First off, I wanna say that I’m a meganerd, I get that. This is something really dumb , but bear with me.
As a teenager mumble mumble years ago, I was super into Star Wars, and as such was super into canon. I always kept up with canon, and what was going on behind the scenes in all the movies, books, comics, and TV shows.
I took the cancellation of the EU pretty hard, but was excited for what was to come with Disney’s new trilogy and all the exciting other content that took place in the already existing timeline, which was promised to flow better with the overall narrative presented with the six main films.
But now, it seems like they’re changing what’s considered canon so much to the point that it’s confusing (looking at recent Kanan comic and Ahsoka novel retcons and others), and I’m starting to get to a point where, I really just don’t care enough to worry about a gospel truth of a nonexistent world.
It’s frustrating to get invested into a franchise where at any moment, your favorite comic, novel ,game, or TV show can just be written off as never having happened in universe. For people who take these works of fiction seriously, it’s exhausting!
So I’ve found my solution, one which I maybe should have had long ago- I just don’t care anymore.
This started with Star Wars but has honestly just gone off into all my favorite works of fiction, to the point that the only thing I care about is whether its a great work of art and whether or not I have a great time with it.
Does anyone else have any thoughts regarding canon in fiction, and whether or not you actually care about it or whether you don’t care about it at all?
I think the larger issue at play is the inability to allow a story or properly to just end. If the companies refuse to allow their IP’s to die gracefully, then they will inevitably come to be ugly deformations of their former selves.
We don’t need a thousand new entries in Marvel, or Star Wars, or any intellectual property. You very quickly hit a threshold where you just water down the themes, messages, and ideas present within a story; rather than expand upon it.
I feel like sometimes, especially with movies and tv shows for streaming, companies put out content under the umbrella of an IP so that more people watch it because it would just be another mid streaming experience if it weren’t for the name it was attached to, so I agree there.
And you’re really right- there is nothing that has been made that comes close to capturing the magic of the original six films of star wars, with the exception of the clone wars and the first season of mando. I’ve heard andor is good but I haven’t checked it out.
I have been getting into other sci fi movies recently, especially cyber punk stuff, and Star Trek has been a whole new world for me that I’ve been loving lately