The Battle Over Star Wars Canon 

I grew up with Star Wars. For me - and I think this is what you're getting at - the canon argument is a red herring. The real issues with Disney go much deeper. Is Star Wars just a 'universe'? Is it a story? Or is it a kind of storytelling? It's the latter for me. Star Wars was always more than just a time and place - a galaxy far, far away. George Lucas created an updated serial with western and samurai references. It was like a film experience within a film, which prioritized visual storytelling over dialogue. And it was a hero's journey, his response to the plethora of 1970s anti-heroes. These are the things that have been messed with.

I think we underestimate Lucas's ability to pick people. Timothy Zahn, Foster, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, John Williams, Drew Sturzan, Steven Sansweet, his product design teams, Cam Kennedy, McQuarrie, his puppet factories, his entire ILM output.

The best example of the difference in storytelling between Lucas and Disney is that Disney heavily alters a story based on fan reactions or profit. Whether it be multiple test screenings or failed box office numbers, Disney will blatantly sacrifice canon or the plot itself just to get a desired response. Constantly changing directors and rewrites undermine everything they do. At least George would stand there and defend his product without casting morality judgments on his critics. Who was Snoke? How did Palpatine return? Why isn't Finn a jedi? Who's the kid with the broom? How did Luke fight as a younger hologram of himself and Kylo never noticed? How can Kylo use the force to snatch a necklace off of somebody on another planet? and on and on and on... When the politics behind the screen are impacting the story on the screen, you get left with a mess that can't be logically sorted out. That's why fans are just checking out.

Okay, the medichlorians are not the force itself. They are merely receptors that can tell who can be force sensitive.

There is only one major issue here that I contest; you say towards the end how that Disney got the short end of the stick since they obtained Star Wars, but not Lucas, which is part of the issue with inconsistency of reception, quality, and imagination and direction of the content. But that right there is why so many of us treasure the old Expanded Universe, because new and talented artists (mostly but not solely, writers) came in to tell new stories, post Return of the Jedi and for thousands of years prior. For almost four decades, there were numerous books, numerous games, numerous short stories that were hailed and praised by SW fans as being fantastic pieces of work, that fit in with the canon of the movies. The ones that deviated from that were condemned. The Crystal Star, for example, a novel that features Han and Luke behaving VASTLY different from their established characterizations, with very out-there concepts that fitted in more with a Star Trek episode than in Star Wars, and to this day holds infamy among fans for how bad that novel is. Yet, with Disney Star Wars, the most well-received projects they've produced were The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2, and Rogue One; and even those were not universally praised by fans. So in 10 years since Star Wars changed hands, of somewhere around 30+ books, five movies, seven television series (most of which with multiple seasons), Disney has yet to achieve a perceived fraction of the reception and praise that the old Expanded Universe was given? Talented artists and authors didn't just disappear overnight in 2012. Timothy Zahn, writer of what many consider to be the true sequel trilogy of "Heir to the Empire" didn't vanish into thin air, and in point of fact, has written several books FOR DISNEY that feature his created character of Thrawn. But even then, the majority of the people who read them and enjoyed them? They did so because they were fans of the character from the old EU and his qualities as an author. So what is the issue? Why can't they do what the Expanded Universe did? Because of the very reason that Star Wars is such a clusterfuck since they bought it; coprorate incompetence. When you disband the EU, and start from scratch and claim whatever you make is the new canon, it HAS to be of high quality and a lot of thoughtful consideration has to be made to stick the landing from such a bold jumping off point. From the horse's mouth, they stated they did not have a clear and consistent plan for the Sequel Trilogy of films. This is why, as much as I despise the concepts of The High Republic, the fact is that they DID have a clear and concise direction for it, but like a few old EU series or books, it failed because it wasn't well done or well received by most. The fact is, the reason Star Wars is such a hot mess is because the people who own it don't know what to do with it, and they keep screwing up what they try because they don't stop and think outside of social appeal, targeted demographic marketings, public image, and monetary gains. They throw at the wall what they think will be financially successful, based off of the same warped perceptions that many massive corporations have regarding what is wanted or will sell. But with the EU, if it didn't stick? They'd finish that project and then work to not repeat the same mistakes again (which to be fair, didn't always happen either). And all of that doesn't even touch on the fact that they have retconned or messed up lore mechanics and rules within the universe on my numerous ocassions with little disregard until, surprise surprise, it writes them into a corner and they have to re-retcon the matter to "fix it". Star Wars is dying because Disney is so distracted by trying to make profit, they're standing on the necks of the fandom and turning more and more of them away. It's business incompetence, simple and plain as day. Well, that, and allegedly, a LOT of pettiness behind the scenes that they have and keep making mistakes and don't like receiving that criticism, even less so when the profits or lack-there-of actually back those criticisms up. Other than that, good video; wish it was longer and dug deeper into the meat and potatoes of some parts of the topic though.

Luke throwing the saber off the cliff was symbolic, he was Disney and the saber was Star Wars

The creator's work is canon in my book. Who cares who owns it? Without George Lucas, there would be no Star Wars. Without Disney, there would still be Star Wars.

