This is a good point, I think this is a misconception most of us have. On the other hand, if they don't check books for continuity errors then the whole idea of a Story Group is largely pointless.
The point of the Story Group is to have a group of people responsible for the overall "story" of Star Wars. That's why it's called the Story Group and not the Continuity Police.
Ok so if an author writes a line in their book "Darth Sidious, who was the Apprentice of Darth Vader." no one is picking up on that unless the editor is also schooled in Star Wars lore? That seems fraught with danger in a world where continuity is supposed to matter. The above example is obviously an easy one to spot, but as mentioned before, if characters' lightsabers are switching colours between books, ship names are changing, or other slips, then is there really no one checking for that?
I think I would prefer the latter. It would be better to leave the story to the authors than the continuity to the editors.
They do. They don't dictate what the story should be (unless it's a case of "hey we need a tie-in novel to so-and-so film about so-and-so character"). They help guide the author's story. They also provide certain edits and suggestions in the manuscripts -- here's a species you could use, reference this other book here. I feel like Pablo and the others have been pretty clear about this, and yet it's still either "they're writing the stories!" or "they're nothing but line editors!"
Xander the fact that the continuity issues that have popped up have been pretty minor shows that there's really little to no "danger".
That's depressing. The single most absurd, universe-breaking thing to ever happen in Star Wars and they actually specifically discussed it and still went ahead with it.
The danger is a jarring moment in a story that is so easily rectified. I remember years ago the Coruscant Nights series or whatever they were called had a massive timing issue with how they referred to when the Clone Wars took place. Things like that have zero impact on the story but are hugely jarring as a reader.
Which brings it back to what Martin said- don't let it bother you, it's all fake anyway. Notice it, maybe sigh, and then handwave it away and move on.
There's plenty I could say on this topic, but largely won't. Only I'll backtrack to an earlier comment and question to provide just an ounce of clarity regarding whose responsibility is it to catch an error on the level of "Darth Sidious is the apprentice of Darth Vader." It is the author's responsibility. It is the editors responsibilities (at least two) It is the proofreader's responsibility It is the copyeditor's responsibility It is the Story Group members responsibilities Which is to say, it is a collective effort, like many parts of the publishing process. Like virtually all parts of the publishing process. (And yes those are all different people and different jobs.)
I don’t really have a view on this. I have a ramble, if it helps. Matt has spent some time engaging with the fandom though and he gets flak no matter what he says, I feel. That’s the fandoms fault, not especially his, and he does seem to get tarred with the perceived sins of the franchise. I often think, as I read these Wookieepedia articles, that these characters would have broken into pieces by now if this was all true. Mentally, just ruined. I can’t see them as characters that absorb every single event that happens; they’re not written that way - ever. They’ll reference some of the events, maybe, or the Big Ones (thus OT references for days), but I can’t expect an author to read every article of continuity and use it to write a character. Characters have to be some kind of general idea that shifts slowly over time (or doesn’t), or you create a story which specifically shifts them to a character point (for better or for worse). I can’t write any Star Wars character and take all of the EU into account. This is a decades old franchise... we really need to accept a degree of give to the detail. The overall will be ironed out, and indeed there is a degree of ‘well we did this then to enable that to happen and now we can go back and do this.’ So we will get more Coruscant stories. We will get more post-Jakku Luke content. We will get more Sloane. We will get more Snoke. We will get more Palpatine. It’s fine; if we can have ‘no Clone Wars’ stories for the first two decades of Star Wars to protect the prequels, and then all of what we have now, which fits the prequels, brilliant. We’ve been lucky to have ‘minimal sequel content please’ for merely six years. Now we can get lots more and the continuity will neaten. SoD, Ahsoka and Dark Disciple will get smoothed out, so they fit better. I’m good with this; they were made to fit a short term fan need and probably some contractual requirements for the authors. Fine; that need has been surpassed and they’ll figure it out. The concepts from Bloodline will inevitably get more screen-time. Coolio. The post-TROS universe will deal with any perceived loose ends from the film; I’m good with that. Continuity can’t be static if it truncates storytelling. It has to be evolving, just as the franchise can’t hold onto 1977. If it does; it’ll die. The themes that made Star Wars timeless in 1977 do not in 2020. If we want more Star Wars, then we have to accept changes to the status quo to keep it going. Otherwise it’d be best to pick the end point of your ‘favourite part’ bubble and leave. Be it the OT, the Marvel era, the Bantam era, TUF, the PT, or Crucible/Legacy. I mean look at those six eras. They are products of their time. Most of them couldn’t be made now. Shrug.
