Yargh.
A "cannon" is a weapon.
A "canon" is a rule, and by extension (mostly thanks to the Bible) a collection of documents or other records that have been examined under such a rule and judged official or sacred.
This has been your Internet Spelling Pedant post for today.
Darn you beat me too it. I was going to show the difference with pictures. 
(an old cannon vs. Jar Jar)
We aren't going to know anything about what's being kept or tossed before Sept 4 at the earliest, and even then we're aren't going to have a good picture until Dec 18.
And even THEN anything that isn't explicitly in the movie could still be kept or tossed in any later movie.
There's a very strict hierarchy that very simple to understand for SW canon right now:
Anything in a higher level supercedes anything in a lower level.
Every and all RPG product basically has the same value in figuring out what's heading down the pipe, which is no value at all.
Edited by LethalDoseThis has been touched upon, but I think the question of the games being canon is less about whether our individual sessions count as canon but rather if the material provided in the books actually counts for anything. Which, I would lean towards yes as LFL will reject or alter things to make sure they stay close to the intended vision of the Galaxy. So if the book says a planet exists in a certain sector with a certain climate and population, yes that is presumedly canon as that has to go through LFL
We aren't going to know anything about what's being kept or tossed before Sept 4 at the earliest, and even then we're aren't going to have a good picture until Dec 18.
And even THEN anything that isn't explicitly in the movie could still be kept or tossed in any later movie.
There's a very strict hierarchy that very simple to understand for SW canon right now:
- The Movies
- Anything labeled "Journey to Star Wars: the Force Awakens"
- A gigantic, tangled pile of crap that includes anything with the "Star Wars" Logo from the last 40 years.
Anything in a higher level supercedes anything in a lower level.
Every and all RPG product basically has the same value in figuring out what's heading down the pipe, which is no value at all.
It is simpler that that and more inclusive.
Movies, Cartoons, Comics since license moved back to marvel.
everything else is legends.
The RPG is in a weird limbo between the 2.
Just FYI, the new Battlefront and Commander games have been called out as being canon. As in, not the story but the individual elements like troops and vehicles.
Just FYI, the new Battlefront and Commander games have been called out as being canon. As in, not the story but the individual elements like troops and vehicles.
That's interesting to know. Also it's worth reiterating, this isn't about canon for the purpose of runing a game. It's just a curiosity on if Disney considers this property part of it's overall canon vision of Star Wars. Sure in the grand scheme of things it's unimportant, but it's still nice to know these things.
A quote about Star Wars Commander that I think is appropriate for the RPG also.
""I think what we at Lucas....we have a story team that we work very closely here with," Lucasfilm executive producer Matt Fillbrandt says. "And I think games offer a unique opportunity for storytelling that you don't necessarily get of other, linear storytelling devices like books or TV shows or movies; which is exciting in that we have the opportunity have player choice like we have with this game. Am I going to be on the Rebel side or the Empire? So we don't really look at it from a canonical standpoint because the player is effectively making up their story and their experience.""
So I wouldn't necessarily count, say the published FFG adventures as canon events, but the elements that make them up, the planets, the jewel of yavin, all of those things probably would be.
It's a good question in regards to all of the material FFG produces with the Star Wars and Disney name on it. FFG has already acknowledged quite a bit of EU in several of their games.
A quote about Star Wars Commander that I think is appropriate for the RPG also.
""I think what we at Lucas....we have a story team that we work very closely here with," Lucasfilm executive producer Matt Fillbrandt says. "And I think games offer a unique opportunity for storytelling that you don't necessarily get of other, linear storytelling devices like books or TV shows or movies; which is exciting in that we have the opportunity have player choice like we have with this game. Am I going to be on the Rebel side or the Empire? So we don't really look at it from a canonical standpoint because the player is effectively making up their story and their experience.""
So I wouldn't necessarily count, say the published FFG adventures as canon events, but the elements that make them up, the planets, the jewel of yavin, all of those things probably would be.
Some events from Commander are mentioned in Ultimate Star War, and it includes entries for Saponza, Jennica Pierce, and Kosh.
Just FYI, the new Battlefront and Commander games have been called out as being canon. As in, not the story but the individual elements like troops and vehicles.