This is what I have needed. A different opinion than my own, but one the is respectful and comes from a place of love and and is mature unlike so many other channels that just want to spout angry keywords to get a rise out of their audience. I really needed this. I've mostly enjoyed all that has come from Star Wars since the Disney Buyout. Some things aren't perfect. I'm not the biggest fan of some projects, but it's mostly been a positive experience for me. I don't know how anyone could have the time and energy to be so angry about something. I love many different things, I love exploring ideas and concepts, themes and characters and some might not see it, but these recent stories have given me that. Great work!

Congratulations for the Chanel and video, your work is one of the best and most insightfull discussions about storytelling on the platform so far, I wish you a lot of success, we need this level of knowledge and maturity in public discourse, thank you so much for providing some of that, especially with Star Wars.

The love/hate relationship between fans and Lucas has always intrigued me. The Disney era of star wars has been totally without consistency, given its lack of a single visionary creator. The plots of 7, 8, and 9 show this clearly. Legends era star wars suffered from the same issues. There is no perfect author, though. People hated Lucas pretty much from ROTJ on. It makes me wonder if any creative project as grand in scope as star wars is inevitably crushed under its own weight.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of the Disney stuff, but I just ignore it and happily enjoy re-reading various legends books and comics. Would be nice if Disney would release all the unabridged legends books on audible tho

Thank you for such a well researched, thought provoking, and well presented video. I remember watching Bill Moyers interviewing Joseph Campbell on PBS decades ago, and he directly referenced Star Wars as our modern mythology and a prefect representation of the Heroes' Journey. I grew up with the original trilogy in theaters and that will always be Canon for me.

Now that is the kind of smart, nuanced take I'm here for. Thank you.

Fascinating. I knew a little of this, but this video was such a great in-depth explanation and discussion about the Star Wars universe. Thanks!

My friends I respect the fight, but me and many others have retreated into the EU. I know others that immigrated to 40k, God bless their souls.

5:35 FFS! The Force isn't Midi-Chlorians! It lives in Midi-Chlorians! It connects living organisms to the Force. That's how they judge their strength by using them.

My only problem with the prequels is Jar Jar. Other than that, I really enjoyed the prequels when they were released, and each episode was progressively better.

Sorry, mate. Midi-Chlorians are not the Force. They are merely a conduit.

The consensus of the acceptability by the audience, measured by their migration in-to and out-of of fandom, is the definition of Canon. The original author only gets to plant the seeds. The audience can choose whether to water those seeds.

Dude I loved this video! It was well researched, insightful, and quite witty at times. That was a great analogy between the church and SW canon, had me chuckling. Keep it up!

16:08 you knocked it out of the park with that point.

This is so interesting, great video!! One thing I’ll say that I’ll continue to watch Star Wars shows because it’s Star Wars, but there’s something about the George Lucas movies that leaves a lasting imprint on my mind. It’s like a true space epic that feels so real in my mind. I mean I literally have a Star Wars quote ready in my head for such small moments in my life. It feels so real, Disney can’t recreate that. There’s a certain feel, pace that the 6 movies have that just can’t be duplicated.

Excellent work, mate. Well organized and well presented. 🎉

Disney may claim canon, but it isn't canon for me. Disney's Star Wars isn't actually Star Wars. Canon implies authority, and it needs believers in order to have any authority.

Original Trilogy Star Wars fan here. It makes me sad about the current state of canon after reading the books in the 90s and how Lucasfilm had a tight grip on what was canon back then. Writers weren't allowed to touch on clone wars or anything Anakin related (aka prequels). Mostly due to Lucas planning on going back to those stories at some point. Besides that it felt like there was a stringent approval process for what kind of content was allowed and if it fit in with what was established both in the movies and in other books. I believe Lucas himself had to sign off. Although it was so strict it worked amazingly well. You didn't hear people saying whether they accepted a certain book as canon or not. They would merely just say whether they liked it. With that said, there was surprisingly a lot of open areas for writers to create something new. It was nice to see new additions and still be respectful to established content.

Well done, well thought video 👌

Historically, creators, owners, and authors do not determine what is "canon." History does, society does. A general consensus of what is considered authentic, important, worthy. So, even George Lucas himself cannot be the end-all, be-all designator of what is canon. Neither, obviously, can Lucasfilm or Disney. Ultimately, we the public determine what meets the bar. Hindsight is 20/20, and I think history will pretty clearly indicate what is canon to Star Wars, and what isn't.

Very interesting video. And I think a mark of its quality is that so many of the comments have intelligent takes rather than just retreading the same old same old.

5:20 The force is not Midichlorians. Midichlorians are just a conduit for living things to use the force.

Appreciate a very logical and reasonable discussion of what canon even means. Not a lot of that going on, on reddit.

Very well said. After spending a day sifting through SW Twitter all I can say is thank you so much for making this video.

