Was the Expanded Universe George Lucas' Vision for Star Wars?

What was George Lucas' involvement with the Expanded Universe? Did he have a direct hand in it, and does it represent what his ideas for the story of Star Wars were? Today we're going to dive into the complicated history.

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#StarWars #Legends

[AragornGhost]

According to Dave Wolverton, George Lucas read the Courtship of Princess Leia. That's why Lucas like the Dathomir Witches by the way.
Also, he loved the WEG RPG Guides, that's why he said to Timothy Zahn to use it as a fondation for his novels.

And that's kind of my problem with George, he say everything and it's contrary. I will complete this comment later, I have to work but there is a lot of stuff there.

I just want to add: The EU isn't Lucas vision but say that he hates it (as some say) is mostly wrong...

[shocktuns]

Well, obviously it's not Lucas' vision. That doesn't mean the EU wasn't canon, because it was stated multiple times by Lucasfilm employees to be just that. It's why the Holocron keeper and Star Wars EU guidebooks existed in the first place. In "Star Wars: Insider" the Expanded Universe was constantly used as a source. Canon isn't created by one person, Star Wars stopped being Lucas' full property when the EU was created.

[Alex-jiob]

George reading the comics rather than the novels makes a lot of sense to me since George was always a more visual and overall full picture kind of guy rather than focus on all the nitty gritty details. So he'd be fine with the comics since they're purely visual while he wouldn't give much of a care for the novels since they're just texts, which definitely explains his inclusion of Aayla Secura in AOTC

[mr_h]

"One of the things that i found out when researching this video, is that starwars is actually entirely fictional"
You sir have one heck of a sense of humor. xD

[kidcardco]

I agree!

Only thing to add is that George MAY have been reading the first couple of novels because a lot of those authors received letters from Lucas congratulating them on their books.

But to add to that, all of the authors I spoke to cannot be sure that meant George had read it or not, it may have been him just being nice.

I love Legends and feel it was more "in line" with Lucas' vision but like you said, George made it explicitly clear that his vision was only the 6 movies he made.

Good video.

[noneedmen]

Some folks hate on the EU and Lucas himself has been kinda wishy washy on it at times but I was one of those who read just about everything EU. It had its issues no doubt but there was at least a decent attempt at continuity which I appreciated. I wish they'd adept the KOTOR games but whatever I'm still glad I got all those stories to read throughout the decades. New stuff just doesn't have the same hook and it just feels disrespectful to all the characters I grew to love.

[grandadmiralzaarin]

That's kind of the problem with using Lucas as a 'Word of God' since he's actively changed his own 'vision' of what he had planned, came up with and changed mentally over the last few decades just in regards to his films alone.

[marty]

IMHO, despite his work for Lucasfilm, I can't consider Pablo Hidalgo to be a reliable source for this kind of content for a few years now. I know the Twitter can be messy place, but his treatment of Legends fans there got pretty awful and has taken a turn downwards from the time before 2014 in very much the same way Lucasfilm employees and some media outlets later attacked fans who criticised TLJ.

[thesweuteen]

George may have not considered the EU as his personal vision and there are things he would've done differently. But that doesn't change the fact that he acknowledged the EU as apart of the official Star Wars history. He loved many aspects of the EU and disliked many aspects of it as well, which is a sentiment we as fans of Star Wars have as well. There are things we dislike and there are things we like. That doesn't change the fact that we acknowledge it as apart of the official continuity and the official Star Wars history. George even acknowledged he tried to keep everything consistent, and in some cases he succeeded and some he didn't succeed in, which is irrelevant. George's stuff was always the objective canon that couldn't be removed from canon unless he did so himself, and the EU was always bound by what was seen in the films, much like a dog is bound to their owner's leash. That doesn't expel the EU from being apart of the Star Wars canon (before Disney) and having a place in the story. This was the hierarchy system. You had G-canon, which is the films and then C-canon, which is everything else and that is completely bound by what was seen in G-canon. That's why every single "contradiction" the prequels made with the EU was eventually retconned and brought back into the canon, like Boba Fett's backstory. That's how it worked. There simply is no concrete evidence that the EU was in an alternate universe that is completely separate from the films. Lucasfilm reiterated time and again that the EU was apart of the same universe as the films. The EU was nearly the same when it comes to canonicity as the films, the difference being it had the ability to be removed from canon of George's work contradicted it. But, that former C-canon material (like the Boba Fett/Jaster Mereel backstory) had the ability to be reintroduced into the canon if there is a retcon that changed that C-canon slightly to eliminate the contradiction that formally existed. George was a very inconsistent man when it comes to a lot of different things anyway. This quote is an example:

