So yesterday’s topic was indirectly inspired by a recent posting from That Park Place contributor Marvin Montanaro. Today’s article is directly inspired. As a reminder, Kathleen Kennedy gave a speech at BFI Film On Film showing of the original version of Star Wars, without all the special edition additions. That’s funny when you remember the unnecessary additions of the Special Editions, ignoring the amazing effects that were groundbreaking for 1979. The only scene I was happy to see back is Han meeting Jabba, though they already worked around those limitations with the Greedo scene. Speaking of which, it’s also the origin of “Han shot first”. I don’t recall if they put back the Luke and Biggs scene that’s in my old storybook but wasn’t in the movie, but there are photos in the storybook to prove it was filmed. The Special Editions were something fans had been upset about, wanting the original versions back in spite of George Lucas wanting what he considered the definitive version to be the only one ever released on TV, streaming, home video, and re-releases from then on. This is also the only thing fans would be happy about if it were a public release.
It’s no secret that since moving to Disney a lot of questionable decisions have ruined Star Wars for people who grew up on the story. Don’t blame it on the new cast. While the novels had a better transition to Han and Leia’s kids and a brighter future for Luke, other stories took place in other parts of the Star Wars Galaxy and others took place in the past, both featuring none of the cast, not even Wedge Antilles, who was just a recurring name in the trilogy but managed to get extended stories of his own because he survived longer than poor Porkins. The classic fanbase has declared Disney as non-canon as Disney declared the extended universe, now reprinted as “Legends”. So other people have a different personal canon.
Mine is actually rather short. Having only read a handful of novels and comics, watched most of the cartoons, and heard none of the audio dramas, my list of canon is by nature shorter. Even with video games, one I know via watching someone else play it and the only ones I’ve played myself are the old arcade vector graphics name that was ahead of its time and the Atari 800 Death Star Battle game based on the third movie. So if your favorite is on the list, don’t yell at me. I may not have seen it. What follows in the wake of Disney’s disasters are the media I consider Star Wars at this time because to me it feels like Star Wars.
The Original Trilogy
The obvious one goes first. I’m not ranking these. It’s mostly when it comes to me as I write this. However, I have to start with the OG. I don’t know much about Akira Kurosawa films and I think that only inspired the first movie, but the others were inspired by sci-fi serials like the Buck Rodgers franchise. It’s a lot of great action moments, space wizards, funny droids, character arcs, and there’s a reason a franchise started from these three movies that was doing great until things went wrong.
The Prequel Trilogy
Okay, it’s not perfect. George Lucas showed what happens when you have too much freedom and no observation at all. This doesn’t end well. Apparently Warner Brothers didn’t learn that lesson with the Batman movies. The first movie is good Batman and the second is a Tim Burton movie. Joel Schumacher’s first Batman was better than his second. The dialog needs work, the acting can be overdramatic at times, and while I never hated Jar Jar he doesn’t have much of a character arc.
Still, for the origin of Darth Vader and the Empire, it does work for the most part. By this point Lucas had other influences, but the space and lightsaber battles aren’t bad (though Shad of Shadiversity fame might fact check me on the latter if he knew this site even existed), and the only real flaws are in the character moments. Lucas didn’t even want to work on these. While it’s up for debate if he wanted to make them at all, the goal was to fund Skywalker Ranch, a place where filmmakers could edit long movies in comfort and have access to the best facilities to do so. Then his choice for director needed too much help, and he was gone so long his wife ran off with the ranch contractor, only to be told by fans that Star Wars had to be “saved” from him. If the theory that Lucas worked to put Kennedy in charge of DisneyFilm on purpose to kill the franchise was accurate, I can’t say I blame him.
However, you will not see the sequel trilogy or any of the other movies or Disney+ shows on here. Rogue One was okay but it didn’t feel like Star Wars to me. Resistance I saw an episode of and wasn’t impressed. Rebels had its strong points but I just fell off from it despite being the last regular Star Wars project that felt like Star Wars. The rest of this list may feature a few surprises.
Shadows Of The Empire
Having already reviewed the novel for Chapter By Chapter and the comics for “Yesterday’s” Comic, including a comic-only sequel, it’s too bad there isn’t more talk about this book. Dash Rendar is a decent Han Solo stand-in and even got his own game. The main story features our heroes looking to rescue Han from Jabba (which Boba Fett is still trying to get TO Jabba), and fills in a number of gaps while introducing Black Sun and it’s no longer canon leader Prince Xizor. The sequel features Xizor’s assassin android (a droid who looks like a hot girl) Giri as she tries to get her memories wiped and no longer be an assassin while Xizor’s sister seeks her information to take over from her departed brother. I even own the “soundtrack”, as Shadows Of The Empire was a multimedia project. Apparently that gimmick didn’t hold its standing but I enjoyed the book and comics, and more people should know about it.
“Me sa sorry, but we sa don’t have pics of this book.
The Thrawn Trilogy
I could probably build on this once I’ve read the few X-Wing novels in my collection, that gives Wedge Antilles and his squadron some spotlight, but I haven’t read many of the novels. My introduction to them, thanks to the local library letting me know the novels even existed outside of Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye being mentioned in a comic letters section (I couldn’t even tell you what it’s about), was Timothy Zhan’s so-called “Thrawn Trilogy”. Consisting of Heir To The Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Lost Command, this trio of novels introduced the most dangerous post-Emperor threat the waning Empire could drop on our heroes, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Not ready to give up the Empire, he was clever, using animals that can block the Force (somehow), and coming up with plans that challenged our heroes to get past them. Disney’s version of the character is very weak, but they only brought him in because fans love this villain so much only to screw him up. Forget any other appearances and just read these three novels or their comic or audiobook adaptations. You’ll be better off. I need to read more novels.