I think the canon debate is a symptom. I think the root of the problem is prioritization. Since the acquisition, Disney elevated narrative complexity over depth, production quantity over quality, and new markets over the legacy audience. I've heard multiple people say Star Wars is for kids, but I think that's just because it lacks complexity. The original trilogy is simple and linear, it includes elements of cuteness and frivolity, for children. But the deeper subtext for adults, analysts, and philosophers is an exploration of faith, growing up, fatherhood, and the search for meaning in mundane, elevating family and friendship over heroic feats and recognition. Meanwhile, new Star Wars emphasizes twisty plots, exploring new worlds, and diverse characters. These elements, while entertaining, are not for everyone. The tv shows in particular have seen a decline in quality, like the modern CW. Easter eggs and familiar characters link the series to the canonical core (whichever one you follow), but as shadows of their former selves. Despite giving Asoka and Obi-Wan new adventures, they feel like facsimiles of their original roles because of the weaker internal continuity and cheaper production design. There are so many new product lines with loose ties to one another, rather than reinforcing the canonical network, each new entry dilutes and diminishes cohesion. The debate on canon is a superficial lagging response to a decline in quality the legacy fans have come to expect. New audiences that haven't seen the original Star Wars and have no connections to it, may very well enjoy this new media, but they consume it like tik tok videos - quickly scan for dopamine hits, before moving on to the next shiny thing. Disney chose to compete with social media instead of the monomyth. That is the great schism. It's the difference between a lightsaber and a blaster. One is an elegant weapon requiring the force, skill and discipline to wield, while the other can be picked up by anyone without requirement who wants to feel a fleeting thrill of power.

This is a great video, had a lot of fun listening to your points!

There’s G Cannon and D Cannon. After (D)isney’s many continuity errors, they can never be one and the same.

I think you nailed it. I like to think nailing it leads to your salvation. It is all about the hero's journey. We all nailed it.

This is a fantastic reference video for those needing context for the current Disney SW backlash.

Hey great video, I really appreciated you analysis. Can I ask given you understanding of the mythology and the cultural/historical underpinnings of Star Wars, what are your thoughts on The Last Jedi? Again great video.

I’m getting really troubled by the habit of reanimating dead corpses with cgi to generate more profit even in cases where it’s obvious the actor wouldn’t have wanted it. To me it doesn’t demonstrate respect to the original artists to use their likeness without any ability for them to object but also a refusal to move on from the focus on nostalgia. Trying to recreate something in need of expansion.

This was a fantastic illustration of the problems with Disney canon vs. the canon.

If this channel were as popular as it should be, I would expect a lot more...interesting...takes in the comment section, since religion and historical authenticity were brought up. As it is, it's quiet and nice down here.

Grand Moff Tarkin: I love my Star Wars Cannon, Lord Vader. I love the sensor readings of Alderaan disintegrating in the morning. It smells like VICTORY. Vader: Olfactory stimuli do not travel in space. Tarkin: In the name of the Dark Side... Sheesh.

Great video.

Very interesting thoughts, I really enjoy your videos! A note though, I might suggest a bit more research into the biblical cannon. The early church father's writings (before the rise of the Roman Catholic church) actually do seem to show rather distinctly that the apocrypha, while given some respect as valuable writings, were not generally recognized as canon originally.

Disney owns the copyright but they don’t own Star Wars.

We need a fan cannon.

if it happened on the screen, it's canon; if you did not create it, you don't get a say.

Why is the argument always the same, we say you're breaking Cannon and the response is always your saying Star Wars isn't Star Wars enough. That is not what we said at all! We said they are breaking the preexisting story line, the things which made the franchise unique.

Star Wars in the prequel Era was many different aspects that reached different audiences through other entertainment mediums. Gaming back in the Prequel hype train was massive and each game in some way added to the Star Wars narrative of the time. Much of it was even approved by Lucas himself. This is even further supported by the cancelations that were made By Lucas before Lucas Arts was canned by Disney. Particularly that Darth Maul video game was cancelled and a possible sequel to Star Wars Republic Commando was also cancelled. Going back to the prequel Era renaissance of Star Wars in the gaming space, one of the biggest Star Wars games if not one of the most influential Role Playing Games Knights of the Old Republic greatly expanded the Star Wars Mythos in a way that a movie never could. That is just one example.

Great examples for both sides are Star Wars theory and generational tech

You know…if disney was smart, they would of kept everything cannon and make the sequels soo far in the future that it wouldn’t mess with it.

Personally, I've had my own gripes with Disney Star Wars over the years. But, I've had way bigger gripes with the fandom. The fandom itself doesn't understand Star Wars as much as they think they do. The fans always have an irrational emotional response to everything instead of a logical one. I see people shit all over Disney for flaws that have existed in Star Wars for decades before Disney ever came into the picture. People over-romanticize the pre-Disney days and either choose to have selective memory of the franchise's past flaws or they are simply too young to have been there at the time. Star Wars has ALWAYS been an aggravating thing to be a fan of. The canon and the lore always had massive shifts each decade. Star Wars lore was one thing before the prequels and then it changed completely after the prequels. Then it changed again after the Clone Wars show. The beloved "EU" and it's canonicity was always in a state of pending and was never set in stone canon. But, I see so many people arguing to death that it was indeed 100 percent canon, which is just completely incorrect. The outrage and the crying is silly by this point and it hard to take seriously anymore. This franchise truly did peak between 1977 to 1999. Once that first big lore shift happened with The Phantom Menace, the franchise just hasn't been the same. It's been constant nonstop complaining no matter if it's George Lucas, Dave Filoni, or whoever at Disney making these things.

