Dear Charles: do you and your colleagues feel any duty to conform to current canon?

[phalczen]

Dear Charles:

 

I've asked this question on a few of the Twitch "Story" streams and also on the facebook live stream, but its never been answered in all the spam of complaints. I know you've said that you work closely with the Lucasfilm story group, and that working in the OR era gives you a lot of freedom. Still, I've been wondering what, if any, duty or obligation you and your writer colleagues feel towards acknowledging or even just a cursory nod to current cannon.

 

For example, we are led to believe that the first Jedi temple is on Ach-To, as identified in the Force Awakens. Our game clearly differs from that, placing the first temple on Tython. Previously of course, this occurred with the Korriban/Moriband issue, and it was confirmed by either Hidalgo or Chee or both that they were the same planet. Retconning Tython seems less straightforward than Korriban, since Ach-To appears to be a predominantly ocean planet. Clearly, Disney feels no responsibility to conform to Legends material, yet various content creators currently creating canon often "throw a bone" to the old republic era and fanbase, Dave Filoni being the prime example.

 

How do you address these conflicts when you encounter them? Do you attempt to resolve issues with Lucasfilm? Do you try to find out from them aspects of, in this example, Ach-To, that can lead you to adjust in-game planets to conform? Do you just "throw up your hands" and surrender when you get thrown a curve ball like that? Do you attempt to rationalize/retcon the discrepancy by redefining what "the first Jedi temple" is actually referring to, like maybe Ach-To is the first temple after the Ruusaan Reformation or something? Do you just gradually but subtly move the game's story away from even mentioning a planet like Korriban or Tython again, so like the memories of the prequel-era Jedi, it falls into a forgotten chasm of our collective memories? Do you ever plan on mentioning Midichlorians? As controversial as they are, Filoni has clearly tried to make them more relevant as demonstrated in S6 of Clone Wars. Whills are canon now too, as demonstrated by Rogue One, do you feel a need/desire to incorporate them somehow?

 

I'm just curious how you and your staff react and adapt to the canon material as it comes out of San Francisco. Do you ever get inspired to include some of it in this game? Do you get frustrated when something comes out directly contradicting something in game?