This is how I regarded Star Wars since Ep. 7 - really bad fan fiction that somehow got a massive budget.

"Artistic slavery?" What an interesting way to put it. Lucas described his selling of Star Wars as him selling his kid to "white slavers."

I was already calling Disney StarWars a "billion dollar official fanfiction" before, but you provided a lot of fuel for my argument there. Thanks.

Well, that's why everybody call it "Disney's Star Wars" and not just "Star Wars", because it's not exactly the same. Great video!

And this is why Disney brought back Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamil... To provide continuity so the fans didn't openly revolt... Like a Palace coup, where the royal family are trotted out as props to provide legitimacy, when they are really being held hostage... To be executed, or disposed of as soon as feasibly possible... . This really explains so much...

It's not fanfiction because none of the people currently at Lucasfilm are fans of Star Wars.

The Chad Lucas Star Wars vs. The Virgin Disney schlock...

(Chokes and spits out Soy Latte) WHAT?!

George Lucas succeeded by creating a kind of mythological groundwork for his universe, by mixing ideas from the japanese samurai, Daoism and Shaolin Monks, a little bits from Christianity and so much more. Without an understanding of the real cultural background or Lucas mythology one can only create an empty echo. Fellow weebs could compare it to Miyazaki’s comment: “anime was a mistake”

The Metallica analogy sounds like a kind of "Ship of Theseus" paradox...

Indeed. Star Wars died in 2012. Theres no Star Wars after that. Only True (George Lucas Era) Star Wars exists.

Same thing happened with Spongebob. They changed director after season 3 and the show was no longer the same

The moment they stated the EU wasnt canon they became fanfiction.

One of my favourite quotes was by Stephen King (when asked how he feels about all of the bad adaptations that have ruined his books). (Paraphrasing) "What do you mean? The books haven't been ruined. As far as I know they still sit on the shelf very much the same as when they were released."

Thanks, David. Listening to this makes me feel a lot better about Star Wars. That is how I will view the Disney Star Wars, as fan created 'based on' films. It eases my mind, and I don't have to worry about these atrocious films anymore.

David, This is your best Star Wars video ever. In a time when studios and other IP owners and their “creative “ teams only seem capable to reboot and/or subvert original material, your perspective is brilliant.

The recent video output in terms of quality and quantity of David V. Stewart is just epic! ;-)

That whole Metallica analogy reminded me of how Black Sabbath throughout the years had members quit until only Tony Iommi remained as the only original member of Black Sabbath. He was literally the glue keeping everything together. Of course some original members did rejoin

This is what i was saying since the force awakens. This s&^# is fan fiction... But nooooooo everyone praised that move like it was the best thing ever.. jesus...

I love David's breakdowns. So logical and intelligent. This is specially refreshing when it comes to Star Wars.

This is why to me, the Expanded Universe is always more canon than the new Disney schlock. Not only was at approved by Lucas and even referenced in the Prequels, but Disney Canon can't even be consistent with itself. Luke gave people a map so they can find him if they need him, but it turns out he didn't want to be found? Then what the hell was with the map? Here's Lucas showing his approval for the Expanded Universe: "It wasn't long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold. As the saga of the Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that could take nine films to tell-three trilogies-and I realized, in making my way through the back story and after story, that I was really setting out to write the middle story. 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 that 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. This legacy began with Splinter of the Mind's Eye, published less than a year after the release of Star Wars. Written by Alan Dean Foster, a well-known and talented science-fiction author, Splinter was promoted as a further adventure of Luke Skywalker. It hit the bookstores just as I was preparing my own further adventure of Luke in the form of a script entitled The Empire Strikes Back.” -George Lucas, intro to “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” So no amount of Disney statements will avert my faith in the Expanded Universe, especially when the main man himself even made statement in favor of it, and things like Coruscant being the capital, the way the Jedi Council worked, Palpatine's quest for immortality, and the existence of lightsaber-proof metals are things Lucas directly lifted from the Prequels, and statements like these showed that he did see them as canon, no matter how many new canon fanboys say otherwise.

