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« on: February 23, 2016, 07:13 AM »
Here is how it worked in terms of canon. The films were the top level and CW (the cartoon, not the comics, or the micro series) was level below that and about the books and comics. Lucas always reserved the right to overwrite the EU at any time. While there was a continuity where contradictory items were either retconned or removed from continuity, it was never on the same level as the movies. Like was mentioned above, the Karen Traviss Mando novels are a prime example. She detailed the culture and the training of the clones. Lucasfilm decided that having pacifists ruling Mandalore was a better idea and essentially threw the Traviss stuff out of continuity, hence why she quit writing Star Wars novels. The Dark Horse comics were similarly run rough shod over. Dathomir is another case where Lucas's daughter essentially took credit for the whole concept of the Nightsisters without giving any credit to Dave Wolverton.
Fast forward to the Disney purchase. Disney purchased all the rights to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm created the Story Group and really did the only thing they could by shoving all that was the EU into what is now Legends. Regardless of any of us who have read enjoyed many of these novels, the general public has not. Imagine trying to go into what was the newly announced Episode VII trying to explain to the general public that Han and Leia eventually got married, had a set of twins named Jaina and Jacen and then another son named Anakin. Much later Luke gets married to a Mara Jade who worked as an assassin for the Emperor and was tasked with killing Luke. They eventually have a son named Ben. A group of aliens invade the galaxy and they can't be sensed in the Force and they do a number on the New Republic and the newly formed Jedi. The essentially destroy Coruscant as it was seen in the prequels. Anakin dies as a teenager fighting said aliens. Jacen is captured and tortured, eventually sending him down a dark path, because heaven forbid we would have been smart enough to distinguish Anakin Solo from Anakin Skywalker, hence the mandated killing of said Solo. Years go by, and Jacen is trained by obscure Marvel comics character Shira Brie aka Dark Lady of the Sith Luymiya, who was trained in secret by Darth Vader. Jacen takes over the government, kills Mara and becomes Darth Caedus. His twin sister is then trained by Boba Fett and the Mandalorians. She eventually suceeds in this task. Han and Leia are left to raise Jacen's daughter in secret. Jaina eventually marries Jagged Fel, son of a former Imperial ace pilot and eventually will become Empress of the Imperial Remnant, or so we are to assume because in the future their are Force wielding Fels who are in charge of the Empire. Oh, and Chewbacca is dead because the aliens mentioned above dropped a moon on him and he sacrificed himself to save Anakin Solo who was then mandated by Lucasfilm to be killed off since they could not have Anakin Skywalker in the prequel movies at the same time their is Anakin Solo in the books.
That is where we would have been this past December (or May if the original date was pushed) if the EU were raised to canon and forced to be followed as the template. Way too much meta knowledge to please us geeks who read all these books.
When the Story Group was established and they relegated EU to Legends, they said they could pick and choose what to use from Legends. If the Thrawn in Rebels is true, that does not mean all the Timothy Zahn novels become canon. The Story Group has said that canon contains all the episodic movies, all the spin-off stand alone movies, the Clone Wars series (but not the Gendi series), the Rebels series, including the unfinished episodes, all novels and young reader novels starting with A New Dawn, all the Marvel comics, all video games going foward. The Dark Horse series, Son of Dathomir, counts as both in the Legends continuity and the new canon. It is included in the new canon because it is adapted from unused Clone Wars scripts. The on-going MMO The Old Republic has been branded Legends and is currently the only on-going Legends series. That is why Lucasfilm has stated the ST Finn fights was one of his four squadmates from his training days per the short story in the young adult novel Before the Awakening.