Why can we not have a single closed cannon, wherein everything outside is potentially accurate or inaccurate depending on how it lines up with The Cannon. 1-6 are the canon. Everything outside of that, whether masterpieces like Rogue One or pieces of trash like The Last Jedi, they are somewhat valid or invalid depending on how well they line up with the cannon.

I'm an OT purist, meaning I only consider the OT canon. I don't consider George's PT or whatever Disney has done over the past decade or so to be part of the same continuity. Some may say, "Well, George made it" or "Well, Disney owns it." I don't care. 1977-1983 is what Star Wars is to me (with maybe a small exception made for Timothy Zahn's old Thrawn books).

"Bob Iger got a raw deal because he didn't get Lucas' brain" That one is firmly on Iger because when Lucas sold, he wanted to retain creative control, or at least have creative input. Lucas assumed the sequel trilogy would be made following his outlines. But Iger decided that, instead of harnessing Lucas' creativity and mitigating Lucas' worst tendencies with some well-chosen collaborators, he would take the "safe" (i.e. boring) route, cut Lucas out of the equation and essentially remake the original trilogy. Because Iger was spooked by the prequel backlash, he threw the baby out with the bath and it probably cost Disney literally billions of dollars. I have no doubt that whatever Lucas had in mind would have been as controversial as the prequels were in their day, and would have required some top-tier screen writing to warm the audience up to them, as well as someone with the authority and balls to go toe-to-toe with Lucas on some of his more questionable ideas, the way that Gary Kurtz did for the first two. Lucas seems to do his best work when he's got a little creative tension going on. But it would have been worth it to have Lucas' incredible imagination on full display, something that has been sorely lacking in every single Disney Star Wars production to date, even the few good ones.

Your account of how the Protestant Reformation came about isn't really bang on, but other than that wonderful video :)

Who really owns Star Wars? There are two answers to that question and both of those answers are equally correct. The first answer is that George Lucas owns Star Wars because he is the creator of Star Wars. The second answer is that Star Wars fans (including myself) own Star Wars. As far as I am concerned, George Lucas and us fans get to decide what is canon and I say that only the first six Star Wars films are canon.

Campbell's monomyth is everywhere. It's even in the horrendous Minecraft movie trailer. Rian Johnson's approach is anti-monomyth. It's intentional. Subverting expectations!

'buying Lucasfilm is not the same as buying Lucas' No he DID buy Lucas, in the form of story treatments for episodes 7-9. Had they adhered to them, or adapted them, it would STILL be George Lucas Star Wars, even if George himself was not at the helm, but they chose to throw it away.

The Force is not the Midiclorians, they're just the conduit for it! It explains why all living things in the galaxy have a connection to the Force, while those from outside the galaxy do not. Nothing was retconned, the Force is still just as magical/spiritual as it always was.

It’s ironic. Disney acts like Star Wars is their IP, despite the fact their canon does not fit into the lore George Lucas created. Legends/Expanded Universe was 100% George Lucas approved. This also included movie novels, deleted scenes, video games, and the second Hexalogy of Thrawn Triology and Heir to the Empire. I never read the actual books, but I remember watching audio reenactments as a kid on RU-vid. I also played a lot of the classic Star Wars EU games like Jedi Academy, TFU, and ROTS video game. To me Star Wars was a beautiful work of art hand crafted through years of blood, sweat, and tears. George Lucas didn’t make Star Wars what it was by himself. He had a whole team to help him write down and bring his world to life. And the cherry on top, John Williams wonderful music. Star Wars died after TFA. I was willing to give Disney a chance, but after the atrocious way they treated our beloved legacy characters, I can never go back to them. I was even willing to go back after Mando S1 ending, but once again Disney chose to keep Mando part of their Sequel universe and that ticked me off. We saw Luke Skywalker as a Jedi again only to know the dark path he’d be forced to go on. I’m done with Star Wars but I will gladly make my own story. I’m gonna start my own series now for the heck of it.

5:29 Super sorry to insert but this is incorrect The Force isn’t Midi-chlorians, the midi-chlorians allows beings to interact WITH the Force. In most cases those with higher levels are just able to manipulate the energy around them and essentially create a frequency they can control and operate on that others just can’t, unless they train very very hard Everybody is has midi-chlorians in them but not everyone understands or wields the Force in the same way And if you think about it, if you apply the midi-chlorians to the story/plot, they didn’t really do much to detract from the heroes doing their thing and learning more about themselves thru the Force. That’s all on the audience if they concluded “oh anakin only won the pod race because his count was high”. More times than not the heroes still find hardship despite being “gifted” or blessed with talent. Luke certainly had his go of it, lost his hand and even the end still had to get saved by his dad. So at least in my opinion, there’s still mysticism in the Force, the midi-chlorians just ground things a little bit with a small bit of science fiction. Which if you think about Star Wars is a Sci-fi Space Drama of sorts I do really appreciate this video and your insights into the actual plot and function of the franchise as whole in society Would love to see your take on something like Dragon Ball or other really big IPs!

