Star Wars Legends vs. Canon. Who Did Better?
With the creation of The Clone Wars animated series in 2008 and, most notably, the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, Lucasfilm had the opportunity to create lots of new Star Wars content, some of which subsequently overwrote the existing story canon, and relegate them to "Legends." While this resulted in some good and sometimes even brilliant new perspectives regarding existing Star Wars characters and storylines, there were times when it completely missed the mark. In this article, I will explore some fairly significant changes that The Clone Wars series, as well as the subsequent decision by Lucasfilm to rebrand existing Star Wars Expanded Universe content as "Legends", has brought to the galaxy far, far, away, some of it for the better and some of it for the worse.
1. How The Rebel Alliance Obtained The Death Star Plans
A New Hope famously began with Princess Leia attempting to deliver stolen Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance in the hope of using them to destroy it. The movie did not discuss how Princess Leia actually obtained the plans. The NPR Radio Drama adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope started with some scenes set before the events in the movie began and provided a brief and perfunctory back story that explained how and where she obtained the plans. More specifically, Leia and Captain Antilles went on an undercover mission to the planet Toprawa to intercept the Death Star plans from the Rebels, as well as to seek out Obi-Wan Kenobi. Legends has had multiple other accounts of how the plans were obtained.
However, in 2016 Lucasfilm released the canon movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which provided a whole new and exciting back story on how the Rebels obtained the plan. I personally thought this version was superior. The NPR Radio Drama was still worth checking out, however, especially for some scenes which expanded on the beginning of A New Hope.
2. Sifo-Dyas' Fate
Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, the person most responsible for the creation of the Clone Army for the Republic, was a character shrouded in mystery following the events of Attack of the Clones. Both Legends and canon have attempted to provide a bit of backstory for him and his eventual fate. According to statements made by Obi Wan Kenobi in Attack of the Clones, he died around the time of The Phantom Menace. Count Dooku, who left the Jedi Order around the same time, learned of Sifo-Dyas's plans regarding ordering the Clone Army. He killed Sifo-Dyas and assumed his identity to complete the transaction with the Kaminoans.
Exact details diverge greatly between the two continuities. In Legends, Dooku preserved Sifo-Dyas's body and transfused his blood into Grievious during the process of reconstructing him into their cyborg general. Sifo-Dyas’ lightsaber was also the first in Grievious’ collection.
In "The Lost One" episode of The Clone Wars, Jedi Master Plo Koon and his clone troopers discovered Sifo-Dyas's abandoned lightsaber on a planet, which led to further investigation into his eventual fate. After a series of conflicting stories involving the Pyke Syndicate and the aide to former Chancellor Valorum, they finally learned the circumstances surrounding the Jedi Master's death, and the disturbing origins of the clone army. I felt that the canonical story was needlessly complicated compared to the lore presented in Legends. Despite the frustration with the official answer presented in the episode, we still had a terrific confrontation between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Count Dooku, and the Jedi Council's haunting realization that the clone army may have been compromised by the Sith. Perhaps, they were all caught in the Sith trap.
3. General Grievous' Background
The fearsome General Grevious, one of the main villains of Revenge of the Sith and throughout The Clone Wars series, had different origins in both Legends and canon. He was not featured very much outside of Clone Wars, and a lot of his backstory was still a mystery.
In both continuities, he was originally a ruthless alien warrior from a planet called Kalee. This was where the similarity ended. In Legends, he did not become the fearsome cybernetic droid commander until he was nearly killed in a shuttle crash engineered by the Banking Clan. After the accident, he was rebuilt with cybernetic parts, and presented to Count Dooku to serve the Separatists.
In the canon Clone Wars episode "Lair of Grievous", Grievious explained that being a cybernetic was a fate that he actually chose for himself. It was his way of becoming a Jedi despite his not being Force sensitive. The writers still left the rest of his canonical back story somewhat vague to this day. I personally liked the Legends version better, and frankly, I think it made more sense. I hope that one day we will get a more thorough exploration of Grievous' origin in canon.
4. Chancellor Valorum's Fate
Republic Chancellor Finis Valorum, who, through Palpatine's machinations in The Phantom Menace, was deposed from his leadership position and was never seen or heard from again. According to Legends, after years of watching and observing Palpatine's governance, he began to speak out against Palpatine's gradual power grab, inspiring other senators to join him in opposing Palpatine. Valorum was later killed in an apparent Separatist a year after Attack of the Clones, although it was later discovered to have been engineered as part of Palpatine's plan to intimidate his critics.
However, in the aforementioned Clone Wars episode "The Lost One," set nearly three years into the Clone Wars, the Jedi were directed (by Palpatine, no less) to seek out former Chancellor Valorum for information. This was Valorum's last known canonical appearance. We know that he was alive and well during the Clone Wars, but his ultimate fate was still a mystery at this time.
5. Order 66 And The Clone Troopers
James Luceno's excellent novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader chronicled the waning days of the Clone Wars and its aftermath from the vantage point of a group of previously unknown Jedi. The Legends novel also depicted the early days of the budding Empire, and, most importantly, Darth Vader as he struggled to adjust both to his new identity as Dark Lord of the Sith and the physical limitations caused by duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. In a significant departure from what we knew from Clone Wars, the book suggested that Order 66 was not "hardwired" into the clone soldiers via a chip, and that some of them disobeyed the order, allowing some Jedi to escape.
However, The Clone Wars series introduced the new concept of the inhibitor chips, which made it impossible for all but a few clones, such as the Clone Force 99 (aka. "The Bad Batch"), to resist the order to terminate their Jedi generals or any clones who disobeyed Order 66. I personally think that the concept of a "chip" aligned better with the hypnotic and almost robotic way the clones turned on the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith, Clone Wars, and Bad Batch. It also helped us sympathize with all of the amazing clones we have gotten to know throughout the course of the Clone Wars series as the chip essentially removed their agency, making them victims of Palpatine, and the Sith.
6. Palpatine's Abduction By General Grevious In Revenge Of The Sith
This was an example of something that had not been presented in canon as of yet, but had at least a couple slightly different versions in Legends. According to the opening crawl of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin and Obi-Wan were coming to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, who had been abducted by General Grevious and brought aboard his flagship, currently locked in combat with Republic forces above Coruscant.
The details of Palpatine's abduction were not explained further in Revenge of the Sith, nor in The Clone Wars. We only saw Anakin and Obi-Wan being summoned away from the battlefield to rescue Palpatine, leaving Ahsoka and Rex to carry on with the Siege of Mandalore.
In Legends, we were presented with two versions of the events. In the animated Clone Wars microseries, which was released prior to Revenge of the Sith, a group of Jedi failed to prevent Grevious' abduction of Palpatine. The other view presented in James Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil featured a similar scene with the addition of a subplot showing that the Jedi were closing in on the location and identity of Darth Sidious. One dogged Clone Intelligence trooper actually managed to uncover the truth about Darth Sidious. However, he was killed before the information was revealed to the Jedi. I was hopeful that the final arc of Clone Wars might give us an official version of these events since it was chronologically running alongside Revenge of the Sith. However, it appeared that we would be waiting and watching to see if this would be eventually fleshed out in canon.
Are there other examples of things that you feel have been done better in Legends than Canon (or vice-versa)? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.