More people needed to hear this point of view explained in detail, thanks for making this video.

What if something made by another creator is really good, like James Cameron's "Aliens"? I feel like that movie has to be considered canon even though Ridley Scott wasn't involved.

"So what's the big difference maybe between, say Force Awakens, and..." (advert kicks in with woman talking to the camera) "Little Red Riding Hood". That gave me a chuckle.

The James Bond thing is hands down the goofiest thing I have seen all year.

Wait a minute, this isn't Metallica. Fobbed off again, this is just Plastica with a cheap respray!

Great video! Please continue to expand on this idea if you feel so inclined. The remakes, reboots, and infinite sequels of corporate slop are leaving people in search of genuine creative content, new and old.

The only way for the current Star Wars films not to have been fan fiction was to have George Lucas involved rather than throw his ideas away and kick him to the curb. We’ve seen what Star Wars looks like without his involvement and it’s not that great. In fact it’s bad, at least regarding the Episodes/Sequels. The spin-offs/anthology films are seen as better due to the fact they do expand the Star Wars universe, even though Rogue One And Solo didn’t need to be made. In fact none of the new movies needed to be made. I’m happy with Star Wars being a 6 film saga. While some aren’t fans of the Prequels, they did expand the universe and had a richer story. While some central characters in the prequels might not have been better than characters from the OT, the way we see how certain characters in the prequels end up the way we see them in the OT is really fascinating and well done. George Lucas Star Wars has originality and expanded the initial premise laid out by the initial film Lucas and company made back in 1977, whereas Disney Star War relies on nostalgia with original characters, settings that look like they’re from the OT, uninteresting/no clear storyline and having uninteresting new characters. Yes we have John Williams return to do the score, yes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, the original trio, returned to the franchise, but without George Lucas, there is a void that is obvious and it can’t be filled with nostalgic imagery or stories. The lack of originality is the big downfall here and when Disney and Lucasfilm kicked out George Lucas, the originality went with him.

Very compelling way to recalibrate people's perspective of the massacres that are occurring on artistic works, and much-loved characters and settings in literature, film, and television, with established fanbases. I'll be sure to use this when the next person inevitably complains to me about a character or franchise they love being twisted and changed and corrupted by industries catering to a woke minority of fuckwits who don't even like, and have never been fans of the properties that are being shit-on for their praise (but not their money, because they don't buy the books/graphic novels/comics/cinema tickets/merch even when the horrible changes were made to entice them to do just that, lol).

It's like that band that calls itself Stratovarius. None of the founding members remain. None.

I want to really thank you for this video. It's helped me kinda delve into video game production a bit to hash out some things. I went to Sonic 1 and looked at the credits. The core three 'creators' were Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara. Naka was mainly programming, Oshima was character designer, and Yasuhara was the world designer (stages, Sonic's interaction with the world, etc.). Even though all three had specific roles, all were intimately involved with the core of who and what Sonic was. By the end of the 'classic' era (c. 1997), Yasuhara was gone. After Adventure 1 (1998), Oshima was gone. And the most critical piece of the trio, Yuji Naka, left SEGA after Sonic Riders in 2006. I'm left to conclude the Sonic "canon" ended in 2006 with Riders and several other pre-2006 spinoffs have to simply be disregarded as fan fiction. Naka leaving coincides with the divergence of lore and lack of continuity in the games. I'm almost amazed that happens to be the case, but it now makes a ton of sense.

*reads title* TRUTH!!!

I always like hearing your perspective on things. I’ve been looking for your channel for a while now and I’m glad it finally popped up on my feed again!

2010 - George Lucas ruined my childhood. 2019 - George Lucas is god.

I agree with your point but would you consider Spider-man stories that are created today for example to be non canon, to me I think canon shouldn't be a corporate say but an individual fans say

I love how you wrap it all up in the end as a way to say “don’t get upset over what Disney makes”. A very good way to view it all, thank you

How do you feel about Jk rowling and her retcons of characters? I feel like since the story has ended, it is all unofficial since she didn't write the characters that way when it was relevant. Do you have a different interpretation? Is she allowed to change story elements since she still is the IP owner and original creator?

