Mr. Oragahn wrote:My initial reply had more to do with pointing out the hypocrisy and quite disgusting way he handles his own little dominion. He doesn't need to add the insult to injury. If he wants to prove again and again that he's the lord creator of everything that is, why not just be totally original, instead of pouring salt and peeing into the wounds? I'm mainly reacting on his demeanour.
The problem with that is that Lucas
isn't original. Even his original concept of Star Wars was taken from half a dozen other things. He's been essentially ripping people's ideas off, violating them, and then repackaging them for decades.
The best thing we have from Lucas about some reference to a clear canon policy is his vague waving about the Paramount policy. I can't remember him using the word canon in any definitive way. He's always weaseling out, never being firm. If he were honest, he'd have made the claim eons ago, and quickly replied by the negative or the positive if the EU is lower canon or not.
He's been rather firm from most of the statements I've read. The problem is that most warsies try and nit-pick them. They want to say that it has to be canon and they try and use some sort of grammatical claim (which is bullshit) to pretend they're something else.
He's even referenced the Star Trek canon policy as a mirror towards his own. The only statement that reinforces a whole policy is Leeland Chee, who later denounced the claim as some sort of mistake or misunderstanding or something.
The response from SDN and SB.com is simply to wail like banshees and stick their heads in the ground, trying to make it sound like those are unofficial statements or some bullcrap like that.
And as far as I know, Paramount didn't allow a second tier creature to exist and had said creature keep claiming that all it supervised and produced was canon, albeit to a lesser degree, alongside the higher tier products.
To be fair, it's because Paramount doesn't give two shits about their EU. What happens just happens. They don't try put any sort of quality control on what happens, to my knowledge. Lucas is different in that what they do is try to maintain some sort of continuity.
Lucas' ways are just twisted and sick, and I'd hate writing for such a fat lard, really. Because from the point of view of the EU, which is totally owned by Lucas, everything it deems canon is canon, and faithfully follows its oath of consistency as much as possible.
Lucas is doing something quite sadistic, in like he owns some dog and has it chained, and keeps making it salivating at some bone he doesn't throw, while asking the dog to make tricks and shouting to everyone that it's his pet, but he doesn't care if his dog is starving. The analogy isn't perfect cause the dog doesn't create anything, but the nauseating absurdity of both does stick out.
I disagree. He's made repeated statements that they are separate universes. The problem is the way the EU is set up; it's designed so that it has to follow his universe because it is a mirrored extension of it. So when Lucas sees a concept he likes from the EU and decides he wants it to be somewhat different in his universe, he sees no problem with it because he considers the universes two entirely different things.
It's still a shitty way to do it, but that's not entirely his fault.
It would just be a sneaky as Lucas' own salmonish stance on this. Plus for people used to time travel plots in SF, it's quite a simple concept to grasp, especially in an universe where it seems the Force follows some will and a roadmap, and will always try to get to point B from point A in the end, even if the route differs at some point.
Um, Lucas has been very clear on this--in his universe, Fett is dead. And the Emperor is dead--he never came back. The Empire simply ended at the Battle of Endor. He doesn't see the two as the same--he sees them as mirrors of each other. I honestly don't think he gives two shits if SW EU followed his own, other than say major concepts.
Mind you, I don't think we have to ignore the EU, but it depends on who you're debating and why. The EU can be fun. But the same could also be made for Star Trek, Stargate, and so forth. Of course, I personally indulge a bit with the Trek technical manuals...so meh.