I'm not really arguing what is or isn't canon, as I simply don't care what others think or say on the issue, including George Lucas.

It's a fantasy world alive in the audiences imagination, as such, we all get to choose what "really happened."

I was just pointing out that in more recent works, contradictions with the films are few and far between to refute that point.

That was before Clone Wars existed. The SW TV show coming up is also going to be canon, like Clone Wars.

This pack shows Clone Wars and ROTS in one pack (Obi Wan didn't fight Grevious in the cartoon).

do we need more reasons than this?

man, i grow tired of writers profiting off of star wars because they aren't creative enough to devise their own characters.

Actually, every writer in the star wars universe is well established BEFORE starting a SW novel. Most have numerous books/series under their belts, and most, if not all, write sci-fi. They don't let rookies write the books.

such as?

you might have a hard time convincing me these SW books aren't more than writers trying to profit off of GL's ideas.

I have zero respect for the books but even I won't blame the authors. They are hired by Lucasfilm's books division. All the books are commisioned.

R.A. Salvatore. Has written two star wars novels to date (1st one in New Jedi Order and the Ep. 2 novelization) and had an immensely popular series of Forgetton Realms novels (20 some all together) before writing either of those. One of my favorite fantasy authors.

drizzt RULEZ omg

its sort of a two way street, isn't it? obviously lucasfilms is profiteering here, too, but would a self-respecting author with his own successful series or world agree to this?

r.s. salvatore? isn't he an example of a writer whoring out his services for not one but two fantasy or science fiction realms of someone else's creation?

Maybe, but Salvatore had his own super popular series before whoring himself out, and that series is still on-going.

I never fault anyone for trying to make more $$$.

And I'm not saying that the Star Wars novels are great or are being written by pulitizer caliber authors either.

They're just decent books, written by decent authors with a few good writers like Salvatore and Zahn thrown in here and there.

Unless you are Stephen King or the like, authors really don't make all that much money. I remember taking that career choice test thingy in high school and authors averaged $6000 a year. Now, I don't know what these guys are making, but a job is a job. It's easy to call someone else a whore for just making a living.

I do not find the books at ALL canon. they are merely creations made in order to earn money. Anybody can go make up a story about star wars characters but that doesn't mean it really happened. example.

Episode VII
The Death of All

Luke reaches for the button. He presses it. The universe blows up.

The End

as you can see, just because it is called star wars, does not mean it is canon.
only the movies are canon. Whatever lunacy books or comics or cartoons or legos make up, no matter how snugly it fits in or how cool it sounds, IT DID NOT HAPPEN, it might have, but in all probability, IT DID NOT.

I think what pdinosaur is saying is that "Forgotten Realms" isn't his creation either. It's a D&D setting.

True, but he made up the characters and storyline. Making up a world is easy, it's getting an interesting plot line and characters that people give a shit about that is the hardest thing to do in writing.

Does anyone remember those Han Solo Trilogy books by Brian Daley? They were my favorite Star Wars books once upon a time. (I haven't read them recently to see if they aged well.)

Anyway, back to the canon thing - Does Lucas even review the plots/storylines for Star Wars novels? If he does, and gives it his approval, then why would he call it non-canon? And if he doesn't, then why not? The dude is obviously a control freak (as can be seen in any Star Wars Making Of Documentary).

He, or someone at Lucasfilms, reviews them makes sure they don't contradict the films or each other.

But for whatever reason, he won't call them canon. I guess, like you said, he's a control freak. He exerts some control over them, but won't call them canon because it's his universe and he didn't write them.

I wonder if the SAME person at Lucasfilm actually reads every piece of EU.

Check out this EU comic that takes place 4 months after AOTC:


http://www.rebelscum.com/jedijournal...asp?id=ISU1435

To me its pretty obvious those figures are modeled off the Clone Wars cartoons and not Ewan and Hayden.

Just listened to the ROTS commentary and they pretty much confirm Clone Wars is canon. John Knoll states that the Clone Wars cartoon explains why Grievous has a cough. Lucas goes into more detail explaining the concept behind the character and his ailment. They don't mention the book, they mention the cartoon.

I said that in this thread back in June.

But no one listens to me.

Uh, yeah, that's what it is.

...yeah, I'm sure Lucas is pissed too. Damn those no talent Hacks!

I read through the thread again and couldn't find anything mentioning an official source confirming it. Can't get much more official than having someone on the DVD say that it actually explains something in the movie. Only GL saying it would have more weight.

I'm wondering how accurate Starlog is when it comes to Lucas interviews.

I've read before that Lucas said that the novels ARE canon. Lucas lets the author know about general things (like Han & Leia getting married and having kids) and gives approval of plots.

Starlog also claimed that Lucas said that the Millenium Falcon did NOT make an appearance in ROTS (that it was just a standard Correllian vessel). But if you read the "Making Of ROTS" book, they specifically say that the Millenium Falcon DOES make an appearance and that they even went so far as to get the original design for the MF and take out all the laser burns to make it look "newer".

Because the original Star Wars stories started with the films for one thing. All of this EU crap was just commissioned for no other reason than to make money and to give fans something after the films. Two, Lucas is in no way bound by the content in EU material. He could negate big chunks of EU if he wanted too, or he could take bits and pieces from EU. Either way, he's not bound by any story or plot elements in EU. Lucas doesn't keep up with EU. He's been quoted as saying that he doesn't read it or take much of an interest in it.

Class and I've have had these arguments before. We just disagree.