Star Wars Droids: The Adventures Of R2-D2 And C-3Po
I’ve already done a Saturday Night Showcase on this one, including the first story arc, so I’ll be brief. Set possibly before the first movie (the tie-in Star Comic ends with an adaptation of “A New Hope” from the droids perspective), the Nelvana series comes out of the only good part of The Star Wars Holiday Special, where the droids and Luke first meet Boba Fett in an animated story also produced by Nelvana. They kept the character models for R2 & 3PO but upgraded their game by them in this story where the droids search for a new master. This has them run into the mob, the Empire, Boba Fett again (making the timeline iffy if you keep that Holiday segment in canon as they should have known Fett wasn’t a “friend”), and making plenty of new friends. The Showcase arc is about racers, but they made other friends in each three part story. Mungo Baobab even got to make it to the TV movie, The Great Heap, giving him more time than most of the droids’ masters in the series. It’s really good if you can handle the droids being in a help role to focus on these other characters, but they’re a huge help and the finales wouldn’t happen without them, the same role they play in the movies only with a stronger focus.
The Ewok Adventure (aka “Caravan Of Courage”)
I don’t know why the extra name was added on years later, but it’s always just The Ewok Adventure to me. This movie expanded on life on Endor and showcased why the little guys were a help to the Rebels in Return Of The Jedi. Crash-landing on Endor, a family runs into trouble and the parents taken away. The kids are taken in by Wicket and his friends, who help them travel to the kidnappers’ lair and save them. It’s a fun little adventure and was popular enough to lead to a cartoon alongside the Droids and a sequel movie. The cartoon really didn’t do much for me and Ewoks: Battle For Endor isn’t as big in scope as the title makes it out to be and undoes the first movie’s happy ending rather savagely in the first few minutes, so they aren’t on my list. The first movie is and is of course unduly hated by Ewok haters. The big meanies!
The FIRST Clone Wars cartoon
I’d like to put the second one on the list, but over time we see what Filoni does to Star Wars canon and it isn’t pretty. The teardown of the Jedi is the worst part of it as part of his saving his “daughter’ Ashoka from General Order 66, though admittedly it does add to the reasons Anakin grew away from the Jedi in favor of Palpatine. It’s okay, but I just have too many notes to really add it.
Plus it semi-contradicts the end of the Genndy Tartakovsky version that came out between Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, which shows us how Grevious got his weeze and Palpatine was “captured”, leading directly into Revenge Of The Sith. It was the birthshow of Assage Ventris. It had a great moment foreshadowing Anakin’s fall. Tartakovsky took what he did with Samurai Jack and applied it to Star Wars and since he didn’t have to worry about canon contradiction since it was primarily an action piece (especially season one, a collection of shorts focusing only on battles) the show can easily stand in the series without the Lucasfilm show and it’s magic users, “dark Jedi”, and defamation of the Jedi Council. I like the later show, but this just works better for me as personal canon.
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures is part of my head canon.
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
I said it in my Saturday Night Showcase and I still maintain that if you ignore the comedic bits like goofy Darth Sidious, The Freemaker Adventures totally could make Rey a better character by following Rowan Freemaker’s example. Trained partially by the secret Sith Narre, then completing his own training by following his reformed Battle Droid’s memories of being attacked by Jedi during the Clone Wars, Rowan Freemaker is naturally drawn to the Mcguffin of the first season by the Force. In the second his ties also lead to him becoming a Force Builder, a job that only works in a Lego world but does set the stage for “lost Force powers” like Force Healing (admittedly the talent makes sense for the Light Side, but training or some other method of learning it exists besides “just because” would be nice). Plus Rowan is just really cool and seeing his connection with his Droid friend and his siblings is far better than a lot of protagonists in modern Star Wars.
I could also throw in Rebuild The Galaxy, which is basically what Kennedy wants to do, and the Lego “Holiday Special” that actually make Rey learn something, but while good stories and fun Lego adventures The Freemaker Adventures is the only one I would rework for canon status. It shows that The Lego Group and the company they use to make their shows understand Star Wars better than DisneyFilm, and they’re parodies.
Like I said, there are a ton of comics, games, and novels that probably belong on this list. I did see a playthrough of Jedi: Fallen Order, which had the lovable BD-1, but it feels more like a story based on Star Wars than actual Star Wars material. It might as well be Star Wars Visions by the time it’s done. These are just the ones I’ve read or watched that are peak Star Wars to me. You may have more or a different list. Maybe you think Rebels should be on here, but I fell away from it. Maybe you’d add Knights Of The Old Republic but I haven’t played it, though I know that it doesn’t have a set ending, making it hard to fit in without choosing a path as “official” versus the other paths in the game, some of which turns you The Acolyte evil. Maybe you really like what Kathleen Kennedy and her reign (of terror) has done to the franchise. That’s sad, but that’s your call. This is my list of stories that feel like Star Wars to me, with the original trilogy of movies as my baseline. I apologize for nothing and will enjoy these. I’m open to stuff I haven’t seen and there are games not called Star Wars Outlaws (I’ve seen that failure from other players) I wouldn’t mind playing. I can only go with what I know, and of that list these are my canon. Feel free to add to the list in the comments.
BW Media Spotlight 