Is "Cut Content", specifically TLSRCM, to be considered Canon?
Often when discussing The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, unfinished episodes from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, or plot points that were never finished due to the Disney reshuffle from PT to OT eras, people fight tooth and nail that unfinished content is not to be considered canon.
The forum does not have an overarching consensus on the subject, so every debate in which this material is used devolves into a repeat of every other debate on the subject of what is considered canonical. I'd like to present the arguments of the "canon" crowd in this thread in a somewhat conclusive statement as to why they must be considered canon. Anyone who has a differing opinion may reply, debate, and help reach an overarching consensus on what this forum thinks.
I understand we'll never reach a phase where these things are not debated in threads, but hopefully this thread will help to remove clutter and bring the forum back to a point where the characters themselves can actually be debated.
First:
Cut Content as a whole.
Leland Che discussed Canon breakdown on the Star Wars: Message Boards way back when, in 2007. He had this to say:
"The database does indeed have a canon field. Anything in the films and from George Lucas (including unpublished internal notes that we might receive from him or from the film production department) is considered "G" canon. Next we have what we call continuity "C" canon which is pretty much everything else.
In this he shows that Lucasarts view scripts as canon, as much as they do the final product. If this is the policy used by the Holocron for G-Canon, it's certainly the same for canon tiers below that. Especially given his words on C canon being "everything else".
This was further clarified recently, credit to Beniboybling for the quotes:
"We consider it to have happened so that's how we inform the writing in Rebels because that's the history that these characters carry in their heads."
"We shared with her [E.K. Johnston] all the stuff we are sharing with you now, even more so. So that when you read this book and you're wondering, wow there's a reference to a fight with Maul, there's a reference to the Siege of Mandalore, we thought it was important for you to understand that she's just not inventing this from whole cloth. The author really worked with Dave and us to find out where Ahsoka is in this point in her life."
This mindset fits with Leland Che's analysis that Deleted Scenes are Canon:
Yes, unless they conflict with something else seen in the films or if the reasoning behind deleting the scene keeps it from being continuity.
So how does this fit in with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (Seeing as almost all other cut content is conclusively canonized with these quotes).
So far, we have heard that:
[list][*]Script Notes are Canon
[*]Deleted Scenes are Canon unless deleted for continuity reasons
[*]Authors continue to write characters based off scenes that never made it into the public domain.[/list]
Addressing the first point, the script notes were released with the official game in a text file that anyone who bought the game can view. In said text file, it explains how every scene was originally supposed to go down. That's why when restored Content modders create scenes like Traya butchering 20 Sith Assassins, and strangling Sion, they're reading it straight from the script. The script for that scene says the following:
"{Choking}Why... have you returned?{Calm}Why have you returned?Because now I understand why the exile did what he did. There is much to be done.{CUTSCENE 1: Gameplay Programmer: This cutscene takes place on a level similar to 903. It should be a sight of Kreia walking through the halls, silently. Dwell on her for about 3 seconds.}{Gameplay Programmer: In the next scene, cut to a shot of Kreia from behind, with Dark Side assassins materializing behind her, whispering - there should be almost up to 20, enough to make the audience go, "oh crap."}{Gameplay Programmer: Cut to a camera of Kreia's face, smiling. She does not turn around as the assassins advance.}{Gameplay Programmer: Cut to black, play Kreia's stinger - I want this to be a "flash of black" like a quick cut in a movie.}{Gameplay Programmer: Cut to a scene of Kreia still walking along the same path, but ALL the assassins are lying dead on the ground.}[Gameplay Programmer: Puts Sion in a Force Crush, rises him into the air.][Fade to Black.]"
These modders are not creating their own story, they are telling the Story how Obsidian originally intended, which moves me on to the second bullet point.
Obsidian did not delete these scenes for continuity reasons. Every scene shown in TSLRCM fits with the overall story and does not drastically change the finished product in any way. The loopholes left by the scenes are never closed, on Malachor the party may not show up in the vanilla game, but they're never explained as being anywhere else. Bao Dur never makes it to the HK factory in the original game, but we still know that he died and HK is missing.
These scenes were cut due to time constraints, as Chris Avellone explains here:
"There would have been substantial penalties had we not have made that date,"
And Feargus Urquhart explains here:
"What happened was—and as a lot of these things happen, no one means anything nefarious, no one means anything badly or anything like that—what happened was we were on the track to get done for Christmas, and the game was looking really good, I think there was some surprise within LucasArts that we were doing as good a job as we were. I think there were some parts of LucasArts that were worried that ‘Oh, this new developer and they're gonna **** it up like all new developers **** everything up.'"And so in early 2004 they took a look and they were like, ‘Wow!' Their QA was playing it, and they were like, ‘This has a lot of potential: let's move it out, let's give it time.' So they moved it out to the next year."
"On our side we didn't make sure that we had the contract changed, and then post-E3 I think financially something happened—I don't know what it was. And we got the call and they said it has to be done for Christmas... Again, I don't think this is anything nefarious, it just happened. Some of the onus is on us: we didn't get the contract changed. So we had to make this decision: get in trouble or get it done."
So they were forced to cut the unfinished areas of the game. In the same interview as Avellone, the lead programmer Anthony Davis says this of TSLRCM:
"One of the things we would talk about as the various Sith Restoration projects went on was just how lucky we were that the game was so well received by some great guys like you two guys, you would fix that which we could not fix. We were not allowed to. We're just - we're really appreciative of that.You helped complete the experience for many people. Many people who get the game for the first time, like from a Steam sale or whatever, their friends are going to tell them, 'Yeah, go get The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, put that on their first - that's the way it was intended to be.' And that's correct. And just, really, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, I mean it."
So, TL;DR: Obisidan supports TLSRCM as it tells Kotor II how it was supposed to be told. All additions are supported by script notes and scripts for the deleted scenes, which according to all executives at LucasArts, are considered canon.
There is absolutely no reason or logic behind not counting TSLRCM as canon, other than an attempt at underrating Kotor II characters.
TSLRCM is canon. Deal with it.