of Rey/Redemption of Ben
3. Thrawn would have been in command at Exegol in TROS and Ezra Bridger instead of Lando would have saved the day

 

In my headcanon, Jedi get decent haircuts.

 

My Cannon would be:
KOTOR
KOTOR 2
Prequels (but Padme dies for a better reason than being sad)
Clone Wars
Rebels (except the last episodes. That time portal thing is dumb. Ahsoka dies fighting Vader)
OT (mostly original versions, but ewoks blink, Jedi Rocks and Lapti Nek both take place, and the big celebration)
Rogue One
Holiday Special

 

My preferred canon:

KOTOR
Episodes 1-3
TCW
Rebels
Rogue One
Episodes 4-6 (theatrical versions)
Battlefront 2 (2017)
The Mandalorian
The new Marvel comics

 

Prequels
The Force Unleashed
OT
Shadows Of The Empire
Clone Wars 2003 cartoon with dark horse comics
Legacy comics
Republic Commando
Dark Forces Soldier for the empire.(Didn't like the follow up stories where Kyle became a Jedi)
Starfighter game

And finally Space Balls.

 

It's all canon in my eyes.

 

All the Old Republic EU stuff. Such as KOTOR, KOTOR 2, SWTOR, the Old Republic novels.
Plagueis novel.

Can't really choose between the Clone Wars multimedia project and TCW. I like both a lot. Anakin vs Asajj on Yavin 4 in the Clone Wars microseries is incredible, and the knighting of Anakin in the microseries is also great. But again there's a lot to love in TCW.

The Lucas Saga. I-VI. Of course is canon.

Not really a fan of the Sequel Trilogy, so I don't consider that my personal canon.

While I love a lot of post-ROTJ EU stuff (namely Thrawn trilogy, NJO, Legacy comics), I don't necessarily consider them to be my absolute canon. They're just fun stories to read for me.