George didnt break any lores, its literally his lores.

In order for religious canonization events to happen in history, one needs either spiritual authority that is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the community so they voluntarily go along with your decrees, secular authority that allows one to physical enforce a decision (destroying rejected books and killing dissenters), or a combination of both. With regards to works of entertainment, the closest equivalent you have to spiritual authority is intellectual authority. People who understand the material enough to add to it in a way that is consistent with the original vision, without destroying or damaging what is already there. Disney and Amazon lack that intellectual authority which is why the community rejects their works as being noncanon. The original authors of works( Lucas and Tolkien) do meet that intellectual qualification; which is why their additions are accepted. In regards to spiritual authority and Scripture, new canonical works would be recognized as consistent and true with existing canon by the community because God is the source for them all and God does not change. People, however, do change. Lucas and Tolkien changed their ideas over time. But they respected and understood their own material well enough to be able to make changes in a way that generally was consistent with itself and improved the story rather than damaged it. In the absence of the original creator serving as a closely involved overseer, no one should ever try to add onto a mythological entertainment franchise like that without employing experts on staff who have veto power over proposed stories. Amazon, ironically, did hire someone like that at the start, but then promptly fired them because they didn’t actually care about the lore and did not want to listen to anything they had to say about why their story was wrong. Disney might have the secular authority to control who can tell new star wars stories, thereby to some extent forcing their message and silencing alternative voices - but they cannot erase the past works that have already been created and force the existing fans to accept their new drek as legitimate. So Disney lacks the necessary authority to force their new message to become canon. They still require the agreement of the people to go along with it. They can’t order all past copies of star wars destroyed and burn fans at the stake who express disagreement with new Disney products (although they certainly try to do so figuratively by attacking the fans in the media as being a litany of “ists and isms” for not consuming the shit disney is shoveling out). Shows like Rogue One or early Mandalorian only have the possibility of being accepted as canon by the fans because they passed the intellectual test of lore consistency and understanding the original vision of star wars. This is only achieved because they are one of the few Disney productions where a legitimate knowledgable fan who cared about star wars was given the reigns over the production. And even mando went off the rails and was rejected by fans when Disney started mandating changes, taking creative control away from the one who birthed the vision for it. Almost all other Disney products are produced by people who don’t care about star wars, know nothing about it, and actively despise anyone who does. Lucasfilm figures have admitted on more than one occasion that they specifically look to put people in positions of power because they know nothing about star wars. They want people who will push “the message”, because knowledgable fans will push back against corporate dictates if it would destroy the lore of star wars. They want people who don’t care about the lore so they will do whatever they are told. The reason the clone wars TV series is not canon is because it is too lore breaking. And the reason it is, is because Lucas was not directly involved enough and Dave admitted that he went against what Lucas wanted on more than one occasion. That is why anything Dave has tried to produce afterwards, like Ashoka, is shit and rejected as noncanon by the fans. He caves in to the current lucasfilm agenda and doesn’t understand or care as much about the existing lore as he does about telling whatever new story he wants.

The sad part is Disney ruined SW the only way to make SW great again is probably if someone or group can come up with enough money to buy it away from Disney.

Canon is something tiered. George has the best claim, Disney have their version, but it is up to each one to define what is believable and what is not.

Yes, you are right. I agree with you. 100% George Lucas is the author and the one who imagined and created Star Wars with its own unique nature. The problem with Disney’s “reinvention” of Lucas’s Star Wars is that it is of a completely different nature, and for the most part shares only the name Lucas created. This reinvention with very little of original music to set the atmosphere and spirit that tells us this is a Lucas Star Wars. Disney also completely changes the beat here with music that doesn’t evoke any similarity or feeling of the original under Lucas. It is bereft of the spirit of its original author or storyline and it uses literal tangible things originally created by Lucas like light sabers, unique droids, also created by Lucas and many other visuals. So not even light sabers, droids or the many other things Lucas created for these films were originated by Disney, and all Disney’s offerings presented to the devotees of Star Wars since 1977’s “A New Hope” is them going completely off the script with Star Wars spirit and universal canon inconsistent with the spirit and storyline of authentic Star Wars. Disney has bought nothing from Lucas for their $4 billion. Disney acquiring so-called rights to Star Wars is nothing but, as we have seen in the Acolyte a witches cauldron to brew their woke propaganda agenda, an unholy menacing concoction, a formula for chaos. They have certainly put disorder and chaos into Star Wars fans by Ripping apart the fabric of Star Wars as unrecognizable, incoherent, lacking clarity, and intelligibility, A SH•T SHOW! Star Wars 7,8,and 9. And now this complete bomb called, The Acolyte. That being said the best part of season one so far is episode 5’s big fight scene was one of the best I’ve seen, but that’s it. I can’t think the storyline is going to get any better with the fools that are writing this story, I’d fire them get somebody with some unbiased talent. So it gets a big 👎.

You think Dave Filoni is responsible for creating this whole changing the Canon for Star Wars?