Martin's twittering on the whole subject was really insightful. That bounding into comics website was freakin' terrible, though. My brain hurts just reading their editorializing drivel!
@Sinrebirth Might regret saying this but...In some ways that's what Last Jedi is sorta about...Luke felt he didn't live up to his own hype and he essentially broke. (Now I imagine Luke reading his wikipedia page and Ach-To going...."why can't I be like that guy") I am so sorry Seeing how things were drawn in the legacy comics especially female characters....y-yeah...definitely a product of their times. Heck even some of those early TCW's episode.
I mean, the 'it's all fake anyway' comment is such a no duh it's not even worth addressing. It comes back to my original point, if none of it mattered they'd still be publishing new Legends material.
Ok great, and that's what I thought, the contention from someone else was that the Story Group never look at things that finely. I completely agree with what you're saying.
'It's all fake anyway' is taken completely out of context. No where does he discredit the concept of a consistent canon. He SPECIFICALLY says that is IMPORTANT for STORY GROUP to keep track of canon so that future stories can be CONSISTENT with PREVIOUS MATERIAL (previous canon material that is, not pre-reboot material). 'It's all fake anyway' is an explanation as to why it is OKAY to have the story play out any way you like WITHIN YOUR OWN IMAGINATION. YOUR version of "what happened" can come from any source: canon, legends, fan fiction, voices in your head, etc. These are not REAL histories that it would be problematic to believe happened the way you want them to. I honestly don't understand why people are objecting to anything he has said...
I mean it matters in that they are trying to sell us what they want Star Wars to be and thus of now new legends material doesn't fit into their overall marketing for the brand.
I'm addressing Todd's point specifically that if it's all fake, ignore the issues. I'm not objecting to Matt's comments.
Here's how our discussion has gone so far, I say X, you ask why, I give you an answer, you disagree - that's OK, but I don't expect that pattern to change. I also doubt you'll get much benefit from it too, none of it will be news to you. The other reason is TLJ discussion is something I try to avoid, here it can't be ducked but is it a film I enjoy discussing? No. It's not a good topic, if it has to be mentioned then I'll look to keep it brief.
I think we all agree that maintaining consistency is important, but we disagree on the degree to which this has been achieved. If that's the case, we need to bring an editor in to the fold. I guess I don't understand why an editor cannot also be a member of the story group. Oh! we are using incorrect nomenclature. Excuse us. We need continuity police, stat!! Stat means 2014. I agree. I try to avoid discussing TLJ like I try to avoid politics and religion at the dinner table. No good ever comes from it.
I acknowledge the truth contained in this assertion. This doesn't negate the need for continued vigilance and a keen eye toward avoiding marketing speak when discussing matters of lore which are of great importance to this fandom. Compared to the old EU, however, the current state is more consistent. Perhaps some of the consternation originates from such large swaths of the lore having been removed so abruptly that the impact is still being felt by the fandom. I can see both sides, but ideas like "it's canon until it's not" are endlessly infuriating and make it feel as though LFL is trying to have it both ways. I think some fans would prefer LFL publish an official list of canon works for reference, but this would require more commitment than LFL seems to be willing to make. For me, this unwillingness to commit is of concern.
I mean i think it's pretty simple. When the reboot happens everything that wasn't Ep 1-6 and the Clone Wars cartoon was canon. Even if someone named Plagueis gets named Dropped and is Darth Sidious master that doesn't mean any of the details in the Plageuis book happened. If Revan gets named drop (Which happened) that doesn't really mean anything except their was a Sith Lord and his name was Revan from the past. That's it....Nothing else. Honestly it's not that hard.
