Jen Heddle Tweets

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/User:Toprawa_and_Ralltiir/Canon

A great roundup of the Twitter questions to and answers from one of the Star Wars VIPs.

Farewell, Old EU Legends

http://starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page.html

Wow.

There was really no other way for them to reasonably go forward, but I'm still a bit surprised they laid it all out on the table so openly, to wit:

"In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s. 

Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner. 

On the screen, the first new canon to appear will be Star Wars Rebels. In print, the first new books to come from this creative collaboration include novels from Del Rey Books. First to be announced, John Jackson Miller is writing a novel that precedes the events of Star Wars Rebels and offers insight into a key character's backstory, with input directly from executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman. 

And this is just the beginning of a creatively aligned program of Star Wars storytelling created by the collaboration of incredibly talented people united by their love of that galaxy far, far away...."

You know, I recall a time years ago that the number of canon-related quotes was fairly low, and the actual use of the term "canon" in any remotely formal sense was so rare, that it actually required a touch of brain work to translate the quotes into a more formalized structure.   Prior to that work, there was a lack of clarity and some seeming contradictions, most all easily resolved simply by checking on who was doing the talking, since there were two distinct points of view.   Under that paradigm, things became pretty clear, though the informal term usage still left openings, many of them ridiculous, for some to try to evade the meanings of the quotes.

Now, in theory, there is but one point of view, and given the new quotes from StarWars.com above, a willingness and ability to use the term "canon" rather more formally and officially.

In principle, this should make my job easier.

Oh, I am sure there will still be quotes of interest going forward.   After all, in the pre-Disney canon wars opinions were being referenced as far down the rank structure as comic book authors and toymakers (no offense).  Rank will still have its privileges, if you will, but from the look of things, there won't be two separate points of view to have to deal with.

After all, in the past, the statements like the one below all had to be argued for and proven by me at length:

"When he created Star Wars, George Lucas built a universe that sparked the imagination, and inspired others to create. He opened up that universe to be a creative space for other people to tell their own tales. This became the Expanded Universe, or EU, of comics, novels, videogames, and more. 

While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align."

Speaking of length, I guess it's time to update the Star Wars canon pages.   Maybe I can even make them shorter now.   In any case, I will make every effort to avoid noting that I was right all along.

Star Trek Online

I keep hearing people say Star Trek Online is canon or otherwise making reference to its canon status, but where the devil is that coming from?   Whenever I look I can't find a single quote to support it, and no one can provide one.   What gives?

Even Cryptic's executive producer for STO in 2009 made it clear that, in their view, STO was not, itself, canon, that they were using the novels as a soft canon and that they were a licensee . . .

MTV Multiplayer: Who came up with the story? 

Zinkievich: We were working really close with CBS, which owns the license. With their licensing team, they know the universe really well.     [...] 

MTV Multiplayer: Is the story in "Star Trek Online" part of the official canon? 

Zinkievich: What is the official canon is really an argument that anyone can have. For us all the shows and movies are canon. But you can get in an argument with any of the fans about how even some of the shows may have small contradictions in them. We want to make sure that we follow that timeline, and we're true to that timeline. We see the shows and movies as canon. We're reading the novels now; the novels are considered soft canon with a lot of more conflicts in there. You can never call yourself "canon," but we can't take a 90-degree angle and go it's all totally different.

- Craig Zinkievich, Star Trek Online Executive Producer (Cryptic Studios), Feb. 2009, "Captain Kirk Not Returning In 'Star Trek Online'" interview with MTV Multiplayer, http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/02/12/captain-kirk-not-returning-in-star-trek-online/

So is there some ultimate kickbutt STO-is-canon quote that I'm missing?   Assistance welcome!