Really interesting perspective, I never thought of it that way. I think it will actually help a lot of people get past what Disney has done to this franchise. I would be interested in an even more in depth discussion on this topic, for instance, best practice how to carry on after the artist has past.

@David Stewart - I agree wholeheartedly with your point about the creator/creation being inseparable. However, how do you view things like Tolkien's appendices, Children of Hurin, etc. that were only partially written by the author, but were completed by a trusted member of their estate? Would you view these things as non-canon?

So cool to hear this analogy applied to films, never thought of that and it has helped me immensely being a lifelong original Star Wars fan (and Metallica ha ha). If I replace the staff of my broom, then one month later replace the brush; is it the same broom? Great video thanks for your insight.

Loved the way you phrased and explained it. I wish more people understood and admitted these concepts. Unfortunately logic seems to escape many. Glad someone with a relevant platform is giving voice to facts. 👍

That’s exactly how I feel. Even if I have problems with the prequels they’re still Lucas’ creation and therefore have validity. Now let’s look at the EUbooks..KK says there not canon..people will tell you all day long those books are no longer canon. Fact is, even Lucas himself has said they’re not canon. The difference is Lucas approved a lot of the plot in those books. Even a small amount of approval, to me, gives those books more validity than the Disney trilogy will ever have.

Hey David, do you watch the Midnight Edge youtube channel? They go through the as much of the financial details of Hollywood contractual arrangements. Specifically, they've made videos detailing how to understand how CBS, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Bad Robot go about the Star Trek licenses. Think JJ could pull some sort of Time Travel plot of Episode 9 to push the heroes back to some pre-prequel moment. This way, completely blank slate. No rules, no backstories, no Skywalkers. RLM brought this up in a video over the weekend. It would be a pretty non-SW thing to do, which JJ mentioned in some interview about saying "f it" to the rules of SW.

For comic books, I think it is a bit different because of the nature of the industry whereby authors and artists for each comic book series change every few months-years. There are kind of the quintessential versions of the franchises (eg. Stan Lee Spider-Man, Chris Claremont X-Men) but then other authors/artists add on new characters, elements, or twists to the the original that sometimes reach the status of being worthy of considered as part of the "quintessential" corpus of those franchises in a sense (but also sometimes end up being seen as short-lived deviations or alternative takes...kind of like fanfiction in such instances). For example, the original detective comics for Batman defined the character originally, but there are also other adaptations, formats, and authors that contributed to form our collective conception of batman and not just the original, and I think some of that rises above the mere status of "fanfiction".

Great insightful video, perfect analogies! 👍

The sad thing with Star Wars is it did destroy a potential official wide realease of a George approved sequel story that very much is him that he could’ve helped along as much as he was comfortable to. It’s a shame the 2012 property move wasn’t what I understood it to be when Kathleen and George talked. It’s nothing like they talked about respecting Lucas’ stories and creation.

I needed this. Disney is a mess right now.

I absolutely agree with this video and it's something I've been saying for years. I don't have an issue with them continuing to make content set in the Star Wars universe but it's always going to be a different thing from the Lucas canon and the original 6 films.

Man, this idea is something that seams so obvious but one I had never thought of before. Thank you David for the excellent video because it's so true if you really think about it. It's something I wish people would think about more as they digest all of this media, if the creator's not involved, it's not really actually a part of the story and/or the creation

It's like the Ship of Theseus Or like that one bit by Michael Davis and his axe which was owned by George Washington 'only the handle and head were replaced'

This was great. Thanks again for the discussion a few days ago. It was nice to talk to someone I didn't 100% agree with, without it devolving into insanity. I miss the days of real discussion and debate amongst friends.

Hate to brag, but I’ve been calling the Disney stuff the “Fanfiction Trilogy” for almost a year now.

I've been saying that for years too. I refuse to recognize this refuse.

