[SPOILERS] Star Wars Episode 3 - He's back!

[Michael Tree]

Here here!

Ah, Irony. You do realize that that expression is "hear, hear" right?

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhear.html

 

[Michael Tree]

The site specifically states what is canon and what is not. If it is not the movie, it is not canon. I am willing to concede that the other film sources such as screenplays and radio dramas, etc. are not canon. However, I do not consider any of the non-film adapted novels canon what-so-ever. I did like the additions in most of the movie adaptation novels (especially Episode 1's) but, alas, they are not part of Star Wars canon.

Indeed. I personally consider all the novels to be akin to fan fiction, no more a part of my vision of the true star wars universe than the description of someone's Star Wars RPG campaign.

Of course, to me the same is also true for Ep.I and much of Ep.II

 

[John Crichton]

Hey! Which movies are canon? Did Greedo shoot first or not?

I'd like to think that Greedo didn't shoot first but it seems that Lucas considers the SE to be canon.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I must admit I never noticed the Greedo thing until I noticed
people talking about it on the 'net.

 

[Orius]

You know, I expected this from the Star Trek franchise, but I thought that George Lucas and Lucasfilm are going to treat their novels as part of the Star Wars timeline (along with the movies), with the exception of those labeled as Infinities (similar in concept to DC Comics' Elseworld series).

I'm not really sure. The Star Wars website does make mention of some stuff in the novels, but ignores other. Maybe they're picking and choosing or something.

 

[Orius]

Again, what a ....!

Great, I just wasted $7 on the first book of NJO series, now non-canon. Yes, I was about to read it and catch up as I've heard some good things about it for some time, but I made it my own personal policy to ignore non-canon stuff, just as I've done with Star Trek printed media (with the exception of technical manuals and nerd-friendly material).

But it doesn't seem as tightly defined.

I too, ignore Star Trek novels, since they are completely non-canonical, and are ignored by the series producers. It's kind of a shame too, since some of them had good stories that explored untouched areas of the Trek universe, or actually weaved together plots from various episode that Trek writers seem unable to do. Basically Trek canon seems to exist for Paramount to exert as much creative control as possible on the setting.

But Star Wars doesn't seem the same way. I think Lucas seems to realize that a lot of people like the SW universe --and let's face it if it wasn't for the post-ROTJ novels, it probably wouldn't have made the big comeback it did which in turn made the prequel trilogy truely possible. However, there's a lot of material out there, and not all of it agrees with each other. If Lucas is motivated to try to keep things as consistant as possible, and that seems to be at least partially the case here, then I don't have a problem.
Basically, it seems that anything that isn't directly contradicted by film material can be considered more or less "official".

 

[John Crichton]

Basically, it seems that anything that isn't directly contradicted by film material can be considered more or less "official".

It can be considered whatever an individual wants it to be. However it is not canon.

As for the prequel movies being prompted by any success of the non-movie novels, I don't really buy that. Lucas said for years that there was more to the Star Wars saga and he meant to explore that with more movies. The boxoffice numbers alone from the original trilogy were more than enough to warrant more films.

 

[Ranger REG]

First off, I doubt it was Star Wars fiction that prompted the Prequel Trilogy. Georgie-boy said he was waiting for the time when Special Effect technology have advanced/evolved so far that he can actually do them. That time is now.

But Star Wars novels managed to keep our interest in Star Wars from going into obscurity during those wide gap between the last showing of Return of the Jedi to the first showing of The Phantom Menace.