When Star Wars first hit theaters in 1977, the early fan's knowledge was limited to what they saw on the screen. Questions plagued their minds: "Is Darth Vader an alien or a droid?" "Are stormtroopers humans?" "Do any Earth animals exist in that galaxy far, far away?" They had to wait three years to learn that Vader was Luke's human father and 22 years to find out that stormtroopers were (at least partially) made up of clones. Thankfully, they were able to find out the answer to their third and most important question when Luke asked, "What's a duck?" in response to one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's teachings in the movie novelization. However, readers didn't realize that this was the beginning of the Expanded Universe(EU), and the start of a never ending debate between Star Wars fans about what should count as canon.
The conversation continues today in the Darth Hater forums thread entitled "The Clone Wars and SWTOR Intermingling." There are some inconsistencies between what long-time EU fans followed for years and what the new cartoon The Clone Wars shows. This leaves some fans confused over what is official and can even cause animosity towards Lucasfilm for not considering the EU when coming up with new stories. Before we can understand where The Old Republic stands in this conversation, we need to look at the history of the EU and how Lucasfilm approaches it.
The novels, comic books, and role-playing source books published between the two trilogies built a rich and full backdrop for the movies. In 1982, video games began interpreting the IP with Atari's The Empire Strikes Back. However, these early games did little to expand on the movies. That changed in 1993 when LucasArts released X-Wing and introduced players to a number of different star systems, ships, and events leading up to the destruction of the first Death Star.
Image from Wookieepedia
Many Star Wars fans latched on to these stories, holding them to the same level of importance as the movies themselves. Lucas Licensing backed these early stories as being a part of canon by publishing books such as The Star Wars Encyclopedia that detailed every Expanded Universe character, weapon, planet and space ship alongside those from the movies. Lucas Licensing was going to great lengths to make sure that new Star Wars authors were aware of the various stories previously told so to avoid ruining continuity.
That all changed in 1999 with the release of The Phantom Menace. George Lucas dipped his toes in the Expanded Universe by calling the Republic's capital planet Coruscant, a name that was given to the planet in Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire. Next, the second prequel introduced audiences to the idea that the Clone Wars were between the Republic's clone armies and the Separatist's droid army, even though Zahn had already established them as being a war between the Republic and an army of insane clones. This and other inconsistencies led to the development of different levels of official canon. G-canon (George canon) is the highest level and includes the six movies and anything that George Lucas creates himself. T-canon (television canon for The Clone Wars) and C-canon (continuity canon) consists of all other cartoons, books, comics and games.
Similar to the way that Lucas pulled Coruscant and Aalya Secura from C-Canon to G-Canon, AddisonX points out that The Old Republic and The Clone Wars might be influencing each other. "[Nal Hutta] is a world that has been stated several times was never visualized until BioWare started work on it. But in a recent episode of TCW they visited Nal Hutta, and it could have been taken from one of the pieces of BioWare's concept art wall, nearly piece for piece. The most striking similarity is the color of the pollution that blankets the images. AddisonX continues, "So, in my mind this makes it seem that [Lucasfilm] is validating...SWTOR's role as Canon in the EU. I think SWTOR's influence has dug deep roots into [the] Star Wars Universe.
Images from Wookieepedia
Some see this integration to be a concerning because The Clone Wars is constantly changing continuity, requiring the introduction of retcons (retroactive continuities) to help the EU work with G- and T-canon. While CornbreadChrist hopes that The Old Republic will integrate into the EU, he also adds, "What concerns me more with The Clone Wars is that some of their more...questionable story decisions will bleed into TOR. Asajj [Ventress] isn't a Rattataki anymore, she's a Nightsister." Even though writers and developers won't include Ventress's back-story in The Old Republic, one must wonder if BioWare based their design of the Rattataki species and its potential story elements solely on what they knew of Ventress when development began.
RogueJedi86 points out another potential inconsistency. "I'm also upset about how Ryloth was changed from a uniquely non-rotating world to a generic rotating world." The Twi'lek's home planet of Ryloth was originally a planet that was in a tide-locked orbit, which flooded one side of the planet in permanent daylight and the other side in eternal night. The episode "Liberty on Ryloth" showed one of the cities on the planet experiencing both day and night, throwing out the previously established lore. Leland Chee, LucasFilm's keeper of all things continuity, stated in Star Wars Insider issue #120, "...scenes depicting an area of Ryloth having both night and day has necessitated that we revise the continuity so that the planet has a rotation where all parts of the planet experience both night and day."
Image from Wookieepedia
Not everyone is upset about the constant changes in continuity. GulPlund said, "Maybe it's because I'm a new Star Wars fan born in 1988, [but] change is normal to me. George is king here and new always replaces old. I know it's shocking but KOTOR broke canon of its day..." This brings up the interesting point that Knights of the Old Republic completely changed the aesthetics of the era formally displayed in the Tales of the Jedi comic book. The universe in Tales of the Jedi was quite archaic in comparison to the polished universe that Knights of the Old Republic displayed. The game also embraced the prequel philosophy that Jedi should not have personal attachments, even though the comics published before the prequels' release displayed many Jedi having open relationships and starting families.
"It is cool that Lucas is basically ingraining SWTOR in people's minds by exposing them to more of the lore," CarthOnasty commented on the subject of integrating certain aspects of The Old Republic era into The Clone Wars. AddisonX agrees by eloquently adding, "[It's] kinda like they are reinforcing the other to say, 'This is legit.' Almost 2 Legit to quit, but there I digress."
