The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

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The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by 2046 » Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:05 am

http://st-v-sw.net/CanonWars/2012-ReadersCompanion.jpg

In what must be the most painful betrayal for the most vicious and hostile EU-philes, the new Essential Reader's Companion opens up with an accurate portrayal of the EU as being a parallel universe.

While the author, the mighty and beautiful Pablo Hidalgo, does try to soften the blow by saying the uncontradicted events can be said to have happened, the prior line that the events do not enter the Lucas canon universe without being explicitly included via appearance is, to my mind, the active point.

It has been over ten years since the Vs. Debate had the Canon Question reignited by yours truly, and almost as many since the dual canons were realized almost simultaneously by Nathan Butler and I. And Starlog in 2005 and all that has come after have only confirmed this point of view.

In the future, militant Completism will be a quaint yet grotesque historical curiosity. And that future, I believe, is now.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Mike DiCenso » Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:58 am

Oh dear, I can just imagine the spin doctoring on this one....
-Mike

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Lucky » Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:45 am

So basically it is all true now, and nothing is contradictor because if anything contradicts anything else they happen in a different universe/time line. So basically you have Star Trek's canon policy for Star Wars now.

I never could understand why there would be an imperial remnant after the emperor died given what happens in Episodes 1, 2, and 3, but now it makes sense. The universe where most of the EU takes place is a timeline where the Empire went to war with the Republic and won.

THis also means that the ICS are 100% correct for a single universe that has nothing to do with all other Star Wars time lines.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by 2046 » Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:04 pm

It is not all true in the sense of contradictory things all happening in their own parallel universe. Only two there are, the master's and the apprentice. If the former contradicts the latter, the event from the latter did not happen (and the EU folks often retcon on that basis, albeit not changing the old books, which is why it is pointless to read them in my opinion unless you at least have a retcons appendix handy ... well, that and the fact that I am not interested in that universe).

Since you brought up the ICS books, they would only be 100% true for the EU if they match the rest of the EU, but they have precisely nothing to do with the Lucas universe unless one day Lucas decides to bore the TCW audience with senseless numbers.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Lucky » Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:03 am

2046 wrote:It is not all true in the sense of contradictory things all happening in their own parallel universe. Only two there are, the master's and the apprentice. If the former contradicts the latter, the event from the latter did not happen (and the EU folks often retcon on that basis, albeit not changing the old books, which is why it is pointless to read them in my opinion unless you at least have a retcons appendix handy ... well, that and the fact that I am not interested in that universe).

Since you brought up the ICS books, they would only be 100% true for the EU if they match the rest of the EU, but they have precisely nothing to do with the Lucas universe unless one day Lucas decides to bore the TCW audience with senseless numbers.
Star Wars has always had multipule timelines/universes. The Infinities label is proof. It is ultimately no different from how Star Trek, Marvel Comic, and Detective Comics run things.
Image

Because the Incredible Cross Sections books can't fit in with G, T, and the majority of even C-canon the ICS must exist in their own universe that is drastically different from everything else. Do to existing in their own unique universe they have no bearing on Star Wars as a whole, but are still canon and true for the mostly unseen ICS universe.

This ruling pretty much throws the G>T>C>S>N> system out in favor of admitting a multiverse. You no longer have to reconcile contradictions between higher and lower canon because they are now stated to not be the same timeline/universe.

So you have the movies and TV series as true star Wars.

You have the EU which might mesh with the TV series and the movies.

You have the multiple universes under the Infinities label which never even tried to mesh with the other sources.

You have the ICS universe that can't fit with any of the above.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by mojo » Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:51 am

what happens when the warsies simply claim that chee > this pablo guy?

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Praeothmin » Thu Sep 13, 2012 12:32 pm

Then we claim Movies = GL > Chee... :)

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Picard » Thu Sep 13, 2012 3:23 pm

And then they claim that Chee is appointed by Lucas to take care of canon, so Chee > Lucas.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Praeothmin » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:07 pm

And then we point out how many times Lucas has rewritten Canon, and so again we have GL >>>> Chee... :)

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by mojo » Fri Sep 14, 2012 5:52 pm

you're missing the point, praeo. if chee > pablo, then none of this matters. and without a direct quote from lucas, that's going to be the argument. so none of it matters.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Praeothmin » Fri Sep 14, 2012 7:46 pm

And you're missing my point:
None of the ICS's vaunted Firepower figures have made it in GL's Canon, so it doesn't matter is they Warsies don't accept Pablo's word... :)

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by 2046 » Sat Sep 15, 2012 12:25 pm

Chee is a database admin for licensing's continuity stuff, making him the go-to continuity guy for licensing. Pablo Hidalgo is . . . well, I'll just quote him:
My business cards now say “Brand Communication Manager,” which is a suitably opaque title for someone like me who prefers to dodge the question “so what do you do?” But, since I’m now on the spot, it’s basically this: it’s my job to know Star Wars (and Indy, and Willow, and everything else LFL), and to communicate that knowledge to those that need it.

My day is filled with answering a wide variety of questions, sorting out misconceptions, making recommendations and getting to the bottom of all sorts of odd Star Wars mysteries. I write text that I forget about until it surfaces on the side of a Happy Meal cup, in a press release, or on the back of a DVD package. I grouse if someone spells Wookiee, C-3PO, Millennium Falcon or Stormtrooper wrong (yeah, turns out it’s capitalized. Well, this week anyway). This year, I’ve been one of the editors that helps shape and review each issue of Star Wars Insider magazine. My nights are often filled with writing Star Wars books (including this year’s doozy, The Essential Reader’s Companion coming out in October from Del Rey).
http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index. ... o-hidalgo/

The two of them share an office, but if it's a question of rank then I'd probably go Pablo. He's the one whose work shows on the side of a Happy Meal and who was tasked with condensing the EU into a single book. By comparison, Chee is just a data wrangler.

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by 2046 » Sat Sep 15, 2012 12:26 pm

mojo wrote:you're missing the point, praeo. if chee > pablo, then none of this matters. and without a direct quote from lucas, that's going to be the argument. so none of it matters.
I'm not sure I understand you. We have numerous Lucas quotes (and even more Filoni quotes) about the parallel universe thing. Why would we need yet another Lucas quote just because Pablo has distilled the Lucas quotes into a few lines in a meta-EU book?

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by Trinoya » Sat Sep 15, 2012 4:27 pm

Oh.. oh this news... it warms my cold little heart ^___^

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Re: The EU Admits to Being Parallel in Print

Post by mojo » Sat Sep 15, 2012 7:32 pm

2046 wrote:
mojo wrote:you're missing the point, praeo. if chee > pablo, then none of this matters. and without a direct quote from lucas, that's going to be the argument. so none of it matters.
I'm not sure I understand you. We have numerous Lucas quotes (and even more Filoni quotes) about the parallel universe thing. Why would we need yet another Lucas quote just because Pablo has distilled the Lucas quotes into a few lines in a meta-EU book?
it's very simple. i'm not arguing that i agree, only that that is going to be the argument. if all the other quotes you're talking about have made literally ZERO impact on the endlessly frustrating/boring parallel universe debate, what chance does this new bit have? Zero. it doesn't help that you can't even prove that pablo > chee. this will never convince a warsie of anything. can you imagine if you brought this to swst? he would laugh you right out of dodge.
i've made it abundantly clear that i agree with the parallel universe theory. what i'm saying is that it will make no difference in the debate.

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