Hi!
My first post on this forum. Just clarifying what I meant by a couple of questions in the live stream...
Most came through just fine, but number of characters you can write in a chat message was limited.
At 58:50 of the video, you answer this question of mine:
"Would it be possible for Aulë, if he turned evil and acquired the secrets of ring-craft, to forge a ”Grandmaster Ring”, a stronger version of Sauron’s Master Ring that could control all twenty Rings?"
I think you understood this right for the most part, but maybe slightly differently from what I meant.
The idea was the hypothetical scenario that Aulë had gone corrupt, and come to Middle-earth at some time in the late Second Age, and wanted to replace Sauron as the Dark Lord. In this what-if scenario, Aulë would no longer be good at all, just another evil fellow who thought he'd make a better Dark Lord than Sauron, and having acquired secret ring-lore.
In the story that is actually canon, when Sauron forges the One Ring, he pours a lot of his power - or his essence, if you will - into it, in order to make it potent enough to dominate the "Ring network", as it were. This is most certainly the main reason he can't make another one. He expended part of himself, his essence, his Ainuric being, and put it into the One Ring he forged. If he even could make another one at all, which is doubtful, it would be weaker than the first One Ring. It would then be too weak to grab control of the "Ring network", especially with the already existing One Ring as a rival.
I kind of think of the One Ring like a remote control analogy. If you attained complete mastery over it - which only very few beings would be able to - you could use it to control the Three, the Seven and the Nine. That is why I say the One Ring served as roughly the supernatural equivalent of a remote, in addition to having certain powers in its own right.
The question was another way of saying... If the right being, with the crafting skill at least like that of Sauron and the same ring-knowledge, and even more spiritual power to spare than Sauron had to begin with, could they forge some super-Ring that exerted even stronger control over the "Ring network" and thereby, in turn, take control over the Three, the Seven, the Nine and the One (Sauron's) in the same way the One had already taken control over those nineteen that came before it?
Or has the One Ring already become the "boss ring" forever, so that that role was filled, and no other Ring could theoretically be made stronger, even if forged by some being with even more spiritual power to spare than Sauron had ever had?
From your answer, it seems you think the former is more likely, but I would clarify my question.
Secondly, about G-canon in Star Wars. Yes, that really is, or at least was, a thing. George Lucas canon.
Basically, before Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise, they had this system of tiers of canon, with G-canon being the highest. T-canon, from television, was the second highest. C-canon, or continuity canon, the old Expanded Universe which is now called Legends, was the third highest, although that is not considered canon at all these days.
I personally only ever really considered G-canon (and maybe T-canon) to truly be Star Wars canon. And I do not know how to look at the Star Wars movies by Disney now (I probably hold them to be at around T-canon level, in my mind).
I don't know whether G-canon is used as a term anymore, really. At least, Disney probably don't want to see Episodes VII-IX and the side-movies they made to be seen as less canon than Episodes I-VI, and they own the rights.
I simply used the word to mean George Lucas's own story.
I hope this clarifies what I meant, in both cases.