Yeah but Star Wars was written about Anakin Skywalker's awakening, rise and fall from slave boy, to Heroic Knight, to evil villain and finally his rise as a Force Ghost.

Ok, but what you seem to be missing is that the extent to which a story is "mythical and symbolical" is precisely the extent to which its "canon" doesn't matter, which is the whole point of analyzing a story as "archetype" in the first place. It's no coincidence that King Arthur has no "canon" worth disputing, while the Bible is a "religion" to exactly the extent that one thinks it has a "canon" at all. To bemoan Star Wars for it's lack of "canon" while also detailing its status as "myth" is to miss the point of your own argument. The "authorship" as "canon" that you refer to has more to do with how we declare a story as something a person can own, and thus have exclusive control over. But that just an expression of our own capitalist peculiarity.

If Twilight isn’t Vampire Canon niether is Disney Star Wars.

I agree with pretty much everything, but I don't think enough weight was given to how "lore breaking" arguments can be used to decanonize a work, especially if how it's seems to be the primary argument for something being made canon or left out of a canon for IPs we love (and in the history of religious texts). You are right that ultimately it boils down to consensus, but rational arguments can be made that are more or less convincing. Had Luther's gripe with the Catholic Church been purely political, it might not have been as widely accepted. Take the Gospel of Judas for example. Aside from the facts that it was written a few hundred years after the other Gospels and was not as widely spread throughout the world (we only have one ancient copy compared to the thousands of copies of the Gospels), the Gospel of Judas paints an extremely different Jesus with a very different philosophy and theology presented. Even if it were as wide spread as the other Gospels the mere content contradiction gives strong evidence that it is part of a different canon, even if it had the same authors as the other Gospels

Nicely done! Picking up on the closing, the Author/Prophet, inconveniently, didn't have Apostles, or at least none that have appealed to the faithful. Nor is there a series of Great Tomes, like Tolkien. Nor is he dead. So we have this weird late-stage Recession of the Prophet where no one can renew his achievements, and the successor owner is a vast byzantine bureaucracy will no heart and no vision. [Leaving aside the current display of storytelling incompetence]. I'm often stunned at what a poor dealmaker Iger is. If you're buying IP/brand, the sensible move is to lock up the creator on your payroll for X period, like 7 years, as part of the workout and non-compete arrangement. You don't want fans looking at the new stuff and thinking "err, dunno about this, what does George make of it? Would George approve?" And I've been tracking the Hulu deal's endgame. What a mess. Iger has sold open-ended financial risk to his Board and investors three times. Slow learners.

I think if a story is handed off to someone different from the original creator. It's more of a responsibility to maintain some form of consistency With the original works. Disney and the ones in charge of the franchise wanted to recreate the franchise in their own image.. This is where the discourse comes in. People didn't mind the extended universe even if they don't quite get everything right. Because it's separated from the canon of the original 6 movies. Disney Star Wars is basically telling you everything they do is canonical. Suddenly the standards expected from fans shoot up dramatically. Because every show, movie, game from this point is as important as the main movies. Personally I don't think what we've been given over the years from Disney had followed through on that point of consitency. It feels like something completely different now with each new show it just veers further off.

I get what you're coming from with Canon. But I think it matters too with the continuity of Star wars and their character arcs of each character each and every new series from Star wars like Obi-Wan the acolyte and even the secret trilogy seems to break the timeline of Star wars the things that didn't happen such as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader fighting again even though the last time they fought was during revenge of the sith. A character being born in a time period before he was born. Or The witches conceiving a baby when Anakin was supposed to be the baby born from the force. Shows like Cobra Kai don't really have any issues like this if they follow the stories through the characters since the first film and even their worst film and they still made it work and have new characters that people can see and enjoy. Would you even argue that Star wars writing quality has not been the same since then?

For me George could change whatever he chooses in the story, because he created it, anything and everything comming from him has to be cannon😅. Disney SW is not Star Wars at least for me

i personally only consider the george lucas star wars mythology to be legitimate. while yes disney may own the star wars IP they do not control the publics view of the mythology. similar to frank herberts Dune books and the additions that his son made to them.

midichlorians is just a plot tool to confirm in the viewers eyes that Anakin is in fact the chosen one. it doesn’t really diminish the spiritual aspect of the force, and the enlightenment a force wielder needs to attain. knowing path and walking it are different things. but people got that concept in the most flat way possible. that is not to say that Episode 1 is not boring and childish, but character and world building wise its ahead of everything Lucas did in the entire OT!

Nice comparison to the Bible etc. Real food for thought.

I think Disney and Rian Johnson *did* understand the mythological foundations of a Star Wars story, they just deliberately rebuked them. Luke throwing the lightsaber over his shoulder was a direct acknowledgement and refutation of the hero's journey and traditional storytelling. Unfortunately it was handled with all the finesse of a 15 year old amateur novelist that just discovered what cliches are thinks everything he writes has to be hyper original or deconstructive now.

Buying a franchise cannot buy the hearts of the viewer....it is something they must earn. Disney basically purchased Star Wars, then threw a pile of shit on a plate and told us 'This is Star Wars, eat it'. They can't 'make' the fans accept it, no matter how much they paid for it. Ultimately, in the end it's the choice of the viewer. And if enough fans refuse to accept it, no money in the world can make us believe otherwise.

