Meanwhile, Poe posted Chee's "official continuities" quote, his explanation that the "foggy windows" quote refers only to Film+EU, and his direct statement that there is nothing in the "blank spaces" of the Lucas continuity.
He then states:
Entertainingly, when I searched for "official continuities" last night on Google to see how much press this is getting, one thing I found was a post by Mange the Swede (aka Grand Moff Magnus of Sweden) on the StarWars.com forum:Ok, am I not seeing the big controversy? What did Chee say that is new?
Wayne's response at the time was "Well, that's because you don't have an agenda!", suggesting that he agreed in principle with Mange's post. Of course, since Wayne served no useful purpose in that thread there's little more to be said there.As a result of Mr. Chee's generous answers in this (and in the Holocron) thread, these conclusions has been reached elsewhere:
{...}
* That the movies and the EU forms two seperate, official continuities
{...}
Somehow, these aren't the same conclusions that I've reached...
However, on his short-lived StarWars.com blog, Wayne had claimed:
"{...} Lucas considers the stories of the Expanded Universe to be equal parts of the Star Wars "Saga" with his own part, the films themselves. This establishes that it is the opinion of the creator of the franchise that the Expanded Universe constitutes a valid part of the "factual" history of the saga."
Compare the above to:
"The only relevant official continuities are the current versions of the films alone, and the combined current version of the films along with whatever else we've got in the Holocron. You're never going to know what George's view of the universe beyond the films at any given time because it is constantly evolving. It remains elastic until it gets committed to film or another official source. Even then, we know there's always room for change."
Why would there be multiple continuities (one controlled by Lucas wherein the EU is excluded) if George believes the EU is an equal part of the factual history of his universe?
Now, let's mosey over to his site and take a peek at his claims:
Hmm . . . just one continuity there. And it seems important that it be so, to Wayne.Because Mr Cerasi consistently uses the term "continuity", it is clear that this is a specific use of the word, and not a vague generality. The term "continuity" is defined by the 1984 edition of the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary as "the state or quality of being continuous". "Continuous" is therein defined as "extended or prolonged without break; uninterrupted."
In effect, Mr Cerasi has stated, then, that the Expanded Universe constitutes a continuous, uninterrupted part of the Star Wars saga. It is fully in union with the films themselves, and is without break from them; to relegate it to the status of inadmissible evidence due to non-canon status is to violate the stated policy of LucasBooks, and thence, of Lucasfilm Ltd, and implicitly of Mr Lucas himself.
Again, Wayne's claim is based on a single overall continuity inclusive of the EU and the films. The presence of a second continuity that is Lucas's alone defeats his position.Some VS Trekkies and some Star Wars purists say George Lucas is telling us that the EU is a "parallel universe" and is pretty much fan fiction that has no standing in the "actual" Star Wars world. {...} The rest of us already know that the Expanded Universe is not G-level canon, but is part of the overall continuity.
And here's the gem . . . One time I asked Sue Rostoni about the corporate structure of Lucas Licensing and LucasBooks (before I knew it was merely a publishing imprint). Wayne saw me interacting with Rostoni, freaked, and tried to lead (and plead with) Sue Rostoni to saying something he wanted:
"Some have speculated that these divisions follow a seperate continuity unto the books themselves, while the films are a continuity all their own. But from what you've said here, this can't be true, correrct? The books have to follow the same continuity the films do, as they are an integral part of the overall story of Star Wars that Lucasfilm LTD. recognizes as a legitimate continuation of the films, right?" (bolding mine)
Sue replied:
"Yes, the books follow the continuity of the films as best we can taking into account that George follows his own continuity, and rightly so."
Of course, I evilly "spin-doctored" this as a confirmation of separate canons (aka separate continuities).
Wayne and friends require a single continuity in which the films and EU exist together in retconned harmony . . . but there is a second continuity that exists in which they don't, and both Rostoni and Chee ID it as Lucas's continuity. So does Lucas.
So what's the big mystery?
But wait, there's more from Wayne's latest:
I swear, this almost sounds like Wayne is trying to retcon himself closer to my position . . . I could just as easily have written that first half-sentence.The EU has always been seperate from the films, until its introduced into the "film universe", but where the films are silent, the EU is perfectly acceptable continuity.
But then, Wayne claims that where the films are silent, the EU is perfectly acceptable. And yet he had just quoted Chee:
Where the films are "silent", there is nothing in the other official continuity that Wayne classically rejected the existence of. Not EU data . . . that's only valid in the official continuity used by Licensing and encapsulated in the Holocron.And what goes in the blank timeline spaces of the Film Only universe - can we never know the history or background of that Star Wars universe like we can in the EU Star Wars universe?
Nothing. That's why it's film only.
Which is, of course, what I've been telling him for years.