That's interesting to know. Also it's worth reiterating, this isn't about canon for the purpose of runing a game. It's just a curiosity on if Disney considers this property part of it's overall canon vision of Star Wars. Sure in the grand scheme of things it's unimportant, but it's still nice to know these things.
Sure, then the RPG is canon, as far as the gear and species (MAYBE), but not the story/events/plots/circumstances or even rudimentary specifics. So it's canon, but canon with almost no authority, since the material in the FFG RPG material covers really standard stuff; The gear and species in these books are acknowledged to exist, but says nothing about what isn't in the books.
I feel like that gets you, at most, the Chiss are kinda, sorta canon. They exist, but any specifics provided about them in a stat block are still basically speculation and subject to change at any moment. I'd almost want to call it "Retconning" but I don't think it has enough original validity to consider it that.
I think Fish mentioned once that the populations on the planets found in Suns of Fortune actually ended up getting revised due to feedback from LFL. I get the impression they take this stuff pretty seriously. It's not a matter of authority in the canon (something D6 had back in the day) but more about accuracy.
You know the more I think about it I think gaming companies have done far more over the years to expand the EU then the novels or comics or pretty much any other source ever did. If anybody is familiar with Decipher's SW CCG (FU for killing it Hasbro) they added in a mountains of lore to the universe. Then we can get into what Kotor added. I think the reason Star Wars makes such a great RPG is that it is a universe. How many stories does a universe have? EU or Canon does it really matter? I mean if there were that many stories in Pulp Fiction, think of the entire SW universe.
THIS IS MY SABER THAT SHALL PEIRCE THE HEAVENS
Edited by Darth Attila
Not sure how pertinent this is to the topic at hand, but,
Aspyr in partnership with Disney Interactive and LucasArts is proud to announce STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II - The Sith Lords™ is now available on Mac and LInux, along with a massive update to all 3 platforms.
New features include:
- 37 achievements to be earned through gameplay
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- Native widescreen resolution support
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- Support for controllers, including Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation
- 3, and Playstation 4, along with several others (check the system requirements for details)
- Steam Workshop support! We proudly worked with the Restored Content Mod Team to have their famous TSLRCM up on launch day
Oh...and we added a "Force Speed Effects" option in the menu
So, if Disney is investing anything at all in this I'm gonna guess its part of what they want as cannon. And most likely have some kind of development strat to boot. The game only sells for 8 or 9 bucks I think. They aren't making any money off of it really, so profit isn't a motive. When profit isn't a motive for a big corp theres always an ulterior one that'll get them plenty.
I don't think Disney investing in something means they're making it canon, really. They're rebooting Star Wars, not banishing the entire EU to nonexistence. They don't use the term, and it doesn't apply exactly as most people think, but its more practical to view it as alternate reality than something that's been chopped off and buried. This show of support seems more like throwing the dog a bone than anything else, seeing as the game was rushed to release, and that Obsidian wanted to release an official patch (for free, if I recall correctly), but LucasArts denied them. As a fan of KotOR II myself, I appreciate the show of support to the game just for what it does.
Yeah, they've already pulled a number of details from the EU into various current products. My theory is that they'll use the EU as a massive source of ideas, incorporating the good bits as desired, and shedding the vast quantities of stuff that sits in the marginal->cruft range.
Well they did announce when doing the canon reboot that any of the Legends material was free game for authors to pull from if they felt it was appropriate to the story being written. One prime example is the post-RotJ Rebel Alliance re-branding itself as the New Republic, confirmed as part of the canon in Aftermath.
Yeah, I kinda see the whole "Legends" thing as Disney having their cake and eating it, too, especially in continuing to support, and potentially even expand, Legends.
Legends is basically "canon-lite" so they don't need to spend tons of effort curating it anymore. They can keep a small 'real canon' core and then just co-opt the legends stuff they like.
So Legends is like a half-step above fanon.
If anybody is familiar with Decipher's SW CCG (FU for killing it Hasbro) they added in a mountains of lore to the universe.
Sorry for continuing off topic comment, but I thought Decipher's SW CCG going away was a combination of factors including license cost and Decipher's own internal financial thievery.