(Sorry for my english) What about Dave Filoni, What he does is still fan fiction? He is someone who understands the Myth that George Lucas added into his films (the heroe of a thousand faces, the samurai, theology, etc) Dave Filoni has a lot respect for the star wars universe and he endaviors himself to fit the new content according to Lucas vision. One example of this is the duel of Obi Wan vs Maul in the animated seres Rebels, their duel is based on a samurai traditional duel, before they engage they analize each other emotions to know how to aproach, obi wan has to remain calm so he does not fall into conflict when the duel starts, only by doing that he was able to win. Those type of scenarios are showed on Akira Kurosawa's films and other Japanese stories. Star Wars in a sense... in a small sense is fan fiction about samurais, after all episode IV is based on the same story as the Hidden Fortres from Kurosawa, so... if Dave Filoni makes star wars like Lucas did it, (inspired by samurais) is still fan fiction? I'm confused. By the way great video.

I can see Disney putting out a rebuttal video with Adam Driver playing you "based on David V. Stewart". 😏 On a serious note, I think we intuitively understand this better with novels than films. We recognize that there are good Bond novels that aren't by Fleming, good Conan stories that aren't by Howard, etc. but these are considered as separate categories and not conflated with the legal right to publish them.

Sounds like a variation of the ship of theseus paradox. If a band with 10 members replaces the guy who plays the tambourine is it the same band?

Reminds me of of "The ship of Theseus". The thought experiment . when you remove enough elements when does something become something else? I guess here we're substituting masts & hulls for producers/directors/artists

Very interesting video! While watching it I came up with a simpler analogy. For example, some ultra-rich guy can buy Edvard Munch's The Scream. It is his paitning (ownership), but it will always be Munch's work (authorship). Continuing the example, Munch could've done a triptic with two other paintings that go alongside The Scream. The AUTHOR can do that, but not the owner. Besides, ownership can always change through time... but authorship is eternal.

Yes, quite. Even when done with good intentions and well, it's still not the same (e.g. Dune written by Herbert's son is not same as Dune written by Herbert)

First I heard about that about James Bond. A woman?! As a long time Bond fan this is very disappointing. They are screwing with literally every single decent film franchise. I’m so done with Hollywood.

This is compelling argument. I like it. I am thinking about where in the Star Trek production, using your points, you would consider it fan-fiction. I don't remember if you have ever mentioned being a fan of it in your videos, but I am curious if you are a fan.

I mostly agree with you but I have a problem; King Arthur was first mentioned by a couple historians, and a guy names Nennius and in a welsh poem. But then Geoffrey of Monmouth greatly expanded on it and really wrote the myth. Then Sir Thomas Malory made the story we know much better today. So even though we mostly think of Malory's Arthur, Malory's Arthur is a fanfiction of Geoffrey, or even some unnamed Welsh guy? It seems that when a story has a large impact on society, it becomes a legend and at that point sort of leaves the ownership of its author and who owns it becomes very unclear. Especially when an original tale was very underdeveloped and some later person really made it better.

Interesting question for you Dave: is King Crimson still King Crimson, even though Fripp is the only one whose remained in the band the entire time?

Well explained. I had never thought about the situation in that manner, but you are absolutely correct. One cannot ever separate creation from creator.

Good video. What would you say about franchises that had several co-creators and not just one or two? (such as the Alien franchise and Friday the 13th). Is Aliens not canon because the co writers didnt come back for that movie? Is the adult version of Jason not canon because the writer and the director of the original didnt come back for the sequels and didnt want Jason in the sequels?

I completely agree about Star Wars, in fact I've said that it feels more like a Fan Fiction that wasn't made by fans for quite a while. However, there are two bands, I would like to hear your opinion about: Napalm Death and Manowar. Napalm Death have no original Members since 1985 I think and in fact their debut album hat different lineups on each side of the record. But the current lineup has been constant ever since 1997 and it has become Napalm Death, in my opinion. On the other side, Manowar still have 50% of the original lineup, but their new EP just felt like a powerless copy of Manowar, like they lost what made them great and what made them Manowar.

