Are the Novels Canon?

Knight Joined: 07 Feb 2012 Posts: 358 Location: USA

I'm curious, are the novels considered canon? I'm rereading Jedi Twilight and Evan Piell is in there. The book takes place after Order 66 however, in the CW Season 3 Piell is killed. So....which is correct?
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EUC Staff Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 1204 Location: Nirn

Well, some are and some aren't. Sometimes even bits in a novel are and others are up for debate.

But I think you can probably discuss this in our Continuity Discussion Smile

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Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1415

Here's how canon goes in descending order or canonicity.

G-canon: Movies and documentaries made for the movies. Also some statements by GL.

T-canon: recent addition because of TCW. So TCW is higher canon than books, but below G-canon.

C-canon: Books, comics, short stories and certain aspects of the video games. The facts in C-canon are canon until contradicted by higher canon -- such as your Even Piell situation.

Non-canon: Infinities and fan fiction.

So except for the last one, it's all canon.
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Don't forget S-canon, the level between C and Non. It represents older materials (such as Marvel Star Wars and Classic Star Wars newstrip comics). Elements of S-canon stories may be taken up by others (making them C-canon), or ignored altogether (making them non-canon).

But note that no new material is ever called S-canon. This only represents the stories written before there was ever any attempt to keep things in continuity. Elements in S-canon stories may be retconned as needed without consequence. The ultimate goal is to be transient. One day all material that was classified as S-canon will be either acknowledged by newer sources and made C-canon, or abandoned altogether and made Non-canon.

For example, the stories at the end of Marvel Star Wars featuring Lumiya were used as a background for the article Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties and the Legacy of the Force novels. I honestly can't think of any S-canon elements made non-canon, but that's not to say that none exist.
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Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1415

Thanks, Taral, I knew I was forgetting something even as I entered the post. I just couldn't remember what I was forgetting.

Poor Marvel. Generally it gets so little love. lol
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is that whatever George Lucas says is canon and everything else is left in murky territory.

As Cerrinea demonstrated the hierarchies of canon can create a conflict with each other which may necessitate the the story be changed to rectify that conflict by what is called retro-active continuity (retcon).

As of yet there has been no retcon for this story, so the canonical version of events is that Jedi Piell was seen dying in the Clone Wars and then later seen still alive in Jedi twilight after order 66- and I guess we have to use our imagination to explain why that is.

I vote that Even Piell had a identical twin brother, and both of them were Jedi. Was it IR that suggested they spelled their name only slightly different? Laughing

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Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1415

I like the identical twin brother idea. I was going to fall back on that totally overused Star-Wars-escape-from-clause, the clone. Very Happy

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Knight Joined: 07 Feb 2012 Posts: 358 Location: USA

Thanks guys.
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"Study art...", said Thrawn.

"Vote for Papa Palpatine".

I'm pretty sure it was you, back on TOS, when you weren't Taral, as such. Unless you picked it up from someone else? Well, either way, you were the first person I saw who promoted that theory, so I presumed it was you!
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Padawan Joined: 29 Sep 2011 Posts: 62

With the amount of material in the Star Wars universe now, and the canon that basically everything that isn't the Movies is a lesser level of canon, I suppose you could really just make up your own canon right now.

I personally like my personal canon of the Big 3's escapades ending at the Hand of Thrawn Duology and the prequel trilogy just never being created Wink

Padawan Joined: 29 Sep 2011 Posts: 62