My Star Wars Canon

I saw the original Star Wars movie upon release in my High School years, I liked it and watched the two sequels when they came out and that was that, I wasn't a huge fan my enthusiasm had trailed off a bit when the Prequels started to appear and so I didn't have high hopes for them but I liked all of the Prequels. I personally experienced none of the outrage that was directed by fans at these movies. And "George Lucas ruined Star Wars" made no sense to me as he was the person who created it in the first place. 

So my love for those 6 movies has remained or even grown over time. They strike me as unique. I like Science fiction as a genre of books and my appreciation of that is mainly works from the 1940s to about the 1970s. There was an optimism and vibrancy of imagination and I suspect that partly because they were not accepted as "literature" there was something individualistic about them. As far as movies go Forbidden Planet is a classic and there are a few others from that time as well as TV series Star Trek, Doctor Who, Space 1999 I also think the 1960s shows The Avengers & The Prisoner have an aspect of sci fi and are excellent. 

George Lucas wanted to do a reboot of the Flash Gordon adventures and you can see that big screen ambitious, B Grade 1950s sensibility is the key to what makes Star Wars. It is a Science Fantasy with an abundance of fabulous creatures, settings and adventure. It makes me feel all warm inside. 

Lucas is old now and he got a lot of flack for making the Prequels so funnily enough he felt he couldn't devote his life to making another set of movies just to get more flack, so he sold it to Disney who said they would respect his stories and his legacy, but they lied to him and they did not. Lucas had written an outline for another film trilogy episodes 7,8&9 which Lucas film decided not to use probably because they thought fans wanted to pay big money to watch something that looks like episode 4 again, so that what they did even though in doing so it destroyed the continuity from the previous films. But anyway.

Now I've left something out, there was a Clone Wars movie that I didn't watch as I heard it was rubbish and their was a Clone Wars TV series which passed me by. However I had a daughter and I was always looking for DVDs to watch and the Clone Wars movie was in the sale bin for an irresistibly low price, so I bought it and I loved it as did my daughter and we bought the DVD series and they were an abundance of riches, my daughter particularly loved Ahsoka but i loved it all, it was a delight.

With the Release of the Force Awakens I experienced something of the emotions that those who had hated the Prequels experienced, watching the movie in the theatre I felt pleasing mild nostalgic feelings seeing Leia and Han older as I was and the Millennium Falcon and stuff, but upon stepping out and starting to think about what i had just seen I realised that the Triumphs of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewy had all turned to failure, they were losers and they didn't even bother to tell how they became such losers that was just back story and really the movie had none of Lucas' B Grade charm and undercurrent of humour. I didn't bother watching the next two, but I heard about them and nothing I heard made me eager to see them. 

However, I have watched quite a bit of the Rebels TV show, which is OK but totally non essential, it centres around a group of characters none of who I found particularly likeable. But it did no actual harm to earlier material and there was some nice bits where old characters showed up. 

The Movie Rogue 1 is is set just before episode IV but it has a unique grittier tone, but not without humour and pathos. Although there are no full Jedi it does have a cool Buddhist/Taoist kind of take on the force. It's a stand alone movie, an enjoyable watch with likeable characters and I'm glad it exists.

Then there were two seasons of the Mandalorian, which was a new take on Star Wars by John Favreau and Dave Filoni and it was set shortly after Episode 6 and was pleasing imaginatively, emotionally a kind of Star Wars Western was born and it worked at the end of season 2 there was a great conclusion to the story arc and it was done. It had managed to carve out a space that contradicted neither the original movies or Disney's monstrocities, but i suspect it will be hard to find such a place again, there have been more Favreau series since and I have found them all Ok but non essential, so I am happy that I have been able to get those two seasons on DVD.

So my visual canon is:

Films: Episodes I to VI

TV: The Clone Wars & The Mandalorian Seasons I&II

Which brings me to the books, I am now trying to work out a personal canon for these, I do not want to read them all, I don't have the time and inclination, but the Expanded Universe books were created with Lucas's approval and with some sort of high level guidance, even if it didn't mean he actually read them.

This is what I intend to read listed in chronological Order

Darth Plagueis by set prior to episode 1- Some Sith history

Episode III Revenge of the Sith Matthew Stovers - This is said to add depth to episode 3 as well as having some good character portraits of Count Dooku & others

Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry set between Episode 5 Empire Strikes Back and 6 The Return of the Jedi.  

Kenobi by John Jackson Miller - This is supposed to be a really good read and doesn't just focus on Obi Wan.

Rogue Squadron X Wing by Michael A Stackpole. Might read the first 4 of this X Wing Series, this focusses on unknown or lesser known characters and picks up the story after episode 6.

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, this is regarded as probably the most essential work in the expanded Universe, has some great new characters and a significant plot line often spoken of as the trilogy that should have been used for the sequel films: 

Heir of the Empire

Dark Force Rising

The Last Command

"I Jedi" by Michael A Stackpole - a good stand alone book references and builds on Thrawn and the X wing books.

The New Jedi Order - Maybe first 3 books, this is a big series too big for me to want to read it all, considered darker than much that went before, it has a good reputation, I'm interested to know if I'll like it :

Vector Prime

Dark Tide: Onslaught 

Dark Tide II: Ruin 

I have actually read the Thrawn Trilogy, I picked these by watching a number of youtube videos getting a sense of what they all thought were essential books, there was fairly wide agreement on what the important books were. This strikes me as a good rounded selection of works enough to fully indulge my love of Star Wars, to allow enjoyable repeated watching and reading and to be imaginatively satisfying. 

I have read plenty of novels including Science Fiction and Fantasy and yet I think reading Star Wars novels is a distinct thing in itself and that it is good to read books closely related to the film/TV format and material that extends beyond it. I think it will take a few books for it all to feel natural to me and I should update this as I read my way through some of these books.