“After Star Wars was released, it became apparent that my story—however many films it took to tell—was only one of thousands that could be told about the characters who inhabit its galaxy. But these were not stories I was destined to tell. Instead they would spring from the imagination of other writers, inspired by the glimpse of a galaxy that Star Wars provided. Today it is an amazing, if unexpected, legacy of Star Wars that so many gifted writers are contributing new stories to the Saga.”-George Lucas introduction to the 1994 reprint of splinter of the Mind’s Eye

This quote from George seems to suggest a much more positive connotation when it comes to his relationship with the EU, unlike the Starlog quote used in the video. So when so many people use George as an argument to prove the EU was never canon, they seem to cherry-pick certain quotes and completely ignore other quotes he or his company said as well. But what we do know as an objective fact is that Lucasfilm continuity editors and authors considered the EU to be the official history of the Star Wars universe:

“Basically, everything except those items marked with an “Infinity” logo (i.e. the Star Wars Tales comics) is considered canon.”-Sue Rostoni, Lucas Books and Lucas Licensing Managing Editor, Starwars.com May 30, 2003

“According to Lucas Licensing Editor Sue, Rostoni, ‘Canon refers to an authoritative list of books that Lucas Licensing editors consider an authentic part of the official Star Wars history. Our goal is to present a continuous and unified history of the Star Wars galaxy, insofar as that history does not conflict with, or undermine the meaning of Mr. Lucas’s Star Wars saga of films and screenplays.’ Things that Lucas Licensing does not consider official parts of the continuous Star Wars history show an Infinities logo or are contained in Star Wars Tales. Everything else is considered canon.”-Sue Rostoni, Lucas Books and Lucas Licensing Managing Editor, in Star Wars gamer #6, July 1, 2001

[fridaynightnicktoons]

Anti Disney people say the eu was George's canon, pro Disney people say he's anti eu. The truth is however that he LOVED the eu, and helped make it and everything had to be approved by him, HOWEVER he considered it a seperate canon from his own. The eu was canon (technically 3. T/C/S Canons) but they were seperate from his own. They're like James bond. Multible canons. All official but the original one is the creators canon.

[TheShadowchiefstudio]

Just wanna say thank you for bringing that Mara Jade sketch to light, she'll always be one of my favorite characters from the post-Endor EU, but that was hilarious

[attilathehun]

"No. Thanks for tuning in to Corey's Datapad. Sorry for the shorter video today."

[nunouno]

I found it so strange that Star Wars Fans today are so fixated on the idea of citing George Lucas vision as the reason they love Star Wars or Legends. When if you go back in time, for over ten years George Lucas was quite possibly the most despised and reviled figure in the fandom.

This was not a vocal minority, it was so widespread that they made an actual documentary “The People Vs. George Lucas” that chronicles the utterly broken relationship George has with fans had for years.

But now it’s like this never happened and it honestly feels like people are trying to create a false narrative or world where Star Wars was this golden perfect franchise that was only ruined when Disney showed up.

Which I just find so disingenuous.

[TheMrPeteChannel]

Lucas only cared about a few E.U. details like how Mara Jade & Luke worked out & Revan. He also lay down a few rules like u cant kill off the "big 3". The rest he really didn't care about.

[stormwolf]

Some people do question LF's involvement in publishing and official licensing and some how come to the conclusion that despite the NEU and Legends both being licensed and published the same that Legends was fanfic while the NEU is canon.

[anrangutan]

One of the funniest things (to me) is despite the EU having numerous different writers and creative teams, it's somehow more consistent than George's Singular vision at times, which is absurd to think about considering how large the scale of the EU is, it just almost all fits together like one huge, batshit crazy puzzle.

Meanwhile, George changes his mind on things and retcons things

[ArcBing]

So good! Very well put together, love the approach and conversation as always

[IrishPhoenix]

Someone make that drake meme with George Lucas’s face instead with Mara Jade on the top panel and Darth Talon on the bottom panel

[ravager-]

A longer Datapad video from time to time.. This Is The Way.. _And thank you Corey, more people need to know about Reality & great work as always.. 👍. _ _ Hope the move went well & is Pest free..

[anrangutan]

It's interesting, why set rules and prohibitions if none of it mattered in the bigger picture? If it doesn't count, why were writers forced to follow these rules set by George