200 Days of Star Wars: The Phantom Canon

I remember when The Phantom Menace first came to theaters in 1999.  I was in high school and was highly engrossed in all of the Star Wars literature.  This was a BIG DEAL!  At least, it was to me.  I remember going to see the movie in the theaters and being completely blown away by it.  It opened up a whole new world.  Granted, by this time in Star Wars lore, we pretty much knew the fate of Darth Vader and how Anakin made that transition.  But we’d never seen it.

I enjoyed the story and, no, Jar Jar did not really aggravate me too much.  I appreciated his character for the comic relief he provided.  Would the movie have been just as good without him?  Yes, but I don’t loathe the movie due to his inclusion.

This is where the official start of the new canon is located.  Officially, only the Blu-Ray release is a part of the canon, as minor and subtle changes were made before the release.  I cannot speak to the recent digital releases, but I suspect they are the same as the Blu-Ray release.  The novelization of the movie is not, as a whole, considered canon.  I have read several sources that have stated the same, but this site has some other good info on it, too.  “For the novel and comic adaptations only the scenes/dialogue which align to that seen on screen are canon, the rest of the adaptation is classed as Legends.”

The novel introduces us to Darth Bane, the rule of two, Anakin’s dealing with Tusken’s, and a few other gems that I think add something to the canon.  At this stage, I really don’t see why the stories out there (Darth Bane trilogy, Darth Plagueis, Outbound Flight, and Darth Maul novels, for example) could not still be a part of the canon as backstory.  There is also valuable content in comics and short stories that take place in this era of Star Wars lore.  I have not re-read them as part of this journey (perhaps next year?), though.

Furthermore, it appears as if Terry Brooks, the author of the novelization, was highly influenced by none other than George Lucas himself regarding content of the book.

“Brooks met with Lucas before writing the book and received his approval and guidance, including information about developments to come in Episodes II and III.” (starwars.wikia.com)

“The novelization is especially well-known for a passage describing the history of the Sith, including Darth Bane.  According to Terry Brooks’s memoir, Sometimes the Magic Works, Lucas spent an hour on the telephone with him discussing the history of the Jedi and the Sith.  Therefore, the information on this subject provided in Brooks’s novelization might derive from Lucas himself.” (starwars.wikia.com)

“Author Terry Brooks built upon the screenplay by George Lucas for his novel, benefiting from direct input from Lucas to confidently expand the story.” (Pablo Hidalgo, The Essential Reader’s Companion, entry on The Phantom Menace)

So, while not “officially” a part of the canon, a large part of what is included in the book but not a part of movie may very well be content from George himself.  This would, in the former days of canon, have made this potentially G-canon, which is the highest order of canon that can be bestowed on Star Wars material.

If you want the “complete” experience, there is an app that was published by Disney called Star Wars Beginnings.  This app is like an interactive storybook.  In theory, since it was published by Disney on December 18, 2014, it should be considered canon since it falls after the April 25, 2014 date.  The unfortunate thing about the app is that it is a money-grab.  There is no way to unlock the full story without purchasing the app.  The content looks promising, though I have to admit I haven’t purchased the app as of yet.

Thus far, my 200 days of Star Wars has been:
May 10 – Watched The Phantom Menace Blu-Ray
May 10 – May 17 – Read The Phantom Menace novel
May 16 –  Began looking at Star Wars Beginnings.
May 17 – Read Star Wars Junior: Jedi Escape, Star Wars Junior: Obi Wan’s Bongo Adventure, Episode I: Dangers of the Core, and The Phantom Menace comic by Dark Horse.  I also looked at two additional books for young readers: Episode I: Queen in Disguise and The Queen’s Amulet.

There are many more young reader books I’ll be exploring as part of this endeavor, and those will be talked about in the next post, as I have a chance to read through them.

So, let’s take a look at these extra books for this week and see what there is to discover.  Episode I: Queen in Disguise and The Queen’s Amulet are two stories that take place before The Phantom Menace.  The first book explains how the idea of Padme and Rabe changing places periodically as a decoy came to be.  It is an interesting read (I’ve read it before), but I skipped over it this time because it technically isn’t a part of The Phantom Menace.  The Queen’s Amulet dives into the history of the amulet that the queen wears throughout The Phantom Menace.  Again, this book is not a part of The Phantom Menace, so it did not get a read this time and does not make it into the list of canon, whether official or unofficial.

Jedi Escape, Obi-Wan’s Bongo Adventure, and Dangers of the Core are simply adaptations of the movie.  Jedi Escape tells how Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escape the Trade Federation blockade ship and survive to reach the planet.  Obi-Wan’s Bongo Adventure and Dangers of the Core are both stories about the adventure leaving Otoh Gunga to the arrival at Theed.  Lastly, the Dark Horse adaptation of the movie follows the movie quite close.  The only difference in any of these books and the movie is the dialogue being somewhat off.  Personally, I don’t think this is that big of an issue.  In a couple of the books, they incorporate the bongo-headed-to-the-waterfall deleted scene from the arrival at Theed scene from the movie, which previously would have been considered G-canon.  So, with that, I would also include these as canonical entries into the timeline.

In conclusion, here is what we have so far:
O = Official canon entry, U = Unofficial canon entry
1. O The Phantom Menace (movie)
2. U The Phantom Menace (novel)
3. U Star Wars Junior: Jedi Escape (young reader)
4. U Star Wars Junior: Obi-Wan’s Bongo Adventure (young reader)
5. U Episode I: Dangers of the Core (young reader)
6. U The Phantom Menace (comic)

Introduction

I’ve been thinking on the idea of starting a new blog from scratch for quite some time, now.  Eventually, as I build this one up, I will probably close the other two down.  I may go through and republish anything that is worth keeping, or offer added thoughts on those topics.

My hope is that with this blog we can start a conversation.  A conversation that is clean, thought provoking, and uplifting.  I will not tolerate cyber-bullying, and hopefully spam will remain low.

My goal at this point is to publish a new post once a week.  We’ll see how that goes.  🙂

If you feel you have something to add to this conversation, please consider joining and sharing this blog.  The more participation we have, the better our conversation can be, and the more we can learn.