My mistake, not on the cover, but from the publishers' summary:

"This month, Tokyopop will release a Star Wars Manga anthology filled with uniquely bold tales set in a peculiarly Japanese incarnation of that galaxy far, far away... For their daring plots and offbeat directions, *these stories are definitely "Infinities"*-that is, they don't actually fit into Star Wars continuity. Nonetheless, they are rich in character, detail and action and are definitely worth a look. This anthology, which is a mix of black and white comics with a few color spreads of original illustrations, will only be available initially in Japan."

That and the fact that it actually says they're "definitely 'Infinities'" verbatim on the cover.

Where? I'm looking right at the cover of my copy of Star Wars Manga Black and I don't see the word "infinities" or the infinities symbol anywhere (but I do see the rise of the empire and galactic civil war symbols).

On the other hand, Leland has been asked more than once about the canon status of these stories and all he's said is that it's "fuzzy." Furthermore, elements from "Dark Jedi" and "Perfect Evil" have both been referenced elsewhere (the planets Dica and Shumari are both in the Essential Atlas, which doesn't count for much, since it references N-canon sources, too, but Dica is also in one of Abel Pena's articles). Abel also said that he was going to reference Tao from "Perfect Evil" in his Vader's Legacy article. Finally, at least some of the stories (e.g., "Evil Eye" and "Dear Anakin") could fit into the continuity without any problem at all. So, I'm skeptical that the wook page is correct.

Edit: I forgot to add that while the stories have the infinities tag, the back covers still use the different era symbols instead of infinities, so once again, I think there's reason to hold the N-canon status of these stories in some doubt.

Not even that lucky, apparently.

http://starw ars.wikia.com/wiki/Tokyopop%27s_Star_Wars_Manga

I see what you mean, but really, we're just using different names for the same scenario here. Whether it's C or S, the same material would potentially be removed from continuity, and just sliding it "down the line" to S to be removed doesn't lessen the possibility of other C-canon material being removed this way in the future.

Barring this (and whatever Milo's argument was) a demotion seems to be what would have made most sense. Demote the old, let TCW redefine, then bring the non-contradictory parts of the old back with something else. Done!

Oh, now I sort of remember. It was probably pointing out that the whole reason the T-canon continuity rank was created was (as for all canon rankings, for internal purposes) to have something to override C-canon, although predominantly meant to override specifically CW stories. Making them S-canon would just be redundant.

The only reason not to use S post-Holocron would be so fans could feel secure in the canon status of their purcases.

And the post-Holocron preference for actually cross-indexing things to avoid conflicts, rather than just yelling down the hall. What's C-canon now has earned its C-canon status (with the possible exception of the Jedi Academy Training Manual and/or Street of Shadows).

If he has explicitly said so, then barring a change of stance, there will be no S demotion.

This presumably because we live in a world where fans need to feel their money has bought them C material, that cannot just be demoted nilly-willy. Barring this (and whatever Milo's argument was) a demotion seems to be what would have made most sense. Demote the old, let TCW redefine, then bring the non-contradictory parts of the old back with something else. Done! Problem solved.

After all, isn't the whole point of S-canon to work with things from pre-Holocron times that no longer fit?

Pre-Holocron isn't the entire criterion, though. I think I remember the original Battlefront being mentioned to be S.

But I also remember DarthMilo making a good case for why that wouldn't help, though I can't for the life of me remember what that argument was.

Nor can I. It sounds like a good idea to me now, provided that the S-canon would only be applied to conflicting material (for example, Armor but not necessarily +The Dreadnaughts of Rendili+) and that this classification system didn't affect the number of contradictions that arose at all (or at least didn't increase them). It could be that I argued against making all older CW material S-canon, although I don't remember my argument there either. Could be something about the sheer amount of inter-referencing, which tends to defeat the point of S-canon.

All I see in your position is the desire to use the actual approved uses of S by authors as a maxim to assume all S is eligible for the same. The assumption that none of it has ever been rejected without our knowledge, and that none ever will. Which strikes me as ridiculous in light of the obvious take it or leave it nature of S-canon, as expressed by Leland. I strongly doubt he would create an entire canon category for stuff that Licensing would just end up approving as if it was C-canon anyway.

Who is to say what we see of elevated S isn't just a small minority, while the rest has been mercilessly slashed?