How much merit is put on Lucas' statements?
I've always been curious what people thought of certain things he says, such as Vader being on Maul/Dookus tier, Anakin being 200% of Palpatines power with his full potential realized, etc. Also this would extend to him line-editing the ROTS novelization as well.
I wouldn't put much in there. A lot of the things he says he doesn't think through as ideas. He just says them as estimations of what the concepts in his head are. So I wouldn't accept them as canon or absolute, but they're a good idea of where Lucas' head was when he was thinking about these things.
The only way I wouldn't take an explicit statement from Lucas as incontrovertible fact, is if it were flagrantly contradicted by the new Disney canon. Sans that, his word is just about as irrefutable as a source can possibly get in this franchise.
After all, the six films Lucas created, along with TCW(which he was heavily involved in the creation of) are still the pinnacle of absolute canon in SW... So it stands to reason that his statements should be regarded with the same level of absolute authority/validity in *most* cases.
I really don't understand why the legal limitations on star wars content seem to mean validity for people. In a fictional story, it's not really important, at least to me, what the legal canonocity is. So it doesn't matter to me if a story was written by George Lucas or by Hayden Blackman, the material is just as important/relevant. You can label it "legends" and "D-canon, G-canon, T-canon, C-canon, or S-canon", all that matters is that it's not NON-canon.
Lucas said that Anakin would have become twice as powerful as Sidious if he'd reached his full potential, but of course, he went on to change that, and it was an off-hand comment. It shouldn't be considered an accurate statistic . It's just a good indication that Lucas wanted Anakin to be far, far more powerful than the most powerful sith lord in history. Same goes for Vader being 80% of Sidious' power. Just a random statistic he thought of which shows what he thought of Vader and Sidious, but shoudn't be taken as an actual statistic.
His interpretations of the characters of Maul/Dooku/Vader are also good ideas of what the characters are meant to be, but there's just too much content out there to rely solely on Lucas' comments. What we interpret from what we see takes precedent over Lucas' interpretation.
Now, legally, some comments are considered official, but they mean nothing to me, since authorial intent is just meaningless when a work is open to interpretation. I know you're going to say that we're on an official site and we need a standard of what's considered valid, but the way some of our members here, especially Az, twist the story to make their desires for the universe come true (but support it with textual evidence), it's basically as good as being open to interpretation.
Nothing. That old guy says a lot of nonsense and frequently changes his mind.
This is the guy who ruined Star Wars. And I daresay that the writers should earn more credit. They are the ones who created Star Wars, literally. Lucas just came with one major idea or two.
Writer: Luke is not Vader's father. Father of Luke was killed by Vader
Lucas: NOOOOOO! Vader is Luke's father!!!!! End of Story!!
Writer: A main character should be Anakin's father whose identity will never be revealed and it is up to readers/watchers to identify him.
Lucas: Nooooooooo! The Force is Anakin's father. He is Jesus the Satan!!!!!!
Writer: Everyone should be able to use the Force with proper training.
Lucas: Nooooooooooo! Not everyone! Some! Midi-chlorians are stored in the balls!!!!!!!
*years later*
Lucas sells Star Wars to Disney. That just shows how much he cared about "his" franchise. He gave zero ****s. No wonder there are so many inconsistencies in Star Wars(the Force, Anakin's potential)
Originally posted by Freedon Nadd
Nothing. That old guy says a lot of nonsense and frequently changes his mind.
This is the guy who ruined Star Wars. And I daresay that the writers should earn more credit. They are the ones who created Star Wars, literally. Lucas just came with one major idea or two.Writer: Luke is not Vader's father. Father of Luke was killed by Vader
Lucas: NOOOOOO! Vader is Luke's father!!!!! End of Story!!Writer: A main character should be Anakin's father whose identity will never be revealed and it is up to readers/watchers to identify him.
Lucas: Nooooooooo! The Force is Anakin's father. He is Jesus the Satan!!!!!!Writer: Everyone should be able to use the Force with proper training.
Lucas: Nooooooooooo! Not everyone! Some! Midi-chlorians are stored in the balls!!!!!!!*years later*
Lucas sells Star Wars to Disney. That just shows how much he cared about "his" franchise. He gave zero ****s. No wonder there are so many inconsistencies in Star Wars(the Force, Anakin's potential)
pms bro
If you take Lucas' words as facts, then according to him Legends and "his world" are entirely separate entities. Case in point: in Legends, Anakin gets his scar from fighting Ventress, but in Lucas' universe, he slipped in a bathtub; in Legends, Palpatine comes back and Luke marries Mara Jade, but in Lucas' universe, none of that ever happened.
If you don't take Lucas' words as appliccable to Legends, then you got nothing to worry about. Even Lucas agrees with you.
Originally posted by Azronger
If you take Lucas' words as facts, then according to him Legends and "his world" are entirely separate entities. Case in point: in Legends, Anakin gets his scar from fighting Ventress, but in Lucas' universe, he slipped in a bathtub; in Legends, Palpatine comes back and Luke marries Mara Jade, but in Lucas' universe, none of that ever happened.If you don't take Lucas' words as appliccable to Legends, then you got nothing to worry about. Even Lucas agrees with you.
🙂
Originally posted by Azronger
If you take Lucas' words as facts, then according to him Legends and "his world" are entirely separate entities. Case in point: in Legends, Anakin gets his scar from fighting Ventress, but in Lucas' universe, he slipped in a bathtub; in Legends, Palpatine comes back and Luke marries Mara Jade, but in Lucas' universe, none of that ever happened.If you don't take Lucas' words as appliccable to Legends, then you got nothing to worry about. Even Lucas agrees with you.
Do you apply Gillard’s tiering system to Legends?