KMC Forums - The levels of and information on Star Wars canon (for the confused/clueless)

The Holocron

By 1996, Licensing was keeping an in-house bible of reference materials as the volume of publications, facts, and figures grew to such unwieldy proportions that it became difficult to know everything relevant to a particular project. They finally decided something had to be done to organize the increasingly large collection of media which chronicled the Star Wars universe. So, it was decided that a system of canon would be developed which would organize the materials into what was and wasn't fit for the Star Wars story.

As of 2000, Lucas Licensing has appointed Leland Chee to create a continuity tracking database referred to as the "Holocron". As with every other aspect having to do with the overall story of Star Wars, the Holocron follows the canon policy that has been in effect for years.

The Holocron is divided into 4 levels: G-canon, C-canon, S-canon, and N-canon.

G-canon is absolute canon; the movies (their most recent release), the scripts, the novelizations of the movies, the radio plays, and any statements by George Lucas himself. G-canon always overrides the lower levels of canon when there is a contradiction. Within G-canon, many fans follow an unofficial progression of canonicity where the movies are the highest canon, followed by the scripts, the novelizations, and then the radio plays.

C-canon is primarily comprised of elements from the Expanded Universe including books, comics, and games bearing the label of Star Wars. Games and RPG sourcebooks are a special case; the stories and general background information are themselves fully C-canon, but the other elements such as character/item statistics and gameplay are, with few exceptions, N-canon.

S-canon is "secondary" canon; the story itself is considered non-continuity, but the non-contradicting elements are still a canon part of the Star Wars universe. This includes things like the popular online roleplaying game Star Wars: Galaxies and certain elements of a few N-canon stories.

N-canon is "non-canon". What-if stories (such as stories published under the Star Wars: Infinities label), game stats, and anything else directly contradicted by higher canon ends up here. N-canon is the only level that is not considered canon by Lucasfilm.

To summarize, all elements are part of the Star Wars story, unless they contradict the events of the six films in a way that cannot be rationalized. All elements contradicting the films are deemed apocrypha, and are not considered canon. There is also an "infinities" storyline in Star Wars publishing, which has the intent of telling non-canon Star Wars stories, using a "what-if?" attitude.

Keep this in mind... The issue of canon is brought up again and again on these forums...

Very good. This should be a "Read Me."

third.

all in favor?

AYE!!

Good stuff, the only problem is the people who dispute it are generally too silly to read it.

That's only for EU continuity, you understand. That's why the licensing people did it.

Hence, of course, why it belongs in the EU section.

An Ancient Prophecy . . . The deity shall walk forth . . .

I wanted to make sure people were clear on that.

Of course we are.

...

An Ancient Prophecy . . . The deity shall walk forth . . .

So the Clone Wars Cartoon is C-Canon, right?

yep, approved by lucas, in general timeline with movies, yep, definitely C Canon, but So is LoE... So figure that one out

What about quotes from people like Nick Gillard? Where do they fall on that list of canon? Where does Star Wars Insider fall in along the list of things that are G-Canon? Inbetween Scripts and novels?

Comments from Nick Gilliard, if they are about the making of his parts of the movie (because, after all, he has nothing to do with the EU), are therefore part of the movies and are canon with them.

Insider has no claim to continuity at all, frankly. They will happiliy throw out comments about Lukle being a better lightsabre duellist than Qui-Gon.

Scripts and novels (and the radio plays) are full movie canon and so come in as a G on this scale.

NG's official title is Stunt Coordinator, Ush. Last I checked, he has all the official access to George Lucas's will and mind that the Gaffer and Lighting Director do. NG's also got a hard-on for Anakin and Sidious so big he had to be surgically removed from the theater chair during the preview. He's a dubious source AND a biased one.

NG actually creative designed scenes. His intent is rather vital, besides which, GL 100% agreed with him all the way.

Hence, his comments on the scenes he designed are as canonical as a writer's about the scenes he writes.

Yes, his comments on the action IN the scenes. NG cannot offer us insight into the actual battle itself, nor can he make gross claims like he has about Sidious' saber prowess and mastery (Such as being ambidextrous, can use all weapons, is unbeatable in combat), and his point rating system is pretty damn assinine too. I've seen people before in the past take random hyperbole and BS from Nick and turn it around into canonical fact- that should never be the case. He deals strictly with choreography.