So that’s why it has such a Twilight/LegendOfKorra feeling to it... not to say all fan fiction is terrible, it’s just that it’s never good

Cool. Continuing with your conceptual approach to the artist-creation unity, how forgiving are you of artists that are deep, reverential and thoughtful in their approach to their fan art ?

0:58 I agree Battery is their most impressive song. I remember when I first heard that into, my mind exploded. I still have yet to see them live and I have no plans to cuz live, that acoustic into is a recording. They may play the rest of the song but it's neutered in my opinion and can never provide the same impact.

But what does that mean for storytelling as a whole, if the art loses some or all legitimacy after it’s separated from the artist? Does that mean all the old myths and fairy tales are fanfiction, since the only versions we know have been changed slightly by each storyteller?

watching this video I am rather curious on your thoughts on movie sequels in which a different director from the predecessor (to be more specific, I am referring to cases where a stand alone movie gets a sequel from a completely different director, and maybe even different writers and/or creative team in general, from said first movie) in regards to what was discussed in this vid. An example that pops up in my head: Ridely Scott's Alien -> James Cameron's Aliens. or maybe even works which were already an adaptation of someone else's work but one movie to the next displays a completely different vision from before Gareth Edwards' Godzilla 2014 -> Michael Dougherty's Godzilla: KOTM

Lucasfilms opinion is anything that is tv or a movie is canon. Everything else isn't including, video games, comics and novels. Anything that contradicts Lucas isn't canon. The irony of this is all of Disney Star Wars is not canon. The new regime making it all one canon is a marketing scheme. Nobody holds that comics are on the same level of canon as the newest film or episode of whatever Disney plus Star Wars is doing. I hold that only what Lucas did is canon. The 6 movies, i don't even consider Filoni Clone Wars to be canon.

JJ just made another Kelvin-verse. This time it is Star Wars Kelvin.

Interesting takes on the Star Wars situation David, always appreciate your thoughts.

What about ‘spin-off’ creations like the Flashman Papers (which I have not read but am aware of) where another creator has taken a side character from Tom Brown’s Schooldays and generated an entire history of the character as an adult? It is a form of fan fiction but is only tenuously connected with the original. Could the sequel Star Wars films be in that mould or did they use too much of the originals (fan service to hook fans in) - I personally felt that it would have been better to set them say 200 or 500 years or more further on with perhaps an enigmatic recording from the past (Luke?) a bit like with the Foundation Trilogy.

Digging that hello kitty guitar over there my dude lol

Excellent analysis and it puts into words things that i have noticed too. I used to play a computer game Hearts of Iron 3 which is WWII grand strategy game. The guys on the development team cared a lot about the game and poured themselves into it. About 7 years later HOI4 came out but they had laid off the development team from the previous game so what they got was something that looked like hearts of iron but didnt feel like it. I assume that there are many parallels that other people can bring up from their own experiences.

Whats your view on comic book characters in regards to what if official? For example my favorite superhero Captain America, is the Cap created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby the only real Cap? But I did like Gruenwald Cap a lot, even if he didnt create him. Comic book characters are where theres a lot of muddy water. Genuinely curious.

Here's the thing, JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson were hired to be ghost writers (writers that continue a brand after the original writer retires from their novel work) and they made the Star Wars 'sequels' like THEY were the ones that invented the series, and it shows in JJ's poorly written continuation and Rian's narcissistic shrine to himself that had the gall to call itself a sequel. A prime example of a ghost writer series that is still going strong is Don Pendelton's Executioner novels. Pendelton stopped writing the series after about the 50 novel mark and let Golden Eagle hire ghost writers to continue the exploits of Mack Samuell Bolan, and the novels kept going strong because they kept to what made the books such compelling reads, even spinning the brand off into more action packed territory with the Mack Bolan spinoffs. The guys who wrote the Star Wars sequel trilogy, on the other hand, preferred to roll the series around in the mud and then had the gall to act shocked and offended when their empty stories got justifiably slammed for being hollow, close minded and downright stupid representations of what Star Wars is. People seem to forget that constant action does not automatically make a form of media good. It's all about the characters, their struggles, their suffering, their victories, their hopes, their dreams all of the traits that define BASIC CHARACTERIZATION. Without having well written characters or good world building you essentially have cardboard cutouts that yammer on about vaguely defined stuff while inconsequential crap happens in the background. This whole fiasco proves that Disney isn't all that concerned about the state of the franchise. God I miss the grand scale of the prequels whenever I watch these poorly written films. But nah, it's all about jumping from action scene to action scene now, coherent or even consistent storytelling be damned

