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Timothy Zahn
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Timothy Zahn offers advice for making peace with the new Star Wars galactic canon
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Hollywood always thinks it can do it better than the authors, and is almost always wrong.
I don't think I've ever once put "official canon" before my "head canon." That must be a weird feeling, to feel beholden to what someone else, some other fallible human being, has decided what you can use for your own enjoyment.I mean, entertainment companies have to decide which things are considered canon for internal storytelling purposes (if they even care about such things), but for us the end user? Completely immaterial.
I'm with Trike on this - canon doesn't matter for us as readers, it's what we enjoy that counts. And that's something that seems to be implicit in Zahn's very pragmatic answers to the questions. He clearly loves the stories and the fans, but none of it is defensive or possessive about that universe - he just wants people to enjoy stories.
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Having to fit future storylines into what was out there without making continuity mistakes would be almost impossible and you know the SW nerds would let them know.
I like the Legends concept. It allows for future use of those characters and storylines.
I was considering reading and watching everything that is canon now, but gave that up when I realised how much there is out there now. I will pick and choose the more interesting ones.
As someone who never cared for the EU (the Zahn trilogy and some of the comics and video games were okay, but I was mostly indifferent), I was perfectly fine with Disney sweeping the whole thing into the closet. But then someone pointed out two things to me:1) Under the former Holocron system, the films were already the first and final word on Star Wars canon, and Lucas already had the prerogative to use or ignore the EU as he saw fit, and...
2) Disney's insistence that all future branded material had to be canon approved by the LucasFilm Story Group just meant the same kind of ridiculousness that happened under the EU still got through, only now it was official canon. So while before you could dismiss patent hyperbole like The Force Unleashed games, now this kind of silliness is canon.
Joe Informatico wrote: "So while before you could dismiss patent hyperbole like The Force Unleashed games, now this kind of silliness is canon. "Not seeing the problem here. This is a universe with speed-running space wizards whose brain powers are given to them by magic malaria.
Trike wrote: "I don't think I've ever once put "official canon" before my "head canon." That must be a weird feeling, to feel beholden to what someone else, some other fallible human being, has decided what you can use for your own enjoyment.I mean, entertainment companies have to decide which things are considered canon for internal storytelling purposes (if they even care about such things), but for us the end user? Completely immaterial."
This deserved to be posted twice because of how spot-on it is.
Zahn seems like a class act here, I appreciate that in writers and in influencers in general.I do not get worked up over entertainment all that much. Do not get me wrong, a show jumping the shark can be frustrating (Mr. Eko's death in Lost for example) but man that is not worth continually spending my time or brain space on.
I almost wish I was that passionate about entertainment as the bring back the EU folks, but I just cannot get there.
It reminds me of the people who harass GRRM or Patrick Rothfuss, I just do not get how yelling helps make the world a better place.
YMMV
Edited to add: What I am trying to say is that I cannot get mad over the external parts of media (Canon, weird choices creators make, etc) I very much enjoy entertainment (or not, you know) but no one is coming for my books to rip books from my hands.
Trike wrote: "I don't think I've ever once put "official canon" before my "head canon." That must be a weird feeling, to feel beholden to what someone else, some other fallible human being, has decided what you can use for your own enjoyment."Does this apply only to Star Wars, to all shared universes, or to single author works as well?
For me, I'm much more likely to buy into canon if it's a single author work, though I haven't even thought to use the term in those cases.
And that goes into what is canon.... Is it just the facts of a situation, or is it the feel of a character or world.I'll admit there have been times where I got way involved in the facts and world building of a thing, and obsessed over it. I also would have been very disappointed if I felt that was pulled out from under me. But, as part of maturing, that doesn't bother me as much anymore, but it can still get to me a little bit.
Sort of like the talk of adaptations. Many fans were pleased that, while "The Martian" wasn't 100% faithful to the novel, it certainly had much of the same feel. If Watney didn't have some failures along the way, but was built up to be a perfect Hollywood astronaut, it might have worked (OK probably not), but it wouldn't have been the same story. From the sounds of it, something litke that may be what is going on with "Preacher".
The same thing can happen to other charcters handled by different creators. If anything that can be more disappointing if while factually the character is the same, they just aren't in another's hands.
Like Trike was saying, take what you want out of something, and let the rest pass on over.
Ben wrote: "Trike wrote: "I don't think I've ever once put "official canon" before my "head canon." That must be a weird feeling, to feel beholden to what someone else, some other fallible human being, has dec...Does this apply only to Star Wars, to all shared universes, or to single author works as well?"
Interesting question. I generally apply it to shared universes, mostly as it's something I learned fairly young with the numerous retcons and continuity changes in comic books whenever a new writer would come onto a book.
I would definitely apply it to single-author works if they added something late in a series that was just weirdly out of sync with what had gone before. I'm having a hard time coming up with an example, but that's probably more to do with the fact I bail out of 95% of series long before they finish rather than authors succumbing to the Brain Eater.
Randolph wrote: "My advice: get a life."That's vague, unhelpful, and comes across as intended insult.
Which life should each of us get? The same life that a non-SF fan would recommend to you?
Canon is a weird thing. Once you've got an open/shared universe, it becomes an exercise in futility expecting internal consistency. Even Lucas couldn't keep to his own mythology.
I heard him say once he likes it better when suspense comes from a character's problem and if they can solve it, not from whether they're about to die.
Zahn was always one of my favorite SW authors, and I love the hope that he brings about the legends characters. I will always be a little disappointed, because I felt the EU was finally breaking away and building on itself. AKA, Luke, Leah, and Han could rest a little, and Jaina, Ben, and Allana could tackle the Universe. And come on Vestara Khai was the Mara Jade to be, Come on Man! :)
In a handful of heartbeats, I say good riddance :)
The Daily Dot sat down with Zahn at Awesome Con in Washington, D.C., on Friday, picking his brain about that Rebels rumor, how he counsels disappointed EU fans, and what he thinks of the state of Star Wars publishing.