The Darth Bane trilogy is the best story ever told and if Disney wants a well received story they should gey Drew Karpyshyn to write something for them

Great video as always! In A New Hope the computer could not hit the target that would destroy the Death Star many times over, but the Force could. We see the Force exert Its will through Luke, not the other way around, rendering technology's pretentiousness insignificant when confronted with the power of the spititual. My point seems random, I know, but what I'm trying to get at is that Disney thinks Star Wars is just aesthetics; that's why - in my opinion - the sequel trilogy looks Star-Warsy, but feels like a parody. The themes, the symbolism, the elements that make Star Wars the wonderful modern myth you perfectly made the case for are lost. Keep up the great work!

Mitichlorians are not the force.

If by "our culture" you mean right-wing chuds online who ragebait over "woke ideology" and nitpick everything to claim "bad writing" has only just happened post-acquisition (as if the prequels are masterfully written), then sure, "our culture" is losing interest in Star Wars. But if you're trying to claim that the majority of everyday people as well as the most dedicated of nerds no longer enjoy this franchise, then I have to significantly disagree with you, there. The hardcore fans who are actually fans and aren't just the toxic corners of the fandom are still very much in love with this franchise. And the casual fans haven't noticed a difference and still go to the movies and watch the shows whenever they find the time. This "battle" is only real if you accept the exclusively online narrative at face value. Veteran nerds of any franchise like this know what the deal is from the beginning: there are often multiple continuities in these fictional worlds. Marvel and DC have multiple Earths. Star Trek has alpha and beta canon, and within those, two major timelines of alternative events. And beyond that, we Trekkers have always known that the books, comics, and games are considered apocryphal unless the movies and shows decide to bring elements from them into the on-screen canon for creative reasons. Halo has gold and silver canon. Dungeons and Dragons has multiple campaign worlds with all their own lore, characters, and events, plus an alternative dimension that connects them all together. And on it goes. To pretend like Star Wars is somehow the only mythology that has some special right to never have more than one continuity of stories is honestly pretty silly. None of us fans of other mythologies have ever felt like we had the right to dictate how the creatives involved in the fictional worlds we loved chose to thrill us. We just enjoyed being thrilled. When I read a Trek comic, I don't sit around and bellyache about how the story I'm reading "didn't really happen" and therefore isn't being given the proper "respect." I only care about if I like the story or not. Frankly, I love that I can experience an infinite number of stories that take place in this universe, across as many continuities as the authors want to write. It keeps things fresh and allows true artists to never be limited about what stories they want to tell. "Legends" in Star Wars was never canon. When Lucas was in charge, he went on record more than once stating that he didn't regard the Expanded Universe (as it was called then) as part of his canon. But he still let people write stories in that separate continuity because he knew he could sell more books and merch that way. And sometimes, when he wanted to take elements from the EU, like Coruscant, he did so. But he never felt like he had to adhere to it, and he contracted it several times (e.g. when he wrote Boba Fett as a clone rather than being an alias of Jaster Mereel). So, to pretend now as if Disney hiring people to now add more to the canon timeline is somehow rendering the Legends stories as less important or outright retconning something is frankly just revisionist. I'm a veteran fan of Star Wars from the beginning, and I always knew the EU and the films were not happening in the same continuity. It didn't bother me then, and it doesn't bother me now. There's plenty of room for both. The Legends books are being given the premium re-release treatment constantly under Disney's ownership. If they really wanted to "erase" that stuff like people claim, they wouldn't invest the time and money in these premium packages for those stories to find new life. But they have. There is no conspiracy to erase old Star Wars.

Keep hating on the prequels, maybe we'll get a sequel-sequel trilogy

midichlorians doesnt fucking contradict or demystify the Force FFS

The Templin institutes First Order - New Republic war timeline is my only true canon

five minutes in and you have a new subscriber. You managed to link two of my favorite topics together and that is the canon of Star Wars and the Canon of Holy Writ as I have a profound interest in both!

The canon storyline ends with Return of the Jedi End of story

Legends is canon. What disney did was keep starwars alive and away from china by beating starwars till it went into a coma. It just needs a revive. (new ownership)

Anakin's lightsaber? Luke's lightsaber

The dumbest thing LucasFilm ever did was pretend the EU was on the same level as the films. Short-term, it allowed hard-core fans to get really invested in something a tiny percentage of fans would bother with. Long-term, it was always going to be sacrificed the moment it proved inconvenient. You were the girl in the car in Death Proof that got asked by Atuntman Mike if you were going left or right. It just took you a lot longer to start getting scared. Lucas had no problem ditching stuff when the prequels were developed and had he made his sequel trilogy, he would have wiped all the post-RotJ canon, too... because it never really mattered. He's been wiping stuff from Continuity since 1978 when he completely ignored a Holiday Special and a sequel novel.