Images from Wookieepedia
The Clone Wars is not completely ignoring all previously established canon in The Old Republic era. The episode "Pursuit of Peace" featured the Selkath bounty hunter Chata Hyoki, whose species first appeared in the original Knights of the Old Republic game. The main antagonist from "The Mandalore Plot" wields a Darksaber stolen from the Jedi when the Old Republic fell. "Overlords" saw Jedi responding to a Jedi distress code that was over 2,000 years old, which led them to the mysterious realm of Mortis. Most recently, Saesee Tiin compares an upcoming battle to the ones from the Old Republic era in "Citadel Rescue."
Like many EU fans, I was initially frustrated with the way The Clone Wars stirred up the EU. This most likely stemmed from the consistency that I became comfortable with before the release of the prequels when the books, comics, and games were all we had. The first inconsistencies I noticed in The Clone Wars where minor with the Ryloth episode and again in "The Deserter" where it appeared that a Twi'lek female was able to have offspring with a human, which was biologically impossible according to the EU. The biggest outcry from the fan community occurred when the show took its trip to Mandalore. I really enjoyed all of the details that Karen Traviss developed for the Mandalorian culture in the Republic Commando books and the vision that Lucas had for the Mandalorian utopia was a complete contradiction of the warrior society that we came to expect.
Image from Wookieepedia
I have since come to accept that inconsistencies are going to happen, and therefore stopped trying to figure out what fits where in the continuity and which stories belong under a particular type of canon. Star Wars is fantasy. It is our modern-day myth. The first thing anybody knew about the Star Wars universe is that it took place a long time ago. Maybe these stories simply represent different interpretations over the eons in the same way that Earthly myths changed as they passed from culture to culture. It is all Star Wars, and that is a very good thing.
Sources:
http://darthhater.com/forum/topic/820
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Expanded_Universe
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Coruscant
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Canon
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode210.html
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode212.html
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode311.html
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode315.html
http://starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode320.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_From_the_Adventures_of_Luke_Skywalker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Empire_Strikes_Back_%28Parker_Bros._game%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_X-Wing_-_Space_Combat_Simulator
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Posted 4/16/2011 7:32:22 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/13/2011 2:51:43 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/10/2011 12:02:46 AMYet in the last few episodes of TCW Even died and was put into a lava pool by Anakin and Obi-Wan. I know it's not THAT big of a deal, but Lucas has enough money to hire somebody to keep all this junk straight.
Don't even get me started on how they've butchered the planet Mandolore and their culture. . .
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Posted 4/11/2011 12:15:04 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/10/2011 7:07:04 PM"Raeth, sadly I think Leland Chee has no power at all here. He just has to sort out the repercussions. Like on the Eeth Koth thing, Dave Filoni went to ask Leland Chee and Pablo Hidalgo who told him that Eeth Koth was dead as of Geonosis. Not to be outdone, Filoni went directly to George Lucas(who we know doesn't give 2 craps about EU continuity, see Boba Fett the Clone), who okayed Eeth Koth and thus he was unkilled. So basically Leland has no power, since Filoni will just go over his head to George Lucas if he doesn't get what he wants."
Basically I think with TCW the conversation goes like this. "Hey George I have this idea, but it breaks canon." "Will it make money?" "Yes." "DO IT ANYWAYS!"
*edit*
On your Mandalore remark, see my post below. That's been retconned into not ruining the Mandos. The Hippies are just another Mando splinter faction(of which there had already been many even before TCW), and they dissolve shortly after RotS. Look up the New Mandalorians on Wookieepedia, it should fill you in.
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Posted 4/8/2011 7:08:04 PMAnd that's my first problem just after watching the first couple of minutes. I could fill a whole book.
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Posted 4/9/2011 12:58:31 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/8/2011 6:15:44 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/8/2011 5:40:15 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/8/2011 2:56:55 PMAll I have to say is that EU has contradicted itself way before The Clone Wars got the chance to step in. The beauty and curse of the Star Wars community is its vast collection of fan fiction, fan films, fan lore, etc. There is so much of that stuff, that developing a story in the Star Wars universe can seem very restrictive (knowing that the author has to adhere to this, this, and this). You almost have to develop small localized stories in short time spans as to not step on somebody else's toes.
Do I think it is important to pay homage and respect the Star Wars EU that has been established? Absolutely. I am upset that Lucas and TCW are exploring other alternatives and taking a risks to be creative? Ok... a little bit, yes. But I don't blame them.
I'm just glad that Bioware chose to stick with the Old Republic era, not only because of the ground work they have laid. But also because the EU is less cluttered in that era, which gives them the freedom for creativity.
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Posted 4/8/2011 3:36:53 PMI've noticed a trend over the last several years where a lot of the new EU content is coming out focusing either on largely unexplored eras (TOR, Knight Errant, and Legacy) or characters that are new or have only been mentioned before by name. I think authors and comic book writers are requesting those time periods to allow themselves more freedom when playing in such a beloved sandbox.
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Posted 4/8/2011 11:52:40 AMI'd hate to be Leland Chee, it must be a nightmare to try and puzzle all this stuff together.
Great read BTW. :)
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Posted 4/8/2011 9:26:21 AMBut I'm always amazed how half of the Hand of Thrawn duology is about Zahn correcting the awfull mess the writers stacked up the last 20 years :)
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Posted 4/8/2011 8:37:30 AM- View User Profile
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Posted 4/8/2011 7:55:46 AM