Interesting video, David! But it raises this question: would you apply this POV to the Harry Potter franchise? Specifically the author’s retcons of the original story that many say are an attempt to stay “current.” The author is the original creator, so - by this theory - does that make her changes canon or no? Looking forward to your response!

I think calling the new Star Wars movies fanfiction (or maybe corporate-fiction) it's a great way of explaining why they're different than original. I'll keep this in mind as I watch new movies of old franchises. In reality I wish these corporate entities would just let this franchise has die. Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, and Terminator as all franchises that need to die. They all have become fanfiction movies. On the side my favorite 007 was Sean Connery and Rodger Moore. The new 007 movies are nothing like the originals. Another example determining original music group is the Temptations. At one point there was two Temptations music groups singing at the same time, but had original singers in them.

Brillantly and eloquently put. Thank you for putting these words to video.✌

This was a very interesting video for me. While I agree with the conclusion that Disney's take on Star Wars can be disregarded by fans, I don't think this is a successful case that they are "unofficial fan fiction." I appreciate that this case is talking about ownership and authorship in a philosophical way, rather than the specifics of intellectual property law. The problem is actually made clear at the start, when he talks about how it's unclear when not enough original members of a band are still around. It's similar to the philosophical problem posed by the ship of Theseus (sp?) A lot of this is up for interpretation. The point of IP law is to codify one interpretation into law that's semi-objective, so people can organize around it. IP law determines what is "official" in our current society, since it's the dominant interpretation. It's dominant because the force of law is behind it, and it determinds whether people can make money off intellectual properties. The example of bands is both appropriate and inappropriate to the main issue of who owns Star Wars. It highlights the necessity of IP law assigning ownership of a band's trademark, since it's extremely easy to lose track of what the band is when members come and go. There are also very tricky disputes. Look at what happened with Queensryche, where a court had to determine which of two bands claiming to be "Queensryche" was to hold that trademark and rights to perform its music. The example of bands also inappropriate, because legitimacy of a band and its membership is colored by the fact that bands don't actually ever sell off their band to a whole different group of people. Yes, people expect that lineups might change over time, but not the immediate transfer of ownership of the performing artist's brand to a different group of people. It's not something anyone expects to happen with music. But it often happens in other forms of media, so people are more willing to accept it as legitimate. If Metallica (Ulrich/Hetfield/Hammet/Trujillo) sold the band to another group of four men, people probably would not accept them as the new Metallica. However, if the original four men tried to perform as Metallica again, they would be blocked from doing so by the legal system. Officially, they are no longer Metallica. Disney's Star Wars is official Star Wars. George Lucas can no longer make official Star Wars media. Ironically, any Star Wars he attempted to release would be non-canon, unofficial fan fiction, and he couldn't sell it. Not unless he gets permission from Disney. This is the official state of things. Fans do not have the legitimacy to deny Disney it's "offical" status of owning LucasFilm and all its IPs. Disney has an enforceable claim to ownership over Star Wars. Nevertheless, I don't recognize Disney Star Wars. I don't recognize anything after Star Trek (2009) in that franchise, either. But I acknowledge that all of Disney Star Wars and Star Dreck is official and it's not fan fiction.

What does this mean for book adaptations to film? Does this mean Dune 2020 will belong more to the director because it's a movie?

I agree with your core thesis...mostly. I believe your analogy using Spider Man and Marvel falls short though. Spider Man is the creation of Stan Lee, but it’s also a collaborative effort and was even while Stan Lee was alive. In the same way an author might choose a “literary heir” to continue his writing, Marvel has essentially been the executor of Lee’s character since he created it in the 60’s. I believe Spider Man, published under the Marvel umbrella, will always be “official,” as the character and his stories are an ongoing collaborative effort between artists and writers.