Star Wars has never been a consistently good franchise. We mainly focus on the good things now but the prequels are mostly trash and there's also a lot of trash in the EU. The George Lucas era wasn't as perfect as it's made to be now. A lot of Disney Star Wars has been bad but we've also gotten stuff like Rogue One, Andor, Rebels, Solo, The Force awakens, The Bad Batch and The Mandalorion which I think is all solid Star Wars content. I think Disney just has to be more focused on quality control. We don't need a Star Wars project every year and we need to get away from George's work (the Skywalker trilogy). Make a story a thousand years in the past or future, whatever. Just get away from the established stuff and make some fresh Star Wars. This will also open doors for more talented directors to come in and create unique content in this universe. They desperately need a revitalization to the franchise

(I'd believe you if you told me this was a parody of star wars) It really feels like this show is a side effect of this horrible trend that we keep seeing over & over. It's people getting positions, who seem to in no way DESERVE those positions. It doesn't seem like they hired them based off of talent or skill..? A show this expensive, with this famous of a subject, should Not have this bad of writing. The world design, the set design, the aesthetics, the overall look & feel of it's visuals as a whole come off pretty cheap. It's all so surface level & tacky. On top of everything people have already said, I also think the camera work in this is awful. This show genuinely feels like kids who are role playing as adults in order to direct this.. It really feels like it's deliberately going against everything that is Star Wars. It feels deliberately disrespectful to the lore and has no respect to the source material. Are they deathly allergic to having male characters? Are they allergic to quality storytelling, world building, character development.. This is awful! It really seems like whoever is making these doesn't realize Star Wars used to be a really well made world full of diversity. It didn't matter what kind of character, creature, species you were, they found great ways to convey artistic depictions of the Human condition. Creative ways that connect us all on a deeper level. Things used to take pride in finding creative ways to convey things. To give the audience feelings without overly explaining it. I really miss that. If you go back and watch "X-Men the animated series" It is so well crafted. The story of mutants was so universally relatable. Media back then found ways to abstractly teach me life lessons, touched on difficult situations, found intelligent ways to tell stories. Even when I watched it all grown up it really felt like the story is so well crafted and executed that anyone is able to relate to it in someway or another. It's stuff like that that we are so deeply lacking nowadays. So much so that literal kid's cartoons from the 90's told deeper and more mature stories than most media nowadays.

Legends was going to be decanonized eithervway. George was desp into pre production on epusode 7 and it didnt center around any if the EU stories, nor did George intend to pull from those stories. He didnt consider the EU part of "his" universe.

Yo fuck Star Wars, Lucas shoulda never sold it to Disney but I don’t blame him, lotta cash changed hands.

I think Disney should adopt a modified version of the old Lucasfilm canon system that will allow them the flexibility to write new material with some ability to adjust for feedback from the fandom. Not a veto system, more like a notice and comment rulemaking American government agencies use. (Make your comment and maybe we'll adjust if need be) Something that give the fans a sense that they aren't being dictated to by interlopers whose sole claim is legal ownership while protecting that ownership. Also, 12:57, you're using Immaculate Conception wrong. Conception requires a mother and father, which is why it isn't used to describe Jesus' incarnation. Yes, I will die on this hill.

I still find it ridiculous to assert that the Force is just "midichlorians." How do midichlorians explain telekinesis, mind control, prophetic dreams, virgin births, or any of the magic? Midichlorians are, quite literally, such a small part of it.

How it broke lore and the reactions between prequel and sequel trilogy is a false equlivance.

the only reason it appears to be an issue of authorship is because george lucas as been shifted from a focus of fan ire to fan worship. certain kinds of “fans” will always find reasons to hate new star wars, whether lucas is at the helm or is a deified figure representing an imagined golden age. now that lucas is gone, it’s easy to spin a narrative that some gargantuan, nebulous entity named disney is solely at fault for making lackluster stories - when the beloved old EU produced just about as many stinkers as this new era is. many people’s foundational idea of star wars and canon has always involved ideas that didn’t come from lucas, many of which he straight up ignored or disliked, though he cherrypicked ideas and character he liked as well. we’d be having this same conversation if lucas steamrolled the old legends canon to make his own sequels. the old EU was groaning under its weight and size after 35 years of material; some big reboot of some kind was probably inevitable. when the biggest fan complains over “canon” materialize into death threats over ki-adi mundi’s birthday, we know it’s not actually about canon any more. the most angry and outspoken “fans” now simply want star wars to be a battleground for the culture war. grifters have turned many fans’ love of the franchise into rage against disney, so many will despise disney content even if it’s good or does exactly what they want it to do. star wars has always existed in some shape or form outside of george lucas, and people have always made up their minds about what star wars they do or don’t accept. the fan outrage today rivals that of the prequels, and much of it is boosted by the fact that hatred is perpetuated by dishonest creators to make gobs of many from outrage clicks. despite your video’s high production quality, i don’t think you said a single interesting thing. i’m not sure what you’re proposing here - that the fans angry with disney ignore its canon and focus on the old EU? sure, plenty already do. but eventually lucas is going to kick the bucket; eventually, we will have a star wars with no george lucas no matter what timeline we’re in, and ever since 1977 we’ve had star wars stories written without him. so what should we do? just stop making more star wars? lame.