George Lucas on Matters of Production

Once upon a time, someone was in a fit of desperation to ignore the Lucas position regarding what is or isn't canon and part of his universe.   In the process of seeking something to say to counter the obvious, they hit upon the idea of declaring that  Lucas really wasn't saying what we thought he was saying.

(e.g. the EU being "outside of my little universe" and "different universe" and a "parallel universe" and one of "two universes: my universe and then this other one" and as different "versions of Star Wars" that "don't always mesh" and with the two versions being "completely different and didn't have anything to do with each other", unlike as occurs with "the movies and TV shows are all under my control and they are consistent within themselves", and so on and so forth ad nauseum . . . )

They say that was actually a supershadowsecret code on the part of Lucas, and that Lucas was actually merely talking about production issues . . . e.g. "them's books, ain't no film in it.  I don't mess with no paper, but them stories is as real-uh Star Wars as my movies."

That, of course, is completely absurd.   By trying to divorce his context from content, these semantic desperadoes would  render his words completely meaningless.  He's said the obvious in several different ways but still, they whine and try to obfuscate.  They often cloak the argument into as obtuse and obscure a position as possible to avoid entangling engagements, often using mere guerilla tactics to continue to try to resist the dual canons of the Lucas universe and the EU's universe.

Of course, as we all know, dual-canons is the only way to go.  Boba Fett's movie death (as described by Lucas) and continuing existence in the EU is not merely a distinction of typesetting or production issues relating to ink coloration . . . it is a question of the content of the universe.    The collapse of the Empire at the end of Return of the Jedi does not correspond to the EU's continued existence of the Empire alongside the Alliance, an existence that culminates in the complete restoration of Imperial authority a century later under Imperial and then Sith rule, even featuring a Sith Temple built upon the ruins of the old Jedi Temple.   The extensive Mandalorian obsession on the part of the EU is being rewritten by The Clone Wars TV show (to the point that the primary EU author regarding Mandalorian stuff has quit in disgust).

 . . . and so on.

The above having been said, I have actually found a quote that is about production issues, though it could be construed as not being so were there someone unscrupulous on my side.   I share it not to misconstrue it, but instead as a demonstration of what the semantic desperadoes would need to show to actually be able to prove their ridiculous claims.

So, let's say I was unscrupulous, and quoted thus:

GEORGE LUCAS: Even though we’re a weekly series, I don’t treat this like TV. I treat it like my movies.

I could then say something like "ah, here we see Lucas expressing his belief that the TV show and movies are the same", or somesuch.

A production desperado could then retort, "but he's talking about production issues!"

Now a real production desperado would stop at this point, because there is nothing else even remotely sensical that they could say.   Continued text would simply be rehashes and regurgitation of the claim, occasionally with phantom evidence wherein his fourth sentence somehow constitutes proof for his seventh.

But my fantasy production desperado who actually has a point and reasons about the world would retort thusly:

"No, this one is definitely a production-related statement.   If you look at the context of the whole section starting with the ENI question about their capability improvements since last season, you'll see that the whole conversation is on production issues.  Indeed, Lucas continues, "My process doesn’t change because we’re in a different medium. We’re drawing a lot of inspiration from the original films, like Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art – but we’re also looking at the things that influenced those films in the first place. We’re integrating different genres, from westerns to war movies to Japanese cinema, and we’re incorporating all of those various aesthetics into The Clone Wars. "    That is clearly a production-specific idea."

And in this case, this fantasy desperado would be right.  Lucas, following on from Filoni who discusses the enhancements to the CGI series workflow and production capabilities, talks about the design of the show and how he approaches it.

In other words, that quote actually is Lucas talking about production issues.  

(( Now, I do think that there's something to be said for the fact that he's not trying to be different, whereas he has allowed the EU to diverge from his films, but that's not important right now. ))

So there you go, production desperadoes . . . that's how to make your case.   Now if you can genuinely pull that off with all the other quotes . . .

(e.g. the EU being "outside of my little universe" and "different universe" and a "parallel universe" and one of "two universes: my universe and then this other one" and as different "versions of Star Wars" that "don't always mesh" and with the two versions being "completely different and didn't have anything to do with each other", unlike as occurs with "the movies and TV shows are all under my control and they are consistent within themselves", and so on and so forth ad nauseum . . .)

 . . . then you might actually get somewhere.