Choose Your Own Adventures: The Conundrum with Canon
Every fan has to make a choice. I made that choice. For me there will always only ever be three Star Wars films. This is a purity I have endeavoured to maintain. Whether it be for Star Wars, Doctor Who or Transformers, I’ve spent years avoiding not only expanded universe material like the plague, but quite often other official materials. I have had my infidelities in the past. After the disappointment of Episode One I read Shadows of the Empire at the urging of a friend, but despite the relief it brought me I quickly ran back to the safety of my quarantine, because once you enter the murky waters of the expanded universes you are willingly going face to face with the ever shifting Hydra of Canon. This is why I was staying out. At least that was the plan.
I now have nine Star Wars books on my night stand, and I can hear the beast in the swirling mists. Immediately turning to the internet for some guidance, I find that my beloved wookie laden universe has four official levels of canon. This is not an uncommon trend, it’s a neat way to rank the extensive contradictions that tend to arise when you try and milk the fans’ wallets without planning ahead. In the end they just fall back on “because George says so”, and that’s why the most official level is called G-Canon.
A similar, though slightly more confusing, approach to the "because we said so" line was adopted by the people behind the Macross series. After someone called them on the use of runways in zero-G environments they dropped them for the feature film which itself was meant to be an in-universe historical film, and then kept all the design elements from the film, but the plot points from series as Canon. Then they made a sequel which no one liked so they called it a parallel universe, and got right back to business with Macross Plus, which everyone liked. Everything after that is fine, unless you talk to Harmony Gold who like to think none of it is canon outside of Japan.
Doctor Who fans have been handed a slightly different bag of snakes. On one hand the series itself, which is considered the highest level of canon, is rife with its own contradictions before you even introduce the expanded universe. On the other hand it’s a story about a guy with a time machine that has a habit of changing history, so much so, that he got executed for it (Troughton to Pertwee). This constant rewriting of history is now the party line according to new head writer Steven Moffatt. It all happened and then some of it unhappened.
Navigating any universe in which dozens of writers have contributed is always going to be difficult, but what do you do when all materials are written by one man. For none know the fetid breath of the hydra like anybody that has invested any time in the many space operas of Leiji Matsumoto (Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Battle Ship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999). At every new release we stand toe to toe and the waters a deep and coffee coloured. Mr Matsumoto’s work, which I can’t get enough of, is all connected. Consisting of at least half a dozen story lines each with films, comics and television series, intertwining and contradicting themselves and each other, thrashing at your sense of order and continuity like a four year old recounting his Saturday. We are talking about a level of discontinuity only dreamed about by the combined Star Wars fanfic writers, all accomplished by a single man. In honour of its fluid nature and Star Blazers, I have dubbed this approach Wave Motion Canon.
Having intrepidly traversed the entirety of Leiji’s mayhem for years after investing heavily in a cartoon from 1977 that is no longer ‘in’, I have come to my own conclusions on canonicity. You don’t have to follow the official party line. Remember though that you are never alone. As you stand before the beast you stand shoulder to shoulder with other hitchhikers through the maelstrom. Some petulant, like the Doctor Who fans that tried to get Paul McGann de-canonised, others defiant, such as fans determined to find explanations to include all materials despite the inconsistencies that keep them awake at night, and others simpy passive aggressive, who make snide remarks about the original creators in their blogs while espousing their own continuities. With this in mind, I set out on my journey into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and I’m making my own rules. It’s called J-Canon, and you know what George, there are only three movies, Darth Vader didn’t make C-3PO and Jar Jar never existed.
I now have nine Star Wars books on my night stand, and I can hear the beast in the swirling mists. Immediately turning to the internet for some guidance, I find that my beloved wookie laden universe has four official levels of canon. This is not an uncommon trend, it’s a neat way to rank the extensive contradictions that tend to arise when you try and milk the fans’ wallets without planning ahead. In the end they just fall back on “because George says so”, and that’s why the most official level is called G-Canon.
A similar, though slightly more confusing, approach to the "because we said so" line was adopted by the people behind the Macross series. After someone called them on the use of runways in zero-G environments they dropped them for the feature film which itself was meant to be an in-universe historical film, and then kept all the design elements from the film, but the plot points from series as Canon. Then they made a sequel which no one liked so they called it a parallel universe, and got right back to business with Macross Plus, which everyone liked. Everything after that is fine, unless you talk to Harmony Gold who like to think none of it is canon outside of Japan.
Doctor Who fans have been handed a slightly different bag of snakes. On one hand the series itself, which is considered the highest level of canon, is rife with its own contradictions before you even introduce the expanded universe. On the other hand it’s a story about a guy with a time machine that has a habit of changing history, so much so, that he got executed for it (Troughton to Pertwee). This constant rewriting of history is now the party line according to new head writer Steven Moffatt. It all happened and then some of it unhappened.
Navigating any universe in which dozens of writers have contributed is always going to be difficult, but what do you do when all materials are written by one man. For none know the fetid breath of the hydra like anybody that has invested any time in the many space operas of Leiji Matsumoto (Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Battle Ship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999). At every new release we stand toe to toe and the waters a deep and coffee coloured. Mr Matsumoto’s work, which I can’t get enough of, is all connected. Consisting of at least half a dozen story lines each with films, comics and television series, intertwining and contradicting themselves and each other, thrashing at your sense of order and continuity like a four year old recounting his Saturday. We are talking about a level of discontinuity only dreamed about by the combined Star Wars fanfic writers, all accomplished by a single man. In honour of its fluid nature and Star Blazers, I have dubbed this approach Wave Motion Canon.
Having intrepidly traversed the entirety of Leiji’s mayhem for years after investing heavily in a cartoon from 1977 that is no longer ‘in’, I have come to my own conclusions on canonicity. You don’t have to follow the official party line. Remember though that you are never alone. As you stand before the beast you stand shoulder to shoulder with other hitchhikers through the maelstrom. Some petulant, like the Doctor Who fans that tried to get Paul McGann de-canonised, others defiant, such as fans determined to find explanations to include all materials despite the inconsistencies that keep them awake at night, and others simpy passive aggressive, who make snide remarks about the original creators in their blogs while espousing their own continuities. With this in mind, I set out on my journey into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and I’m making my own rules. It’s called J-Canon, and you know what George, there are only three movies, Darth Vader didn’t make C-3PO and Jar Jar never existed.
