Leland Chee: Renegade

Leland Chee "does not support the notion of parallel SW universes." George Lucas, of course, does.

I exaggerate with the title, of course, but there is a disagreement brewing, and Chee is digging in his heels on the wrong side. Fortunately, Lucas has no idea who he is, probably, so he's safe. In any case, I feel for the guy. Chee is, after all, kinda stuck.

Lucas has been repeatedly and clearly in favor of the notion that the Licensing EU material is not a part of his film (and now TV) universe, which goes a long way toward explaining why he's demonstrably willing and able to overrule it at a stroke. Indeed, he's even hinted that there was a delay on letting the EU go forward until it was suggested that it would be its own separate reality. But the whole point of the Expanded Universe as told by its makers . . . and, more specifically, the whole point of Chee . . . is to try to patch together some sort of cohesive whole, with the movies and EU all happening in the same universe. As Chee said, "EU is OU. Let's just make that clear." But as we know from Lucas, that just ain't so. Thus, by necessity, Chee is always having to engage in all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to find a way to ignore clear and obvious contradictions in the disparate licensed works and between those works and the films.

Unfortunately, I'm worried that perhaps Chee's starting to do this in regards to the words of Lucas, as well. Sue Rostoni has kept a hands-off approach to the canon debate, but Rostoni's statements have generally suggested that she knows good and well that Lucas is not interested in the EU and considers it to be Licensing's baby, not his own universe as seen in the films (though she notes that he reads and likes the comics . . . hence the blue hottie Aayla Secura in the prequels).

Of course, we see the result of Lucas's parallel universe view in regards to The Clone Wars CGI show, a show Chee has effectively zero involvement in. Lucas, unable to help himself, got interested in providing story ideas and helping point the show in the direction he thought best. As a result, the show . . . despite being run by EU-philes and drawing in a few EU characters and ideas . . . is trampling all over the EU. The devastation to the Licensing continuity is awe-inspiring, and frankly the image that comes to mind is the painting of the Yuuzhan Vong laying waste to Coruscant. As Chee and others have noted, Licensing is just sort of waiting it out until The Clone Wars goes off the air before they really start to assess the full measure of the continuity damage and start making repairs to the EU.

So in Chee's mind, it appears that the belief is that there is a single Star Wars universe and Lucas is its creative tyrant, laying waste to existing EU continuity by his divine right, always leaving Chee and the gang to clean up his messes, and blessed they be for not only are they of Lucas but they are also Chee's bread and butter.

Reality, I'm afraid, is somewhat different in the mind of Lucas, for as Lucas has made quite clear he does not view it as a single united universe, which is why his ignoring the EU seems so tyrannical to folks like Chee. Of course, the benefit of this, untapped by EU-philes, is that Lucas can pee on the EU all day long and it doesn't have to affect the EU continuity!

Only acknowledging the dual canons and dual continuities gives the true Star Wars fan peace. To reject that clarity is to reject that peace and choose to struggle without logic or purpose. The EU is a self-referencing entity with a life apart from the Lucas materials. Let it be so. All this retconning just warps it and makes it look like latter-day Michael Jackson instead of whatever beautiful thing it could have been.

UPDATE:

Though I felt sure I knew the answer, I went ahead and inquired of Chee . . . just in the interests of fairness . . . whether the line about not supporting parallel universes in Star Wars referred to a mere dislike or if he actively opposed the Lucas position.  We'll see.  Given the place I asked, a nuanced position is not possible, so hopefully if his position is more nuanced and if he has the time to respond adequately he'll do so somewhere else.

UPDATE 2:

There was no response.   That said, however, it is remotely possible that Chee's still amenable to the correct idea.  After all, he once stated that there were two continuities . . . a Films+EU continuity and a Films-Only continuity (which would presumably now include The Clone Wars CGI series).   So perhaps . . .