Thread:SavageOpress1138/@comment-104549-20151215121224/@comment-104549-20151215212413

Well, put in that language, you have my strict constructionist nature warring with my acknowledgment that stare decisis is a good thing.

On the one hand, I think the Crossover Policy itself is unambiguous and leaves no room for debate—no crossovers, ever. I can see the argument that characters which have canonically or Legendarily crossed over aren't from "one fictional universe" (which, in context, clearly means "a different fictional universe")—they are, as it were, also within the Star Wars universe—but I don't think it applies here. I would split the hair between a non-canon crossover, which wouldn't be allowed (as in this case, where Anakin Skywalker clearly never canonically had the ability to turn into a fighter, or the Soul Calibur IV case, in which Darth Vader clearly never canonically fought, for instance, Cassandra), and canonified crossovers, such as the from Alien Chronicles which has Legendarily been incorporated into the Star Wars universe. The canon status is what makes the difference for me.

That would all seem like a slam dunk...except for the Soul Calibur precedent. On the one hand, my strict construction side says, "That should be overruled as an earlier error and we should go back to a strict reading of the crossover policy". My practical side says, "Stare decisis! It's more important that the law be settled than that it be right!" My really practical side says, "Exerus Wing's articles aren't hurting me, nor are they a truly damaging-to-the-Wikia policy violation like the 'Ahsoka Tano slave/rape fantasy that got a permanent ban', so I don't really care either way, I just love rules and intellectual arguments about rules."

To summarize, if you're going to uphold the Soul Calibur precedent, then I think these articles should be left alone too—there's a slim argument that this is even less canonical (unless I misunderstand, Star Wars Transformers never had the Star Wars characters interacting with Transformers characters, just transforming into machines the same way, whereas Soul Calibur IV clearly has characters interacting with one another), but when you get to the point of defining degree of non-canonicity, I think the point may be too academic even for me. If you're looking to establish firmly what the crossover policy means from scratch, and especially if the Soul Calibur discussion was only a discussion and never actually used to allow any articles, then I'd say the Soul Calibur policy is either overruled if it was previously used or dictum and not binding if it wasn't, and the crossover policy should be read to exclude any crossover that isn't canonical or Legendary—I'd allow only something like the Viis Empire as a "crossover", which has been fully incorporated.