As a rock fan, I find it an interesting issue of when a band is not a band. For instance, I've been a Hawkwind fan since the 80s. For a very long time, the only original member (with various original/early members coming back in and out for a bit) has been Dave Brock. There are indeed various (one in particular) Hawkwind ex-member bands playing Hawkwind music, on some occasions with more original/early members than the actual Hawkwind. Now it's entirely possible that Brock might retire soon as he is getting quite old; if he gives his blessing to the other current members to carry on, is it still Hawkwind?

That is my mindset as well. Refreshing to find I’m not the only one.

Disney Star Wars should have a credit saying "Based on Star Wars created by George Lucas" because that's the most it can ever be: a separate adaptation of an existing work. It can never be "true" Star Wars.

I agree I’ve been saying I don’t consider it canon and many Disney Star Wars fans are getting so upset with me.

This video is still very relevant. Disney star wars still isn't Canon.

As far as I know George Lucas never liked the Extended Universe, and always considered it as fan fiction. And in many ways, so did many fans I think. Heck, I like the Mandalorian, but I can accept that it is fan fiction. What Disney makes outside of that I would call Derivative Fiction, it's not "fan" made. They corpos try to make it out to be. JJ Abrams and Ryan Johnson can call themselves fans all they like, but their works aren't theirs. It was the corpos who hired them to make it. That's also why movies which are Dicrector/Producer/Writer pushed tend to be a lot better than movies which are pulled into creation by the Studio. The push is creative, they want to make the best version of something they can make. I don't think someone who's picked up from the street to make something will ever have the same creative freedom.

There's a eurodance band called Bad Boys Blue that originally had 3 members. Two of the original members left at some point and ended up forming another band called The Real Bad Boys Blue, and they played the original music. Which band was the "real" band? (rhetorical question) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Boys_Blue

Good one. Nice description of the simulacrum we currently live through. In most aspects of life. It's uncanny.

It's the sailboat paradox. If you own a sailboat and over time you replace the sails, the rigging, the masts, the hull planking, the controls, etc., is what you're left with at the end the same sailboat you started with or just another boat that looks like it? Of course, what Disney is doing is not nearly so innocent. Their's is more akin to taking a water-skin with the words Star Wars written on it, draining every last drop of the original water, replacing it with piss and selling it back to us as if nothing has changed. I'm sure we all know the expression 'don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining'. It means don't take me for a fool. This is why I so adamantly look down on anyone who still supports Disney Star Wars, or just Disney in general anymore. They're so hopelessly delusional that even when we all SHOW them repeatedly that Disney is pissing on them, they just double down, pony up and keep calling it rain.

Yes I do agree and I think it is worrying that so many people can can equate ownership of rights to the legitimate creation of new canon. You can pay an artist for the experience of their artwork, but you can't purchase their creativity from them and take it on to produce new artworks. You can I think have an apprenticeship where you learn ways of creation, but it will always be something personal to yourself that you have to discover and Disney did not even try to do this with Lucas, they rejected the ideas he had and threw out the EU that had flourished under Lucas.

This is one of the best videos I have seen so far this year. As an artist, I applaud 👏👏👏

"Art is not a democracy" - G RR Martin

Disney owns the currently recognized, yet synthetic, right to the profits from the telling of Star Wars. But they do not “own” the stories, nor do they have any absolute authority on what the story of Star Wars is or ought to be. Stories, and especially those as monumental as Star Wars, are too metaphysical for that kind of ownership claim.

That is my stance on Disney. Shitty fan fiction. They don't understand the core subject matter, or what makes it great. They are just mimicking the aesthetic, and rehashing "the greatest hits"

What do you think about all the various expanded universe stuff? Whether it be books, comics, games, obviously George Lucas didn't have such direct control over everything, but he did oversee plenty. To what extent do we call some of that fan-fiction?